Isaiah 13:4

¹⁴Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

¹Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD comes, for it is close at hand: ²A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn spreading on the mountains, a great and strong people; there has never been the like, neither will there be any more after them, even to the years of many generations. ³A fire devours before them, and behind them, a flame burns. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them, a desolate wilderness. Yes, and no one has escaped them. ⁴Their appearance is as the appearance of horses, and they run as horsemen. ⁵Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains, they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, like a strong people set in battle array. ⁶At their presence the peoples are in anguish. All faces have grown pale. ⁷They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like warriors. They each march in his line, and they don’t swerve off course. ⁸One doesn’t jostle another. They each march in their own path. They burst through the defenses and don’t break ranks. ⁹They rush on the city. They run on the wall. They climb up into the houses. They enter in at the windows like thieves. ¹⁰The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. ¹¹The LORD thunders his voice before his army, for his forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for the day of the LORD is great and very awesome, and who can endure it?

³and say, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Behold, I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. ⁴I will turn you around, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, with all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords; ⁵Persia, Cush, and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet; ⁶Gomer, and all his hordes; the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north, and all his hordes—even many peoples with you.

⁷“‘“Be prepared, yes, prepare yourself, you, and all your companies who are assembled to you, and be a guard to them. ⁸After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land that is brought back from the sword, that is gathered out of many peoples, on the mountains of Israel, which have been a continual waste; but it is brought out of the peoples and they will dwell securely, all of them. ⁹You will ascend. You will come like a storm. You will be like a cloud to cover the land, you and all your hordes, and many peoples with you.”

¹⁰“‘The Lord GOD says: “It will happen in that day that things will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan. ¹¹You will say, ‘I will go up to the land of unwalled villages. I will go to those who are at rest, who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, ¹²to take the plunder and to take prey; to turn your hand against the waste places that are inhabited, and against the people who are gathered out of the nations, who have gotten livestock and goods, who dwell in the middle of the earth.’ ¹³Sheba, Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all its young lions, will ask you, ‘Have you come to take the plunder? Have you assembled your company to take the prey, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?’”’

¹⁴“Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and tell Gog, ‘The Lord GOD says: “In that day when my people Israel dwells securely, will you not know it? ¹⁵You will come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you, and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army. ¹⁶You will come up against my people Israel as a cloud to cover the land. It will happen in the latter days that I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me when I am sanctified in you, Gog, before their eyes.”

¹⁷“‘The Lord GOD says: “Are you he of whom I spoke in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for years that I would bring you against them? ¹⁸It will happen in that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” says the Lord GOD, “that my wrath will come up into my nostrils. ¹⁹For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath I have spoken. Surely in that day there will be a great shaking in the land of Israel, ²⁰so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, all creeping things who creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the surface of the earth will shake at my presence. Then the mountains will be thrown down, the steep places will fall, and every wall will fall to the ground. ²¹I will call for a sword against him to all my mountains,” says the Lord GOD. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother. ²²I will enter into judgment with him with pestilence and with blood. I will rain on him, on his hordes, and on the many peoples who are with him, torrential rains with great hailstones, fire, and sulfur. ²³I will magnify myself and sanctify myself, and I will make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”’

²⁵I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the great locust, the grasshopper, and the caterpillar, my great army, which I sent among you.

¹¹I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war. ¹²His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has names written and a name written which no one knows but he himself. ¹³He is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood. His name is called “The Word of God.” ¹⁴The armies which are in heaven, clothed in white, pure, fine linen, followed him on white horses. ¹⁵Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod.He treads the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty. ¹⁶He has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

¹⁷I saw an angel standing in the sun. He cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the sky, “Come! Be gathered together to the great supper of God,^18[+] that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, small and great.” ¹⁹I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army. ²⁰The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. ²¹The rest were killed with the sword of him who sat on the horse, the sword which came out of his mouth. So all the birds were filled with their flesh.

¹Behold, a day of the LORD comes, when your plunder will be divided within you. ²For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go out into captivity, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. ³Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

²“Declare among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and don’t conceal; say, ‘Babylon has been taken, Bel is disappointed, Merodach is dismayed! Her images are disappointed. Her idols are dismayed.’ ³For a nation comes up out of the north against her, which will make her land desolate, and no one will dwell in it. They have fled. They are gone, both man and animal.

²⁷“Set up a standard in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations against her! Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz! Appoint a marshal against her! Cause the horses to come up as the swarming locusts! ²⁸Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, its governors, and all its deputies, and all the land of their dominion!

¹⁴Set yourselves in array against Babylon all around, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her. Spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the LORD. ¹⁵Shout against her all around. She has submitted herself. Her bulwarks have fallen. Her walls have been thrown down, for it is the vengeance of the LORD. Take vengeance on her. As she has done, do to her.

¹The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?

²You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town, your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle. ³All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found by you were bound together. They fled far away. ⁴Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don’t labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁵For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity from the Lord, GOD ^[+] of Armies, in the valley of vision, a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.” ⁶Elam carried his quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield. ⁷Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate. ⁸He took away the covering of Judah; and you looked in that day to the armor in the house of the forest. ⁹You saw the breaches of David’s city, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.