Like wandering gazelles
and like sheep without a shepherd,
each one will turn to his own people,
each one will flee to his own land.

Whoever is found will be stabbed,
and whoever is caught will die by the sword.

Their children will be smashed to death before their eyes;
their houses will be looted,
and their wives raped.

Look! I am stirring up the Medes against them,
who cannot be bought off with silver
and who have no desire for gold.

And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms,
the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.

Their bows will cut young men to pieces.
They will have no compassion on little ones;
they will not look with pity on children.

But desert creatures will lie down there,
and owls will fill the houses.
Ostriches will dwell there,
and wild goats will leap about.

An oracle against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:

It will never be inhabited
or lived in from generation to generation;
a nomad will not pitch his tent there,
and shepherds will not let their flocks rest there.

Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations
will not give their light.
The sun will be dark when it rises,
and the moon will not shine.

Wail! For the day of the Lord is near.
It will come like destruction from the Almighty.

Hyenas will howl in the fortresses,
and jackals, in the luxurious palaces.
Babylon’s time is almost up;
her days are almost over.

Look, the day of the Lord is coming—
cruel, with rage and burning anger—
to make the earth a desolation
and to destroy the sinners on it.

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will shake from its foundations
at the wrath of the Lord of Hosts,
on the day of His burning anger.

Lift up a banner on a barren mountain.
Call out to them.
Wave your hand, and they will go
through the gates of the nobles.

I will bring disaster on the world,
and their own iniquity, on the wicked.
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant
and humiliate the insolence of tyrants.

They are coming from a far land,
from the distant horizon—
the Lord and the weapons of His wrath—
to destroy the whole country.

Listen, a tumult on the mountains,
like that of a mighty people!
Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,
like nations being gathered together!
The Lord of Hosts is mobilizing an army for war.

I will make man scarcer than gold,
and mankind more rare than the gold of Ophir.

They will be horrified;
pain and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look at each other,
their faces flushed with fear.

Therefore everyone’s hands will become weak,
and every man’s heart will melt.

I have commanded My chosen ones;
I have also called My warriors,
who exult in My triumph,
to execute My wrath.