Isaiah 13:6-19

Wail, for the day of the LORD is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty (All Sufficient One—Invincible God)! [Gen 17:1] Therefore all hands will fall limp, And every man’s heart will melt. They [of Babylon] will be shocked and terrified, Pains and anguish will grip them; They will be in pain like a woman in childbirth. They will stare aghast and horrified at one another, Their faces aflame [from the effects of the unprecedented warfare]. Listen carefully, the day of the LORD is coming, Cruel, with wrath and raging anger, To make the land a horror [of devastation]; And He shall exterminate its sinners from it. [Is 2:10-22; Rev 19:11-21] For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not flash with their light; The sun will be dark when it rises, And the moon will not shed its light. In this way I will punish the world for its evil And the wicked for their wickedness [their sin, their injustice, their wrongdoing]; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud And will abase the arrogance of the tyrant. I will make mortal man more rare than fine gold, And mankind [scarcer] than the pure gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; And the earth will be shaken from its place At the wrath of the LORD of hosts In the day of His burning anger. And like the hunted gazelle, Or like sheep that no man gathers, Each [foreign resident] will turn [and go back] to his own people, And each one flee to his own land. Anyone who is found will be pierced through, And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword. Their children also will be smashed to pieces Before their eyes; Their houses will be looted And their wives ravished. ¶Listen carefully, I will put the Medes [in motion] against them, Who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold [and therefore cannot be bribed]. Their bows will cut down the young men [of Babylon]; They will take no pity on the fruit of the womb, Their eyes will not look with compassion on the children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.