The Holy Bible: Revised Common Version

2  Lift up a banner upon the high mountain,/
exalt the voice to them,/
and shake the hand so that they may go/
into the gates of the nobles.

3  I have commanded my sanctified ones,/
I have also called my mighty ones for my anger,/
even those who rejoice in my highness.

4  The noise of a multitude is in the mountains,/
as of a great people./
It is a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms/
of nations assembled./
The LORD of hosts musters/
the host of the battle.

5  They come from a far country,/
from the end of heaven,/
even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation,/
to destroy the whole land.

6  Howl, for the day of the LORD is at hand./
It shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

7  Therefore, all hands shall be faint,/
every man's heart shall melt,

8  And they shall be afraid./
Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them./
They shall be in pain as a woman who travails./
They shall be amazed at one another./
Their faces shall be as flames.

9  Behold, the day of the LORD comes,/
cruel both with wrath and fierce anger,/
to lay the land desolate./
And he will destroy its sinners out of it.

10 For the stars of heaven and its constellations/
shall not give their light./
The sun shall be darkened in his going forth/
and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

11 And I will punish the world for their evil/
and the wicked for their iniquity./
And I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease/
and lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold,/
even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.

13 Therefore, I will shake the heavens/
and the earth shall be shaken out of her place/
in the wrath of the LORD of hosts/
and in the day of his fierce anger.

14 And it shall be as the chased gazelle/
and as a sheep that no man takes up./
Every man shall turn to his own people/
and flee each to his own land.

15 Everyone who is found shall be thrust through./
And everyone who is joined to them shall fall by the sword.

16 Their children shall also be dashed to pieces before their eyes./
Their houses shall be plundered/
and their wives ravished.

17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them,/
who shall not regard silver,/
and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.

18 Their bows shall also dash the young men to pieces./
And they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb./
Their eye shall not spare children.

19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,/
the beauty of the Chaldeans' excellence,/
shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

20 It shall never be inhabited,/
neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation,/
neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there,/
neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.

21 But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there/
and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures./
And owls shall dwell there/
and wild goats shall dance there.

22 And the wolves shall cry in their desolate houses/
and jackals in their pleasant palaces./
And her time is near to come,/
and her days shall not be prolonged.