¶ This is the heavy burthen of Babylon, which Esay the son of Amos did see.
Make some tokens to the high hills, call unto them, hold up your hand, that the princes may go in at the door.
For I will send for my deputies and my giants (sayeth the LORD) and in my wrath I will call for such, as triumph in my glory.
With that, me thought I heard in the mountains, a noise, like as it had been of a great people: and a rushing, as though the kingdoms of all nations had come together. (And the LORD of Hosts was the Captain of the whole army)
As they had come not only out of far countries, but also from the ends of the heavens: Even the LORD himself with the ministers of his wrath, to destroy the whole land.
¶ Mourn therefore, for the day of the LORD is at hand, and cometh as a destroyer from the Almighty.
Then shall all hands be letten down, and all men's hearts shall melt away,
they shall stond in fear, carefulness and sorrow shall come upon them, and they shall have pain, as a woman that travaileth with child. One shall ever be abashed of another, and their faces shall burn like the flame.
For lo, the day of the LORD shall come, terrible, full of indignation and wrath: to make the land waste, and to root out the sin thereof.
For the stars and planets of heaven shall not give their light, the sun shall be quenched in the rising, and the moon will not shine with his light.
And I will punish the wickedness of the world, and the sins of the ungodly, sayeth the LORD. The high stomachs of the proud will I take away, and will lay down the boasting of tyrants.
I will make a man dearer than fine gold, and a man to be more worth, than a golden wedge of Ophir.
Moreover I will so shake the heaven, that the earth shall remove out of her place. Thus shall it go with Babylon in the wrath of the LORD of Hosts in the day of his fearful indignation.
And Babylon shall be as an hunted or chased doe, and as a flock without a shepherd. Every man shall turn to his own people, and flee each one into his own land.
Who so is found alone, shall be shot thorow: And who so gather together, shall be destroyed with the sword.
Their children shall be slain before their eyes, their houses spoiled, and their wives ravished.
For lo, I shall bring up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver, nor be desirous of gold.
Then shall young men's bows be knapped asunder. The Medes shall have no pity upon women with child, and their faces shall not spare the children.
¶ And Babylon (that glory of kingdoms and beauty of the Caldees' honor) shall be destroyed, even as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorra.
It shall never be more inhabited, neither shall there be any more dwelling there, from generation to generation. The Arabians shall make no more tents there, neither shall the shepherds make their folds there any more:
but wild beasts shall lie there, and the houses shall be full of great Owls. Ostriches shall dwell there, and apes shall dance there:
the little owls shall cry in the palaces, one after another, and Dragons shall be in their pleasant parlors. And as for Babylon's time, it is at hand, and her days may not be long absent:
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.