2On a bare hill raise a signal;

cry aloud to them;

wave the hand for them to enter

the gates of the nobles.*

3I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,

have summoned my warriors, my proudly exulting ones,

to execute my anger.t^,*

4Listen, a tumult on the mountains

as of a great multitude!

Listen, an uproar of kingdoms,

of nations gathering together!

The Lord of hosts is mustering

an army for battle.*

5They come from a distant land,

from the end of the heavens,

the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,

to destroy the whole earth.*

6Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;

it will come like destruction from the Almighty!u^,*

7Therefore all hands will be feeble,

and every human heart will melt,*

8and they will be terrified.

Pangs 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.*

9See, the day of the Lord is coming,

cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,

to make the earth a desolation

and to destroy its sinners from it.*

10For the stars of the heavens and their constellations

will not give their light;

the sun will be dark at its rising,

and the moon will not shed its light.*

11I will punish the world for its evil

and the wicked for their iniquity;

I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant

and lay low the insolence of tyrants.*

12I will make mortals more rare than fine gold

and humans than the gold of Ophir.

13Therefore I will make the heavens 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.*

14Like a gazelle on the run

or like sheep with no one to gather them,

all will turn back to their own people,

and all will flee to their own lands.*

15Whoever is found will be thrust through,

and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.

16Their infants will be dashed to pieces

before their eyes;

their houses will be plundered

and their wives raped.*

17See, I am stirring up the Medes against them,

who have no regard for silver

and do not delight in gold.*

18Their bows will slaughter the young men;

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

their eyes will not pity children.*

19And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,

the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans,

will be like Sodom and Gomorrah

when God overthrew them.*

20It will never be inhabited

or lived in for all generations;

Arabs will not pitch their tents there;

shepherds will not make their flocks lie down there.*

21But wild animals will lie down there,

and its houses will be full of howling creatures;

there ostriches will live,

and there goat-demons will dance.*

22Hyenas will cry in its towers

and jackals in the pleasant palaces;

its time is close at hand;

and its days will not be prolonged.*