Isaiah 13:14, commentary and pictures

It belongs to the foretold overthrow and destruction of Babylon, picturing its people scattered in terror like a hunted deer and a helpless, abandoned sheep, each turning to his own people and fleeing to his own land until the city is emptied. That scattering was fulfilled literally when Babylon fell before the Medes and Persians and then gradually decayed into utter desolation, so that its very site lies empty and shunned as accursed. Though spoken to literal Babylon, the prophecy points forward with literal Babylon and its punishment as a figure and type of the greater judgments of mystical Babylon and the end of the world. The flight of every man to his own land means the final and complete overthrow of all that God calls Babylon on earth, in the great day of the Lord's wrath when the heavens are shaken, the earth is removed, the wicked are slain, and the earth is left desolate. It therefore stands as warning that a proud, God-defying city faces the consequences of its wickedness when judgment falls after warnings go unheeded, while God provides a refuge from that doom and a return to Zion.

Setting and Imagery

Isaiah 13:14 is part of the prophecy foretelling the overthrow and destruction of Babylon. It stands in the first part of Isaiah, chapters 1-39, in the third division, chapters 13-23, which is a series of burdens against foreign nations, including Babylon, Philistia, Moab and Palestina.

The verse describes people scattered by judgment, leaving Babylon emptied as every man turns to his own people and flees every one into his own land. This scattering is likened to a chased roe or deer and to a sheep that no man takes up, frightened, helpless, abandoned and in panic. As animals flee when chased, so its people would flee in panic, each turning back to his own people and escaping to his own land like a hunted deer or an unattended sheep.

Babylon's Fall Fulfilled

The prophecy did not require Babylon to be utterly destroyed at the moment the Persians overthrew it, but foretold the city's ultimate destruction, fulfilled literally as Babylon gradually fell into decay and became desolate. It was fulfilled in the city's fall before the Persian empire took its place, with the Medes and Persians named as the instruments of its humiliation.

It means Babylon would be emptied as every man turned to his own people and fled into his own land, picturing its people fleeing like hunted animals, each returning to their own people and land. The prophecy has been fulfilled to the letter, and the present emptiness of ancient Babylon is evidence that Isaiah's prophecies have been fulfilled. No one is living on the site of ancient Babylon. The native Arabs call the ruins the Overturned and avoid the place even for temporary pitching of tents as under a curse, and Arabs employed in excavating Nebuchadnezzar's palace built their mud huts half a mile farther west in the bed of the ancient river.

Final Judgment and Warning

Though addressed to the literal city of Babylon, the prophecy also points forward to greater judgments, with literal Babylon and its punishment serving as a figure and type of mystical Babylon and of the end of the world. In that prophetic picture Babylon's overthrow is a type of the final overthrow of the wicked world and the final chastisement of the earth at the day of the Lord, when the panic-stricken multitudes flee like a chased deer and like an unattended sheep, helpless and scattered, each turning back to his own people and escaping to his own land. It looks from the destruction of literal Babylon over to the greater and more fearful destruction of mystical Babylon at the last day, encompassing both the historical fall and the final judgment, in the same way that a local judgment in Joel figures and introduces the future destruction that ushers in the great day of the Lord. It could not be fulfilled simply in the destruction of Babylon of the Chaldees, for the whole burden in Isaiah 13:1-19 describes kingdoms of nations gathered together, the day of the Lord at hand, punishment of the world for evil, shaking of the heavens and removing of the earth, and Babylon made like Sodom and Gomorrah. The worldwide scattering in which every man turns to his own people and flees into his own land means the final and complete overthrow of all that God calls Babylon in the earth, the downfall of the whole world and the ruin of the nations, and in particular the downfall of Babylon the Great.

It belongs to the prophecy of the great day of the Lord, emphatically called the great day of His wrath, when God will bring upon men evils greater than any He has ever brought upon them. It describes the shaking and dismay of the earth's inhabitants in the day of the Lord, when they seek refuge among the rocks for fear of the Lord's majesty. It explains why the nations are preparing for war, depicting men scattering like hunted animals, each fleeing to his own people and land, and after naming the Medes and Persians as instruments of ancient Babylon's humiliation it turns to the day of the Lord when modern Babylon and all sinners will be punished. The prophecy against Babylon moves from the earthly king of Babylon to Lucifer, the one who inspired Babylon's wickedness, reaching to Babylon's highest king, and points to God's refuge from that doom.

It describes the day of the Lord's wrath at Christ's coming, when the wicked are slain and the earth is left desolate with no living person remaining on it for a thousand years. It applies to the final overthrow of all nations at the second coming of Christ, showing that not all beasts and birds are destroyed at the second coming but live on as at present, propagating their kind amid the ruins of earth, with their numbers enormously increased during the thousand years between the second coming and the resurrection of the wicked, providing sustenance of some kind for the hosts called forth at that day. In this context the prophecy of Babylon's fall is also joined to the return to Zion, a type of the Gospel dispensation. It forms part of a warning about judgment on Babylon that came after its warnings went unheeded, portraying people fleeing and scattering to their own lands like a hunted deer or an unattended sheep when judgment falls, as a lesson that a proud, God-defying city faces the consequences of its wickedness, applied to cities and people that forget and defy God, including San Francisco and other cities.