God will punish Babylon soon
1The Lord was angry with the city of Babylon. He showed Isaiah what would happen to Babylon. Isaiah was the son of Amoz. The Lord said:
2‘You must hold up a flag,
and you must do it on a mountain that has no trees.
You must shout_loudly and call the enemies.
Show them with your hands to come
through the beautiful gates of Babylon.
3I, the Lord have chosen the soldiers
who will fight for Me.
I have called them to go to war
because I am angry with Babylon.
These soldiers know that
I am strong and they are happy
to do what I ask of them.’
4Listen, the soldiers are making
a loud_noise on the mountains.
There are many soldiers,
who come from many lands,
and they are coming together.
You can hear them coming.
The Lord who rules over all
has called those soldiers to go to war.
5The Lord is angry,
and that is why He brings soldiers from a land
far away to come and fight for Him.
They will destroy the land of Babylon.
6You must cry because
the day_of_the_Lord is near.
The Almighty God is coming
and He will destroy everything.
7All the people will become afraid.
Their hands will hang down
and they will lose their courage.
8They will have pain and be scared,
and they will bow down like a woman
who is having a baby.
They will look at each other,
and their faces will show that they are in pain.
There will be no mercy for them
9You must know this:
The day_of_the_Lord is coming.
The Lord will not feel sorry
for the people of Babylon.
He is angry and He will
destroy the land of Babylon.
He will kill the people of Babylon
because they are sinners.
10Yes, the stars in the sky will not shine,
the sun will not rise
and it will be dark.
The moon will not give its light.
11The Lord says: ‘I will punish
the bad people in the world,
those who are doing wrong.
I will cause the proud and cruel people to die,
and they will fall very hard.
12There will be only a few people
who will stay alive,
and it will be more difficult to find any of them
than to find gold from the land of Ophir.
13I, the Lord who rules over all,
am very angry.
The day will come when I will punish
the people of Babylon.
I will shake the heaven
and the earth will tremble.
I will shake the earth from its place.
14All the people from other lands will flee
to their own people and to their lands.
It will be like when someone has scared a deer,
or like when the sheep run away
when no one is looking after them.
15The enemies will grab
everyone that they can get
and they will kill them.
16The people of Babylon will see
how the enemies kill their babies and
take everything from their homes
and rape their wives.
17I will send the Medes to attack Babylon.
The Medes do not want silver or gold.
They just want to go to war.
18They will kill the young soldiers from Babylon
with their bows_and_arrows,
and they will not feel sorry for babies or children.’
19Babylon is the most beautiful city in the world,
and its people are proud of the city,
but God will destroy the city
as He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
20No one will ever live in Babylon again.
Not one Arabian will put up his tent there again
and shepherds will never let their sheep
rest there again.
21Desert animals will lie down in Babylon,
owls will sit everywhere in the houses,
ostriches will go there,
and wild goats will dance there.
22Wild dogs and foxes will cry
in the beautiful homes
where the people of Babylon
celebrated their feasts.
The time is near when God
will punish Babylon.
The end of Babylon has come,
and the enemies will destroy the city.
