Isaiah 13
About IsaiahWritten by AI
Isaiah is the first of the major prophets and one of the books the New Testament quotes most often. Isaiah son of Amoz preached in Jerusalem from about 740 to 700 BC, during the reigns of four kings of Judah, while the Assyrian empire threatened the land. Many scholars think chapters 40 to 66 come from later writers in the time of the exile and return. Many Christians hold that Isaiah wrote the whole book, noting that the New Testament quotes both halves under his name.
The book moves from judgment to comfort. Chapters 1 to 39 confront Judah's sin and the proud nations, with the history of King Hezekiah at the center. From chapter 40 the tone changes: “Comfort, comfort My people.” God promises to bring His people home, and the book ends with new heavens and a new earth.
Watch for God's title, the Holy One of Israel, and for the promised King from David's line and the Servant of the LORD who suffers for others. Christians see both fulfilled in Jesus, though some prophecies are read differently among believers.
Before you read Isaiah 13Written by AI
Chapters 13 to 23 are "burdens", messages of judgment against the nations around Judah. The first is against Babylon, the proudest of them all. The day of the LORD is pictured in cosmic terms, with stars darkened and the earth shaken. Babylon will be overthrown like Sodom and Gomorrah, and Isaiah names the Medes as the ones who will strike.
The Burden against Babylon
This is the burden against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received:
Raise a banner on a barren hilltop;
call aloud to them.
Wave your hand,
that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
I have commanded My sanctified ones;
I have even summoned My warriors
to execute My wrath
and exult in My triumph.
Listen, a tumult on the mountains,
like that of a great multitude!
Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,
like nations gathered together!
The LORD of Hosts is mobilizing
an army for war.
They are coming from faraway lands,
from the ends of the heavens—
the LORD and the weapons of His wrath—
to destroy the whole country.
Wail, for the Day of the LORD is near;
it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
Therefore all hands will fall limp,
and every man’s heart will melt.
Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them;
they will writhe like a woman in labor.
They will look at one another,
their faces flushed with fear.
Behold, the Day of the LORD is coming—
cruel, with fury and burning anger—
to make the earth a desolation
and to destroy the sinners within it.
For the stars of heaven and their constellations
will not give their light.
The rising sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light.
I will punish the world for its evil
and the wicked for their iniquity.
I will end the haughtiness of the arrogant
and lay low the pride of the ruthless.
I will make man scarcer than pure gold,
and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken from its place
at the wrath of the LORD of Hosts
on the day of His burning anger.
Like a hunted gazelle,
like a sheep without a shepherd,
each will return to his own people,
each will flee to his native land.
Whoever is caught will be stabbed,
and whoever is captured will die by the sword.
Their infants will be dashed to pieces
before their eyes,
their houses will be looted,
and their wives will be ravished.
Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes,
who have no regard for silver
and no desire for gold.
Their bows will dash young men to pieces;
they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
they will not look with pity on the children.
And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms,
the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans,
will be overthrown by God
like Sodom and Gomorrah.
She will never be inhabited
or settled from generation to generation;
no nomad will pitch his tent there,
no shepherd will rest his flock there.
But desert creatures will lie down there,
and howling creatures will fill her houses.
Ostriches will dwell there,
and wild goats will leap about.
Hyenas will howl in her fortresses
and jackals in her luxurious palaces.
Babylon’s time is at hand,
and her days will not be prolonged.