1The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw. (赛1:1; 赛13:19; 赛14:4; 赛21:9; 赛47:1)2On a bare hill raise a signal; cry aloud to them; wave the hand for them to enter the gates of the nobles. (赛5:26; 赛41:25)3I myself have commanded my consecrated ones, and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger, my proudly exulting ones.[1]4The sound of a tumult is on the mountains as of a great multitude! The sound of an uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathering together! The Lord of hosts is mustering a host for battle. (书5:13; 赛22:5)5They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, the Lord and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.[2] (赛46:11)6Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the Almighty[3] it will come! (赛2:12; 赛14:31; 赛15:2; 赛15:8; 赛16:7; 耶51:8; 结30:2; 珥1:15; 番1:7)7Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt. (书2:11)8They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame. (赛26:17; 耶4:31; 耶6:24; 弥4:9; 鸿2:10; 约16:21)9Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. (诗104:35; 赛13:6)10For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. (赛34:4; 结32:7; 珥2:31; 珥3:15; 太24:29; 可13:24; 路21:25)11I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless. (赛2:11; 赛2:17; 赛24:4; 赛24:21)12I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. (王上10:11; 伯28:16; 赛24:6)13Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger. (该2:6)14And like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with none to gather them, each will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land. (王上22:36; 耶50:16; 耶51:9)15Whoever is found will be thrust through, and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.16Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished. (诗137:9; 鸿3:10)17Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold. (赛21:2; 耶51:11; 耶51:28; 但5:28; 但5:31)18Their bows will slaughter[4] the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children. (耶50:14; 耶50:29; 耶51:3)19And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them. (创19:24; 赛1:9; 赛47:5; 耶50:40; 摩4:11)20It will never be inhabited or lived in for all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there; no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there. (耶3:2; 耶33:12; 耶51:37; 耶51:43)21But wild animals will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures; there ostriches[5] will dwell, and there wild goats will dance. (赛34:13; 耶50:39)22Hyenas[6] will cry in its towers, and jackals in the pleasant palaces; its time is close at hand and its days will not be prolonged. (赛25:2; 赛35:7; 耶51:37; 摩3:15)