Isaiah 13
13
God will Punish Babylon
1 #
Is 47.1–15; Jer 50.1—51.64 This is a message about Babylon, which Isaiah son of Amoz received from God.
2On the top of a barren hill raise the battle flag! Shout to the soldiers and raise your arm as the signal for them to attack the gates of the proud city. 3The LORD has called out his proud and confident soldiers to fight a holy war and punish those he is angry with.
4Listen to the noise on the mountains — the sound of a great crowd of people, the sound of nations and kingdoms gathering. The LORD of Armies is preparing his troops for battle. 5They are coming from far-off countries at the ends of the earth. In his anger the LORD is coming to devastate the whole country.
6 #
Joel 1.15
Howl in pain! The day of the LORD is near, the day when the Almighty brings destruction. 7Everyone's hands will hang limp, and everyone's courage will fail. 8They will all be terrified and overcome with pain, like the pain of a woman in labour. They will look at each other in fear, and their faces will burn with shame. 9The day of the LORD is coming — that cruel day of his fierce anger and fury. The earth will be made a wilderness, and every sinner will be destroyed. 10#Ezek 32.7; Mt 24.29; Mk 13.24–25; Lk 21.25; Rev 6.12–13Every star and every constellation will stop shining, the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will give no light.
11The LORD says, “I will bring disaster on the earth and punish all wicked people for their sins. I will humble everyone who is proud and punish everyone who is arrogant and cruel. 12Those who survive will be scarcer than gold. 13I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place on that day when I, the LORD Almighty, show my anger.
14“The foreigners living in Babylon will run away to their own countries, scattering like deer escaping from hunters, like sheep without a shepherd. 15Anyone who is caught will be stabbed to death. 16While they look on helplessly, their babies will be battered to death, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be raped.”
17The LORD says, “I am stirring up the Medes#13.17 Medes: People of a nation north-east of Babylonia, which became part of the Persian empire. to attack Babylon. They care nothing for silver and are not tempted by gold. 18With their bows and arrows they will kill the young men. They will show no mercy to babies and take no pity on children. 19#Gen 19.24Babylonia is the most beautiful kingdom of all; it is the pride of its people. But I, the LORD, will overthrow Babylon as I did Sodom and Gomorrah! 20No one will ever live there again. No wandering Arab will ever pitch his tent there, and no shepherd will ever pasture his flock there. 21#Is 34.14; Zeph 2.14; Rev 18.2It will be a place where desert animals live and where owls build their nests. Ostriches will live there, and wild goats will prance through the ruins. 22The towers and palaces will echo with the cries of hyenas and jackals. Babylon's time has come! Her days are almost over.”
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Isaiah 13: GNBDK
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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Isaiah 13
13
Prophecies about Babylon
1The [mournful, inspired] oracle (#I.e. an urgent message the prophet is under compulsion to proclaim.a burden to be carried) concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw [in a prophetic vision]:
2Lift up a signal banner on the bare mountain,
Summon them [the Medes and Persians] with a loud voice,
Wave the [beckoning] hand so that they may enter the doorways of the [Babylonian] nobles.
3I [the Lord] have commanded My consecrated ones,
I have even called My great warriors,
My proudly exulting ones [the Medes and the Persians who triumph for My honor]—
To execute My anger.
4A sound of tumult on the mountains,
Like that of many people!
A sound of the uproar of the kingdoms,
Of nations gathered together!
The Lord of hosts is mustering an army for battle.
5They are coming from a distant country,
From the end of heaven [the farthest horizon]—
The Lord and the weapons of His indignation—
To destroy the whole land.
Judgment on the Day of the Lord
6Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand!
It will come as #Shod in Hebrew, forming a word play with Shaddai.destruction from the #Heb Shaddai.Almighty (All Sufficient One—Invincible God)!
7Therefore #Babylon was taken by surprise on the night of Belshazzar’s sacrilegious feast when Belshazzar was killed, and Darius the Mede was made king over Babylonia, the realm of the Chaldeans (Dan 5:30). The Chaldeans became the dominant people in Babylonia when Merodach-baladan declared himself king of Babylon. The words “Chaldean” and “Babylonian” are used interchangeably.all hands will fall limp,
And every man’s heart will melt.
8They [of Babylon] will be shocked and terrified,
Pains and anguish will grip them;
They will be in pain like a woman in childbirth.
They will stare aghast and horrified at one another,
Their faces aflame [from the effects of the unprecedented warfare].
9Listen carefully, the day of the Lord is coming,
Cruel, with wrath and raging anger,
To make the land a horror [of devastation];
And He shall exterminate its sinners from it.
10For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not flash with their light;
The sun will be dark when it rises,
And the moon will not shed its light.
11In this way I will punish the world for its evil
And the wicked for their wickedness [their sin, their injustice, their wrongdoing];
I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud
And will abase the arrogance of the tyrant.
12I will make mortal man more rare than fine gold,
And mankind [scarcer] than the pure gold of Ophir.
13Therefore I will make the heavens tremble;
And the earth will be shaken from its place
At the wrath of the Lord of hosts
In the day of His burning anger.
14And like the hunted gazelle,
Or like sheep that no man gathers,
Each [foreign resident] will turn [and go back] to his own people,
And each one flee to his own land.
15Anyone who is found will be pierced through,
And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
16Their children also will be smashed to pieces
Before their eyes;
Their houses will be looted
And their wives ravished.
Babylon Will Fall to the Medes
17Listen carefully, I will put the Medes [in motion] against them,
Who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold [and therefore cannot be bribed].
18Their bows will cut down the young men [of Babylon];
They will take no pity on the fruit of the womb,
Their eyes will not look with compassion on the children.
19And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the #The Chaldeans dominated and ruled Babylonia from 625 b.c., until their empire fell in 539 b.c., but they were known as early as 1000 b.c. as an aggressive, tribal people in the southern region of Babylonia. They were highly skilled in both the science of astronomy and the pseudo-science of astrology. They kept meticulous records of celestial motion and correctly calculated the length of a year to within just a few minutes. Babylon, their capital city, was the center of trade and learning in the western part of Asia. The classical literature of the Chaldeans was written in cuneiform, but the common language, both written and spoken in Babylon, was Akkadian that was increasingly influenced by Aramaic.Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.
20Babylon will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there,
Nor will the shepherds let their sheep lie down there.
21But desert creatures will lie down there,
And their houses will be full of owls;
Ostriches also will live there, and #Another possibility is goat demons.wild goats will dance there.
22 # This prophecy was written well over a century before Babylon’s downfall in 539 b.c. Hyenas will howl in their castles,
And jackals in their luxurious palaces.
Babylon’s time has nearly come,
And her days will not be prolonged.
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