---
title: "Isaiah 13 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/isaiah/13/
description: "The desolation of Babylon. Isaiah 13 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Isaiah 13

Isaiah 13 is chapter 13 of 66 in the Book of Isaiah. Here are all 22 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The desolation of Babylon.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Isaiah 13 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. The burden of Babylon which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw.
2. Over the foggy mountain lift up a sign! Raise the voice, lift up the hand, and let the rulers enter through the gates!
3. In my wrath, I commanded my sanctified ones, and I called my strong ones, those who exult in my glory.
4. On the mountains, there is the voice of a multitude, as if of a numerous people, a voice with the sound of kings, of nations gathered together. For the Lord of hosts has given orders to soldiers of war,
5. to those who are arriving from a far off land, from the heights of the heavens. It is the Lord and the instruments of his fury, so that he may bring ruin to all the earth.
6. Wail aloud! For the day of the Lord draws near! It will arrive like a devastation from the Lord.
7. Because of it, every hand will fail, and every heart of man will waste away and be crushed.
8. Writhing and pain will seize them. They will be in pain, like a woman in labor. Each one will appear stupefied to his neighbor. Their countenances will be like faces which have been burned up.
9. Behold, the day of the Lord approaches: a cruel day, full of indignation and wrath and fury, which will place the earth in solitude and crush the sinners from it.
10. For the stars of the heavens, in their splendor, will not display their light. The sun will be obscured at its rising, and the moon will not shine in her brightness.
11. And I will act against the evils of the world, and against the impious for their iniquity. And I will cause the pride of the unfaithful to cease, and I will bring down the arrogance of the strong.
12. A man will be more precious than gold, and mankind will become like pure refined gold.
13. For this purpose, I will stir up heaven, and the earth will be moved from its place, because of the indignation of the Lord of hosts, because of the day of his furious wrath.
14. And they will be like a doe fleeing away, or like sheep; and there will be no one who may gather them together. Each one will turn to his own people, and every one will flee to his own land.
15. All who are found will be killed, and all who are caught unaware will fall by the sword.
16. Their infants will be thrown down violently before their eyes. Their houses will be plundered, and their wives will be violated.
17. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them. They will not seek silver, nor desire gold.
18. Instead, with their arrows, they will put the little children to death, and they will take no pity on breastfeeding women, and their eye will not spare their children.
19. And then Babylon, the glorious one among kingdoms, that famous pride of the Chaldeans, will be destroyed, even as the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
20. It will not be inhabited, even unto the end, and it will not be reestablished, even from generation to generation. The Arab will not pitch his tents there, nor will the shepherds take rest there.
21. Instead, the wild beasts will rest there, and their houses will be filled with serpents, and ostriches will live there, and the hairy ones will leap about there.
22. And the tawny owls will answer one another there, in its buildings, and the Sirens in its shrines of pleasure.

## Isaiah 13 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Onus Babylonis, quod vidit Isaias, filius Amos.
2. Super montem caliginosum levate signum: exaltate vocem, levate manum, et ingrediantur portas duces.
3. Ego mandavi sanctificatis meis, et vocavi fortes meos in ira mea, exsultantes in gloria mea.
4. Vox multitudinis in montibus, quasi populorum frequentium; vox sonitus regum, gentium congregatarum. Dominus exercituum præcepit militiæ belli,
5. venientibus de terra procul, a summitate cæli; Dominus, et vasa furoris ejus, ut disperdat omnem terram.
6. Ululate, quia prope est dies Domini; quasi vastitas a Domino veniet.
7. Propter hoc omnes manus dissolventur, et omne cor hominis contabescet,
8. et conteretur. Torsiones et dolores tenebunt; quasi parturiens dolebunt: unusquisque ad proximum suum stupebit, facies combustæ vultus eorum.
9. Ecce dies Domini veniet, crudelis, et indignationis plenus, et iræ, furorisque, ad ponendam terram in solitudinem, et peccatores ejus conterendos de ea.
10. Quoniam stellæ cæli, et splendor earum, non expandent lumen suum; obtenebratus est sol in ortu suo, et luna non splendebit in lumine suo.
11. Et visitabo super orbis mala, et contra impios iniquitatem eorum; et quiescere faciam superbiam infidelium, et arrogantiam fortium humiliabo.
12. Pretiosior erit vir auro, et homo mundo obrizo.
13. Super hoc cælum turbabo; et movebitur terra de loco suo, propter indignationem Domini exercituum, et propter diem iræ furoris ejus.
14. Et erit quasi damula fugiens, et quasi ovis, et non erit qui congreget. Unusquisque ad populum suum convertetur, et singuli ad terram suam fugient.
15. Omnis qui inventus fuerit occidetur, et omnis qui supervenerit cadet in gladio;
16. infantes eorum allidentur in oculis eorum, diripientur domus eorum, et uxores eorum violabuntur.
17. Ecce ego suscitabo super eos Medos, qui argentum non quærant, nec aurum velint;
18. sed sagittis parvulos interficient, et lactantibus uteris non miserebuntur, et super filios non parcet oculus eorum.
19. Et erit Babylon illa gloriosa in regnis, inclyta superbia Chaldæorum, sicut subvertit Dominus Sodomam et Gomorrham.
20. Non habitabitur usque in finem, et non fundabitur usque ad generationem et generationem; nec ponet ibi tentoria Arabs, nec pastores requiescent ibi.
21. Sed requiescent ibi bestiæ, et replebuntur domus eorum draconibus, et habitabunt ibi struthiones, et pilosi saltabunt ibi;
22. et respondebunt ibi ululæ in ædibus ejus, et sirenes in delubris voluptatis.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 1: “The burden of Babylon” … That is, a prophecy against Babylon.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).