Shaya 13
The burden of Babylon, which Shaya Ibn Amoz did see. 2Set up an ensign on the bare mountain, lift up the voice to them, wave the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. 3I have commanded my consecrated ones, yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones. 4The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people! The noise of a tumult of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Allah, Lord of the universe is mustering the army for the battle. 5They come from a far country, from beyond the horizon, even Allah, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. 6Wail; for the day of Allah is at hand; as destruction from the Almighty shall it come. 7Therefore shall all hands be feeble, and every heart of man shall melt: 8and they shall be dismayed; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman in labour: they shall look in amazement one at another; their faces shall be faces of flame. 9Behold, the day of Allah comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it. 10For the stars of the sky and its constellations shall not give their light; the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.[1] 11I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity: and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. 12I will make a man more rare than fine gold, even a man than the pure gold of Ophir. 13Therefore I will make the heavens to tremble, and the earth shall be shaken out of its place, in the wrath of Allah, Lord of the universe, and in the day of his fierce anger. 14It shall happen, that as the chased roe, and as sheep that no man gathers, they shall turn every man to his own people, and shall flee every man to his own land. 15Everyone who is found shall be thrust through; and everyone who is taken shall fall by the sword. 16Their infants also shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be rifled, and their wives ravished. 17Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not regard silver, and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. 18Their bows shall dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children. 19Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 20It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be lived in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there. 21But wild animals of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there. 22Wolves shall cry in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.