Isaiah 13:3

¹¹Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves together.” Cause your mighty ones to come down there, LORD.

²⁰“You are my battle ax and weapons of war. With you I will break the nations into pieces. With you I will destroy kingdoms. ²¹With you I will break in pieces the horse and his rider. ²²With you I will break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein. With you I will break in pieces man and woman. With you I will break in pieces the old man and the youth. With you I will break in pieces the young man and the virgin. ²³With you I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock. With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke. With you I will break in pieces governors and deputies.

²⁴“I will give to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight,” says the LORD.

¹²The ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. ¹³These have one mind, and they give their power and authority to the beast. ¹⁴These will war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with him are called, chosen, and faithful.” ¹⁵He said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages. ¹⁶The ten horns which you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute, will make her desolate, will strip her naked, will eat her flesh, and will burn her utterly with fire. ¹⁷For God has put in their hearts to do what he has in mind, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished. ¹⁸The woman whom you saw is the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.”

¹¹He has stretched out his hand over the sea. He has shaken the kingdoms. The LORD has ordered the destruction of Canaan’s strongholds.

¹Then Darius the king made a decree, and the house of the archives, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon, was searched. ²A scroll was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of Media, and in it this was written for a record:

³In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made a decree: Concerning God’s house at Jerusalem, let the house be built, the place where they offer sacrifices, and let its foundations be strongly laid, with its height sixty cubits^[+] and its width sixty cubits; ⁴with three courses of great stones and a course of new timber. Let the expenses be given out of the king’s house. ⁵Also let the gold and silver vessels of God’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple which is at Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought again to the temple which is at Jerusalem, everything to its place. You shall put them in God’s house.

⁶Now therefore, Tattenai, governor beyond the River, Shetharbozenai, and your companions the Apharsachites, who are beyond the River, you must stay far from there. ⁷Leave the work of this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God in its place. ⁸Moreover I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the building of this house of God: that of the king’s goods, even of the tribute beyond the River, expenses must be given with all diligence to these men, that they not be hindered. ⁹That which they have need of, including young bulls, rams, and lambs, for burnt offerings to the God of heaven; also wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the word of the priests who are at Jerusalem, let it be given them day by day without fail, ¹⁰that they may offer sacrifices of pleasant aroma to the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king and of his sons. ¹¹I have also made a decree that whoever alters this message, let a beam be pulled out from his house, and let him be lifted up and fastened on it; and let his house be made a dunghill for this. ¹²May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow all kings and peoples who stretch out their hand to alter this, to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a decree. Let it be done with all diligence.

¹³Then Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, Shetharbozenai, and their companions did accordingly with all diligence, because Darius the king had sent a decree.

¹⁴The elders of the Jews built and prospered, through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They built and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. ¹⁵This house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.

¹⁶The children of Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy. ¹⁷They offered at the dedication of this house of God one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs; and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. ¹⁸They set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their courses, for the service of God which is at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.

¹⁹The children of the captivity kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. ²⁰Because the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together, all of them were pure. They killed the Passover for all the children of the captivity, for their brothers the priests, and for themselves. ²¹The children of Israel who had returned out of the captivity, and all who had separated themselves to them from the filthiness of the nations of the land to seek the LORD, the God of Israel, ate, ²²and kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy; because the LORD had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, to strengthen their hands in the work of God, the God of Israel’s house.

⁴For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called you by your name. I have given you a title, though you have not known me. ⁵I am the LORD, and there is no one else. Besides me, there is no God. I will strengthen^[+] you, though you have not known me,

¹²Artaxerxes, king of kings, To Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the perfect God of heaven. Now

¹³I make a decree that all those of the people of Israel and their priests and the Levites in my realm, who intend of their own free will to go to Jerusalem, go with you. ¹⁴Because you are sent by the king and his seven counselors to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of your God which is in your hand, ¹⁵and to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem, ¹⁶and all the silver and gold that you will find in all the province of Babylon, with the free will offering of the people and of the priests, offering willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem. ¹⁷Therefore you shall with all diligence buy with this money bulls, rams, and lambs with their meal offerings and their drink offerings, and shall offer them on the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem. ¹⁸Whatever seems good to you and to your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, do that according to the will of your God. ¹⁹The vessels that are given to you for the service of the house of your God, deliver before the God of Jerusalem. ²⁰Whatever more will be needed for the house of your God, which you may have occasion to give, give it out of the king’s treasure house.

²¹I, even I, Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers who are beyond the River, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, requires of you, it shall be done with all diligence, ²²up to one hundred talents^[+] of silver, and to one hundred cors^[+] of wheat, and to one hundred baths^[+] of wine, and to one hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much. ²³Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done exactly for the house of the God of heaven; for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?

²⁴Also we inform you that it shall not be lawful to impose tribute, custom, or toll on any of the priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple servants, or laborers of this house of God.

²⁵You, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people who are beyond the River, who all know the laws of your God; and teach him who doesn’t know them. ²⁶Whoever will not do the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be executed on him with all diligence, whether it is to death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.

⁵Let the saints rejoice in honor. Let them sing for joy on their beds. ⁶May the high praises of God be in their mouths, and a two-edged sword in their hand, ⁷to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples; ⁸to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; ⁹to execute on them the written judgment. All his saints have this honor. Praise the LORD!

¹Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the LORD’s ^[+] word by Jeremiah’s mouth might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,

²“Cyrus king of Persia says, ‘The LORD, the God ^[+] of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. ³Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD, the God of Israel (he is God), which is in Jerusalem. ⁴Whoever is left, in any place where he lives, let the men of his place help him with silver, with gold, with goods, and with animals, in addition to the free will offering for God’s house which is in Jerusalem.’”

⁵Then the heads of fathers’ households of Judah and Benjamin, the priests and the Levites, all whose spirit God had stirred to go up, rose up to build the LORD’s house which is in Jerusalem. ⁶All those who were around them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with animals, and with precious things, in addition to all that was willingly offered. ⁷Also Cyrus the king brought out the vessels of the LORD’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought out of Jerusalem, and had put in the house of his gods; ⁸even those, Cyrus king of Persia brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. ⁹This is the number of them: thirty platters of gold, one thousand platters of silver, twenty-nine knives, ¹⁰thirty bowls of gold, four hundred ten silver bowls of a second kind, and one thousand other vessels. ¹¹All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand four hundred. Sheshbazzar brought all these up when the captives were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

²¹“Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod. Kill and utterly destroy after them,” says the LORD, “and do according to all that I have commanded you. ²²A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction. ²³How the hammer of the whole earth is cut apart and broken! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations! ²⁴I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, Babylon, and you weren’t aware. You are found, and also caught, because you have fought against the LORD. ²⁵The LORD has opened his armory, and has brought out the weapons of his indignation; for the Lord, GOD ^[+] of Armies, has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans. ²⁶Come against her from the farthest border. Open her storehouses. Cast her up as heaps. Destroy her utterly. Let nothing of her be left. ²⁷Kill all her bulls. Let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them! For their day has come, the time of their visitation. ²⁸Listen to those who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple. ²⁹“Call together the archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp against her all around. Let none of it escape. Pay her back according to her work. According to all that she has done, do to her; for she has been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel. ³⁰Therefore her young men will fall in her streets. All her men of war will be brought to silence in that day,” says the LORD. ³¹“Behold, I am against you, you proud one,” says the Lord, GOD of Armies; “for your day has come, the time that I will visit you. ³²The proud one will stumble and fall, and no one will raise him up. I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour all who are around him.” ³³The LORD of Armies says: “The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together. All who took them captive hold them fast. They refuse to let them go. ³⁴Their Redeemer is strong. The LORD of Armies is his name. He will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. ³⁵“A sword is on the Chaldeans,” says the LORD, “and on the inhabitants of Babylon, on her princes, and on her wise men. ³⁶A sword is on the boasters, and they will become fools. A sword is on her mighty men, and they will be dismayed. ³⁷A sword is on their horses, on their chariots, and on all the mixed people who are in the middle of her; and they will become as women. A sword is on her treasures, and they will be robbed. ³⁸A drought is on her waters, and they will be dried up; for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols. ³⁹Therefore the wild animals of the desert with the wolves will dwell there. The ostriches will dwell therein. It will be inhabited no more forever, neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. ⁴⁰As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and its neighbor cities,” says the LORD, “so no man will dwell there, neither will any son of man live therein. ⁴¹“Behold, a people comes from the north. A great nation and many kings will be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth. ⁴²They take up bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea. They ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Babylon. ⁴³The king of Babylon has heard the news of them, and his hands become feeble. Anguish has taken hold of him, pains as of a woman in labor. ⁴⁴Behold, the enemy will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan against the strong habitation; for I will suddenly make them run away from it. Whoever is chosen, I will appoint him over it, for who is like me? Who will appoint me a time? Who is the shepherd who can stand before me?” ⁴⁵Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD that he has taken against Babylon; and his purposes that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely they will drag them away, even the little ones of the flock. Surely he will make their habitation desolate over them. ⁴⁶The earth trembles at the noise of the taking of Babylon. The cry is heard among the nations.