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This is the burden against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received:
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Raise a banner on a barren hilltop; call aloud to them. Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
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I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have even summoned My warriors to execute My wrath and exult in My triumph.
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Listen, a tumult on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations gathered together! The LORD of Hosts is mobilizing an army for war.
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They are coming from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens— the LORD and the weapons of His wrath— to destroy the whole country.
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Wail, for the Day of the LORD is near; it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
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Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt.
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Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear.
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Behold, the Day of the LORD is coming— cruel, with fury and burning anger— to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners within it.
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For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.
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I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will end the haughtiness of the arrogant and lay low the pride of the ruthless.
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I will make man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.
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Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place at the wrath of the LORD of Hosts on the day of His burning anger.
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Like a hunted gazelle, like a sheep without a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native land.
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Whoever is caught will be stabbed, and whoever is captured will die by the sword.
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Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be ravished.
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Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who have no regard for silver and no desire for gold.
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Their bows will dash young men to pieces; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; they will not look with pity on the children.
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And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.
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She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there.
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But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about.
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Hyenas will howl in her fortresses and jackals in her luxurious palaces. Babylon’s time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.