Evening on the flat Euphrates plain: far off and small, a stepped mud-brick ziggurat and long flat-topped walls, palm-lined canals and reed beds in front, the river still under a pale amber sky.

The nations judged

Isaiah 13

Babylon was the jewel of the kingdoms. What proud thing do you count on to last?

22 verses≈ 4 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of Jesse
13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earthChapter 13
24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beauty
36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the Servant
49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things new

The Burden against Babylon

This is the burden against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received:

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Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

Burdens on every side

From Babylon to the Nile, from the desert to the sea: every nation around Judah answers to the LORD, and Jerusalem too (22).

God

Dawn on a bare, rocky hilltop: a tall rough wooden pole with a plain dark cloth banner streaming hard in the wind, ridge after ridge behind.

Raise a banner on a barren hilltop;

call aloud to them.

Wave your hand,

that they may enter the gates of the nobles.

God

I have commanded My sanctified ones;

I have even summoned My warriors

to execute My wrath

and exult in My triumph.

Isaiah

They are coming from faraway lands,

from the ends of the heavens—

the LORD and the weapons of His wrath—

to destroy the whole country.

Isaiah

Wail, for the Day of the LORD is near;

it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

Isaiah

Therefore all hands will fall limp,

and every man’s heart will melt.

Isaiah

Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them;

they will writhe like a woman in labor.

They will look at one another,

their faces flushed with fear.

Isaiah

Midday over the flat Babylonian plain under a strange brown gloom: the sun a dull, rayless disc behind heavy haze, palms and canals dim, a ziggurat far off as a dark shape.

Behold, the Day of the LORD is coming—

cruel, with fury and burning anger—

to make the earth a desolation

and to destroy the sinners within it.

Isaiah

For the stars of heaven and their constellations

will not give their light.

The rising sun will be darkened,

and the moon will not give its light.

God

I will punish the world for its evil

and the wicked for their iniquity.

God

I will end the haughtiness of the arrogant

and lay low the pride of the ruthless.

Isaiah 13:11

God

I will make man scarcer than pure gold,

and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.

Question

Quick question

The Day of the LORD in verses 6–12 is coming on the whole world. Read verse 11 again before you answer.

What does the LORD say He will end?

God

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,

and the earth will be shaken from its place

at the wrath of the LORD of Hosts

on the day of His burning anger.

Isaiah

Late afternoon on a dusty hillside: a few sheep scattered wide among stones and thorn bushes with no shepherd anywhere, a lone gazelle bounding away over the crest.

Like a hunted gazelle,

like a sheep without a shepherd,

each will return to his own people,

each will flee to his native land.

Isaiah

Whoever is caught will be stabbed,

and whoever is captured will die by the sword.

Isaiah

Their infants will be dashed to pieces

before their eyes,

their houses will be looted,

and their wives will be ravished.

God

God

Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes,

who have no regard for silver

and no desire for gold.

God

Their bows will dash young men to pieces;

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

they will not look with pity on the children.

Isaiah

Bright morning at Babylon’s great gate faced with blue glazed brick, small rows of lions and bulls on it, the palm-lined processional way and the ziggurat rising over flat roofs; courtiers small in the gateway.

And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms,

the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans,

will be overthrown by God

like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Isaiah

She will never be inhabited

or settled from generation to generation;

no nomad will pitch his tent there,

no shepherd will rest his flock there.

Isaiah

Dusk in a ruined palace court of mud brick: broken walls, blue glazed bricks fallen in the rubble, two jackals trotting through a doorway, an ostrich far off on the mound, wild goats on a fallen wall.

But desert creatures will lie down there,

and howling creatures will fill her houses.

Ostriches will dwell there,

and wild goats will leap about.

Isaiah

Gray dusk over the long low mounds of ruined Babylon: crumbled mud brick, a broken stub of the ziggurat, reeds and standing water, no light anywhere.

Hyenas will howl in her fortresses

and jackals in her luxurious palaces.

Babylon’s time is at hand,

and her days will not be prolonged.

0:10

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

LORD of Hosts, You lay low the pride of the ruthless. Humble my pride before Your day comes, and let me count on nothing that You will overthrow. Amen.

You’ve experienced

Isaiah 13

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A verse to carry with you

I will end the haughtiness of the arrogant and lay low the pride of the ruthless.

Isaiah 13:11

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