# Isaiah 13 (New King James Version)
Proclamation Against Babylon

##### Chapter 13
###### 1 The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

###### 2 "Lift up a banner on the high mountain,  
Raise your voice to them;  
Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.  

###### 3 I have commanded My sanctified ones;  
I have also called My mighty ones for My anger--  
Those who rejoice in My exaltation."

###### 4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains,  
Like that of many people!  
A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together!  
The Lord of hosts musters  
The army for battle.  

###### 5 They come from a far country,  
From the end of heaven--  
The Lord and His weapons of indignation,  
To destroy the whole land.

###### 6 Wail, for the day of the Lord _is_ at hand!  
It will come as destruction from the Almighty.  

###### 7 Therefore all hands will be limp,  
Every man's heart will melt,  

###### 8 And they will be afraid.  
Pangs and sorrows will take hold of _them;_  
They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth;  
They will be amazed at one another;  
Their faces _will be like_ flames.

###### 9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes,  
Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,  
To lay the land desolate;  
And He will destroy its sinners from it.  

###### 10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations  
Will not give their light;  
The sun will be darkened in its going forth,  
And the moon will not cause its light to shine.

###### 11 "I will punish the world for _its_ evil,  
And the wicked for their iniquity;  
I will halt the arrogance of the proud,  
And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.  

###### 12 I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold,  
A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.  

###### 13 Therefore I will shake the heavens,  
And the earth will move out of her place,  
In the wrath of the Lord of hosts  
And in the day of His fierce anger.  

###### 14 It shall be as the hunted gazelle,  
And as a sheep that no man takes up;  
Every man will turn to his own people,  
And everyone will flee to his own land.  

###### 15 Everyone who is found will be thrust through,  
And everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.  

###### 16 Their children also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes;  
Their houses will be plundered  
And their wives ravished.

###### 17 "Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them,  
Who will not regard silver;  
And _as for_ gold, they will not delight in it.  

###### 18 Also _their_ bows will dash the young men to pieces,  
And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb;  
Their eye will not spare children.  

###### 19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,  
The beauty of the Chaldeans' pride,  
Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.  

###### 20 It will never be inhabited,  
Nor will it be settled from generation to generation;  
Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there,  
Nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there.  

###### 21 But wild beasts of the desert will lie there,  
And their houses will be full of owls;  
Ostriches will dwell there,  
And wild goats will caper there.  

###### 22 The hyenas will howl in their citadels,  
And jackals in their pleasant palaces.  
Her time _is_ near to come,  
And her days will not be prolonged."