Discovery BoxIsaiah 13:1-22
Context13:1 1 This is a message about Babylon that God revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz: 2
13:2 3 On a bare hill raise a signal flag,
shout to them,
wave your hand,
so they might enter the gates of the princes!
13:3 I have given orders to my chosen soldiers; 4
I have summoned the warriors through whom I will vent my anger, 5
my boasting, arrogant ones. 6
13:4 7 There is a loud noise on the mountains –
it sounds like a large army! 8
There is great commotion among the kingdoms 9 –
nations are being assembled!
The Lord who commands armies is mustering
forces for battle.
13:5 They come from a distant land,
from the horizon. 10
It is the Lord with his instruments of judgment, 11
coming to destroy the whole earth. 12
13:6 Wail, for the Lord’s day of judgment 13 is near;
it comes with all the destructive power of the sovereign judge. 14
13:7 For this reason all hands hang limp, 15
every human heart loses its courage. 16
13:8 They panic –
cramps and pain seize hold of them
like those of a woman who is straining to give birth.
They look at one another in astonishment;
their faces are flushed red. 17
13:9 Look, the Lord’s day of judgment 18 is coming;
it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger, 19
and annihilating its sinners.
13:10 Indeed the stars in the sky and their constellations
no longer give out their light; 22
the sun is darkened as soon as it rises,
and the moon does not shine. 23
13:11 24 I will punish the world for its evil, 25
and wicked people for their sin.
I will put an end to the pride of the insolent,
I will bring down the arrogance of tyrants. 26
13:12 I will make human beings more scarce than pure gold,
and people more scarce 27 than gold from Ophir.
13:13 So I will shake the heavens, 28
and the earth will shake loose from its foundation, 29
because of the fury of the Lord who commands armies,
in the day he vents his raging anger. 30
13:14 Like a frightened gazelle 31
or a sheep with no shepherd,
each will turn toward home, 32
each will run to his homeland.
13:15 Everyone who is caught will be stabbed;
everyone who is seized 33 will die 34 by the sword.
13:16 Their children will be smashed to pieces before their very eyes;
their houses will be looted
and their wives raped.
13:17 Look, I am stirring up the Medes to attack them; 35
they are not concerned about silver,
nor are they interested in gold. 36
13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; 37
they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, 38
they will not 39 look with pity on children.
13:19 Babylon, the most admired 40 of kingdoms,
the Chaldeans’ source of honor and pride, 41
will be destroyed by God
just as Sodom and Gomorrah were. 42
13:20 No one will live there again;
no one will ever reside there again. 43
No bedouin 44 will camp 45 there,
no shepherds will rest their flocks 46 there.
13:21 Wild animals will rest there,
the ruined 47 houses will be full of hyenas. 48
Ostriches will live there,
wild goats will skip among the ruins. 49
13:22 Wild dogs will yip in her ruined fortresses,
jackals will yelp in the once-splendid palaces. 50
Her time is almost up, 51
her days will not be prolonged. 52
[13:1] 1 sn Isa 13-23 contains a series of judgment oracles against various nations. It is likely that Israel, not the nations mentioned, actually heard these oracles. The oracles probably had a twofold purpose. For those leaders who insisted on getting embroiled in international politics, these oracles were a reminder that Judah need not fear foreign nations or seek international alliances for security reasons. For the righteous remnant within the nation, these oracles were a reminder that Israel’s God was indeed the sovereign ruler of the earth, worthy of his people’s trust.
[13:1] 2 tn Heb “The message [traditionally, “burden”] [about] Babylon which Isaiah son of Amoz saw.”
[13:2] 3 sn The Lord is speaking here (see v. 3).
[13:3] 4 tn Heb “my consecrated ones,” i.e., those who have been set apart by God for the special task of carrying out his judgment.
[13:3] 5 tn Heb “my warriors with respect to my anger.”
[13:3] 6 tn Heb “the boasting ones of my pride”; cf. ASV, NASB, NRSV “my proudly exulting ones.”
[13:4] 7 sn In vv. 4-10 the prophet appears to be speaking, since the Lord is referred to in the third person. However, since the Lord refers to himself in the third person later in this chapter (see v. 13), it is possible that he speaks throughout the chapter.
[13:4] 8 tn Heb “a sound, a roar [is] on the mountains, like many people.”
[13:4] 9 tn Heb “a sound, tumult of kingdoms.”
[13:5] 10 tn Heb “from the end of the sky.”
[13:5] 11 tn Or “anger”; cf. KJV, ASV “the weapons of his indignation.”
[13:5] 12 tn Or perhaps, “land” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NLT). Even though the heading and subsequent context (see v. 17) indicate Babylon’s judgment is in view, the chapter has a cosmic flavor that suggests that the coming judgment is universal in scope. Perhaps Babylon’s downfall occurs in conjunction with a wider judgment, or the cosmic style is poetic hyperbole used to emphasize the magnitude and importance of the coming event.
[13:6] 13 tn Heb “the day of the Lord” (so KJV, NAB).
[13:6] 14 tn Heb “like destruction from the sovereign judge it comes.” The comparative preposition (כְּ, kÿ) has here the rhetorical nuance, “in every way like.” The point is that the destruction unleashed will have all the earmarks of divine judgment. One could paraphrase, “it comes as only destructive divine judgment can.” On this use of the preposition in general, see GKC 376 §118.x.
[13:7] 15 tn Heb “drop”; KJV “be faint”; ASV “be feeble”; NAB “fall helpless.”
[13:7] 16 tn Heb “melts” (so NAB).
[13:8] 17 tn Heb “their faces are faces of flames.” Their faces are flushed with fear and embarrassment.
[13:9] 18 tn Heb “the day of the Lord.”
[13:9] 19 tn Heb “[with] cruelty, and fury, and rage of anger.” Three synonyms for “anger” are piled up at the end of the line to emphasize the extraordinary degree of divine anger that will be exhibited in this judgment.
[13:9] 20 tn Heb “making desolate.”
[13:9] 21 tn Or “land” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT).
[13:10] 22 tn Heb “do not flash forth their light.”
[13:10] 23 tn Heb “does not shed forth its light.”
[13:11] 24 sn The Lord is definitely speaking (again?) at this point. See the note at v. 4.
[13:11] 25 tn Or “I will bring disaster on the world.” Hebrew רָעָה (ra’ah) could refer to the judgment (i.e., disaster, calamity) or to the evil that prompts it. The structure of the parallel line favors the latter interpretation.
[13:11] 26 tn Or perhaps, “the violent”; cf. NASB, NIV “the ruthless.”
[13:12] 27 tn The verb is supplied in the translation from the first line. The verb in the first line (“I will make scarce”) does double duty in the parallel structure of the verse.
[13:13] 28 tn Or “the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
[13:13] 29 tn Heb “from its place” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV).
[13:13] 30 tn Heb “and in the day of the raging of his anger.”
[13:14] 31 tn Or “like a gazelle being chased.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
[13:14] 32 tn Heb “his people” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “his nation” (cf. TEV “their own countries”).
[13:15] 33 tn Heb “carried off,” i.e., grabbed from the fleeing crowd. See HALOT 764 s.v. ספה.
[13:15] 34 tn Heb “will fall” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NLT “will be run through with a sword.”
[13:17] 35 tn Heb “against them”; NLT “against Babylon.”
[13:17] 36 sn They cannot be bought off, for they have a lust for bloodshed.
[13:18] 37 tn Heb “and bows cut to bits young men.” “Bows” stands by metonymy for arrows.
[13:18] 38 tn Heb “the fruit of the womb.”
[13:18] 39 tn Heb “their eye does not.” Here “eye” is a metonymy for the whole person.
[13:19] 40 tn Or “most beautiful” (NCV, TEV).
[13:19] 41 tn Heb “the beauty of the pride of the Chaldeans.”
[13:19] 42 tn Heb “and Babylon…will be like the overthrow by God of Sodom and Gomorrah.” On מַהְפֵּכַת (mahpekhat, “overthrow”) see the note on the word “destruction” in 1:7.
[13:20] 43 tn Heb “she will not be inhabited forever, and she will not be dwelt in to generation and generation (i.e., forever).” The Lord declares that Babylon, personified as a woman, will not be inhabited. In other words, her people will be destroyed and the Chaldean empire will come to a permanent end.
[13:20] 44 tn Or “Arab” (NAB, NASB, NIV); cf. CEV, NLT “nomads.”
[13:20] 45 tn יַהֵל (yahel) is probably a corrupted form of יֶאֱהַל (ye’ehal). See GKC 186 §68.k.
[13:20] 46 tn The words “their flocks” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Hebrew text does not supply the object here, but see Jer 33:12.
[13:21] 47 tn The word “ruined” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
[13:21] 48 tn The precise referent of this word in uncertain. See HALOT 29 s.v. *אֹחַ. Various English versions translate as “owls” (e.g., NAB, NASB), “wild dogs” (NCV); “jackals” (NIV); “howling creatures” (NRSV, NLT).
[13:21] 49 tn Heb “will skip there.”
[13:22] 50 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “wild dogs will yip among his widows, and jackals in the palaces of pleasure.” The verb “yip” is supplied in the second line; it does double duty in the parallel structure. “His widows” makes little sense in this context; many emend the form (אַלְמנוֹתָיו, ’almnotayv) to the graphically similar אַרְמְנוֹתֶיהָ (’armÿnoteha, “her fortresses”), a reading that is assumed in the present translation. The use of “widows” may represent an intentional wordplay on “fortresses,” indicating that the fortresses are like dejected widows (J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:308, n. 1).
[13:22] 51 tn Heb “near to come is her time.”
[13:22] 52 sn When was the prophecy of Babylon’s fall fulfilled? Some argue that the prophecy was fulfilled in 689
