2  On a bare hill raise a signal;

cry aloud to them;

wave the hand for them to enter

the gates of the nobles.

3  I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,

and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger,

my proudly exulting ones.¹

4  The sound of a tumult is on the mountains

as of a great multitude!

The sound of an uproar of kingdoms,

of nations gathering together!

The Lord of hosts is mustering

a host for battle.

5  They come from a distant land,

from the end of the heavens,

the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,

to destroy the whole land.²

6  ^eWail, ^ffor the day of the Lord is near;

as destruction from the Almighty³ it will come!

7  Therefore all hands will be feeble,

and every human heart will melt.

8  They will be dismayed:

^gpangs and agony will seize them;

they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.

They will look aghast at one another;

their faces will be aflame.

9  Behold, the day of the Lord comes,

cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,

to make the land a desolation

and to destroy its sinners from it.

10  For the stars of the heavens and their constellations

^hwill not give their light;

the sun will be dark at its rising,

and the moon will not shed its light.

11  I will ⁱpunish the world for its evil,

and the wicked for their iniquity;

I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant,

and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.

12  I will make people more rare than fine gold,

and mankind than the gold of ^jOphir.

13  Therefore I will make the ^kheavens tremble,

and the earth will be shaken out of its place,

at the wrath of the Lord of hosts

in the day of his fierce anger.

14  And like a hunted gazelle,

or like sheep with none to gather them,

^leach will turn to his own people,

and each will flee to his own land.

15  Whoever is found will be thrust through,

and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.

16  Their infants will be ^mdashed in pieces

before their eyes;

their houses will be plundered

and their wives ravished.

17  Behold, I am stirring up the ⁿMedes against them,

who have no regard for silver

and do not delight in gold.

18  Their bows will slaughter⁴ the young men;

they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;

their eyes will not pity children.

19  And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,

the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,

will be ^olike Sodom and Gomorrah

^pwhen God overthrew them.

20  It will never be inhabited

or lived in for all generations;

no Arab will pitch his tent there;

no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.

21  But ^qwild animals will lie down there,

and their houses will be full of howling creatures;

there ostriches⁵ will dwell,

and there wild goats will dance.

22  Hyenas⁶ will cry in its towers,

and jackals in the pleasant palaces;

its time is close at hand

and its days will not be prolonged.

“How the oppressor has ceased,

the insolent fury² ceased!

5  The Lord has ^xbroken the staff of the wicked,

the scepter of rulers,

6  that struck the peoples in wrath

with unceasing blows,

that ruled the nations in anger

with unrelenting persecution.

7  The whole earth is at rest and quiet;

they ^ybreak forth into singing.

8  The cypresses rejoice at you,

the cedars of Lebanon, saying,

‘Since you were laid low,

no ^zwoodcutter comes up against us.’

9  Sheol beneath is stirred up

to meet you when you come;

it rouses the shades to greet you,

all who were leaders of the earth;

it raises from their thrones

all who were kings of the nations.

10  All of them will answer

and say to you:

‘You too have become as weak as we!

You have become like us!’

11  Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,

the sound of your harps;

maggots are laid as a bed beneath you,

and worms are your covers.

12  “How you are fallen from heaven,

O Day Star, son of Dawn!

How you are cut down to the ground,

you who laid the nations low!

13  You said in your heart,

‘I will ascend to heaven;

above the stars of God

I will set my throne on high;

I will sit on the mount of assembly

in the far reaches of the north;³

14  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.’

15  But you are brought down to Sheol,

to the far reaches of the pit.

16  Those who see you will stare at you

and ponder over you:

‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,

who shook kingdoms,

17  who made the world like a desert

and overthrew its cities,

who ^adid not let his prisoners go home?’

18  All the kings of the nations lie in glory,

each in his own tomb;⁴

19  but you are cast out, away from your grave,

like a loathed branch,

clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword,

who go down to the stones of the pit,

like a dead body trampled underfoot.

20  You will not be joined with them in burial,

because you have destroyed your land,

you have slain your people.

“May the offspring of evildoers

nevermore be named!

21  Prepare slaughter for his sons

^bbecause of the guilt of their fathers,

lest they rise and possess the earth,

and fill the face of the world with cities.”

24  The Lord of hosts has sworn:

^d“As I have planned,

so shall it be,

and as I have purposed,

so shall it stand,

25  that ^eI will break the Assyrian in my land,

and on my mountains trample him underfoot;

and ^fhis yoke shall depart from them,

and his burden from their shoulder.”

26  This is the purpose that is purposed

concerning the whole earth,

and this is the hand that is stretched out

over all the nations.

27  For the Lord of hosts has purposed,

and who will annul it?

His hand is stretched out,

and ^gwho will turn it back?