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APOCALYPTIC COMMENTARY

  Isaiah

13

Isaiah 13

The Assyrian alliance destroys the wicked world that is Babylon as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
1 An oracle concerning Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw in vision:

Isaiah’s “Babylon” historically encompassed not only the ancient city of Babylon but the entire idolatrous, materialistic empire under Babylon’s influence, including nations in league with Babylon against an ascendant Assyria. Isaiah’s oracles against these nations in chapters 13-23, together with chapter 47 which addresses the Woman Babylon, form Part IV of Isaiah’s Seven-Part Structure whose key themes are humiliation and exaltation. In an end-time context, this Greater Babylon represents a wicked world on the eve of its destruction and resembles John’s “Babylon the Great” (Revelation 17-18).

2 Raise the ensign on a barren mountain;sound the voice among them!Beckon them with the hand to advanceinto the precincts of the elite.

The “ensign” (nes), “voice” (qol), and “hand” (yad), which appear in parallel, here denote the king of Assyria/Babylon who rallies an alliance of nations to conquer the world. That these terms also designate Jehovah’s servant in the Book of Isaiah implies that the two are contemporaries and rivals. The “barren mountain” from which the archtyrant hails identifies a nation that, apart from its military strength, isn’t agriculturally productive. The elite peoples of the earth, who include the wicked of Jehovah’s people (Isaiah 2:12-17; 26:5), are his prime target, as these he plunders and despoils (Isaiah 10:5-6, Isaiah 10:5-6, 14; 33:1; 33:1).

3 I have charged my holy ones,called out my valiant ones:amy anger is not upona those who take pride in me.

Jehovah’s anger—the king of Assyria/Babylon (Isaiah 5:25; 10:5; 14:5-6)—can’t harm Jehovah’s elect, his “holy ones” and “valiant ones,” in his Day of Judgment. Amidst the destruction of all peoples and their lands (Isaiah 10:7; 33:12; 37:18), those who emulate the divine attributes of the “Holy One” and “Valiant One” of Israel (Isaiah 1:4, 24) are delivered. At the very time the archtyrant plans to attack them, they are “charged” or “appointed” (siwweti) to minister to one another and “called” or “summoned” (qara’ti) out of the destruction by Jehovah’s servant (Isaiah 11:10-12; 41:8-10; 55:3-5).

4 Hark! A tumult on the mountains,as of a vast multitude.Hark! An uproar among kingdoms,as of nations assembling:Jehovah of Hosts is marshaling an army for war.

A synonymous parallelism identifies “mountains” as a metaphor for “kingdoms.” A similar synonymous parallelism elsewhere identifies “mountains” as a metaphor for “nations” (Isaiah 64:1-3). Jehovah sends the tempestuous Assyrian horde—the archtyrant and his military alliance—to make war on Jehovah’s people and on all nations. The tumult and uproar they cause in the world stems from their hatred toward Israel’s God and his people: “Woe to the many peoples in an uproar, who rage like the raging of the seas—tumultuous nations, in commotion like the turbulence of mighty waters!” (Isaiah 17:12).

5 They come from a distant land beyond the horizon—Jehovah and the instruments of his wrath—to cause destruction throughout the earth.
6 Lament, for the Day of Jehovah is near;it shall come as a violent blow from the Almighty.

The coming of the “Day of Jehovah”—Jehovah’s Day of Judgment—parallels the coming of the Assyrian alliance to wreak havoc throughout the earth. Jehovah’s wrath, like his anger (v 3), designates the archtyrant, who exemplifies these traits (Isaiah 10:5). His destruction of all nations, including the wicked of Jehovah’s people, is a consistent theme in the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 5:25-30; 10:23; 14:23; 28:22; 33:1; 37:18; 51:13; 54:16; 59:18-19; 63:3-6). Although he launches his attack “from a distant land beyond the horizon,” it comes as a “violent blow” from Jehovah himself (Isaiah 30:27; 42:13-15).

7 Then shall every hand grow weakand the hearts of all men melt. 8 They shall be terrified, in throes of agony,seized with trembling like a woman in labor.Men will look at one another aghast,their faces set aflame.

Jehovah’s Day of Judgment will be unlike anything since the Flood in its destructiveness (Isaiah 54:8-10). While the righteous experience joy at their miraculous deliverance, the wicked yield to terror as they experience the world’s all-time worst-case scenario. In that day, all the earth’s inhabitants go into labor, some to perish, others to be delivered (Isaiah 21:1-3; 26:17-18; 66:7-11). Those who exercise perfect integrity live through the devouring fire to see Jehovah’s coming in glory (Isaiah 33:14-16; 43:2). Others, like Lot’s wife, disintegrate in its conflagration (cf. Genesis 19:24-26).

9 The Day of Jehovah shall comeas a cruel outburst of anger and wrathto make the earth a desolation,that sinners may be annihilated from it.

The Day of Jehovah that comes as “a violent blow from the Almighty” (v 6) parallels the Day of Jehovah that comes as “a cruel outburst of anger and wrath” (v 9), again identifying the king of Assyria/Babylon—Jehovah’s anger and wrath—as the one who instigates it. As this is “An oracle concerning Babylon” (vv 1, 19), we begin to discern Isaiah’s definition of Babylon as both a people and a place—the “earth” and its “sinners” on the eve of their destruction (cf. v 11). In effect, as Zion is both a people and a place—those of Israel who repent and the place of their return (Isaiah 1:27; 35:10)—so is Babylon.

10 The stars and constellations of the heavenswill not shine.When the sun rises, it shall be obscured;nor will the moon give its light.

Darkness—a covenant curse—typifies the archtyrant’s cataclysmic destruction of peoples and lands. In that day, Jehovah “clothes the heavens with the blackness of mourning” and “puts up sackcloth to cover them” (Isaiah 50:3). A “distressing gloom” pervades the land, “for the daylight will be darkened by an overhanging mist” (Isaiah 5:30). Men “will look to the land, but there will be a depressing scene of anguish and gloom; and thus are they banished into outer darkness” (Isaiah 8:22). Only for Jehovah’s elect does the “light dawn amid darkness,” drawing them to Zion (Isaiah 9:2; 58:10; 60:1-4).

11 I have decreed calamity for the world,punishment for the wicked;I will put an end to the arrogance of insolent menand humble the pride of tyrants.

As noted, Babylon’s destruction is a worldwide event (v 9; Isaiah 10:23). “The world,” “the wicked,” “insolent men,” and “tyrants” add to the list of entities that comprise Isaiah’s Greater Babylon. Jehovah puts an end to pride in that day. Whether of his own people or the nations, it is the same: “What will you do in the day of reckoning when the holocaust overtakes you from afar?” (Isaiah 10:3); “Jehovah of Hosts has a day in store for all the proud and arrogant and for all who are exalted, that they may be brought low” (Isaiah 2:12); “Tyrants shall come to nought and scorners cease” (Isaiah 29:20).

12 I will make mankind scarcer than fine gold,men more rare than gold of Ophir.

A precious category of humanity—a tithe of the tithe of the earth’s inhabitants (Isaiah 6:13)—resembles “fine gold.” These pass through the refiner’s fire when Jehovah’s judgments come upon the wicked: “I will . . . smelt away your dross as in a crucible and remove all your alloy” (Isaiah 1:25). Those whom Jehovah delivers consists only of precious and semiprecious categories of humanity: “You shall adorn yourself with them all as with jewels” (Isaiah 49:18); “In place of copper I will bring gold, in place of iron, silver; in place of wood I will bring copper, in place of stones, iron” (Isaiah 60:17).

13 I will cause disturbance in the heavenswhen the earth is jolted out of placeby the anger of Jehovah of Hostsin the day of his blazing wrath.

Destruction by the archtyrant—Jehovah’s anger and wrath—extends to cosmic cataclysm and the earth’s being jarred from its orbit because of wickedness: “The earth shall be crushed and rent; the earth shall break up and cave in; the earth shall convulse and lurch. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, sway back and forth like a shanty; its transgressions weigh it down, and when it collapses it shall rise no more” (Isaiah 24:19-20). After the earth’s dislocation serves his purpose, Jehovah “replants the heavens and sets the earth in place” in a new cosmic trajectory (Isaiah 51:16; cf. 65:17; 66:22).

14 Then, like a deer that is chased,or a flock of sheep that no one rounds up,each will return to his own peopleand everyone flee to his homeland.

Those who don’t repent in time to participate in the exodus of Jehovah’s elect to Zion must fend for themselves among the nations. As aliens are often suspect, people return to their own countries for safety. Still, as “deer” and “sheep” are ritually clean animals, those who flee represent a category of Jehovah’s people. Comprising neither the “holy” and “valiant” souls whom Jehovah gathers out of destruction in the new exodus (v 3), nor the wicked who perish (vv 9, 11), this middle category, too, learns by experience what Jehovah desires to teach his people and to whom they may turn for help.

15 Whoever is found shall be thrust through;all who are caught shall fall by the sword. 16 Their infants shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes,their homes plundered, their wives ravished.

The king of Assyria/Babylon—Jehovah’s sword—pursues a strategy of genocide: “His purpose shall be to annihilate and to exterminate nations not a few” (Isaiah 10:7). In Jehovah’s Day of Judgment, the world’s wicked come under God’s justice. Although Jehovah had offered mercy, promising deliverance to those who repent, they refused: “I will destine you to the sword; all of you shall succumb to the slaughter. For when I called, you did not respond; when I spoke, you would not give heed. You did what was evil in my eyes; you chose to do what was not my will” (Isaiah 65:12; emphasis added).

17 See, I stir up against them the Medes,who do not value silver, nor covet gold. 18 Their bows shall tear apart the young.They will show no mercy to the newborn;their eye will not look with compassion on children.

Jehovah “stirs up” the enemies of the wicked to destroy them (Isaiah 5:30; 9:11; 51:15). Forming a part of the Assyrian alliance are a cruel people from the East who pursue a policy of exterminating instead of plundering their victims: “Like tornadoes sweeping through the South, they come from the steppes, a land of terror. A grim vision has been revealed to me. . . Attack, O Elamites! Lay siege, you Medes! All the sighing [Babylon] has caused I will bring to an end” (Isaiah 21:1-2). They distinguish between neither the righteous—the silver and gold—nor the wicked; between neither young nor old.

19 And Babylon, the most splendid of kingdoms,the glory and pride of Chaldeans, shall be thrown downas God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

Babylon, the world’s all-time elite civilization—magnificent, resplendent, awe-inspiring in its immensity and grandeur—meets the fate of the basest, most degenerate society the world has known, wiped off the face of the earth in a fiery conflagration rained down from the sky. Its citizens, the Chaldeans, once admired throughout the earth for creating this model of opulence, become synonymous with the curse of Sodom and Gomorrah. Babylon and all who are identified with it—the sinners and wicked of the earth and the world (vv 9, 11)—disappear forever (Isaiah 14:22-23; 21:9; 47:1-15).

20 Never shall it be reinhabited;it shall not be resettled through all generations.Nomads will not pitch their tents there,nor will shepherds rest their flocks in it.

Following the destruction of the wicked, certain parts of the earth remain as memorials, reminding its inhabitants of the consequences of transgressing against their Maker (Isaiah 66:24). Like ancient Sodom and Gomorrah, such places remain uninhabitable because of the kind of destruction that occurred there: “Her streams shall turn into lava and her earth into brimstone; her land shall become as burning pitch. Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall ascend forever. It shall remain a wasteland from generation to generation; through endless ages none shall traverse it” (Isaiah 34:9-10).

21 But wild animals will infest it,and its buildings overflow with weasels;birds of prey will find lodging thereand demonic creatures prance about in it. 22 Jackals will cry out from its palaces,howling creatures from its amusement halls.Her time draws near;Babylon’sb days shall not be prolonged.

The only ones who live in Babylon’s abandoned ruins are unclean animals reminiscent of the wicked who used to live there. Residents who formerly “infested” its buildings and housing areas, who “lodged” in crowded, “overflowing” conditions, now have their counterparts in “wild animals,” “weasels,” “birds of prey,” and “demonic creatures.” The entertainers who formerly “pranced about” and “cried out” in its “palaces” and “amusement halls” are now represented by “jackals” and “howling creatures.” Like a pregnancy gone wrong, Babylon’s days are numbered and she doesn’t survive her ordeal.

  • a3 Hebrew le ’appi ‘allize emended to lo’ ’appi ‘al ‘allize.
  • b22 Hebrew Her.


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