Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 13:6
Howl ye; for the day of the LORD [is] at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
6. The verse is almost identical with Joe 1:15. On the “day of Jehovah” see on ch. Isa 2:12.
as a destruction from the Almighty ] The Heb. phrase contains an alliteration which cannot be easily reproduced in English. The Germans render “wie Gewalt vom Gewaltigen.” The word for “Almighty” is the Divine name Shaddai (see Exo 6:3), but its etymology is doubtful. According to one derivation it comes from the same root as the word for “destruction,” so that we might almost venture to translate “like destruction from the Destroyer.” This verse, however, can hardly be appealed to in support of that view, since it may imply nothing beyond the mere play upon words. (See further Robertson Smith, Old Test. in Jewish Church, pp. 423 f.)
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Howl ye – Ye inhabitants of Babylon, in view of the approaching destruction.
The day of the Lord – The time when Yahweh will inflict vengeance on you draws near (see the note at Isa 2:12; compare Isa 13:9).
As a destruction from the Almighty – Not as a desolation from man, but as destruction sent from him who has all power in heaven and on earth. Destruction meditated by man might be resisted; but destruction that should come from the Almighty must be final and irresistible. The word Almighty shadday, one of the names given to God in the Scriptures, denotes, properly, one who is mighty, or who has all power; and is correctly rendered Almighty, or Omnipotent; Gen 17:1; Gen 28:3; Gen 48:3; Exo 6:3; Rth 1:20; Job 5:17; Job 6:4, Job 6:14; Job 8:3, Job 8:5; Job 11:7; Job 13:4; Job 15:25. In the Hebrew here, there is a paronomasia or pun – a figure of speech quite common in the Scriptures, which cannot be retained in the translation – It shall come as a destruction ( keshod) from the Almighty ( mshadday).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
It shall come as a destruction; or rather, a destruction or devastation shall come, as the LXX. and vulgar Latin render it. For this was not
as a destruction, but was a destruction indeed. And the particle as is not seldom used to express, not the likeness, but the reality of the thing, as Joh 1:14.
From the Almighty; who fighteth for your adversaries, and against you, and therefore your destruction is unavoidable.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. day of the Lordday of Hisvengeance on Babylon (Isa 2:12).Type of the future “day of wrath” (Re6:17).
destructionliterally,”a devastating tempest.”
from the Almightynotfrom mere man; therefore irresistible. “Almighty,” Hebrew,Shaddai.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand,…. These words are an address to the Babylonians, who instead of rejoicing and feasting, as Belshazzar and his nobles were the night that Babylon was taken, had reason to howl and lament; seeing the day that the Lord had fixed for their destruction was very near, and he was just about to come forth as a judge to take vengeance on them; for though it was about two hundred and fifty years from the time of this prophecy, to the taking of Babylon, yet it is represented as at hand, to show the certainty of it, both for the comfort of the Jewish captives, when they should be in it, and for the awakening of the sluggish inhabitants, who were secure, and thought themselves out of danger:
it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty: suddenly, swiftly, and irresistibly: there is a beautiful paronomasia in the Hebrew text, “ceshod mishaddai” c; as destruction from the destroyer; from God, who is able to save, and to destroy; he is almighty and all sufficient, so some render the word; the hand of God was visible in it.
c .
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Then all sink into anxious and fearful trembling. “Howl; for the day of Jehovah is near; like a destructive force from the Almighty it comes. Therefore all arms hang loosely down, and every human heart melts away. And they are troubled: they fall into cramps and pangs; like a woman in labour they twist themselves: one stares at the other; their faces are faces of flame.” The command (not written defectively, ) is followed by the reason for such a command, viz., “the day of Jehovah is near,” the watchword of prophecy from the time of Joel downwards. The Caph in c e shod is the so-called Caph veritatis, or more correctly, the Caph of comparison between the individual and its genus. It is destruction by one who possesses unlimited power to destroy ( shod , from shadad , from which we have shaddai , after the form chaggai , the festive one, from c hagag ). In this play upon the words, Isaiah also repeats certain words of Joel (Joe 1:15). Then the heads hang down from despondency and helplessness, and the heart, the seat of lift, melts (Isa 19:1) in the heat of anguish. Universal consternation ensues. This is expressed by the word v e nibhalu , which stands in half pause; the word has shalsheleth followed by psik ( pasek ), an accent which only occurs in seven passages in the twenty-one prose books of the Old Testament, and always with this dividing stroke after it.
(Note: For the seven passages, see Ewald, Lehrbuch (ed. 7), p. 224.)
Observe also the following fut. paragogica, which add considerably to the energy of the description by their anapaestic rhythm. The men ( subj.) lay hold of cramps and pangs (as in Job 18:20; Job 21:6), the force of the events compelling them to enter into such a condition. Their faces are faces of flames. Knobel understands this as referring to their turning pale, which is a piece of exegetical jugglery. At the same time, it does not suggest mere redness, nor a convulsive movement; but just as a flame alternates between light and darkness, so their faces become alternately flushed and pale, as the blood ebbs and flows, as it were, being at one time driven with force into their faces, and then again driven back to the heart, so as to leave deadly paleness, in consequence of their anguish and terror.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Doom of Babylon. | B. C. 739. |
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. 7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt: 8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. 9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. 10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations 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 punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. 12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, 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 it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land. 15 Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. 16 Their children also shall be dashed to 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; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. 18 Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.
We have here a very elegant and lively description of the terrible confusion and desolation which should be made in Babylon by the descent which the Medes and Persians should make upon it. Those that were now secure and easy were bidden to howl and make sad lamentation; for,
I. God was about to appear in wrath against them, and it is a fearful thing to fall into his hands: The day of the Lord is at hand (v. 6), a little day of judgment, when God will act as a just avenger of his own and his people’s injured cause. And there are those who will have reason to tremble when that day is at hand. The day of the Lord cometh, v. 9. Men have their day now, and they think to carry the day; but God laughs at them, for he sees that his day is coming, Ps. xxxvii. 13. Fury is not with God, and yet his day of reckoning with the Babylonians is said to be cruel with wrath and fierce anger. God will deal in severity with them for the severities they exercised upon God’s people; with the froward, with the cruel, he will show himself froward, will show himself cruel, and give the blood-thirsty blood to drink.
II. Their hearts shall fail them, and they shall have neither courage nor comfort left; they shall not be able either to resist the judgment coming or to bear up under it, either to oppose the enemy or to support themselves, Isa 13:7; Isa 13:8. Those that in the day of their peace were proud, and haughty, and terrible (v. 11), shall, when trouble comes, be quite dispirited and at their wits’ end: All hands shall be faint, and unable to hold a weapon, and every man’s heart shall melt, so that they shall be ready to die for fear. The pangs of their fear shall be like those of a woman in hard labour, and they shall be amazed one at another. In frightening themselves, they shall frighten one another; they shall wonder to see those tremble that used to be bold and daring; or they shall be amazed looking one at another, as men at a loss, Gen. xlii. 1. Their faces shall be as flames, pale as flames, through fear (so some), or red as flames sometimes are, blushing at their own cowardice; or their faces shall be as faces scorched with the flame, or as theirs that labour in the fire, their visage blacker than a coal, or like a bottle in the smoke, Ps. cxix. 83.
III. All comfort and hope shall fail them (v. 10): The stars of heaven shall not give their light, but shall be clouded and overcast; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, rising bright, but lost again, a certain sign of foul weather. They shall be as men in distress at sea, when neither sun nor stars appear, Acts xxvii. 20. It shall be as dreadful a time with them as it would be with the earth if all the heavenly luminaries were turned into darkness, a resemblance of the day of judgment, when the sun shall be turned into darkness. The heavens frowning thus is an indication of the displeasure of the God of heaven. When things look dark on earth, yet it is well enough if all be clear upwards; but, if we have no comfort thence, wherewith shall we be comforted?
IV. God will visit them for their iniquity; and all this is intended for the punishment of sin, and particularly the sin of pride, v. 11. This puts wormwood and gall into the affliction and misery, 1. That sin must now have its punishment. Though Babylon be a little world, yet, being a wicked world, it shall not go unpunished. Sin brings desolation on the world of the ungodly; and when the kingdoms of the earth are quarrelling with one another it is the fruit of God’s controversy with them all. 2. That pride must now have its fall: The haughtiness of the terrible must now be laid low, particularly of Nebuchadnezzar and his son Belshazzar, who had, in their pride, trampled upon, and made themselves very terrible to, the people of God. A man’s pride will bring him low.
V. There shall be so great a slaughter as will produce a scarcity of men (v. 12): I will make a man more precious than fine gold. You could not have a man to be employed in any of the affairs of state, not a man to be enlisted in the army, not a man to match a daughter to, for the building up of a family, if you would give any money for one. The troops of the neighbouring nations would not be hired into the service of the king of Babylon, because they saw every thing go against him. Populous countries are soon depopulated by war. And God can soon make a kingdom that has been courted and admired to be dreaded and shunned by all, as a house that is falling, or a ship that is sinking.
VI. There shall be a universal confusion and consternation, such a confusion of their affairs that it shall be like the shaking of the heavens with dreadful thunders and the removing of the earth by no less dreadful earthquakes. All shall go to rack and ruin in the day of the wrath of the Lord of hosts, v. 13. And such a consternation shall seize their spirits that Babylon, which used to be like a roaring lion and a raging bear to all about her, shall become as a chased roe and as a sheep that no man takes up, v. 14. The army they shall bring into the field, consisting of troops of divers nations (as great armies usually do), shall be so dispirited by their own apprehensions and so dispersed by their enemies’ sword that they shall turn every man to his own people; each man shall shift for his own safety; the men of might shall not find their hands (Ps. lxxvi. 5), but take to their heels.
VII. There shall be a general scene of blood and horror, as is usual where the sword devours. No wonder that every one makes the best of his way, since the conqueror gives no quarter, but puts all to the sword, and not those only that are found in arms, as is usual with us even in the most cruel slaughters (v. 15): Every one that is found alive shall be run through, as soon as ever it appears that he is a Babylonian. Nay, because the sword devours one as well as another, every one that is joined to them shall fall by the sword; those of other nations that come in to their assistance shall be cut off with them. It is dangerous being in bad company, and helping those whom God is about to destroy. Those particularly that join themselves to Babylon must expect to share in her plagues, Rev. xviii. 4. And, since the most sacred laws of nature, and of humanity itself, are silenced by the fury of war (though they cannot be cancelled), the conquerors shall, in the most barbarous brutish manner, dash the children to pieces, and ravish the wives. Jusque datum sceleri–Wickedness shall have free course, v. 16. They had thus dealt with God’s people (Lam. v. 11), and now they shall be paid in their own coin, Rev. xiii. 10. It was particularly foretold (Ps. cxxxvii. 9) that the little ones of Babylon should be dashed against the stones. How cruel soever and unjust those were that did it, God was righteous who suffered it to be done, and to be done before their eyes, to their greater terror and vexation. It was just also that the houses which they had filled with the spoil of Israel should be spoiled and plundered. What is got by rapine is often lost in the same manner.
VIII. The enemy that God will send against them shall be inexorable, probably being by some provocation or other more than ordinarily exasperated against them; or, in whatever way it may be brought about, God himself will stir up the Medes to use this severity with the Babylonians. He will not only serve his own purposes by their dispositions and designs, but will put it into their hearts to make this attempt upon Babylon, and suffer them to prosecute it with all this fury. God is not the author of sin, but he would not permit it if he did not know how to bring glory to himself out of it. These Medes, in conjunction with the Persians, shall make thorough work of it; for, 1. They shall take no bribes, v. 17. All that men have they would give for their lives, but the Medes shall not regard silver; it is blood they thirst for, not gold; no man’s riches shall with them be the ransom of his life. 2. They shall show no pity (v. 18), not to the young men that are in the prime of their time–they shall shoot them through with their bows, and then dash them to pieces; not to the age of innocency–they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb, nor spare little children, whose cries and frights one would think should make even marble eyes to weep, and hearts of adamant to relent. Pause a little here and wonder, (1.) That men should be thus cruel and inhuman, and so utterly divested of all compassion; and in it see how corrupt and degenerate the nature of man has become. (2.) That the God of infinite mercy should suffer it, nay, and should make it to be the execution of his justice, which shows that, though he is gracious, yet he is the God to whom vengeance belongs. (3.) That little infants, who have never been guilty of any actual sin, should be thus abused, which shows that there is an original guilt by which life is forfeited as soon as it is had.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
6. Howl ye. He continues the same argument, and bids the inhabitants of Babylon howl. Not that he directs instruction to them, as if he hoped that it would be of any advantage, but, in foretelling what shall be their condition, he emphatically employs this form of direct address.
For the day of the Lord is at hand. He calls it the day of the Lord, according to the usual custom of Scripture, because when the Lord delays his judgment, he appears to cease from the discharge of his office, like judges when they do not ascend the judgment-seat. This mode of expression deserves notice, for we would gladly subject God to our disposal, that he might immediately pass sentence against the wicked. But he has his own appointed time, and knows the seasons when it is proper both to punish the bad and to assist the good.
It shall come as destruction from the Strong One. (200) He threatens that the severity of judgment will be such that the inhabitants of Babylon will have good reason not only to cry but to howl; because God displays his power to waste and destroy them. שדד ( shadad) signifies to lay waste and plunder. From this verb is derived שדי, ( Shaddai,) one of the names of God, which some render Almighty. There is therefore an elegant allusion to the derivation of the word; as if he had said, that the inhabitants of Babylon shall learn by their own destruction how appropriately God is called שדי, ( Shaddai,) that is, strong and powerful to destroy. (201)
(200) Bogus footnote
(201) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE DAY OF THE LORD
Isa. 13:6. Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand.
Sad and unnatural is the condition of those to whom the coming of the day of the Lord is a cause for dismay. But this is the condition of the wicked. They can think of God prevailing and asserting Himself only with dread. Dread must take possession of them whenever they think of the future, for the profoundest and most ineradicable instincts of their nature assure them that the day of the Lorda day of judgment and retributionmust come.
Thus far all is plain. But when we read and think about what is to take place on the day of the Lord (Isa. 13:7-8; Isa. 13:15-16; Isa. 13:18), astonishment takes possession of us, and we feel disposed to call it the day of the devil. How can a day like this be called the day of the Lord? Note
1. That all the cruelties here described were inflicted by men.
2. That these men were moved to inflict these cruelties by their own passions; that they acted as free agents, and without any thought of fulfilling a Divine purpose.
3. That the supreme passion by which they were moved was the passion of revengeof revenge for cruelties equally frightful inflicted by the sufferers of that day. Nothing can exceed in horror the picture which the Babylonians themselves drew of the enormities perpetrated by them on conquered nations.
4. That, consequently, the Babylonians were reaping as they had sown. The day that was coming upon them was a day of retribution, and in this sense emphatically a day of the Lord. As a matter of fact, retribution is one of the laws under which we live (H. E. I., 4609, 4611, 4612), and it is a Divine law, a law worthy of God. It is an ordinance of mercy, for the tendency of it is to restrain men from sin. By their knowledge of its existence and the certainty of its operation (P. D., 2995), wicked men are undoubtedly greatly restrained from wickedness. Were it not for the days when it is manifestly seen in operation, when great transgressors are overwhelmed with great sufferings, atheism would prevail; a reign of terror and of unrestrained cruelty would begin, and every day would be a day of the devil.
5. This day, with all its horrors, was an essential preliminary to the accomplishment of Gods purposes of mercy in regard to His people. For them it was emphatically a day of the Lord, for it was the day of their deliverance from bondage, a day of exultant thanksgiving that the power of their relentless oppressors was for ever broken (chap. Isa. 14:1-6). In the history of our race there have been many such days, e.g., the French Revolution of 1789, the American Civil War; days when the worst passions of humanity were manifested without restraint; but days when the wisdom of God was displayed in bringing good out of evil, in punishing the iniquities of the past, in ushering in a brighter and better era of freedom and justice.
The record of such days of the Lord should be eminently instructive to us.
1. They should teach us the true characters of those statesmen who use national power for purposes of unrighteous national aggrandisement. They are patriots but traitors, rendering inevitable a bitter harvest of national shame and sorrow.
2. They show the folly of supposing that the great power of any nation justifies it in the hope that it may safely deal unjustly with other and weaker nations. Guilty nations set in operation forces mightier and surer in their operation than any they can commandthose forming the instrumentality by which God governs the earth, and in spite of human passions, maintains the existence and carries forward the development of the human race; these, combining, bring on a day of the Lord, in which, by the overthrow of the haughtiest wrongdoers, His existence and authority, and the folly of the practical atheism to which great nations are prone, are demonstrated (P. D., 2544).
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(6) Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand.The verse is an almost verbal reproduction of Joe. 1:15. On the day of Jehovah, see Note on Isa. 2:12.
As a destruction from the Almighty.The Hebrew shodmish-Shaddai comes with the emphasis of assonance, possibly coupled with that of etymology, the Hebrew Shaddai being derived by many scholars from the verb Shadad =to destroy. On this assumption, destruction from the destroyer would be a fair equivalent. The name, occurring frequently in the earlier books of the Old Testament (twenty-three times in Job and eight in the Pentateuch), was characteristic of the pre-Mosaic creed of Israel (Exo. 6:3), and occurs but seldom in the prophets: here, and in Joe. 1:15; Eze. 1:24; Eze. 10:5.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Howl ye Ye Babylonians.
Day of the Lord See Isa 2:12; also Joe 1:15.
At hand Soon to befall; also, to be of long continuance; this from the perspective nature of the prophecy.
As a destruction The fall of Babylon was a judgment, and was accompanied with judgments upon all thereafter through the ages under Babylonian rule.
From the Almighty Hebrew, Shaddai; most powerful, omnipotent: an epithet of Jehovah, used by the prophets only here and Eze 1:24; Eze 10:5; and Joe 1:15.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Apocalyptic Destruction of Babylon ( Isa 13:6-16 ).
The forces having been gathered by Yahweh on the remoteness of the bare mountain, they are to be unleashed in ‘the Day of Yahweh’, and it will seem as though the whole earth is involved.
Analysis of Isa 13:6-15.
a Howl, for the day of Yahweh is at hand. As the destruction from the Almighty (Shaddai) will it come. Therefore will all hands be feeble, and every heart of man will melt, and they will be dismayed.
b Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them. They will be in pain like a woman in labour. They will be amazed at one another. Their faces will be faces of flame
c Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it (Isa 13:9).
d For the stars of heaven and its constellations will not give their light, the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause her light to shine (Isa 13:10).
d And I will punish the world for evil, and the wicked for their iniquity, and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more rare (’oqir) than fine gold, even a man than the pure gold of Ophir (’ophir) (Isa 13:11-12).
c Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of her place, in the wrath of Yahweh of hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger (Isa 13:13).
b And it will come about that as the hunted roe, and as the sheep that no man gathers, they will turn every man to his own people, and will flee every man to his own (Isa 13:14).
a Every man who is found will be thrust through, and everyone who is taken will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes, their houses will be spoiled, and their wives ravished (Isa 13:15-16).
In ‘a’ the Day of Yahweh is at hand (compare Isa 13:9), coming as destruction from the Almighty, so that all hands will be feeble and ‘every heart of man’ melt, and in the parallel ‘every man’ will be thrust through, infants will be dashed in pieces, houses will be despoiled, wives will be ravished. In ‘b’ pangs and sorrows will take hold of them, they will be in pain like a woman in labour, they will be amazed at one another and their faces will be faces of flame, and in the parallel they will turn and flee to their own countries and their own kindred like hunted animals. In ‘c’ the day of Yahweh comes, cruel with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it, and in the parallel He will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of her place, in the wrath of Yahweh of hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger. In ‘d’ the stars of heaven and its constellations will not give their light, the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause her light to shine, and in the parallel he will punish the world for evil, and the wicked for their iniquity, and will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. He will make a man more rare than fine gold, even a man than the pure gold of Ophir.
Isa 13:6-8
‘Howl, for the day of Yahweh is at hand.
As the destruction from the Almighty (Shaddai) will it come.
Therefore will all hands be feeble,
And every heart of man will melt.
And they will be dismayed.
Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them.
They will be in pain like a woman in labour.
They will be amazed at one another.
Their faces will be faces of flame.’
The day that is coming and is in view will be Yahweh’s day. ‘The day of Yahweh’ means that period in which He reveals His power in judgment, whenever it is, as He carries forward His purposes, so that through history there are different ‘days of Yahweh’. (Thus various such days are to be seen in Daniel’s description of the four empires, as one follows another into destruction, although there not mentioned as such). But it would eventually, as a result of such writings as this, come to signify a great final day when God and His opponents would, as it were, come face to face in one last great war, before the everlasting kingdom was established. That is how John in Revelation saw it, a city that represented what Babylon symbolised, although it was not necessarily the literal Babylon. That had been destroyed long before (Rev 14:8; Revelation 17-18).
‘At hand.’ This refers to space rather than time. It is near in the sense that it was within striking distance. All would inevitably be caught up in it, first their neighbours and then themselves. It would be unavoidable.
The command is to ‘howl’ (plural). Compare Amo 5:16-17. All are to howl for it will inevitably be a day of destruction. Both the Almighty and the world are here exacting vengeance on Babylon and what it stands for, and this series of events will inevitably concern Jerusalem/Judah, or what remains of them. The destruction will be like the descriptions of the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah, but on a vaster scale. The whole world will be shaking. The descriptions are of people in panic and terror, in fear and perplexity, their faces burning with horror and dismay. No one knows when, but Babylon is doomed. Such things would in fact happen time and again as Babylon was on its way to its destruction. Through Babylon great suffering would come on men.
‘Destruction from the Almighty’ (sod mi ssadday). Note the assonance. Isaiah constantly uses assonance to emphasise his meaning and make it memorable. In all that would happen men were to recognise that this came from Yahweh as judgment on men’s sins.
Isa 13:9
‘Behold, the day of Yahweh comes,
Cruel with wrath and fierce anger,
To make the land a desolation,
And to destroy its sinners out of it.’
The moral purpose behind what is happening is here described. It is the day of Yahweh when He steps in to put right particular situations. Note the stress on His ‘anger’, His revulsion against their sin. Babylon has sinned against Judah and Jerusalem, it has sinned against the nations, it has sinned against God. It had once proudly asserted itself against God (Genesis 11). It would do so again and again (Isa 14:13-14). Thus His anger towards it, and thus the reason why His day will come on it. As it desolated the land of others, so its own land will be desolated. Its sinners would be destroyed.
Isa 13:10-11
‘For the stars of heaven and its constellations,
Will not give their light,
The sun will be darkened in its going forth,
And the moon will not cause her light to shine,
And I will punish the world for evil,
And the wicked for their iniquity,
And I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease,
And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.’
In a world where the heavenly bodies were seen as gods and goddesses, and natural phenomenon were interpreted astrologically, it was inevitable that the destruction of such a nation would be seen in heavenly terms, especially in the case of a city so imbued with the occult as Babylon (chapter 47). What was happening to Babylon was happening to its gods. Bel was bowing down, Nebo was stooping (Isa 46:1). Furthermore, as the smoke welled up from burning fields and cities, and the skies became distorted, and blood and smoke filled men’s eyes, natural phenomena would take on an eerie look. The stars would become hidden, the sun dark, the moon unshining. Astrologers would search the heavens and find in them portents of what was happening. Thus the very heavens themselves would be seen as involved.
Isaiah had earlier described God’s judgment on Israel in terms of darkness and distress (Isa 5:30), how much more so the judgment on Babylon. We can compare here how when God was punishing Egypt one of the plagues was a plague of thick darkness which resulted when Moses stretched his hand towards heaven (Exo 10:21-23) when exactly this situation would have been true. All of heaven would have been invisible.
And inevitably so, for Yahweh the Creator would be punishing the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. Men had put light for darkness, and darkness for light (Isa 5:20). God would do so too. The lights would go out for Babylon. He was humbling the proud, and bringing low the haughty, especially the ‘haughtiness of the terrible’. (Note that the literal events are those happening on earth). Something of this haughtiness comes out in Isa 14:12-14. Kings of Babylon, terrible in the eyes of the world, and especially of a small nation like Judah, saw themselves as exalted above the stars of God. Thus the very stars themselves must be blotted out (compare Dan 8:10; Dan 11:36).
Isa 13:12
‘I will make a man more rare (’oqir) than fine gold,
Even a man than the pure gold of Ophir.’
In the day of Babylon’s doom in its continual occurrences the land would appear deserted as populations melted away from before the invading forces. They would seemingly disappear, until the enemy had moved on. The armies would search and find no one. All would have fled, in some cases leaving their gold behind. That could still be found. Note the play on words in ’oqir and ’ophir, they would be ‘more oqir than ophir’. Ophir has not been identified (Arabia, East Africa and India have all been suggested) but was famous for its gold (1Ki 9:28; 1Ch 29:4 ; 2Ch 8:18; Job 22:24; Job 28:16; Psa 45:9).
Isa 13:13
‘Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
And the earth will be shaken out of her place,
In the wrath of Yahweh of hosts,
And in the day of his fierce anger.’
Note how this is paralleled with Isa 13:9. It is the Day of Yahweh, the day of His fierce anger, the time for dealing with sin. The continuing destruction of Babylon is to be an earthshaking event. Even the heavens will tremble. For it is Yahweh revealing His wrath against the pride of rebellious man from the beginning. Similar language was used by great kings as they described their progress in warfare. In their arrogance they saw the world shaking before them. But in Yahweh’s case it would regularly be true, and it would be true for Babylon.
Here the term ‘Yahweh of hosts’ is particularly poignant, for His anger is revealed in ‘the hosts’ He has gathered together against Babylon whose continual activity will bring Babylon down (again and again).
Isa 13:14-16
‘And it will come about that as the hunted roe,
And as the sheep that no man gathers,
They will turn every man to his own people,
And will flee every man to his own land.
Every man who is found will be thrust through,
And everyone who is taken will fall by the sword.
Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes,
Their houses will be spoiled, and their wives ravished.’
Here are described man’s experiences during that Day. The hunted roe and the wild sheep are unprotected and vulnerable. They are on their own. And so it will be with the people who gather to Babylon, drawn by the magnet of the pomp and glory that draws all men. Now they are to be left without a protector, and will have to flee to their homelands. And those who are caught will be summarily slain, for to be involved with the sinful is to be sinful and to be punished with them. The consequences in infant deaths, houses ravaged, and women raped are the normal consequences of war, when men lose control of themselves. The vivid language has become very realistic. This is war as it was known. What happened in detail was not God’s purpose, it was the consequence of the kind of instruments He had to use.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fear Grips those Destined for the Lord’s Wrath – Isa 13:6-8 records the response from those who see this great and mighty army marching. Fear has gripped their hearts. This passage describes the physical symptoms of the human body that has been overcome with fear. The hands become weak because the muscles of the body become weak. This is caused by an irregular heartbeat. The heart “melting” means that heart palpations feel as if the heart skips its beats or stops beating. As a result, breathing becomes difficult and the head dizzy, thus the body feels weak. The stomach pains or cramps with possible nausea or vomiting. The face becomes hot and red because of increased blood pressure, caused by rapid heartbeats.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Isa 13:6. Howl ye, &c. We have here, in this latter member of the first part of the discourse, a premonition to the Babylonians concerning their approaching calamity; Isa 13:6. Secondly, the effects of the expedition of their enemies against them are set forth; the stupor, consternation, and despair of the Babylonians, Isa 13:7-8 the highest calamity, joined with the greatest evils, falling upon the Babylonians, and the utter subversion of their state; with the causes, namely, their grievous crimes; which calamity is first proposed, Isa 13:9-12 and then heightened by new figures and sentences indicating its greatness; Isa 13:13-16. It has been observed by Bishop Lowth, that the prophetic writings seem peculiarly excellent in exciting terror; and, though Isaiah generally employs his pen in representing images of pleasure and joy; yet this apostrophe, beginning with the present verse, and ending with the 13th, shews that no one is superior to him in exciting the passion of terror. See his 21st Prelection.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 13:6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD [is] at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
Ver. 6. Howl ye. ] “For the evils that are coming upon you” (as in Jam 5:1 ). We may well say the same to mystical Babylon.
For the day of the Lord is at hand.
It shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the day. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Subject), for the events (or judgments) which shall take place in it.
day of the Lord. . See note on Isa 2:12. Occurs in fifteen other places in O.T. : (Isa 13:9. Eze 13:5. Joe 1:15; Joe 2:1, Joe 2:11, Joe 2:31; Amo 5:18, Amo 5:18, Amo 5:20. Oba 1:15. Zep 1:7, Zep 1:14, Zep 1:14. Mal 4:5 (total 4×4, App-10).
destruction . . . ALMIGHTY. Note Figure of speech Paronomasia. Hebrew. keshod. . . mishshaddai.
the ALMIGHTY = the All-bountiful One. Hebrew. Shaddai (App-4).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Howl ye: Isa 14:31, Isa 23:1, Isa 52:5, Isa 65:14, Jer 25:34, Jer 49:3, Jer 51:8, Eze 21:12, Eze 30:2, Joe 1:5, Joe 1:11, Joe 1:13, Zep 1:14, Jam 5:1, Rev 18:10
for the day: Isa 13:9, Isa 34:8, Eze 30:3, Joe 2:11, Joe 2:31, Amo 5:18, Zep 1:7, Zep 2:2, Zep 2:3, Mal 4:5, 1Th 5:2, 1Th 5:3
as a: Job 31:23, Joe 1:15
Reciprocal: Deu 7:23 – shall destroy Jos 5:1 – neither was Psa 48:6 – Fear Psa 76:12 – terrible Isa 2:12 – the day Jer 4:8 – howl Jer 4:20 – upon destruction Jer 16:15 – that brought Jer 30:6 – every Jer 46:10 – the day Jer 50:3 – which Jer 50:43 – king Jer 51:54 – General Eze 13:5 – the day Dan 5:9 – changed Nah 3:10 – her young Zec 14:1 – General Rev 4:8 – Lord God Almighty Rev 6:17 – the great Rev 22:10 – for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 13:6-8. Howl ye We have here a very elegant and lively description of the terrible confusion and desolation which should be made in Babylon by the attack which the Medes and Persians should make upon it. They who were now at ease and secure are premonished to howl, and make sad lamentation, 1st, Because God was about to appear in wrath against them, and it is a fearful thing to fall into his hands. And, 2d, Because their hearts would fail them, and they would have neither courage nor comfort left them; would neither be able to resist the judgment coming, nor bear up under it; neither to oppose the enemy nor to support themselves. For the day of the Lord is at hand A day of judgment and recompense, when God would act as a just avenger of his own and his peoples injured cause, and severely chastise the Babylonians for their pride and luxury, their inhumanity and cruelty, their idolatry and superstition, and, above all, their sins against the people of God, his religion and sanctuary, and so against God himself: see Jer 50:31. It shall come as a destruction Or, rather, A destruction shall it come, not merely as, or like a destruction, but such in reality, and that most awful, as being from the Almighty, whose power is irresistible, and wrath intolerable. The prophet begins here to describe the calamity coming upon them, but in figures, according to his manner, grand, and adapted to raise a terrible image of it. All hands shall be faint Hebrew, , shall fall down, and be unable to hold a weapon; and every mans heart shall melt So that they shall be ready to die with fear. God often strikes a terror into those whom he designs for destruction. Pangs, &c., shall take hold of them The pangs of their fear shall be like those of a woman in hard labour. They shall be amazed one at another To see such a populous, and, apparently, impregnable city, so easily and unexpectedly taken. Their faces shall be as flames Hebrew, shall be faces of flames; either pale with fear, or inflamed with rage and torment, as men in great misery often are. Bishop Lowth renders it, Their countenances shall be like flames of fire.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
13:6 Wail {f} ye; for the day of the LORD [is] at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
(f) You Babylonians.