Isaiah 13 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
written in the Assyrian era of the late 700s BC, looking ahead to the fall of Babylon, which came in 539 BC
Location
Jerusalem, with the vision aimed at the city of Babylon on the Euphrates in what is now southern Iraq
Audience
the people of Judah, and later Judeans living as exiles under Babylonian rule
Situation
This chapter opens a long block of prophecies about foreign nations, beginning with Babylon. It summons an army from a distant land, describes a day of reckoning with cosmic imagery of darkened sun and shaking heavens, and predicts that the proud city will be left as empty ruins.
Key Background
Prophecies against foreign nations were a recognised literary form in Israel and appear in several prophetic books, functioning as reassurance to the home audience that no empire is beyond God's reach. The Medes, named here as the attackers, were a people from the Iranian highlands who did join the coalition that eventually toppled Babylon. The picture of a great city left to desert animals and never rebuilt was a standard curse formula in Near Eastern treaties and inscriptions, meant to describe total and permanent ruin rather than a temporary defeat.
The concerning — what Isaiah son of Amoz
On a bare hilltop, raise a flag. Shout to them — wave them forward through the of the
I myself have given the order to the I apart. I have called my fighters, the ones who celebrate my triumph.
Listen — a roar on the mountains, like a massive crowd! Listen — an uproar of kingdoms, nations gathering together! Yahweh, of armies, is marshaling a force for war.
They come from a distant land, from the edge of the sky — Yahweh and the weapons of his — to the entire earth.
Wail — because the of is near. It will come like destruction from the
Because of this, every hand will go limp, every human heart will
They will be gripped with terror. Pain and anguish will seize them; they will a in labor. They will stare at each other, faces flushed with horror.
Look — the day of Yahweh is coming, cruel, with fury and burning anger, to make the land a wasteland and to wipe its from it.
The stars in the sky and their constellations will not show their light. The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shine.
I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their ways. I will crush the arrogance of the proud and bring down the swagger of
I will make people scarcer than pure gold, rarer than the of
So I will make the heavens shudder, and the earth will be shaken from its place by the fury of Yahweh, Commander of angel armies, on the day his anger blazes.
Like a gazelle, like a flock with no shepherd, each one will turn back to their own people, each one will flee to their homeland.
Whoever is caught will be through; whoever is captured will fall by the sword.
Their infants will be before their eyes; their houses will be looted, their wives violated.
Look — I am stirring up the against them, who don't care about silver and have no desire for gold.
Their bows will cut down the young men; they will show no mercy to newborns, no compassion for children.
And Babylon — the of kingdoms, the proud beauty of the — will be overthrown by God like and
It will never be lived in again, never inhabited through all generations. No nomad will pitch a tent there, no shepherd will rest flocks there.
But will lie there, and their houses will be full of owls. Ostriches will live there, and wild goats will leap about.
Hyenas will howl in her strongholds, and in her luxurious palaces. Her time is almost here, and her days will not be extended.