Chapters 13-23 are a separate section of ten prophecies where Isaiah turns his attention to the surrounding nations, those who were Israel’s traditional enemies.
Read Isaiah 13:1
1 A prophecy against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:
Here, and in some of the following prophecies, other versions translate the word prophecy as ‘burden’ (some have oracle) . The original Hebrew is actually ‘burden’ and we might think of it as something weighty that Isaiah had to deliver. Note too that this was something that Isaiah ‘saw’. With that in mind, as we read his prophecy, try to imagine the scenes that he saw.
Read Isaiah 13:2-5
2 Raise a banner on a bare hilltop, shout to them; beckon to them to enter the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded those I prepared for battle; I have summoned my warriors to carry out my wrath – those who rejoice in my triumph.
4 Listen, a noise on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations massing together! The Lord Almighty is mustering an army for war. 5 They come from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens – the Lord and the weapons of his wrath – to destroy the whole country.
In the same way that God has used pagan nations to punish his own people, here he summons them in preparation for the destruction of proud Babylon.
Read Isaiah 13:6-10
6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty. 7 Because of this, all hands will go limp, every heart will melt with fear. 8 Terror will seize them, pain and anguish will grip them; they will writhe like a woman in labour. They will look aghast at each other, their faces aflame.
9 See, the day of the Lord is coming – a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger – to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. 10 The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.
'The day of the Lord . . . . The day of the Lord . . . .’ People often think they have ‘got away with it’ – as if God has not noticed their sins. Well he has, and a day of reckoning is coming.
But it is also a prophetic vision of the end of time, when ‘All the stars in the sky will be dissolved and the heavens rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shrivelled figs from the fig-tree. ’ (Isaiah 34:4)
Read Isaiah 13:11-13
11 I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless. 12 I will make people scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, in the day of his burning anger.
As Christians, we prefer to ignore the punishment of the ungodly, and think only of us being welcomed into heaven by a loving Father.
But we need to take up this ‘burden’, and warn others: there will come a day of judgement, and Hell is real.
In the same way, for the Babylonians there will be no escape.
Read Isaiah 13:14-22
14 Like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd, they will all return to their own people, they will flee to their native land. 15 Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword. 16 Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives violated.
17 See, I will stir up against them the Medes, who do not care for silver and have no delight in gold. 18 Their bows will strike down the young men; they will have no mercy on infants nor will they look with compassion on children. 19 Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the pride and glory of the Babylonians, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; there no nomads will pitch their tents, there no shepherds will rest their flocks. 21 But desert creatures will lie there, jackals will fill her houses; there the owls will dwell, and there the wild goats will leap about. 22 Hyenas will inhabit her strongholds, jackals her luxurious palaces. Her time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.
In 1978 Saddam Hussein defiantly announced that he would rebuild Babylon.
Tourists can visit the remains, and see what he built, but it is still not inhabited.
Now read Isaiah 14:1-2
1 The Lord will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Foreigners will join them and unite with the descendants of Jacob.
2 Nations will take them and bring them to their own place. And Israel will take possession of the nations and make them male and female servants in the Lord’s land.
They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors.
We must be careful when reading prophecies that we don’t bend them to our own interpretations. Some people like to apply this prophecy to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, but I find it hard to accept that the resulting mess was the Lord’s doing. I believe it was very much a man-made decision, and the land has been at war ever since.
Rather, this initial part of the prophecy seems to point to the coming of Cyrus (Isaiah 45:1-8), but in the rest of this chapter the prophecy continues against Babylon.
Read Isaiah 14:3-6
3 On the day the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labour forced on you, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:
How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended!
5 The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers, 6 which in anger struck down peoples with unceasing blows, and in fury subdued nations with relentless aggression.
7 All the lands are at rest and at peace; they break into singing.
8 Even the junipers and the cedars of Lebanon gloat over you and say, ‘Now that you have been laid low, no one comes to cut us down.’
Living under the rule of an oppressive regime must be terrible. Imagine the relief (verse 3) when it finally ends. Even the lands themselves break into singing. And I love the last verse!
Often in the Bible the name Babylon is used to describe the ultimate enemy of God and persecutor of His people. Here Isaiah continues his theme but it can also be taken to describe the ultimate fate of the Devil himself.
9 The realm of the dead below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you – all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones – all those who were kings over the nations.
10 They will all respond, they will say to you, ‘You also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us.’
11 All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you.
Those already in hell are happy to greet the one who had convinced them to obey his will, glad that the one who led them astray has been brought low, suffering the same fate as them. What a disgusting picture! A bed of maggots and worms as a covering.
12 How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!
13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
In the Authorised Version of the Bible the title ‘Lucifer’ was given in place of ‘morning star’. Here the one who would claim to be the brightest of stars in Heaven is reduced to his correct position.
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ 15 But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.
16 Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: ‘Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble,
17 the man who made the world a wilderness, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?’
Not only the Devil himself, but the ruler of Babylon his servant, is included in this prophecy.
18 All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb.
19 But you are cast out of your tomb like a rejected branch; you are covered with the slain, with those pierced by the sword, those who descend to the stones of the pit. Like a corpse trampled underfoot,
20 you will not join them in burial, for you have destroyed your land and killed your people.
Let the offspring of the wicked never be mentioned again.
21 Prepare a place to slaughter his children for the sins of their ancestors; they are not to rise to inherit the land and cover the earth with their cities.
22 ‘I will rise up against them,’ declares the Lord Almighty.
‘I will wipe out Babylon’s name and survivors, her offspring and descendants,’ declares the Lord.
23 ‘I will turn her into a place for owls and into swampland; I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,’ declares the Lord Almighty.
The evil king who brought so much death and destruction to others, together with his town and nation, will ultimately be consigned to the fate prescribed for them.
24 The Lord Almighty has sworn,
‘Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen.
25 I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.’
The Assyrians and Babylonians were closely related. They had the same gods, culture, and language. They roughly occupied modern Iraq and Iran, with Assyria in the north and Babylonia in the south. Here Isaiah prophesies against both.
26 This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations.
27 For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?
A comforting thought for those who are on God’s side. He does have a plan for the whole world, and he will ultimately bring it to fruition.
Now A prophecy against the Philistines
28 This prophecy came in the year King Ahaz died:
29 Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken; from the root of that snake will spring up a viper, its fruit will be a darting, venomous serpent.
30 The poorest of the poor will find pasture, and the needy will lie down in safety. But your root I will destroy by famine; it will slay your survivors.
This suggests that king Ahaz of Judah had kept the Philistines in servitude. With his death they now felt free again. But don’t imagine that they will escape God’s wrath.
31 Wail, you gate! Howl, you city! Melt away, all you Philistines! A cloud of smoke comes from the north, and there is not a straggler in its ranks.
32 What answer shall be given to the envoys of that nation? ‘The Lord has established Zion, and in her his afflicted people will find refuge.’
The Philistines were eventually conquered by the Neo-Babylonian and Persian empires in the late fifth century BC, attacking from ‘the north’.
The last word to them is ‘The Lord has established Zion’.
