¹The oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw.

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

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

⁶Wail, for the day of the LORD is near;
     it will come like destruction from the Almighty!
⁷Therefore all hands will be feeble,
     and every human heart will melt,
⁸     and 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.
⁹See, the day of the LORD comes,
     cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the earth a desolation,
     and to destroy its sinners from it.
¹⁰For 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.
¹¹I will punish the world for its evil,
     and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant,
     and lay low the insolence of tyrants.
¹²I will make mortals more rare than fine gold,
     and humans than the gold of Ophir.
¹³Therefore 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.

¹⁸You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, ¹⁹and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them. ²⁰(For they could not endure the order that was given, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death." ²¹Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I tremble with fear.") ²²But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, ²³and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

²⁵See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven! ²⁶At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven." ²⁷This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of what is shaken - that is, created things - so that what cannot be shaken may remain. ²⁸Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; ²⁹for indeed our God is a consuming fire.

²²After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he spent some time there with them and baptized. ²³John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there; and people kept coming and were being baptized ²⁴ — John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison.

²⁵Now a discussion about purification arose between John's disciples and a Jew. ²⁶They came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him." ²⁷John answered, "No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. ²⁸You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.' ²⁹He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. ³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease."