Conclusion of 'Haughtiness I Shall Abase'

However, appearances can be deceptive.  Isaiah says:  "That is why all hands themselves will drop down, and the whole heart itself of mortal man will melt. And people have become disturbed.  Convulsions and birth pains themselves grab hold; like a woman that is giving birth they have labor pains.  They look at each other in amazement.  Their faces are inflamed faces."  (Isaiah 13:7, 8)  When the conquering armies invade the city, the ease of its inhabitants will be replaced by pain as sudden and intense as that of a woman giving birth.  Their hearts will melt with fear. Paralyzed, their hands will drop down, unable to make a defense;. Their faces will be "inflamed" with fear and anguish.  In amazement they will look at one another, wondering how their great city could fall.

Nevertheless, fall it will.  Babylon is to face  a day of reckoning, a "day of Jehovah," that will be painful indeed. The supreme Judge will express his anger and bring well-deserved judgment upon Babylon's sinful inhabitants.  The prophecy says: "Look!  The day of Jehovah itself is coming, cruel both with fury and with burning anger, in order  to make the land an object of astonishment, and that it may annihilate the land's sinners out of it. "  (Isaiah 13:9)  Babylon's prospects are gloomy.  It is as though the sun, moon, and stars all cease to give light.  "For the very stars of the heavens and their constellations of Kesil will not flash forth their light; the sun will actually grow dark at its going forth, and the moon itself will not cause its light to shine." -Isaiah 13:10.

Why such a fate for this proud city?  Jehovah says: "I shall certainly bring home its own badness upon the productive land, and their own error upon the wicked themselves. And I shall actually cause the pride of the presumptuous ones to cease, and the haughtiness of the tyrants I shall abase."  (Isaiah 13:11)  The outpouring of Jehovah's wrath will be punishment for Babylon's cruelty to God's people.  The whole land will suffer because of the badness of the Babylonians.  No longer will these proud tyrants openly defy Jehovah!

Jehovah says: "I shall make mortal man rarer than refined gold, and earthling man rarer than the gold of Ophir."  (Isaiah 13:12)  Yes, the city will come to be depopulated, waste. Jehovah continues:  "That is why I shall cause heaven itself to become agitated, and the earth will rock out of its place at the fury of Jehovah of armies  and at the day of his burning anger."  (Isaiah 13:13)  Babylon's  "heaven," her multitude of gods and goddesses, will be agitated, unable to help the city in its time of need.  "The earth," The Babylonian Empire, will rocked out of place, passing into history as just another dead empire. "It must occur that, like a gazelle chased away and like flock without anyone to collect them together, they will turn, each one to his own people; and they will flee, each one to his own land." (Isaiah 13:14)   All of Babylon's  foreign supporters will forsake her and flee,  hoping to set up new relationships with the conquering world power.  Babylon will finally experience the agony of a conquered city, an agony that she inflicted  on so many others in the days of her glory:  "Every one that is found will be pierced through, and every one that is caught in the sweep will fall by the sword; and their very children will be dashed to pieces before their eyes.  Their houses will be pillaged, and their own wives will be raped." -Isaiah 13:15, 15.

Next time: God's Instrument of Destruction

From the Book Isaiah's Prophecy Light for all Mankind, 2000