The burden of Babylon... That is, a prophecy against Babylon.
13:2. Upon the dark mountain lift ye up a banner, exalt the voice, lift up the hand, and let the rulers go into the gates.
13:3. I have commanded my sanctified ones, and have called my strong ones in my wrath, them that rejoice in my glory.
13:4. The noise of a mult.i.tude 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.
13:5. To them that come from a country afar off, from the end of heaven: the Lord and the instruments of his wrath, to destroy the whole land.
13:6. Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is near: it shall come as a destruction from the Lord.
13:7. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every heart of man shall melt,
13:8. 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.
13:9. 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.
13:10. 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.
13:11. 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.
13:12. A man shall be more precious than gold, yea a man than the finest of gold.
13:13. 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 fierce wrath.
13:14. 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.
13:15. Every one that shall be found, shall be slain: and every one that shall come to their aid, shall fall by the sword.
13:16. Their inhabitants shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes: their houses shall be pillaged, and their wives shall be ravished.
13:17. Behold I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not seek silver, nor desire gold:
13:18. 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.
13:19. And that Babylon, glorious among kingdoms, the famous pride of the Chaldeans, shall be even as the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha.
13:20. 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.
13:21. 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:
13:22. And owls shall answer one another there, in the houses thereof, and sirens in the temples of pleasure.
Isaias Chapter 14
The restoration of Israel after their captivity. The parable or song insulting over the king of Babylon. A prophecy against the Philistines.
14:1. Her time is near at hand, and her days shall not be prolonged. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose out of Israel, and will make them rest upon their own ground: and the stranger shall be joined with them, and shall adhere to the house of Jacob.
14:2. And the people shall take them, and bring them into their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall make them captives that had taken them, and shall subdue their oppressors.
14:3. And it shall come to pa.s.s in that day, that when G.o.d shall give thee rest from thy labour, and from thy vexation, and from the hard bondage, wherewith thou didst serve before,
14:4. Thou shalt take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and shalt say: How is the oppressor come to nothing, the tribute hath ceased?
14:5. The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of the rulers,
14:6. That struck the people in wrath with an incurable wound, that brought nations under in fury, that persecuted in a cruel manner.
14:7. The whole earth is quiet and still, it is glad and hath rejoiced.
14:8. The fir trees also have rejoiced over thee, and the cedars of Liba.n.u.s, saying: Since thou hast slept, there hath none come up to cut us down.
14:9. h.e.l.l below was in an uproar to meet thee at thy coming, it stirred up the giants for thee. All the princes of the earth are risen up from their thrones, all the princes of nations.
14:10. All shall answer, and say to thee: Thou also art wounded as well as we, thou art become like unto us.
14:11. Thy pride is brought down to h.e.l.l, thy carca.s.s is fallen down: under thee shall the moth be strewed, and worms shall be thy covering.
14:12. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst rise in the morning? how art thou fallen to the earth, that didst wound the nations?
O Lucifer... O day star. All this, according to the letter, is spoken of the king of Babylon. It may also be applied, in a spiritual sense, to Lucifer the prince of devils, who was created a bright angel, but fell by pride and rebellion against G.o.d.
14:13. And thou saidst in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of G.o.d, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north.
14:14. I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the most High.
14:15. But yet thou shalt be brought down to h.e.l.l, into the depth of the pit.
14:16. They that shall see thee, shall turn toward thee, and behold thee. Is this the man that troubled the earth, that shook kingdoms,
14:17. That made the world a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the prison to his prisoners?
14:18. All the kings of the nations have all of them slept in glory, every one in his own house.
14:19. But thou art cast out of thy grave, as an unprofitable branch defiled, and wrapped up among them that were slain by the sword, and art gone down to the bottom of the pit, as a rotten carca.s.s.
14:20. Thou shalt not keep company with them, even in burial: for thou hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain thy people: the seed of the wicked shall not be named for ever.
14:21. Prepare his children for slaughter for the iniquity of their fathers: they shall not rise up, nor inherit the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
14:22. And I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts: and I will destroy the name of Babylon, and the remains, and the bud, and the offspring, saith the Lord.
14:23. And I will make it a possession for the ericius and pools of waters, and I will sweep it and wear it out with a besom, saith the Lord of hosts.
14:24. The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying: Surely as I have thought, so shall it be: and as I have purposed,
14:25. So shall it fall out: That I will destroy the a.s.syrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: and his yoke shall be taken away from them, and his burden shall be taken off their shoulder.