Isaiah 13 - Bible Study in 5 Minutes

Isaiah 13 Short Summary:

Isaiah 13 is God’s prophetic message to the future nation of Babylon. Babylon was going to rise to power, but then they were going to become arrogant and wicked. God prophesied through Isaiah that He would punish Babylon harshly for their pride, and He would use a up-and-coming nation known as the Medes to do it.

Isaiah 13 Bible Study

TIMELINE:

• The prophetic ministry of Isaiah spanned the reigns of King Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.

• We don’t have an exact date for the prophecy found in Isaiah 13. It’s safe to say it was probably spoken in the late 8th century BC (between 750-700 BC).

KEY CHARACTERS:

• Isaiah – The son of Amoz (1:1). God commissioned Isaiah as His prophet to Judah.

• The Nation of Babylon – The object of God’s wrath and judgement. God promised to humble them for their pride.

• The Medes – A people group who developed into a powerful nation in what is now modern-day Iran. God intended to use them to overthrow the Babylonian Empire.

DEFINITIONS:

• Oracle (13:1) – A divine announcement; a message from God.

• Jackal (13:22) – A medium sized wild dog native to Africa and Eurasia.

OUTLINE:

• GOD’S VERDICT ON BABYLON (13:1-22):

  • This chapter begins a new section (Isaiah 13-23) in the book. God turned His attention away from Judah and Israel and towards foreign nations that had directly or indirect connection with God’s people. Isaiah 13 is God’s verdict against Babylon. At the time this prophecy was spoken, the Babylonians were under the control of the Assyrians. Babylon would eventually rise up to be the dominant world empire, but they would not remain there long. As we’ll read in this chapter, God was going to humble the Babylonians and bring them down.

  • The opening of the chapter describes God rallying an army to Himself. A battle standard is raised on the top of a hill, and mighty warriors assemble in great multitudes.

  • God intended to use this army to destroy Babylon and its influence.

  • “The day of the Lord” was going to come, a day of verdict for Babylon that would shake nations and topple empires.

  • No human being would be able to resist the fierceness of God’s judgement.

  • “The day of the Lord” would be “cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it” (13:9).

  • The upheaval of that day is figuratively described by Isaiah with the words, “the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light… the heavens tremble and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of His fierce anger” (13:10, 13).

  • God would desecrate Babylon for their evil, iniquity, and pompous pride.

  • It would be a merciless day, and all would fall by the sword.

  • One of the most amazing parts about this prophecy is that Isaiah prophesied the nation that God would use to overthrow Babylon, the Medes. When this prophecy was spoken, the Medes were significantly less powerful than the Babylonians and especially the Assyrians. Isaiah’s prophecy was spoken sometime between 750-700 BC, but Medes didn’t conquer the Babylonians till 539 BC (about 200 years later).

  • Isaiah concludes this chapter prophesying that Babylon would never be rebuilt and it would become a haunt for jackals and hyenas.

APPLICATION:

• There is some language that appears in this chapter that appears elsewhere in the Bible, and it is very commonly misunderstood.

• Prophetic language, like poetic language, is not always meant to be understood literally.

• When Isaiah prophesied that “the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light” he does not appear to mean this literally. He uses this language to describe upheaval, turmoil, and world altering events.

• This language appears several times in the prophets when describing several historical events (see Eze 32:7), and the Jews would have understood the way it was being used.

• Language like this appears in the New Testament also, in chapters like Matthew 24, and its really important that we understand it the way the Jews would have understood it to properly interpret those passages.

• I know people who are constantly looking for prophetic fulfillments through physical signs like the sun going dark (eclipses) or stars falling from heaven (meteor showers or shooting stars), but I think this way of interpreting prophesy is misguided, it arises from not understanding the way the Jews understood these prophetic expressions.