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[1]THE burden of Babylon, which Isaias the son of Amos saw.
[2]Upon the dark mountain lift ye up a banner, exalt the voice, lift up the hand, and let the rulers go into the gates.
[3]I have commanded my sanctified ones, and have called my strong ones in my wrath, them that rejoice in my glory.
[4]The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as it were of many people, the noise of the sound of kings, of nations gathered together: the Lord of hosts hath given charge to the troops of war.
[5]To them that come from a country afar off, from the end of heaven: tile Lord and the instruments of his wrath, to destroy the whole land.
[6]Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is near: it shall come as a destruction from the Lord.
[7]Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every heart of man shall melt,
[8]And shall be broken. Gripings and pains shall take hold of them, they shall be in pain as a woman in labour. Every one shall be amazed at his neighbour, their countenances shall be as faces burnt.
[9]Behold, the day of the Lord shall come, a cruel day, and full of indignation, and of wrath, and fury, to lay the land desolate, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
[10]For the stars of heaven, and their brightness shall not display their light: the sun shall be darkened in his rising, and the moon shall not shine with her light.
[11]And I will visit the evils of the world, and against the wicked for their iniquity: and I will make the pride of infidels to cease, and will bring down the arrogancy of the mighty.
[12]A man shall be more precious than gold, yea a man than the finest of gold.
[13]For this I will trouble the heaven: and the earth shall be moved out of her place, for the indignation of the Lord of hosts, and for the day of his tierce wrath.
[14]And they shall be as a doe fleeing away, and as a sheep: and there shall be none to gather them together: every man shall turn to his own people, and every one shall flee to his own land.
[15]Every one that shall be found, shall be slain: and every one that shall come to their aid, shall fall by the sword.
[16]Their infants shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes: their houses shall be pillaged, and their wives shall be ravished.
[17]Behold I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not seek silver, nor desire gold:
[18]But with their arrows they shall kill the children, and shall have no pity upon the sucklings of the womb, and their eye shall not spare their sons.
[19]And that Babylon, glorious among kingdoms, the famous pride of the Chaldeans, shall be even as the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha.
[20]It shall no more be inhabited for ever, and it shall not be founded unto generation and generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch his tents there, nor shall shepherds rest there.
[21]But wild beasts shall rest there, and their houses shall be filled with serpents, and ostriches shall dwell there, and the hairy ones shall dance there:
[22]And owls shall answer one another there, in the houses thereof, and sirens in the temples of pleasure.
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