Commentari biblici

Ch. Isaiah 13:1 to Isaiah 14:23. The Fall of Babylon

This is the first of the collection of oracles, dealing mainly with foreign nations, which forms the second great division of the first part of the Book of Isaiah (see General Introd., pp. lxxii f.). It contains two distinct and complete pieces: (1) a prophecy of the impending sack and capture of Babylon by the Medes (Isaiah 13:2-22), and (2) an ode of triumph to be sung by the Jews over the downfall of their oppressor, the king of Babylon (Isaiah 14:4 b–21). These are connected by a few verses in a style different from either (Isaiah 14:1-4 a); and the ode is followed by a couple of verses which reaffirm the doom pronounced on Babylon in the end of ch. 13. (Isaiah 14:22 f.). It is not impossible that the amalgamation of the two principal sections may be due to an editor; but the historical situation assumed is the same in both, and reasons for assigning them to separate authors are not to be found.

That neither the passage as a whole nor either of its component parts was written by Isaiah appears from the following considerations. (a) In Isaiah’s time Babylon was either a subject province of the Assyrian Empire or engaged in unsuccessful revolt against it. Here she is represented as the supreme world-power, the glory of kingdoms, intoxicated with her own success, and exercising a cruel tyranny over many nations (Isaiah 13:11; Isaiah 13:19, Isaiah 14:5 f., 12 ff., 16 f.). (b) In particular she is the power that has long held Israel in the thraldom of exile (Isaiah 14:1-3); an event which might conceivably have been foreseen by Isaiah, but which he could not have assumed as known to the men of his time. But (c) a transference of the world-empire from Assyria to Babylon is really excluded by Isaiah’s scheme of history, since he conceives the overthrow of Assyria as followed immediately by the Messianic age. (d) The style and language are not those of Isaiah; and the spirit of fierce and vindictive triumph over the fallen foe, while explicable in a writer of the exile period, would be unnatural in the case of Isaiah. The prophecy, therefore, must have been unintelligible to the contemporaries of Isaiah; and on the principle that the prophet always addresses himself primarily to the circumstances of his own time, we must assign these chapters to the closing years of the Babylonian captivity. A more exact determination of their date is scarcely possible. Even on the question whether they were written before or after the consolidation of the Median and Persian power by Cyrus in 549, conflicting inferences are drawn from Isaiah 13:17 (see on the verse below). It may be added that by such a view the passage is not robbed of its predictive character. It was certainly composed in anticipation of the fall of Babylon (538); and hence it is a prediction to precisely the same extent as Isaiah’s own announcements of the destruction of Assyria and the deliverance of Jerusalem (Driver, Isaiah, p. 127).

Chap. 8 falls into three main divisions. A subdivision of each into two nearly equal strophes (Duhm) is possible, though less clearly marked.

i. Isaiah 13:2-8. A magnificently poetical description of the impending attack.

(1) The mustering of Jehovah’s host on the north-eastern mountains (2–4).

(2) The approach of the avengers, Jehovah at their head, inspiring terror and dismay in the city (5–8).

ii. Isaiah 13:9-16. The meaning of the judgment.

(1) The day of Jehovah has at last arrived, heralded by physical convulsions, to sweep wickedness and tyranny from the face of the earth (9–12).

(2) The flight of foreign merchants from the doomed city and the massacre of her population (13–16).

iii. Isaiah 13:17-22. The fate of Babylon.

(1) At length the writer lays aside the veil of poetic imagery and announces in express terms that the invaders are the pitiless barbarians of Media, and the object of their attack is Babylon (17–19).

(2) The prophecy then closes with a weird picture of the eternal desolation reserved for the imperial city.

1. The superscription, prefixed by an editor who attributed the prophecy to Isaiah.

The burden] Rather, The utterance, or “oracle.” The word occurs ten times in the headings of this section of the book (also in ch. Isaiah 30:6). The Heb. is massâ’, and means literally a “lifting up (of the voice).” See 2 Kings 9:25. The A.V., following several ancient versions, takes it in its commoner sense of “burden” (thing lifted), a confusion which seems as old as the time of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 23:33-40) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 12:10).

which Isaiah … did see] See on Isaiah 1:1, Isaiah 2:1.

2. Lift ye up a banner] a signal, ch. Isaiah 5:26.

upon the high mountain] Render, upon a bare mountain; i.e. one denuded of trees, so that the signal might be clearly distinguished.

the gates of the nobles] The city gates through which the Babylonian magnates passed to and fro. The name Babel (Bab-ilu) signifies “Gate of God.”

2–4. Jehovah musters His hosts.

3. Jehovah speaks.

my sanctified (or consecrated) ones] In ancient times a campaign was inaugurated with religious ceremonies (1 Samuel 13:9; Jeremiah 22:7; Jeremiah 51:28 [R.V. marg.]) and each warrior was a consecrated man (1 Samuel 21:5).

them that rejoice in my highness] Translate as in R.V. my proudly exulting ones, Zephaniah 3:11.

4. Already the prophet seems to hear from afar the din of the gathering multitude.

The noise of a multitude] Better as an exclamation, Hark, a tumult. And so in the next clause, Hark, the uproar of … The “mountains” are those beyond the Zagros range, N.E. of Babylonia, where the territory of the Medes lay. To understand them as “ideal barriers” (Cheyne) weakens the poetry of the passage.

5. The host is now seen in motion, advancing under the guidance of Jehovah to its appointed goal.

the whole land] Rather, the whole earth. The judgment is directed against the Babylonian Empire, which from the writer’s point of view was practically co-extensive with the civilised world.

6. The verse is almost identical with Joel 1:15. On the “day of Jehovah” see on ch. Isaiah 2:12.

as a destruction from the Almighty] The Heb. phrase contains an alliteration which cannot be easily reproduced in English. The Germans render “wie Gewalt vom Gewaltigen.” The word for “Almighty” is the Divine name Shaddai (see Exodus 6:3), but its etymology is doubtful. According to one derivation it comes from the same root as the word for “destruction,” so that we might almost venture to translate “like destruction from the Destroyer.” This verse, however, can hardly be appealed to in support of that view, since it may imply nothing beyond the mere play upon words. (See further Robertson Smith, Old Test. in Jewish Church, pp. 423 f.)

7. “Hands hanging down” and “hearts melting” are frequent images of despair (ch. Isaiah 19:1; Ezekiel 21:7; Job 4:3; Joshua 7:5, &c.).