2Lift up a banner on the high mountain. Raise your voice to them. Wave your hand, so that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3I have given orders to my holy ones. I have also called my mighty ones to carry out my anger, those who rejoice in my majesty.
4The noise of a crowd in the mountains, like the noise of a great people. It is the uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together. The LORD of hosts is gathering the army for battle.
5They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, the LORD and the weapons of his anger, to destroy the whole land.
6Wail, for the day of the LORD is near. It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
7So every hand will hang weak, and every man's heart will melt.
8They will be afraid. Pain and grief will take hold of them. They will be in pain like a woman giving birth. They will stare at one another in shock. Their faces will be like flames.
9Look, the day of the LORD is coming, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a waste. He will destroy its sinners out of it.
10The stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened when it rises, and the moon will not let her light shine.
11I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their sin. I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and bring down the pride of the ruthless.
12I will make a man more precious than fine gold, a man more precious than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13So I will shake the heavens, and the earth will move out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
14It will be like a hunted deer, and like a sheep that no one gathers in. Every man will turn to his own people, and every one will flee to his own land.
15Everyone who is found will be run through, and everyone who is caught with them will fall by the sword.
16Their children also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be plundered, and their wives raped.
17Look, I will stir up the Medes against them. They care nothing for silver, and they take no delight in gold.
18Their bows will dash the young men to pieces. They will have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eye will not spare children.
19And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty and pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.
20It will never be lived in, nor settled from generation to generation. No Arabian will pitch his tent there, and no shepherds will make their fold there.
21But wild beasts of the desert will lie there. Their houses will be full of mournful creatures. Owls will live there, and satyrs will dance there.
22The wild beasts of the islands will cry in their empty houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be made longer.