Isaiah 13:18, commentary and pictures

The verse belongs to the burden against Babylon foretelling its utter ruin and desolation as a literal city. It names the Medes and Persians under Cyrus as the instruments of that overthrow, who would conquer without mercy, striking down young men with bows and sparing neither infants nor children. Much of the prophecy concerns that literal city, yet it looks and passes beyond it to the greater and more fearful destruction of mystical Babylon at the last day. Its gathering of kingdoms, cruel day of the Lord with wrath and fierce anger, punishment of the world, shaking of heaven and earth, and making of Babylon as Sodom and Gomorrah could not be fulfilled simply in the fall of Babylon of the Chaldees, but foretell the final overthrow of all that God calls Babylon. That pitiless judgment stands as warning to later cities and peoples who forget and defy God, including modern cities and Babylon the Great, the apostate power that opposes and exalts itself above God.

Babylon's Historical Destruction

Isaiah 13:18 belongs to the burden or prophecy against Babylon foretelling its destruction, utter ruin, and desolation as the literal city. The prophecy describes the Medes' attack on Babylon and the severity of its destruction, including the killing of young men, infants, and children without mercy, as part of the judgment that would bring Babylon to utter ruin. It was uttered before Babylon fell, before the city reached the height of its glory, declaring its destruction certain despite its apparent strength. It stands as prophetic testimony to be compared afterward with the historical account of Babylon's fall.

The verse names the Medes and Persians under Cyrus as the instruments who would take Babylon and bring its humiliation, predicting the taking of Babylon, the people who would accomplish it, and the circumstances attending it. It means the Medes would show no mercy in destroying Babylon, but would exercise a severe, merciless and pitiless dominion in conquest. Their bows would dash young men to pieces and kill them, and they would have no pity on the fruit of the womb nor spare infants and children. They were a cruel and ferocious force, having no pity and sparing no one.

That destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew Babylon, but describes its eventual ruin, fulfilled as the city gradually declined and became desolate. Its desolate site confirms the fulfillment, proving the literal city had existed and suffered its doom. It was fulfilled by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus as general of both armies, after uninterrupted success until in the sixteenth year of Belshazzar Babylon alone in the East still held out. Though sixty miles in circumference with walls eighty-seven feet thick and three hundred and fifty feet high, with great troops and twenty years of provisions, its defenders scoffed at Cyrus. Cyrus had been called by name and appointed to the work over two hundred and sixty years before, and moved forward as an instrument of Providence though he knew it not. This ferocious, pitiless cruelty identifies Medo-Persia as the second universal empire pictured as a bear with three ribs in its mouth, the ribs representing its harsh treatment of Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt.

Prophecy of Final Judgment

Much of the prophecy applies to the literal city, yet it looks and passes from the destruction of literal Babylon over to the greater and more fearful destruction of mystical Babylon at the last day. The burden concerning Babylon thus moves between the historical judgment and its end-time counterpart, belonging both to the prediction against the literal city and to the later judgments.

Its details could not possibly be fulfilled simply in the fall of Babylon of the Chaldees. The gathering of the kingdoms of nations, the cruel day of the Lord with wrath and fierce anger, the punishment of the world for evil, the shaking of the heavens and removing of the earth out of her place, and Babylon the glory of kingdoms made as Sodom and Gomorrah foretell the final and complete overthrow of all that God calls Babylon in the earth. The downfall of Babylon is a prophecy of the downfall of the whole world and the ruin of the nations. The complete and everlasting overthrow of Babylon set forth in the chapter is a type of the everlasting overthrow of the whole world because of its evils, caused by incorrigible wickedness and arrogance, when at the day of the Lord the world is again going almost wholly to evil, so the fall of Babylon serves as a type of the end of the world.

The old Babylonish kingdom was the great mother of evils, and her sun-worship and other idolatrous practices made her iniquities such that the Bible continually uses her as a symbol of the evils of succeeding ages, including the apostasies of the church to the end of time. The prophecy against Babylon extends from Babylon's earthly king to Lucifer, the day-star and son of the morning, who inspired Babylon's wickedness, its highest king. The verse does not describe only things that took place in the time of the old Babylonish kingdom but directs thought to things to take place at the close of time. There is a connection between the conditions in old Babylon and the time immediately preceding the day of the Lord, which comes as a destruction from the Almighty. The prophecy of ancient Babylon's fall, in which the Medes and Persians are named as instruments of its humiliation, then shifts to the day of the Lord, when modern Babylon and all sinners will be punished, and applies to the final overthrow of all nations at the second coming of Christ.

The chapter describes the great day of the Lord, emphatically called the great day of His wrath, when evils to come upon men will exceed all evils God has ever brought upon men. According to God's rule of warning before judgment its approach will be heralded by a warning sounded by God's people living when that day is near at hand. Its shaking of heaven and earth by the voice of God from heaven takes place in immediate connection with the coming of the Lord, not as a distant sign of nearness, with dismay upon the inhabitants of the earth who seek a hiding place in the rocks for fear of the majesty of the Lord when probation is closed and vengeance comes upon the impenitent. Not all the beasts and birds are destroyed at the second coming, but live on as at present and propagate their kind amid the ruins of the earth. During the thousand years between the second coming of Christ and the resurrection of the wicked their numbers are increased enormously, and they provide fitting food and provision of some kind for the sustenance of the wicked hosts called forth at the resurrection after the thousand years.

Warning to Later Cities

Babylon's judgment is destruction without pity, dashing young men to pieces and showing no mercy to the fruit of the womb, with the eye not sparing children. The verse belongs to Isaiah's prophecy concerning Babylon and its highest king, Lucifer. Its lesson applies also to cities and people who forget and defy God.

That doom came after warnings went unheeded. A city that forgets and defies God faces judgment, and the warning given through Babylon is a lesson for later cities as well. The chapter serves as a lesson for modern cities that forget and defy God. Its downfall stands as a warning of judgment applied to proud, God-defying cities that bring calamity upon themselves through wickedness.

The warning of its doom is a lesson for later cities and people who forget and defy God, including modern cities such as New York and Chicago. It describes more than the destruction of Babylon of the Chaldees, with details that could not possibly be fulfilled simply in the fall of that city. The gathering of kingdoms of nations, the cruel day of the Lord 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, and Babylon the glory of kingdoms made as Sodom and Gomorrah foretell the final and complete overthrow of all that God calls Babylon in the earth. The downfall of Babylon is a prophecy of the downfall of the whole world and the ruin of the nations, and in particular of Babylon the Great, the apostate power that opposes and exalts itself above God.