Isaiah 13–14: Babylon, and the Day Star Fallen
Scripture: Berean Standard Bible
This is the burden against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received:
Raise a banner on a barren hilltop;call aloud to them.Wave your hand,that they may enter the gates of the nobles.I have commanded my sanctified ones;I have even summoned my warriorsto execute my wrathand exult in my triumph.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 mobilizingan army for war.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.
Wail, for the Day of the LORD is near;it will come as destruction from the Almighty.Therefore all hands will fall limp,and every man’s heart will melt.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.
Behold, the Day of the LORD is coming—cruel, with fury and burning anger—to make the earth a desolationand to destroy the sinners within it.For the stars of heaven and their constellationswill not give their light.The rising sun will be darkened,and the moon will not give its light.I will punish the world for its eviland the wicked for their iniquity.I will end the haughtiness of the arrogantand lay low the pride of the ruthless.I will make man scarcer than pure gold,and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,and the earth will be shaken from its placeat the wrath of the LORD of Hostson the day of his burning anger.Like a hunted gazelle,like a sheep without a shepherd,each will return to his own people,each will flee to his native land.Whoever is caught will be stabbed,and whoever is captured will die by the sword.
Their infants will be dashed to piecesbefore their eyes,their houses will be looted,and their wives will be ravished.Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes,who have no regard for silverand no desire for gold.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.And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms,the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans,will be overthrown by Godlike Sodom and Gomorrah.
She will never be inhabitedor settled from generation to generation;no nomad will pitch his tent there,no shepherd will rest his flock there.But desert creatures will lie down there,and howling creatures will fill her houses.Ostriches will dwell there,and wild goats will leap about.Hyenas will howl in her fortressesand jackals in her luxurious palaces.Babylon’s time is at hand,and her days will not be prolonged.
For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and settle them in their own land. The foreigner will join them and unite with the house of Jacob. The nations will escort Israel and bring it to its homeland.
Then the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the LORD’s land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors.
On the day that the LORD gives you rest from your pain and torment, and from the hard labor into which you were forced, you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon:
How the oppressor has ceased,and how his fury has ended!The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,the scepter of the rulers.It struck the peoples in angerwith unceasing blows;it subdued the nations in ragewith relentless persecution.All the earth is at peace and at rest;they break out in song.Even the cypresses and cedars of Lebanonexult over you:“Since you have been laid low,no woodcutter comes against us.”
Sheol beneath is eagerto meet you upon your arrival.It stirs the spirits of the dead to greet you—all the rulers of the earth.It makes all the kings of the nationsrise from their thrones.They will all respond to you, saying,“You too have become weak, as we are;you have become like us!”Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol,along with the music of your harps.Maggots are your bedand worms your blanket.
How you have fallen from heaven,O day star, son of the dawn!You have been cut down to the ground,O destroyer of nations.You said in your heart:“I will ascend to the heavens;I will raise my throneabove the stars of God.I will sit on the mount of assembly,in the far reaches of the north.I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;I will make myself like the Most High.”
But you will be brought down to Sheol,to the lowest depths of the Pit.Those who see you will stare;they will ponder your fate:“Is this the man who shook the earthand made the kingdoms tremble,who turned the world into a desertand destroyed its cities,who refused to let the captivesreturn to their homes?”
All the kings of the nations lie in state,each in his own tomb.But you are cast out of your grave like a rejected branch,covered by those slain with the sword,and dumped into a rocky pitlike a carcass trampled underfoot.You will not join them in burial,since you have destroyed your landand slaughtered your own people.The offspring of the wickedwill never again be mentioned.
Prepare a place to slaughter his sonsfor the iniquities of their forefathers.They will never rise up to possess a landor cover the earth with their cities.“I will rise up against them,”declares the LORD of Hosts.“I will cut off from Babylonher name and her remnant,her offspring and her posterity,”declares the LORD.“I will make her a placefor owls and for swamplands;I will sweep her awaywith the broom of destruction,”declares the LORD of Hosts.
The LORD of Hosts has sworn:
“Surely, as I have planned, so will it be;as I have purposed, so will it stand.I will break Assyria in my land;I will trample him on my mountain.His yoke will be taken off my people,and his burden removed from their shoulders.”
This is the plan devised for the whole earth,and this is the hand stretched out over all the nations.The LORD of Hosts has purposed,and who can thwart him?His hand is outstretched,so who can turn it back?
In the year that King Ahaz died, this burden was received:
Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,that the rod that struck you is broken.For a viper will spring from the root of the snake,and a flying serpent from its egg.Then the firstborn of the poor will find pasture,and the needy will lie down in safety,but I will kill your root by famine,and your remnant will be slain.
Wail, O gate! Cry out, O city!Melt away, all you Philistines!For a cloud of smoke comes from the north,and there are no stragglers in its ranks.What answer will be givento the envoys of that nation?“The LORD has founded Zion,where his afflicted people will find refuge.”