12 In that day, you shall say:
“I give thanks to You, O LORD!
Although You were wroth with me,
Your wrath has turned back and You comfort me,
2Behold the God who gives me triumph!
I am confident, unafraid;
For Yah the LORD is my strength and might,a
And He has been my deliverance.”
3Joyfully shall you draw water
From the fountains of triumph,
4And you shall say on that day:
“Praise the LORD, proclaim His name.
Make His deeds known among the peoples;
Declare that His name is exalted.
5Hymn the LORD,
For He has done gloriously;
Let this be made known
In all the world!
6Oh, shout for joy,
You who dwell in Zion!
For great in your midst
Is the Holy One of Israel.”
13 The “Babylon” Pronouncement, a prophecy of Isaiah son of Amoz.
2“Raise a standard upon a bare hill,
Cry aloud to them;
Wave a hand, and let them enter
The gates of the nobles!
3I have summoned My purified guests
To execute My wrath;
Behold, I have called My stalwarts,
My proudly exultant ones.”a
4Hark! a tumult on the mountains—
As ofb a mighty force;
Hark! an uproar of kingdoms,
Nations assembling!
The LORD of Hosts is mustering
A host for war.
5They come from a distant land,
From the end of the sky—
The LORD with the weapons of His wrath—
To ravage all the earth!
6Howl!
For the day of the LORD is near;
It shall come like havoc from Shaddai.c
7Therefore all hands shall grow limp,
And all men’s hearts shall sink;
8And, overcome by terror,
They shall be seized by pangs and throes,
Writhe like a woman in travail.
They shall gaze at each other in horror,
Their faces d-livid with fright. -d>
9Lo! The day of the LORD is coming
With pitiless fury and wrath,
To make the earth a desolation,
To wipe out the sinners upon it.
10The stars and constellations of heaven
Shall not give off their light;
The sun shall be dark when it rises,
And the moon shall diffuse no glow.
11“And I will requite to the world its evil,
And to the wicked their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant
And humble the haughtiness of tyrants.
12I will make people scarcer than fine gold,
And men than gold of Ophir.”
13Therefore e-shall heaven be shaken,-e
And earth leap out of its place,
At the fury of the LORD of Hosts
On the day of His burning wrath.
14Then like gazelles that are chased,
And like sheep that no man gathers,
Each man shall turn back to his people,
They shall flee every one to his land.
15All who remain shall be pierced through,
All who f-are caught-f
Shall fall by the sword.
16And their babes shall be dashed to pieces in their sight,
Their homes shall be plundered,
And their wives shall be raped.
17“Behold,
I stir up the Medes against them,
Who do not value silver
Or delight in gold.
18Their bows shall shatter the young;
They shall show no pity to infants,
They shall not spare the children.”
19And Babylon, glory of kingdoms,
Proud splendor of the Chaldeans,
Shall become like Sodom and Gomorrah
Overturned by God.
20Nevermore shall it be settled
Nor dwelt in through all the ages.
No Arab shall pitch his tent there,
No shepherds make flocks lie down there.
21But beastsb shall lie down there,
And the houses be filled with owls;b
There shall ostriches make their home,
And there shall satyrs dance.
22And jackalsbshall abide in its castles
And dragonsb in the palaces of pleasure.
Her hour is close at hand;
Her days will not be long.
14 But the LORD will pardon Jacob, and will again choose Israel, and will settle them on their own soil. And strangers shall join them and shall cleave to the House of Jacob. 2For peoples shall take thema and bring them to their homeland; and the House of Israel shall possess themb as slaves and handmaids on the soil of the LORD. They shall be captors of their captors and masters to their taskmasters.
3And when the LORD has given you rest from your sorrow and trouble, and from the hard service that you were made to serve, 4you shall recite this song of scorn over the king of Babylon:
How is the taskmaster vanished,
How is oppressionc ended!
5The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,
The rod of tyrants,
6That smote peoples in wrath
With stroke unceasing,
That belabored nations in fury
In relentless pursuit.
7All the earth is calm, untroubled;
Loudly it cheers.
8Even pines rejoice at your fate,
And cedars of Lebanon:
“Now that you have lain down,
None shall come up to fell us.”
9Sheol below was astir
To greet your coming—
Rousing for you the shades
Of all earth’s chieftains,
Raising from their thrones
All the kings of nations.
10All speak up and say to you,
“So you have been stricken as we were,
You have become like us!
11Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
And the strains of your lutes!
Worms are to be your bed,
Maggots your blanket!”
12How are you fallen from heaven,
O Shining One, son of Dawn!d
How are you felled to earth,
O vanquisher of nations!
13Once you thought in your heart,
“I will climb to the sky;
Higher than the stars of God
I will set my throne.
I will sit in the mount of assembly,e
On the summit of Zaphon:f
14I will mount the back of a cloud—
I will match the Most High.”
15Instead, you are brought down to Sheol,
To g-the bottom of the Pit.-g
16They who behold you stare;
They peer at you closely:
“Is this the man
Who shook the earth,
Who made realms tremble,
17Who made the world like a waste
And wrecked its towns,
h-Who never released his prisoners to their homes?”
18All the kings of nations
Were laid, every one, in honor-h
Each in his tomb;
19While you were left lying unburied,
Like loathsome carrion,i
Like a trampled corpse
[In] the clothing of slain gashed by the sword
Who sink to the very stones of the Pit.
20You shall not have a burial like them;
Because you destroyed j-your country,
Murdered your people. -j
Let the breed of evildoers
Nevermore be named!
21Prepare a slaughtering block for his sons
Because of the guilt of their father.k
Let them not arise to possess the earth!
Then the world’s face shall be covered with towns.
22I will rise up against them—declares the LORD of Hosts—and will wipe out from Babylon name and remnant, kith and kin—declares the LORD—23and I will make it a home of bitterns,l pools of water. I will sweep it with a broom of extermination—declares the LORD of Hosts.
24The LORD of Hosts has sworn this oath:
“As I have designed, so shall it happen;
What I have planned, that shall come to pass:
25To break Assyria in My land,
To crush him on My mountain.”m
And his yoke shall drop off them,
And his burden shall drop from theirn backs.
26That is the plan that is planned
For all the earth;
That is why an arm is poised
Over all the nations.
27For the LORD of Hosts has planned,
Who then can foil it?
It is His arm that is poised,
And who can stay it?
28This pronouncement was made in the year that King Ahaz died:
29Rejoice not, all Philistia,
Because the staff of him that beat you is broken.
For from the stock of a snake there sprouts an asp,
A flying serapho branches out from it.
30p-The first-born of the poor shall graze-p
And the destitute lie down secure.
q-I will kill your stock by famine,-q
And it shall slay the very last of you.
31Howl, O gate; cry out, O city;
Quake, all Philistia!
r-For a stout one is coming from the north
And there is no straggler in his ranks.-r
32And what will he answer the messengers of any nation?
That Zion has been established by the LORD:
In it, the needy of His people shall find shelter.
15 The “Moab” Pronouncement.
Ah, in the night Ar was sacked,
Moab was ruined;
Ah, in the night Kir was sacked,
Moab was ruined.
2He went up to the temple to weep,
Dibona [went] to the outdoor shrines.
Over Nebo and Medeba
Moab is wailing;
On every head is baldness,
Every beard is shorn.
3In its streets, they are girt with sackcloth;
On its roofs, in its squares,
Everyone is wailing,
Streaming with tears.
4Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,
Their voice carries to Jahaz.
Therefore,
b-The shock troops of Moab shout,-b
His body is convulsed.
5My heart cries out for Moab—
His fugitives flee down to Zoar,
To Eglath-shelishiyah.
For the ascent of Luhith
They ascend with weeping;
On the road to Horonaim
They raise a cry of anguish.
6Ah, the waters of Nimrim
Are become a desolation;
The grass is sear,
The herbage is gone,
Vegetation is vanished.
7Therefore,
The gains they have made, and their stores,
They carry to the Wadi of Willows.
8Ah, the cry has compassed
The country of Moab:
All the way to Eglaim her wailing,
Even at Beer-elim her wailing!
9Ah, the waters of Dimon are full of bloodc
For I pour added [water] on Dimon;
I drenchd it—for Moab’s refugees—
With soile for its remnant.
16 aDispatch as messenger
The ruler of the land,
From Sela in the wilderness
To the mount of Fair Zion:
2“Like fugitive birds,
Like nestlings driven away,
Moab’s villagers linger
By the fords of the Arnon.
3Give advice,
b-Offer counsel.-b
At high noon make
Your shadow like night:
Conceal the outcasts,
Betray not the fugitives.
4Let c-Moab’s outcasts-c
Find asylum in you;
Be a shelter for them
Against the despoiler.”
For violence has vanished,
Rapine is ended,
And marauders have perished from this land.
5And a throne shall be established in goodness
In the tent of David,
And on it shall sit in faithfulness
A ruler devoted to justice
And zealous for equity.d
6“We have heard of Moab’s pride—
Most haughty is he—
Of his pride and haughtiness and arrogance,
And of the iniquity in him.”e
7Ah, let Moab howl;
Let all in Moab howl!
For the raisin-cakesf of Kir-hareseth
You shall moan most pitifully.
8The vineyards of Heshbon are withered,
And the vines of Sibmah;
b-Their tendrils spread
To Baale-goiim,-b
And reached to Jazer,
And strayed to the desert;
Their shoots spread out
And crossed the sea.
9Therefore,
As I weep for Jazer,
So I weep for Sibmah’s vines;
O Heshbon and Elealeh,
I drench you with my tears.
g-Ended are the shouts
Over your fig and grain harvests-g
10Rejoicing and gladness
Are gone from the farm land;
In the vineyards no shouting
Or cheering is heard.
No more does the treader
Tread wine in the presses—
The shouts h-have been silenced.-h
11Therefore,
Like a lyre my heart moans for Moab,
And my very soul for Kir-heres.
12And when it has become apparent that Moab has gained nothing in the outdoor shrine, he shall come to pray
