The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz sees, opens the oracles against the nations. Jehovah of hosts musters a host for battle (consecrated ones summoned from a far country, the weapons of his indignation) and the chapter announces the day of Jehovah: hands feeble, hearts melting, pangs like a woman in travail. The judgment darkens the cosmos itself: stars, constellations, sun, and moon withhold their light, the heavens tremble, and the earth is shaken from its place. Jehovah stirs up the Medes, who regard neither silver nor gold, against the city; infants are dashed and houses rifled. Babylon, the glory of kingdoms and beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, becomes as Sodom and Gomorrah, never again inhabited, home only to wild beasts, ostriches, wolves, and jackals.

Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary, John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and John Calvin, Commentaries.

Context

Prophecy · Isaiah — Isaiah overview

A. 1–8 Mustering an Army for the Day of the LORD
B. 9–16 Sun, Moon, and Stars Withhold Their Light
C. 17–22 Babylon Overthrown, Never to Be Inhabited

Top cross-references8 chapters ▾

Jeremiah 515 verses
- Jeremiah 51:11Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His plan is aimed at Babylon to destroy her, for it is the vengeance of the LORD—vengeance for His temple.
- Jeremiah 51:20“You are My war club, My weapon for battle. With you I shatter nations; with you I bring kingdoms to ruin.
- Jeremiah 51:33For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled. In just a little while her harvest time will come.”
- Jeremiah 51:43Her cities have become a desolation, a dry and arid land, a land where no one lives, where no son of man passes through.
- Jeremiah 51:58This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Babylon’s thick walls will be leveled, and her high gates consumed by fire. So the labor of the people will be for nothing; the nations will exhaust themselves to fuel the flames.”
- Read Jeremiah 51 →
Jeremiah 505 verses
- Jeremiah 50:1This is the word that the LORD spoke through Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans:
- Jeremiah 50:2“Announce and declare to the nations; lift up a banner and proclaim it; hold nothing back when you say, ‘Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is shattered, her images are disgraced, her idols are broken in pieces.’
- Jeremiah 50:9For behold, I stir up and bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the land of the north. They will line up against her; from the north she will be captured. Their arrows will be like skilled warriors who do not return empty-handed.
- Jeremiah 50:16Cut off the sower from Babylon, and the one who wields the sickle at harvest time. In the face of the oppressor’s sword, each will turn to his own people, each will flee to his own land.
- Jeremiah 50:39So the desert creatures and hyenas will live there and ostriches will dwell there. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation.
- Read Jeremiah 50 →
Joel 33 verses
- Joel 3:11Come quickly, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves. Bring down Your mighty ones, O LORD.
- Joel 3:14Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the Day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
- Joel 3:16The LORD will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will tremble. But the LORD will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.
- Read Joel 3 →
Isaiah 133 verses
- Isaiah 13:9Behold, 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.
- Isaiah 13:15Whoever is caught will be stabbed, and whoever is captured will die by the sword.
- Isaiah 13:16Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be ravished.
- Read Isaiah 13 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

Matthew 242 verses
- Matthew 24:29Immediately after the tribulation of those days: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’
- Matthew 24:31And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
- Read Matthew 24 →
Isaiah 52 verses
- Isaiah 5:15So mankind will be brought low, and each man humbled; the arrogant will lower their eyes.
- Isaiah 5:26He lifts a banner for the distant nations and whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Behold—how speedily and swiftly they come!
- Read Isaiah 5 →
1 Thessalonians 52 verses
- 1 Thessalonians 5:2For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:3While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
- Read 1 Thessalonians 5 →
Daniel 52 verses
- Daniel 5:22But you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this.
- Daniel 5:28PERES means that your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”
- Read Daniel 5 →

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.