1The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
2Set up a banner on the bare mountain! Lift up your voice to them! Wave your hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. 3I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones. 4The noise of a multitude is in the mountains, as of a great people; the noise of an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Yahweh of Armies is mustering the army for the battle. 5They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Yahweh, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6Wail, for Yahweh’s day is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. 7Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone’s heart will melt. 8They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame. 9Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it. 10For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going out, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. 11I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will humble the arrogance of the terrible. 12I will make people more rare than fine gold, even a person than the pure gold of Ophir. 13Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in Yahweh of Armies’ wrath, and in the day of his fierce anger. 14It will happen that like a hunted gazelle and like sheep that no one gathers, they will each turn to their own people, and will each flee to their own land. 15Everyone who is found will be thrust through. Everyone who is captured will fall by the sword. 16Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.
17Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it. 18Their bows will dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not spare children. 19Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 20It will never be inhabited, neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent there, neither will shepherds make their flocks lie down there. 21But wild animals of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of jackals. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will frolic there. 22Hyenas will cry in their fortresses, and jackals in the pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.
The biblical text in the translation used with the HVSB has "day of Christ," but this is reflected in later manuscripts of the New Testament. The earlier reading is "day of the Lord" and is to be preferred in 2 Thessalonians 2:2. The day of the Lord is a phrase used several times in the Bible and speaks of a time of God's judgment over a disobedient people.1 The coming of Christ is a term used to refer to the coming of Christ for His church. This is the focus of Paul's presentation in 2 Thessalonians 2:1, a term found throughout 1 Thessalonians (cf. 1 Thess 1:10; 2:19, 20; 3:13; 4:13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18; 5:23). A letter was delivered to the church at Thessalonica (or someone passed a supposed statement from Paul) that said the day of judgment had already arrived, and this concerned the believers (shaken or troubled) whom Paul had taught. Paul corrects this incorrect teaching by explaining how the Thessalonian believers can be relieved of such teaching by recognizing that the day of God's wrath on the earth had not arrived and would only occur after the coming of the Lord for His people (see 1 Thess 1:10; 2 Thess 2:3).
See Old Testament: Isa 13:6; Ezek 30:3; Joel 2:1; Joel 3:14, and in the New Testament: Acts 2:20; 1 Corinthians 5:5; 2 Corinthians 1:14; 1 Thess 5:2; 2 Thess 2:2; 2 Pet 3:10. ↩︎