Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Isaiah 13

Isa 13:1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.

burden

A "burden," Hebrew massa = a heavy, weighty thing, is a message, or oracle concerning Babylon, Assyria, Jerusalem, etc. It is "heavy" because the wrath of God is in it, and grievous for the prophet to declare.

Babylon

The city, Babylon is not in view here, as the immediate context shows. It is important to note the significance of the name when used symbolically. "Babylon" is the Greek form: invariably in the O.T. Hebrew the word is simply Babel, the meaning of which is confusion, and in this sense the word is used symbolically.

1. In the prophets, when the actual city is not meant, the reference is to the "confusion" into which the whole social order of the world has fallen under Gentile world-domination. (See "Times of the Gentiles," Scofield Luk 21:24; Rev 16:14). Isaiah 13:4 gives the divine view of the welter of warring Gentile powers. The divine order is given in Isa 11. Israel in her own land, the centre of the divine government of the world and channel of the divine blessing; and the Gentiles blessed in association with Israel. Anything else is, politically, mere "Babel."
2. In Rev 14:8-11; 16:19 the Gentile world-system is in view in connection with Armageddon (Rev 16:14; 19:21), while in Rev 17 the reference is to apostate Christianity, destroyed by the nations (Rev 17:16) headed up under the Beast (Dan 7:8; Rev 19:20) and false prophet. In Isaiah the political Babylon is in view, literally as to the then existing city, and symbolically as to the times of the Gentiles. In the Revelation both the symbolical-political and symbolical-religious Babylon are in view, for there both are alike under the tyranny of the Beast. Religious Babylon is destroyed by political Babylon (Rev 17:16); political Babylon by the appearing of the Lord (Rev 19:19-21). That Babylon the city is not to be rebuilt is clear from Isa 13:19-22; Jer 51:24-26, 62-64. By political Babylon is meant the Gentile world-system. (See "World," Scofield Jhn 7:7; Rev 13:8.) It may be added that, in Scripture symbolism, Egypt stands for the world as such; Babylon for the world of corrupt power and corrupted religion; Nineveh for the pride, the haughty glory of the world.

Isa 13:6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

day of the LORD

Day (of Jehovah). Isa 13:9-16; Isa 24:21-23. (Isa 2:10-22; Rev 19:11-21).

Isa 13:9 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.

day…cometh

Mal 4:1.

Isa 13:10 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.

the sun shall be darkened

Isa 24:21-23; Eze 32:7; Joe 2:31; 3:15; Mat 24:29; Mar 13:24; Luk 21:25.

Isa 13:13 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.

I will shake the heavens

Hag 2:6.

Isa 13:14 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.

every man turn to his own people

Jer 50:16; 51:9.

Isa 13:16 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.

children also shall be dashed to pieces

Psa 137:9; Nah 3:10; Zec 14:2.

Isa 13:17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.

stir up the Medes against them

Isa 21:2; Jer 51:11, 28; Dan 5:28, 31.

Isa 13:19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

Babylon

Verses 12-16 look forward to the apocalyptic judgments (Rev 6 - Rev 13). Verses 17-22 have a near and far view. They predict the destruction of the literal Babylon then existing; with the further statement that, once destroyed, Babylon should never be rebuilt (cf. Jer 51:61-64). All of this has been literally fulfilled. But the place of this prediction in a great prophetic strain which looks forward to the destruction of both politico-Babylon and ecclesio-Babylon in the time of the Beast shows that the destruction of the actual Babylon typifies the greater destruction yet to come upon the mystical Babylons. Cf. Scofield Isa 13:1, note. [above]

Isa 13:20 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.

It shall never be inhabited

Jer 50:3, 39; 51:29, 62.

Isa 13:22 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.

her time is near to come

Jer 51:33.