Isaiah 13:17, commentary and pictures

God would stir up the Medes to destroy Babylon and bring about its overthrow, naming Cyrus as His appointed instrument more than a century and a half before the city fell in its greatest power. Those conquerors, the Medes and Persians under Cyrus, would press on with cruel and unrelenting severity until Babylon alone held out and was taken, unmoved by its wealth and impossible to bribe or turn aside from its ruin. The word was fulfilled when Cyrus captured Babylon and ended its kingdom, and then to the letter in its gradual decay into utter desolation, never to be inhabited and left as a heap like Sodom and Gomorrah when overthrown by God. That exact foretelling of its fate and of the nation that would execute it proves the inspiration of the prophet and the divine authority of the Bible. While spoken of literal Babylon, the burden reaches forward to the greater and more fearful destruction of mystical Babylon at the day of the Lord, when God will lay the land desolate and punish the world for evil as a warning to all cities and peoples that forget Him.

Context and Meaning

The verse stands in Isaiah's burden against Babylon in Isaiah 13, which belongs to the series of burdens in chapters 13-23 against Babylon, Philistia, Moab and other nations, within the first division of the book in chapters 1-39. The prophecy was uttered before Babylon reached its greatest power, when it was most flourishing and one of the greatest cities in the world, the wonder of the world. God would stir up the Medes against Babylon more than a century before the city was conquered, beginning a prophecy of its fall as a specific event rather than a general prediction of decline.

The verse was spoken more than one hundred and fifty years before the event. Cyrus was called by name and appointed to this work by the Lord of hosts over two hundred and sixty years beforehand. The Medes are the people God would raise up against Babylon to destroy it and bring about its overthrow and ruin.

The conquerors were the Medes and Persians under Cyrus as generalissimo of both armies, moving with uninterrupted success until Babylon alone held out in the East and was besieged in the sixteenth year of Belshazzar. Though he did not know it, he acted as an instrument of Providence against the great walled and provisioned city that scoffed at him. Their lack of regard for silver and delight in gold means they would be unmoved by Babylon's wealth and would not be bribed or turned aside from destroying it.

The verse describes the cruelty of the Medes, showing the ferocious, severe and cruel disposition of Medo-Persia, the second of the four universal empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia and Rome. This cruelty is why it is represented in Daniel 7 by a bear with three ribs in its mouth, pointing to its cruelty toward Babylon, Lydia and Egypt.

Fulfillment and Proof

The prophecy was fulfilled when the forces under Cyrus captured Babylon, bringing the Babylonian kingdom to an end before the Persian empire took its place in succession. The besieging power was a combination of Medes and Persians under the leadership of Cyrus, raised up even while Babylon stood as the wonder of the world, and this was literally fulfilled when Cyrus led the armies that took the city.

That overthrow by the Persians did not complete the destruction at once, for the prophecy was ultimately fulfilled as the city gradually fell into decay and became utterly desolate. The nation God would use to bring Babylon to ruin was named beforehand, before Babylon had reached the height of its power, and both the identification of the nation and the judgment pronounced upon Babylon were fulfilled in the city's fall and gradual decay.

The word against Babylon has been fulfilled to the letter in the complete desolation of the site, which is called the Overturned, with no one living on the site of ancient Babylon. The site lies desolate with no living soul abiding there, the city having become a heap of ruins that would never be inhabited nor dwelt in from generation to generation. Babylon, the glory of kingdoms and beauty of Chaldean excellency, became as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, which is the complete ruin and perpetual desolation of Babylon.

The Arabian will not pitch tent there, but avoids even temporary encampment as a cursed place. Only Arabs stopping temporarily, chiefly helpers in the excavation work, have built mud huts half a mile west in the bed of the ancient river now shifted farther west. The laying bare of ancient foundations on a gigantic scale corroborates the Bible story, showing everywhere the marks of the great work done by King Nebuchadnezzar in his pride that built great Babylon.

The fate of Babylon was foretold before human observers could reasonably expect it, uttered before the city reached its greatest power. It was spoken more than one hundred and fifty years before the event, when Babylon was most flourishing and one of the greatest cities in the world, and it is now a heap of ruins. Its exact fulfillment, in identifying beforehand the nation and its judgment upon Babylon, proves the inspiration of the prophet and the divine authenticity of the Bible.

End-Time Type and Warning

Isaiah 13 addresses literal Babylon and much of its prediction applies to that historical city, whose name is distinguished from the later symbolic use of Babylon. Its prophetic vision also reaches forward to the greater judgments of mystical Babylon, with literal Babylon and its punishment serving as a fitting figure. The prophecy looks beyond the destruction of literal Babylon to the greater and more fearful destruction of mystical Babylon at the last day.

It does not describe only what took place in the time of the old Babylonish kingdom but directs thought to what will take place at the close of time. Old Babylon with its sun-worship and idolatrous practices was the great mother of evils and is used as a symbol of the evils of succeeding ages, including the apostasies of the church to the end of time. Its details of kingdoms of nations gathered together, the day of the Lord at hand coming with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land desolate and destroy sinners, punishment of the world for evil, shaking the heavens and removing the earth out of her place, and making Babylon as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah mean the final and complete overthrow of all that God calls Babylon in the earth. The downfall of Babylon is the downfall of the whole world and the ruin of the nations, and in particular of Babylon the Great.

The prophecy looks from the destruction of literal Babylon over to the greater destruction of mystical Babylon at the last day, passing from one to the other in fervid language. This is a double fulfillment in which a local judgment figures the coming day of the Lord. The Medes and Persians are presented as instruments God uses to humble ancient Babylon, and the prophecy then transitions from Babylon's historical fate to the day of the Lord, when modern Babylon and all sinners will be punished. The fall of Babylon serves as a type of the end of the world, paired with the return to Zion and its promised joy.

The shaking of heaven and earth by the voice of God from heaven and the dismay of the inhabitants of the earth, who seek a hiding place in the rocks for fear of the majesty of the Lord, belongs to the day of the Lord in immediate connection with the coming of Christ, not as a distant sign of its nearness. That coming great day is the day of the Lord, called the day of the tumult of the Lord and the day of His wrath and fierce anger. The complete and everlasting overthrow of Babylon described in the chapter, caused by incorrigible wickedness and arrogance, is set forth as a type of the everlasting overthrow of the whole world because of its evils when at the day of the Lord the world will again be going almost wholly to evil. The warning of Babylon's doom went unheeded until its judgment was proclaimed, and it stands as a lesson and warning for cities and people that forget and defy God, including San Francisco, New York and Chicago.