13 The Medes and Persians shall destroy Babylon.
1 The [a]burden of Babel, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
2 Lift up a standard upon the high mountain: lift up the voice unto them: wag the [b]hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded them, that I have [c]sanctified: and I have called the mighty to my wrath, and them that rejoice in my [d]glory.
4 The noise of a multitude is in the mountains like a great people: a tumultuous voice of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together: the Lord of hosts numbereth the host of the battle.
5 They come from a far country, from the end of the heaven: even the Lord with the [e]weapons of his wrath to destroy the whole land.
6 Howl [f]you, for the day of the Lord is at hand: it shall come as a destroyer from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be weakened, and all men’s hearts shall melt.
8 And they shall be afraid: anguish and sorrow shall take them, and they shall have pain, as a woman that travaileth: everyone shall be amazed at his neighbor, and their faces shall be like [g]flames of fire.
9 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land waste: and he shall destroy the sinners out of it.
10 For the [h]stars of heaven and the planets 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 will visit the wickedness upon the [i]world, and their iniquity upon the wicked, and I will cause the arrogancy of the [j]proud to cease, and will cast down the pride of tyrants.
12 I will make a [k]man more precious than fine gold, even a man above the wedge of gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heaven, and the earth shall remove out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
14 And [l]it shall be as a chased Doe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up; every man shall turn to his own people, and flee each one to his own land.
15 Everyone that is found, shall be stricken through: and whosoever joineth himself, shall fall by the sword.
16 (A)Their [m]children also shall be broken in pieces before their eyes: their houses shall be spoiled; and their wives ravished.
17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver, nor be desirous of gold.
18 With bows also shall they destroy the children, and shall have no compassion upon the fruit of the womb, and their eyes shall not spare the children.
19 And Babel the glory of kingdoms, the beauty and pride of the Chaldeans, shall be as the destruction of God (B)in Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 It shall not be inhabited forever, neither shall it be dwelled in from generation to generation: neither shall the [n]Arabian pitch his tents there, neither shall their shepherds make their folds there.
21 But [o]Zijm shall lodge there, and their houses shall be full of Ohim: Ostriches shall dwell there, and the Satyrs shall dance there.
22 And Iim shall cry in their palaces, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and the time thereof is ready to come, and the days thereof shall not be prolonged.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 13:1 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.
- Isaiah 13:2 To wit, the Medes and Persians.
- Isaiah 13:3 That is, prepared and appointed to execute my judgments.
- Isaiah 13:3 Which willingly go about to the work whereunto I appoint them, but how the wicked do this, read Isa. 10:6.
- Isaiah 13:5 The army of the Medes and the Persians against Babylon.
- Isaiah 13:6 Ye Babylonians.
- Isaiah 13:8 The Babylonians’ anger and grief shall be so much, that their faces shall burn as fire.
- Isaiah 13:10 They that are overcome shall think that all the powers of heaven and earth are against them, Ezek. 32:7; Joel 3:15; Matt. 24:29.
- Isaiah 13:11 He compareth Babylon to the whole world, because they so esteemed themselves by reason of their great empire.
- Isaiah 13:11 He noteth the principal vice, whereunto they are most given, as are all that abound in wealth.
- Isaiah 13:12 He noteth the great slaughter that shall be, seeing the enemy shall neither for gold, or silver spare a man’s life, as verse 17.
- Isaiah 13:14 Meaning, the power of Babylon with their hired soldiers.
- Isaiah 13:16 This was not accomplished when Cyrus took Babylon, but after the death of Alexander the great.
- Isaiah 13:20 Who useth to go from country to country to find pasture for their beasts, but there shall they find none.
- Isaiah 13:21 Which were either wild beasts, or fowls, or wicked spirits, whereby Satan deluded man, as by the fairies, goblins, and such like fantasies.