The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
Set 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. I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones. The 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. They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Yahweh, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
Wail, for Yahweh’s day is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone’s heart will melt. They 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. Behold, 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. For 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. I 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. I will make people more rare than fine gold, even a person than the pure gold of Ophir. Therefore 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. It 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. Everyone who is found will be thrust through. Everyone who is captured will fall by the sword. Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.
Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it. Their 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. Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It 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. But 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. Wolves will cry in their fortresses, and jackals in the pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 20, 21 That is, the great calamity, which was prophesied to…
That is, the great calamity, which was prophesied to come on Babel, as a most grievous burden, which they were not able to bear. In these twelve chapters following, he speaketh of the plagues wherewith God would smite the strange nations (whom they knew) to declare that God chastised the Israelites as his children, and these others as his enemies: and also if that God spare not these that are ignorant, that they must not think strange, if he punish them which have knowledge of his Law, and keep it not.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–22 Isa 13:1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the…
Isa 13:1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
Ver. 1. The burden.] That is, the burdenous prophecy. It should not have seemed a burden, {Jer 23:36} but it is a grievous burden to graceless persons to be told of their sins, and foretold of their punishments. {See Trapp on "Nah 1:1"} {See Trapp on "Mal 1:1"}
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Of Babylon.] Not that Babylon in Egypt (of which 1Pe 5:13, as some hold), now called Grand Cairo, the sultan’s seat royal, but the metropolis of Chaldea, built by Semiramis about a hundred years after the flood, whither the Jews were to be carried captive, and concerning which calamity they are here aforehand comforted. See Mic 7:8; Mic 7:16.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 The burden: this title is commonly given to sad…
The burden: this title is commonly given to sad prophecies, which indeed are grievous burdens to them upon whom they are laid. See 2Ki 9:25; Jer 23:33,36.
Of Babylon; of the city and empire of Babylon by Cyrus, for their manifold and great sins, and in order to the deliverance of his people.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 19 The general title of this book was, The vision…
The general title of this book was, The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, Isa 1:1. Here we have that which Isaiah saw, which was represented to his mind as clearly and fully as if he had seen it with his bodily eyes; but the particular inscription of this sermon is the burden of Babylon. 1. It is a burden, a lesson they were to learn (so some understand it), but they would be loth to learn it, and it would be a burden to their memories, or a load which should lie heavily upon them and under which they should sink. Those that will not make the word of God their rest (Isa 28:12; Jer 6:16) shall find it made a burden to them. 2. It is the burden of Babylon or Babel, which at this time was a dependent upon the Assyrian monarchy (the metropolis of which was Nineveh), but soon after revolted from it and became a monarchy of itself, and a very potent one, in Nebuchadnezzar. This prophet afterwards foretold the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, Isa 39:6. Here he foretels the reprisals God would make upon Babylon for the wrongs done to his people. In these verses a summons is given to those powerful and warlike nations whom God would make us of as the instruments of his wrath for the destruction of Babylon: he afterwards names them (Isa 13:17) the Medes, who, in conjunction with the Persians, under the command of Darius and Cyrus, were the ruin of the Babylonian monarchy.
I. The place doomed to destruction is Babylon; it is here called the gates of the nobles (Isa 13:2), because of the abundance of noblemen's houses that were in it, stately ones and richly furnished, which would invite the enemy to come, in hopes of a rich booty. The gates of nobles were strong and well guarded, and yet they would be no fence against those who came with commission to execute God's judgments. Before his power and wrath palaces are no more than cottages. Nor is it only the gates of the nobles, but the whole land, that is doomed to destruction (Isa 13:5); for, though the nobles were the leaders in persecuting and oppressing God's people, yet the whole land concurred with them in it.
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II. The persons brought together to lay Babylon waste are here called, 1. God's sanctified ones (Isa 13:3), designed for this service and set apart to it by the purpose and providence of God, disengaged from other projects, that they might wholly apply themselves to this, such as were qualified for that to which they were called, for what work God employs men in he does in some measure fit them for. It intimates likewise that in God's intention, though not in theirs, it was a holy war; they designed only the enlargement of their own empire, but God designed the release of his people and a type of the destruction of the New Testament Babylon. Cyrus, the person principally concerned, was justly called a sanctified one, for he was God's anointed (Isa 45:1) and a figure of him that was to come. It is a pity but all soldiers, especially those that fight the Lord's battles, should be in the strictest sense sanctified ones; and it is a wonder that those dare be profane ones who carry their lives in their hands. 2. They are called God's mighty ones, because they had their might from God and were now to use it for him. It is said of Cyrus that in this expedition God held his right hand, Isa 45:1. God's sanctified ones are his mighty ones. Those whom God calls he qualifies; and those whom he makes holy he makes strong in spirit. 3. They are said to rejoice in his highness, that is, to serve his glory and the purposes of it with great alacrity. Though Cyrus did not know God, nor actually design his honour in what he did, yet God used him as his servant (Isa 45:4, I have surnamed thee as my servant, though thou hast not known me), and he rejoiced in those successes by which God exalted his own name. 4. They are very numerous, a multitude, a great people, kingdoms of nations (Isa 13:4), not rude and barbarous, but modelled and regular troops, such as are furnished out by well-ordered kingdoms. The great God has hosts at his command. 5. They are far-fetched: They come from a far country, from the end of heaven. The vast country of Assyria lay between Babylon and Persia. God can make those a scourge and ruin to his enemies that lie most remote from them and therefore are least dreaded.
III. The summons given them is effectual, their obedience ready, and they make a very formidable appearance: A banner is lifted up upon the high mountain, Isa 13:2. God's standard is set up, a flag of defiance hung out against Babylon. It is erected on high, where all may see it; whoever will may come and enlist themselves under it, and they shall be taken immediately into God's pay. Those that beat up for volunteers must exalt the voice in making proclamation, to encourage soldiers to come in; they must shake the hand, to beckon those at a distance and to animate those that have enlisted themselves. And they shall not do this in vain; God has commanded and called those whom he designs to make use of (Isa 13:3) and power goes along with his calls and commands, which cannot be resisted. He that makes men able to serve him can, when he pleases, make them willing too. It is the Lord of hosts that musters the host of the battle, Isa 13:4. He raises them, brings them together, puts them in order, reviews them, has an exact account of them in his muster-roll, sees that they be all in their respective posts, and gives them their necessary orders. Note, All the hosts of war are under the command of the Lord of hosts; and that which makes them truly formidable is that, when they come against Babylon, the Lord comes, and brings them with him as the weapons of his indignation, Isa 13:5. Note, Great princes and armies are but tools in God's hand, weapons that he is pleased to make use of in doing his work, and it is his wrath that arms them and gives them success.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–22 The burden of Babylon,.... That is, a prophecy concerning…
The burden of Babylon,.... That is, a prophecy concerning Babylon, as the word is rendered, Pro 31:1. The Septuagint and Arabic versions translate it "the vision"; it signifies a taking up (w) a speech against it, and pronouncing a heavy sentence on it, such an one as should sink it into utter destruction; which will be the case of mystical Babylon, when it shall be as a millstone cast into the sea, never to be brought up again, Rev 18:21. The Targum is,
"the burden of the cup of cursing to give Babylon to drink:''
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after some prophecies concerning the Messiah and his kingdom, and the church's song of praise for salvation by him, others are delivered out concerning the enemies of the people of God, and their destruction, and begin with Babylon the chief of these enemies, and into whose hands the people of Israel would be delivered for a while; wherefore this prophecy is given forth, in order to lay a foundation for comfort and relief, when that should be their case; by which it would appear that they should have deliverance from them by the same hand that should overthrow them:
which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see: by a spirit of prophecy; for this he saw not with his bodily eyes, though it was as clear and certain to him as if he had. The Targum is,
"which Isaiah the son of Amoz prophesied.''
(w) a "tollere".
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 God's armies, ver. 1-5. The destruction of Babylon by…
God's armies, ver. 1-5. The destruction of Babylon by the Persians and Medes, their great distress, anguish, and utter desolation, ver. 6-22.
The burden - This title is commonly given to sad prophecies, which indeed are grievous burdens to them on whom they are laid. Babylon - Of the city and empire of Babylon by Cyrus.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22 God mustereth the armies of his wrath against the…
CHAPTER XIII
God mustereth the armies of his wrath against the inhabitants
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of Babylon, 1-6.
The dreadful consequences of this visitation, and the terror
and dismay of those who are the objects of it, 7-16.
The horrid cruelties that shall be indicted upon the
Babylonians by the Medes, 17, 18.
Total and irrecoverable desolation of Babylon, 19-22.
This and the following chapter, - striking off the five last verses of the latter, which belong to a quite different subject, - contain one entire prophecy, foretelling the destruction of Babylon by the Medes and Persians; delivered probably in the reign of Ahaz, (see Vitringa, i. 380,) about two hundred years before its accomplishment. The captivity itself of the Jews at Babylon, which the prophet does not expressly foretell, but supposes, in the spirit of prophecy, as what was actually to be effected, did not fully take place till about one hundred and thirty years after the delivery of this prophecy: and the Medes, who are expressly mentioned Isa 13:17, as the principal agents in the overthrow of the Babylonian monarchy, by which the Jews were released from that captivity, were at this time an inconsiderable people; having been in a state of anarchy ever since the fall of the great Assyrian empire, of which they had made a part, under Sardanapalus; and did not become a kingdom under Deioces till about the seventeenth of Hezekiah.
The former part of this prophecy is one of the most beautiful examples that can be given of elegance of composition, variety of imagery, and sublimity of sentiment and diction, in the prophetic style; and the latter part consists of an ode of supreme and singular excellence.
The prophecy opens with the command of God to gather together the forces which he had destined to this service, Isa 13:2-3. Upon which the prophet immediately hears the tumultuous noise of the different nations crowding together to his standard; he sees them advancing, prepared to execute the Divine wrath, Isa 13:4-5. He proceeds to describe the dreadful consequences of this visitation, the consternation which will seize those who are the objects of it; and, transferring unawares the speech from himself to God, Isa 13:11, sets forth, under a variety of the most striking images, the dreadful destruction of the inhabitants of Babylon which will follow, Isa 13:11-16, and the everlasting desolation to which that great city is doomed, Isa 13:17-22.
The deliverance of Judah from captivity, the immediate consequence of this great revolution, is then set forth, without being much enlarged upon, or greatly amplified, Isa 14:1; Isa 14:2. This introduces, with the greatest ease and the utmost propriety, the triumphant song on that subject, Isa 14:4-28. The beauties of which, the various images, scenes, persons introduced, and the elegant transitions from one to another, I shall here endeavour to point out in their order, leaving a few remarks upon particular passages of these two chapters to be given after these general observations on the whole.
A chorus of Jews is introduced, expressing their surprise and astonishment at the sudden downfall of Babylon; and the great reverse of fortune that had befallen the tyrant, who, like his predecessors, had oppressed his own, and harassed the neighbouring kingdoms. These oppressed kingdoms, or their rulers, are represented under the image of the fir trees and the cedars of Libanus, frequently used to express any thing in the political or religious world that is super-eminently great and majestic: the whole earth shouteth for joy; the cedars of Libanus utter a severe taunt over the fallen tyrant, and boast their security now he is no more
The scene is immediately changed, and a new set of persons is introduced. The regions of the dead are laid open, and Hades is represented as rousing up the shades of the departed monarchs: they rise from their thrones to meet the king of Babylon at his coming; and insult him on his being reduced to the same low estate of impotence and dissolution with themselves. This is one of the boldest prosopopoeias that ever was attempted in poetry; and is executed with astonishing brevity and perspicuity, and with that peculiar force which in a great subject naturally results from both. The image of the state of the dead, or the infernum poeticum of the Hebrews, is taken from their custom of burying, those at least of the higher rank, in large sepulchral vaults hewn in the rock. Of this kind of sepulchres there are remains at Jerusalem now extant; and some that are said to be the sepulchres of the kings of Judah. See Maundrell, p. 76. You are to form to yourself an idea of an immense subterranean vault, a vast gloomy cavern, all round the sides of which there are cells to receive the dead bodies; here the deceased monarchs lie in a distinguished sort of state, suitable to their former rank, each on his own couch, with his arms beside him, his sword at his head, and the bodies of his chiefs and companions round about him. See Eze 32:27. On which place Sir John Chardin's MS. note is as follows: "En Mingrelie ils dorment tous leurs epees sous leurs tetes, et leurs autres armes a leur cote; et on les enterre de mesme, leurs armes posees de cette facon." In Mingrelia they always sleep with their swords under their heads, and their other arms by their sides; and they bury their dead with their arms placed in the same manner. These illustrious shades rise at once from their couches, as from their thrones; and advance to the entrance of the cavern to meet the king of Babylon, and to receive him with insults on his fall.
The Jews now resume the speech; they address the king of Babylon as the morning-star fallen from heaven, as the first in splendour and dignity in the political world, fallen from his high state; they introduce him as uttering the most extravagant vaunts of his power and ambitious designs in his former glory. These are strongly contrasted in the close with his present low and abject condition.
Immediately follows a different scene, and a most happy image, to diversify the same subject, to give it a new turn, and an additional force. Certain persons are introduced who light upon the corpse of the king of Babylon, cast out and lying naked on the bare ground, among the common slain, just after the taking of the city; covered with wounds, and so disfigured, that it is some time before they know him. They accost him with the severest taunts; and bitterly reproach him with his destructive ambition, and his cruel usage of the conquered; which have deservedly brought him this ignominious treatment, so different from that which those of his rank usually meet with, and which shall cover his posterity with disgrace.
To complete the whole, God is introduced, declaring the fate of Babylon, the utter extirpation of the royal family, and the total desolation of the city; the deliverance of his people, and the destruction of their enemies; confirming the irreversible decree by the awful sanction of his oath.
I believe it may with truth be affirmed, that there is no poem of its kind extant in any language, in which the subject is so well laid out, and so happily conducted, with such a richness of invention, with such variety of images, persons, and distinct actions, with such rapidity and ease of transition, in so small a compass, as in this ode of Isaiah. For beauty of disposition, strength of colouring, greatness of sentiment, brevity, perspicuity, and force of expression, it stands, among all the monuments of antiquity, unrivalled. - L.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIII.
Verse 1. The burden of Babylon] The prophecy that foretells its destruction by the Medes and Persians: see the preceding observations.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 11, 17, 19, 20, 21 Isa 13:1. The burden of Babylon — Of the…
Isa 13:1. The burden of Babylon — Of the city and empire of Babylon. The original word, משׂא, here rendered burden, is, by Dr. Waterland, after Vitringa, translated, The sentence upon, or, delivered concerning Babylon. It is “derived from a verb, which signifies to take, or lift up, or bring; and the proper meaning of it is, any weighty, important matter or sentence, which ought not to be neglected, but is worthy of being carried in the memory, and deserves to be lifted up, and uttered with emphasis.” See Rev 2:24, and Vitringa. Bishop Newton and others have observed, that “the prophecies uttered against any city or country, often carry the inscription of the burden of that city or country: and that by burden is commonly understood a threatening, burdensome prophecy, big with ruin and destruction: which, like a dead weight, is hung upon the city or country to sink it.” But it appears that the word is of more general import, and sometimes signifies a prophecy at large, sometimes a prophecy of good as well as of evil, as in Zec 12:1; and sometimes, where the original word is used, it is translated prophecy, where there is no prophecy, but only a grave moral sentence.
This prophecy against Babylon, which consists of two parts, the former contained in this chapter, the latter in the next, was probably delivered, as Vitringa has shown, in the reign of Ahaz, about two hundred years before the completion of it, and a hundred and thirty before the Jews were even carried captive to Babylon; which captivity the prophet does not expressly foretel here, but supposes, in the spirit of prophecy, as what was actually to take place. “And the Medes, who are expressly mentioned, Isa 13:17, as the principal agents in the overthrow of the Babylonian monarchy, by which the Jews were to be released from that captivity, were at this time an inconsiderable people; having been in a state of anarchy ever since the fall of the great Assyrian empire, of which they had made a part under Sardanapalus; and did not become a kingdom till about the seventeenth of Hezekiah.” — Bishop Lowth. The great design of God in inspiring his prophet with the knowledge of these future events, and exciting him to deliver these prophecies concerning them, seems to have been, 1st, To set forth the reasons of his justice, in punishing the enemies of his church, in order to console the minds and confirm the faith of the pious. 2d, With respect to this prophecy especially, concerning the destruction of Babylon, the design was to comfort the minds of true believers against that sad and sorrowful event, the Babylonish captivity. And, 3d, Under the figure of that destruction, to announce the destruction of the spiritual Babylon, the whole kingdom of sin and Satan. See Vitringa, and Rev 14:8; Rev 17:5.
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“The former part of this prophecy,” says Bishop Lowth, “is one of the most beautiful examples that can be given, of elegance of composition, variety of imagery, and sublimity of sentiment and diction, in the prophetic style: and the latter part consists of an ode of supreme and singular excellence. The prophecy opens with the command of God to gather together the forces which he had destined to his service, Isa 13:2-3. Upon which the prophet hears the tumultuous noise of the different nations crowding together to his standard; he sees them advancing, prepared to execute divine wrath, Isa 13:4-5. He proceeds to describe the dreadful consequences of this visitation; the consternation which will seize those that are the objects of it; and transferring unawares the speech from himself to God, Isa 13:11, sets forth, under a variety of the most striking images, the dreadful destruction of the inhabitants of Babylon, which will follow, Isa 13:11-16; and the everlasting desolation to which that great city is doomed, Isa 13:17-22. The deliverance of Judah from captivity, the immediate consequence of this great revolution, is then set forth without being much enlarged upon, or greatly amplified, chap. 14:1, 2. This introduces, with the greatest ease, and the utmost propriety, the triumphant song on that subject, Isa 13:4-22. The beauties of which, the various images, scenes, persons introduced, and the elegant transitions from one to another, I shall endeavour to point out in their order.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–22 The burden of Babylon - Or, the burden “respecting,”…
The burden of Babylon - Or, the burden “respecting,” or “concerning” Babylon. This prophecy is introduced in a different manner from those which have preceded. The terms which Isaiah employed in the commencement of his previous prophecies, were vision (see the note at Isa 1:1), or word Isa 2:1. There has been considerable diversity of opinion in regard to the meaning of the word ‘burden,’ which is here employed. The Vulgate renders it, Onus - ‘Burden,’ in the sense of load. The Septuagint Ὅρασις Horasis - ‘Vision.’ The Chaldee, ‘The burden of the cup of malediction which draws near to Babylon.’ The Hebrew word משׂא mas's'â', from נשׂא nâs'â', to lift, to raise up, to bear, to bear away, to suffer, to endure”), means properly that which is borne; that which is heavy; that which becomes a burden; and it is also applied to a gift or present, as that which is borne to a man 2Ch 17:11.
It is also applied to a proverb or maxim, probably from the “weight” and “importance” of the sentiment condensed in it Pro 30:1; Pro 31:1. It is applied to an oracle from God 2Ki 4:25. It is often translated ‘burden’ Isa 15:1-9; Isa 19:1; Isa 21:11, Isa 21:13; Isa 22:1; Isa 23:1; Isa 30:6; Isa 46:1; Jer 23:33-34, Jer 23:38; Neh 1:1; Zec 1:1; Zec 12:1; Mal 1:1. By comparing these places, it will be found that the term is applied to those oracles or prophetic declarations which contain sentiments especially weighty and solemn; which are employed chiefly in denouncing wrath and calamity; and which, therefore, are represented as weighing down, or oppressing the mind and heart of the prophet. A similar useage prevails in all languages. We are all familiar with expressions like this. We speak of news or tidings of so melancholy a nature as to weigh down, to sink, or depress our spirits; so heavy that we can scarcely bear up under it, or endure it. And so in this case, the view which the prophet had of the awful judgments of God and of the calamities which were coming upon guilty cities and nations, was so oppressive, that it weighed down the mind and heart as a heavy burden. Others, however, suppose that it means merely a message or prophecy which is taken up, or borne, respecting a place, and that the word indicates nothing in regard to the nature of the message. So Rosenmuller, Gesenius, and Cocceius, understand it. But it seems some the former interpretation is to be preferred. Grotins renders it, ‘A mournful prediction respecting Babylon.’
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Did see - Saw in a vision; or in a scenical representation. The various events were made to pass before his mind in a vision, and he was permitted to see the armies mustered; the consternation of the people; and the future condition of the proud city. This verse is properly the title to the prophecy.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22 Burden. That is, a prophecy against Babylon. (Challoner) ---…
Burden. That is, a prophecy against Babylon. (Challoner) --- Nimrod began the kingdom, Genesis x. Belus and Ninus brought it to great eminence. But after 1240 years, Babylon was taken by Cyrus. (Worthington) --- Isaias delivered the seven following chapters in the first year of Ezechias, chap. xiv. 28.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv1, 14 Isaiah 13-27
SECOND SUBDIVISION
THE PROPHECIES AGAINST FOREIGN NATIONS
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Isaiah 13-27
A.—THE DISCOURSES AGAINST INDIVIDUAL NATIONS
Isaiah 13-23
The people of God do not stand insulated and historically severed from the rest of the human race, but form an integral part of it, and contribute to the great web of the history of humanity. Therefore the Prophet of the Lord must necessarily direct his gaze to the Gentile world, and, as historiographer, set forth their relations to the Kingdom of God, whether hostile or friendly. It is true that, in those prophecies that deal with the theocracy as a whole, or with individual theocratic relations or persons, the prophet has always to set their relations to the outward world in the light of God’s word. But he has often occasion to make some heathen nation or other the primary subject of direct prophecy. Isaiah, too, has such occasion: and his prophecies that come under this category we now find collected here.
Amos, also, put together his utterances against foreign nations (chap. 1). But this grouping is so interwoven in the plan of his work, that, like an eagle first circles around his prey, and then swoops down on it, so he first passes through the nations dwelling around the Holy Land, then settles down on the chief nation, Israel, dwelling in the middle. Isaiah has brought the independent prophecies against foreign nations into a less intimate connection with his utterances that relate directly to the theocracy, by incorporating them into his book as a special סֵפֶר (or volume). Zephaniah has joined Isaiah in this as to material and form; except that the latter appears less marked because of the smallness of his book (Isaiah 2). But Jeremiah (chap. 46–51) and Ezekiel (chap. 25–32) have, just like Isaiah, devoted independent divisions of their books to the utterances against foreign nations. The order in which Isaiah gives his prophecies against the heathen nations is not arbitrary. It makes four subdivisions. First, in chaps. 13, 14, comes a prophecy against Babylon. It stands here for a double reason:1) because it begins with a general contemplation of the day of Jehovah, which evidently is meant for a foundation for all the following denunciations of judgment; 2) because Isaiah, after he had lived to see the judgment of God on Assyria under the walls of Jerusalem, knows well that the world-power culminates, not in Assyria, but in Babylon, and that not Assyria but Babylon is to execute the judgment of God on the centre of the theocracy.
But it is quite natural that Assyria should not be unrepresented in the list of the nations against which the Prophet turns his direct utterances. This is the less allowable because the following utterances have all of them for subject the relations to Assyria of the nations mentioned. For all that the Prophet has to say from Isa_14:28 to Isa_20:6, and then again in chap. 21 (from Isa_13:11 on), 22 and 23 stands in relations more or less near to the great Assyrian deluge that Isaiah saw was breaking in on Palestine and the neighboring lands. Thus the second division begins with the brief word against Assyria, Isa_14:24-27. To this are joined prophecies against Philistia, Moab, Syria, Ephraim, Cush and Egypt. The third division forms a singular little סֵפֶר—It might be named libellus emblematicus. For it contains a second prophecy against Babylon, then a similar one against Syria, against the Arabians, and against Jerusalem, the last with a supplement directed against the steward Shebna. These four prophecies in chap. 21 and 22 stand together because they all of them have emblematical superscriptions. Out of regard to this the prophecy against Babylon (Isa_21:1-10) stands here, although in respect to its contents it belongs rather to 13 and 14 Even the prophecy against “the valley of vision” with its supplement stands here out of regard to its superscription, although it is directed against no heathen nation, but against Jerusalem; so that we must say that chaps. 13–23 contain prophecies against the heathen nations, not exclusively, but with one exception that has its special reasons.
Chap. 23 forms the fourth division. It contains a prophecy against Tyre, which, indeed, presupposes the Assyrian invasion, but expressly names the Chaldeans as executors of the judgment on Tyre. On account of this remarkable, and, in a certain respect, solitary instance of such a sight of things distant, this prophecy is put alone and at the end.
Thus the chapters 13–23 are divided as follows:—
I. The first prophecy against Babylon, Isa_13:1-22.
II. Prophecies relating to Assyria, and the nations threatened by Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Syria, Ephraim, Cush, Egypt, Isaiah 14:24–20:26.
III. The libellus emblematicus, containing prophecies against Babylon, Edom, Arabia and Jerusalem, the last with a supplement directed against the steward Shebnah. 21, 22.
IV. Prophecy against Tyre. 23.
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I.—THE FIRST PROPHECY AGAINST BABYLON
Isa_13:1 to Isa_14:23
There yawns a tremendous chasm between the preceding prophecies that originated in the time of Ahaz and the present. We at once recognize Isaiah again in 13, 14 It is his spirit, his power, his poetry, his wit. They are his fundamental views, but it is no longer the old form. His way of speaking is quieter, softer, clearer; he no longer bursts on us like a roaring mountain stream. He is grown older. But he has progressed, too, in his prophetic knowledge. Now he knows that it is not Assyria that is the theocracy’s most dangerous enemy. For him Assyria is a thing of the past. In proportion as it came to the front before, it now and henceforth retires. Isaiah had seen Assyria’s humiliating overthrow before the gates of Jerusalem. Now he knows that another power, that Babylon shall destroy the theocracy and stand as the sole governing world-power. But he knows, too, that Babylon’s day will come as well as Nineveh’s. For how could Jehovah’s Prophet ever doubt that his Lord and his nation will triumph, and that the world-power will be overthrown? But the judgment of Babylon is for him only a part of the great judgment of the world, of that “day of the Lord,” that does not come on one day, but realizes itself in many successive stages. He sees in Babylon the summit of the world-power, by whose disintegration Israel mast be made free. Therefore he makes the great day of Jehovah’s judgment break before our eyes (Isa_13:1-13), but describes immediately only the judgment upon Babylon. On both these accounts this prophecy stands at the head of all Isaiah’s prophecies against the nations. For it seemed fitting to put in the front a general and comprehensive word about the great judgment day which immediately introduced the denunciation of judgment against the head of all the nations of the world-power. Some have maintained that it was impossible that Isaiah could have recognized Babylon as the enemy of the theocracy: and that it was still more impossible that he could have predicted the deliverance of Israel out of the captivity of Babylon. But both these chapters are Isaiah’s, both in form and contents, as we have declared above and shall prove in detail below. Beside, there is the consideration that our chapter has undoubtedly been used by Jeremiah (50, 51), by Ezekiel in various passages (Eze_7:17, comp. Isa 13:7–7:28, comp. Isa_13:11 to Isa_19:11, comp. Isa_14:5 to Isa_38:6; Isa_38:15 to Isa_39:2, comp. Isa_14:13), and by Zephaniah (Zep_3:11, comp. Isa_13:3), as shall be shown when dealing with the passages concerned. Therefore it seems to me to be beyond doubt that Isaiah wrote our chapters. But how Isaiah could know all that is here given to the world under his name (Isa_13:1) as prophecy, that is certainly a problem. That is the problem that science should propose to itself for solution. It ought not to deny accredited facts in order not to be compelled to recognize prophecy as a problem, i.e. as possible. For to deny premises in order to avoid a conclusion that one will not draw, is just as unscientific as it is to invent premises in order to gain a conclusion that one wants to draw.
The discourse divides into a general part and a particular. The former (Isa_13:1-13) is, as has been said, at the same time the introduction to the totality of the prophecies against the heathen nations. The particular part again presents two halves: the first (Isa_13:14-22) portrays the judgment on Babylon, the second, after a short reference to the redemption and return home of Israel (Isa_14:1-2) contains a satirical song on the ruler of Babylon conceived in abstracto (Isa_14:3-23).
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a) The preface: introduction in general to the prophecies of the day of the Lord
Isa_13:1-13
1 The1 burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
2 Lift ye up a banner upon 2the high mountain,
Exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand,
That they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded my sanctified ones,
I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger,
Even them that rejoice in my highness.
4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains, 3like as of a great people:
A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together:
The Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.
5 They come from a far country,
From the end of heaven,
Even the Lord, and the weapons of his indignation,
To destroy the whole land.
6 Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand;
It shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands 4be faint,
And every man’s heart shall melt:
8 And they shall be afraid:
Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them;
They 5shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth:
They shall 6be amazed one at another;
Their faces shall be as 7flames.
9 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh,
Cruel both with wrath and fierce anger,
To lay the land desolate:
And he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and 8the constellations thereof
Shall not give their light:
The sun shall be darkened in his going forth,
And the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I 9will punish the world for their evil,
And the wicked for their iniquity;
And I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease,
And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold;
Even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens,
And the earth shall 10remove out of her place,
In the wrath of the Lord of hosts,
And in the day of his fierce anger.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
On Isa_13:1. מַשָּׂא from נָשָׂא is elatum, “something borne, that which is proposed,” therefore as much onus as effatum. On account of this ambiguity it is almost exclusively used of such divine utterances as impose on men the burden of judicial visitation. From Jer_23:33 sqq. we learn that the word, being abused by mockers on account of this ambiguity, was prohibited by Jehovah as designation of prophetic utterances. In Isaiah the word occurs twelve times in the sense of “judicial sentence;” and, excepting Isa_36:6, it so occurs only in chapters 13–23, and here again, with the exception of Isa_22:1 (for the particular reasons see the comment in loc.), solely in utterances against foreign nations. This last circumstance is easily to be explained by the unfavorable meaning that underlies the word, which was pressed by the mockers, Jer_23:33 sqq. A מַשָּׂא simply and only is never directed against the theocracy. But it cannot be inferred from the absence of this in passages that relate to the theocracy that the word is foreign to Isaiah (Knobel).
On Isa_13:2. נִשְׁפֶה occurs only here; comp. שְׁפִי Isa_41:18; Jer_3:2, etc.——נשׂא נס is an expression peculiar to Isaiah. Comp. Isa_5:26; Isa_11:12; Isa_18:3.——לָהֶם after קוֹל is to be referred to the nations called.——נדיבים פתחי designates the goal of the movement to which the nations are summoned. Both words belong to Isa_3:26; Isa_32:5; Isa_32:8.——נָדִיב is “the free, the noble” (comp. at Isa_32:5; and Pro_19:6; Pro_25:7, etc.).
On Isa_13:3. עליזי גאותי are “Those rejoicing at my highness” (gen. obj.). Both words are entirely characteristic of Isaiah. The עליזי is found only Isa_22:2; Isa_23:7; Isa_24:8; Isa_32:13, and in the borrowed passage Zep_3:11. Hence it is incomprehensible how the passage last named can be explained to be the original. Moreover Isaiah is almost the only one of the prophets that uses גאוה. For beside Isa_9:8; Isa_13:11; Isa_16:6; Isa_25:11, and the borrowed passage Zep_3:11, it occurs only Jer_48:29, where Jeremiah, for the sake of a play on words, heaps together all substantive derivatives from גאה.
On Isa_13:4. דמות occurs again in Isaiah only Isa_40:18. It is found oftenest in Ezekiel, and in an adverbial sense as here = כִּדְמוּת (Eze_23:15). Also שָׁאוֹן is a word of Isaiah’s. It occurs only seventeen times in the Old Testament; of these, eight times in Isa_5:14; Isa_13:4; Isa_17:12; (bis), Isa_17:13; Isa_24:8; Isa_25:5; Isa_66:6. The expression צבא מלחמה, beside the present, occurs only Num_31:14, and 1Ch_7:4; 1Ch_12:37. There is evidently a contrast intended between צבא and צבאות: the Lord of the heavenly hosts now musters His army hordes on earth.
On Isa_13:5. Shall we regard בָּאִים at the beginning of the verse as dependent on מפקד, Isa_13:4, and as apposition with צבא מלחמה? It is against this that the second half of Isa_13:5 must then be construed as a rhetorical exclamation, which in this connection and form seems strange. It is in favor of this that otherwise בָּאִים must be construed as predicate. But then it would be said of Jehovah that He comes from a far country. But may not this be said in the present connection? It has just been said that Jehovah summons the war hordes and musters them. He is therefore their leader. Need it seem strange then that He is described as approaching at their head? Therefore בָּאִים is the predicate of Isa_13:5 b, placed at the beginning. מארץ מרחק occurs again only Isa_46:11; other turns of expression Isa_8:9; Isa_10:3; Isa_17:13; Isa_30:27; Isa_33:17. כלי זעמו occurs again only Jer_50:25; on זעם comp. on Isa_10:5. חַבֵּל comp. on Isa_10:27; Isa_32:7; Isa_54:16.
On Isa_13:6. כשׁד, note the play on words; כְּ is the so-called Kaph veritatis. Isaiah often uses שֹׁד, Isa_16:4; Isa_22:4; Isa_51:19, etc.; שַׁדַּי he uses only this once.
On Isa_13:7. תרכּינה כּל־ידים, the expression occurs in Isaiah only here, and is borrowed by Eze_7:17 from this place.
On Isa_13:8. נבהל in Isaiah again only Isa_21:3 in a similar connection.——צירים occurs again only Isa_21:3 (bis) in the sense of constrictiones, cruciatus, cramps.—חבלים Isaiah uses (Isa_5:18; Isa_33:20; Isa_33:23) in the sense of “cords,” and in the kindred “cries of a woman in travail” (Isa_26:17; Isa_66:7).——חול used not seldom of a travailing woman, and as a figure of feeling terror; Isa_23:4-5; Isa_26:17-18; Isa_45:10; Isa_54:1; Isa_66:7-8.——תמה stupere occurs again only Isa_29:9. Note the constructio pracgnans.
On Isa_13:9. אכזרי only here in Isaiah: it is adjective. The two substantives are, co-ordinate with אכזרי, apposition with יוֹס, doubtless because adjectives cannot be formed from these substantive notions, as can be done from אַכְזָר. Therefore, according to frequent usage, we are to construe עברה and חרון אף as abstract nouns used in a concrete sense. עברה frequent in Isa_9:18; Isa_10:6; Isa_13:13; Isa_14:6; Isa_16:6. חרון אף excepting Isa_13:13 does not occur again in Isaiah. The expression is frequent in the Pentateuch: Exo_32:12; Num_25:4; Num_32:14; Deu_13:18.——By the words לשׂום וגו׳ the Prophet designates the object of the day of judgment.——The expression שׂום לשׁמה only here in Isaiah. Perhaps it is borrowed from Joe_1:7. היה לשׁמה Isa_5:9. שַׁמָּה alone Isa_24:12.——That הארץ means “the earth,” see “Exeget. and Crit.” on Isa_13:5.——השׁמיד Isa_10:7; Isa_14:23; Isa_26:14.—הטאים Isa_1:28; Isa_33:14.
On Isa_13:10. כִּי is not causative, but explicative. That the day of the Lord is dreadful, and nothing but burning wrath will be evident in that the stars become dark.——If כוכבים and כסילים are distinguished, the explanation cannot be that the latter are not also כוכבים, but that they are only a pre-eminent species of stars. The Vav. is therefore the Vave augmentative: “the stars of heaven and even its Orions.” The latter are the most luminous stars, whose brightness, because of the first magnitude, more easily than all others penetrates whatever hinderances there may be. The plural of כסיל is, any way, a generalizing one, i.e., that elevates the individual to the rank of a species. Otherwise we know of only one כְּסִיל as a star. But as 1Sa_17:43, Goliath says to David: “thou comest to me with the starves,” although David had only one staff; or as Jer_28:12, after telling of the breaking of one yoke, continues; “wooden yokes hast thou broken,” therefore here as elsewhere the plural of the individual is conceived as equivalent to the genus. Compare Cicerones, Scipiones, les Voltaire, les Mirabeau; and perhaps כּוֹכְבֵי בֹקֶר Job_38:7 belongs to the same category.—הֵהֵל, Hiph. from הלל, a verb that elsewhere expresses clearness of sound, occurs only Job_31:26; Job_41:10, and in both places in connection with אוֹר.——On חשׁך השׁמשׁ comp. Isa_5:30.—Of נגתּ there is only one other form in Isaiah, and that Kal. in just one passage, Isa_9:1.
On Isa_13:11. הארץ is more expressly defined as תֵּבֵל This word is very frequent in the first part of Isa_14:17; Isa_14:21; Isa_18:3; Isa_24:4; Isa_26:9; Isa_26:18; Isa_27:6; Isa_34:1. It never means a single land, but is always either the οἰκουμε̇νη as terra fertilis contrasted with the desert (Isa_14:17) or the οἰκουμἐνη as a whole contrasted with the single parts. Delitzsch well remarks that it never has the article, and thus in a measure appears as a proper noun.—פקד with על of the person and accusative of the thing like Jer_23:2; Jer_25:12; Hos_1:4. גָּאוֹן a frequent word in Isa_2:10; Isa_2:19; Isa_2:21; Isa_4:2, etc.; Isa_60:15; Eze_7:24 seems to have had in mind our passage.—זֵדִים only here in Isaiah, whereas גאוה (comp. at Isa_13:3) and עריץ (Isa_25:3-5; Isa_29:5; Isa_29:20; Isa_49:25) occur not seldom.
On Isa_13:12. אוקיר which makes a paronomasia with אופיר (a genuine Isaianic word) occurs only here (Kal. Isa_43:4).—On אֱנוֹשׁ and אדם comp. on Isa_8:1.—פַז (only here in Isaiah; comp. Psa_19:11; Psa_21:4) is purified gold; כֶּתֶם is absconditum, jewel, ornament generally: not found again in Isaiah.—כתם אופיר is found again Psa_45:10; Job_28:16.
On Isa_13:13. על־כן cannot be construed “for this reason.” For it cannot be said that the Lord will shake heaven and earth because He punishes the earth and makes men scarce on it. Rather the reverse of this must be assumed: God shakes heaven and earth in order to punish men. Thus על־כן = “therefore, hence,” but in the sense of intention (to this end, Job_34:27). Here, too, there evidently floats before the mind of the Prophet a passage from Job_9:6, where it reads: הַמַּרְגִּיז אֶרֶץ מִמְּקוֹמָהּ. The thought that the earth shall be crowded out of its place, which is peculiar to both of these passages, is something so specific, added to which the juxtaposition of הִרְגִּין and הָאָרֶץ מִמְּקֹמָהּ is so striking, that it is impossible to regard this relation of the two passages as accidental. If we ask where the words are original, we must decide in favor of Job, because there the thought is founded in the context. For in Isa_13:5 it is said: “which removeth the mountains, and they know not; which overturneth them in his anger.” On this follows naturally: “Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.”—רעשׁ in Isaiah again Isa_24:18; Isa_14:16. Comp. moreover 2Sa_22:8 (Psa_18:8); Joel 4:16.—The words בעברת to אפו are the Prophet’s. בְּ is taken by some as determining the time (Knobel), by others as assigning a reason (Delitzsch), But both may be combined: the revelation of the divine wrath coincides with the day of His anger, and so much so that יוֹם, the day, may be taken as concrete for the abstract notion of the manifestation, coming to the light. Comp. Isa_10:3; Isa_17:6.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The Prophet opens his prophecy against the nations with a denunciation of judgment against Babylon. This prophecy must have originated at a period when the Prophet had come to the knowledge that Babylon was the real centre of the world-power, and Assyria only a front step. But Isaiah opens his prophecy against Babylon with an introduction from which we learn that he regards the judgment against Babylon as the germ-like beginning of “the day of the Lord” in general. First, by means of a banner planted on a high mountain, visible far and wide, there goes forth a summons to order men of war to an expedition against a city (Isa_13:2). Then (Isa_13:3) the Lord says, more plainly, Himself taking up the word, that it is He that assembles the men of war and that He assembles them for a holy war. The command gathers in vast numbers and Jehovah musters them (Isa_13:4). They come then from the ends of the earth, as it were led by Jehovah, brought together in order to accomplish the work of destruction (Isa_13:5). Now those threatened hear proclaimed: the day of the Lord is here (Isa_13:6). Thereupon all are in fear and terror (Isa_13:7-8). And in fact the day of the Lord draws near (Isa_13:9). The stars turn dark (Isa_13:10). The Lord Himself declares that the object of His coming is to lay low everything in the world that lifts itself up proudly (Isa_13:11), so that men shall become scarce as fine gold (Isa_13:12). By this manifestation of divine wrath, however, heaven and earth must be shaken (Isa_13:13).
2. The burden—did see.
Isa_13:1. One sees a sentence of judgment when, by means of prophetic gaze, one learns to know its contents, which may be presented to the spiritual eye by visible images (comp. on Isa_1:1). That Isaiah is named here, and by his entire name, son of Amoz, is doubtless to be explained in that this superscription, which corresponds to the prophecy Isa_13:1 to Isa_14:23, was at the same time regarded as superscription of the entire cycle 13 to 23 and that this cycle, as an independent whole, was incorporated in the entire collection.
3. Lift ye up a banner—my highness.
Isa_13:2-3.
Isa_13:2 speaks in general. Without saying to whom the summons is directed or from whom it proceeds; there is only a summons to raise the standard of war for the purpose of assembling warriors. On a bare mountain, devoid of forest, shall the signal be raised, that it may be clearly seen on all sides. But with the voice, too, (Isa_37:23, Isa_40:9, Isa_58:1) and with hand-beckoning (Isa_10:32, Isa_11:15) shall the nations be called to march forth. The gates of the nobles can only mean the main gates of the hostile city, which alone (in contrast with the small side gates, figuratively called “needle-eyes” Mat_19:24) serve for the entree of princes in pomp, in the present case for the victors. Still the expression occasions surprise. Ought we perhaps to read פְּתָחַי: “that they come willingly into my gates?” I do not venture to decide.
Isa_13:3 makes us know who is the origin of the summons. It is the Lord who calls His warriors who are consecrated to Him and joyfully obey Him. The warriors are called consecrated, holy, because the war is a holy one. Comp. Joel 4:9, Jer_6:4; Jer_22:7; Jer_51:27. Precisely for this the Prophet immediately after uses the bold expression: “I have called them for mine anger,” i.e. that they may be executors of my purpose of wrath (comp. Isa_10:5).
4. The noise of a multitude——the whole land.
Isa_13:4-5. Those summoned heard the call. They are heard approaching in troops. The interjection קוֹל [“hark”Naegelsb.] is frequent in the second half of Isa_40:3; Isa_40:6; Isa_52:3; Isa_66:6. Jeremiah, too, imitates the language: Jer_48:8; Jer_50:22; Jer_50:28; Jer_51:54. The expression קוֹל הָמוֹן [“Hark, a tumultuous noise,” Naegelsb.] “noise of a multitude,” occurs 1Sa_4:14, 1Ki_18:41; 1Ki_20:13; 1Ki_20:28. In Isaiah again Isa_33:3. Then in Eze_23:42, Dan_10:6. I do not believe that by “the mountains” is meant the Zagros mountains that separated Media from Babylon. [Zagrus mons, now represented by the middle and southern portion of the mountains of Kurdistan.—Tr.]. For here the prophecy bears still quite a general character. Only by degrees does the special judgment upon Babylon appear out of the cloud of the universal judgment. The enemies, according to Isa_13:5, come “from a far country, from the end of heaven.” Did the Prophet mean particularly the Zagros, why did he not designate it more distinctly? The mountains are, doubtless, no certain, concrete mountains, but ideal mountains, a poetic embellishment. Added to this, it is likely Joel 2 is in the Prophet’s mind. There, too, as here (Isa_13:6; Isa_13:9) the day of the Lord is at hand. But there the grasshoppers are the enemies to be expected. These, too, come like chariots, that leap upon the mountains like the blush of dawn spread upon the mountains. Especially the order of the words בֶּהָרִים דְּמוּת עַס־רַב, “in the mountains like as of a great people,” seems to me to recall Joe_2:2עַל־הֶהָרִים עַם רַב “upon the mountains a great people,” a form of expression that in Joel, too, belongs to the poetic drapery. That Isaiah had in mind the words of Joel is the more probable, in as much as the expression עם רב is used by him only here, and beside Joe_2:2, is found only in Eze_17:9; Eze_17:15; Eze_26:7.
The army, then, which Jehovah musters, consists of people that have come from a far land, and from the end of heaven, i.e. from the place where the heavenly expanse is bounded by the earth. The expression “from the end of heaven” is characteristic of Deuteronomy. For, except the present passage, it occurs only Deu_4:32 (bis), Isa_30:4 (with the borrowed expression Neh_1:9), and Psa_19:7. That Isaiah by these expressions would designate the Medes is quite improbable. As in their cities, according to 2Ki_17:6, Israelite exiles dwelt at that time, how could he locate them in the uttermost borders of the earth’s surface, where otherwise he locates, say, Ophir (Isa_13:12) or Sinim (Isa_49:12)? The undefined, universal, and if I may so say, the superlative mode of expression, proves that it is to be taken in an ideal sense. The end that the Lord will accomplish by means of “the weapons of His indignation” is: to overturn the whole earth. “The whole earth!” For this judgment on Babylon belongs to “the day of the Lord.” It is thus an integral part of the world’s judgment. Just as Isaiah, so Ezekiel uses traits of Joel’s prophecy of the world’s judgment in order to let the judgment that he had to announce to Egypt, appear as a part of the world’s judgment (Isa_30:2 sqq.).
5. Howl ye—their faces as flames.
Isa_13:6-8. Here it is seen plainly how the Prophet would represent the judgment on Babylon as a part of the world’s judgment. For the traits that now follow are entirely taken from the descriptions of the world’s judgments as we meet them already in the older Prophets, and as, on the other hand, the later New Testament descriptions of the great day of judgment connect with our present one. Especially Isaiah has Joel in his mind. “Howl ye,” is taken from הילילוJoe_1:5; Joe_1:11; Joe_1:13. Ezek. too, uses the word Isa_30:2, and Mat_24:30, in the eschatological discourse of Christ. The words: “for the day of the Lord is at hand,” are taken word for word from Joe_1:15. From קרוב “at hand,” it is seen that the Prophet would portray here the impression that the approach of the day will make on men; for, as is known, the moments that precede any great catastrophe have terrors quite peculiarly their own. In Isa_13:9, he describes the judgment as taking place. When men notice that the destruction comes from God Almighty, they abandon all opposition as useless. The sign of this is that they let their hands fall limp, and that their hearts become like water (comp. Deu_20:8; Jos_7:5; Isa_19:1).
For the image of the travailing woman, and of the terror depicted in the countenances, the Prophet is indebted to Joe_2:6. That terror and anguish not only make one pale, but also agitate the blood, and thereby produce heat and sweat is well known. Only the latter does the Prophet make prominent. He was likely moved to this because in Joel (Isa_1:19, Isa_2:3; Isa_2:5), which is in his thought, the expression לחב, “a flame,” occurs thrice.
6. Behold the day—light to shine.
Isa_13:9-10. The day is not only near; it is here. (Comp. under Text. and Gram. above). What constellation is meant by the name כְּסִיל is not settled. The LXX., here and Job_38:31 translate ὁ ̓Ωρίων. Likewise the Vulg.Amo_5:8 and Job_9:9. Others (Saadia, Abulwalid,etc.), take it to be Canopus, the Antarctic Polar star in the southern steering-oar of Argo. Niebuhr (Beschr. v. Arabien, p. 113), following the Jews of Sana, supposes it is Sirius. But the passage in Job_38:31 (“or wilt thou loose the bands” [Dillmann:traces] of כסיל?) corresponds very well to the representation that Orion (Syr. gaboro, Arab. gebbar) is the giant chained to the sky. Comp. Herzog,Real-Encycl. Art. Gestirnkunde, vonLeyrer, XIX. p. 565. [According to Hitzig and Knobel, the darkening of the stars is mentioned first, because the Hebrews reckoned the day from sunset.—J. A. A.].
When the rising sun is without rays, and moon and stars lose their shining, then both day and night are robbed of their lights. The language of the Prophet seems not only to be drawn from Job, but also from Joe_3:4, and Amo_5:8, as on the other hand Christ’s discourse, Mat_24:29, borrows from our passage.
7. And I will punish——his fierce anger.
Isa_13:11-13. The Prophet lets the Lord speak here, partly, to confirm what the Prophet had said, partly to set it forth more exactly. But unmarked, the subject of the discourse changes again (Isa_13:13 b) by the Prophet resuming and continuing the discourse of the Lord. What was said, Isa_13:9, in brief words; “and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it,” is in Isa_13:11, more distinctly expressed by the Lord. The Lord says, then, that He will punish the whole earth for their wickedness, and the wicked (according to his righteousness) for their guilt. The means by which men incur guilt is their injustice in the sense of violent oppression, according to the view common to the Old Testament in general, and to Isaiah in particular (comp. on Isa_1:17; Isa_1:21 sqq.). Therefore the Almighty Judge announces here that a time shall come when He will take in hand the mighty of the earth who abuse their power, and will humble them. The thought of this verse recalls Isa_2:10 sqq.
In consequence of this visitation, human kind shall become rare in the earth as the noblest gold. From this passage it appears that the Prophet, though he speaks of a judgment on the whole habitable world (οἰκουμένη, תֵּבֵל), has still by no means the idea of its total destruction, say, by fire (2Pe_3:7; 2Pe_3:10). The locality of Ophir is still an open question. The other instances of its occurrence in Scripture are Gen_10:29 (1Ch_1:23), 1Ki_9:28; 1Ki_10:11; 1Ki_22:49; 1Ch_29:4; 2Ch_8:18; 2Ch_9:10; Job_22:24. Four places are proposed; South Arabia, East Africa, Abhira between the Indus Delta and the Gulf of Cambay, and southern lands in general, for which Ophir may be only a collective name. The best authorities, as Lassen, Ritter (Erdkunde XIV. p. 348 sqq.),Delitzsch, decide in favor of East India. But Crawford, “hardly less learned regarding India than Lassen,” in his “Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands,” asserts, on the contrary, “that there is not a shadow of possibility for locating Ophir in any part of India.”
The African traveller Carl Mauch gives considerable weight to the scale in favor of East Africa; he thinks that he has discovered the ancient Ophir in the port Sofala or Sofara on the East coast of South Africa in latitude 20° 14′.
Isa_13:13. See under Text. and Gram. above.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_13:2-13. The prophecy concerning the day of the Lord has its history. It appears first in the form of the announcement of a scourge of locusts (Joel); then it becomes an announcement of human war-expeditions and sieges of cities. Finally it becomes a message that proclaims the destruction of the earth and of its companions in space. But from the first onward, the last particular is not wanting: only at first it appears faintly. In Joe_2:10, one does not know whether the discourse is concerning an obscuration of the heavenly bodies occasioned only by the grasshoppers or by higher powers. But soon (Joe_3:4; Joe_3:20) this particular comes out more definitely. In the present passage of Isaiah it presses to the foreground. In the New Testament (Mat_24:29; Mar_13:24 sq.; Luk_21:25) it takes the first and central place. We observe clearly that the judgment on the world is accomplished in many acts, and is yet one whole; and as on the other hand nature, too, is itself one whole, so, according to the saying: “whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it” (1Co_12:26), the catastrophes on earth have their echo in the regions above earth.
2. On Isa_13:4 sqq. “God cannot do otherwise than punish accumulated wickedness. But He overthrows violence and crime, and metes out to tyrants the measure they have given to others, for He gives to them a master that the heathen shall know that they too are men (Ps. 9:21; Psa_11:5).”—Cramer.
[On 13 Isa_13:3. “It cannot be supposed that the Medes and Persians really exulted, or rejoiced in God or in His plans.—But they would exult as if it were their own plan, though it would be really the glorious plan of God. Wicked, men often exult in their success: they glory in the execution of their purposes; but they are really accomplishing the plans of God, and executing His great designs.”—Barnes.]
[On Isa_13:9. “The moral causes of the ruin threatened are significantly intimated by the Prophet’s calling the people of the earth or land its sinners. As the national offences here referred to, Vitringa enumerates pride (Isa_13:11; Isa_14:11; Isa_47:7-8), idolatry (Jer_50:38), tyranny in general (Isa_14:12; Isa_14:17), and oppression of God’s people in particular (Isa_47:6).”—J. A. Alexander.]
3. On Isa_13:19 sqq. Imperiti animi, etc. “Unlearned minds when they happen on allegories, can hold no certain sense of Scripture. And unless this Papal business had kept me to the simple text of the Bible, I had become an idle trifler in allegories like Jerome and Origen. For that figurative speech has certain allurements by which minds seek to dispose of difficulties. … The true allegory of this passage is concerning the victory of conscience over death. For, the law is Cyrus, the Turk, the cruel and mighty enemy that rises up against the proud conscience of justitiaries who confide in their own merits. These are the real Babylon, and this is the glory of Babylon, that it walks in the confidence of its own works. When, therefore, the law comes and occupies the heart with its terrors, it condemns all our works in which we have trusted, as polluted and very dung. Once the law has laid bare this filthiness of our hearts and works, there follows confusion, writhing, and pains of parturition; men become ashamed, and that confidence of works ceases and they do those things which we see now-a-days: he that heretofore has lived by confidence of righteousnesss in a monastery, deserts the monkish life, casts away to ashes all glory of works, and looks to the gratuitous righteousness and merit of Christ, and that is the desolation of Babylon. The ostriches and hairy creatures that remain are Eck, Cochleus and others, who do not pertain to that part of law. They screech, they do not speak with human voice, they are unable to arouse and console any afflicted conscience with their doctrine. My allegories, which I approve, are of this sort, viz., which shadow forth the nature of law and gospel.” Luther.
4. On Isa_13:21 sqq. “There the Holy Spirit paints for thee the house of thy heart as a deserted, desolate Babylon, as a loathsome cesspool, and devil’s hole, full of thorns, nettles, thistles, dragons, spukes, kobolds, maggots, owls, porcupines, etc., all of which is nothing else than the thousandfold devastation of thy nature, in as much as into every heart the kingdom of Satan, and all his properties have pressed in, and all and every sin, as a fascinating serpent-brood, have been sown and sunk into each one, although not all sins together become evident and actual in every one’s outward life.”—Joh. Arndt’s Informatorium biblicum, § 7.
5. On Isa_14:1-2. “Although it seems to me to be just impossible that I could be delivered from death or sin, yet it will come to pass through Christ. For God here gives us an example; He will not forsake His saints though they were in the midst of Babylon.”—Heim and Hoffmann after Luther.
6. On Isa_14:4 sqq. “Magna imperia fere nihil sunt quam magnae injuriae.
Ad generum Cereris sine caede et sanguine pauci
Descendunt reges et sicca mente tyranni.—Luther.
Impune quidvis facere id est regem esse.”—Sallust.
Among the Dialogi mortuorum of Lucian of Samosata the thirteenth is between Diogenes and Alexander the Great. This dialogue begins with the words: “Τί τοῦτο, ὦ Ἀλέξανδρε, τέθνηκας καὶ σὺ, ὥσπερ ἡμεῖσ ἅπαντες;” thereupon the contrast is ironically set forth between what Alexander was, as one given out to be a son of the gods, and so recognized by men, and possessor of all highest human glories, and what he is at present. It is, as is well known, doubtful whether Lucian really was acquainted with the Scriptures. See Planck, Lucian and Christianity in Stud. u. Krit., 1851, IV. p. 826 sqq. Comp. also Schrader, die Höllenfahrt der Istar., 1874.
7. On Isa_14:4 sqq. ”Omni genera figurarum utitur ad confirmandos et consolandos suos, ut simul sit conjuncta summa theologia cum summa rhetorica.”—Luther.
8. On Isa_14:12 sqq. As early as the LXX. this passage seems to have been understood of Satan. It points that way that they change the second person into the third; πῶς ἐξέπεσεν, etc. At least they were so understood. See Jerome, who thereby makes the fine remark: “Unde ille cecidit per superbiam, vos ascendatis per humilitatem.” But Luther says: “Debet nobis insignis error totius papatus, qui hunc textum de casu angelorum accepit, studia literarum et artium deccndi commendare tamquam res theologo maxime necessarias ad tractationem sacrarum literarum.”
9. On Isa_14:13-14. “The Assyrian monarch was a thorough Eastern despot … rather adored as a god than feared as a man.” Layard’s Discoveries amongst the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, 1853, New York, p. 632. “In the heathen period the pre-eminence of the German kings depended on their descent from the gods, as among the Greeks” (Gervinus, Einleit. in d. Gesch. d. 19 Iahrh., 1853, p. 14). Christian Thomasius, in his Instit. jurispr. divinae, dissert. proœmialis, p. 16, calls the princes “the Gods on earth.” In a letter from Luxemburg, after the departure of the Emperor Joseph II., it is said (in a description of the journey, of which a sheet lies before me): “we have had the good fortune to see our earthly god.” Belani, Russian Court Narratives, New Series, III. Vol., p. Isaiah 125: “The Russian historian Korampzin says in the section where he describes the Russian self-rule: “The Autocrat became an earthly god for the Russians, who set the whole world in astonishment by a submissiveness to the will of their monarch which transcends all bounds.”
Footnotes:
[1]Sentence.
[2]a bald mountain.
[3]Heb. the likeness of.
[4]Or, fall down.
[5]shall writhe.
[6]Heb. wonder every man at his neighbor.
[7]Heb. faces of the flames.
[8]their Orions.
[9]will visit on the world its wickedness, and on the wicked their iniquity.
[10]shake.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–22 Lift . . . banner-- (Isa 5:26; Isa 11:10).
Lift . . . banner-- (Isa 5:26; Isa 11:10).
the high mountain--rather, "a bare (literally, "bald," that is, without trees) mountain"; from it the banner could be seen afar off, so as to rally together the peoples against Babylon.
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unto them--unto the Medes (Isa 13:17), the assailants of Babylon. It is remarkable that Isaiah does not foretell here the Jews' captivity in Babylon, but presupposes that event, and throws himself beyond, predicting another event still more future, the overthrow of the city of Israel's oppressors. It was now one hundred seventy-four years before the event.
shake . . . hand--beckon with the hand--wave the hand to direct the nations to march against Babylon.
nobles--Babylonian. Rather, in a bad sense, tyrants; as in Isa 14:5, "rulers" in parallelism to "the wicked"; and Job 21:28 [MAURER].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22 1. The burden of Babylon — The word massah,…
1. The burden of Babylon — The word massah, “burden,” is from a verb, meaning to lift, raise, and impliedly to bear; a secondary meaning is, to utter: hence the noun may mean a “burden” — mental burden — a verdict, or oracular utterance; or, a declaration prophetic and menacing — a judicial sentence upon Babylon. See 1Ki_9:25.
Did see — The whole vision was serious, substantive truth, pictorially enacted.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22 1. The superscription, prefixed by an editor who attributed…
1. The superscription, prefixed by an editor who attributed the prophecy to Isaiah.
The burden] Rather, The utterance, or “oracle.” The word occurs ten times in the headings of this section of the book (also in ch. Isa_30:6). The Heb. is massâ’, and means literally a “lifting up (of the voice).” See 2Ki_9:25. The A.V., following several ancient versions, takes it in its commoner sense of “burden” (thing lifted), a confusion which seems as old as the time of Jeremiah (Jer_23:33-40) and Ezekiel (Eze_12:10).
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which Isaiah … did see] See on Isa_1:1, Isa_2:1.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (1) The burden of Babylon . . .—The title…
XIII.
(1) The burden of Babylon . . .—The title “burden,” which is repeated in Isa_15:1; Isa_17:1; Isa_19:1; Isa_21:1; Isa_22:1; Isa_23:1, indicates that we have in this division a collection of prophetic utterances, bearing upon the future of the surrounding nations, among which Babylon was naturally pre-eminent. The authenticity of the first of these oracles has been questioned, partly on the ground of differences of style, partly because it seems to anticipate the future destruction of Babylon with a distinctness which implies a prophecy after the event. The first of these objections rests, as will be seen from the numerous coincidences between these and other portions of Isaiah, on no sufficient evidence. The second implies a view of prophecy which excludes the element of a divinely given foreknowledge; and that view the present writer does not accept.
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Accepting the two chapters as Isaiah’s, we have to ask how Babylon came at the time within the prophet’s historical horizon, and what were at the time its political relations with Assyria. (1) It is obvious that the negotiations which Ahaz had opened with Tiglath-pileser, the passage to and fro of armies and ambassadors, the journeys of prophets like Jonah and Nahum, the commerce of which we have traces even in the days of Joshua (Jos_7:21), must have made Babylon, as well as Nineveh, familiar to the leading men of Judah. As a matter of fact, it was probably more familiar. Babylon was the older, more famous, more splendid city Nineveh (if we accept the conclusions of one school of historians) had been overpowered and destroyed by the Medes under Arbaces, and the Babylonians under Belesis (B.C. 739), the Pul of Bible history, under whom Assyria was a dependency of Babylon (Lenormant, Anc. Hist., p. 38). In Tiglath-pileser the Assyrians found a ruler who restored their supremacy. The Chaldæans, however, revolted under Merôdach-baladan, and Sargon records with triumph how he had conquered him and spoiled his palace. As the result of that victory, he took the title of king of Babylon. Merôdach-baladan, however, renewed his resistance early in the reign of Sennacherib, and though again defeated, we find him courting the alliance of Hezekiah either before or after the destruction of that king’s army (Isaiah 39). We can scarcely doubt that the thought of a Babylonian, as of an Egyptian, alliance had presented itself to the minds of the statesmen of Judah as a means of staying the progress of Assyrian conquests. The chapters now before us, however, do not seem written with reference to such an alliance, and in Isa_14:25 Babylon seems contemplated chiefly as the representative of the power of Assyria. It seems probable, accordingly, that the king of Babylon in Isa_14:4 is to be identified with Sargon, the Assyrian king, who took the title of “Vicar of the Gods in Babylon” (Records of the Past, vol. xi. 17).
The word “burden,” prefixed to this and the following prophecies, is a literal translation of the Hebrew. It seems to have acquired a half-technical sense as announcing the doom which a nation or a man was called to bear, and so to have acquired the meaning of an “oracle,” or “prophecy.” This meaning, which is first prominent in Isaiah (in Pro_30:1; Pro_31:1 it is used of an ethical or didactic utterance thought of as inspired), was afterwards given to it in the speeches of the false prophets (Lam_2:14); and in Jer_23:33-40 we have a striking play upon the primary and derived meaning of the word. (See Note on Jer_23:33.) It continued in use, however, in spite of Jeremiah’s protest, and appears in Zec_9:1; Zec_12:1; Mal_1:1. Oracle is perhaps the best English equivalent. We note as characteristic (see Isa_1:1; Isa_2:1), that the “burden” is described as that which Isaiah saw.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–22 Ver. 1. THE BURDEN OF BABYLON. The series of…
Ver. 1. THE BURDEN OF BABYLON. The series of prophecies which commences with this chapter and continues to the close of Isaiah 23., is connected together by the word massa, burden. It has been argued that the term "burden" is an incorrect translation of massa, as used by Isaiah and later prophets; (Nah_1:1 Hab_1:1 Zec_9:1 Zec_12:1 Mal_1:1) and that "utterance," or "prophecy," would be more suitable. (comp. Pro_30:1 Pro_31:1, where massa is thus rendered in the Authorized Version) But the facts remain that massa means a "burden" in the ordinary sense, and that the prophecies to which it is prefixed are generally (in Isaiah always) of a denunciatory character. The translation may therefore be allowed to stand at any rate in the present chapter.
It is remarkable that Babylon heads the list of the Church"s enemies in the present catalogue. Dr. Kay supposes the term "Babel" to be equivalent to "Asshur-Babel," and to designate "the Assyro-Babylonian Empire." He thinks that "Babel" heads the list on account of Assyria"s position, under Tiglath-Pileser and Shalmaneser, in the van of Israel"s adversaries. But neither Isaiah nor any other sacred writer knows of an Assyro-Babylonian kingdom or empire. Assyria and Babylonia are distinct kingdoms in Genesis, (Gen_10:8-12) in 2 Kings (18-20.), in 2 Chronicles, (2Ch_20:12) in Isaiah (36-39.) and in Ezekiel. (Eze 23 and Eze 30 Eze 31) They had been at war almost continuously for above seven centuries before the time of Isaiah ("Records of the Past," vol. 5. pp. 81-104). Assyria had, on the whole, proved the stronger of the two, and had from time to time for a longer or a shorter period held Babylonia in subjection. But the two countries were never more one than Russia and Poland, and, until Tiglath-Pileser assumed the crown of Babylon in 729 B.C., they bad always been under separate monarchs. Individually, I can only account for the high position here given to Babylon by the prophet, on the supposition that it was thus early (about 725 B.C.) revealed to him that Babylonia was the great enemy to be feared the ultimate destroyer of Judah and Jerusalem, the power that would carry the Jewish people into captivity.
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Which Isaiah... did see. (comp. Isa_1:1 Isa_2:1, etc.) Isaiah always "sees" his prophecies, whether they are of the nature of visions (as Isa 6) or the contrary. The word is probably used to express the strong conviction that he has of their absolute certainty.
Vers. 1-18. The fall of Babylon a type of the general punishment of the wicked.
Scripture deals with history altogether in the way of example. Whether the subject be Assyria, or Syria, or Egypt, or Babylon, or even the "peculiar people of God," the object is to teach men by the facts adduced what they have to expect themselves. In Isaiah 10. Assyria, here Babylon, is held up as a warning to sinners. The absolute certainty that punishment will overtake them at God"s hands is the main lesson taught; but, beyond this, something is also taught concerning the method and (so to speak) economy of the Divine punishments; as, for example, the following:
I THAT GOD PUNISHES BY MEANS OF INSTRUMENTS, WHICH ARE GENERALLY PERSONS. God has two sets of instruments natural agents, such as storm, lightning, blight, pestilence, etc.; and intellectual and moral agents, or persons. It depends entirely on his own will whether he will employ agents of the one kind or of the other. In dispensing good to man he employs largely natural agents, "making his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sending rain on the just and on the unjust". (Mat_5:45) But in punishing men he seems to make use, to a greater extent, of persons. Now he raises up a tyrannical and oppressive king, like Rameses II or Nebuchadnezzar, to carry out his sentence of suffering; now he allows a democratic assembly to establish a reign of terror in a sinful]and; anon he uses the arrows of savage hordes, or the guns and bayonets of disciplined hosts, to chastise an offending people. Once only has he ever used his power to strike with sudden death on a large scale, and even there he employed a spiritual agent; it was the angel of the Lord," who went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and fourscore and five thousand". (2Ki_19:35)
II THAT THE INSTRUMENTS ARE FOR THE MOST PART QUITE UNCONSCIOUS THAT GOD IS USING THEM. We are told this distinctly of Assyria. "I will give him a charge... howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so". (Isa_10:6, Isa_10:7) And it was, no doubt, equally true of Babylon. The hammer of the whole earth" (Jer_1:2-3) did not know that she was being used to "break in pieces the nations, and to destroy kingdoms". (Jer_51:20) She too "meant not so," but was only seeking her own aggrandizement. Even the Medes and the Persians, though "called from a far country to execute God"s counsel", (Isa_47:11) were unconscious of their call-blind instruments in the hand of Jehovah, as much as if they had been an army of locusts. But this only shows the power of God the more, who can make not only good men serve him, but had; not only angels, but devils.
III THAT GOD"S PUNISHMENTS COME SUDDENLY AND TAKE MEN BY SURPRISE. Neither Assyria nor Babylon bad much warning of their fate. Each seemed well-nigh at the zenith of its power when the final blow came. "I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon," says Jehovah, "and thou wast not aware"; (Jer_1:2-4) and again we are told, "Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed". (Jer_51:8) God"s punishments are apt to come, even on individuals, suddenly. When a man says to his soul, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry," then comes the sentence of God, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee". (Luk_12:19, Luk_12:20) Job"s example is an extreme one; (Job_1:13-19) but modified instances of men crushed by quick blows of unexpected calamity are within every one"s experience. Destruction comes upon God"s enemies generally "at unawares". (Psa_35:8)
IV THAT ON FINDING THEMSELVES THE OBJECTS OF DIVINE PUNISHMENT, MEN ARE FILLED WITH TERROR AND DESPONDENCY. The terror and despondency of the Baby-Ionians are strongly marked in the descriptions both of Isaiah and Jeremiah; e.g. "Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man"s heart shall melt: and they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrow shall take bold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another". (Isa_13:7, Isa_13:8) "The land shall tremble and sorrow... The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight; they have remained in their holds... they became as women". (Jer_51:29, Jer_51:30) Some such feelings come upon all who are conscious that the hand of God is laid upon them, not for chastisement, but for punishment.
V THAT DIVINE PUNISHMENTS SELDOM STOP AT THEIR IMMEDIATE OBJECTS, BUT PASS ON AND AFFECT OTHERS ALSO. Partly, this would seem to be inevitable from the interconnection of man with man, and of nation with nation; but partly, also, it appears to be the result of the Divine will, which is set on punishing sin, and wherever it finds sin must punish it. Let Israel have to be punished for certain sins, Judah will be found to have committed the same sins; Judah must therefore participate in the punishment. When God arises to judge one nation, he, in a certain sense, arises to judge the whole earth; there must be equity in his dealings. If he has punished Babylonia, and Egypt is as bad, he must punish Egypt; if Egypt is no worse than Ethiopia, he must punish Ethiopia. The sin of Sodom brought destruction on all the cities of the plain that of the Canaanitish nations on them, and on many of their neighbors. A Jehoram provokes God by his idolatry, and is deservedly smitten. (2Ki_9:24) An Ahaziah, far less guilty, but still guilty, shares his fate. (2Ki_9:27) The punishment of Babylon led on to the punishment of the "world for its evil", (Isa_41:11) and to such a general depopulation of Western Asia as made a man more precious than the gold of Ophir. (Isa_13:12)
VI THAT DIVINE PUNISHMENTS ARE OFTEN COMPLETE AND FINAL. It was said of Assyria, "There is no healing of thy bruise". (Nah_3:19) And a similar finality attaches to most judgments upon nations. Babylonia, though she made some desperate efforts to throw off the Persian yoke, never recovered herself. Egypt, a few years later, sank finally under foreign dominion. The ten tribes lost their separate existence after their captivity, and became merged in Judah. Judah"s nationality was obliterated by Titus. The history of the world is a history of nations whom God has punished for their sins by final destruction. And the punishment of individuals, too, is often final. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram "went down quick into hell". (Num_16:30) Uzzah was smitten with sudden death for touching the ark. (2Sa_6:7) Ananias and Sapphira tell dead for uttering lies. (Act_5:5, Act_5:10) The question of punishments in another world is not here at issue. What the example of Babylon teaches is, that God"s punishments, so far as this world is concerned, are often final.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-22. Oracle concerning Babylon.
I APPROACH OF THE WARRIORS OF JEHOVAH. On the bare mountain the banner is upraised, and with loud cry and commanding gesture of the hand a host of warriors is summoned from all sides. As in ver. 26, Jehovah is viewed by the poet as a mighty Battle-Leader, Lord of hosts. His voice is heard, "I have given commission to my anointed ones, have called my heroes for my work of punishment, my proudly rejoicing ones!" And then a noise is heard in the mountains as of a great multitude, for Jehovah is mustering his forces from the remotest parts, and preparing with the weapons of his wrath to destroy the earth. A cry of terror will be heard through the land; men"s hands will droop, their hearts will melt, for the day of judgment is near. Horror will be depicted on every face. The lightning, the fire that burns up the stubble, (Joe_2:6) will be flashed back, as it seems, from the amazed eyes. In prophetic thought every great epoch of calamity and ruin is a judgment, a "day of Jehovah." For wrath and clemency are the two opposite sides of the unity of his being and character. No spring-time is ushered in without storms; no epoch of fruitful manhood is gained without struggles, within or without; no mischief departs from society, no false power is overthrown, without violence. Well for us if, stayed by religious faith, we can see the day of Jehovah shown amidst the darkest times, and when nations are perplexed with fear of change to be able to say, "The Lord reigneth." If he is a living God, then his will must be felt in political change. Nothing good can pass away; only falsehood must be overthrown.
II THE DAY OF JEHOVAH. Its description is borrowed:
1. From the most fearful phenomena of nature. The stars are hidden, the sunrise is overclouded, the light of the moon is withdrawn. A universal trembling seems to fill the air, while the earth would bound from its place. So close is the sympathy of the human spirit with nature, its dark or bright aspects seem to be the aspect of the God of nature in wrath or in kindness to man.
2. From the most fearful scenes of war. In a few bold lines the picture is struck out. Fugitives are seen flying in every direction, like frightened gazelles, or like a flock of sheep without its shepherd. Those overtaken are pierced by the spear, or struck down by the sword. Children at the breast are dashed to pieces, houses plundered, women outraged. More horrible is the spectacle of a battle-field than that of Nature in her wildest uproar. It is the opening of the hell in the heart of man.
3. Its moral purpose defined. There is, then, some light to be found even here. The God of justice and holiness is "searching home for evil on the face of the earth, and for the guilt of the unrighteous." "Ever and anon some bright white shaft Burned thro" the pine-tree roof-here burned and there, As if God"s messenger thro" the close wood screen Plunged and replunged his weapon at a venture, Feeling for guilty thee and me.
The thought that God holds inquisition for evil and evil-doers is deeply stamped in Bible lore. There are heresies which he cannot and will not tolerate. They are not identical with what some call heresies. These are often departures from our fashions of life and of thought; but it is only disagreement with him and his law of inward right that is the condemnable dissent. Again, it is his object to bring down the pride and arrogance of the haughty. How deeply marked, again, is this thought of overstepping our proper limits as the essence of sin, from the Fall onwards! It is fixed in the word "transgression." The "lust to seem the thing we are not" is at the root of display, of ambition, of domineering over others. The prophets saw in the bloated dominion of great states like Egypt and Assyria the effects of these unbalanced lusts, which must sooner or later topple the tyrants into ruin. And thus the purpose of judgment resolves itself into that of sifting mankind to make the people "rarer than fine gold, and men than Ophir"s treasures." When ill weeds are cleared away, there is a chance for good plants to flourish; and when a mass of human evil has disappeared, room is made for something of another quality, to renew the tradition of the Divine in man.
III THE FINAL DEVASTATION. (Vers. 17-22.) Here is a picture of the Medes a horde of savages, who despise civilization, and who will pour in upon Babylon, as in later days Attila came with his hosts to tread on the necks of the Romans. The dread memory of the cities of the plain can alone furnish a parallel to what will be seen on the site of Babylon. Where now the sounds of luxury and mirth are heard in proud palaces, soon not a nomad tent will be pitched, nor a shepherd"s fold; but only the cries of wild creatures will be heard, and satyrs hold their obscene dances. This magnificent picture of the overthrow of human greatness and pride springs, let us observe, from conscience. And none can study such pictures or visit the ruins of ancient cities without a quickening of the pulse of conscience. Such glimpses as we can gain of ancient life in. those proud cities of the Orient bear out the views of the prophet. It was a life which overpassed life"s restrictions, and which ended in death. Mournful is the inscription on Sardanapalus"s tomb, "Let us eat, drink, and love; for the rest is of little worth." We may learn the lesson that, when men so speak of life, they have abused it; and while we believe that there is a sacredness in human life and in the grand products of human life, this is only so as long as they reflect the purposes of God. Out of such scenes as those the prophet depicts, a solemn voice seems to speak, declaring that human life and glory are held cheap in comparison with those profound and, from us, half-hidden, half-revealed ends towards which the whole creation moves. J.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Ver. 1. The burden of the Lord.
"The burden of Babylon". (see Isa_15:1 Isa_17:1 Isa_19:1, etc.) The use of the word "burden," to signify a message and its subsequent expansion into the phrase "the burden of the Lord", (see Jer_23:33) suggest thus
I THAT TO ALL MEN EVERYWHERE BELONGS THE SACRED DUTY OF CARRYING THE MESSAGES OF GOD. The term here used may simply signify this the bearing of the Word of God to those for whom it was intended. This is a work which belongs to every filial son, to every faithful servant. Possessed of it ourselves, and experiencing its exceeding preciousness, we are to convey it to all who are in need of it. We can all carry to the souls of men "the will of God concerning them in Christ Jesus, "his Divine desire that they should turn from all iniquity, should believe in his Son, their Savior and Lord, and should follow him in every path of purity, integrity, love.
II THAT ON SOME MEN THERE SOMETIMES DEVOLVES THE PAINFUL DUTY OF DELIVERING BURDENSOME MESSAGES FROM GOD. This was notably the case with the Hebrew prophets. They were frequently commissioned to convey unpleasant, unpalatable truths to men and nations, such as few cared to announce and none liked to receive; e.g. the message of Moses to Pharaoh, of Nathan to David, and of Elijah to Ahab; such, also, as these "burdens" to Babylon, Moab, Egypt. The faithful parent, teacher, minister, has often a message to make known which is a burden in this sense; it is that which is likely to weigh heavy on the heart of him that receives it; it is
(1) the condemnation by the Righteous One of some form of sin and wrong;
(2) it is the purpose of him who is the True One to visit persistent folly and impenitence with the marks of his Divine displeasure both in the body and in the spirit, both here and hereafter.
III THAT ON THOSE IN WHOM IS THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, SACRED TRUTH BESTS AS A BURDEN, from which they can only be delivered by faithful utterance. So was it with the Savior himself; (Luk_12:50) and so with the prophets; (Psa 39:3Jo Psa 32:18 Jer_20:9) and so with the apostles. (1Co_9:16) So should it be with us. We ought to feel burdened with a sense of the sin and sorrow of the world, together with the fact that we have in our minds the knowledge of those truths which are divinely suited to destroy that sin and to disperse that sorrow. This is the burden of the Lord," resting on the man in whom is much of the Spirit of Christ a burden which will only be lifted from him when he has spoken his most earnest word and done his most devoted work, to teach, to heal, to save. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 12, 17, 19 The burden of Babylon
Isa_13:1-5
The burden of Babylon
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The prophets burden
Whenever we find the word burden in this association it means oracle, a speech of doom; it is never connected with blessing, hope, enlarged opportunity, or expanded liberty; it always means that judgment is swiftly coming, and may at any moment burst upon the thing that is doomed.
(J. Parker, D. D.)
The power to see
Which Isaiah did see. How did he see it? The word see needs to be defined every day. Blind men may see. We do not see with the eyes only, else truly we should see very little; the whole body becomes an eye when it is fun of light, and they who are holiest see farthest. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Men see morally, intellectually, sympathetically, as well as visually. How could Isaiah see this burden of Babylon when it did not fall upon the proud city for two centuries! Is there, then, no annihilation of time and space? Are we the mean prisoners we thought ourselves to be is it so, that we are caged round by invisible iron, and sealed down by some oppressive power, or blinded by some arbitrary or cruel shadow? We might see more if we looked in the right direction; we might be masters of the centuries if we lived with God. Isaiah is never weary of saying that he saw what he affirms. He does not describe it as having been seen by some other man; having written his record he signs it, or having begun to deliver his prophecy he writes it as a man writes his will; he begins by asserting that it is his testament, his own very witness, for he was there, saw it, and he accepts the responsibility of every declaration. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Babylon stands for the spirit of the world
In the New Testament, Babylon, more than any other city, stood for the personification of the forces of the world against God. In the history of Israel Babylon was the scourge of God to them. They were as grain under the teeth of the threshing machine. In the Captivity the Jews felt the weight of Babylons cruelty, so that in the prophetic literature of the Exile, Babylon became the type of oppression and of the insolence of material force. Thought is carried back to primitive times in the Book of Genesis, in which Babylon is pictured in the vain and arrogant attempt to rival God: Go to, let us build us a city, and tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. So deeply had the experience of Babylons cruelty entered into the heart of Israel that even in the New Testament, St. John, in the Book of Revelation, uses the word Babylon to describe the material power of Rome. He could not get a better word than just the old word Babylon to represent the overwhelming force of the great Roman Empire, with its legions of soldiers, with its policy which made the whole world a network of nerves running back to their sensitive centre in the haughty city on the Tiber. St. John saw past the glitter and the conquest, and recognised in pagan Rome the mighty Babylon which lifts her impious head against God. To him she was the scarlet woman; he heard, her say in the pride of her heart, as the prophet had heard Babylon say, I sit a queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Thus the very name Babylon came to take on the religious signification of the spirit of the world; it stood for the dead weight of the material which resists the spirit. (Hugh Black, M. A.)
The doom of Babylon
Here the prophet pronounces doom upon the bloated empire which seemed to stand so secure, and notes the evidence of weakness in spite of apparent prosperity and careless trust in material resources. Disregard of human rights, lusts, and selfishness and pride of life, and the impious atheism which disregarded all this he declared would all exact their inevitable price. Cruelty and oppression would react upon the tyrant after their usual historic fashion. The huge accumulations on which they rested would only attract the foe, would weaken her hands in her hour of trial, and make her, in spite of her wealth, an easy prey to the spoiler. To Babylon would come a time when she would have more money than men. It is a picture of absolute ruin which the prophet gives, when the great city would be depopulated (Isa_13:12). (Hugh Black, M. A.)
The Babylonian spirit
The Babylonian spirit has not left the world, and every great civilisation (for it is not confined to one) is menaced in the same way by the temptation of forgetfulness of God, cruelty of sheer force, insolence of pride, and the empty trust of wealth. Our foes are the old foes with a new face on them. (Hugh Black, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1
CHAPTER XXVII
BABYLON AND LUCIFER
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DATE UNCERTAIN
Isa_13:1-22; Isa_14:1-23
THIS double oracle is against the City {Isa_13:2-22; Isa_14:1-2} and the Tyrant {Isa_14:3-23} of Babylon.
I. THE WICKED CITY
{Isa_13:2-22; Isa_14:1-23}
The first part is a series of hurried and vanishing scenes-glimpses of ruin and deliverance caught through the smoke and turmoil of a Divine war. The drama opens with the erection of a gathering "standard upon a bare mountain" (Isa_13:2). He who gives the order explains it (Isa_13:3), but is immediately interrupted by "Hark! a tumult on the mountains, like a great people. Hark! the surge of the kingdoms of nations gathering together. Jehovah of hosts is mustering the host of war." It is "the day of Jehovah" that is "near," the day of His war and of His judgment upon the world.
This Old Testament expression, "the day of the Lord," starts so many ideas that it is difficult to seize any one of them and say this is just what is meant. For "day" with a possessive pronoun suggests what has been appointed beforehand, or what must come round in its turn; means also opportunity and triumph, and also swift performance after long delay. All these thoughts are excited when we couple "a day" with any persons name. And therefore, as with every dawn some one awakes saying, This is my day; as with every dawn comes some ones chance, some soul gets its wish, some will shows what it can do, some passion or principle issues into fact: so God also shall have His day, on which His justice and power shall find their full scope and triumph. Suddenly and simply, like any dawn that takes its turn on the round of time, the great decision and victory of Divine justice shall at last break out of the long delay of ages. "Howl ye, for the day of Jehovah is near; as destruction from the Destructive does it come." Very savage and quite universal is its punishment. "Every human heart melteth." Countless faces, white with terror, light up its darkness like flames. Sinners are "to be exterminated out of the earth; the world is to be punished for its iniquity." Heaven, the stars, sun and moon aid the horror and the darkness, heaven shivering above, the earth quaking beneath; and between, the peoples like shepherd-less sheep drive to and fro through awful carnage.
From Isa_13:17 the mist lifts a little. The vague turmoil clears up into a siege of Babylon by the Medians, and then settles down into Babylons ruin and abandonment to wild beasts. Finally {Isa_14:1} comes the religious reason for so much convulsion: "For Jehovah will have compassion upon Jacob, and choose again Israel, and settle them upon their own ground; and the foreign sojourner shall join himself to them, and they shall associate themselves to the house of Jacob."
This prophecy evidently came to a people already in captivity-a very different circumstance of the Church of God from that in which we have seen her under Isaiah. But upon this new stage it is still the same old conquest. Assyria has fallen, but Babylon has taken her place. The old spirit of cruelty and covetousness has entered a new body; the only change is that it has become wealth and luxury instead of brute force and military glory. It is still selfshness and pride and atheism. At this, our first introduction to Babylon, it might have been proper to explain why throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation this one city should remain in fact or symbol the enemy of God and the stronghold of darkness. But we postpone what may be said of her singular reputation, till we come to the second part of the Book of Isaiah where Babylon plays a larger and more distinct role. Here her destruction is simply the most striking episode of the Divine judgment upon the whole earth. Babylon represents civilisation; she is the brow of the worlds pride and enmity to God. One distinctively Babylonian characteristic, however, must not be passed over. With a ring of irony in his voice, the prophet declares, "Behold, I stir up the Medes against thee, who regard not silver and take no pleasure in gold." The worst terror that can assail us is the terror of forces, whose character we cannot fathom, who will not stop to parley, who do not understand our language nor our bribes. It was such a power with which the resourceful and luxurious Babylon was threatened. With money the Babylonians did all they wished to do, and believed everything else to be possible. They had subsidised kings, bought over enemies, seduced the peoples of the earth. The foe whom God now sent them was impervious to this influence. From their pure highlands came down upon corrupt civilisation a simple people, whose banner was a leathern apron, whose goal was not booty nor ease but power and mastery, who came not to rob but to displace.
The lessons of the passage are two: that the people of God are something distinct from civilisation, though this be universal and absorbent as a very Babylon; and that the resources of civilisation are not even in material strength the highest in the universe, but God has in His armoury weapons heedless of mens cunning, and in His armies agents impervious to mens bribes. Every civilisation needs to be told, according to its temper, one of these two things. Is it hypocritical? Then it needs to be told that civilisation is not one with the people of God. Is it arrogant? Then it needs to be told that the resources of civilisation are not the strongest forces in Gods universe. Man talks of the triumph of mind over matter, of the power of culture, of the elasticity of civilisation; but God has natural forces, to which all these are as the worm beneath the hoof of the horse: and if moral need arise, He will call His brute forces into requisition. "Howl ye, for the day of Jehovah is near; as destruction from the Destructive does it come." There may be periods in mans history when, in opposition to mans unholy art and godless civilisation, God can reveal Himself only as destruction.
II. THE TYRANT
{Isa_14:3-23}
To the prophecy of the overthrow of Babylon there is annexed, in order to be sung by Israel in the hour of her deliverance, a satiric ode or taunt-song (Hebrews mashal, Eng. ver. parable) upon the King of Babylon. A translation of this spirited poem in the form of its verse (in which, it is to be regretted, it has not been rendered by the English revisers) will be more instructive than a full commentary. But the following remarks of introduction are necessary. The word mashal, by which this ode is entitled, means comparison, similitude, or parable, and was applicable to every sentence composed of at least two members that compared or contrasted their subjects. As the great bulk of Hebrew poetry is sententious, and largely depends for rhythm upon its parallelism, mashal received a general application; and while another term - shir- more properly denotes lyric poetry, mashal is applied to rhythmical passages in the Old Testament of almost all tempers: to mere predictions, proverbs, orations, satires or taunt-songs, as here, and to didactic pieces. The parallelism of the verses in our ode is too evident to need an index. But the parallel verses are next grouped into strophes. In Hebrew poetry this division is frequently effected by the use of a refrain. In our ode there is no refrain, but the strophes are easily distinguished by difference of subject-matter. Hebrew poetry does not employ rhyme, but makes use of assonance, and to a much less extent of alliteration-a form which is more frequent in Hebrew prose. In our ode there is not much either of assonance or alliteration. But, on the other hand, the ode has but to be read to break into a certain rough and swinging rhythm. This is produced by long verses rising alternate with short ones falling. Hebrew verse at no time relied for a metrical effect upon the modern device of an equal or proportionate number of syllables. The longer verses of this ode are sometimes too short, the shorter too long, variations to which a rude chant could readily adapt itself. But the alternation of long and short is sustained throughout, except for a break at Isa_14:10 by the introduction of the formula, "And they answered and said," which evidently ought to stand for a long and a short verse if the number of double verses in the second strophe is to be the same as it is-seven-in the first and in the third.
The scene of the poem, the underworld and abode of the shades of the dead, is one on which some of the most splendid imagination and music of humanity has been expended. But we must not be disappointed if we do net here find the rich detail and glowing fancy of Virgils or of Dantes vision. This simple and even rude piece of metre, liker ballad than epic, ought to excite our wonder not so much for what it has failed to imagine as for what, being at its disposal, it has resolutely stinted itself in employing. For it is evident that the author of these lines had within his reach the rich, fantastic materials of Semitic mythology, which are familiar to us in the Babylonian remains. With an austerity, that must strike every one who is acquainted with these, he uses only so much of them as to enable him to render with dramatic force his simple theme-the vanity of human arrogance.
For this purpose he employs the idea of the underworld which was prevalent among the northern Semitic peoples. Sheol-the gaping or craving place-which we shall have occasion to describe in detail when we come to speak of belief in the resurrection, is the state after death that craves and swallows all living. There dwell the shades of men amid some unsubstantial reflection of their earthly state (Isa_14:9), and with consciousness and passion only sufficient to greet the arrival of the newcomer and express satiric wonder at his fall (Isa_14:9). With the arrogance of the Babylonian kings, this tyrant thought to scale the heavens to set his throne in the "mount of assembly" of the immortals, "to match the Most High." But his fate is the fate of all mortals-to go down to the weakness and emptiness of Sheol. Here, let us carefully observe, there is no trace of a judgment for reward or punishment. The new victim of death simply passes to his place among his equals. There was enough of contrast between the arrogance of a tyrant claiming Divinity and his fall into the common receptacle of mortality to point the prophets moral without the addition of infernal torment. Do we wish to know the actual punishment of his pride and cruelty? It is visible above ground (strophe 4); not with his spirit, but with his corpse; not with himself, but with his wretched family. His corpse is unburied, his family exterminated; his name disappears from the earth.
Thus, by the help of only a few fragments from the popular mythology, the sacred satirist achieves his purpose. His severe monotheism is remarkable in its contrast to Babylonian poems upon similar subjects. He will know none of the gods of the underworld. In place of the great goddess, whom a Babylonian would certainly have seen presiding, with her minions, over the shades, he personifies-it is a frequent figure of Hebrew poetry-the abyss itself. "Sheol shuddereth at thee." It is the same when he speaks (Isa_14:13) of the deeps great opposite, that "mount of assembly" of the gods, which the northern Semites believed to soar to a silver sky "in the recesses of the north" (Isa_14:14), "upon the great range which in that direction" bounded the Babylonian plain. This Hebrew knows of no gods there but One, whose are the stars, who is the Most High. Mans arrogance and cruelty are attempts upon His majesty. He inevitably overwhelms them. Death is their penalty: blood and squalor on earth, the concourse of shuddering ghosts below.
The kings of the earth set themselves
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall have them in derision.
He who has heard that laughter sees no comedy in aught else. This is the one unfailing subject of Hebrew satire, and it forms the irony and the rigour of the following ode.
The only other remarks necessary are these. In Isa_14:9 the Authorised Version has not attempted to reproduce the humour of the original satire, which styles them that were chief men on earth "chief-goats" of the herd, bellwethers. The phrase "they that go down to the stones of the pit" should be transferred from Isa_14:19 to Isa_14:20.
And thou shalt lift up this proverb upon the king of Babylon, and shalt say, -
I.
Ah! stilled is the tyrant,
And stilled is the fury!
Broke hath Jehovah the rod of the wicked,
Sceptre of despots:
Stroke of (the) peoples with passion,
Stroke unremitting,
Treading in wrath (the) nations,
Trampling unceasing.
Quiet, at rest. is the whole earth,
They break into singing;
Even the pines are jubilant for thee,
Lebanons cedars!
"Since thou liest low, cometh not up
Feller against us."
II.
Sheol from under shuddereth at thee
To meet thine arrival,
Stirring up for thee the shades,
All great-goats of earth!
Lifteth erect from their thrones
All kings of peoples.
10. All of them answer and say to thee, -
"Thou, too, made flaccid like us,
To us hast been levelled!
Hurled to Sheol is the pride of thee,
Clang of the harps of thee;
Under thee strewn are (the) maggots
Thy coverlet worms."
III.
How art thou fallen from heaven
Daystar, sun of the dawn
(How) art thou hewn down to earth,
Hurtler at nations.
And thou, thou didst say in thine heart,
"The heavens will I scale,
Far up to the stars of God
Lift high my throne,
And sit on the mount of assembly,
Far back of the north,
I will climb on the heights of (the) cloud,
I will match the Most High!"
Ah I to Sheol thou art hurled,
Far back of the pit!
IV.
Who see thee at thee are gazing;
Upon thee they muse: I
s this the man that staggered the earth,
Shaker of kingdoms?
Setting the world like the desert,
Its cities he tore down:
Its prisoners he loosed not
(Each of them) homeward.
All kings of people, yes all,
Are lying in their state;
But thou! thou art flung from thy grave,
Like a stick that is loathsome.
Beshrouded with slain, the pierced of the sword,
Like a corpse that is trampled.
They that go down to the stones of a crypt,
Shalt not be with them in burial.
For thy land thou hast ruined,
Thy people hast slaughtered.
Shall not be mentioned for aye
Seed of the wicked!
Set for his children a shambles,
For guilt of their fathers!
They shall not rise, nor inherit (the) earth,
Nor fill the face of the world with cities.
V.
But I will arise upon them,
Sayeth Jehovah of hosts;
And I will cut off from Babel
Record and remnant,
And scion and seed,
Saith Jehovah:
Yea, I will make it the bitterns heritage,
Marshes of water!
And I will sweep it with sweeps of destruction.
Sayeth Jehovah of hosts.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 16, 17, 18, 19 Isa_13:1. The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son…
THE PROUD CITY DOOMED
Isa_13:1. The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
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In 2 Kings 17 we find an account of the invasion of Israel by the Assyrians (2Ki_17:1-6). Then follows a long enumeration of the sins which had brought this Divine visitation upon the ten tribes, ending with the words, “So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day” (2Ki_17:23). If the scourge was no longer in the hands of the king of Assyria, it would be transferred to other hands not less terrible.
1. Would this scourge destroy the life of the Jewish nation? This was the awful question which presented itself to the minds of the prophets when they saw one and another limb of this nation lopped off, when they saw that a great numerical majority of the tribes would be carried away. Isaiah’s eyes were opened to see whence the permanence of the race was derived, how great critical moments of its life discovered Him who was everlastingly present with it. The child born in hours of trouble and rebuke had borne witness to him of the continuance of the regal family as well as of the people of God’s covenant, when the rage of their enemies as well as their own faithlessness were threatening them with destruction. Nor was this all. In the miserable, heartless reign of Ahaz the vision had been presented to him of a “Rod coming out of the stem of Jesse, which should stand for an ensign of the people. To it should the Gentiles seek, and His rest should be glorious.” Consider the Rod out of Jesse, what it betokened (Isa_11:10-12)! The immediate fruits which Isaiah saw coming out of this root might have appeared in the days of any patriotic and prosperous prince, and did actually appear in the latter days of Hezekiah. No doubt Hezekiah might become, and did actually become, “an ensign to the nations,” just as Solomon had been before him, one to whom they brought presents, whose alliance they sought, whose elevation out of a deep calamity was a proof that some mighty God was with him. But—
2. Though we need not seek in any more distant days than those of Hezekiah for a very satisfactory fulfilment of these predictions (and let it never be forgotten that what may seem to us, when we look back over 3000 years, an exaggerated description of deliverance and restoration, must have seemed inadequate and almost cold to those who experienced the blessing),—though Hezekiah was a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and though the Spirit of the Lord did rest upon him (Isa_11:2),—though the peacefulness and order of his last years might faithfully carry out the symbols of the wolf and the lamb lying down togther, yet it was no less impossible for the prophet to think chiefly of Hezekiah when he was uttering these words than it would have been for him to fancy that he was the King whom he saw sitting on the throne, and his train filling the temple in the year that Uzziah died (chap. Isa_6:1-4). There was, however, this great blessing which came to Isaiah from his being able to connect the Divine King with an actual man—the belief that a man must embody and present the Godhead, that only in a man could its blessedness and glory appear, acquired a force and vividness from his hope of Hezekiah’s government and from his actual experience of it, which we may say, without rashness or profaneness, would have been otherwise wanting in him. In using that language, we are only affirming that any method but the one which we know the Divine Wisdom has adopted for conveying a truth to a man’s spirit must be an imperfect method. Hezekiah’s existence was necessary to the instruction of Isaiah, and through him of all generations to come. Perhaps Shalmaneser and Sennacherib were, in another way, scarcely less necessary.
Apparently the prophet passes in this chapter to an entirely new subject. The Assyrian seems to be forgotten. He opens with the burden of Babylon; he goes on to the burden of Damascus, &c. But Babel or Babylon represented to the prophets the attempt to establish a universal society, not upon the acknowledgment of the Divine care and protection, but upon the acknowledgment of a mere power in nature against which men must try to measure their own. The order and history of the Jewish nation were made, from age to age, silently to testify against it. “Babylon is the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency” (Isa_13:19); her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged (Isa_13:22). But these and similar words must refer to more than the destruction of a certain Chaldean city then or afterwards. How can we limit them to it when we find such words as those in Isa_13:11-13? Instead of being, as some suppose, an interpolated fragment, the burden of Babylon comes in to make all the visitations upon the other tribes of the earth intelligible. They are diverse but harmonious portions of the same Divine message to man—a message of terror, but also of deliverance and hope. In chap. 14 we feel how wonderfully these are combined.
But though most feel something of the grandeur of this poetry, and a few the truth of this prophecy, we do not enough consider upon what both are founded. The God-Man was the ground upon which the Jewish nation stood; here you have the contrast—the Man-God; he would ascend up to heaven and exalt his throne above the stars of God. This is the natural ruler of a society which counts the gold of Ophir more precious than human beings. We have here the Babylonian power and the Jerusalem power, that parody of human and Divine greatness which is seen in an earthly tyrant, that perfect reconciliation of divinity and humanity which is seen in the Redeemer. Consider both images well. Both are presented to us; we must admire and copy one of them; and whichever we take, we must resolutely discard the other. If we have ever mixed them together in our minds, a time is at hand that will separate them for ever. The Babylonian mark and image, your own evil nature, a corrupt society, the evil spirit, have been striving to stamp you ever since your childhood. Each hour you are tempted to think a man less precious than the gold of Ophir; the current maxims of the world take for granted that he is; you in a thousand ways are acting on those maxims. Oh, remember that in them, and in the habits, which they beget, lies the certain presage of slavery for men and nations, the foretaste of decay and ruin, which no human contrivances can avert, which the gifts and blessings of God’s providence only accelerate. May God grant us power to cast Babylonian principles out of our hearts, that when they come before us we may despise them and laugh them to scorn, knowing that not against us but against the Holy One the enemy is exalting himself. In that day may we be able to sing the song which the prophet said should be sung in the land of Judah (Isa_26:1-4).—F. D. Maurice, M.A.: Prophets and Kings, pp. 272–290.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 I. The text is a promise in the guise…
Isa 13:12
I. The text is a promise in the guise of a threat. It is a threat to one nation, but a promise to mankind. The text is speaking of the devastation of war men shall be so scarce that gold itself shall lose its preciousness. The overthrow of a nation is predicted here; the destruction of the mighty Babylonian empire. In that contempt of man, which at the first her pride and lust of possession revealed, was hidden Babylon’s doom. The nation so lavish of human life was to die utterly out; the empire which sets no value on men for lack of men shall perish.
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II. Our text is prophetic of the doom and discipline of the exclusive spirit. "Godlike isolation" is an inhuman thing; nay, isolation is not Godlike, for God is love. It is the Divine in man to which the prophecy of our text is spoken. To man, as to God, there is naught on earth so precious and so dear as man.
III. How wonderful is the fulfilment of our text in the Gospel! The doctrine of a common redemption has awakened in the Christian consciousness the sense of a vast human kin, unfavoured, unblessed, left to themselves, like sheep not having a shepherd. It is the worth of lost humanity which is revealed to us in the redemption by Christ, and which the Gospel will not let us forget. Christ welcomed the forgotten people, the wretched, the neglected, the sin-stricken, to Himself, and forced them into the society of His people. He calls them His own; He says that to forget them is to forget Himself. He has opened the eyes of His followers by touching their hearts.
A. Mackennal, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvi, p. 248.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Judgment of Babylon and its King
The Judgment of Babylon and its King
This is the first of a series of prophecies dealing mainly with foreign nations. Its subject is Babylon, where the Jews are represented as undergoing exile, from which they are about to be delivered (Isa_14:1-3) owing to the capture of Babylon by the Medes (Isa_13:17). The historical setting of the prophecy is thus much later than the age of Isaiah, in whose time the Assyrians were the great-enemies of God's people. On this ground most modern scholars regard this section as non-Isaianic, and date it during the Babylonian exile. As the Medes alone (not Cyrus and the Persians) are mentioned as the instruments used by God in the deliverance of His people, the prophecy must be dated before 549 b.c., the year in which Cyrus overthrew the Medes, who afterwards were united with him in the conquest of Babylon (538 b.c)..
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Isa_13:1. Title prefixed to the section.
2-18. Hostile hosts are mustered to carry out Jehovah's purpose of judgment against Babylon,
19-22. with the result that it shall be utterly desolate.
Isa_14:1-3. The deliverance of captive Israel.
4-20. A song of triumph over the king of Babylon. 1st scene: Hades, where the spirit of the vainglorious monarch is brought low (4-15). 2nd scene: The battle-field, where his dishonoured corpse lies with the slain (16-20).
21-23. The completeness of Babylon's overthrow.
1. Burden] The corresponding verb means 'to lift up' (a) a load, (b) the voice (cp. Isa_3:7; Isa_42:2, Isa_42:11), used of Balaam lifting up his voice in oracular utterance (Num_24:3, Num_24:15, Num_24:23). Hence the noun signifies an utterance, or oracle (e.g. 2Ki_9:25), and is often prefixed, as here, to prophetic utterances (Zec_9:1; Zec_12:1; Pro_31:1). Since it is often applied to threatening utterances, the meaning of 'burden' is also suitable. In Jer_23:33 there is a play on the two meanings of the word.
2. Banner] RV 'ensign,' i.e. a signal for the mustering of distant armies (Isa_5:26). High] RV 'bare,' i.e. without trees; upon such a mountain the signal would be clearly seen. Unto them] i.e. the people whom the prophet has in mind, though they have not yet been mentioned.
Shake the hand] the threatening gesture of besiegers (Isa_10:32).
3. Sanctified ones] RV 'consecrated ones,' i.e. warriors. The thought may be that the war is a holy one, Babylon's destroyers being the ministers of Jehovah's vengeance.
4. The prophet hears the noise of the armies assembling at the signal (Isa_13:2). Of the battle] RV 'for the battle.'
6. The Almighty] Heb. Shaddai, a name of God frequent in the Pentateuch, and belong-to the pre-Mosaic revelation (Exo_6:3); it is not often found in the prophets, and when it occurs the severe and awful aspect of the divine nature is the more prominent one (Joe_1:15; Eze_1:24; Eze_10:5).
8. As flames] RV 'faces of flame,' i.e. flushed with agitation.
10. The day of Jehovah is accompanied by signs in the heavens as in Joe_2:10, Joe_2:31; Joe_3:15; Zep_1:14, Zep_1:15. Such language need not be understood literally, but vividly expresses a time of terror and dismay.
12. Precious] RV 'rare'; the slaughter will be so great that few men will be left (Isa_24:6). Golden wedge] RV 'pure gold'; the gold of Ophir was most esteemed.
13. See a similar description Hag_2:6. The prophets are carried in thought beyond the particular political convulsion in view to the final overthrow of all that is hostile to God.
14. RV 'And it shall come to pass that as,' etc. That no man taketh up] i.e. without a shepherd. They shall.. turn] i.e. the settlers in Babylon, either taken captive from other countries, or resorting thither for trade (Jer_50:16), will, on the overthrow of the city, disperse to their own lands.
15. The reason for the hurried flight of Isa_13:14 the fall of the city will be accompanied by indiscriminate slaughter.
Joined unto them] i.e. by colonisation. But RV 'taken,' not having been able to make good his escape.
16. The atrocities referred to frequently accompanied the sack of a city (2Ki_8:12; Hos_10:14; Hos_13:16).
17. The invaders of Babylon are here first mentioned by name, though the prophet has had them in mind from Isa_13:2. The Medes had settled in the district SW. of the Caspian Sea, and are mentioned in Assyrian annals from Sargon's time onwards (cp. 2Ki_17:6; 2Ki_18:11): see intro. to this section. Shall not regard] i.e. they are not to be turned aside by bribes.
18. Bows] The Medes were noted archers (Jer_51:11).
19. Excellency] RV 'pride.'
20. Make their fold] RV 'make their flocks to lie down.' A more terrible desolation awaits Babylon than that which had been foretold for Judah (Isa_7:21, Isa_7:25).
21. Doleful creatures] probably owls. Owls] RV 'ostriches.' Satyrs] i.e. uncanny creatures, or demons (so Targum, LXX, and Syr.), such as were thought by the Jews to haunt ruins and desert places: cp. Luk_11:24. But as the other names in the context stand for animals many prefer to render, 'he-goats' (RM, Vulg.).
22. The wild.. houses] RV 'wolves shall cry in their castles.' Dragons] RV 'jackals.' The anticipation of the utter ruin of Babylon has been literally fulfilled. In 538 b.c. it was captured by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus; and, though its glory lingered for a time, it died away before the beginning of the Christian era, and Babylon is now, and has long been, only a heap of ruins.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1, 9, 19 A "burden," Heb. massa= a heavy, weighty thing, is…
burden
A "burden," Heb. massa= a heavy, weighty thing, is a message, or oracle concerning Babylon, Assyria, Jerusalem, etc. It is "heavy" because the wrath of God is in it, and grievous for the prophet to declare.
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Babylon
The city, Babylon is not in view here, as the immediate context shows. It is important to note the significance of the name when used symbolically. "Babylon" is the Greek form: invariably in the O.T. Hebrew the word is simply Babel, the meaning of which is confusion, and in this sense the word is used symbolically.
(1) In the prophets, when the actual city is not meant, the reference is to the "confusion" into which the whole social order of the world has fallen under Gentile world-domination. (See "Times of the Gentiles," Luk 21:24; Rev 16:14; Isa 13:4 gives the divine view of the welter of warring Gentile powers. The divine order is given in Isaiah 11. Israel in her own land, the centre of the divine government of the world and channel of the divine blessing; and the Gentiles blessed in association with Israel. Anything else is, politically, mere "babel."
(2) In Rev 14:8-11; Rev 16:19 the Gentile world-system is in view in connection with Armageddon; Rev 16:14; Rev 19:21 while in Revelation 17. the reference is to apostate Christianity, destroyed by the nations Rev 17:16 headed up under the Beast; Dan 7:8; Rev 19:20 and false prophet. In Isaiah the political Babylon is in view, literally as to the then existing city, and symbolically as to the times of the Gentiles. In the Revelation both the symbolical- political and symbolical-religious Babylon are in view, for there both are alike under the tyranny of the Beast. Religious Babylon is destroyed by political Babylon Rev 17:16 political Babylon by the appearing of the Lord Rev 19:19-21. That Babylon the city is not to be rebuilt is clear from; Isa 13:19-22; Jer 51:24-26; Jer 51:62-64. By political Babylon is meant the Gentile world-system. (See "World,"; Joh 7:7; Rev 13:8) It may be added that, in Scripture symbolism, Egypt stands for the world as such; Babylon for the world of corrupt power and corrupted religion; Nineveh for the pride, the haughty glory of the world.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 2. The judgment of the Nations and the Future…
2. The judgment of the Nations and the Future Day of Jehovah (13-27)
CHAPTER 13
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The Burden of Babylon
1. Jehovah’s call to the judgment of Babylon (Isa 13:1-5) 2. The day of Jehovah: When Babylon falls (Isa 13:6-16) 3. Babylon overthrown (Isa 13:17-22)The great judgments announced in this part of Isaiah were only partially fulfilled in the past. The great Babylon which came into existence as the mistress of the world after this prophecy had been given, fell by the Medes (verse 17 and Dan 5:1-31. The judgment of this Babylon is meant here first. But the Babylon of the past is the type of a Babylon of the future, another mistress of the ecclesiastical and commercial world. It is yet to appear in its final form Rev 17:1-18; Rev 18:1-24). Its fall comes in the day of the Lord. This great day is described in Isa 13:6-16 in this chapter.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 14 General Introduction to the Prophecies of Wrath
General Introduction to the Prophecies of Wrath
v. 1. The burden of Babylon, the sentence of judgment revealed by special inspiration of the Lord, which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, did see:
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v. 2. Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, raising the standard of battle upon a deforested peak, where it may be visible from all sides, exalt the voice unto them, calling in urgent invitation, shake the hand, in a beckoning gesture, that they may go into the gates of the nobles, summoned to celebrate a victorious battle, a war against the enemies which would result in a glorious triumph.
v. 3. I have commanded My sanctified ones, Jehovah Himself summoning the warriors consecrated to His work, I have also called My mighty ones for Mine anger, the heroes who should carry out the purposes of His wrath, even them that rejoice in My highness, boasting of the victory won in His might.
v. 4. The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people, a turmoil as when masses of people, great armies, congregate; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together, an exceptionally large and powerful host. The Lord of hosts, the Commander-in-chief of all heavenly forces, mustereth the host of the battle, ready to carry out His plan of punishment upon the heathen.
v. 5. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, from beyond the horizon, where the earth appears to be hounded by the sky, even the Lord, and the weapons of His indignation, to destroy the whole land, literally, "to overturn the whole earth," for the entire world, then known, would feel the ravages of the war of destruction determined upon by Jehovah. The prophet now turns directly to the heathen nations, with Babylon in the lead:
v. 6. Howl ye, in consternation and terror; for the day of the Lord is at hand, when He intends to carry out His judgment; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty, all the enemies being included in this threat and all opposition being declared useless from the start.
v. 7. Therefore shall all hands be faint, hanging down limp and without strength, and every man’s heart shall melt, like water, said of an utter lack of courage, of complete hopelessness;
v. 8. and they shall be afraid, terrified in bewilderment; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them, their terror showing in convulsive movements; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth, Joe 2:6; they shall be amazed one at another, staring with all evidences of extreme terror, their faces shall be as flames, alternately reddening and blanching as their fear drives the blood back and forth in the body.
v. 9. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, the day of His vengeance, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, consuming with its heat, to lay the land desolate; and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it, for the Lord here has the whole earth in mind.
v. 10. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light, the figure of utter darkness pointing to the severity of the punishment; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, ceasing to shine as soon as it rises, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. All this, as in Joe 3:4 and Amo 5:8, indicates that all hope would be vain.
v. 11. And I will punish the world for their evil and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, so that the voice of boasting is no longer heard, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible, putting down the tyrants and stopping their violence.
v. 12. I will make a man more precious than fine gold, humankind becoming rarer on earth than the choicest gold, even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir, noted for the purity and the rich amounts of the gold it produced. In this manner would the Lord visit the world with His anger, to punish and annihilate it in the extremity of His wrath.
v. 13. Therefore I will shake the heavens, namely for the purpose of punishing the earth and making men scarce on it, and the earth shall remove out of her place, being crowded aside, as it were, by the immensity of God’s indignation, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and In the day of His fierce anger. All creatures that are not objects of His punishment are bound to become its instruments, for He is determined to make this chastisement a type and a beginning of the final Judgment upon a godless world.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 about Babylon
about Babylon
The name of the city stands for the people of Babylon. AT: "about the people of Babylon" (See: Metonymy)
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Amoz
Amoz was the father of Isaiah. See how you translated this in Isaiah 1:1. (See: How to Translate Names)
cry aloud to them
The word "them" refers to soldiers from another country.
the gates of the nobles
Possible meanings are 1) "the gates of Babylon where the nobles live" or 2) "the gates of the nobles' large houses" (See: Metonymy)
the nobles
"the respected people" or "the rulers"
my holy ones
"the ones I have set apart for myself" or "the army that I have set apart for myself"
I have called my mighty men to execute my anger
Executing God's anger represents punishing people because of God's anger. AT: "I have called my mighty soldiers to punish the people of Babylon because they have made me angry" (See: Metonymy)
even my proudly exulting ones
"even those who proudly exult." Why they proudly exult can be stated clearly. AT: "even my people who proudly exult because of the great things I do" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
declare
Babylon
Isaiah
Amoz
gate
command
holy
might
anger
proud
exult
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20 13:1–23:18 This section contains prophecies of judgment against the…
13:1–23:18 This section contains prophecies of judgment against the nations. By including a prophecy against Judah and Jerusalem (22:1-25) in the midst of prophecies against the pagan nations, Isaiah emphasized that Israel’s identity as God’s people would not protect them from God’s punishment when they sinned as the other nations do.
13:1 At the time of this prophecy, Assyria was the major power. Isaiah anticipated the rise of Babylon as an even crueler kingdom that would destroy Judah and Jerusalem (39:6-7; chs 46–47). The universal language of 13:1–14:23 suggests that in this context, Babylon represents all wicked and arrogant nations in the same way that “Babylon the Great” does in the book of Revelation (Rev 18). Therefore, while this description of Babylon’s fall applies to the fall of historic Babylon in 539 BC, it also applies until the final judgment against the ultimate kingdom of evil (Rev 19).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.