The Oracle Against Babylon and the Day of the Lord

Isa 13:6-8 Then all sink into anxious and fearful trembling. “Howl; for the day of Jehovah is near; like a destructive force from the Almighty it comes. Therefore all arms hang loosely down, and every human heart melts away. And they are troubled: they fall into cramps and pangs; like a woman in labour they twist themselves: one stares at the other; their faces are faces of flame.

” The command הילילוּ (not written defectively, הלילוּ) is followed by the reason for such a command, viz. , “the day of Jehovah is near,” the watchword of prophecy from the time of Joel downwards. The Caph in ceshod is the so-called Caph veritatis , or more correctly, the Caph of comparison between the individual and its genus. It is destruction by one who possesses unlimited power to destroy ( shōd , from shâdad , from which we have shaddai , after the form chaggai , the festive one, from châgag ).

In this play upon the words, Isaiah also repeats certain words of Joel (Joe 1:15). Then the heads hang down from despondency and helplessness, and the heart, the seat of lift, melts (Isa 19:1) in the heat of anguish. Universal consternation ensues. This is expressed by the word venibhâlu , which stands in half pause; the word has shalsheleth followed by psik ( pasek ), an accent which only occurs in seven passages in the twenty-one prose books of the Old Testament, and always with this dividing stroke after it.

Observe also the following fut. paragogica , which add considerably to the energy of the description by their anapaestic rhythm. The men ( subj .) lay hold of cramps and pangs (as in Job 18:20; Job 21:6), the force of the events compelling them to enter into such a condition. Their faces are faces of flames. Knobel understands this as referring to their turning pale, which is a piece of exegetical jugglery.

At the same time, it does not suggest mere redness, nor a convulsive movement; but just as a flame alternates between light and darkness, so their faces become alternately flushed and pale, as the blood ebbs and flows, as it were, being at one time driven with force into their faces, and then again driven back to the heart, so as to leave deadly paleness, in consequence of their anguish and terror.

Isa 13:6-8 Then all sink into anxious and fearful trembling. “Howl; for the day of Jehovah is near; like a destructive force from the Almighty it comes. Therefore all arms hang loosely down, and every human heart melts away. And they are troubled: they fall into cramps and pangs; like a woman in labour they twist themselves: one stares at the other; their faces are faces of flame.

” The command הילילוּ (not written defectively, הלילוּ) is followed by the reason for such a command, viz. , “the day of Jehovah is near,” the watchword of prophecy from the time of Joel downwards. The Caph in ceshod is the so-called Caph veritatis , or more correctly, the Caph of comparison between the individual and its genus. It is destruction by one who possesses unlimited power to destroy ( shōd , from shâdad , from which we have shaddai , after the form chaggai , the festive one, from châgag ).

In this play upon the words, Isaiah also repeats certain words of Joel (Joe 1:15). Then the heads hang down from despondency and helplessness, and the heart, the seat of lift, melts (Isa 19:1) in the heat of anguish. Universal consternation ensues. This is expressed by the word venibhâlu , which stands in half pause; the word has shalsheleth followed by psik ( pasek ), an accent which only occurs in seven passages in the twenty-one prose books of the Old Testament, and always with this dividing stroke after it.

Observe also the following fut. paragogica , which add considerably to the energy of the description by their anapaestic rhythm. The men ( subj .) lay hold of cramps and pangs (as in Job 18:20; Job 21:6), the force of the events compelling them to enter into such a condition. Their faces are faces of flames. Knobel understands this as referring to their turning pale, which is a piece of exegetical jugglery.

At the same time, it does not suggest mere redness, nor a convulsive movement; but just as a flame alternates between light and darkness, so their faces become alternately flushed and pale, as the blood ebbs and flows, as it were, being at one time driven with force into their faces, and then again driven back to the heart, so as to leave deadly paleness, in consequence of their anguish and terror.

Isa 13:6-8 Then all sink into anxious and fearful trembling. “Howl; for the day of Jehovah is near; like a destructive force from the Almighty it comes. Therefore all arms hang loosely down, and every human heart melts away. And they are troubled: they fall into cramps and pangs; like a woman in labour they twist themselves: one stares at the other; their faces are faces of flame.

” The command הילילוּ (not written defectively, הלילוּ) is followed by the reason for such a command, viz. , “the day of Jehovah is near,” the watchword of prophecy from the time of Joel downwards. The Caph in ceshod is the so-called Caph veritatis , or more correctly, the Caph of comparison between the individual and its genus. It is destruction by one who possesses unlimited power to destroy ( shōd , from shâdad , from which we have shaddai , after the form chaggai , the festive one, from châgag ).

In this play upon the words, Isaiah also repeats certain words of Joel (Joe 1:15). Then the heads hang down from despondency and helplessness, and the heart, the seat of lift, melts (Isa 19:1) in the heat of anguish. Universal consternation ensues. This is expressed by the word venibhâlu , which stands in half pause; the word has shalsheleth followed by psik ( pasek ), an accent which only occurs in seven passages in the twenty-one prose books of the Old Testament, and always with this dividing stroke after it.

Observe also the following fut. paragogica , which add considerably to the energy of the description by their anapaestic rhythm. The men ( subj .) lay hold of cramps and pangs (as in Job 18:20; Job 21:6), the force of the events compelling them to enter into such a condition. Their faces are faces of flames. Knobel understands this as referring to their turning pale, which is a piece of exegetical jugglery.

At the same time, it does not suggest mere redness, nor a convulsive movement; but just as a flame alternates between light and darkness, so their faces become alternately flushed and pale, as the blood ebbs and flows, as it were, being at one time driven with force into their faces, and then again driven back to the heart, so as to leave deadly paleness, in consequence of their anguish and terror.

Isa 13:9-10 The day of Jehovah’s wrath is coming - a starless night - a nightlike, sunless day. “Behold, the day of Jehovah cometh, a cruel one, and wrath and fierce anger, to turn the earth into a wilderness: and its sinners He destroys out of it. For the stars of heaven, and its Orions, will not let their light shine: the sun darkens itself at its rising, and the moon does not let its light shine.

” The day of Jehovah cometh as one cruelly severe ( 'aczâri , an adj. rel . from 'aczâr , chosh , kosh , to be dry, hard, unfelling), as purely an overflowing of inward excitement, and as burning anger; lâsūm is carried on by the finite verb, according to a well-known alteration of style (= ūlehashmı̄d ). It is not indeed the general judgment which the prophet is depicting here, but a certain historical catastrophe falling upon the nations, which draws the whole world into sympathetic suffering.

'Eretz , therefore (inasmuch as the notions of land generally, and some particular land or portion of the earth, are blended together - a very elastic term, with vanishing boundaries), is not merely the land of Babylon here, as Knobel supposes, but the earth . Verse 10 shows in what way the day of Jehovah is a day of wrath. Even nature clothes itself in the colour of wrath, which is the very opposite to light.

The heavenly lights above the earth go out; the moon does not shine; and the sun, which is about to rise, alters its mind. “ The Orions ” are Orion itself and other constellations like it, just as the morning stars in Job 38:7 are Hesperus and other similar stars. It is more probable that the term cesiil is used for Orion in the sense of “the fool” (= foolhardy), according to the older translators (lxx ὁ ̓Ωρίων, Targum nephilehon from nephila' , Syr.

gaboro , Arab. gebbâr , the giant), than that it refers to Suhêl , i. e. , Canopus (see the notes on Job 9:9; Job 38:31), although the Arabic suhêl does occur as a generic name for stars of surpassing splendour (see at Job 38:7). The comprehensive term employed is similar to the figure of speech met with in Arabic (called taglı̄b , i. e. , the preponderance of the pars potior ), in such expressions as “the two late evenings” for the evening and late evening, “the two Omars” for Omar and Abubekr, though the resemblance is still greater to the Latin Scipiones , i.

e. , men of Scipio’s greatness. Even the Orions, i. e. , those stars which are at other times the most conspicuous, withhold their light; for when God is angry, the principle of anger is set in motion even in the natural world, and primarily in the stars that were created “for signs (compare Gen 1:14 with Jer 10:2).

Isa 13:9-10 The day of Jehovah’s wrath is coming - a starless night - a nightlike, sunless day. “Behold, the day of Jehovah cometh, a cruel one, and wrath and fierce anger, to turn the earth into a wilderness: and its sinners He destroys out of it. For the stars of heaven, and its Orions, will not let their light shine: the sun darkens itself at its rising, and the moon does not let its light shine.

” The day of Jehovah cometh as one cruelly severe ( 'aczâri , an adj. rel . from 'aczâr , chosh , kosh , to be dry, hard, unfelling), as purely an overflowing of inward excitement, and as burning anger; lâsūm is carried on by the finite verb, according to a well-known alteration of style (= ūlehashmı̄d ). It is not indeed the general judgment which the prophet is depicting here, but a certain historical catastrophe falling upon the nations, which draws the whole world into sympathetic suffering.

'Eretz , therefore (inasmuch as the notions of land generally, and some particular land or portion of the earth, are blended together - a very elastic term, with vanishing boundaries), is not merely the land of Babylon here, as Knobel supposes, but the earth . Verse 10 shows in what way the day of Jehovah is a day of wrath. Even nature clothes itself in the colour of wrath, which is the very opposite to light.

The heavenly lights above the earth go out; the moon does not shine; and the sun, which is about to rise, alters its mind. “ The Orions ” are Orion itself and other constellations like it, just as the morning stars in Job 38:7 are Hesperus and other similar stars. It is more probable that the term cesiil is used for Orion in the sense of “the fool” (= foolhardy), according to the older translators (lxx ὁ ̓Ωρίων, Targum nephilehon from nephila' , Syr.

gaboro , Arab. gebbâr , the giant), than that it refers to Suhêl , i. e. , Canopus (see the notes on Job 9:9; Job 38:31), although the Arabic suhêl does occur as a generic name for stars of surpassing splendour (see at Job 38:7). The comprehensive term employed is similar to the figure of speech met with in Arabic (called taglı̄b , i. e. , the preponderance of the pars potior ), in such expressions as “the two late evenings” for the evening and late evening, “the two Omars” for Omar and Abubekr, though the resemblance is still greater to the Latin Scipiones , i.

e. , men of Scipio’s greatness. Even the Orions, i. e. , those stars which are at other times the most conspicuous, withhold their light; for when God is angry, the principle of anger is set in motion even in the natural world, and primarily in the stars that were created “for signs (compare Gen 1:14 with Jer 10:2).

Isa 13:11-12 The prophet now hears again the voice of Jehovah revealing to him what His purpose is - namely, a visitation punishing the wicked, humbling the proud, and depopulating the countries. “And I visit the evil upon the world, and upon sinners their guilt, and sink into silence the pomp of the proud; and the boasting of tyrants I throw to the ground. I make men more precious than fine gold, and people than a jewel of Ophir.

” The verb pâkad is construed, as in Jer 23:2, with the accusative of the thing punished, and with על of the person punished. Instead of 'eretz we have here tēbel , which is always used like a proper name (never with the article), to denote the earth in its entire circumference. We have also ‛ârı̄tzı̄m instead of nedı̄bı̄m : the latter signifies merely princes, and it is only occasionally that it has the subordinate sense of despots; the former signifies men naturally cruel, or tyrants (it occurs very frequently in Isaiah).

Everything here breathes the spirit of Isaiah both in thought and form. “The lofty is thrown down:” this is one of the leading themes of Isaiah’s proclamation; and the fact that the judgment will only leave a remnant is a fundamental thought of his, which also runs through the oracles concerning the heathen (Isa 16:14; Isa 21:17; Isa 24:6), and is depicted by the prophet in various ways (Isa 10:16-19; Isa 17:4-6; Isa 24:13; Isa 30:17).

There it is expressed under the figure that men become as scarce as the finest kinds of gold. Word-painting is Isaiah’s delight and strength. 'Ophir , which resembles 'okir in sound, was the gold country of India, that lay nearest to the Phoenicians, the coast-land of Abhira on the northern shore of the Runn ( Irina ), i. e. , the salt lake to the east of the mouths of the Indus (see at Gen 10:29 and Job 22:24; and for the Egypticized Souphir of the lxx, Job 28:16).

Isa 13:11-12 The prophet now hears again the voice of Jehovah revealing to him what His purpose is - namely, a visitation punishing the wicked, humbling the proud, and depopulating the countries. “And I visit the evil upon the world, and upon sinners their guilt, and sink into silence the pomp of the proud; and the boasting of tyrants I throw to the ground. I make men more precious than fine gold, and people than a jewel of Ophir.

” The verb pâkad is construed, as in Jer 23:2, with the accusative of the thing punished, and with על of the person punished. Instead of 'eretz we have here tēbel , which is always used like a proper name (never with the article), to denote the earth in its entire circumference. We have also ‛ârı̄tzı̄m instead of nedı̄bı̄m : the latter signifies merely princes, and it is only occasionally that it has the subordinate sense of despots; the former signifies men naturally cruel, or tyrants (it occurs very frequently in Isaiah).

Everything here breathes the spirit of Isaiah both in thought and form. “The lofty is thrown down:” this is one of the leading themes of Isaiah’s proclamation; and the fact that the judgment will only leave a remnant is a fundamental thought of his, which also runs through the oracles concerning the heathen (Isa 16:14; Isa 21:17; Isa 24:6), and is depicted by the prophet in various ways (Isa 10:16-19; Isa 17:4-6; Isa 24:13; Isa 30:17).

There it is expressed under the figure that men become as scarce as the finest kinds of gold. Word-painting is Isaiah’s delight and strength. 'Ophir , which resembles 'okir in sound, was the gold country of India, that lay nearest to the Phoenicians, the coast-land of Abhira on the northern shore of the Runn ( Irina ), i. e. , the salt lake to the east of the mouths of the Indus (see at Gen 10:29 and Job 22:24; and for the Egypticized Souphir of the lxx, Job 28:16).

Isa 13:13 Thus does the wrath of God prevail among men, casting down and destroying; and the natural world above and below cannot fail to take part in it. “Therefore I shake the heavens, and the earth trembles away from its place, because of the wrath of Jehovah of hosts, and because of the day of His fierce anger. ” The two Beths have a causative meaning (cf.

, Isa 9:18). They correspond to ‛al - cēn (therefore), of which they supply the explanation. Because the wrath of God falls upon men, every creature which is not the direct object of the judgment must become a medium in the infliction of it. We have here the thought of Isa 13:9 repeated as a kind of refrain (in a similar manner to Isa 5:25). Then follow the several disasters.

The first is flight.

Isa 13:14 “And it comes to pass as with a gazelle which is scared, and as with a flock without gatherers: they turn every one to his people, and they flee every one to his land. ” The neuter v'hâyâh affirms that it will then be as described in the simile and the interpretation which follows. Babylon was the market for the world in central Asia, and therefore a rendezvous for the most diverse nations (Jer 50:16, cf.

, Isa 51:9, 44) - for a πάμμικτος ὄχλος, as Aeschylus says in his Persae , v. 52. This great and motley mass of foreigners would now be scattered in the wildest flight, on the fall of the imperial city. The second disaster is violent death.

Isa 13:15-16 “Every one that is found is pierced through, and every one that is caught falls by the sword. ” By “every one that is found ,” we understand those that are taken in the city by the invading conquerors; and by “every one that is caught ,” those that are overtaken in their flight ( sâphâh , abripere , Isa 7:20). All are put to the sword. - The third and fourth disasters are plunder and ravage.

Isa 13:16 “And their infants are dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses plundered, and their wives ravished. ” Instead of tisshâgalnâh , the keri has the euphemistic term tisshâcabnâh ( concubitum patientur ), a passive which never occurs in the Old Testament text itself. The keri readings shuccabt in Jer 3:2, and yishcâbennâh in Deu 28:30, also do violence to the language, which required עם שכב and את (the latter as a preposition in Gen 19:34) for the sake of euphemism; or rather they introduce a later (talmudic) usage of speech into the Scriptures (see Geiger, Urschrift , pp.

407-8). The prophet himself intentionally selects the base term shâgal , though, as the queen’s name Shegal shows, it must have been regarded in northern Palestine and Aramaean as by no means a disreputable word. In this and other passages of the prophecy Knobel scents a fanaticism which is altogether strange to Isaiah.

Isa 13:15-16 “Every one that is found is pierced through, and every one that is caught falls by the sword. ” By “every one that is found ,” we understand those that are taken in the city by the invading conquerors; and by “every one that is caught ,” those that are overtaken in their flight ( sâphâh , abripere , Isa 7:20). All are put to the sword. - The third and fourth disasters are plunder and ravage.

Isa 13:16 “And their infants are dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses plundered, and their wives ravished. ” Instead of tisshâgalnâh , the keri has the euphemistic term tisshâcabnâh ( concubitum patientur ), a passive which never occurs in the Old Testament text itself. The keri readings shuccabt in Jer 3:2, and yishcâbennâh in Deu 28:30, also do violence to the language, which required עם שכב and את (the latter as a preposition in Gen 19:34) for the sake of euphemism; or rather they introduce a later (talmudic) usage of speech into the Scriptures (see Geiger, Urschrift , pp.

407-8). The prophet himself intentionally selects the base term shâgal , though, as the queen’s name Shegal shows, it must have been regarded in northern Palestine and Aramaean as by no means a disreputable word. In this and other passages of the prophecy Knobel scents a fanaticism which is altogether strange to Isaiah.

Isa 13:17 With Isa 13:17 the prophecy takes a fresh turn, in which the veil that has hitherto obscured it is completely broken through. We now learn the name of the conquerors. “Behold, I rouse up the Medes over them, who do not regard silver, and take no pleasure in gold. ” It was the Medes (Darius Medus = Cyaxares II) who put an end to the Babylonian kingdom in combination with the Persians (Cyrus).

The Persians are mentioned for the first time in the Old Testament by Ezekiel and Daniel. Consequently Mâdi (by the side of which Elam is mentioned in Isa 21:2) appears to have been a general term applied to the Arian populations of Eran from the most important ruling tribe. Until nearly the end of Hezekiah’s reign, the Medes lived scattered about over different districts, and in hamlets (or villages) united together by a constitutional organization.

After they had broken away from the Assyrians (714 b. c.) they placed themselves in 709-8 b. c. under one common king, namely Deyoces, probably for the purpose of upholding their national independence; or, to speak more correctly, under a common monarch , for even the chiefs of the villages were called kings. It is in this sense that Jeremiah speaks of “king of Madai;” at any rate, this is a much more probable supposition than that he refers to monarchs in a generic sense.

But the kings of Media, i. e. , the rulers of the several villages, are mentioned in Jer 25:25 among those who will have to drink the intoxicating cup which Jehovah is about to give to the nations through Nebuchadnezzar. So that their expedition against Babylon is an act of revenge for the disgrace of bondage that has been inflicted upon them. Their disregarding silver and gold is not intended to describe them as a rude, uncultivated people: the prophet simply means that they are impelled by a spirit of revenge, and do not come for the purpose of gathering booty.

Revenge drives them on to forgetfulness of all morality, and humanity also.

Isa 13:18 “And bows dash down young men; and they have no compassion on the fruit of the womb: their eye has no pity on children. ” The bows do not stand for the bowmen (see Isa 21:17), but the bows of the latter dash the young men to the ground by means of the arrows shot from them. They did not spare the fruit of the womb, since they ripped up the bodies of those that were with child (2Ki 8:12; 2Ki 15:16, etc.)

Even towards children they felt no emotion of compassionate regard, such as would express itself in the eye: chuus, to feel, more especially to feel with another, i. e. , to sympathize; here and in Eze 5:11 it is ascribed to the eye as the mirror of the soul (compare the Arabic chasyet el - ‛ain ala fulânin , carefulness of eye for a person: Hariri, Comment .

p. 140). With such inhuman conduct on the part of the foe, the capital of the empire becomes the scene of a terrible conflagration.

Isa 13:19 “And Babel, the ornament of kingdoms, the proud boast of the Chaldeans, becomes like Elohim’s overthrowing judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah. ” The ornament of kingdoms ( mamlâcoth ), because it was the centre of many conquered kingdoms, which now avenged themselves upon it (Isa 13:4); the pride (cf. , Isa 28:1), because it was the primitive dwelling-place of the Chaldeans of the lowlands, that ancient cultivated people, who were related to the Chaldean tribes of the Carduchisan mountains in the north-east of Mesopotamia, though not of the same origin, and of totally different manners (see at Isa 23:13).

Their present catastrophe resembled that of Sodom and Gomorrah: the two eths are accusative; mahpēcâh (καταστροφή) is used like de‛âh in Isa 11:9 with a verbal force (τὸ καταστρέψαι, well rendered by the lxx ὄν τρόπον κατέστρεψεν ὁ Θεός. On the arrangement of the words, see Ges. §133, 3).

Isa 13:20-22 Babel, like the cities of the Pentapolis, had now become a perpetual desert. “She remains uninhabited for ever, and unoccupied into generation of generations; and not an Arab pitches his tent there, and shepherds do not make their folds there. And there lie beasts of the desert, and horn-owls fill their houses; and ostriches dwell there, and field-devils hop about there.

And jackals howl in her castles, and wild dogs in palaces of pleasure; and her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged. ” The conclusion is similar to that of the prophecy against Edom, in Isa 34:16-17. There the certainty of the prediction, even in its most minute particulars, is firmly declared; here the nearness of the time of fulfilment.

But the fulfilment did not take place so soon as the words of the prophecy might make it appear. According to Herodotus, Cyrus, the leader of the Medo-Persian army, left the city still standing, with its double ring of walls. Darius Hystaspis, who had to conquer Babylon a second time in 518 b. c. , had the walls entirely destroyed, with the exception of fifty cubits.

Xerxes gave the last thrust to the glory of the temple of Belus. Having been conquered by Seleucus Nicator (312), it declined just in proportion as Seleucia rose. Babylon , says Pliny, ad solitudinem rediit exhausta vicinitate Seleuciae . At the time of Strabo (born 60 b. c.) Babylon was a perfect desert; and he applies to it (16:15) the words of the poet, ἐρημία μεγάλη ̓στὶν ἡ μεγάλη πόλις.

Consequently, in the passage before us the prophecy falls under the law of perspective foreshortening. But all that it foretells has been literally fulfilled. The curse that Babylon would never come to be settled in and inhabited again (a poetical expression, like Jer 17:25; Jer 33:16), proved itself an effectual one, when Alexander once thought of making Babylon the metropolis of his empire.

He was carried off by an early death. Ten thousand workmen were at that time employed for two months in simply clearing away the rubbish of the foundations of the temple of Belus (the Nimrod-tower). “ Not an Arab pitches his tent there ” ( ‛Arâbi , from ‛Arâbâh , a steppe, is used here for the first time in the Old Testament, and then again in Jer 3:2; yăhēl , different from yâhēl in Isa 13:10 and Job 31:26, is a syncopated form of יאהל, tentorium figet , according to Ges.

§68, Anm. 2, used instead of the customary יאהל): this was simply the natural consequence of the great field of ruins, upon which there was nothing but the most scanty vegetation. But all kinds of beasts of the desert and waste places make their homes there instead. The list commences with ziyyim (from zi , dryness, or from ziyi , an adj. relat. of the noun zi ), i.

e. , dwellers in the desert; the reference here is not to men, but, as in most other instances, to animals, though it is impossible to determine what are the animals particularly referred to. That ochim are horned owls ( Uhus ) is a conjecture of Aurivillius, which decidedly commends itself. On benoth ya‛ănâh , see at Job 39:13-18. Wetzstein connects ya‛ănâh with an Arabic word for desert; it is probably more correct, however, to connect it with the Syriac יענא, greedy.

The feminine plural embraces ostriches of both sexes, just as the 'iyyim (sing. אי = אוי, from 'âvâh , to howl: see Bernstein’s Lex . on Kirsch’s Chrestom . Syr . p. 7), i. e. , jackals, are called benât āwa in Arabic, without distinction of sex ( awa in this appellation is a direct reproduction of the natural voice of the animal, which is called wawi in vulgar Arabic).

Tan has also been regarded since the time of Pococke and Schnurrer as the name of the jackal; and this is supported by the Syriac and Targum rendering yaruro (see Bernstein, p. 220), even more than by the Arabic name of the wolf, tinân , which only occurs here and there. אי, ibnu āwa , is the common jackal found in Hither Asia ( Canis aureus vulgaris ), the true type of the whole species, which is divided into at least ten varieties, and belongs to the same genus as dogs and wolves (not foxes).

Tan may refer to one of these varieties, which derived its name from its distinctive peculiarity as a long-stretched animal, whether the extension was in the trunk, the snout, or the tail. The animals mentioned, both quadrupeds ( râbatz ) and birds ( shâcan ), are really found there, on the soil of ancient Babylon. When Kerporter was drawing near to the Nimrod-tower, he saw lions sunning themselves quietly upon its walls, which came down very leisurely when alarmed by the cries of the Arabs.

And as Rich heard in Bagdad, the ruins are still regarded as a rendezvous for ghosts: sâ‛ir , when contrasted with ‛attūd , signifies the full-grown shaggy buck-goat; but here se‛irim is applied to demons in the shape of goats (as in Isa 34:14). According to the Scriptures, the desert is the abode of unclean spirits, and such unclean spirits as the popular belief or mythology pictured to itself were se‛irim .

Virgil, like Isaiah, calls them saltantes Satyros . It is remarkable also that Joseph Wolf, the missionary and traveller to Bochâra , saw pilgrims of the sect of Yezidis (or devil-worshippers) upon the ruins of Babylon, who performed strange and horrid rites by moonlight, and danced extraordinary dances with singular gestures and sounds. On seeing these ghost-like, howling, moonlight pilgrims, he very naturally recalled to mind the dancing se‛irim of prophecy (see Moritz Wagner’s Reise nach Persien und dem Lande der Kurden , Bd.

ii. p. 251). And the nightly howling and yelling of jackals ( ‛ânâh after rikkēd , as in 1Sa 18:6-7) produces its natural effect upon every traveller there, just as in all the other ruins of the East. These are now the inhabitants of the royal 'armenoth , which the prophet calls 'almenoth with a sarcastic turn, on account of their widowhood and desolation; these are the inhabitants of the palaces of pleasure, the luxurious villas and country-seats, with their hanging gardens.

The Apocalypse, in Rev 18:2, takes up this prophecy of Isaiah, and applies it to a still existing Babylon, which might have seen itself in the mirror of the Babylon of old.

Isa 13:20-22 Babel, like the cities of the Pentapolis, had now become a perpetual desert. “She remains uninhabited for ever, and unoccupied into generation of generations; and not an Arab pitches his tent there, and shepherds do not make their folds there. And there lie beasts of the desert, and horn-owls fill their houses; and ostriches dwell there, and field-devils hop about there.

And jackals howl in her castles, and wild dogs in palaces of pleasure; and her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged. ” The conclusion is similar to that of the prophecy against Edom, in Isa 34:16-17. There the certainty of the prediction, even in its most minute particulars, is firmly declared; here the nearness of the time of fulfilment.

But the fulfilment did not take place so soon as the words of the prophecy might make it appear. According to Herodotus, Cyrus, the leader of the Medo-Persian army, left the city still standing, with its double ring of walls. Darius Hystaspis, who had to conquer Babylon a second time in 518 b. c. , had the walls entirely destroyed, with the exception of fifty cubits.

Xerxes gave the last thrust to the glory of the temple of Belus. Having been conquered by Seleucus Nicator (312), it declined just in proportion as Seleucia rose. Babylon , says Pliny, ad solitudinem rediit exhausta vicinitate Seleuciae . At the time of Strabo (born 60 b. c.) Babylon was a perfect desert; and he applies to it (16:15) the words of the poet, ἐρημία μεγάλη ̓στὶν ἡ μεγάλη πόλις.

Consequently, in the passage before us the prophecy falls under the law of perspective foreshortening. But all that it foretells has been literally fulfilled. The curse that Babylon would never come to be settled in and inhabited again (a poetical expression, like Jer 17:25; Jer 33:16), proved itself an effectual one, when Alexander once thought of making Babylon the metropolis of his empire.

He was carried off by an early death. Ten thousand workmen were at that time employed for two months in simply clearing away the rubbish of the foundations of the temple of Belus (the Nimrod-tower). “ Not an Arab pitches his tent there ” ( ‛Arâbi , from ‛Arâbâh , a steppe, is used here for the first time in the Old Testament, and then again in Jer 3:2; yăhēl , different from yâhēl in Isa 13:10 and Job 31:26, is a syncopated form of יאהל, tentorium figet , according to Ges.

§68, Anm. 2, used instead of the customary יאהל): this was simply the natural consequence of the great field of ruins, upon which there was nothing but the most scanty vegetation. But all kinds of beasts of the desert and waste places make their homes there instead. The list commences with ziyyim (from zi , dryness, or from ziyi , an adj. relat. of the noun zi ), i.

e. , dwellers in the desert; the reference here is not to men, but, as in most other instances, to animals, though it is impossible to determine what are the animals particularly referred to. That ochim are horned owls ( Uhus ) is a conjecture of Aurivillius, which decidedly commends itself. On benoth ya‛ănâh , see at Job 39:13-18. Wetzstein connects ya‛ănâh with an Arabic word for desert; it is probably more correct, however, to connect it with the Syriac יענא, greedy.

The feminine plural embraces ostriches of both sexes, just as the 'iyyim (sing. אי = אוי, from 'âvâh , to howl: see Bernstein’s Lex . on Kirsch’s Chrestom . Syr . p. 7), i. e. , jackals, are called benât āwa in Arabic, without distinction of sex ( awa in this appellation is a direct reproduction of the natural voice of the animal, which is called wawi in vulgar Arabic).

Tan has also been regarded since the time of Pococke and Schnurrer as the name of the jackal; and this is supported by the Syriac and Targum rendering yaruro (see Bernstein, p. 220), even more than by the Arabic name of the wolf, tinân , which only occurs here and there. אי, ibnu āwa , is the common jackal found in Hither Asia ( Canis aureus vulgaris ), the true type of the whole species, which is divided into at least ten varieties, and belongs to the same genus as dogs and wolves (not foxes).

Tan may refer to one of these varieties, which derived its name from its distinctive peculiarity as a long-stretched animal, whether the extension was in the trunk, the snout, or the tail. The animals mentioned, both quadrupeds ( râbatz ) and birds ( shâcan ), are really found there, on the soil of ancient Babylon. When Kerporter was drawing near to the Nimrod-tower, he saw lions sunning themselves quietly upon its walls, which came down very leisurely when alarmed by the cries of the Arabs.

And as Rich heard in Bagdad, the ruins are still regarded as a rendezvous for ghosts: sâ‛ir , when contrasted with ‛attūd , signifies the full-grown shaggy buck-goat; but here se‛irim is applied to demons in the shape of goats (as in Isa 34:14). According to the Scriptures, the desert is the abode of unclean spirits, and such unclean spirits as the popular belief or mythology pictured to itself were se‛irim .

Virgil, like Isaiah, calls them saltantes Satyros . It is remarkable also that Joseph Wolf, the missionary and traveller to Bochâra , saw pilgrims of the sect of Yezidis (or devil-worshippers) upon the ruins of Babylon, who performed strange and horrid rites by moonlight, and danced extraordinary dances with singular gestures and sounds. On seeing these ghost-like, howling, moonlight pilgrims, he very naturally recalled to mind the dancing se‛irim of prophecy (see Moritz Wagner’s Reise nach Persien und dem Lande der Kurden , Bd.

ii. p. 251). And the nightly howling and yelling of jackals ( ‛ânâh after rikkēd , as in 1Sa 18:6-7) produces its natural effect upon every traveller there, just as in all the other ruins of the East. These are now the inhabitants of the royal 'armenoth , which the prophet calls 'almenoth with a sarcastic turn, on account of their widowhood and desolation; these are the inhabitants of the palaces of pleasure, the luxurious villas and country-seats, with their hanging gardens.

The Apocalypse, in Rev 18:2, takes up this prophecy of Isaiah, and applies it to a still existing Babylon, which might have seen itself in the mirror of the Babylon of old.

Isa 13:20-22 Babel, like the cities of the Pentapolis, had now become a perpetual desert. “She remains uninhabited for ever, and unoccupied into generation of generations; and not an Arab pitches his tent there, and shepherds do not make their folds there. And there lie beasts of the desert, and horn-owls fill their houses; and ostriches dwell there, and field-devils hop about there.

And jackals howl in her castles, and wild dogs in palaces of pleasure; and her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged. ” The conclusion is similar to that of the prophecy against Edom, in Isa 34:16-17. There the certainty of the prediction, even in its most minute particulars, is firmly declared; here the nearness of the time of fulfilment.

But the fulfilment did not take place so soon as the words of the prophecy might make it appear. According to Herodotus, Cyrus, the leader of the Medo-Persian army, left the city still standing, with its double ring of walls. Darius Hystaspis, who had to conquer Babylon a second time in 518 b. c. , had the walls entirely destroyed, with the exception of fifty cubits.

Xerxes gave the last thrust to the glory of the temple of Belus. Having been conquered by Seleucus Nicator (312), it declined just in proportion as Seleucia rose. Babylon , says Pliny, ad solitudinem rediit exhausta vicinitate Seleuciae . At the time of Strabo (born 60 b. c.) Babylon was a perfect desert; and he applies to it (16:15) the words of the poet, ἐρημία μεγάλη ̓στὶν ἡ μεγάλη πόλις.

Consequently, in the passage before us the prophecy falls under the law of perspective foreshortening. But all that it foretells has been literally fulfilled. The curse that Babylon would never come to be settled in and inhabited again (a poetical expression, like Jer 17:25; Jer 33:16), proved itself an effectual one, when Alexander once thought of making Babylon the metropolis of his empire.

He was carried off by an early death. Ten thousand workmen were at that time employed for two months in simply clearing away the rubbish of the foundations of the temple of Belus (the Nimrod-tower). “ Not an Arab pitches his tent there ” ( ‛Arâbi , from ‛Arâbâh , a steppe, is used here for the first time in the Old Testament, and then again in Jer 3:2; yăhēl , different from yâhēl in Isa 13:10 and Job 31:26, is a syncopated form of יאהל, tentorium figet , according to Ges.

§68, Anm. 2, used instead of the customary יאהל): this was simply the natural consequence of the great field of ruins, upon which there was nothing but the most scanty vegetation. But all kinds of beasts of the desert and waste places make their homes there instead. The list commences with ziyyim (from zi , dryness, or from ziyi , an adj. relat. of the noun zi ), i.

e. , dwellers in the desert; the reference here is not to men, but, as in most other instances, to animals, though it is impossible to determine what are the animals particularly referred to. That ochim are horned owls ( Uhus ) is a conjecture of Aurivillius, which decidedly commends itself. On benoth ya‛ănâh , see at Job 39:13-18. Wetzstein connects ya‛ănâh with an Arabic word for desert; it is probably more correct, however, to connect it with the Syriac יענא, greedy.

The feminine plural embraces ostriches of both sexes, just as the 'iyyim (sing. אי = אוי, from 'âvâh , to howl: see Bernstein’s Lex . on Kirsch’s Chrestom . Syr . p. 7), i. e. , jackals, are called benât āwa in Arabic, without distinction of sex ( awa in this appellation is a direct reproduction of the natural voice of the animal, which is called wawi in vulgar Arabic).

Tan has also been regarded since the time of Pococke and Schnurrer as the name of the jackal; and this is supported by the Syriac and Targum rendering yaruro (see Bernstein, p. 220), even more than by the Arabic name of the wolf, tinân , which only occurs here and there. אי, ibnu āwa , is the common jackal found in Hither Asia ( Canis aureus vulgaris ), the true type of the whole species, which is divided into at least ten varieties, and belongs to the same genus as dogs and wolves (not foxes).

Tan may refer to one of these varieties, which derived its name from its distinctive peculiarity as a long-stretched animal, whether the extension was in the trunk, the snout, or the tail. The animals mentioned, both quadrupeds ( râbatz ) and birds ( shâcan ), are really found there, on the soil of ancient Babylon. When Kerporter was drawing near to the Nimrod-tower, he saw lions sunning themselves quietly upon its walls, which came down very leisurely when alarmed by the cries of the Arabs.

And as Rich heard in Bagdad, the ruins are still regarded as a rendezvous for ghosts: sâ‛ir , when contrasted with ‛attūd , signifies the full-grown shaggy buck-goat; but here se‛irim is applied to demons in the shape of goats (as in Isa 34:14). According to the Scriptures, the desert is the abode of unclean spirits, and such unclean spirits as the popular belief or mythology pictured to itself were se‛irim .

Virgil, like Isaiah, calls them saltantes Satyros . It is remarkable also that Joseph Wolf, the missionary and traveller to Bochâra , saw pilgrims of the sect of Yezidis (or devil-worshippers) upon the ruins of Babylon, who performed strange and horrid rites by moonlight, and danced extraordinary dances with singular gestures and sounds. On seeing these ghost-like, howling, moonlight pilgrims, he very naturally recalled to mind the dancing se‛irim of prophecy (see Moritz Wagner’s Reise nach Persien und dem Lande der Kurden , Bd.

ii. p. 251). And the nightly howling and yelling of jackals ( ‛ânâh after rikkēd , as in 1Sa 18:6-7) produces its natural effect upon every traveller there, just as in all the other ruins of the East. These are now the inhabitants of the royal 'armenoth , which the prophet calls 'almenoth with a sarcastic turn, on account of their widowhood and desolation; these are the inhabitants of the palaces of pleasure, the luxurious villas and country-seats, with their hanging gardens.

The Apocalypse, in Rev 18:2, takes up this prophecy of Isaiah, and applies it to a still existing Babylon, which might have seen itself in the mirror of the Babylon of old.

Isa 14:1-2 But it is love to His own people which impels the God of Israel to suspend such a judgment of eternal destruction over Babylon. “For Jehovah will have mercy on Jacob, and will once more choose Israel, and will settle them in their own land: and the foreigner will associate with them, and they will cleave to the house of Jacob. And nations take them, and accompany them to their place; and the house of Israel takes them to itself in the land of Jehovah for servants and maid-servants: and they hold in captivity those who led them away captive; and become lords over their oppressors.

” We have here in nuce the comforting substance of chapters 46-66. Babylon falls that Israel may rise. This is effected by the compassion of God. He chooses Israel once more ( iterum , as in Job 14:7 for example), and therefore makes a new covenant with it. Then follows their return to Canaan, their own land, Jehovah’s land (as in Hos 9:3). Proselytes from among the heathen, who have acknowledged the God of the exiles, go along with them, as Ruth did with Naomi.

Heathen accompany the exiles to their own place. And now their relative positions are reversed. Those who accompany Israel are now taken possession of by the latter ( hithnachēl , κληρονομεῖν ἑαυτῷ, like hithpattēach , Isa 52:2, λύεσθαι; cf. , p. 62, note, and Ewald, §124, b ), as servants and maid-servants; and they (the Israelites) become leaders into captivity of those who led them into captivity ( Lamed with the participle, as in Isa 11:9), and they will oppress ( râdâh b' , as in Psa 49:15) their oppressors.

This retribution of life for like is to all appearance quite out of harmony with the New Testament love. But in reality it is no retribution of like for like. For, according to the prophet’s meaning, to be ruled by the people of God is the true happiness of the nations, and to allow themselves to be so ruled is their true liberty. At the same time, the form in which the promise is expressed is certainly not that of the New Testament; and it would not possibly have been so, for the simple reason that in Old Testament times, and from an Old Testament point of view, there was no other visible manifestation of the church ( ecclesia ) than in the form of a nation.

This national form of the church has been broken up under the New Testament, and will never be restored. Israel, indeed, will be restored as a nation; but the true essence of the church, which is raised above all national distinctions, will never return to those worldly limits which it has broken through. And the fact that the prophecy moves within those limits here may be easily explained, on the ground that it is primarily the deliverance from the Babylonian captivity to which the promise refers.

And the prophet himself was unconscious that this captivity would be followed by another.

Isa 14:1-2 But it is love to His own people which impels the God of Israel to suspend such a judgment of eternal destruction over Babylon. “For Jehovah will have mercy on Jacob, and will once more choose Israel, and will settle them in their own land: and the foreigner will associate with them, and they will cleave to the house of Jacob. And nations take them, and accompany them to their place; and the house of Israel takes them to itself in the land of Jehovah for servants and maid-servants: and they hold in captivity those who led them away captive; and become lords over their oppressors.

” We have here in nuce the comforting substance of chapters 46-66. Babylon falls that Israel may rise. This is effected by the compassion of God. He chooses Israel once more ( iterum , as in Job 14:7 for example), and therefore makes a new covenant with it. Then follows their return to Canaan, their own land, Jehovah’s land (as in Hos 9:3). Proselytes from among the heathen, who have acknowledged the God of the exiles, go along with them, as Ruth did with Naomi.

Heathen accompany the exiles to their own place. And now their relative positions are reversed. Those who accompany Israel are now taken possession of by the latter ( hithnachēl , κληρονομεῖν ἑαυτῷ, like hithpattēach , Isa 52:2, λύεσθαι; cf. , p. 62, note, and Ewald, §124, b ), as servants and maid-servants; and they (the Israelites) become leaders into captivity of those who led them into captivity ( Lamed with the participle, as in Isa 11:9), and they will oppress ( râdâh b' , as in Psa 49:15) their oppressors.

This retribution of life for like is to all appearance quite out of harmony with the New Testament love. But in reality it is no retribution of like for like. For, according to the prophet’s meaning, to be ruled by the people of God is the true happiness of the nations, and to allow themselves to be so ruled is their true liberty. At the same time, the form in which the promise is expressed is certainly not that of the New Testament; and it would not possibly have been so, for the simple reason that in Old Testament times, and from an Old Testament point of view, there was no other visible manifestation of the church ( ecclesia ) than in the form of a nation.

This national form of the church has been broken up under the New Testament, and will never be restored. Israel, indeed, will be restored as a nation; but the true essence of the church, which is raised above all national distinctions, will never return to those worldly limits which it has broken through. And the fact that the prophecy moves within those limits here may be easily explained, on the ground that it is primarily the deliverance from the Babylonian captivity to which the promise refers.

And the prophet himself was unconscious that this captivity would be followed by another.

Isa 14:3-6 The song of the redeemed is a song concerning the fall of the king of Babel. Isa 14:3, Isa 14:4 . Instead of the hiphil hinniach (to let down) of Isa 14:1, we have here, as in the original passage, Deu 25:19, the form hēniach , which is commonly used in the sense of quieting, or procuring rest. עצב is trouble which plagues (as עמל is trouble which oppresses), and rōgez restlessness which wears out with anxious care (Job 3:26, cf.

, Eze 12:18). The assimilated min before the two words is pronounced mĭ , with a weak reduplication, instead of mē , as elsewhere, before ח, ה, and even before ר (1Sa 23:28; 2Sa 18:16). In the relative clause עבּד־בך אשר, אשר is not the Hebrew casus adverb . answering to the Latin ablative quâ servo te usi sunt ; not do בך ... אשר belong to one another in the sense of quo , as in Deu 21:3, quâ ( vitulâ ); but it is regarded as an acc.

obj . according to Exo 1:14 and Lev 25:39, qu'on t'a fait servir , as in Num 32:5, qu'on donne la terre (Luzzatto). When delivered from such a yoke of bondage, Israel would raise a mâshâl . According to its primary and general meaning, mâshâl signifies figurative language, and hence poetry generally, more especially that kind of proverbial poetry which loves the emblematical, and, in fact, any artistic composition that is piquant in its character; so that the idea of what is satirical or defiant may easily be associated with it, as in the passage before us.

The words are addressed to the Israel of the future in the Israel of the present, as in Isa 12:1. The former would then sing, and say as follows. “How hath the oppressor ceased! The place of torture ceased! Jehovah hath broken the rod of the wicked, the ruler’s staff, which cmote nations in wrath with strokes without ceasing subjugated nations wrathfully with hunting than nevers stays.

” Not one of the early translators ever thought of deriving the hap. leg. madhebâh from the Aramaean dehab (gold), as Vitringa, Aurivillius, and Rosenmüller have done. The former have all translated the word as if it were marhēbâh (haughty, violent treatment), as corrected by J. D. Michaelis, Doederlein, Knobel, and others. But we may arrive at the same result without altering a single letter, if we take דּאב as equivalent to דּהב, דּוּב, to melt or pine away, whether we go back to the kal or to the hiphil of the verb, and regard the Mem as used in a material or local sense.

We understand it, according to madmenah (dunghill) in Isa 25:10, as denoting the place where they were reduced to pining away, i. e. , as applied to Babylon as the house of servitude where Israel had been wearied to death. The tyrant’s sceptre, mentioned in Isa 14:5, is the Chaldean world-power regarded as concentrated in the king of Babel (cf. , shēbet in Num 24:17).

This tyrant’s sceptre smote nations with incessant blows and hunting: maccath is construed with macceh , the derivative of the same verb; and murdâph , a hophal noun (as in Isa 9:1; Isa 29:3), with rodeh , which is kindred in meaning. Doederlein’s conjecture ( mirdath ), which has been adopted by most modern commentators, is quite unnecessary. Unceasing continuance is expressed first of all with bilti , which is used as a preposition, and followed by sârâh , a participial noun like câlâh , and then with b'li , which is construed with the finite verb as in Gen 31:20; Job 41:18; for b'li châsâk is an attributive clause: with a hunting which did not restrain itself, did not stop, and therefore did not spare.

Nor is it only Israel and other subjugated nations that now breathe again.

Isa 14:3-6 The song of the redeemed is a song concerning the fall of the king of Babel. Isa 14:3, Isa 14:4 . Instead of the hiphil hinniach (to let down) of Isa 14:1, we have here, as in the original passage, Deu 25:19, the form hēniach , which is commonly used in the sense of quieting, or procuring rest. עצב is trouble which plagues (as עמל is trouble which oppresses), and rōgez restlessness which wears out with anxious care (Job 3:26, cf.

, Eze 12:18). The assimilated min before the two words is pronounced mĭ , with a weak reduplication, instead of mē , as elsewhere, before ח, ה, and even before ר (1Sa 23:28; 2Sa 18:16). In the relative clause עבּד־בך אשר, אשר is not the Hebrew casus adverb . answering to the Latin ablative quâ servo te usi sunt ; not do בך ... אשר belong to one another in the sense of quo , as in Deu 21:3, quâ ( vitulâ ); but it is regarded as an acc.

obj . according to Exo 1:14 and Lev 25:39, qu'on t'a fait servir , as in Num 32:5, qu'on donne la terre (Luzzatto). When delivered from such a yoke of bondage, Israel would raise a mâshâl . According to its primary and general meaning, mâshâl signifies figurative language, and hence poetry generally, more especially that kind of proverbial poetry which loves the emblematical, and, in fact, any artistic composition that is piquant in its character; so that the idea of what is satirical or defiant may easily be associated with it, as in the passage before us.

The words are addressed to the Israel of the future in the Israel of the present, as in Isa 12:1. The former would then sing, and say as follows. “How hath the oppressor ceased! The place of torture ceased! Jehovah hath broken the rod of the wicked, the ruler’s staff, which cmote nations in wrath with strokes without ceasing subjugated nations wrathfully with hunting than nevers stays.

” Not one of the early translators ever thought of deriving the hap. leg. madhebâh from the Aramaean dehab (gold), as Vitringa, Aurivillius, and Rosenmüller have done. The former have all translated the word as if it were marhēbâh (haughty, violent treatment), as corrected by J. D. Michaelis, Doederlein, Knobel, and others. But we may arrive at the same result without altering a single letter, if we take דּאב as equivalent to דּהב, דּוּב, to melt or pine away, whether we go back to the kal or to the hiphil of the verb, and regard the Mem as used in a material or local sense.

We understand it, according to madmenah (dunghill) in Isa 25:10, as denoting the place where they were reduced to pining away, i. e. , as applied to Babylon as the house of servitude where Israel had been wearied to death. The tyrant’s sceptre, mentioned in Isa 14:5, is the Chaldean world-power regarded as concentrated in the king of Babel (cf. , shēbet in Num 24:17).

This tyrant’s sceptre smote nations with incessant blows and hunting: maccath is construed with macceh , the derivative of the same verb; and murdâph , a hophal noun (as in Isa 9:1; Isa 29:3), with rodeh , which is kindred in meaning. Doederlein’s conjecture ( mirdath ), which has been adopted by most modern commentators, is quite unnecessary. Unceasing continuance is expressed first of all with bilti , which is used as a preposition, and followed by sârâh , a participial noun like câlâh , and then with b'li , which is construed with the finite verb as in Gen 31:20; Job 41:18; for b'li châsâk is an attributive clause: with a hunting which did not restrain itself, did not stop, and therefore did not spare.

Nor is it only Israel and other subjugated nations that now breathe again.