Isaiah 13:9-22

9Behold, the day of Adonai comes, cruel, full of wrath and fierce fury, to make the earth a desolation, and destroy its sinners from it.

10For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.

11I will punish the world for evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and abase the insolence of tyrants.

12I will make people scarcer than gold, even than the pure gold of Ophir.

13Therefore I will make heaven tremble, and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of Adonai-Tzva’ot, in the day of His fierce fury.

14It will be like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with no one gathering. Each will return to his own people, each will flee to his own country.

15Everyone found will be thrust through. Everyone caught will fall by the sword.

16Their babes will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be plundered, and their wives ravished.

17Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who will not value silver and will take no delight in gold.

18Their bows will cut down the young men, with no pity on the fruit of the womb, nor will their eye spare children.

19So Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of Chaldean pride, will be just as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

20It will never be inhabited, nor will it be dwelt in from generation to generation, nor will an Arab pitch a tent there, nor will shepherds let flocks lie there.

21But desert creatures will lie there. Their houses will be full of owls. Ostriches will dwell there, and goat-demons will dance there.

22Hyenas will howl in their citadels and jackals in their pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come— her days will not drag on long.