Глава 13

1–5. The Lord is gathering troops to carry out His judgment over the earth. 6–13. Day of the Lord. 14–18. Взятие Вавилона мидянами. 19–22. Запустение Вавилона. Preliminary note. From the 13th chapter. and in Isaiah 23 there are speeches announcing the future fate of some foreign peoples known to the Jews at that time (excluding chapter 22, dedicated to depicting the fate of Jerusalem). These prophetic speeches mainly depict those disasters that, by the will of the Almighty, will break out over states hostile to the chosen people. But in places the prophet also reveals the joyful future that awaits the pagans after they experience the righteous judgment of God. They ask: why did the prophet, who lived in Judea, so carefully depict the future fate of those peoples who, due to their distance, could not even know about his prophecies? The answer to this can be the following considerations: a) those foreign peoples whose future fate is depicted by Isaiah stood in one way or another in relation to the Jewish people, and what happened important in the Jewish state should have reached their ears. Meanwhile, the speeches of the inspired prophets were an amazing phenomenon for the pagans, who could not help but recognize the significance of the Lord who sent these prophets. Consequently, speeches about the fate of pagan states, uttered by such a great prophet as Isaiah, could reach the ears of the pagans and instill in them more modest concepts about their powers and significance in the world; b) it was extremely important for the Jews themselves to know the fate that awaited the pagan states, because the Jews looked at these states either as their enemies or as friends. The Prophet Isaiah shows in his speeches about the fate of the pagan peoples that their power and strength are short-lived and that the Jews, on the one hand, should not be very sad at the thought that these peoples will subjugate Israel and that, on the other hand, Israel does not need to seek support from these unreliable states. Isa.13:1–5. The Prophet, sometimes speaking on his own behalf, sometimes portraying the Lord Himself as speaking, describes a meeting of armies coming from distant countries in order, in fulfillment of the will of the Most High, to defeat Babylon. Isa.13:1. The prophecy about Babylon, which was spoken by Isaiah, the son of Amoz. “Prophecy” - in Hebrew. massa (from the verb nassa to wear) means: elevated, exalted (voice) or solemn speech. But here and in other prophecies about foreign nations this word is used in the meaning: “judgment, burden” (cf. Jer. 23:33). "Which Isaiah spoke". These words indicate that a new section of the book begins here, completely independent. “Spoken” in Hebrew. chazah saw (cf. Isa. 1:1). Isa.13:2. Raise your banner on the open mountain, raise your voice; wave your hand to them so that they go to the gates of the rulers. It is not known to whom the prophet is addressing here. Some see here an allusion to the Angels, the servants of the Most High, who indicate to the people the goals to which they should strive (Zech. 1: 8, 9). “Raise the banner” - obviously to convene the militia, which must know to which point to gather. “On an open mountain,” that is, on a treeless mountain, so that the banner would be visible from everywhere. “Lift up your voice” – call with a loud voice. “To them” – to the troops coming from afar. The “Gate of the Lords” is the goal towards which the marching troops rush. This was the name of the main gate of the city - the capital, which served for the entry of sovereigns - the gate was wide and beautifully arranged. (According to the Slavic text, here is an appeal (princes - sov. case) to the rulers of Babylon.) Isa.13:3. I have given command to My chosen ones and called My mighty ones, who triumph in My greatness, to carry out My wrath. "I gave a command." This means that the previous command also belongs to the Lord. "The Chosen Ones". In euros The text uses a stronger expression: sanctified. The pagan troops are so named because in the present case they are instruments of the righteous wrath of God (cf. Joel.3:9; Jer.22:7; Jer.51 et seq.). “Triumphants,” that is, joyfully doing the will of God. Isa.13:4. There is a great noise on the mountains, as if from a crowded people, the rebellious noise of kingdoms and peoples gathered together: the Lord of Hosts surveys the fighting army. "Noise on the Mountains". Since the prophet refers to the invasion of enemy hordes on Babylon, then by mountains he probably means the mountains of the Zagra ridge and the northern branches of the Pusha Mountains, which separated Babylon from Media and Persia. "Kingdoms and Nations". It is known that the kingdoms of Media (v. 17) and Persian (cf. Is. 21:2), as well as the Armenians, united in an alliance in order to crush the Babylonian kingdom. Of course, in the Medo-Persian army there were many other nationalities subordinate to these allied kings. Isa.13:5. The Lord and the instruments of His wrath are coming from a distant land, from the end of heaven, to destroy the whole earth. "From the edge of the sky". Media and Persia were indeed perhaps the most remote countries known to Jews. The whole earth. Some interpreters consider this expression to actually mean the entire inhabited earth. But it is more correct to think that the prophet with these words designated the Babylonian monarchy, which, being at the zenith of its power, could be called universal. Isaiah 13:6–13. The Day of the Lord is already near and therefore the Babylonians fell into despair. This day for Babylon will be terrible as the day of God’s general judgment on the world, when the heavenly lights will darken and the earth will shake. Isa.13:6. Howl, for the day of the Lord is at hand, coming as a destructive force from the Almighty. “Weep” - an appeal to the Babylonians. “The Day of the Lord” - see Isaiah 2:12. "From the Almighty". The destruction, therefore, will be complete, final. Isa.13:7. That’s why everyone’s hands dropped, and every person’s heart melted. Isa.13:8. They were horrified, cramps and pain seized them; They are tormented like a woman giving birth, they look at each other in amazement, their faces are flushed. The Babylonians realize that all resistance is in vain. “The heart... melted” - it became like water, it ceased to be strong and solid (Deut. 20:8; Is. 19:1). “Faces lit up.” The blood rushes to the head from horror, and the face can become very red as a result. Isa.13:9. Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, fierce, with wrath and burning fury, to make the earth desolate and to destroy its sinners from it. Isa.13:10. The heavenly stars and luminaries do not give light from themselves; the sun darkens when it rises, and the moon does not shine with its light. The prophet depicts the terrible day of the Lord as a terrible storm, which destroys everything in its path and obscures the very sky with thick clouds, so that darkness settles on the earth. “Heavenly stars” – (kochvej) a general designation of heavenly bodies. “And the luminaries” - in Hebrew. (chesilehem) literally: their images. The singular form of this word is found in Job 9:9; Job.38:31 and Am.5:8 and is translated by the proper name Kesil (in Job) and Orion (in Amos). This constellation - Orion - is distinguished by the brightness of its constituent stars and therefore Isaiah mentions it to say that even the most brilliant luminaries will fade. (However, Blessed Jerome understands this eclipse of the most brilliant stars as a phenomenon of the purely objective imagination of the Babylonians, to whom it will seem that the stars have lost their light.) Isa.13:11. I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquities, and I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and I will destroy the arrogance of the oppressors; Isa.13:12. I will make people more valuable than pure gold, and men more valuable than the gold of Ophir. The Lord Himself speaks here. "Peace" - in Hebrew. tevel, own the globe, but here, obviously, is the Babylonian world monarchy (cf. Is. 24:4; Is. 26:9, where under “earth” - haarez - of course the land of Israel). “People will be more expensive,” that is, a small number of the Babylonians will remain alive. For Ophir, see Commentary. Bible vol. 1. Of the four supposed countries (Southern Arabia, East Africa, India and the southern regions in general), it is most likely to see Africa in Ophir, the very name of which (Afer among the ancients) resembles the name of Ophir. Isa.13:13. For this purpose I will shake the heavens, and the earth will move from its place from the wrath of the Lord of hosts, in the day of His burning wrath. Political upheavals among the prophets are often depicted as upheavals occurring in nature (cf. Isa.24:19; Isa.34:4; Jer.4:23, 26; Joel.3:15, 16). Isaiah 13:14–18. The prophet depicts the flight from Babylon of the foreigners living there and the sad fate of those who remained there and calls by name the people who will crush the greatness of Babylon. Babylon, no doubt, was inhabited by a considerable number of foreigners who maintained trade relations with this great city (cf. Jer. 2:16; Jer. 51:11). Isa.13:14. Then everyone, like a hunted roe and like abandoned sheep, will turn to his people, and everyone will flee to his own land. Isa.13:15. But whoever is caught will be pierced, and whoever is captured will fall by the sword. Isa.13:16. And their little children shall be broken before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives dishonored. The picture of the beating of infants by the prophet is drawn in complete accordance with the news of ancient writers that they report about the cruelties that accompanied the capture of enemy cities in ancient times that resisted for a long time. Isa.13:17. Behold, I will raise up against them the Medes, who do not value silver and are not partial to gold. Isa.13:18. Their bows will strike down the young men and will not spare the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not have pity on the children. "Medes". This name (cf. Gen. 10:2; 2 Kings 17:6; 2 Kings 18:11) implies, perhaps, not only the inhabitants of ancient Media, but also all the Aryan inhabitants of Iran. During the time of Isaiah, the Medes caused a lot of harm to the Assyrian state. Tiglath-Pilezer and Sargon of Assyria pacified this restless people, and the latter even resettled a significant number of Medes to Hamath and Kelesyria (712). But the more the power of Assyria weakened, the more the importance of Media rose. And Babylon, in turn, thus had to reckon with these people. The prophet does not mention the Persians as allies of the Medes, because the Persians at the time of Isaiah were not yet known to the Jews (the Elamites mentioned in Isaiah (Is. 21:2) have nothing in common with the Persians). “They don’t value silver.” The Medes will not attack Babylon out of a simple desire to plunder this rich city. Isaiah wants to say that they will appear as unconscious executors of the will of God regarding Babylon (cf. Jer. 51:11, 28). “Bows” were the main weapon of the northern peoples (Herodes VII, 61; Cyropus II, 1.1), and these weapons in the hands of the Medes would be deadly for the Babylonian youths, whom the Medes would shoot without pity, since young, strong people naturally seemed dangerous to them. “He will not spare the fruit of the womb.” In ancient times, when capturing enemy cities, sometimes the victors cut open the wombs of pregnant women in order to destroy the enemy tribe to the last embryo (2 Kings 8, etc.) “Eye” is an expression taken instead of the term heart. Isaiah 13:19–22. Babylon, after its destruction by the Medes, will be completely desolate. No one will want to settle in the places that this vast city occupied, and only wild animals and birds will find shelter in the ruins of Babylonian palaces. Isa.13:19. And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God, like Sodom and Gomorrah, "Babylon, beauty of kingdoms, pride of the Chaldeans." The significance of the Babylonian kingdom was extremely great. Modern science accepts as a fact that Babylonia was the original cradle of world culture. The mathematical and astronomical sciences have their roots in ancient Chaldea: our division of time is of Babylonian origin; our alphabet has its source in the primitive forms of ancient Babylonian cuneiform writing (Right. Theological Encyclopedia, vol. 3, pp. 11–14). The original inhabitants of Babylonia were the descendants of Ham - the Cushites, known among the Jews under the name Kasdim, and in native inscriptions called Kaldai (hence the Chaldeans). They split into two tribes - Sumirs and Akkadians. Subsequently, Semitic tribes settled in Babylonia, but they took advantage of the ready-made Chaldean culture, merged with the aborigines in everything except language, and from this merger that powerful Semitic-Cushitic type developed, which created the famous monarchies - Babylonia and Assyria (ibid p. 16). During its greatest prosperity, the Babylonian monarchy (under Nebuchadnezzar) possessed all the sources of wealth that lived in the cultivated countries of the ancient world and Babylon, the capital of the kingdom, became the most extensive and luxurious city of the ancient world. Isa.13:20. will never be inhabited, and for generations there will be no inhabitants in it; The Arabian will not pitch his tent, and the shepherds and their flocks will not rest there. “Will never be settled.” After Cyrus, his successors Darius and Xerxes finally destroyed Babylon. The inhabitants gradually left it and over time even its exact location was forgotten. The Prophet obviously does not mean one moment of its destruction under Cyrus, but the entire gradual history of its desolation. Isa.13:21. But the beasts of the desert will dwell in it, and the houses will be filled with eagle owls; and ostriches will settle, and shaggy ones will gallop there. “Beasts of the Desert” - in Hebrew. zijim from zijah – dry land, desert. This means zijim are desert dwellers. "Owls" in Hebrew. ochim; This word comes from the exclamation oh! or ah!, which resembles the cry of owls or eagle owls. (LXX translated this expression with the word ηχος (noise), which they may have chosen as being close to the cry emitted by eagle owls.) "Ostriches" in Hebrew. benot jaanah own. "daughters of the cry" This is the name given to female ostriches that emit special cries. (LXX understood this word jaanah as meaning: to sing in response to someone (Ex. 15:21) and instead of ostriches they put the word σειρηνες - sirens.) “Shaggy” - in Hebrew. seirim, own. hairy. These are, in all likelihood, wild goats (LXX saw a reference to demons here). 17 Isa.13:22. Jackals will howl in their palaces, and hyenas in their houses of pleasure. "Jackals" in Hebrew. ijim, proper: howling (animals). "Hyenas" in Hebrew. tannim. These animals emit an extremely nasty howl. (Instead of jackals, LXX put the expression ονοκενταυροι (donkey-bulls). This was the Greek designation for some extraordinary animal, the appearance of which is difficult to imagine (I. Korsunsky, Translation of LXX 1898 p. 246). Instead of hyena LXX they put the word hedgehogs.) “In houses of entertainment,” that is, where the sounds of harps and the singing of beautiful singers were previously heard. Special notes. The 13th chapter is a complete poem, which can be divided into the following stanzas (according to Condamin). Stanza 1 st. 2–5 – (2, 2; 3, 2) Stanza 2 st. 9–13 – (2, 2; 3, 2) Stanza 3 st. 6–8 – (2, 2) Stanza 1 st. 14–18 – (2, 2,3) Stanza 2 st. 19–22 – (3, 2,2) The authenticity of the 13th chapter will be discussed based on the explanation of Chapter. 14th. “And the beasts there will sleep, and the houses there will be filled with noise, and the sirens will sleep there, and the demons will cry there.” Note ed. You might be interested in: