Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 13:8

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.

8. they shall be amazed one at another ] i.e. “look in horror on each other.”

their faces shall be as flames ] Lit. faces of flames are their faces, burning with feverish excitement, or perhaps with shame (Eze 7:18). There are no exact parallels to the expression; cf. Joe 2:6; Nah 2:10.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

They shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth – This comparison is often used in the Scriptures to denote the deepest possible pain and sorrow, as well as the suddenness with which any calamity comes upon a people Psa 48:6; Isa 21:3; Isa 42:14; Jer 6:24; Jer 13:21; Jer 22:23; Jer 49:24; Jer 50:43; Hos 13:13; Mic 4:9-10; Joh 16:21; Gal 4:19; 1Th 5:3.

They shall be amazed one at another – They shall stare with a stupid gaze on one another, indicating a state of great distress, anxiety, and alarm. They shall look to each other for aid, and shall meet in the countenances of others the same expressions of wonder and consternation.

Their faces shall be as flames – Their faces shall glow or burn like fire. When grief and anguish come upon us, the face becomes inflamed. The face in fear is usually pale. But the idea here is not so much that of fear as of anguish; and, perhaps, there is mingled also here the idea of indignation against their invaders.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 8. And they shall be afraid – “And they shall be terrified”] I join this verb, venibhalu, to the preceding verse, with the Syriac and Vulgate.

Pangs and sorrows shall take hold on them – “Pangs shall seize them”] The Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee read yochezum, instead of yochezun, which does not express the pronoun them, necessary to the sense.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

They shall be amazed one at another, to see so populous and impregnable a city as Babylon was, so easily and unexpectedly taken.

Flames, Heb. faces of flame; either pale with fear, or inflamed with rage and torment, as men in misery frequently are. Some render it the faces of Lehabim, a people descending from Mizraim, Gen 10:13; 1Ch 1:11, i.e. black with pain, as men use to be; of which see Joe 2:6; Nah 2:10.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

8. pangsThe Hebrewmeans also a “messenger.” HORSLEY,therefore, with the Septuagint translates, “The heralds(who bring word of the unexpected invasion) are terrified.“MAURER agrees with EnglishVersion, literally, “they shall take hold of pangs andsorrows.”

woman . . . travaileth(1Th 5:3).

amazedthe stupid,bewildered gaze of consternation.

faces . . . flames“theirvisages have the livid hue of flame” [HORSLEY];with anguish and indignation.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And they shall be afraid,…. Troubled, dismayed, frightened, at the sudden taking of the city, and at the sight of Cyrus’s troops marching up into the very heart of it, and to the king’s palace:

pangs and sorrow shall take hold of them; as convulsions, pains in the bowels, c. more fully explained in the next clause:

they shall be in pain, as a woman that travaileth that is in labour, and ready to bring forth her child, whose pains are very sharp, and agonies great; the same is said of the king of Babylon,

Jer 50:43:

they shall be amazed one at another; that so great a city should be so surprised, and so suddenly taken; and that they shall not be able to help one another; and that such as were so famous for courage and valour should be at once so dispirited:

their faces [shall be as] flames; not red with blushing, through shame, as Kimchi; but pale with fear, as the colour of flame, or, as the faces of smiths, that work at a forge: the words may be rendered, “their faces are as the faces of Lehabim” d; the name of a people mentioned in Ge 10:13 the same with the Libians, which were of a blackish or tawny colour; so Jarchi interprets it, and says they were a people of a yellow complexion: and Aben Ezra observes, that some interpret it of a nation like the Ethiopians; and so it denotes, that the Babylonians, their faces should be black with distress and anguish; see Joe 2:6.

d “ut facies Lehabim, [sive] Lybiorum facies eorum”, Gataker.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

8. Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them. The word צירים ( tzirim) being ambiguous, the Greek translators render it ambassadors. But the comparison of a woman that travaileth, which is added immediately afterwards, sufficiently proves that it denotes pangs; for here, as if by a single word, he explains what he had previously said, that their hearts shall be melted and their hands shall be weakened; because, he says, they shall be struck with terror and dismay. Whence comes this terror? From God. This kind of terror, for which there was no apparent cause, the ancients called a panic; (202) for they gave the name panes to apparitions and objects of this sort, by which men were terrified, even when there was no outward object that ought to have excited the terror. It was not without reason that they did so; but still they erred through gross ignorance, because they did not understand that it proceeded from God.

As a woman that travaileth. So far as relates to the inhabitants of Babylon, there was, indeed, just ground of fear, when they saw that they were attacked by valiant and warlike nations; but yet the Prophet threatens that, though they were able to resist, still they would be like men who were half dead, because through the secret operation of God they fainted and fell down. To the same purpose is what he adds, Every one shall be amazed at his neighbor; as when men are agitated and stare around them in every direction; and not only so, but when no hope of safety is to be seen, they are like men who have lost their senses, and abandon themselves to indolence.

Faces of flames their faces. (203) This clause, in which he attributes to them faces of flames, expresses still more strongly the violence of the terror. Some think that it denotes shame, as if he had said in a single word, They shall blush; but this is too feeble. Isaiah intended to express something greater and more dreadful; for when we are in agony the face glows, and the pressure of grief makes us burn. And, indeed, it would be treating the matter too lightly, when the calamity was so severe, to interpret these words as denoting shame; for he describes a calamity so distressing, that, on account of its severity, flames burst forth from the countenance, which usually happens when men are agonized by intense grief.

The comparison of a travailing woman denotes not only the intensity of the grief, but likewise the suddenness with which it seized them. As the calamity would be severe and violent, so Isaiah threatens that it will be sudden, and not without good reason; for the inhabitants of Babylon, protected by such strong defences, would never have thought that it was possible for any annoyance to reach or distress them.

(202) Bogus footnote

(203) Bogus footnote

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

8. Afraid Dismayed. Poetic power is manifest in the figures here used, which are to the effect that contortions from agonizing pain fall on the people; men stare at each other in helpless fright; their faces are faces of flame red as fire.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Isa 13:8 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.

Ver. 8. And they shall be afraid. ]

“ Conturbabuntur –

Innumerabilibus sollicitudinibus. ”

They shall be amazed one at another. ] Amused, amazed, amated, as being at their wits’ ends.

Their faces shall be as flames. ] So Jer 30:5-6 , a voice of fear and trembling, every man with his hands on his loins, the posture of a travailling woman, and all faces turned into paleness. The prophet here alludeth, saith Musculus, to the face of a smith at dark night, when he standeth blowing his fire, for his face appears as if it had no blood in it, most wan and pale. Or, as others think, to a man frightened, who first looketh pale, the blood running to the heart to relieve it, afterwards, upon the return of the blood to the outward parts, he looketh red, and of a flame colour.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)