Chapter 13
This chapter is labeled "The Oracle Concerning Babylon that Isaiah Saw" in the ESV, and "Prophecies about Babylon" in the MSB. It is interesting to me that Isaiah lived 150 years before Babylon conquered Jerusalem, yet he goes into detail about Babylon's ultimate fate here. In Isaiah's time, Assyria was the dominant nation, and Israel was going to fall to them well before Babylon really rose to power. Yet here we are, reading about Babylon first.
Vss 1-5 talk about mighty men summoned to execute the anger of God. A host mustered for battle. To destroy the "whole land" in ESV, footnote says whole earth. It says a multitude of nations will gather together. Babylon doesn't seem to be coming alone, but with allies from many nations.
2024 - Verse 1 made it clear that this is about Babylon, and here is how they are described:
5 They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, the LORD and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. [Isa 13:5 ESV]. These are clearly chosen to carry out God's wrath...but they are not from Israel. They are from somewhere far off - and vs 1 said Babylon. A pagan nation empowered by God to wreak vengeance on His people.
All hands will be feeble. God will put fear in people. Vss 6-8 seem to say that God will put panic into the defenders, rendering them nearly helpless before the coming invasion. We saw several examples of this when Israel entered Canaan, particularly in Rahab's explanation of why she helped Israel. All of Canaan was in a panic. This is how Canaan was defeated with so few losses to the army of Israel. The defenders turned and ran.
2022 - The phrase "the day of the Lord" is always coming up. It goes hand and hand with another phrase, which escapes me right now. One of them is more of a generic term (perhaps "in that day"?), and is applied in the Bible to several (many) different events. The other always refers to the final wrath of God. I need to get these nailed down in my mind so that I don't get confused, every time I see one of these phrases, and have to figure out which one it is. In this verse, we can see - I think - that the day of the Lord refers to the coming of Babylon and not to the final judgment of God in Revelation. So...day of the Lord is the generic phrase I think?
Well...maybe I have it reversed again! Vs 9 includes wrath. To destroy sinners from the land sounds like the final wrath. Stars and sun dark? Well that has to be the wrath of God in Revelation! Ties with Joel 2 also. 11 says he'll punish - NOT JUST ISRAEL, but - the whole world.
The further it goes the more certain I am that this is about Revelations. Man will be more rare than fine gold? Doesn't that go with "except those days were shortened...".
2024 - Found MANY sources to tell me what "day of the LORD" means:
The Old Testament passages dealing with the day of the Lord often convey a sense of imminence, nearness, and expectation: “Wail, for the day of the Lord is near!” (Isaiah 13:6); “For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near” (Ezekiel 30:3); “Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand” (Joel 2:1); “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision” (Joel 3:14); “Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is near” (Zephaniah 1:7). This is because the Old Testament passages referring to the day of the Lord often speak of both a near and a far fulfillment, as does much of Old Testament prophecy. Some Old Testament passages that refer to the day of the Lord describe historical judgments that have already been fulfilled in some sense (Isaiah 13:6-22; Ezekiel 30:2-19; Joel 1:15, 3:14; Amos 5:18-20; Zephaniah 1:14-18), while others refers to divine judgments that will take place toward the end of the age (Joel 2:30-32; Zechariah 14:1; Malachi 4:1, 5). It came from here:
https://www.gotquestions.org/day-of-the-Lord.html
The Old Testament portrays the day of the Lord as punishment through overlapping images of cataclysm, war, and sacrifice; it highlights the day as renewal by emphasizing how God’s presence will rest on his people in the midst of a messianic Davidic reign. The New Testament then identifies Christ Jesus as the one who fulfills the ultimate day of the Lord, inaugurating it in his death and resurrection and consummating it at his second coming. For the elect, Jesus’s death signals the satisfaction of God’s wrath against sin, and his resurrection marks the start of the new creation. For non-believers, however, the day of the Lord’s wrath is still future, and it will come with cataclysm, war, and sacrifice, as the warrior God will enter into space and time to punish his enemy and to reconstitute right order, wherein he is exalted over all.
This one is from here: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-day-of-the-lord/
2024 - "THE DAY OF THE LORD" defined: There were literally dozens of sources listed for this on a Google search. I only looked closely at these two. What seems most "dependable" is that on "the Day of the LORD", huge, cataclysmic, obviously God-sent retribution against a people or the whole world is unleashed. This is not about Phillistine raiders or Syrian invaders. These two would be seen more as "corrective" events sent by God to turn His people back to Him. But a "Day of the LORD" event is huge, both in scope and intention, and is a purge, not a chastisement. It is an "out with the old and in with the new" event, far more encompassing than "in that day". So we can see how this phrase would apply to either the Assyrian or Babylonian invasions, and also to the post-Sixth Seal judgments on the entire planet. So...with that more clearly defined, though still not anything like crystal clear, let's move on.
Vs 9 says
Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.
Isaiah 13:9 ESV
This sounds like end times but verse 1 clearly says Babylon. 9-16 sure seem like apocalyptic language. The sun dark as it rises, no moonlight, infants dashed to pieces, houses plundered, wives ravished. These last three I have not seen in Revelation. However...they might be there when the fall of Babylon the great is described. The language here, and the language about Babylon in Revelation have similarities. It would be good to read them together and do a comparison. That would make a nice little study. Perhaps that is what is going on here with Isaiah. There is a near fulfillment in the fall of Babylon after they have completed God's punishment of Judah, and there is a far judgement on Babylon because of the world system it represents. I think the heavenly signs must be interpreted as end times events. This verse also indicates a still future fulfillment of these verses:
12 I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. [Isa 13:12 ESV] In Revelation a significant portion of the people remaining on earth are killed by war, famine, disease, and the armies of Satan. This sure seems to be pointing to that.
2024 - So..we are told in vs 1 that this is about Babylon, but vss 10-16 are surely about end times. So how do we understand them? Perhaps by the way the phrase "day of the LORD" is used.
In vs 6 we are clearly told that this is a NEAR fulfilment. The verses that follow, down through vs 8, seem likely to tie back to the Babylonian invasion. The NASB paragraph break and new title imply that we have a new prophecy and not a continuation of what started in vs 1. That may not be the case at all.
2024 - In vs 6, "Wail" is an imperative, giving us no idea about timing. Later in 6, we get "It will come..." which is imperfect, indicating a continuing and ongoing situation. The idea is that this "day of the LORD" is not going to be like a single bolt of lightning, but a hurricane.
Compare this with vs 9, where we get the phrase again, but this time it reads as "Behold the day of the LORD is coming". Coming, as opposed to near. "is coming" is in the perfect. This means it is seen as "a completed action or a situation that is viewed as a single event" according the BLB description of "perfect" type. This difference in type may well be there to tell us that in vs 9 we are talking about a different situation entirely. The first is near and ongoing. The second is certain, distinct, and part of a single event. Wow. This surely gives us more than enough grounds to say that the prophecy of vss 6-8 are about a completely different situation than what starts in vs 10. And we would understand it that way anyway, when we look at how it ties to Revelation. Point is, we aren't just assuming here, but we have a textual basis for interpreting these verses as telling us about TWO DISTINCT times that were both future to Isaiah.
2023 - Doesn't this verse compare to Joel and Revelation? Surely we need to make that tie also - and with Matthew 24:
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 pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless. [Isa 13:10-11 ESV]. Pretty easy to make this pre-wrath also.
2023 - Then this one:
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the LORD of hosts in the day of his fierce anger. [Isa 13:13 ESV]. This ought to tie into Revelation also.
2025 - Don't forget about vs 12:
12 I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. [Isa 13:12 ESV]. This would seem very similar to this verse:
22 And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. [Mat 24:22 ESV]
I think this is about those last days before the rapture, when the church is reduced almost to zero. Vs 13 rolls right into the Sixth Seal Signs and Matt 24:29.
2025 - Ahh...It is entirely possible that there is a "break" in the time of fulfillment of this prophecy that runs from 13:1-14. Vvs 14-16 do not correspond to anything we have about the rapture or the time just before. These verses seem to be about end of Babylon, rather than the end of the age. I just do not have the energy to see if I can unravel this here and find a textual/grammatical basis for making this prophecy about two different times. But I feel quite strongly that it must be there.
Vs 17 clearly says the Medes will be doing this, and brings us back to the near fulfillment. This one is talking about the Babylon of Isaiah's time, and events then, and indeed it was the Medo-Persians who ultimately defeated Babylon. Just as Daniel's prophecies predicted. We haven't gotten to Daniel yet...
2024 - ...and in vs 17 we get yet a third verb type, telling us that this is about a different time than we saw in either 6 or 9. This time, we get a "participle active". BLB says this is "A verbal adjective which can modify nouns or be used as a substantive in its own right." In this case, it is substantive in that it introduces a new prophecy, a new event, a new time. It says nothing about whether this is continuous and ongoing or a single event. This is a third case. A different prophecy, and I think it is clearly "near". So in 2024, I don't think this has anything to do with future Babylon.
2024 - Look at vs 18 (and look back to 15-16):
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. [Isa 13:18 ESV]. Today, we worry about civilian casualties, about starving non-combatants in war zones, and we tell ourselves how compassionate we are about these things. It was not always this way. Both the Babylonians (15-16) and the Medes in 18 are absolutely ruthless in their conquests. No mercy of any kind to any person, any age, any gender. This is "total war".
2021 - Vs 19 though...
[Isa 13:19 ESV] And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.
This sounds like the fall of Babylon in Revelation. I wonder if there is a knot here that I haven't yet untied that makes this prophecy separate into a near and a far, as there turned out to be in Isa 7?
2023 - Sure seems to be. It WAS the Medes who conquered Babylon, so there is little doubt of the near fulfillment here. Is it reading in too much to make it also tie to the fall of Babylon in Revelation?
Babylon to fall and never be inhabited again. As today. Hmm...given the verse below, the Babylon in Revelation cannot be taken as the actual city of Babylon. It must be looked at as a symbol of a world system - a corrupt world system - and not as a specific place. Here is the key verse:
20 It will never be inhabited or lived in for all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there; no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there. [Isa 13:20 ESV]
Vs 22 says the time is close and will not be prolonged. This verse also ties this part of the oracle to the near term and not to end times.
(2021, 11/27, See the intro remarks to 14 below. As I started reading 14, I had to come back to 13 and revisit because I was just still too unclear on 13. After all the notes below, between the []'s, I don't say that I understand 13 precisely, but I am closer. I do get it a little better. I was going to copy all that up here into chapter 13, but that is not when I really studied it, so leaving it below and referencing it here. And moving on to 14.
2022 - This section inserted subsequent to a pretty in-depth look at Mark 13, which necessitated looking at Matt 24 and Luke 21 also. I am pasting this into Isa 13 and Joel 2...because they are about the same thing:
2022 - We still have to deal with Isa 13 also. I had not found it when made the notes above. Isa 13 is about the destruction of Babylon, in one sense, but also must be about the time in Revelation when Babylon is destroyed. That is in Rev 18,19. IF, as I think right now, the verses above about the signs in heaven portend the rapture, and NOT the final battle after Christ's return, then the verses below need to be explained in that context:
"9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.
This does not sound like the joyous day of the rapture. This phrase "the day of the Lord" has to be pinned down. I think it refers to the second coming and the final battle. I think it is a particular, specific, identifiable day. I don't think the day of the Lord is the day of the rapture, so vs 9 is not about the rapture, not about Rev. 6.
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.
But THIS is the very next verse. This matches Joel, the three gospels, and Rev 6. So...does this tie all that is being said in Isaiah to Rev 6 and so to the rapture - as I understand its timing - or can I "explain this away"? Look at the next verse:
"11 I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless." [Isa 13:11 ESV]. Does this sound like the rapture? No, I don't think it does. So we have the signs in the heavens, the very familiar signs from Mark 13, Matt 24, and Lk 21, bracketed by descriptions of what seems necessarily to be Armageddon. And just look at the next verse:
12 I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind 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 LORD of hosts in the day of his fierce anger." [Isa 13:9-10, 12-13 ESV]
This description goes right along with Jesus saying these things:
"28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather." [Mat 24:28 ESV]
"37 And they said to him, "Where, Lord?" He said to them, "Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather."" [Luk 17:37 ESV]
At that battle, when Jesus comes, a very huge portion of the people who have managed to stay alive to that point will be fighting on the side of the Antichrist. They will ALL be killed. Revelation is very clear. The language about the number of dead from that battle leaves little doubt that most of mankind - other than the converted Jews - will be wiped out.
Looking again at the passages in Matt, Mk, and Lk, that phrase "after that time of tribulation" precedes the signs in heaven. Revelation only mentions these signs at the 6th seal, NOT at the second coming in Rev. 19. BUT, is it ok to say that according to Isaiah, those same signs will appear again just before the day of the Lord? To make the case that I am making, at this point, that is what I am forced to say. I think those vss in Isaiah 13 end as to the day of the Lord at vs 13:13. In vs 14 we return to the prophecy of the fall of old Babylon to the Medes.
Isa 13:1-10 seem to correspond to Joel 2:1-11. The pictures painted, the very words seem certainly to be talking about the same day. The day of the Lord is in view. I think both of these are about Rev 19, the second coming.
Here are some interesting verses for direct comparison:
"6 Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come!" [Isa 13:6 ESV]
"1 Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near," [Joe 2:1 ESV]
"7 Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt. 8 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." [Isa 13:7-8 ESV]
"6 Before them peoples are in anguish; all faces grow pale." [Joe 2:6 ESV]
"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." [Isa 13:10 ESV]
"10 The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining." [Joe 2:10 ESV]
So. As clear as it is that these signs will appear in Rev 6, and as it is very clear that Rev 6 is NOT about the second coming, and all this destruction and desolation and fire and armies of the Lord DO NOT appear in Rev 6 or following, it is equally clear that these signs will precede the appearance of Christ in Rev 19, when he does come to destroy his enemies and assume the rule of the planet. These signs precede the appearance of Christ - at both the rapture and at the second coming. Why would they not. I don't know why these things are not mentioned in Rev 19, perhaps because they don't need to be. Both Isaiah and Joel - two witnesses to the events of the Day of the Lord - make it clear that they will appear then. Isaiah and Joel didn't know about the church age - or the rapture that ends it, so they wouldn't talk about it. Jesus discourse, recorded in Matt 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, was about the church age, and since the end of that had not been previously described with the signs in heaven, is described in some detail there. We must not mix the events of the rapture with the events of the second advent. They are truly different. AND, it may be that the best way to reconcile all this is to apply the parable of the tares being gathered and burned first, and then the wheat gathered in, to the second coming. The burning is about that Satanic army. They will first be destroyed, burned, and then the faithful Jews will be gathered for the Millennial Reign. Perhaps this is why that parable about wheat and tares is found only in Matt 13:24-30, and nowhere near Matt 24. Because they are about different times.
Here is the tie to Joel, chapter 3, not chapter 2: "13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. 14 Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision." [Joe 3:13-14 ESV]. Joel 3 is about Armageddon. And this comes right after: "15 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining." [Joe 3:15 ESV]. Joel tells us twice that these signs in heaven will precede the second coming.
2022 - I think there is a lot of confusion in my previous interpretations of these verses. All of them. Neither Isaiah nor Joel are talking about the second advent. They are both talking about the wrath of the Lord, which begins after the rapture, and can be seen in Rev. 6/7. All these signs occur in that chapter. They do not occur in 19, when Christ descends to earth for Armageddon, because these signs will not appear then. Both here and in Joel, it is the beginning of the wrath of God that is in view. I probably have this wrong in many places, but in 2022, this prophecy is about wrath. Even so, it seems to also be about Babylon...but is it the 150 year out Babylon, or is the fall of Babylon in Revelation?