Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This people didn’t exist. The Assyrians founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin.
Parallel Translations
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Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This people didn’t exist. The Assyrians founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin.
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Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.
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Behold, the land of the Chaldeans — this is the people that was not, when Asshur founded it for shipmen — they set up their towers, they overthrew the palaces thereof; it is made a ruin.
Cross-references (19)
Passages linked to Isaiah 23:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Habakkuk 1:6 For, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, that march through the width of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
- Genesis 2:14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel. This is the one which flows in front of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
- Genesis 10:10-11 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land he went into Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah,
- Genesis 11:9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there Yahweh confused the language of all the earth. From there, Yahweh scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth.
- Genesis 11:28 Haran died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees, while his father Terah was still alive.
- Genesis 11:31 Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife. They went from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran and lived there.
- 2 Kings 17:24 The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, from Cuthah, from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and lived in its cities.
- 2 Kings 20:12 At that time Berodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
- 2 Chronicles 33:11 Therefore Yahweh brought on them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
- Ezra 4:9-10 then Rehum the chancellor, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions, the Dinaites, and the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Shushanchites, the Dehaites, the Elamites, and the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Osnappar brought over, and set in the city of Samaria, and in the rest of the country beyond the River, and so forth, wrote.
- Job 1:17 While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “The Chaldeans made three bands, and swept down on the camels, and have taken them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
- Psalms 72:9 Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him. His enemies shall lick the dust.
- Isaiah 10:5 Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation!
- Isaiah 10:7 However he doesn’t mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations.
- Isaiah 13:19 Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
- Ezekiel 26:7-21 “For the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will bring on Tyre Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, from the north, with horses, with chariots, with horsemen, and an army with many people. He will kill your daughters in the field with the sword. He will make forts against you, cast up a mound against you, and raise up the buckler against you. He will set his battering engines against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers. By reason of the abundance of his horses, their dust will cover you. Your walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen, of the wagons, and of the chariots, when he enters into your gates, as men enter into a city which is broken open. He will tread down all your streets with the hoofs of his horses. He will kill your people with the sword. The pillars of your strength will go down to the ground. They will make a plunder of your riches, and make a prey of your merchandise. They will break down your walls, and destroy your pleasant houses. They will lay your stones, your timber, and your dust in the middle of the waters. I will cause the noise of your songs to cease. The sound of your harps won’t be heard any more. I will make you a bare rock. You will be a place for the spreading of nets. You will be built no more; for I Yahweh have spoken it,’ says the Lord Yahweh. “The Lord Yahweh says to Tyre: ‘Won’t the islands shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, when the slaughter is made within you? Then all the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and strip off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling. They will sit on the ground, and will tremble every moment, and be astonished at you. They will take up a lamentation over you, and tell you, “How you are destroyed, who were inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, who was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who caused their terror to be on all who lived there!” Now the islands will tremble in the day of your fall. Yes, the islands that are in the sea will be dismayed at your departure.’ “For the Lord Yahweh says: ‘When I make you a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I bring up the deep on you, and the great waters cover you; then I will bring you down with those who descend into the pit, to the people of old time, and will make you dwell in the lower parts of the earth, in the places that are desolate of old, with those who go down to the pit, that you be not inhabited; and I will set glory in the land of the living. I will make you a terror, and you will no more have any being. Though you are sought for, yet you will never be found again,’ says the Lord Yahweh.”
- Ezekiel 29:18 “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was worn; yet he had no wages, nor did his army, from Tyre, for the service that he had served against it.
- Daniel 4:30 The king spoke and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling place, by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?”
- Acts 7:4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land, where you are now living.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The people of the Chaldeans destroyed the Assyrians: whereby…
The people of the Chaldeans destroyed the Assyrians: whereby the Prophet meaneth, that seeing the Chaldeans were able to overcome the Assyrians which were so great a nation, much more shall these two nations of Chaldea and Assyria be able to overthrow Tyre.
The Chaldeans which dwelt in tents in the wilderness, were gathered by the Assyrians into cities.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 23:13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this…
Isa 23:13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, [till] the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; [and] he brought it to ruin.
Ver. 13. Behold the land of the Chaldeans,] q.d., The Chaldees were once no such considerable people, but lay hid under the grandeur of the Assyrian monarchy, which did set them up. Howbeit in time the Assyrians at length were devoured by the Chaldees, Nineveh by Babylon; Filia devoravit matrem, as the proverb is. And why may not the like be done to Tyre? Others make this to be the prophet’s speech to the Chaldees, Behold, O land of the Chaldees! This people, of Tyre, was not, however they boast of their antiquity, till the Assyrians, those monarchs of the world, founded it, Ut esset statio carinis, to be a fit place for shipping, or for barbarians. See 2Ki 17:24. Down with it, therefore; bring it to vastity. {a}
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{a} Calvin.
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 Behold the land of the Chaldeans; you Tyrians, who…
Behold the land of the Chaldeans; you Tyrians, who think your city impregnable, cast your eyes upon the land and empire of the Chaldeans, or Babylonians; which though now it be a flourishing kingdom, and shall shortly grow far more glorious and potent, even the glory of kingdoms, as it is called, Isa 13:19, yet. shall certainly be brought to utter ruin; and therefore your presumption is most vain and unreasonable.
This people was not: the Chaldeans at first were not a people, not formed into any commonwealth or kingdom.
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Till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness; till Nimrod, the head and founder of the Assyrian monarchy, built Babel, Gen 10:10, now the head of the Chaldean monarchy, which he built for those people, who then lived in tents, and were dispersed here and there in wild and waste places, that he might bring them into order, and under government, and thereby establish and promote his own empire.
They set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; the Chaldeans being by this means brought together into a body, fell to the work of building their city, and its towers and palaces, and thereby got power and dominion over their neighbours, till at last they grew the greatest of all the monarchies that then were upon earth.
He; the Lord, who is expressed before, and is frequently designed in Scripture by this indefinite pronoun he, as hath been many times observed; whereby he insinuates the true reason why neither the Chaldeans nor the Tyrians should be able to stand, because the Almighty God was engaged against them. Brought it to ruin; will infallibly bring that great empire to ruin. He speaks of a future thing as if it were already past, as the prophets use to do. The Chaldeans shall now return to their first nothing, and become no people again.
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 Behold the land of the Chaldeans,.... Not Tyre, as…
Behold the land of the Chaldeans,.... Not Tyre, as some think, so called, because founded by the Chaldeans, who finding it a proper place for "ships", so they render the word "tziim", afterward used, and which is so interpreted by Jarchi, built the city of Tyre; but the country called Chaldea is here meant, and the Babylonish empire and monarchy, particularly Babylon, the head of it:
this people was not; a people, or of any great note and figure:
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till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness; Nimrod was the first builder of Babel, in the land of Shinar, and from that land went forth Ashur, and built Nineveh, the city Rehoboth, and Calah, which were built for people that lived scattered up and down in fields and desert places; so that the Assyrians were the first founders of Chaldea; and after it had been inhabited by the Chaldeans, it was seized upon by the Assyrians, and became a province of theirs:
they set up the towers thereof; the towers of Babylon, not of Tyre. Jarchi interprets it of building bulwarks against Tyre:
they raised up the palaces thereof; the stately buildings of Babylon; or razed them; so Jarchi; also the Targum,
"they destroyed the palaces thereof:''
and he brought it to ruin: or he will do it; the past tense for the future, i.e. God will bring Babylon to ruin; and therefore it need not seem strange that Tyre should be destroyed, since this would be the case of Babylon. Sir John Marsham (g) interprets the words thus,
"look upon Babylon, the famous metropolis of the Chaldeans; the people, that possess that city, not along ago dwelt in deserts, having no certain habitation; Nabonassar the Assyrian brought men thither, the Scenites (the inhabitants of Arabia Deserta, so called from their dwelling in tents); he fortified the city, he raised up towers, and built palaces; such now was this city, founded by the Assyrian; yet God hath brought it to ruin; Babylon shall be destroyed as Tyre;''
and this instance is brought to show that a city and a people, more ancient and powerful than Tyre, either had been or would be destroyed; and therefore need not call in question the truth or credibility of the prophecy relating to Tyre; but the sense of the whole, according to Vitringa, seems rather to be this: "behold the land of the Chaldeans"; the country they now inhabit; take notice of what is now about to be said; it may seem strange and marvellous: "this people was not"; not that they were of a late original, for they were an ancient people, who descended from Chesed, the son of Nahor, but for a long time of no account, that lived scattered up and down in desert places: till "the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness"; he drove out the Arabians from Mesopotamia, and translated the Chaldeans thither, who before inhabited the wilderness: "they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces"; that is, the Assyrians fortified and adorned the city of Babylon, the metropolis of the country; so Herodotus (h) says the Assyrian kings adorned the walls and temples of Babylon; now behold this land of the Chaldeans, or the people that inhabit it, as poor and as low as they have been, who owe their all to the Assyrians, even these "shall bring" Tyre "to ruin"; so that the instruments of the ruin of Tyre are here described; which, when this prophecy was delivered, might seem improbable, the Assyrians being possessors of monarchy.
(g) Canon. Chronic. Egypt, &c. p. 509. Ed. 4to. (h) Clio, sive l. 1. c. 184.
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 Behold - Thou Tyrians, cast your eyes upon the…
Behold - Thou Tyrians, cast your eyes upon the Chaldeans or Babylonians; who tho' now flourishing, grow far more glorious and potent, even the glory of kingdoms, yet shall certainly be brought to utter ruin. This people - The Chaldeans at first were not a people, not formed into any commonwealth or kingdom, 'till Nimrod, the head and founder of the Assyrian monarchy, built Babel, Gen. x, 9, 10, now the head of the Chaldean monarchy; which he built for those people, who then lived in tents, and were dispersed here and there in waste places. He - The Lord. To ruin - Will infallibly bring that great empire to ruin. He speaks of a future thing as if it were already past.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 13. Behold the land of the Chaldeans] This…
Verse 13. Behold the land of the Chaldeans] This verse is extremely obscure; the obscurity arises from the ambiguity of the agents, which belong to the verbs, and of the objects expressed by the pronouns; from the change of number of the verbs, and of gender in the pronouns. The MSS. give us no assistance, and the ancient Versions very little. The Chaldee and Vulgate read שמוה samoah, in the plural number. I have followed the interpretation which, among many different ones, seemed to be most probable, that of Perizonius and Vitringa.
The Chaldeans, Chasdim, are supposed to have had their origin, and to have taken their name, from Chesed, the son of Nachor, the brother of Abraham. They were known by that name in the time of Moses, who calls Ur in Mesopotamia, from whence Abraham came, to distinguish it from other places of the same name, Ur of the Chaldeans. And Jeremiah calls them an ancient nation. This is not inconsistent with what Isaiah here says of them: "This people was not," that is, they were of no account, (see De 32:21;) they were not reckoned among the great and potent nations of the world till of later times; they were a rude, uncivilized, barbarous people, without laws, without settled habitations; wandering in a wide desert country (ציים tsiyim) and addicted to rapine like the wild Arabians. Such they are represented to have been in the time of Job, Job 1:17, and such they continued to be till Assur, some powerful king of Assyria, gathered them together, and settled them in Babylon in the neighbouring country. This probably was Ninus, whom I suppose to have lived in the time of the Judges. In this, with many eminent chronologers, I follow the authority of Herodotus, who says that the Assyrian monarchy lasted but five hundred and twenty years. Ninus got possession of Babylon from the Cuthean Arabians; the successors of Nimrod in that empire collected the Chaldeans, and settled a colony of them there to secure the possession of the city, which he and his successors greatly enlarged and ornamented. They had perhaps been useful to him in his wars, and might be likely to be farther useful in keeping under the old inhabitants of that city, and of the country belonging to it; according to the policy of the Assyrian kings, who generally brought new people into the conquered countries; see Isa 36:17; 2Kg 17:6; 2Kg 17:24. The testimony of Dicaearchus, a Greek historian contemporary with Alexander, (apud. Steph. de Urbibus, in voc. Χαλδαιος,) in regard to the fact is remarkable, though he is mistaken in the name of the king he speaks of. He says that "a certain king of Assyria, the fourteenth in succession from Ninus, (as he might be, if Ninus is placed, as in the common chronology, eight hundred years higher than we have above set him,) named, as it is said, Chaldaeus, having gathered together and united all the people called Chaldeans, built the famous city, Babylon, upon the Euphrates." - L.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Isa 23:13. Behold the land of the Chaldeans, &c.…
Isa 23:13. Behold the land of the Chaldeans, &c. — This verse, in which there is much obscurity, will admit of different interpretations. One adopted by Dr. Lightfoot and some others, is to this purpose. Behold, how easily the land of the Chaldeans was destroyed by the Assyrians, though their own hands founded it, set up the tower of Babylon, and raised up its palaces; yet he, the Assyrian, brought it to ruin: the king of Assyria having lately taken Babylon, and made it tributary to the Assyrian empire. Another and more probable interpretation is thus stated by Poole, and adopted by Lowth: “You Tyrians, who think your city impregnable, cast your eyes upon the land and empire of the Chaldeans, or Babylonians; which though now it be a flourishing kingdom, and shall shortly become more glorious and potent, yet shall certainly be brought to utter ruin: and therefore your presumption is unreasonable and vain.” The last clause especially, in the original, שׂמה למפלה, he hath placed, or appointed, it for ruin, seems evidently to favour this interpretation. Bishop Newton, however, (with whom Bishop Lowth, Dr. Waterland, and many others agree,) understands the prophet as speaking in this clause, not of the ruin of Babylon, but of Tyre. He therefore interprets the verse thus: “Behold — An exclamation, that he is going to utter something new and extraordinary; the land of the Chaldeans — That is, Babylon, and the country about Babylon; this people was not — Was of no note or eminence; till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness — They dwelt before in tents, and led a wandering life in the wilderness, till the Assyrians built Babylon for their reception. They set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof — Herodotus, Ctesias, and other ancient historians agree, that the kings of Assyria fortified and beautified Babylon; and he — That is, this people,” (as Bishop Lowth renders it,) “mentioned before, the Chaldeans or Babylonians, brought it to ruin — That is, Tyre, which is the subject of the whole prophecy. The Assyrians were at that time the great monarchs of the East; the Chaldeans were their slaves and subjects; and therefore it is the more extraordinary that the prophet should, so many years beforehand, foresee the successes and conquests of the Chaldeans.”
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 Behold the land of the Chaldeans - This is…
Behold the land of the Chaldeans - This is a very important verse, as it expresses the source from where these calamities were coming upon Tyre; and as it states some historical facts of great interest respecting the rise of Babylon. In the previous verses the prophet had foretold the certain destruction of Tyre, and had said that whoever was the agent, it was to be traced to the overruling providence of God. He here states distinctly that the agent in accomplishing all this would be the Chaldeans - a statement which fixes the time to the siege of Nebuchadnezzar, and proves that it does not refer to the conquest by Alexander the Great. A part of this verse should be read as a parenthesis, and its general sense has been well expressed by Lowth, who has followed Vitringa:
‘Behold the land of the Chaldeans;
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This people was of no account;
(The Assyrian founded it for the inhabitants of the desert;
They raised the watch towers, they set up the palaces thereof;)
This people hath reduced her to a ruin.’
Behold - Indicating that what he was about to say was something unusual, remarkable, and not to be expected in the ordinary course of events. That which was so remarkable was the fact that a people formerly so little known, would rise to such power as to be able to overturn the ancient and mighty city of Tyre.
The land of the Chaldeans - Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Chaldea or Babylonia. The names Babylon and Chaldea are often interchanged as denoting the same kingdom and people (see Isa 48:14, Isa 48:20; Jer 50:1; Jer 51:24; Eze 12:13). The sense is, ‘Lo! the power of Chaldea shall be employed in your overthrow.’
This people - The people of Babylonia or Chaldea.
Was not - Was not known; had no government or power; was a rude, nomadic, barbarous, feeble, and illiterate people. The same phrase occurs in Deu 32:21, where it also means a people unknown, rude, barbarous, wandering. That this was formerly the character of the Chaldeans is apparent from Job 1:17, where they are described as a nomadic race, having no established place of abode, and living by plunder.
Till the Assyrian - Babylon was probably founded by Nimrod (see the notes at Isa. 13), but it was long before it rose to splendor. Belus or Bel, the Assyrian, is said to have reigned at Babylon A.M. 2682, or 1322 b.c., in the time of Shamgar, judge of Israel. He was succeeded by Ninus and Semiramis, who gave the principal celebrity and splendor to the city and kingdom, and who may be said to have been its founders. They are probably referred to here.
Founded it - Semiramis reclaimed it from the waste of waters; built dikes to confine the Euphrates in the proper channel; and made it the capital of the kingdom. This is the account given by Herodotus (Hist. i.): ‘She (Semiramis) built mounds worthy of admiration, where before the river was accustomed to spread like a sea through the whole plain.’
For them that dwell in the wilderness - Hebrew, לציים letsiyiym - ‘For the tsiim.’ This word (from צי tsiy or ציה tsiyah, a waste or desert) denotes properly the inhabitants of the desert or waste places, and is applied to people in Psa 72:9; Psa 74:14; and to animals in Isa 13:21 (notes); Isa 34:14. Here it denotes, I suppose, those who had been formerly inhabitants of the deserts around Babylon - the wandering, rude, uncultivated, and predatory people, such as the Chaldeans were Job 1:17; and means that the Assyrian who founded Babylon collected this rude and predatory people, and made use of them in building the city. The same account Arrian gives respecting Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, who says, that ‘Philip found them wandering and unsettled (πλανήτας καὶ ἀπόρους planētas kai aporous), feeding small flocks of sheep upon the mountains, that he gave them coats of mail instead of their shepherd’s dress, and led them from the mountain to the plain, and gave them cities to dwell in, and established them with good and wholesome laws.’ (Hist. Alex vii.)
They set up the towers thereof - That is, the towers in Babylon, not in Tyre (see the notes at Isa. 13) Herodotus expressly says that the Assyrians built the towers and temples of Babylon (i. 84).
And he brought it to ruin - That is, the Babylonian or Chaldean brought Tyre to ruin: to wit, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of a people formerly unknown and rude, would be employed to destroy the ancient and magnificent city of Tyre.
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 It. Hebrew adds, "for fishermen." It was formerly covered…
It. Hebrew adds, "for fishermen." It was formerly covered with water. (Eusebius, præp. ix.) --- Ruin. The fall of Babylon has been denounced, chap. xiii.
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Behold--Calling attention to the fact, so humiliating to Tyre,…
Behold--Calling attention to the fact, so humiliating to Tyre, that a people of yesterday, like the Chaldees, should destroy the most ancient of cities, Tyre.
was not--had no existence as a recognized nation; the Chaldees were previously but a rude, predatory people (Job 1:17).
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Assyrian founded it--The Chaldees ("them that dwell in the wilderness") lived a nomadic life in the mountains of Armenia originally (Arphaxad, in Gen 10:22, refers to such a region of Assyria near Armenia), north and east of Assyria proper. Some may have settled in Mesopotamia and Babylonia very early and given origin to the astrologers called Chaldees in later times. But most of the people had been transferred only a little before the time of this prophecy from their original seats in the north to Mesopotamia, and soon afterwards to South Babylonia. "Founded it," means "assigned it (the land) to them who had (heretofore) dwelt in the wilderness" as a permanent settlement (so in Psa 104:8) [MAURER]. It was the Assyrian policy to infuse into their own population of the plain the fresh blood of hardy mountaineers, for the sake of recruiting their armies. Ultimately the Chaldees, by their powerful priest-caste, gained the supremacy and established the later or Chaldean empire. HORSLEY refers it to Tyre, founded by an Assyrian race.
towers thereof--namely, of Babylon, whose towers, HERODOTUS says, were "set up" by the Assyrians [BARNES]. Rather, "The Chaldees set up their siege-towers" against Tyre, made for the attack of high walls, from which the besiegers hurled missiles, as depicted in the Assyrian sculptures [G. V. SMITH].
raised up--rather, "They lay bare," namely, the foundations of "her (Tyre's) palaces," that is, utterly overthrew them (Psa 137:7).
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 13. Behold — Something important to be said.
13. Behold — Something important to be said.
Land of the Chaldeans — Originally these were wild tribes in the mountains of Armenia. (Gesenius.)
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Was not — Had no existence as an organized nation.
Till the Assyrian founded it — That is, transplanted colonies of them on the plains of Babylonia. If this be the meaning, the event was in the very earliest days of Assyrian power and conquest, and remnants of those ancient tribes have survived to this day under the name of Koords. Xenophon, in his Anabasis, says these primitive tribes followed a nomadic life in Armenia. By some they are held to be of Cushite origin.
Set up… towers… raised… palaces — They established, or were blended in with, Babylonian civilization, and became, under Nebuchadnezzar, warriors to set up siege “towers” in Tyre and to destroy her “palaces.”
He — The Chaldean general and army. Though the results of that siege are not historically known, this verse declares the city crippled, and for the time being destroyed; destroyed beyond immediate regain of her old prestige.
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 13. Every attempt to extract a meaning from the…
13. Every attempt to extract a meaning from the verse as it stands is beset by insuperable difficulties. Perhaps the best suggestion is that the fate of Chaldæa is mentioned as a warning example to Tyre: “Behold the land of the Chaldæans; this people is no more; the Assyrian hath appointed it for the beasts of the wilderness, &c.” (so R.V.). This is a fairly good sense; only, “this people is no more” is hardly a possible rendering of the Hebrew. The reference is supposed to be to one (probably the last) of Sennacherib’s three conquests of Babylonia, which were certainly carried out with a thoroughness which would justify the terms of the prophecy. But is there any evidence that Babylonia was known as the “land of the Chaldæans” before the rise of the Chaldæan Empire? There is none in the Bible.—The text is certainly in disorder, and there is little hope of recovering the original reading. Ewald’s attractive emendation of “Canaanites” for “Chaldæans” fails to meet the case, for the exclamation “Behold the land of the Canaanites” surely comes too late after so much has been said of the ruin of this very land. The most acute analysis of the verse is that of Duhm, although, as is usual with this commentator, it involves an extensive manipulation of the text. To the original prophecy he assigns only the first and last clauses, and for “Chaldæans” he substitutes “Chittim”: Behold the land of Chittim, he (Jehovah) hath made it a ruin”—a continuation of the thought of the preceding verse. The intermediate clauses are regarded as an interpolation and are ingeniously explained as follows: “this is the people that was founded by the sea-farers (cf. Num_24:24), they erected its watch-towers, its cities and its palaces.” It seems a pity that so good a sentence should be denied to the prophet.
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 (13) Behold, the land of the Chaldeans.—Heb., land of…
(13) Behold, the land of the Chaldeans.—Heb., land of Kasdim. The prophet points to the destruction of one power that had resisted Assyria as an example of what Tyre might expect. The Assyrian inscriptions record the conquests referred to. Sargon relates his victory over the “perverse and rebellious Chaldæans,” who had rebelled under Merôdach-baladan (Records of the Past, vii. 41, 45). Towns were pillaged, 80,570 men carried away captive from a single city. Sennacherib (ibid., p. 59) boasts of having plundered Babylon itself, and all the “strong cities and castles of the land of the Chaldæans”; and again, of having crushed another revolt under Suzab the Babylonian (ibid., i. 47-49). The words that follow on this survey are better rendered: This people is no more: Asshur appointeth it for the desert beasts. They set up their towers, they destroy its palaces. The “towers are those of the Assyrian besiegers attacking Babylon; the palaces, those of the attacked. The words have, however, often been interpreted as pointing to the origin and migration of the Chaldæans, as having had scarcely any national existence till Assyria had brought them into the plains of the Euphrates. The English version seems based upon this interpretation of the passage. It is obvious, however, that such a fragment of ethnological history does not cohere well with the context, and gives a less satisfactory meaning. It is doubtful, too, whether the supposed history itself rests on any adequate evidence.
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 Behold the land of the Chaldeans. (comp. Isa_13:19 Isa_47:1,…
Behold the land of the Chaldeans. (comp. Isa_13:19 Isa_47:1, 5 48:14, 20) Like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Isaiah knows the people as Chahleans (Kasdim), the capital as Babylon. Kaldi, in the inscriptions, is a rare word, and the name of a not very important tribe. Yet Berosus uses the term to designate the whole nation. This people was not; rather, is not; i.e. "is no more a people ceased to exist." Sargon conquered Babylon in B.C. 710, and made himself king, ruling it, together with Assyria, until B.C. 705, when it rebelled and recovered its independence. Sennacherib reconquered it in B.C. 704, and again in B.C. 700, when he made his eldest son viceroy. Esarhaddon ruled over both countries, as did Asshur-bani-pal. Though later (about B.C. 620-610) Babylon reasserted her independence, and became a great empire, yet Isaiah was justified, at almost any period of his life after B.C. 710, in speaking of her as nonexistent. Till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness. There is no "till" in the original. The clause is separate and independent, not connected grammatically with the preceding. Nor does it assert that the Assyrians "founded" Babylon for any one, but only that they "established" it, or "appointed" it to be a habitation for "the beasts of the desert". (comp. Isa_13:21 Isa_34:14 Jer_1:3-9, etc.) The prophet views the Assyrians as intending to reduce Babylon to ruins, and leave it waste and uninhabited. The towers thereof; i.e. the siege-towers requisite for reducing so strong a city. They raised up; rather, they made bare. (cf. Hab_3:9) He brought it to ruin. "He" is "the Assyrian." The case of Babylon is adduced to increase the alarm of Tyro, by reminding the inhabitants of what the Assyrians had done to a town greater and stronger than their own. The allusion is probably to certain severities of Sargon"s in B.C. 710, which, however, are rhetorically exaggerated. It was never the policy of the Assyrians to depopulate or destroy Babylon.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 See the land of the Chaldeans
See the land of the Chaldeans
"Chaldeans" here is another name for Babylonians. AT: "See what happened to the land of the Babylonians" or "See what has happened to Babylonia"
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siege towers
Soldiers built towers or dirt ramps to attack over the walls of a city.
Howl, you ships of Tarshish
Here "ships" represents the men on the ships. See how you translated this in Isaiah 23:1. (See: Metonymy)
for your refuge has been destroyed
This can be stated in active form. AT: "for enemies have destroyed your refuge" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
Chaldea
Assyria
desert
siege
ruin
Tarshish
refuge
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 23:13 Babylonia was stripped and looted by the Assyrians…
23:13 Babylonia was stripped and looted by the Assyrians under Sennacherib (689 BC); eventually it rose to be a mighty empire once again.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.