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Proclamation against Babylon

The oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw.

On a bare hill raise a signal,

cry aloud to them;

wave the hand for them to enter

the gates of the nobles.

I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,

have summoned my warriors, my proudly exulting ones,

to execute my anger.

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.

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.

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

it will come like destruction from the Almighty!

Therefore all hands will be feeble,

and every human heart will melt,

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.

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.

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.

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.

I will make mortals more rare than fine gold,

and humans than the gold of Ophir.

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.

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.

Whoever is found will be thrust through,

and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.

Their infants will be dashed to pieces

before their eyes;

their houses will be plundered,

and their wives ravished.

See, I am stirring up the Medes against them,

who have no regard for silver

and do not delight in gold.

Their bows will slaughter the young men;

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

their eyes will not pity children.

And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,

the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans,

will be like Sodom and Gomorrah

when God overthrew them.

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.

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.

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.

9. Behold the day of the Lord will come cruel. He repeats what he had slightly noticed a little before, that though the inhabitants of Babylon are now at ease, and rely on their wealth, the day of the Lord is at hand, to terrify those who are at ease.

But a question might here be raised, Why is the day of the Lord called cruel, since nothing is more desirable than to have God present with us; for his presence alone makes us truly happy? I answer, we ought always to consider who they are that are addressed by the Prophet; for it is customary with the prophets to give various descriptions of God corresponding to the diversity of the hearers. In like manner, David also declares that God is

merciful to the merciful, and cruel and severe to the ungodly. (Psalm 18:25,26.)

What could wicked men imagine to be in God but the utmost severity? And therefore the slightest mention of God fills them with terror.

The godly, on the other hand, whenever the name of God is mentioned, derive the greatest delight and joy from hearing it; so that nothing can be more highly gratifying. Thus, when the prophets address the godly, as soon as they have mentioned God, they speak of joy and gladness, because the godly will feel that he is gracious and merciful to them; but when they address the ungodly, they hold out the judgment of God, and speak of grief and mourning. As the godly are cheered by the presence of God, because by faith they behold his goodness; so the ungodly are terrified, because the testimony of their conscience reproves and convinces them that he comes as a severe Judge. Since even hypocrites pretend that they eagerly long for the day of the Lord, and boast that he will assist them, the prophets tear off from them this disguise, and show that to them the day of the Lord will be dreadful and alarming. (Amos 5:18,20.)

Isaiah applies the usual description to this prophecy, in order to show more fully how much we ought to dread the wrath of God; for, being by nature slow, or rather stupid, we would not be powerfully affected if the Lord spoke in plain terms about his judgments. Since, therefore, an unadorned style would be too cold, he contrived new modes of expression, that by means of them he might shake off our sluggishness. When he says, and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it, he means by sinners not all men without distinction, but the ungodly and wicked men who inhabited Babylon.

10. For the stars of heaven. In order to strike our minds with a stronger and more distressing fear of the judgment of God, the prophets are accustomed to add to their threatenings extravagant modes of speaking, which place the anger of God, as it were, before their eyes, and affect all our senses, as if all the elements were now arising to execute his vengeance. And yet the expressions, though unusually strong, do not go beyond the dreadful nature of what took place; for it is impossible to exhibit an image of the judgment of God so alarming that the reality shall not be felt to be more revolting and terrible.

The sun, and the moon, and the stars are mentioned, because they are striking proofs of God’s fatherly kindness towards us. Hence also Christ shows that it is an eminent proof of the goodness of God that

he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good. (Matthew 5:45.)

Accordingly, when the sun and moon and stars shine in heaven, God may be said to cheer us by his bright and gracious countenance. Since therefore in the brightness of heaven God shows a cheerful and friendly countenance, as if he might be said to smile upon us, the darkness which the Prophet describes conveys the thought, that God, by hiding his face, cast the men with whom he was angry into the darkness of sorrow.

A similar description is given by the Prophet Joel.

The sun shall be turned into darkness, the moon into blood, before it comes — the day of Jehovah, great and terrible.
(Joel 2:31.)

We have already said that this mode of expression is frequently employed by the prophets, in order to inform us that everything will tend to our destruction, when God is against us. Sometimes indeed God gives tokens of his anger by means of the stars; but that is out of the usual course of events, and the darkness which the Prophet now describes will not take place till the second coming of Christ. But we ought to be satisfied with knowing that all the creatures, which by discharging their duties to us are proofs and instruments of God’s fatherly kindness, not only cease to be useful to us, when God arises to judgment, but in some measure are armed for vengeance.

11. And I will visit upon the world wickedness. Here the Prophet does not speak of the whole world; but as Babylon was the seat of the most powerful of all monarchies, he gives to it on that account the name of the world, and he does so emphatically, (ἐμφατικῶς,) for Babylon was a kind of world, because it appeared to occupy nearly the whole earth. And yet he means that there is nothing in this world so lofty that God cannot easily seize it with one of his fingers. At the same time he gives warning that God will punish the cruelty which was exercised by the Chaldeans. Yet we ought also to learn that the wickedness and crimes of Babylon are brought forward, in order to inform us that the Lord will not be cruel in punishing her so severely, because he inflicts the punishment which that people deserved on account of their transgressions and crimes. Every ground of calumny is therefore taken away, that we may not think that God delights in the afflictions of men; for when he thus deals with men according as they deserve, the mouths of all must be stopped, (Romans 3:19,) since the severity of the afflictions does not proceed from God, but finds its cause in men themselves.

And will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease. We must keep in mind what I have already noticed, that the Prophet yields no small consolation to the godly by assuring them that God, though he spares the inhabitants of Babylon for a time, will at length punish them for their injustice and cruelty. He expresses this still more clearly by taking notice of a particular vice, namely, pride, in consequence of which they loosed the reins, and gave unbounded freedom to their lawless desires to oppress the wretched. For this reason also he reproves their tyranny. But we ought also to draw from it a profitable doctrine, that it is impossible for us to escape punishment from the Lord, if we are puffed up with vain confidence and flatter ourselves. The Prophet here includes every kind of pride; whether men think that they are something, or admire their riches, and despise others in comparison of themselves. God cannot endure any arrogancy, or suffer it to pass unpunished. Seeing therefore, that among a great variety of other crimes with which Babylon abounded, this was the greatest and most remarkable, it was chiefly by their pride that the wrath of God was kindled.

And will lay low the loftiness of tyrants. Arrogance was joined, as it usually is, to violence and cruelty; and therefore he adds the loftiness of tyrants; for when men despise others, this is followed by deeds of violence and injustice and oppression; and it is impossible for men to abstain from doing harm to others, if they do not lay aside all conceit and high estimation of themselves. Let us willingly, therefore, bring down our minds to true humility, if we do not wish to be cast down and laid low to our destruction.