Isaiah 13:18

Easy-to-Read Version

They will walk on the bows of the young soldiers of Babylon. The enemy soldiers will not show any kindness or mercy even to the babies and young children.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Their bows will cut young men to pieces.They will have no compassion on offspring;they will not look with pity on children.

Hebrew Names Version
[Their] bows shall dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

King James Version
Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eyes shall not spare children.

English Standard Version
Their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children.

New American Standard Bible
And their bows will mow down the young men, They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb, Nor will their eye pity children.

New Century Version
Their soldiers will shoot the young men with arrows; they will show no mercy on children, nor will they feel sorry for little ones.

Amplified Bible
Their bows will cut down the young men [of Babylon]; They will take no pity on the fruit of the womb, Their eyes will not look with compassion on the children.

World English Bible
[Their] bows shall dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

Geneva Bible (1587)
With bowes also shall they destroy ye children, and shall haue no compassion vpon the fruit of the wombe, and their eies shall not spare the children.

Legacy Standard Bible
And their bows will dash the young men to pieces,They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb,Nor will their eye pity children.

Berean Standard Bible
Their 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.

Contemporary English Version
Their arrows will slaughter the young men; no pity will be shown to babies and children.

Complete Jewish Bible
Their bows will tear young men to pieces, they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb, their eye will not spare children."

Darby Translation
And [their] bows shall dash the young men to pieces, and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb: their eye shall not spare children.

George Lamsa Translation
The bows of young men shall be broken in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eyes shall not spare children.

Good News Translation
With their bows and arrows they will kill the young men. They will show no mercy to babies and take no pity on children.

Lexham English Bible
And their bows will shatter young men. And they will not show mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not look compassionately on children.

Literal Translation
And bows shall also smash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare sons.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Then shall yonge mens bowes be knapped asunder. The Medes shal haue no pitie vpo wome wt childe, & their faces shall not spare ye childre.

American Standard Version
And their bows shall dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

Bible in Basic English
In their hands are bows and spears; they are cruel, violently putting the young men to death, and crushing the young women; they have no pity for children, and no mercy for the fruit of the body.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And their bows shall dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

King James Version (1611)
Their bowes also shall dash the yong men to pieces, and they shall haue no pitie on the fruit of the wombe; their eye shall not spare children.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
With bowes shall they destroy the young men, and haue no pitie on women with chylde, and their faces shall not spare the chyldren.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
They shall break the bows of the young men; and they shall have no mercy on your children; nor shall their eyes spare thy children.

English Revised Version
And their bows shall dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
but thei shulen sle litle children bi arowis, and thei schulen not haue merci on wombis yyuynge mylk, and the iye of them schal not spare on sones.

Update Bible Version
And [their] bows shall dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare sons.

Webster's Bible Translation
[Their] bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

New English Translation
Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; they have no compassion on a person's offspring, they will not look with pity on children.

New King James Version
Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces, And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb; Their eye will not spare children.

New Living Translation
The attacking armies will shoot down the young men with arrows. They will have no mercy on helpless babies and will show no compassion for children."

New Life Bible
Their bows will cut down the young men. They will have no pity on babies. Their eyes will not pity children.

New Revised Standard
Their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And, bows, shall dash the young to pieces, - And on the fruit of the womb, will they have no pity, Over children, will their eye throw no shield.

Douay-Rheims Bible
But with their arrows they shall kill the children, and shall have no pity upon the sucklings of the womb, and their eye shall not spare their sons.

Revised Standard Version
Their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children.

Young's Literal Translation
And bows dash young men to pieces, And the fruit of the womb they pity not, On sons their eye hath no pity.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
And their bows will mow down the young men, They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb, Nor will their eye pity children.

Contextual Overview

⁶ The Lord 's special day is near. So cry and be sad for yourselves. A time is coming when the enemy will steal your wealth. God All-Powerful will make that happen. ⁷ People will lose their courage. Fear will make them weak. ⁸ Everyone will be afraid. They will stare at each other with shock on their faces. Fear will grip them like the pains of a woman in childbirth. ⁹ Look, the Lord 's special day is coming! It will be a terrible day. God will be very angry. He will destroy the country and wipe out the sinful people who live there. ¹⁰ The skies will be dark. The sun, the moon, and the stars will not shine. ¹¹ The Lord says, "I will cause bad things to happen to the world. I will punish the evil people for their sin. I will make proud people lose their pride. I will stop the bragging of cruel people. ¹² There will be only a few people left. They will be as rare as pure gold. ¹³ In my anger I will shake the sky, and the earth will be moved from its place." That will happen on the day the Lord All-Powerful shows his anger. ¹⁴ Then the people from Babylon will run away like wounded deer or sheep that have no shepherd. Everyone will turn and run back to their own country and people. ¹⁵ Anyone caught by the enemy will be killed with a sword.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

shall dash: Isaiah 13:16, 2 Kings 8:12, Hosea 13:16, Nahum 2:1, Nahum 3:10

their eye: 2 Chronicles 36:17, Ezekiel 9:5, Ezekiel 9:6, Ezekiel 9:10

Reciprocal: Genesis 45:20 - regard not 2 Chronicles 36:22 - the Lord stirred Psalms 109:12 - favour Isaiah 9:17 - have no joy Isaiah 9:19 - no man Isaiah 21:1 - from Isaiah 21:2 - Go up Isaiah 21:5 - arise Isaiah 40:30 - General Isaiah 48:14 - he will do Jeremiah 6:23 - They shall Jeremiah 21:7 - he shall Jeremiah 28:8 - prophesied Jeremiah 50:3 - out of the Jeremiah 50:9 - none Jeremiah 50:14 - in array Jeremiah 50:25 - opened Jeremiah 50:41 - General Jeremiah 50:42 - they are cruel Jeremiah 50:45 - surely he Jeremiah 51:11 - the Lord hath Daniel 7:5 - Arise Revelation 17:16 - these

Cross-References

Genesis 8:20
Then Noah built an altar to honor the Lord . Noah took some of all the clean birds and some of all the clean animals and burned them on the altar as a gift to God.

Genesis 13:4
This was where Abram had built an altar earlier. So he worshiped the Lord there.

Genesis 13:7
(The Canaanites and the Perizzites were also living in this land at the same time.) The shepherds of Abram and Lot began to argue.

Genesis 13:8
So Abram said to Lot, "There should be no arguing between you and me or between your people and my people. We are all brothers.

Genesis 14:13
One of the men who had escaped went to Abram the Hebrew and told him what happened. Abram was camped near the trees of Mamre the Amorite. Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner had made an agreement to help each other, and they had also signed an agreement to help Abram.

Genesis 18:1
Later, the Lord again appeared to Abraham near the oak trees of Mamre. It was the hottest part of the day, and Abraham was sitting at the door of his tent.

Genesis 23:2
She died in the city of Kiriath Arba (Hebron) in the land of Canaan. Abraham was very sad and cried for her there.

Genesis 35:27
Jacob went to his father Isaac at Mamre in Kiriath Arba (Hebron). This is where Abraham and Isaac had lived.

Genesis 37:14
His father said, "Go and see if your brothers are safe. Come back and tell me if my sheep are all fine." So Joseph's father sent him from the Valley of Hebron to Shechem.

Numbers 13:22
They entered the country through the Negev and went to Hebron. (The town of Hebron was built seven years before the town of Zoan in Egypt.) Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai lived there. These men were descendants of Anak.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

[Their] bows also shall dash their young men to pieces,.... That is, the bows of the Medes should dash in pieces the young men of the Babylonians. The meaning is, either that they should put them into their bows, instead of arrows, and shoot them upon the ground, or against a wall, and so dash them to pieces; or that they should first shoot them through with their arrows, and then dash them with their bows; according to Xenophon l, Cyrus came to Babylon with great numbers of archers and slingers:

and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; even of those that were in the womb, but should rip up women with child, and cut them in pieces:

their eyes shall not spare children; in the arms of their parents, or running to them, shrieking and crying, and in the utmost fright; and yet their tender and innocent age would meet with no mercy. The Medes were notorious for their cruelty m, and which issued at last in the ruin of their empire.

l Cyropaedia, l. 2. sect. 1. m Ammian. Marcellin. l. 23. c. 6. Diodor. Sicul. l. 13. p. 342.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Their bows also - Bows and arrows were the usual weapons of the ancients in war; and the Persians were particularly skilled in their use. According to Xenophon, Cyrus came to Babylon with a great number of archers and slingers (Cyrop. ii. 1).

Shall dash the young men ... - That is, they shall dash the young men to pieces, or kill them by their bows and arrows. Vulgate, ‘And with their arrows shall they slay the young.’ The meaning of the word here rendered ‘dash to pieces,’ is to smite suddenly to the ground.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 13:18. Their bows also shall dash - "Their bows shall dash"] Both Herodotus, i. 61, and Xenophon, Anab. iii., mention, that the Persians used large bows τοξαμεγαλα: and the latter says particularly that their bows were three cubits long, Anab. iv. They were celebrated for their archers, see Isaiah 22:6; Jeremiah 49:35. Probably their neighours and allies, the Medes, dealt much in the same sort of arms. In Psalms 18:34, and Job 20:24, mention is made of a bow of steel; if the Persian bows were of metal, we may easily conceive that with a metalline bow of three cubits' length, and proportionably strong, the soldiers might dash and slay the young men, the weaker and unresisting of the inhabitants (for they are joined with the fruit of the womb and the children) in the general carnage on taking the city. תרתשנה terattashnah, shall be broken or shivered to pieces. This seems to refer, not to נערים nearim, young men, but to קשתות keshathoth, their bows. The bows of the young men shall be broken to pieces.

On the fruit, &c. - "And on the fruit," &c.] A MS. of Dr. Kennicott's reads ועל פרי veal peri and on the fruit. And nine MSS. (three ancient) and two editions, with the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac, add likewise the conjunction ו vau, and, to על al, upon, afterwards.