Isaiah 13

The book of Isaiah concludes chapters 1–12 with the song of praise in Isaiah 12. Chapter 13 begins a series of prophecies concerning the surrounding nations, the first of which is directed against Babylon. This prophecy continues through Isaiah 14.

Outline

• Verse 1 Superscription. This is the "burden" concerning Babylon that Isaiah the son of Amoz received. The word translates the Hebrew massa, meaning "burden" or "oracle" (a message delivered by God).
• Verses 2–5 The LORD summons His sanctified mighty men and musters an army gathered from a distant land.
• Verses 6–8 The people are called to wail, for the Day of the LORD is at hand. They are in anguish like a woman in labor.
• Verses 9–13 The sun, moon, and stars lose their light. The LORD punishes the wicked and the proud and shakes the heavens and the earth.
• Verses 14–16 Those who flee fall by the sword, and their families suffer calamity.
• Verses 17–18 The LORD stirs up the Medes against Babylon.
• Verses 19–22 Babylon becomes like Sodom and Gomorrah, uninhabited and left as a haunt for wild beasts. Its time is near.

Key Verses

• Isaiah 13:6 "The day of the LORD is at hand" — a representative verse expressing the theme of the Day of the LORD that runs throughout the Old Testament prophetic books.
• Isaiah 13:10 "The sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine" — this language of cosmic judgment reappears in New Testament teaching on the end times.
• Isaiah 13:19 "Shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah" — summarizes the final fate awaiting Babylon.

People and Places

• Isaiah the prophet: The prophet who received this oracle.
• Amoz: Isaiah's father. Because his name is spelled differently in Hebrew, he is regarded as a different person from the prophet Amos.
• Babylon: The Mesopotamian city and empire that is the subject of the prophecy.
• The Medes: A people of the northwestern Iranian Plateau who later conquered Babylon together with Persia.
• The Chaldeans: A people of southern Babylonia who founded the Neo-Babylonian dynasty.
• Sodom and Gomorrah: Used as an image of utter destruction.
• Ophir: A region known as a source of fine gold. Its exact location is uncertain.

Interpretive Considerations

• Date of composition: Traditionally, the passage is read as a prophecy in which Isaiah foresaw events before Babylon rose to become a great power. Some scholars, however, hold that this section was written later. Another view connects it with the Assyrian destruction of Babylon in 689 BC.
• Views of fulfillment: When the combined Persian and Median forces captured Babylon in 539 BC, the city was not extensively destroyed. Consequently, several interpretations coexist: that the prophecy was fulfilled through Babylon's gradual desolation, that it prefigures the final judgment, or that it awaits a literal future fulfillment (a view held by some dispensationalists).
• Connection with the New Testament: Isaiah 13:10 is echoed in the end-times discourse of Matthew 24 (verse 29). The depiction of fallen Babylon as a dwelling place for beasts (verses 21–22) reappears in the judgment of "that great city Babylon" in Revelation 18.
• The gruesome scene in verse 16 depicts the horrors of war. Interpreters generally hold that it should not be taken to mean that God approves of such acts.