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Isaías 13

BLIVRE · Chapter 13/66

1Revelação sobre a Babilônia, vista por Isaías, filho de Amoz.

2Levantai uma bandeira sobre um alto monte, levantai a voz a eles; movei a mão ao alto, para que entrem pelas portas dos príncipes.

3Eu dei ordens aos meus santificados; também chamei aos meus guerreiros para minha ira, aos que se alegram com minha glória.

4Há um ruído de tumulto sobre os montes, como o de um imenso povo; ruído de multidões de reinos de nações reunidas; o SENHOR dos exércitos está revistando um exército para a guerra.

5Eles vêm de uma terra distante, desde a extremidade do céu; o SENHOR e os instrumentos de seu furor, para destruir toda [aquela] terra.

6Gritai lamentando, pois o dia do SENHOR está perto; vem como assolação pelo Todo-Poderoso.

7Por isso todas as mãos ficarão fracas, e o coração de todos os homens se derreterá.

8E ficarão aterrorizados; serão tomados por dores e angústias; sofrerão como mulher com dores de parto; cada um terá medo de seu próximo, seus rostos serão rostos em chamas.

9Eis que o dia do SENHOR vem horrendo, com furor e ira ardente, para pôr a terra em assolação, e destruir os pecadores nela.

10Porque as estrelas dos céus e suas constelações não darão sua luz; o sol se escurecerá ao nascer, e a lua não brilhará com sua luz.

11Porque visitarei para punir sobre o mundo a maldade, e sobre os maus sua perversidade; e porei fim à arrogância dos soberbos, e abaterei o orgulho dos tiranos.

12Farei com que um varão seja mais raro que o ouro maciço, e um homem mais que o ouro fino de Ofir.

13Por isso farei estremecer aos céus, e a terra se moverá de seu lugar, por causa do furor do SENHOR dos exércitos, e por causa de sua ardente ira.

14E será que, como uma corça em fuga, e como uma ovelha que ninguém recolhe, cada um se voltará para seu povo, e cada um fugirá para sua terra.

15Qualquer um que for achado, será traspassado; e qualquer um que se juntar a ele cairá pela espada.

16E suas crianças serão despedaçadas perante seus olhos; suas casas serão saqueadas, e suas mulheres estupradas.

17Eis que despertarei contra eles aos medos, que não se importarão com a prata, nem desejarão ouro.

18E [com seus] arcos despedaçarão aos rapazes, e não terão piedade do fruto do ventre; o olho deles não terá compaixão das crianças.

19Assim será Babilônia, a joia dos reinos, a beleza e o orgulho dos caldeus, semelhante a Sodoma e Gomorra, quando Deus [as] arruinou.

20Nunca mais será habitada, nem [nela] se morará, de geração em geração; nem o árabe armará ali sua tenda, nem os pastores farão descansar ali [seus] rebanhos.

21Mas os animais selvagens do deserto ali descansarão, e suas casas se encherão de animais medonhos; e ali habitarão corujas, e bodes selvagens saltarão ali.

22E as hienas uivarão em suas fortalezas, e chacais em seus confortáveis palácios. Pois está chegando bem perto o seu tempo, e os dias dela não se prolongarão.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Begins a long series of prophecies against foreign nations. This chapter announces the fall of Babylon: an army of nations will rise against it by God's command, and the once-proud city will become a wasteland inhabited only by wild animals.

Explanation

In Isaiah's time (8th century BC), Babylon was not yet the great power it would later become (starting in the 7th century BC), but the prophet already announces its future rise and fall, historically fulfilled when the Medes and Persians conquered the city in 539 BC. The 'prophecies against nations' (chapters 13-23) were a common genre among the Hebrew prophets, showing that God rules not only over Israel but over all the nations of the earth. The image of wild animals inhabiting ruins was an ancient and universal way of describing the total abandonment of a city. The application today is to remember that no human power, however grand it may appear, is beyond God's judgment and control.

Fun facts

  • The historical fall of Babylon to the Persian king Cyrus in 539 BC is confirmed by extrabiblical records such as the 'Cyrus Cylinder,' one of the most important archaeological finds in ancient history.
  • The mention of the 'Medes' (v.17) as an instrument of Babylon's destruction anticipates, by more than a hundred years, the Medo-Persian alliance that would in fact take the city.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Isaías 13:1“The burden of Babylon” opens a series of oracles against foreign nations running through chapter 23. The word rendered “burden” was the term used for this kind of judgment prophecy against a specific nation, almost always delivered as a solemn, heavy pronouncement to hear.
  2. Isaías 13:2Opens the oracle by raising a banner and calling soldiers to enter through the gates of the nobles — a call to war described almost like a visual and audible signal to gather the army against Babylon.
  3. Isaías 13:3God speaks as one who has already summoned this army: He calls His “sanctified ones” and “mighty ones,” set apart specifically to carry out His wrath, showing that even a foreign army acts under divine purpose.
  4. Isaías 13:4Describes the noise of crowds gathering in the mountains, like the sound of kingdoms and nations assembling — the LORD of hosts reviews this army, like a general inspecting troops before battle.
  5. Isaías 13:5This army comes from a distant land, “from the end of heaven,” an expression for a very remote place, and God, together with the weapons of His indignation, comes to destroy that whole land.
  6. Isaías 13:6The phrase “day of the LORD” appears several times in the prophets for a moment of decisive judgment. Here it is applied to the fall of Babylon, not to a single cosmic event, but to the specific day that empire would fall.
  7. Isaías 13:7The result of the fear before this army: every hand goes limp, and everyone’s heart melts — the widespread dread that precedes Babylon’s fall.
  8. Isaías 13:8Continues describing the panic: pangs like those of childbirth seize everyone, and each one looks in amazement at his neighbor, face flushed with fear — an intense physical image of collective terror.
  9. Isaías 13:9The “day of the LORD” here is applied specifically to Babylon’s fall: a day described as cruel, full of fierce anger, that will lay the land waste and destroy its sinners.
  10. Isaías 13:10Stars, sun, and moon cease to shine — poetic language common among the prophets for describing an event of cosmic proportions, even when the real subject is the fall of one specific empire.
  11. Isaías 13:11God promises to punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity, ending the arrogance of the proud and bringing down the pride of tyrants — the moral reason behind all the destruction announced.
  12. Isaías 13:12After the slaughter, so few people will remain that an ordinary man will be worth more than fine gold — an exaggerated image describing the population scarcity after the war.
  13. Isaías 13:13The destruction is described in cosmic terms: the heavens tremble and the earth is shaken out of its place, because of the wrath of the LORD — reinforcing the apocalyptic tone used to announce Babylon’s fall.
  14. Isaías 13:14People flee like a hunted gazelle or a sheep with no shepherd, each one returning to his own homeland — the panic scatters Babylon’s inhabitants, many of them foreigners living there.
  15. Isaías 13:15Whoever is found during the invasion will be killed by the sword, and whoever joins others in fleeing will also fall — there will be no safe refuge anywhere.
  16. Isaías 13:16Describes the brutality of ancient warfare: children killed before their parents’ eyes, houses plundered, women violated — a realistic and shocking picture of what happened when a city was invaded in that era.
  17. Isaías 13:17The Medes, together with the Persians, formed the power that centuries later would bring down the Babylonian empire. This verse is one of the prophecies that already anticipates, back in Isaiah’s own time, exactly who would cause Babylon’s fall.
  18. Isaías 13:18The Medes, mentioned in the previous verse, attack with bows that shatter even the young, showing no mercy even for little children — reinforcing the relentless cruelty of this specific invading people.
  19. Isaías 13:19Comparing Babylon to Sodom and Gomorrah is to predict total, permanent destruction — no Arab would pitch a tent there, no shepherd would bring a flock. The creatures described later in the chapter are popular images of the time for a place so devastated that only wild animals inhabit it.
  20. Isaías 13:20After all this, it promises that Babylon will never be inhabited again, not even by wandering Arabs who used to pitch tents anywhere, nor by shepherds looking for pasture — total, permanent abandonment.
  21. Isaías 13:21In place of people, wild desert animals will occupy the ruins, and strange creatures like ostriches and satyrs — wild goats from the popular imagination of haunted places — will pass through there.
  22. Isaías 13:22Hyenas and jackals howling in the former luxury palaces close the scene of total desolation — and the text ends by affirming that this end is near, Babylon’s days will not be prolonged.

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