Isaiah 13
13
XIII
1the ORACLE CONCERNING BABYLON, WHICH WAS REVEALED UNTO ISAIAH, THE SON OF AMOZ.
2Upon a lofty mountain erect the standard;
Exalt the voice unto them; beckon with the hand;
That they may enter the gates of princes.
3To my appointed ones I have given command;
I have also called my strong ones to execute my wrath;
My proudly exulting ones.
4Hark! a sound of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people;
A sound of the tumult of kingdoms, of nations gathered together!
Jehovah of hosts mustereth the armies for the battle.
5They come from a far country, from the end of the heavens;
Jehovah, and the instruments of his wrath, to destroy the whole land.
6Howl ye, for the day of Jehovah is at hand:
As a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
7Therefore shall all hands be slackened,
And every heart of mortal shall melt;
8And they shall be terrified: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them;
As a woman in travail shall they be in pain:
They shall look one upon another with astonishment;
Faces of flames shall be their faces.
9Behold the day of Jehovah cometh, cruel,
And full of fury and burning anger,
To make the earth a desolation:
And her sinners he shall destroy from out of her.
10For the stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof,
Shall not send forth their light:
The sun is darkened in his going forth,
And the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11And I will punish the world for its evil,
And the wicked for their iniquity:
And I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease;
And I will lay low the haughtiness of tyrants.
12I will moke a mortal more precious than fine gold;
Yea a man, than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13Wherefore I will make the heavens tremble,
And the earth shall be shaken out of her place,
During the indignation of Jehovah of hosts;
And in the day of his burning anger.
14Then shall every one be, as a roe that is chased,
And as a flock of sheep, when there is no one to gather them together,
They shall look, each man towards his own people;
And they shall flee, every one into his own land.
15Every one that is overtaken, shall be thrust through;
And all that are rallied together shall fall by the sword.
16Their children also shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes;
Their houses shall be plundered, and their wives ravished.
17Behold, I stir up the Medes against them,
Who shall hold silver of no account;
And as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
18Their bows shall dash the young men to pieces,
And they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb:
Their eye shall not spare the children.
19And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms,
The glory of the pride of the Chaldeans,
Shall be as Sodom and Gomorrah, which God overthrew.
20It shall not be inhabited for ever,
Neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation:
Neither shall the Arabian pitch his tent there;
Neither shall the shepherds make their flocks to rest there.
21But there shall the wild beasts of the deserts couch them down;
And yelling creatures shall fill their houses;
And there shall the daughters of the ostrich dwell;
And there shall the satyrs lead their dances.
22And wolves shall howl to one another in their palaces;
And jackals in their temples of pleasure.
And her time is near to come;
And her days shall not be prolonged.
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Isaiah 13: TEG
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Translated by Rev John Jones (Ioan Tegid).Published at Oxford in 1830, second edition 1842.
Isaiah 13
13
Babylon.#Although attributed to Isaiah (v. 1), this oracle does not reflect conditions of Isaiah’s time. Babylon did not achieve imperial status until a century later, after its victory over Assyria in 609 B.C. The mention of the Medes (v. 17) rather than Persia suggests a date prior to 550 B.C., when the Median empire of Astyages fell to Cyrus the Persian. Tension is created in that the attackers are not named until v. 17 and the foe to be attacked until v. 19. 1An oracle#Oracle: Heb. massa’; used eight more times in this collection. concerning Babylon; a vision of Isaiah, son of Amoz.
2Upon the bare mountains set up a signal;
cry out to them,#To them: the Medes (v. 17), who are being summoned to destroy Babylon. Gates of the nobles: the reference is apparently to the gates of Babylon and involves a wordplay on the city name (Babylon = bab ilani, “gate of the gods”).
Beckon for them to enter
the gates of the nobles.#Is 5:26; Jer 50:2.
3I have commanded my consecrated ones,#Consecrated ones: in the sense that they will wage a “holy war” and carry out God’s plan.
I have summoned my warriors,
eager and bold to carry out my anger.#Jl 4:9.
4Listen! the rumble on the mountains:
that of an immense throng!
Listen! the noise of kingdoms, nations assembled!
The Lord of hosts is mustering
an army for battle.#Jer 50:9.
5They come from a far-off country,
and from the end of the heavens,
The Lord and the instruments of his wrath,
to destroy all the land.
6Howl, for the day of the Lord#Day of the Lord: described often in prophetic writings, it generally signified the coming of the Lord in power and majesty to destroy his enemies. The figures used convey the idea of horror and destruction (Am 5:18–20). The Almighty: Heb. shaddai; there is a play on words between destruction (shod) and Shaddai, a title for God traditionally rendered as “the Almighty” (cf. Gn 17:1; Ex 6:3). is near;
as destruction from the Almighty it comes.#Is 2:12–21; Jer 46:10; Am 5:18–20; Jl 1:15; Zep 1:7; Rev 6:17.
7Therefore all hands fall helpless,#Jer 6:24; Ez 7:17.
every human heart melts,
8and they are terrified,
Pangs and sorrows take hold of them,
like a woman in labor they writhe;
They look aghast at each other,
their faces aflame.#Is 21:3; Ps 48:7; Mi 4:9.
9Indeed, the day of the Lord comes,
cruel, with wrath and burning anger;
To lay waste the land
and destroy the sinners within it!#Jer 4:7; 18:16; Mal 3:19.
10The stars of the heavens and their constellations
will send forth no light;
The sun will be dark at its rising,
and the moon will not give its light.#Is 24:23; Jer 4:23; Zep 1:15; Mt 24:29.
11Thus I will punish the world for its evil
and the wicked for their guilt.
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant,
the insolence of tyrants I will humble.#Is 2:17; Jer 50:32.
12I will make mortals more rare than pure gold,
human beings, than the gold of Ophir.#Ophir: cf. note on Ps 45:10. #1 Kgs 9:28; Jb 22:24.
13For this I will make the heavens tremble
and the earth shall be shaken from its place,
At the wrath of the Lord of hosts
on the day of his burning anger.#Hg 2:6; Lam 1:12.
14Like a hunted gazelle,
or a flock that no one gathers,
They shall turn each to their own people
and flee each to their own land.#1 Kgs 22:17; Jer 50:16; 51:9.
15Everyone who is taken shall be run through;
and everyone who is caught shall fall by the sword.
16Their infants shall be dashed to pieces in their sight;
their houses shall be plundered
and their wives ravished.#2 Kgs 8:12; Ps 137:9; Na 3:10.
17I am stirring up against them the Medes,
who think nothing of silver
and take no delight in gold.#Is 21:2; Jer 51:11, 28.
18With their bows they shall shatter the young men,
And the fruit of the womb they shall not spare,
nor shall their eye take pity on children.
19And Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms,
the glory and pride of the Chaldeans,
Shall become like Sodom and Gomorrah,
overthrown by God.#Dt 29:22; Is 1:7; Jer 49:18; 50:40; Am 4:11.
20It shall never be inhabited,
nor dwelt in, from age to age;
Arabians shall not pitch their tents there,
nor shepherds rest their flocks there.#Jer 51:62.
21But desert demons shall rest there
and owls shall fill the houses;
There ostriches shall dwell,
and satyrs#Satyrs: in the popular mind, demons of goatlike form dwelling in ruins, symbols of immorality; cf. Lv 17:7; Is 34:14. shall dance.#Is 34:13–14; 35:7.
22Wild dogs shall dwell in its castles,
and jackals in its luxurious palaces.
Its time is near at hand
and its days shall not be prolonged.#Ez 32:23.
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