Isaiah 13
Oracle Against Babylon
1The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
2Set up a banner on the bare mountain! Lift up your voice to them! Wave your hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.
4The noise of a multitude is in the mountains, as of a great people; the noise of an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! The LORD of Armies is mustering the army for the battle.
5They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6Wail, for the LORD’s day is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
7Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone’s heart will melt.
8They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame.
9Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it.
10For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going out, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.
11I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will humble the arrogance of the terrible.
12I will make people more rare than fine gold, even a person than the pure gold of Ophir.
13Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in the LORD of Armies’ wrath, and in the day of his fierce anger.
14It will happen that like a hunted gazelle and like sheep that no one gathers, they will each turn to their own people, and will each flee to their own land.
15Everyone who is found will be thrust through. Everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
16Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.
17Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it.
18Their bows will dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not spare children.
19Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
20It will never be inhabited, neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent there, neither will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.
21But wild animals of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of jackals. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will frolic there.
22Hyenas will cry in their fortresses, and jackals in the pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.
Isaiah delivers a prophetic oracle announcing God's judgment against Babylon, describing the coming 'Day of the Lord' when divine wrath will be unleashed. The prophecy depicts cosmic upheaval, military devastation by the Medes, and Babylon's complete destruction, comparing it to the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah. This oracle serves both as a historical prediction of Babylon's fall and as an eschatological vision of God's ultimate judgment on human pride and wickedness.
Context
This chapter begins Isaiah's series of oracles against foreign nations (chapters 13-23), starting with Babylon as the archetypal enemy of God's people.
Key Themes
Outline
- 1-5Divine Army AssembledGod musters His consecrated warriors from distant lands to execute judgment against Babylon.
- 6-10The Day of the LordThe approaching day of divine wrath brings terror, cosmic darkness, and universal desolation.
- 11-16Universal JudgmentGod's punishment extends beyond Babylon to all wickedness, bringing devastation and scattering of peoples.
- 17-22Babylon's Complete DesolationThe Medes will destroy Babylon so thoroughly it will become a permanent wasteland inhabited only by wild animals.
Oracle Against Babylon
13:1–13:22A prophetic oracle announcing God's judgment against Babylon through the day of the Lord. Isaiah describes cosmic upheaval and divine wrath that will destroy the wicked and humble the proud.
person_contrast
Isaiah uniquely commands armies and waves banners like a military general rather than merely prophesying, transforming from messenger to divine field commander orchestrating Babylon's destruction.
Isaiah 13:1
Isaiah 1:1lexicalThe vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz,…
Isaiah 2:1lexicalThis is what Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
Isaiah 13:8
Isaiah 21:3lexicalTherefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have seized me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much p…
Isaiah 26:17lexicalJust as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs, so we have b…
Isaiah 66:7lexical“Before she travailed, she gave birth. Before her pain came, she delivered a son.
Jeremiah 13:21lexicalWhat will you say when he sets over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? Won’t sorrows…
Jeremiah 49:24lexicalDamascus has grown feeble, she turns herself to flee, and trembling has seized her. Anguish and sorrows have taken hold…
Isaiah 13:9
Numbers 32:14lexical“Behold, you have risen up in your fathers’ place, an increase of sinful men, to increase the fierce anger of the LORD t…
Psalms 78:49lexicalHe threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.
Jeremiah 25:38lexicalHe has left his covert, as the lion; for their land has become an astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppressi…
Isaiah 13:10
Ecclesiastes 12:2lexicalBefore the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;
Psalms 148:3lexicalPraise him, sun and moon! Praise him, all you shining stars!
Ezekiel 32:7lexicalWhen I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and make its stars dark. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon…
Jeremiah 31:35lexicalThe LORD, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, wh…
Deuteronomy 4:19lexicaland lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the…
Isaiah 13:12
Song of Solomon 5:11lexicalHis head is like the purest gold. His hair is bushy, black as a raven.
Job 28:16lexicalIt can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
Isaiah 13:13
Psalms 78:49lexicalHe threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.
2 Samuel 22:8lexicalThen the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, because he was angry.
Joel 2:10lexicalThe earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shini…
Joshua 7:26lexicalThey raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. The LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger.…
Isaiah 13:15
1 Chronicles 10:4lexicalThen Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and a…
1 Samuel 31:4lexicalThen Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and t…
Isaiah 13:16
2 Kings 8:12lexicalHazael said, “Why do you weep, my lord?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israe…
Nahum 3:10lexicalYet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the…
Isaiah 13:19
Jeremiah 50:40lexicalAs when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and its neighbor cities,” says the LORD, “so no man will dwell there, neither w…
Jeremiah 49:18lexicalAs in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and its neighbor cities,” says the LORD, “no man will dwell there, neither wil…
Amos 4:11lexical“I have overthrown some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick plucked out…
Isaiah 4:2lexicalIn that day, the LORD’s branch will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the beauty and glory of…
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Historical Context
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