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Proclamation against Babylon

13

The oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw.

 

2

On a bare hill raise a signal,

cry aloud to them;

wave the hand for them to enter

the gates of the nobles.

3

I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,

have summoned my warriors, my proudly exulting ones,

to execute my anger.

 

4

Listen, a tumult on the mountains

as of a great multitude!

Listen, an uproar of kingdoms,

of nations gathering together!

The L ord of hosts is mustering

an army for battle.

5

They come from a distant land,

from the end of the heavens,

the L ord and the weapons of his indignation,

to destroy the whole earth.

 

6

Wail, for the day of the L ord is near;

it will come like destruction from the Almighty!

7

Therefore all hands will be feeble,

and every human heart will melt,

8

and they will be dismayed.

Pangs and agony will seize them;

they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.

They will look aghast at one another;

their faces will be aflame.

9

See, the day of the L ord comes,

cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,

to make the earth a desolation,

and to destroy its sinners from it.

10

For the stars of the heavens and their constellations

will not give their light;

the sun will be dark at its rising,

and the moon will not shed its light.

11

I will punish the world for its evil,

and the wicked for their iniquity;

I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant,

and lay low the insolence of tyrants.

12

I will make mortals more rare than fine gold,

and humans than the gold of Ophir.

13

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,

and the earth will be shaken out of its place,

at the wrath of the L ord of hosts

in the day of his fierce anger.

14

Like a hunted gazelle,

or like sheep with no one to gather them,

all will turn to their own people,

and all will flee to their own lands.

15

Whoever is found will be thrust through,

and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.

16

Their infants will be dashed to pieces

before their eyes;

their houses will be plundered,

and their wives ravished.

17

See, I am stirring up the Medes against them,

who have no regard for silver

and do not delight in gold.

18

Their bows will slaughter the young men;

they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;

their eyes will not pity children.

19

And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,

the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans,

will be like Sodom and Gomorrah

when God overthrew them.

20

It will never be inhabited

or lived in for all generations;

Arabs will not pitch their tents there,

shepherds will not make their flocks lie down there.

21

But wild animals will lie down there,

and its houses will be full of howling creatures;

there ostriches will live,

and there goat-demons will dance.

22

Hyenas will cry in its towers,

and jackals in the pleasant palaces;

its time is close at hand,

and its days will not be prolonged.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

3. I have commanded my sanctified ones. 198198     “My appointed ones.” קדש (kadash) is to select and set apart for a work, particularly for one of God’s appointment. See Jeremiah 22:7, Zephaniah 1:7. — Stock
    FT190 The LORD and the weapons of his indignation. — Eng. Ver.
    FT191 From the Almighty. — Eng. Ver.
    FT192 “שד משדי (shod mishshaddai). This title of God is here employed for the sake of the alliteration, destruction from the destroyer, from him who is all-powerful to destroy (שדד) (shadad) as well as to save.” — Rosenmuller
    FT193 By a happy coincidence, the English word panic conveys exactly the meaning of the Latin adjective Panicus, which is here said to be derived from the name of the heathen God Pan, the god of the mountains, cattle, &c. — Ed
    FT194 Their faces shall be as flames. (Heb. faces of the flames.) — Eng. Ver. “Faces of flames shall be their faces.” — Stock
    FT195 See Xen. Cyr., book 7, chapter 5.
    FT196 Jarchi quotes the words, to add the drunken to the thirsty, (Deuteronomy 29:19,) add year to year, (Isaiah 29:1,) and add burnt-offerings to your sacrifices, (Jeremiah 7:21,) and his annotator Breithaupt translates the verb ספה (saphah) by a word in his native French, accueillir, which means to gather, or flock together. — Ed
    FT197 Which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. — Eng. Ver.
    FT198 Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces. — Eng. Ver.
    FT199 Shall be as when God overthrew. (Heb. as the overthrowing.)--Eng. Ver.
    FT200 But wild beasts of the desert (Heb. Ziim) shall lie there. — Eng. Ver.
    FT201 It is a gratifying proof of the progress of knowledge and of the decay of superstition, that such words as Hobgoblins, Hob-thrushes, Robin-goodfellows, and even Fairies, answering to the grotesque names which Calvin has brought from his own vernacular, have grown antiquated, and are not likely to be replaced by terms of modern date. Howell’s definition of Loup-garou is a curious record of superstitious belief. “A mankind Wolfe, such a one as once being flesht on men, and children, will rather starve than feed on any thing else; also, one that, possessed with an extream and strange melancholy, beleeves he is turned Wolfe, and as a Wolfe behaves himselfe,” etc. — Ed
    FT202 And the wild beasts of the islands (Heb. Iim) shall cry. — Eng. Ver.
    FT203 And hyoenas shall cry in their palaces, and jackals in their tabernacles of delight. — Stock Here the Prophet introduces the Lord as speaking and issuing his commands. He calls the Medes and Persians sanctified ones, that is, those whom he has prepared. The verb קדש (kadash) is used in various senses; for sometimes it refers to the spirit of regeneration, and this belongs peculiarly to the elect of God. But sometimes it means to wish or prepare, and that meaning is more appropriate to this passage. All who are created by the Lord are likewise appointed by him for a fixed purpose. He does not throw down men at random on the earth, to go wherever they please, but guides all by his secret purpose, and regulates and controls the violent passions of the reprobate, so as to drive them in whatever manner he thinks fit, and to check and restrain them according to his pleasure. He therefore calls them sanctified ones, “set apart and prepared to execute his will,” though they had no such intention. Hence also we are taught to ascribe to the secret judgment of God all violent commotions, and this yields wonderful consolation; for whatever attempts may be made by wicked men, yet they will accomplish nothing but what the Lord has decreed.

I have also called my mighty ones. The phrase, I have called, conveys more than the phrase, I have commanded, which he had used in the former clause. It means that they will be roused to action, not only at the bidding of God, but by the very sound of his voice; as if I were to call a person to me, and he were immediately to follow. He threatens, therefore, that Babylon shall be destroyed by the Medes and Persians, in the same manner as if they obeyed the call of God; for though they were prompted to battle by their own ambition, pride, and cruelty, yet God directed them, without knowing it, to execute his judgment.
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