² Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain,
exalt the voice unto them,
shake the hand,
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 mine anger,
even them that rejoice in my highness.

⁴ The noise of a multitude in the mountains,
like as of a great people;
a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together:
the LORD of hosts mustereth 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 ye;
for the day of the LORD is at hand;
it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
⁷ Therefore shall all hands be faint,
and 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 that travaileth:
they shall be amazed one at another;
their faces shall be as flames [faces of flames].

⁹ Behold,
the day of the LORD cometh,
cruel both with wrath and fierce anger,
to lay the land desolate:
and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof 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 arrogancy of the proud to cease,
and will 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 remove 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 roe,
and as a sheep that no man taketh up:
they shall every man turn to his own people,
and flee every one into his own land.
¹⁵ Every one that is found shall be thrust through;
and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword.
¹⁶ Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes;
their houses shall be spoiled,
and their wives ravished.

¹⁷ Behold, I will stir up [this] the Medes against them,
which shall not regard silver;
and as for gold,
they shall not delight in it.
¹⁸ Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces;
and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb;
their eye shall not spare [have pity upon] children.
¹⁹ And Babylon,
the glory of kingdoms,
the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency,
shall be as when God overthrew [this] Sodom and Gomorrah.
²⁰ It shall never [not ever]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 [daughters of owls] shall dwell there,
and satyrs [shaggy-ones] shall dance there.
²² And the wild beasts of the islands [howlers]
shall cry in their desolate houses [desolations],
and dragons
in their pleasant palaces:
and her time is near to come,
and her days shall not be prolonged.