Family Prayer
in the Early Evening

² On a bare hill raise a signal;
    cry aloud to them;
wave the hand for them to enter
    the gates of the nobles.
³ I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,
    and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger,
    my proudly exulting ones.

⁴ The sound of a tumult is on the mountains
    as of a great multitude!
The sound of an uproar of kingdoms,
    of nations gathering together!
The Lord of hosts is mustering
    a host for battle.
⁵ They come from a distant land,
    from the end of the heavens,
the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,
    to destroy the whole land.

⁶ Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;
    as destruction from the Almighty it will come!
⁷ Therefore all hands will be feeble,
    and every human heart will melt.
⁸ They will be dismayed:
    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.

⁹ Behold, the day of the Lord comes,
    cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the land a desolation
    and to destroy its sinners from it.
¹⁰ For 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.
¹¹ I will punish the world for its evil,
    and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant,
    and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
¹² I will make people more rare than fine gold,
    and mankind than the gold of Ophir.
¹³ Therefore 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.
¹⁴ And like a hunted gazelle,
    or like sheep with none to gather them,
each will turn to his own people,
    and each will flee to his own land.
¹⁵ Whoever is found will be thrust through,
    and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
¹⁶ Their infants will be dashed in pieces
    before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered
    and their wives ravished.

¹⁷ Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them,
    who have no regard for silver
    and do not delight in gold.
¹⁸ Their bows will slaughter the young men;
    they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
    their eyes will not pity children.
¹⁹ And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
    the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
    when God overthrew them.
²⁰ It will never be inhabited
    or lived in for all generations;
no Arab will pitch his tent there;
    no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.
²¹ But wild animals will lie down there,
    and their houses will be full of howling creatures;
there ostriches will dwell,
    and there wild goats will dance.
²² Hyenas will cry in its towers,
    and jackals in the pleasant palaces;
its time is close at hand
    and its days will not be prolonged.