13:1 An oracle concerning Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw in vision: Now again, the Hebrew word for "see" that is used is "to see in vision." So in Hebrew there is not a verb and a noun, there is just a verb. That's the only way you can translate it into English because that particular verb in Hebrew means only "to see" in a visionary sense. It doesn't have an English equivalent. Now remember that's the caption of the chapter—it's about Babylon. And yet when you read the chapter we see that it's talking about a universal entity and a universal destruction. By means of that universal destruction he established Babylon as a universal entity. And of course, Babylon anciently was an empire, not just the city of Babylon. The Babylonian empire was a worldwide entity at that time, anciently, and that is a type of a latter-day Babylon or worldwide entity, characterized by idolatry and injustice and so on. 13:2 Raise the ensign on a barren mountain; sound the voice among them! Beckon them with the hand to advance into the precincts of the elite. Now the elite, as we have already seen, have been those high and mighty nations of the world, particularly the nations of Israel. In chapter 2, they are the elite peoples of the earth that the King of Assyria destroys. And here he is: the "ensign," the "voice," and the "hand." The anger and the hand, we've already seen, and here we have the ensign and the voice as well. And they are all in parallel with each other, ensign, voice, and hand. He's the one who beckons these other nations, as we see in these next two verses. 13:3 I have charged my holy ones, called out my valiant ones: my anger is not upon those who take pride in me. "I have charged my holy ones." So here is one of those verses in the midst of gloom and doom, as we've already seen in other chapters, the Lord makes provision for the deliverance of a righteous remnant of his people out of the destruction. And of course the Lord is called the Holy One of Israel and the Valiant One of Israel, so these are those to whom he is an exemplar. They emulate him in those attributes of holiness and valor. And to be holy means to be in a sanctified state, to be set apart, to be consecrated in a special sense, to keep covenant with the Lord, to be a peculiar people to him, different from the rest of the world. In a sense, disassociated with them in one's lifestyle, associated with them in the sense of tending to minister to them to bring them out of their state to a higher level. "Called out my valiant ones." Valiant in the testimony of God, distinguishes the elect group of people. They are not just private individuals; they are out as witnesses of God, testifying of the truthfulness of God, of his covenant, of his deliverance, of all the things that God can do for those who love him. His anger (the King of Assyria), or the day of judgment is not on those who pride in him. The King of Assyria cannot have power over those elect, those holy and valiant ones. "My anger is not upon those who take pride in me." Those who are on the Lord's side, those who uphold the Lord, escape destruction. 13:4 Hark! A tumult on the mountains, as of a vast multitude. Hark! An uproar among kingdoms, as of nations assembling: the Lord of Hosts is marshaling an army for war. And he's the one who beckons them and rallies them. He's the ensign who rallies this alliance of nations to cause this universal destruction. He's also a voice, as he is a "mouth" or a "tongue." He's the voice of the wicked as the servant is the voice of the righteous. So he's a very vocal person, in other words. And the hand implies power: he has power to do what he does. The Lord of Hosts is marshaling an army for war. That is a classic parallelism where "hark" is paralleled with "hark", "tumult" is paralleled with "uproar", a "vast multitude" is paralleled with "nations assembling, and "mountains" is paralleled with "kingdoms." And when you have all those parallels like that, you can read "mountains" as a metaphor, as well as literally mountains. It's that, but it's also kingdoms, because everything else is synonymous so they too are synonymous. That's how Isaiah establishes that idea. Later on he introduces a similar synonymous parallelism where he parallels mountains with nations, so he does it twice. Nations and kingdoms are the same. Who are these nations? Well, an army for war, made up of nations, of whole peoples. They are called the "instruments of his wrath" in the next verse. 13:5 They come from a distant land beyond the horizon—the Lord and the instruments of his wrath—to cause destruction throughout the earth. Historically, that was always Mesopotamia, either Assyria or Babylon. The Lord and the instruments of his wrath cause destruction throughout the earth. "Instruments of his wrath" is another one of those terms. "Wrath" is what the King of Assyria personifies: the left hand of the Lord. So this is an alliance of his nations, an alliance of his that he is using to cause this universal destruction. Now the caption of the chapter said it was about Babylon, and yet here we are talking about universal destruction, so he does identify Babylon as the universal entity. 13:6 Lament, for the day of the Lord is near; it shall come as a violent blow from the Almighty. The day of the Lord is that time of judgment, lasting a few years, three or four years as we saw earlier, in which the King of Assyria is given power over the wicked of the earth. As we saw earlier, terrifying power, with the force of iron—cities are battered down and Lebanon falls spectacularly. 13:7 Then shall every hand grow weak and the hearts of all men melt. Worst-case scenario. You may think that because this is a universal destruction it's not specifically about the Lord's people, but it is. When you compare the two destructions, the one of the nations of the world and the destruction of the Lord's people in particular, then you see it's an identical destruction: the same terminology, the same instrument of destruction (the King of Assyria), the same circumstances appear in both that link the one with the other. Chapter 5 is a good example of that. Chapter 5, verse 26: "He raises an ensign to distant nations and summons them from beyond the horizon. Forthwith they come swiftly and speedily. Not one of them grows weary, nor does any stumble." The King of Assyria is stirred up against them (that is, the Lord's people), "even as the sea is stirred up." Chapter 5, verse 25: "Therefore the anger of the Lord is kindled against his people: he draws back his hand against them and strikes them; the mountains quake, and their corpses like litter about the streets. Yet for all this his anger is not abated; his hand is upraised still." That destruction is specific of the Lord's people, and yet here it is in general to the world as a whole. Then shall every hand grow weak and the hearts of all men melt. Every hand, all men, those are all universal ideas. Destruction throughout the earth. 13:8 They shall be terrified, in throes of agony, seized with trembling like a woman in labor. Men will look at one another aghast, their faces set aflame. So a fiery destruction. A time of terror for the wicked. "In throes of agony, like a woman in labor." In the last days, or in that day of judgment, the whole world goes into labor. Everyone goes into labor. Even God himself goes into labor, as we see later on. It's just that some produce and some don't. For some there is deliverance and for some there is no deliverance. They perish in their labor. "Men will look at one another aghast, their faces set aflame." It will be that kind of fiery destruction, I guess like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. With today's technology you could do that. I'm always reminded of that guy in "Raiders of the Lost Ark"—Isaiah talks about things like that. 13:9 The day of the Lord shall come as a cruel outburst of anger and wrath to make the earth a desolation, that sinners may be annihilated from it. Again, the day of the Lord is the time spoken of. The day of the Lord is two-fold. It has it's destructive aspect, as in this case, but the day of the Lord is also a time of deliverance for the elect. As a cruel outburst of anger and wrath. The Lord's anger, the Lord's wrath. But God is not an angry and wrathful God. It's just that he's a just God and people bring these desolations and destructions upon themselves. God is bound by covenant to deliver his righteous people, those who repent, from the wicked who oppress them. He has to come to their aid and to their rescue and save them, and the only way he can do so is to destroy the wicked because they will not repent at this time. And if the wicked were left alive they would come after the Lord's righteous people and oppress them again. He does make an end of the wicked and of wickedness at some point, just like he did at the flood. It falsely implies that this is an angry person. The King of Assyria personifies the Lord's anger and personifies the Lord's wrath. He's a very vocal person and angry against the Lord. We read a little bit from chapter 37 which also talks about the King of Assyria. Verse 23: "Whom have you mocked and ridiculed? Against whom have you raised your voice? Lifting your eyes to high heaven against the Holy One of Israel." In verse 28 of 37 he is stirred up against the Lord. It talks about his snortings and his bellowings. So he's likened to a wild animal there, but very vocal against the Lord's people. In the Book of Daniel, it's a mouth speaking great things against the Lord, against his people. When this person arrives on the world stage, that will be a very obvious trait of his. He'll be very angry and wrathful and vengeful against the Lord and against his people. "The day of the Lord shall come as a cruel outburst of anger and wrath to make the earth a desolation, that sinners may be annihilated from it." So there by definition, Babylon is the world as a whole, and its wicked inhabitants are sinners. Just as Zion in the Book of Isaiah is both a people and a place, so Babylon is both a people and a place. Zion are those who repent and the place to which they return: a place of safety at this time. And Babylon is the world at large, and the wicked inhabitants. 13:10 The stars and constellations of the heavens will not shine. When the sun rises, it shall be obscured; nor will the moon give its light. So there'll be some kind of cloud of pollution or some kind of cosmic interference that will be a time of darkness for a while. And that is the same outer darkness into which the wicked are banished. Darkness is a covenant curse in the ancient near east. 13:11 I have decreed calamity for the world, punishment for the wicked; I will put an end to the arrogance of insolent men and humble the pride of tyrants. There again, you have definitions of what Isaiah means by Babylon, which heads the chapter. The world at large, and the wicked inhabitants who suffer calamity and punishment. "I will put an end to the arrogance of insolent men and humble the pride of tyrants." There again are some of the categories that identify Babylon: insolent men and tyrants, their pride and arrogance. And that which exalts itself in the Book of Isaiah is humiliated, and that which humbles itself is exalted. So you can see that this category has been an exalted category of people that is now humbles by the Lord. Chapter 2 verse 12 says "The Lord of Hosts has a day in store for all the proud and arrogant and for all who are exalted, that they may be brought low. It shall come against all the lofty cedars of Lebanon that lift themselves up high, and against all the oaks of Bashan, against all high mountains and elevated hills. The haughtiness of men shall be abased and men's pride brought low. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." And that's what's going on here. It's a universal event. 13:12 I will make mankind scarcer than fine gold, men more rare than gold of Ophir. And this is the category of precious metal. Gold and silver in the Book of Isaiah identify that category of the elect, the holy ones, the valiant ones. And they will become rare, they will be rare. In Isaiah's scenario they are the tenth of the tenth of people. The semi-precious would be nine percent, I guess, and the majority, or ninety percent of the earth's population, will be wiped out during this time of destruction. It also implies that these people are refined; they have gone through the refiner's fire as gold and silver are tried and the dross is burned off. 13:13 I will cause disturbance in the heavens when the earth is jolted out of place by the anger of the Lord of Hosts in the day of his blazing wrath. The day of his blazing wrath is the day of judgment, or the day of the Lord. It's the time of the Lord's coming. That's why Christ would say his coming will be like "a thief in the night." He's not the thief, the King of Assyria is the thief and the plunderer of the world. The time of his coming, his actual literal coming, is immediately preceded by the King of Assyria's coming and doing his work, the destructive aspect of the work. So the day of his blazing wrath is the time of that fiery destruction that the King of Assyria causes throughout the earth. The earth being "jolted out of place by the anger of the Lord of Hosts" is a similar idea. If the King of Assyria personifies God's wrath and anger then he's the one who jolts the earth out of place, or out of orbit. How will he do that? It's a massive destruction at some time, even cosmic destruction causing disturbance in the heavens, it says. And it's possible there may be some natural cosmic destruction. There are some proponents who write books about that. But in the Book of Isaiah, the main scenario of destruction is through the agency of the King of Assyria. It's not specific about cosmic disturbance as such. The King of Assyria is the one who causes most of the destruction, not all of the destruction. 13:14 Then, like a deer that is chased, or a flock of sheep that no one rounds up, each will return to his own people and everyone flee to his homeland. These are clean animals implying covenant people. Of course for the elect there is an exodus under the protection of the Lord that happens on the eve of the holocaust. As Lot was taken out of Sodom and Gomorrah before their destruction, so the elect are taken on an exodus before this cosmic and utter cataclysmic destruction that the King of Assyria causes. They are taken out before that destruction. But those who are left, those who do not perish in that destruction, the middle category of people, they will be the ones who will be doing the returning. They are covenant people, but they are not valiant or holy enough to participate in the exodus, yet they somehow survive. 13:15 Whoever is found shall be thrust through; all who are caught shall fall by the sword. Because it will be a war to the death. They will take no prisoners, it seems. 13:16 Their infants shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes, their homes plundered, their wives ravished. Now there's no mercy there, and that's because these people did not repent. They don't come under the law of mercy, they come under the law of justice because of all their acts. When a people are ripened in iniquity it is a mercy to destroy them all, because otherwise their iniquity would be passed on generationally and would get worse and worse. Their little children would not even have a chance to grow up under fair circumstances. 13:17 See, I stir up against them the Medes, who do nor value silver, nor covet gold. These are the allies of the Assyrians who are part of the destruction, and they are not capitalists apparently. And they also do not distinguish between the righteous and the wicked people. The silver and gold would be an allusion to the elect. In other words they destroy everybody. 13:18 Their bows shall tear apart the young. They will show no mercy to the newborn; their eye will not look with compassion on children. 13:19 And Babylon, the most splendid of kingdoms, the glory and pride of Chaldeans, shall be thrown down as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. kind of sums up what it's been talking about, Babylon. So in other words there is universal destruction of the wicked, of sinners, of the prideful elements of the world, the tyrants, as was Sodom and Gomorrah which was destroyed in a rain of fire and brimstone out of the sky. Isaiah makes provision for all the elect being gathered out. "Babylon, the most splendid of kingdoms, the glory and pride of Chaldeans." Chaldeans are the inhabitants of Babylon, or the world at large. So these people, they were the elite of the earth. They were the pride of the whole world, and they were thrown down like Sodom and Gomorrah, which became an anathema, a proverb and a byword synonymous with curse. 13:20 Never shall it be reinhabited; it shall not be resettled through all generations. Nomads will not pitch their tents there, nor will shepherds rest their flocks in it. So the very land becomes an abomination or an anathema, and is avoided, perhaps because of the nature of the destruction. If there were a nuclear destruction, people wouldn't want to go there because of the radiation. The land will kind of be left alone as a testimony to the destruction of the wicked, too. Later on, at the very end of the Book of Isaiah, it says, "They shall go out and look upon the corpses of the people who transgressed against me, whose worms do not die and whose fires shall not be extinguished. It shall be a horror to all flesh." So there are certain parts of the earth that shall be left as a memorial of the destruction that occurs, to remind people what happens to people when they transgress against the Lord's covenant. And that may be what's happening here. But certainly it is a cursed place. Nobody wants to go there, like Sodom and Gomorrah. It is a cursed place. 13:21 But wild animals will infest it, and its buildings overflow with weasels; birds of prey will find lodging there and demonic creatures prance about in it. 13:22 Jackals will cry out from its palaces, howling creatures from its amusement halls. Her time draws near; Babylon's days shall not be prolonged. So all these are unclean animals that are infesting and overrunning the place. And this kind of has a double connotation because, after the destruction, these unclean creatures will inhabit those places and clean creatures, or covenant people of the Lord, will not go there. But in a sense, before the destruction, these places were inhabited by unclean creatures, namely human beings who were unclean. They acted like wild animals and like weasels and birds of prey. They were predatory, they were demonic creatures prancing about. "Jackals will cry out from its palaces, howling creatures from its amusement halls." It's like people today, you have these amusement halls and palaces, and you have howling creatures. So it's kind of an allusion to the lack of spiritual condition or of the spiritual wickedness that existed before the destruction: that spiritual condition manifests itself in physical consequences afterwards. "Her time draws near; Babylon's days shall not be prolonged." Again alluding to going into labor, in Babylon's case not coming out of labor alive. There is a lease of time given to Babylon in Isaiah, and when that lease of time is up—it's like a term of pregnancy—then comes the day of reckoning.