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.
Parallel Translations
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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.
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Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.
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And their bows shall dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Isaiah 13:18 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 2 Kings 8:12 Hazael said, “Why do you weep, my lord?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel. You will set their strongholds on fire, and you will kill their young men with the sword, and will dash their little ones in pieces, and rip up their pregnant women.”
- 2 Chronicles 36:17 Therefore he brought on them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or gray-headed. He gave them all into his hand.
- Isaiah 13:16 Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.
- Ezekiel 9:5-6 To the others he said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him, and strike. Don’t let your eye spare, neither have pity. Kill utterly the old man, the young man, the virgin, little children and women; but don’t come near any man on whom is the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” Then they began at the old men who were before the house.
- Ezekiel 9:10 As for me also, my eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way on their head.”
- Hosea 13:16 Samaria will bear her guilt; for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.”
- Nahum 2:1 He who dashes in pieces has come up against you. Keep the fortress! Watch the way! Strengthen your waist! Fortify your power mightily!
- Nahum 3:10 Yet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 13:18 [Their] bows also shall dash the young…
Isa 13:18 [Their] bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.
Ver. 18. Their bows also shall dash the young men.] They shall double destroy them. O barbaram crudelitatem! O cruel barbarian. {a}
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And they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb.] Quamvis adhuc teneri essent et fructus novelli, ripping up their mothers; {as Amo 1:13} or at the Sicilian Vespers; and as in the late Parisian and Irish massacres, which were the most prodigious horrid villanies that ever the sun saw.
Their eye shall not spare children.] In the massacre of Paris, a bloody Papist having snatched up a little child from one of the Protestants in his arms, the poor babe began to play with his beard, and to smile upon him. But he, more merciless than a tiger, stabbed it with a dagger, and so cast it all gory and bloody into the river. {b}
{a} Incredibilis sanguinis aviditas in milite bacchabitur.
{b} Acts. and Mon.
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 Their bows; under which are comprehended their arrows, and…
Their bows; under which are comprehended their arrows, and possibly other weapons of war; for so generally sometimes is the bow used in Scripture, as 2Sa 1:18; Psa 78:9; Isa 41:2. Shall dash the young men to pieces; or, shall pierce the young men through, as the Chaldee readers it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Their bows also shall dash their young men to…
Their bows also shall dash their young men to pieces,.... That is, the bows of the Medes should dash in pieces the young men of the Babylonians. The meaning is, either that they should put them into their bows, instead of arrows, and shoot them upon the ground, or against a wall, and so dash them to pieces; or that they should first shoot them through with their arrows, and then dash them with their bows; according to Xenophon (l), Cyrus came to Babylon with great numbers of archers and slingers:
and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; even of those that were in the womb, but should rip up women with child, and cut them in pieces:
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their eyes shall not spare children; in the arms of their parents, or running to them, shrieking and crying, and in the utmost fright; and yet their tender and innocent age would meet with no mercy. The Medes were notorious for their cruelty (m), and which issued at last in the ruin of their empire.
(l) Cyropaedia, l. 2. sect. 1. (m) Ammian. Marcellin. l. 23. c. 6. Diodor. Sicul. l. 13. p. 342.
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 Bows - Under which are comprehended, other weapons of…
Bows - Under which are comprehended, other weapons of war. Dash - Or, shalt pierce the young men through, as the Chaldee, renders it.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 18. Their bows also shall dash - "Their…
Verse 18. Their bows also shall dash - "Their bows shall dash"] Both Herodotus, i. 61, and Xenophon, Anab. iii., mention, that the Persians used large bows τοξαμεγαλα: and the latter says particularly that their bows were three cubits long, Anab. iv. They were celebrated for their archers, see Isa 22:6; Jer 49:35. Probably their neighours and allies, the Medes, dealt much in the same sort of arms. In Ps 18:34, and Job 20:24, mention is made of a bow of steel; if the Persian bows were of metal, we may easily conceive that with a metalline bow of three cubits' length, and proportionably strong, the soldiers might dash and slay the young men, the weaker and unresisting of the inhabitants (for they are joined with the fruit of the womb and the children) in the general carnage on taking the city. תרתשנה terattashnah, shall be broken or shivered to pieces. This seems to refer, not to נערים nearim, young men, but to קשתות keshathoth, their bows. The bows of the young men shall be broken to pieces.
On the fruit, &c. - "And on the fruit," &c.] A MS. of Dr. Kennicott's reads ועל פרי veal peri and on the fruit. And nine MSS. (three ancient) and two editions, with the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac, add likewise the conjunction ו vau, and, to על al, upon, afterwards.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Their bows also - Bows and arrows were the…
Their bows also - Bows and arrows were the usual weapons of the ancients in war; and the Persians were particularly skilled in their use. According to Xenophon, Cyrus came to Babylon with a great number of archers and slingers (Cyrop. ii. 1).
Shall dash the young men ... - That is, they shall dash the young men to pieces, or kill them by their bows and arrows. Vulgate, ‘And with their arrows shall they slay the young.’ The meaning of the word here rendered ‘dash to pieces,’ is to smite suddenly to the ground.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain bows--in the use of which the Persians were particularly…
bows--in the use of which the Persians were particularly skilled.
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 18. Their bows — Of very ancient use, generally…
18. Their bows — Of very ancient use, generally made of wood, in a few instances of brass. Persian archers are spoken of with applause in profane history. See also Isa_22:3; Isa_22:6, and Jer_49:35; Jer_50:9; Jer_50:14; Jer_50:29; Jer_50:42.
No pity — Anciently, if the conqueror came in revenge of former wrongs it was the law of war to spare neither men, women, nor children. (On the subject of ancient war, see JAHN’S Hebrew Archaeology.)
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (18) Their bows also shall dash the young men…
(18) Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces.—These, as in Isa_22:6, Jer_1:9-14, were the characteristic weapons of the Medo-Persian armies.
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 Their bows. (comp. Jer_1:9, Jer_1:14) Both the Medes and…
Their bows. (comp. Jer_1:9, Jer_1:14) Both the Medes and the Persians were skilled archers. Herodotus tells us that every Persian youth was taught three things ride, to draw the bow, and to speak the truth" (1. 136). At Persepolis, Modes and Persians are alike represented as carrying bows and quivers. Aeschyius regards the contest between the Persians and the Greeks as one between the arrow and the spear ("Persae," 11. 135, 136).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain (Sunday-School Anniversary Sermon.)
SPARE THE CHILDREN
(Sunday-School Anniversary Sermon.)
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Isa_13:18. Their eye shall not spare children.
This declaration is made concerning the Medes, by whom the power of Babylon was destined to be broken. So thoroughly bent will they be upon their mission of revenge, that they will not be turned away from it by any appeals either to their avarice (Isa_13:17) or to their pity (text). The helplessness of infancy and the innocence of youth, which are naturally so impressive and persuasive, will not avail to stay them in their devastating career.
We should display a singular ignorance of the world in which we live, if we were therefore to pronounce the Medes exceptional monsters of iniquity. Alas! there are many imitators of their relentless cruelty. In our own land children are not spared in relation to evils even more terrible than war. Youth is always beset by dangers, even when it is most carefully guarded; but when it is specially under the influence of wicked men, it is often ruthlessly sacrificed. Widespread is the spirit of evil which knows not how to pity it. Examples of its existence and operations are to be found—
1. In houses where the most hurtful principles and vicious practices are continually set before children. From their youth up they are not spared from the most disastrous influences (H. E. I., 775–779).
2. In business, where often the most sacred interests of childhood are sacrificed for the sake of gain. Their health, by inflicting upon them excessive labour. Even their morality, by fiends who tempt them into haunts of vice. Compared with these incarnations of diabolical cruelty, the Medes were merciful.
The season of childhood appeals to our concern and should awake our compassion—
1. By its helplessness. It has to lean upon others.
2. By its ignorance. It has had no time to learn (H. E. I., 780).
3. By its inexperience. Unless it is aided by the guidance of mature wisdom, it must almost necessarily go astray.
4. By its peculiar susceptibility to every kind of moral influence. To these appeals let us give reverent, cheerful, and thoughtful heed. Let us not be content to shudder at this prediction concerning the Medes, or at such historical records as that of the slaughter of the children of Bethlehem (Matthew 2); let us make the children the objects of our care.
1. Let us spare our own children, from all unreasonable demands upon them, from the mischiefs that will inevitably come upon them if we do not carefully train them in the way they should go.
2. Let us spare the children of the poor from the evils of ignorance. These evils are terrible and far-reaching. Not to rescue them from these evils when we have the power to do so, is to doom them to them. In the Sunday-school we have a means of rescue which we cannot neglect without sin.—William Manning.
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.