A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 13: Visions of Empires

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 13: Visions of Empires

Discussing Isaiah chapter 11, there is a prophecy of a rod which would come forth “out of the stem of Jesse,” and in an apparent Hebrew parallelism, also a branch which would “grow out of his roots.” Then where this phenomenon is described further, it becomes apparent that the branch is a man: “a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles [Nations] seek: and his rest shall be glorious.” It is even more evident that this rod is a man, for example where it says that “he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked” and then “righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.” But the language indicates that the man is both the origin of Jesse, and a descendant of Jesse. Therefore this man can only be one and the same as the child who had been prophesied earlier in Isaiah, in chapter 9, who would be called the “mighty God”, the “everlasting Father” and the “Prince of Peace.”

No other man could fulfill the plain meanings of all of these statements unless the promised Messiah is God incarnate. So in language which further illustrates this assertion, here in Isaiah chapter 11 this Root of Jesse is also prophesied to “recover the remnant of his people” from all of the places to where they had gone in their captivity, and only Yahweh God would have the authority and the ability to do that. Furthermore, at this point in the time of Isaiah, the promise to regather His people comes even before most of them are taken into captivity. Then, accompanying that promised regathering, there is also a promise of great peace, and the child of Isaiah chapter 9 would be called the Prince of Peace.

These are not disparate, disconnected prophesies. There has not been a break in the context since Isaiah had taken the occasion to enter into the chamber of the virgin, in chapter 8, and even the events there had been directly related to the vision in chapter 7. Even if the visions found in chapters 8 through 14 were not all received by Isaiah at the same time, they are presented by him in one unbroken thread and they express the same general theme. So these prophecies are all connected, they are all related, and as they progress they continually compound on what had preceded, so that a reader may have a more complete understanding of these visions of the future and the fate of Israel as he navigates through the text. As Isaiah writes these things, it is already assured that both Israel and Judah are going into captivity, so here they are assured an ultimate emergence from captivity. It has also already been made apparent that the captivity would last for many years, so the child who would deliver them, this Rod from the stem of Jesse, would not be born for many years.

Towards the end of chapter 11, there is a vision of the children of Israel assailing their enemies on every side, and they are described as the ancient nations which had vexed them for many centuries in the time of the Old Kingdom. But these nations had also been subject to and had assisted the Assyrians and Babylonians in taking Israel into captivity. Then by the time when Christ was born there were no longer any recognizable Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites or even Egyptians. So we had conjectured that “perhaps these tribes, which Israel had held subject for several centuries since the time of David and until they had more recently revolted, are merely representative and signify that Israel would overcome and subdue their enemies around them wherever they happen to be.” This statement we shall stand by, that these tribes are prophetic types for the enemies of Israel as they are delivered at some point in their future. We shall not elaborate further: the ancient enemies of the children of Israel are a prophetic type for the enemies of Israel in the all of places of their captivity.

But at the same time, later prophecies concerning the return of Christ and His final execution of the wrath of Yahweh do support this assertion. It is prophesied in chapter 20 of the Revelation that Israel, called the Camp of the Saints, would be surrounded by her enemies, that Satan would gather all the nations from the four corners of the earth against them. Here it is apparent that the descendants of the people who were the enemies of ancient Israel should be among those nations which Satan gathers against the Saints in the last days. So even if in some respects the prophesy is fulfilled literally, it is nevertheless clear that these nations serve as types for the enemies of Israel as they are delivered from captivity, something which the Revelation describes as coming after the fall of Mystery Babylon and the coming of Christ for the marriage supper of the Lamb, which is the occasion when He shall slay the wicked, as it is also promised here in Isaiah chapter 11. Those of Israel who are obedient, the virgins of the parable who have oil in their lamps, shall accompany Him on that day, as they are admitted to the marriage supper of the Lamb. As Paul of Tarsus had written in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, Christians should be ready “to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.” Then once the wicked are slain, the children of Israel have a promise, that they would enter into His rest, which is described here in Isaiah chapter 11, and also in the vision of the Kingdom of Heaven descending to earth in the final chapters of the Revelation. So Isaiah’s prophecy here parallels and foreshadows the Revelation of Yahshua Christ.

It is often said that prophesy is history written in advance, and in many ways the history of the children of Israel throughout the time of their captivity is written here in Isaiah, long before it even began to develop. Biblical prophecy is written in a way that men may read it, reflect on it, and know that God is true. However it is not written in a way that men can read it and accurately prognosticate the things which are yet coming for themselves. Even if men may acknowledge what things have not yet been fulfilled, they cannot honestly say how they will be fulfilled before they have already happened.

There is only a modicum of historical narrative in Isaiah by which we may deduce the precise times when most of his prophecies were first written. Sargon II became the king of Assyria around 722 BC, by the popular chronologies, which was a year before Samaria had fallen to the Assyrians under his rule. According to 2 Kings chapter 18, Samaria was besieged by Sargon’s predecessor Shalmaneser V in the fourth year of Hezekiah, and fell in his sixth year. Hezekiah is not mentioned in Isaiah until chapter 36, where it is already his fourteenth year. So Isaiah chapter 36 may be set to a time 8 years after the fall of Samaria. But this prophecy here in chapter 8 is relative to the time of Ahaz, who is the king of Judah in the opening of Isaiah chapter 7, who was addressed by Isaiah in that chapter, and whose death is mentioned in Isaiah chapter 14 where we read “28 In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.” There he had written that in reference to the burden of Babylon which begins in chapter 13, and that is where we are now -- once we see that Isaiah chapter 12 consists of only six short verses which are actually only a continuation of chapter 11.

At this point in Isaiah, Assyria is approaching the height of its power, which it achieves after the destruction of Samaria, in the days of Sargon II and his successor, Sennacherib. Since this burden is given in the year that Ahaz died, according to Isaiah chapter 14, then it is about five or maybe six years before the fall of Samaria, and by the popular chronologies the year would be around 727 BC. So it is also very close to the end of the rule of Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III, who was succeeded by Shalmaneser V for about five years before the ascension of Sargon II in 722 BC. So it is apparent that Tiglath-Pileser died in 727 BC. While Babylon had, at least for the most part, been a subject state of the Assyrians since the end of the 10th century BC, it had often revolted. But from the seventeenth year of his rule, Tiglath-Pileser III had maintained the title of king of Babylon as well as king of Assyria, something which is explicitly stated in his own inscriptions. For example, in an inscription which is dated to 728 BC he declared, in part:

Palace of Tiglath-pileser, the great king, the mighty king, king of the universe, king of Assyria, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four regions (of the world), attentive to the beck of the god Bêl.” [1]

The significance of this fact may become evident later, because around the very time that Isaiah first prophesies concerning Babylon, Assyria is at the height of its control over the inhabited world, and also over Babylon. It is apparent that Isaiah had this vision of empires concerning Babylon within a year of the time when Tiglath Pileser had made that inscription, where he had used the title of “king of Babylon”.

For now, commencing with Isaiah chapter 12, the six verses of this chapter seem to conclude the vision of chapter 11, as the prophet now offers a prayer to the children of Israel, and portrays them as reciting it at some point in the future. The intention of the prayer seems to be to serve as a reminder to them that as they are about to go into captivity, Yahweh their God is their only deliverance, and they are therefore also portrayed as acknowledging that fact, so it seems to be prophetic of the ultimate outcome of the period of punishment and captivity into which they are about to enter:

12:1 And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.

Yahshua Christ had called Himself the Comforter, even if it is not immediately apparent that He was speaking of Himself, in John chapter 14 we read: “16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” Where Christ said “I will come to you” He reveals that the promised Comforter is another manifestation of Himself, as He was also later revealed as a manifestation of the Father.

Here Isaiah is prophesying the mercy which would ultimately come to Israel, long before it comes to fruition, and even before the promised wrath has been executed. So even as Yahweh is just beginning the execution of the promised punishment of the children of Israel, He is already offering Himself as their salvation:

2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH [Yahweh] is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.

“God is my salvation”: The prophet puts these words into the mouths of the children of Israel, but they are not true in the mouths of whosoever else may read them, because Christ came only to save the children of Israel. As Luke had recorded the words of Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, in the opening chapter of his Gospel: “68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, 69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; 70 As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: 71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; 72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; 73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, 74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, 75 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.” This is the same purpose which is being expressed here in Isaiah, but from a different historical vantage point.

The first mention of salvation in Scripture is found in the words of Jacob in Genesis chapter 49 where he exclaimed: “ 18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.” Moses spoke of the temporal salvation which Israel would witness in their deliverance from Egypt, for example in Exodus chapter 14 where he said “13 … Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.” But the concept of the eternal salvation of the souls of men is not made explicitly evident in Scripture until the Psalms of David, and one notable example is found in the 16th Psalm where we read: “10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [or sheol]; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” In the later chapters of Isaiah there are more explicit promises of such a salvation made to the children of Israel. So as the prayer continues, the speaker once again is Yahweh, speaking to Israel through the prophet:

3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

This evokes the words of Christ as he encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, in John chapter 4: “10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.”

Later, in Revelation chapter 21, the ultimate fulfillment of this promise is made evident in the words of Christ: “6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.” Then, in chapter 22: “22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” Finally, near the close of the chapter: “17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” So this water of eternal life is found in the glorious rest of the Root of Jesse, the Christ, which is first promised to the children of Israel as they are about to go off into captivity here in Isaiah chapters 11 and 12.

The children of Israel are now prophetically portrayed as responding to that predicament:

4 And in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. 5 Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth. 6 Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.

This is similar to the song of Moses and of the Lamb which is sung by the angels of God as the seven plagues of His wrath are being executed, as it is described in Revelation chapter 15: “3 And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. 4 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.”

This concludes our commentary for Isaiah chapter 12, and now we shall proceed with the visions of empires which the prophet describes in chapter 13. But referring back to what we had just seen in the Song of Moses in the Revelation, there is also another parallel here:

In Revelation chapter 15, that song was described as having been sung by the angels who were about to pour out the seven vials of the wrath of Yahweh upon the earth. The descriptions of the wrath contained in those vials are not completed until the end of Revelation chapter 17. Then, just as the end of the seven plagues of the wrath of Yahweh is followed by the fall of Mystery Babylon in Revelation chapter 18, so it is here in Isaiah, where in this prophecy against Babylon in Isaiah chapters 13 and 14 the city is assigned a leading role at the head of an evil world. This is significant, here, and even more so in chapter 14, as Isaiah is essentially prophesying the rise of a Babylonian empire over a hundred years before the fall of Assyria and the time when Babylon had become an empire. At this time, as we had said, Assyria was not quite at the height of its power, and the king of Assyria was also about to become the king of Babylon, if he was not already its king because from the records which we have available, we can only narrow the time to within a year.

So while Isaiah had first prophesied the fall of Assyria in chapter 10 of his prophesy, and the role which the children of Israel would have in its fall, here he prophecies the fall of Babylon even before it becomes an empire, and, as we shall see in the later verses of Isaiah chapter 13, he also begins to prophecy concerning how it would fall. Doing this, Isaiah is essentially prefacing the more explicit prophecies of Daniel, where Daniel had described a system of world empires all connected in the same body, with Babylon as its head, and a horn which would come out of the head of the last of those empires, all of which would rule over the children of Israel for a very long time, a span of time which we have already explained here in Part 12 of this commentary.

This burden was given to Isaiah in the year that Ahaz had died, which must be within a year of the time of the death of Tiglath-Pileser III. When Tiglath-Pileser had died, Shalmaneser V succeeded him and ruled for five years before Sargon II became king, and a year later Samaria had fallen, in the 6th year since the death of Tiglath-Pileser, which was also the 6th year of the rule of Hezekiah, who succeeded to the throne of Judah upon the death of Ahaz. So apparently Tiglath-Pileser and Ahaz had died in the same year, or at least, within a year of one another. Therefore, when Isaiah wrote this burden of Babylon, the king of Assyria was also the king of Babylon. So Babylon was a mere subject state of the Assyrians, yet here Isaiah prophecies that it would rule the world, and also not only that it would fall, but how it would fall.

It becomes evident here that while the prophet Daniel had more explicit visions of empires, Isaiah is the earliest of the prophets of God to have had visions of empires, and like Daniel, he prophesied their rise and their fall even before they had become empires. This becomes even more evident in Isaiah chapter 14, where Isaiah spoke of how the king of Babylon “ruled the nations in anger”, at least a hundred and twenty years before he ever ruled any nations. But here in Isaiah chapter 13 the burden explains that Babylon would fall at the hand of the Medes, referring to the future empire of the Medes and Persians, something which Daniel had also prophesied before Nebuchadnezzar, at the time when he was the king of Babylon.

As we have also already asserted, Biblical prophesy is indeed history written before it unfolds, and that serves to prove that Yahweh God is true. So with this, we shall commence with Isaiah chapter 13:

1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.

It must be noted, that all throughout Scripture, the Hebrew word translated as Babylon is בבל or babel (#’s 894, 895), and it is the same Babel of the account of the division of nations found in Genesis chapter 11. The word בבל or Babel means confusion, from a reduplicated form of a verb, בלל or balal (# 1101), which means to mix, to pour together or to confound. While I have not seen an explicit statement in an ancient inscription, the mixing and confounding of men and races seems to have been the objective of every ancient empire, and was clearly evident in their practices.

In what was evidently a prism inscription recounting the first five years of the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III, we read the following, where the history begins with an invocation of the gods of Assyria:

Beginning: Assur, the great lord, ruler of all of the gods, bestower of scepter and crown, who established sovereignty; Enlil, the lord, the king of all the Anunnaki, the father of the gods, the Lord of lands; Sin, the wise, the lord of the lunar disk, exalted in splendor; Shamash, the judge of heaven and earth, who spies out the evil designs of the enemy, who exposes the wicked; Adad, the mighty, who overwhelms the regions of the foe,—lands and houses; Urta, the hero, who destroys the wicked and the enemy, who causes (man) to attain to all that the heart (desires); Ishtar, first among the gods, the lady of confusion, who makes battles terrible:-- ye great gods, ye rulers of heaven and earth, whose onward rush is battle and destruction, who have enlarged the kingdom of Tiglath-pileser, the beloved prince, the desire of your hearts, the exalted shepherd, whom in your faithful hearts ye have chosen, and whom ye have crowned with a lofty diadem, and did solemnly appoint to be king over the land of Enlil; to him have ye granted majesty, glory, and power, and ye have decreed that his rule should be mighty, and that his priestly seed should have a place in Eharsagkurkurra forever.” [2]

Here we must notice that there is no Bêl, or Baal, mentioned at the beginning of the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III. His invocation of his gods neglects Baal entirely. But much later, once he also became king of Babylon, he claimed to be “attentive to the beck of the god Bêl”, as it appears in the inscription from the 17th year of his reign which we had cited earlier. Of course, Baal was the principle god, or idol, of Babylon, and therefore it is apparent that once Tiglath-Pileser III became king of Babylon, he adopted its idols as his own. The same is true of the later Greeks and Romans, where it is evident throughout their history. Yet the children of Israel were continually warned not to respect the gods of other nations, a warning which is apparent only in the Word of the God of Israel. For example, in Exodus chapter 23: “32 Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. 33 They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.”

While in the Wikipedia article for Tiglath-Pileser III he is probably given too much credit for transforming Assyria into an empire, it is apparently accurate where it states that “The reforms and methods of control introduced under Tiglath-Pileser laid the groundwork for policies enacted not only by later Assyrian kings but also by later empires for millennia after his death.” Then later in the same article, it is also fairly accurate where it says “Though previous kings had resettled people, Tiglath-Pileser's reign saw the beginning of frequent mass deportations, a policy which continued under his successors. There were two intended goals of this policy: firstly to reduce the local identities in conquered regions, to counteract the risk of revolt, and secondly to recruit and move laborers to where the Assyrian kings needed them, such as underdeveloped and underutilized provinces.” [3]

In this, the purpose of ancient world empires is evident: consciously or not, the godless man seeks to put Babel back together again, and it is the provenance of Yahweh God that ancient Babel became symbolic of this expression of humanism, that in this manner man could become the master of his own destiny and overcome God. So even today, while ancient Babel is long gone, Mystery Babylon is the symbol of the captivity of Israel, and Israel will not be released until Mystery Babylon falls. We also see today, that just like the ancient Assyrian kings, Mystery Babylon insists on compliance, and that men worship its gods, or they cannot function in its society and they become outlaws and outcasts. This is also evident in the Babylon of the time of Daniel, who along with his companions had been cast into a furnace for not worshipping the golden image set up by Nebuchadnezzar, and later Daniel was cast into the lions’ den because he refused to obey the royal statute of the Persians, and refrain from making any petition to Yahweh. These accounts are found in Daniel chapters 3 and 6. The ancient emperors knew that in order to control populations, they had to control their religious beliefs.

This is also evident in Roman history. So finally, we read in Acts chapter 16: “16 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: 17 The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. 18 And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. 19 And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, 20 And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being [Judaeans], do exceedingly trouble our city, 21 And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.”

The acceptable Roman religious beliefs were regulated and enforced by law, and as it is evident in the account of Daniel and the Persians, those laws were made at the whims of men. This will become further evident here in Isaiah in chapter 14.

The word burden here in the opening verse of Isaiah chapter 13 is from the Hebrew word משא or masa (# 4853), which has a meaning very close to our English word mass, although that is not fully apparent in Strong’s Concordance, which defines the word as burden and offers several secondary or figurative definitions. In the Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew lexicon it is defined as load and burden, and also as a verb as lifting, bearing or carrying. Then in a third sense, it is defined as an utterance or oracle. [4] All of these are the same ways in which Gesenius had also defined the word, although he adds gift and tribute under an additional use, ways in which Strong’s also defined the word. [5] We would assert that something carried is a weight, a burden, which someone must bear, and that is why such a word is described as a burden, as the Word of God must also be borne by men and nations.

2 Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. 3 I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.

The reference to “my sanctified ones” is a reference to the children of Israel. The process of sanctifying Israel began when Isaac was placed on an altar and dedicated to Yahweh by his father Abraham, and it continued at Sinai where we read: “7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God. 8 And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you.” Israel was not to keep the law in order to be sanctified, but Israel was expected to keep the law because they had been sanctified. So for example, we read in Ezekiel chapter 20: “12 Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them.” Then again, speaking of a promise of a new covenant and that same period of rest described here in Isaiah chapter 11, we read in Ezekiel chapter 37: “25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. 26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. 27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.” Those who have this sanctification are the saints of both the Old and the New Testaments.

So while the end of ancient Babylon is described in somewhat different terms a little later in this chapter, here there is language that seems to also describe the end of Mystery Babylon, where for example we read in Revelation chapter 18, immediately after it is declared that Babylon is fallen: “4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.”

What follows seems to be a parallelism with the text of verse 3, whereby it is revealed that in the brief time of their captivity, the children of Israel, the sanctified and mighty ones of verse 3, were already developing into a multitude of nations, some of the many nations promised to come of Abraham’s seed:

4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle. 5 They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. 6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

Yahweh’s will on the earth is executed through his people Israel. So we read in Amos chapter 4, which is another prophecy parallel to that of Revelation chapters 18 and 19, and the Camp of the Saints vision of Revelation chapter 20: “11 Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion. 12 But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor. 13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.”

However here while Israel is in captivity, and not being released from captivity, Israel shall overcome her captors, as she had the Assyrians, and as it says here in Isaiah chapter 14: “1 For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. 2 And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.”

There seems to be a mention of at least a partial fulfillment of this prophecy in the history of the Scythians as it was recounted much later by Diodorus Siculus, who gave a mythical origin of the Scythians, and then wrote:

And after enslaving many great peoples which lay between the Thracians and the Egyptians they advanced the empire of the Scythians on the one side as far as the ocean to the east, and on the other side to the Caspian Sea and Lake Maeotis; for this people increased to great strength and had notable kings, one of whom gave his name to the Sacae, another to the Massagetae, another to the Arimaspi, and several other tribes received their names in like manner. It was by these kings that many of the conquered peoples were removed to other homes, and two of these became very great colonies : the one was composed of Assyrians and was removed to the land between Paphlagonia and Pontus, and the other was drawn from Media and planted along the Tanais, its people receiving the name Sauromatae. Many years later this people became powerful and ravaged a large part of Scythia, and destroying utterly all whom they subdued they turned most of the land into a desert. [6]

Now as Yahweh musters His hosts to battle against Babylon:

7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt: 8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. 9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

Of course, “every man” here can only refer to those who are not among the host of Yahweh, whom He had mustered to battle, but only “every man” of those who are opposed to Him.

Where we read “the day of Yahweh cometh”, it is evident that the phrase “the day of Yahweh” is used to signify any and every day in which He executes His wrath against His enemies. So it has evidently referred to many different days throughout history, and it is always relative to the context. For example, speaking of ancient Israel and the punishment which they were going to suffer on account of their sins, we read in Amos chapter 5: “20 Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?” But later, in Joel chapter 2, we read of a future day of the redemption of Israel: “27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. 28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: 29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. 30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. 32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.”

In that later passage in Joel, we also see language similar to this passage in Isaiah, as we continue with the judgment of Babylon:

10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. 11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

It is evident that in referring to the “day of the Lord”, Amos is not speaking of the same day which Joel had referred to with a very similar term. So the meaning of the “day of the Lord” is relative to the context in which the phrase was used.

Speaking of another and later empire which had ruled over the children of Yahweh, in Revelation chapter 6 there is a prophecy of the fall of Rome, and we read very similar language in relation to that: “12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; 13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. 14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”

Interpreting that passage in our April, 2022 commentary on that chapter, we had interpreted what had happened to the sun and the moon as representing the passing of the government and its bureaucracy. That the stars do not give their light, often stars represent the children of Israel, but here it may refer to the so-called luminaries of society, which in this case can certainly also include a great number of the children of Israel. During the Babylonian captivity of the remnant of Judah, many Israelites continued to dwell in Babylon, and had ostensibly remained loyal to Babylon until the time when it was conquered by the Persians. Many Romans were also of Israel, as the Romans and many of the Greeks had descended from early migrations of the Israelites.

According to Scripture, Daniel himself was an official in the government of Babylon at the time when it fell, and he continued in such a capacity under the government of the Persians. Thus we read in the opening verses of Daniel chapter 6, after the taking of Babylon by the Persians which was rather meagerly recorded in chapter 5: “1 It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom an hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom; 2 And over these three presidents; of whom Daniel was first: that the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king should have no damage. 3 Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.” This caused the jealousy for which the other governors had raised accusations against Daniel.

Now there is a prophecy which is further elaborated upon much later in Isaiah:

12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.

This is evidently a reference to Cyrus, who is a subject of further prophesy in Isaiah chapters 44 and 45. There we read in a passage which spans the division of those chapters: “23 Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel. 24 Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself; 25 That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish; 26 That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof: 27 That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers: 28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. 45:1 Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; 2 I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: 3 And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. 4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.”

The assurances that the passage concerning Cyrus is in reference to Babylon is evident where the historical Cyrus, the Persian king who conquered Babylon in 539 BC, or about a hundred and sixty years after Isaiah had written those words, had decreed that the temple would be rebuilt, and it was he who had first allowed those who had been taken into captivity by the Assyrians and the Babylonians to return to their original homelands. So Cyrus was used by Yahweh to pave the way for the rebuilding of the temple, the seventy weeks period of Jerusalem prophesied in Daniel chapter 9, and the ministry of Christ in the closing weeks of those seventy weeks. Cyrus, who called himself the “king of Anshan” in his own inscriptions, seems to have been of the tribe of Elam, a son of Shem, since his fathers had been the hereditary kings of Anshan, a city on the eastern end of Elam, at least several hundred miles east-southeast of ancient Babylon. Sometimes it is surmised that perhaps Cyrus descended from the captivity of Israel, but this cannot be determined from history, as the historical accounts only support an association with Elam. According to the ancient historian Herodotus, the mother of Cyrus was said to have been a daughter of Astyages, the king of the Medes. [7]

Now it should be apparent, that here Isaiah has a vision not only of the Babylonian empire, but also of the Persian empire which had succeeded it, which becomes explicit a little later in this chapter where the Word of Yahweh says “Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them,” and the people of the Persian empire, which was a confederacy of the Persians and the Medes, were frequently referred to as Medes in the early Greek writings of the classical period, especially in the Tragic Poets.

Returning to Isaiah’s prophecy of the fate of Babylon:

13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

The word heavens is often used for seats of power and government, while within that same context, earth is often an allegory for the masses of the common people.

14 And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land.

The language here supports our interpretation of the verse which preceded: the shaking of heavens and moving of earth represent the great disturbances which the fall of Babylon would cause among the peoples. So all of the peoples who had been displaced by the empire would seek to return to their ancient homes once it has fallen, but not all of them would reach home:

15 Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. 16 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.

In the near vision, this seems to represent the results of the war between the Persians and the Babylonians, but it is not evident that that war disturbed the population to any great degree. In fact, Babylon itself had fallen into Persian hands relatively peacefully, as Isaiah chapter 44 also indicates where it says “I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut”. In his own inscriptions, Cyrus had recorded in part that:

Marduk, the great lord, a protector of his people/worshipers, beheld with pleasure his (i.e. Cyrus') good deeds and his upright mind … ordered him to march against his city Babylon …. He made him set out on the road to Babylon … going at his side like a real friend. His widespread troops — their number, like that of the water of a river, could not be established — strolled along, their weapons packed away. Without any battle, he made him enter his town Babylon … , sparing Babylon … any calamity. He delivered into his (i.e. Cyrus') hands Nabonidus, the king who did not worship him (ie. Marduk). All the inhabitants of Babylon … as well as of the entire country of Sumer and Akkad, princes and governors (included), bowed to him (Cyrus) and kissed his feet, jubilant that he (had received) the kingship, and with shining faces. Happily they greeted him as a master through whose help they had come (again) to life from death (and) had all been spared damage and disaster, and they worshiped his (very) name.

In the next paragraph of the same inscription, it seems that as soon as Cyrus conquered Babylon, he too claimed Baal and the Babylonian idol Nebo as gods of his own:

I am Cyrus, king of the world, great king, legitimate king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four rims (of the earth), son of Cambyses … great king, king of Anshan, grandson of Cyrus, great king, king of Anshan, descendant of Teispes … great king, king of Anshan, of a family (which) always (exercised) kingship; whose rule Bel and Nebo love, whom they want as king to please their hearts.

When I entered Babylon … as a friend and (when) I established the seat of the government in the palace of the ruler under jubilation and rejoicing, Marduk, the great lord, [induced] the magnanimous inhabitants of Babylon [to love me], and I was daily endeavouring to worship him.

The initial syllables of the names Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus are both taken from the name of the Babylonian idol, Nebo.

Here it is fully evident that Cyrus entered Babylon peacefully, just as Isaiah had indicated in chapter 44, but that is not the case where the fall of Babylon is portrayed here in Isaiah chapter 13. Cyrus had apparently only fought one major battle against Nabonidus and the Babylonians, at Opis on the eastern side of the Tigris River, and he had routed them before having entered into Babylonia with his troops. Nabonidus was described as having fled to Babylon, where he was caught by the Persians. So with this, it is apparent that this prophecy is more relevant to the far vision, to the ultimate fall of the entire system of world governance under which the children of Israel have been held captive, and which is described as falling in Revelation chapter 18. However that does not mean that the fall of Babylon did not upset the ancient world as it is described here, since it surely must have done so. In the closing verses of Daniel chapter 5, it is attested that Belshazzar, the son of Nabonidus and ruler of Babylon, was slain on the night the Persians had taken the kingdom, so the event was not completely devoid of violence.

Now the Persians, as Medes, are mentioned explicitly:

17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. 18 Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

All of this is typical in ancient warfare, when populations are held accountable for the deeds of their governments, including the destruction of children and the ravishing of wives. That last part should not be extrapolated into thoughts of the acceptance of alien wives at the fall of Mystery Babylon.

19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

Isaiah, calling ancient Babylon the “glory of kingdoms” about a hundred and twenty years before it had even become an empire, certainly did have visions of the world empires which were to come long after his own time. Then the Medes, in company with the Persians, also became an empire which was even greater than the Babylonian, and which had endured for a much longer period of time.

It is evident that many of the children of Israel of the Assyrian captivity must have been among these Medes, since in the opening verses of this chapter Yahweh avows that His sanctified ones and His mighty ones shall be marshalled to this conquest, and the children of Israel were settled in great numbers in the northern portions of Persia and the cities of the Medes. However once again, ancient Babylon did not become as Sodom and Gomorrah in the time of the Persians. The city functioned, according to later archaeological records, until perhaps as late as the 3rd century AD, and the apostle Peter attests to having been in Babylon in the closing verses of his first epistle (1 Peter 5:13), which is reasonable since he was an apostle to the circumcision (Galatians 2:8-9), and even in the time of Flavius Josephus many Judaeans of the captivity had still remained in Babylonia.

But of this Babylon, a worse fate is declared:

20 It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.

References to Arabia as a land first appear in the time of Solomon, in 1 Kings chapter 10. In that usage, the word Arabia certainly seems to be derived from the word ערב or arab (#’s 6148-6154) in the sense of dusk or evening, the verb meaning to grow dark, as night began in the east. While in other senses the word means mingled or mixed, especially where it speaks in reference to people, in Solomon’s time and later the peoples of the land which had become known as Arabia had still been identified by their particular tribes, and many of them were Adamic descendants of Midian, Havilah, Joktan, or one of the other tribes listed in Genesis chapter 10 who had lived in the area. So the word Arabian here is a geographic designation, which has little to do with any particular ethnicity, or with the mixed races that dominated the region much later in history. However the verses which follow certainly forebode the more recent conditions:

21 But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. 22 And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.

Ancient Babylon did not suffer such a fate immediately, but eventually it did indeed suffer such a fate, and all of these things befell it, especially by the time of the mohammedan invasions. So perhaps that is a type also, as an indication of how long it may take Mystery Babylon to fall.

Now the site of ancient Babylon has not been occupied in any great degree since the 3rd century AD. The so-called “people” who have dwelt in its environs for at least the last 1,400 years are not really people, but doleful creatures, satyrs, dragons, beasts and even unclean birds. So ancient Babylon is a prophetic type for Mystery Babylon, and the schematic by which all of the empires of history would oppress the children of Israel during the time of their captivity and punishment for their sins. For that reason, the Word of Yahweh had said here in verse 6 that He “will punish the world for their evil”, and not merely punish one oppressive city.

In Revelation chapter 18 we read of Mystery Babylon that “ 2 … Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” This is precisely what has become of the modern Mystery Babylon, as Satan, the Adversary of Christ which is found in Jewry, has gathered all of the nations of the world against the Camp of the Saints with open borders and mass migrations. So the cities of modern Babylon are now little but habitations for satyrs, devils, every foul spirit and every unclean and hateful bird.

When we return with Isaiah chapter 14, Babylon continues to be the subject of this prophecy, and more specifically, the king of Babylon, who appears to be a type for all world emperors, past, future, and present.

Footnotes

1 Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, Volume I: Historical Records of Assyria from the Earliest Times to Sargon, Daniel David Luckenbill, Ph.D., University of Chicago Press, 1926, pp. 290-291.

2 ibid., p. 73.

3 Tiglath-Pileser III, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiglath-Pileser_III, accessed November 22nd, 2024.

4 2 The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Hendrickson Publishers, 2021, p. 672.

5 Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, translated by Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, Baker Books, 1979, p. 512.

6 Library of History, 2.43.4, Diodorus Siculus, translated by C. H. Oldfather, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1953, Jeffrey Henderson, editor, Volume 2, p. 29.

[7] The Histories, 1:108, Herodotus, translated by George Rawlinson, Everyman’s Library, published by Alfred A. Knopf, 1910, p. 63.