1This is the burden against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received: 2Raise a banner on a barren hilltop; call aloud to them. Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles. 3I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have even summoned My warriors to execute My wrath and exult in My triumph. 4Listen, a tumult on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations gathered together! The LORD of Hosts is mobilizing an army for war. 5They are coming from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens— the LORD and the weapons of His wrath— to destroy the whole country. 6Wail, for the Day of the LORD is near; it will come as destruction from the Almighty. 7Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt. 8Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear. 9Behold, the Day of the LORD is coming— cruel, with fury and burning anger— to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners within it. 10For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light. 11I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will end the haughtiness of the arrogant and lay low the pride of the ruthless. 12I will make man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir. 13Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place at the wrath of the LORD of Hosts on the day of His burning anger. 14Like a hunted gazelle, like a sheep without a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native land. 15Whoever is caught will be stabbed, and whoever is captured will die by the sword. 16Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be ravished. 17Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who have no regard for silver and no desire for gold. 18Their bows will dash young men to pieces; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; they will not look with pity on the children. 19And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. 20She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there. 21But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about. 22Hyenas will howl in her fortresses and jackals in her luxurious palaces. Babylon’s time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.
Matthew Henry's Commentary
The armies of God's wrath. (1-5) The conquest of Babylon. (6-18) Its final desolation. (19-22) 1-5 The threatenings of God's word press heavily upon the wicked, and are a sore burden, too heavy for them to bear. The persons brought together to lay Babylon waste, are called God's sanctified or appointed ones; designed for this service, and made able to do it. They are called God's mighty ones, because they had their might from God, and were now to use it for him. They come from afar. God can make those a scourge and ruin to his enemies, who are farthest off, and therefore least dreaded. 6-18 We have here the terrible desolation of Babylon by the Medes and Persians. Those who in the day of their peace were proud, and haughty, and terrible, are quite dispirited when trouble comes. Their faces shall be scorched with the flame. All comfort and hope shall fail. The stars of heaven shall not give their light, the sun shall be darkened. Such expressions are often employed by the prophets, to describe the convulsions of governments. God will visit them for their iniquity, particularly the sin of pride, which brings men low. There shall be a general scene of horror. Those who join themselves to Babylon, must expect to share her plagues, #Re 18:4|. All that men have, they would give for their lives, but no man's riches shall be the ransom of his life. Pause here and wonder that men should be thus cruel and inhuman, and see how corrupt the nature of man is become. And that little infants thus suffer, which shows that there is an original guilt, by which life is forfeited as soon as it is begun. The day of the Lord will, indeed, be terrible with wrath and fierce anger, far beyond all here stated. Nor will there be any place for the sinner to flee to, or attempt an escape. But few act as though they believed these things. 19-22 Babylon was a noble city; yet it should be wholly destroyed. None shall dwell there. It shall be a haunt for wild beasts. All this is fulfilled. The fate of this proud city is a proof of the truth of the Bible, and an emblem of the approaching ruin of the New Testament Babylon; a warning to sinners to flee from the wrath to come, and it encourages believers to expect victory over every enemy of their souls, and of the church of God. The whole world changes and is liable to decay. Wherefore let us give diligence to obtain a kingdom which cannot be moved; and in this hope let us hold fast that grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.