Major Prophets · Chapter 13 of 66

Isaiah 13

Isaiah begins a series of oracles against the nations with a burden against Babylon. God musters an army from distant lands as His weapons of wrath. The day of the LORD approaches, cruel and cosmic: hearts melt, the sun darkens, stars withhold their light. God will punish the world's arrogance, stir up the Medes, and leave proud Babylon a desolate ruin, uninhabited, home only to wild beasts and haunting creatures.

What happens in Isaiah 13

This is the burden of Babylon that Isaiah saw. God summons a mustering army, raising a banner on a bare mountain and calling His sanctified warriors to execute His indignation. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, as the weapons of His wrath to destroy the whole land. Isaiah cries that the day of the LORD is at hand: hands go limp, hearts melt, people writhe like a woman in labor, faces aflame with fear. The day comes cruel with wrath to make the land desolate and destroy its sinners, and the heavens go dark, sun and moon and stars withholding their light.

God will punish the world for its evil and humble the arrogance of the proud. He stirs up the Medes, who care nothing for silver or gold, to slaughter without pity, until Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, falls like Sodom and Gomorrah, never again inhabited, a haunt of desert beasts and howling creatures.

Isaiah 13 in context

The oracles against the nations, chapters 13 to 23, open with Babylon, which in Isaiah's own time was not yet the dominant empire but would later become Judah's great oppressor and place of exile. Historically Babylon did fall to a coalition including the Medes.

The chapter also lifts the local judgment into cosmic, universal terms, using the day of the LORD to speak of God's reckoning with all human pride, not Babylon alone.

Main themes of Isaiah 13

Isaiah 13 (KJV)

1The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see. 2Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. 3I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness. 4The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle. 5They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. 6Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. 7Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt: 8And 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. 9Behold, 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. 10For 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. 11And 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. 12I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. 13Therefore 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. 14And 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. 15Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. 16Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. 17Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. 18Their 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. 19And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 20It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. 21But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. 22And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.

Verses to carry from Isaiah 13

“Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.”Isaiah 13:6

“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.”Isaiah 13:9

“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.”Isaiah 13:10

Reflection

Empires that seem invincible, and the personal pride that mimics them, cannot survive the day of the LORD. Babylon's ruin warns that human glory built against God ends as a haunt of owls. Let that sober you toward humility now, and take comfort that the final Judge is the same Christ who came to save the humble.

A prayer from Isaiah 13