New Living Translation NLT
Hebrew Names Version HNV
1 Isaiah son of Amoz received this message concerning the destruction of Babylon:
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The burden of Bavel, which Yesha`yahu the son of Amotz did see.
2 “Raise a signal flag on a bare hilltop. Call up an army against Babylon. Wave your hand to encourage them as they march into the palaces of the high and mighty.
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Set up an ensign on the bare mountain, lift up the voice to them, wave the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3 I, the LORD, have dedicated these soldiers for this task. Yes, I have called mighty warriors to express my anger, and they will rejoice when I am exalted.”
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I have commanded my consecrated ones, yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.
4 Hear the noise on the mountains! Listen, as the vast armies march! It is the noise and shouting of many nations. The LORD of Heaven’s Armies has called this army together.
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The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people! the noise of a tumult of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! the LORD of Hosts is mustering the host for the battle.
5 They come from distant countries, from beyond the farthest horizons. They are the LORD ’s weapons to carry out his anger. With them he will destroy the whole land.
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They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6 Scream in terror, for the day of the LORD has arrived— the time for the Almighty to destroy.
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Wail; for the day of the LORD is at hand; as destruction from Shaddai shall it come.
7 Every arm is paralyzed with fear. Every heart melts,
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Therefore shall all hands be feeble, and every heart of man shall melt:
8 and people are terrified. Pangs of anguish grip them, like those of a woman in labor. They look helplessly at one another, their faces aflame with fear.
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and they shall be dismayed; pangs and sorrows shall take hold [of them]; they shall be in pain as a woman in travail: they shall look in amazement one at another; their faces [shall be] faces of flame.
9 For see, the day of the LORD is coming— the terrible day of his fury and fierce anger. The land will be made desolate, and all the sinners destroyed with it.
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Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy the sinners of it out of it.
10 The heavens will be black above them; the stars will give no light. The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will provide no light.
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For the stars of the sky and the constellations of it shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in its going forth, and the moon shall not cause its light to shine.
11 “I, the LORD, will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their sin. I will crush the arrogance of the proud and humble the pride of the mighty.
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I will punish the world for [their] evil, and the wicked for their iniquity: and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make people scarcer than gold— more rare than the fine gold of Ophir.
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I will make a man more rare than fine gold, even a man than the pure gold of Ofir.
13 For I will shake the heavens. The earth will move from its place when the LORD of Heaven’s Armies displays his wrath in the day of his fierce anger.”
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Therefore I will make the heavens to tremble, and the eretz shall be shaken out of its place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
14 Everyone in Babylon will run about like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd. They will try to find their own people and flee to their own land.
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It shall happen, that as the chased roe, and as sheep that no man gathers, they shall turn every man to his own people, and shall flee every man to his own land.
15 Anyone who is captured will be cut down— run through with a sword.
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Everyone who is found shall be thrust through; and everyone who is taken shall fall by the sword.
16 Their little children will be dashed to death before their eyes. Their homes will be sacked, and their wives will be raped.
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Their infants also shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be rifled, and their wives ravished.
17 “Look, I will stir up the Medes against Babylon. They cannot be tempted by silver or bribed with gold.
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Behold, I will stir up the Madai against them, who shall not regard silver, and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
18 The attacking armies will shoot down the young men with arrows. They will have no mercy on helpless babies and will show no compassion for children.”
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[Their] bows shall dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.
19 Babylon, the most glorious of kingdoms, the flower of Chaldean pride, will be devastated like Sodom and Gomorrah when God destroyed them.
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Bavel, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Kasdim' pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sedom and `Amorah.
20 Babylon will never be inhabited again. It will remain empty for generation after generation. Nomads will refuse to camp there, and shepherds will not bed down their sheep.
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It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be lived in from generation to generation: neither shall the `Arivi pitch tent there; neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there.
21 Desert animals will move into the ruined city, and the houses will be haunted by howling creatures. Owls will live among the ruins, and wild goats will go there to dance.
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But wild animals of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there.
22 Hyenas will howl in its fortresses, and jackals will make dens in its luxurious palaces. Babylon’s days are numbered; its time of destruction will soon arrive.
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Wolves shall cry in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.