God Commands That Babylon Be Taken

1The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.

As windstorms in the Negev sweep on,

It comes from the wilderness, from a terrifying land.

2A harsh vision has been shown to me;

The treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys.

Go up, Elam, lay siege, Media;

I have made an end of all the groaning she has caused.

3For this reason my loins are full of anguish;

Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor.

I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see.

4My mind reels, horror overwhelms me;

The twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.

5They set the table, they spread out the cloth, they eat, they drink;

“Rise up, captains, oil the shields,”

6For thus the Lord says to me,

“Go, station the lookout, let him report what he sees.

7When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,

A train of donkeys, a train of camels,

Let him pay close attention, very close attention.”

8Then the lookout called,

“O Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower,

And I am stationed every night at my guard post.

9Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.”

And one said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;

And all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground.”

10O my threshed people, and my afflicted of the threshing floor!

What I have heard from the Lord of hosts,

The God of Israel, I make known to you.

Oracles about Edom and Arabia

11The oracle concerning Edom.

One keeps calling to me from Seir,

“Watchman, how far gone is the night?

Watchman, how far gone is the night?”

12The watchman says,

“Morning comes but also night.

If you would inquire, inquire;

Come back again.”

13The oracle about Arabia.

In the thickets of Arabia you must spend the night,

O caravans of Dedanites.

14Bring water for the thirsty,

O inhabitants of the land of Tema,

Meet the fugitive with bread.

15For they have fled from the swords,

From the drawn sword, and from the bent bow

And from the press of battle.

16For thus the Lord said to me, “In a year, as a hired man would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will terminate; 17and the remainder of the number of bowmen, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, will be few; for the Lord God of Israel has spoken.”

The Valley of Vision

1The oracle concerning the valley of vision.

What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?

2You who were full of noise,

You boisterous town, you exultant city;

Your slain were not slain with the sword,

Nor did they die in battle.

3All your rulers have fled together,

And have been captured without the bow;

All of you who were found were taken captive together,

Though they had fled far away.

4Therefore I say, “Turn your eyes away from me,

Let me weep bitterly,

Do not try to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

5For the Lord God of hosts has a day of panic, subjugation and confusion

In the valley of vision,

A breaking down of walls

And a crying to the mountain.

6Elam took up the quiver

With the chariots, infantry and horsemen;

And Kir uncovered the shield.

7Then your choicest valleys were full of chariots,

And the horsemen took up fixed positions at the gate.

8And He removed the defense of Judah.

In that day you depended on the weapons of the house of the forest,

9And you saw that the breaches

In the wall of the city of David were many;

And you collected the waters of the lower pool.

10Then you counted the houses of Jerusalem

And tore down houses to fortify the wall.

11And you made a reservoir between the two walls

For the waters of the old pool.

But you did not depend on Him who made it,

Nor did you take into consideration Him who planned it long ago.

12Therefore in that day the Lord God of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing,

To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth.

13Instead, there is gaiety and gladness,

Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep,

Eating of meat and drinking of wine:

“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”

14But the Lord of hosts revealed Himself to me,

“Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you

Until you die,” says the Lord God of hosts.

15Thus says the Lord God of hosts,

“Come, go to this steward,

To Shebna, who is in charge of the royal household,

16‘What right do you have here,

And whom do you have here,

That you have hewn a tomb for yourself here,

You who hew a tomb on the height,

You who carve a resting place for yourself in the rock?

17Behold, the Lord is about to hurl you headlong, O man.

And He is about to grasp you firmly

18And roll you tightly like a ball,

To be cast into a vast country;

There you will die

And there your splendid chariots will be,

You shame of your master’s house.’

19I will depose you from your office,

And I will pull you down from your station.

20Then it will come about in that day,

That I will summon My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,

21And I will clothe him with your tunic

And tie your sash securely about him.

I will entrust him with your authority,

And he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

22Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder,

When he opens no one will shut,

When he shuts no one will open.

23I will drive him like a peg in a firm place,

And he will become a throne of glory to his father’s house.

24So they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, offspring and issue, all the least of vessels, from bowls to all the jars. 25In that day,” declares the Lord of hosts, “the peg driven in a firm place will give way; it will even break off and fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken.”

The Fall of Tyre

1The oracle concerning Tyre.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

For Tyre is destroyed, without house or harbor;

It is reported to them from the land of Cyprus.

2Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland,

You merchants of Sidon;

Your messengers crossed the sea

3And were on many waters.

The grain of the Nile, the harvest of the River was her revenue;

And she was the market of nations.

4Be ashamed, O Sidon;

For the sea speaks, the stronghold of the sea, saying,

“I have neither travailed nor given birth,

I have neither brought up young men nor reared virgins.”

5When the report reaches Egypt,

They will be in anguish at the report of Tyre.

6Pass over to Tarshish;

Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland.

7Is this your jubilant city,

Whose origin is from antiquity,

Whose feet used to carry her to colonize distant places?

8Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,

Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?

9The Lord of hosts has planned it, to defile the pride of all beauty,

To despise all the honored of the earth.

10Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish,

There is no more restraint.

11He has stretched His hand out over the sea,

He has made the kingdoms tremble;

The Lord has given a command concerning Canaan to demolish its strongholds.

12He has said, “You shall exult no more, O crushed virgin daughter of Sidon.

Arise, pass over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.”

13Behold, the land of the Chaldeans—this is the people which was not; Assyria appointed it for desert creatures—they erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, they made it a ruin.

14Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

For your stronghold is destroyed.

15Now in that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:

16Take your harp, walk about the city,

O forgotten harlot;

Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs,

That you may be remembered.

17It will come about at the end of seventy years that the Lord will visit Tyre. Then she will go back to her harlot’s wages and will play the harlot with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. 18Her gain and her harlot’s wages will be set apart to the Lord; it will not be stored up or hoarded, but her gain will become sufficient food and choice attire for those who dwell in the presence of the Lord.

Judgment on the Earth

1Behold, the Lord lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants. 2And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor. 3The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for the Lord has spoken this word. 4The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away. 5The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. 6Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.

7The new wine mourns,

The vine decays,

All the merry-hearted sigh.

8The gaiety of tambourines ceases,

The noise of revelers stops,

The gaiety of the harp ceases.

9They do not drink wine with song;

Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.

10The city of chaos is broken down;

Every house is shut up so that none may enter.

11There is an outcry in the streets concerning the wine;

All joy turns to gloom.

The gaiety of the earth is banished.

12Desolation is left in the city

And the gate is battered to ruins.

13For thus it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples,

As the shaking of an olive tree,

As the gleanings when the grape harvest is over.

14They raise their voices, they shout for joy;

They cry out from the west concerning the majesty of the Lord.

15Therefore glorify the Lord in the east,

The name of the Lord, the God of Israel,

In the coastlands of the sea.

16From the ends of the earth we hear songs, “Glory to the Righteous One,”

But I say, “Woe to me! Woe to me! Alas for me!

The treacherous deal treacherously,

And the treacherous deal very treacherously.”

17Terror and pit and snare

Confront you, O inhabitant of the earth.

18Then it will be that he who flees the report of disaster will fall into the pit,

And he who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare;

For the windows above are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake.

19The earth is broken asunder,

The earth is split through,

The earth is shaken violently.

20The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard

And it totters like a shack,

For its transgression is heavy upon it,

And it will fall, never to rise again.

21So it will happen in that day,

That the Lord will punish the host of heaven on high,

And the kings of the earth on earth.

22They will be gathered together

Like prisoners in the dungeon,

And will be confined in prison;

And after many days they will be punished.

23Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed,

For the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,

And His glory will be before His elders.