1 The burden of Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz hath seen:
The Visions of Isaiah son of Amoz, that he hath seen concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Come down, and sit on the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, Sit on the earth, there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans, For no more do they cry to thee, `O tender and delicate one.' Take millstones, and grind flour, Remove thy veil, draw up the skirt, Uncover the leg, pass over the floods. Revealed is thy nakedness, yea, seen is thy reproach, Vengeance I take, and I meet not a man. Our redeemer `is' Jehovah of Hosts, His name `is' the Holy One of Israel. Sit silent, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, For no more do they cry to thee, `Mistress of kingdoms.' I have been wroth against My people, I have polluted Mine inheritance And I give them into thy hand, Thou hast not appointed for them mercies, On the aged thou hast made thy yoke very heavy, And thou sayest, `To the age I am mistress,' While thou hast not laid these things to thy heart, Thou hast not remembered the latter end of it. And now, hear this, O luxurious one, Who is sitting confidently -- Who is saying in her heart, `I `am', and none else, I sit not a widow, nor know bereavement.' And come in to thee do these two things, In a moment, in one day, childlessness and widowhood, According to their perfection they have come upon thee, In the multitude of thy sorceries, In the exceeding might of thy charms. And thou art confident in thy wickedness, Thou hast said, `There is none seeing me,' Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, It is turning thee back, And thou sayest in thy heart, `I `am', and none else.' And come in on thee hath evil, Thou knowest not its rising, And fall on thee doth mischief, Thou art not able to pacify it, And come on thee suddenly doth desolation, Thou knowest not. Stand, I pray thee, in thy charms, And in the multitude of thy sorceries, In which thou hast laboured from thy youth, It may be thou art able to profit, It may be thou dost terrify! Thou hast been wearied in the multitude of thy counsels, Stand up, I pray thee, and save thee, Let the charmers of the heavens, Those looking on the stars, Those teaching concerning the months, From those things that come on thee! Lo, they have been as stubble! Fire hath burned them, They deliver not themselves from the power of the flame, There is not a coal to warm them, a light to sit before it. So have they been to thee with whom thou hast laboured, Thy merchants from thy youth, Each to his passage they have wandered, Thy saviour is not!
In the year of the death of king Ahaz was this burden:
say unto them, Thus said the Lord Jehovah: `The prince `is' this burden in Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel who are in their midst.
And there came one of the seven messengers, who were having the seven vials, and he spake with me, saying to me, `Come, I will shew to thee the judgment of the great whore, who is sitting upon the many waters, with whom the kings of the earth did commit whoredom; and made drunk from the wine of her whoredom were those inhabiting the earth;' and he carried me away to a wilderness in the Spirit, and I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of evil-speaking, having seven heads and ten horns, and the woman was arrayed with purple and scarlet-colour, and gilded with gold, and precious stone, and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and uncleanness of her whoredom, and upon her forehead was a name written: `Secret, Babylon the Great, the Mother of the Whores, and the Abominations of the earth.' And I saw the woman drunken from the blood of the saints, and from the blood of the witnesses of Jesus, and I did wonder -- having seen her -- with great wonder; and the messenger said to me, `Wherefore didst thou wonder? I -- I will tell thee the secret of the woman and of the beast that `is' carrying her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns. `The beast that thou didst see: it was, and it is not; and it is about to come up out of the abyss, and to go away to destruction, and wonder shall those dwelling upon the earth, whose names have not been written upon the scroll of the life from the foundation of the world, beholding the beast that was, and is not, although it is. `Here `is' the mind that is having wisdom; the seven heads are seven mountains, upon which the woman doth sit, and there are seven kings, the five did fall, and the one is, the other did not yet come, and when he may come, it behoveth him to remain a little time; and the beast that was, and is not, he also is eighth, and out of the seven he is, and to destruction he doth go away. `And the ten horns that thou sawest, are ten kings, who a kingdom did not yet receive, but authority as kings the same hour do receive with the beast, these have one mind, and their own power and authority to the beast they shall give over; these with the Lamb shall make war, and the Lamb shall overcome them, because Lord of lords he is, and King of kings, and those with him are called, and choice, and stedfast.' And he saith to me, `The waters that thou didst see, where the whore doth sit, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues;' and the ten horns that thou didst see upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her in fire, for God did give into their hearts to do its mind, and to make one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast till the sayings of God may be complete, and the woman that thou didst see is the great city that is having reign over the kings of the land.'
The burden of a word of Jehovah unto Israel by the hand of Malachi:
The burden of a word of Jehovah on Israel. An affirmation of Jehovah, Stretching out heaven, and founding earth, And forming the spirit of man in his midst.
Burden of Nineveh. The Book of the Vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
then the king's countenance hath changed, and his thoughts do trouble him, and the joints of his loins are loosed, and his knees are smiting one against another.
And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, The glory, the excellency of the Chaldeans, Hath been as overthrown by God, With Sodom and with Gomorrah.
`And it hath come to pass, at the fulness of seventy years, I charge against the king of Babylon, and against that nation -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- their iniquity, and against the land of the Chaldeans, and have appointed it for desolations age-during. And I have brought in on that land all My words that I have spoken against it, all that is written in this book, that Jeremiah hath prophesied concerning all the nations. For laid service on them -- also them -- have many nations and great kings, and I have given recompence to them according to their doing, and according to the work of their hands. `For thus said Jehovah God of Israel unto me, Take the wine cup of this fury out of My hand, and thou hast caused all the nations to drink it unto whom I am sending thee; And they have drunk, and shaken themselves and shewn themselves foolish, because of the sword that I am sending among them. `And I take the cup out of the hand of Jehovah, and cause all the nations to drink unto whom Jehovah sent me: Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, And its kings, its heads, To give them to waste, to astonishment, To hissing, and to reviling, as `at' this day. Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, And his heads, and all his people, And all the mixed people, And all the kings of the land of Uz, And all the kings of the land of the Philistines, And Ashkelon, and Gazzah, and Ekron, And the remnant of Ashdod, Edom, and Moab, and the sons of Ammon, And all the kings of Tyre, And all the kings of Zidon, And the kings of the isle that `is' beyond the sea, Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, And all cutting the corners `of the beard', And all the kings of Arabia, And all the kings of the mixed people, Who are dwelling in the wilderness, And all the kings of Zimri, And all the kings of Elam, And all the kings of Media, And all the kings of the north, The near and the far off, one unto another, And all the kingdoms of the earth, That `are' on the face of the ground, And king Sheshach drinketh after them.
And when this people, or the prophet, Or a priest, doth ask thee, saying, What `is' the burden of Jehovah? Then thou hast said unto them: Ye `are' the burden, and I have left you, An affirmation of Jehovah. And the prophet, and the priest, and the people, That saith, The burden of Jehovah, I have seen after that man, and after his house. Thus do ye say each unto his neighbour, And each unto his brother: What hath Jehovah answered? And what hath Jehovah spoken? And the burden of Jehovah ye do not mention any more, For the burden to each is -- His word, And ye have overturned the words of the living God, Jehovah of Hosts, our God. Thus dost thou say unto the prophet What hath Jehovah answered thee? And what hath Jehovah spoken? And if the burden of Jehovah ye say, Therefore thus said Jehovah: Because of your saying this word, The burden of Jehovah, And I do send unto you, saying, Ye do not say, The burden of Jehovah.
And now, hear, O Jacob, My servant, And Israel, whom I have fixed on: Thus said Jehovah, thy Maker, and thy Former, From the womb He doth help thee; Fear not, my servant Jacob, And Jeshurun, whom I have fixed on.
The burden of the Valley of Vision. What -- to thee, now, that thou hast gone up, All of thee -- to the roofs?
The burden on Arabia. In a forest in Arabia ye lodge, O travellers of Dedanim.
The burden of the wilderness of the sea. `Like hurricanes in the south for passing through, From the wilderness it hath come, From a fearful land. A hard vision hath been declared to me, The treacherous dealer is dealing treacherously, And the destroyer is destroying. Go up, O Elam, besiege, O Media, All its sighing I have caused to cease. Therefore filled have been my loins `with' great pain, Pangs have seized me as pangs of a travailing woman, I have been bent down by hearing, I have been troubled by seeing. Wandered hath my heart, trembling hath terrified me, The twilight of my desire He hath made a fear to me, Arrange the table, watch in the watch-tower, Eat, drink, rise, ye heads, anoint the shield, For thus said the Lord unto me: `Go, station the watchman, That which he seeth let him declare.' And he hath seen a chariot -- a couple of horsemen, The rider of an ass, the rider of a camel, And he hath given attention -- He hath increased attention! And he crieth -- a lion, `On a watch-tower my lord, I am standing continually by day, And on my ward I am stationed whole nights. And lo, this, the chariot of a man is coming, A couple of horsemen.' And he answereth and saith: `Fallen, fallen hath Babylon, And all the graven images of her gods He hath broken to the earth. O my threshing, and the son of my floor, That which I heard from Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel, I have declared to you!' The burden of Dumah. Unto me is `one' calling from Seir `Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?'
The burden of Egypt. Lo, Jehovah is riding on a swift thick cloud, And He hath entered Egypt, And moved have been the idols of Egypt at His presence, And the heart of Egypt melteth in its midst.
The burden of Damascus. Lo, Damascus is taken away from `being' a city, And it hath been a heap -- a ruin.
That thou hast taken up this simile Concerning the king of Babylon, and said, How hath the exactor ceased, Ceased hath the golden one. Broken hath Jehovah the staff of the wicked, The sceptre of rulers. He who is smiting peoples in wrath, A smiting without intermission, He who is ruling in anger nations, Pursuing without restraint! At rest -- quiet hath been all the earth, They have broken forth `into' singing. Even firs have rejoiced over thee, Cedars of Lebanon -- `saying': Since thou hast lain down, The hewer cometh not up against us. Sheol beneath hath been troubled at thee, To meet thy coming in, It is waking up for thee Rephaim, All chiefs ones of earth, It hath raised up from their thrones All kings of nations. All of them answer and say unto thee, Even thou hast become weak like us! Unto us thou hast become like! Brought down to Sheol hath been thine excellency, The noise of thy psaltery, Under thee spread out hath been the worm, Yea, covering thee is the worm. How hast thou fallen from the heavens, O shining one, son of the dawn! Thou hast been cut down to earth, O weakener of nations. And thou saidst in thy heart: the heavens I go up, Above stars of God I raise my throne, And I sit in the mount of meeting in the sides of the north. I go up above the heights of a thick cloud, I am like to the Most High. Only -- unto Sheol thou art brought down, Unto the sides of the pit. Thy beholders look to thee, to thee they attend, Is this the man causing the earth to tremble, Shaking kingdoms? He hath made the world as a wilderness, And his cities he hath broken down, Of his bound ones he opened not the house. All kings of nations -- all of them, Have lain down in honour, each in his house, And -- thou hast been cast out of thy grave, As an abominable branch, raiment of the slain, Thrust through ones of the sword, Going down unto the sons of the pit, As a carcase trodden down. Thou art not united with them in burial, For thy land thou hast destroyed, Thy people thou hast slain, Not named to the age is the seed of evil doers. Prepare ye for his sons slaughter; Because of the iniquity of their fathers, They rise not, nor have possessed the land, Nor filled the face of the world `with' cities. And I have risen up against them, (The affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts,) And have cut off, in reference to Babylon, Name and remnant, and continuator and successor, The affirmation of Jehovah. And have made it for a possession of a bittern, And ponds of waters, And daubed it with the mire of destruction, The affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts!
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 13
Commentary on Isaiah 13 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 13
Hitherto the prophecies of this book related only to Judah and Israel, and Jerusalem especially; but now the prophet begins to look abroad, and to read the doom of divers of the neighbouring states and kingdoms: for he that is King of saints is also King of nations, and rules in the affairs of the children of men as well as in those of his own children. But the nations to whom these prophecies do relate were all such as the people of God were in some way or other conversant and concerned with, such as had been kind or unkind to Israel, and accordingly God would deal with them, either in favour or in wrath; for the Lord's portion is his people, and to them he has an eye in all the dispensations of his providence concerning those about them, Deu. 32:8, 9. The threatenings we find here against Babylon, Moab, Damascus, Egypt, Tyre, etc., were intended for comfort to those in Israel that feared God, but were terrified and oppressed by those potent neighbours, and for alarm to those among them that were wicked. If God would thus severely reckon with those for their sins that knew him not, and made no profession of his name, how severe would he be with those that were called by his name and yet lived in rebellion against him! And perhaps the directing of particular prophecies to the neighbouring nations might invite some of those nations to the reading of the Jews' Bible, and so they might be brought to their religion. This chapter, and that which follows, contain what God had to say to Babylon and Babylon's king, who were at present little known to Israel, but would in process of time become a greater enemy to them than any other had been, for which God would at last reckon with them. In this chapter we have,
Isa 13:1-5
The general title of this book was, The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, ch. 1:1. Here we have that which Isaiah saw, which was represented to his mind as clearly and fully as if he had seen it with his bodily eyes; but the particular inscription of this sermon is the burden of Babylon.
Isa 13:6-18
We have here a very elegant and lively description of the terrible confusion and desolation which should be made in Babylon by the descent which the Medes and Persians should make upon it. Those that were now secure and easy were bidden to howl and make sad lamentation; for,
Isa 13:19-22
The great havoc and destruction which it was foretold should be made by the Medes and Persians in Babylon here end in the final destruction of it.