Isaiah 13:16, commentary and pictures

The verse foretells the violent sack of literal Babylon, when infants are shattered before their parents, homes are plundered, and women are violated. Spoken before Babylon reached its height, it was fulfilled in its conquest by the Medes and Persians and afterward to the letter in its gradual decay into complete and lasting desolation. Beyond that local judgment it figures the far greater and more fearful destruction of mystical Babylon at the great day of the Lord with wrath and fierce anger. Its setting of gathered nations, punishment of the world, shaking of heaven and earth, and overthrow as Sodom and Gomorrah shows more than the fall of the Chaldean city and points to the final overthrow of the whole world and of Babylon the Great. So the doom of Babylon stands as a lesson and warning to later generations and cities that forget and defy God through open wickedness.

Violent Fall of Babylon

The verse depicts the violence of Babylon's sack, when children would be dashed to pieces before their parents' eyes, houses plundered, and wives ravished. It stands in the series of burdens on Babylon, Philistia, Moab and other nations in Isaiah 13-23, which forms the third division of the first part of the book covering chapters 1-39.

It is part of the prophecy foretelling the destruction and doom of literal Babylon, whose name arose from the confusion of languages at Babel. That historical judgment on the literal city distinguishes it from mystical Babylon, which is not thereby a literal city. The prophecy was spoken before Babylon reached its height and before the city fell, and was fulfilled in its historical conquest and fall to the Medes and Persians.

The prophecy has been fulfilled to the letter in the complete desolation of the site, where no one lives on the site of ancient Babylon. Its ruins are called Mudjelibe, the Overturned. The Arabian will not pitch tent there even temporarily, avoiding it as under a curse, and the Arabs employed excavating Nebuchadnezzar's palace built their mud huts half a mile farther west in the bed of the ancient river. This did not require Babylon to have been utterly destroyed when the Persians overthrew it, for it pointed to the city's eventual destruction, fulfilled as Babylon gradually fell into decay and became desolate.

Type of Final Judgment

The prophecy looks beyond the destruction of literal Babylon to the greater and more fearful destruction of mystical Babylon at the last day, passing in fervid language from one to the other. The local judgment figures and illustrates the great day of the Lord, so that the violence and devastation of dashed children, spoiled houses, and ravished wives belong to a prophetic picture that reaches beyond the ancient city to a wider judgment.

The complete and everlasting overthrow of Babylon is a type of the everlasting overthrow of the whole world at the day of the Lord at the close of time, not only what happened in the time of the old Babylonish kingdom. The prophecy of Babylon's fall serves as a type of the end of the world.

Isaiah 13:1-19 shows more than the destruction of Babylon of the Chaldees, with details and a situation that could not be fulfilled simply in the fall of that city. The lifting of a banner and the gathering of kingdoms of nations belong to that larger fulfillment. The coming of the day of the Lord cruel with wrath and fierce anger, the punishment of the world for evil, the shaking of the heavens and the removing of the earth out of her place describe the final and complete overthrow of all God calls Babylon in the earth. The making of Babylon as Sodom and Gomorrah describes the downfall of the whole world and ruin of the nations, and in particular of Babylon the Great.

The chapter also shifts from ancient Babylon's fall to the Medes and Persians to the day of the Lord, when modern Babylon and all sinners will be punished. Its application reaches the final overthrow of all nations. In that application, not all animals are destroyed at Christ's second coming, but beasts and birds survive and multiply amid the earth's ruins during the thousand years.

The verse belongs to the judgment context of the day of the Lord as a day of tumult, wrath and fierce anger. It describes part of the evils to come in the great day of the Lord, emphatically called the great day of his wrath. That day will exceed all evils God has ever brought upon men.

The prophecy against Babylon extends from the earthly king of Babylon to Lucifer, the day-star and son of the morning, Babylon's highest king. The prophecy concerning Babylon and its doom is also connected with God's refuge from Babylon's destruction.

Old Babylon with its sun-worship and idolatry was the great mother of evils and is used as a symbol of the evils of succeeding ages. Its overthrow comes because of incorrigible wickedness and arrogance. At the day of the Lord the world will again be going almost wholly to evil.

Warning to Later Cities

Isaiah 13:16 stands within the warning of judgment pronounced against Babylon, and that warning serves as a lesson for cities and peoples that forget and defy God. The destruction of Babylon is set forth as an example whose judgments instruct later generations not to follow the same course. The punishment described belongs to what befell ancient Babylon, yet it is held forth as the pattern of consequences that come upon open wickedness.

That lesson is directed to modern cities that defy God, warning them that persistence in wrongdoing brings judgment like that which fell on ancient Babylon. New York and Chicago are named among the cities that forget and defy God and therefore stand under the same warning. If they continue in their course they face consequences answering to those that overtook Babylon.