A message that Amoz's son Isaiah received about Babylon:

Babylon, that jewel of kingdoms, the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah, when God overthrew them

you will lift up this song of mockery against the king of Babylon: "How the oppressor has come to an end! How the attacker has ceased!

"I will rise up against them," declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, "and I will eliminate from Babylon her name and survivors, her offspring and descendants," declares the LORD.

Look! Here come riders, each man with a pair of horses!" They're shouting out the answer: "Babylon has fallen, has fallen, and they have shattered all the images of her gods on the ground!

At that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, when he heard he had been sick and had survived.

Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, "What did these men have to say? And from where did they come to you?" Hezekiah replied, "From a distant land they came to me from Babylon."

"The days are surely coming when everything in your palace and all that your ancestors have stored up to this day will be carried off to Babylon. They will come in, and nothing will be left,' says the LORD.

"Then some of your own sons, who will come from your loins, whom you will father, will be taken away to become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'"

This is what the LORD says, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "For your sake I will send to Babylon, and bring them all down as fugitives. Now as for the Babylonians, their ringing cry will become lamentation.

"Come down and sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a chair, Daughter of the Chaldeans! For no longer will they call you tender and attractive.

Let all of them come together and listen: Who is there among them that could declare these things? "The LORD loves me, and he will accomplish my purpose against Babylon; his arm will be against the Chaldeans.

"Go out from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans! With happy shouts, announce and proclaim this to the ends of the earth: Say, "The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!'