Isaiah 13:16

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

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 in astonishment at one another, their faces aflame 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 sun will be darkened when it rises, 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 humiliate the pride of tyrants. 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 and 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.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

children: Psalms 137:8, Psalms 137:9, Hosea 10:14, Nahum 3:10

and their: Lamentations 5:11, Zechariah 14:2

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 8:12 - dash Psalms 37:25 - yet Isaiah 13:18 - shall dash Isaiah 47:6 - thou didst Jeremiah 39:6 - before Jeremiah 51:52 - the wounded Hosea 13:16 - their infants Amos 7:17 - Thy wife Habakkuk 2:7 - they

Cross-References

Genesis 13:1
So Abram went up out of Egypt into the Negev-he and his wife and all his possessions-and Lot was with him.

Genesis 13:2
And Abram had become extremely wealthy in livestock and silver and gold.

Genesis 13:3
From the Negev he journeyed from place to place toward Bethel, until he came to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had formerly been pitched,

Genesis 13:14
After Lot had departed, the LORD said to Abram, "Now lift up your eyes from the place where you are, and look to the north and south and east and west.

Genesis 13:16
I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if one could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.

Genesis 13:18
So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the oaks of Mamre in Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.

Genesis 15:5
And the LORD took him outside and said, "Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able." Then He declared, "So shall your offspring be."

Genesis 17:6
I will make you exceedingly fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you.

Genesis 17:16
And I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will descend from her."

Genesis 17:20
As for Ishmael, I have heard you, and I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He will become the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes,.... Upon the ground, or against the wall, as was foretold should be, Psalms 137:8 and in way of retaliation for what they did to the Jews, 2 Chronicles 36:17 and this was to be done "before their eyes", in the sight of the inhabitants, which must make it the more distressing and afflicting; and, as Kimchi observes, this phrase is to be applied to the following clauses:

their houses shall be spoiled; plundered of the substance, wealth, and riches in them, by the Persian soldiers:

and their wives ravished; by the same, and both before their eyes, and after that slain, in like manner as they had ravished the women in Zion, Lamentations 5:11.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Their children also shall be dashed to pieces - This is a description of the horrors of the capture of Babylon; and there can be none more frightful and appalling than that which is here presented. That this is done in barbarous nations in the time of war, there can be no doubt. Nothing was more common among American savages, than to dash out the brains of infants against a rock or a tree, and it was often done before the eyes of the afflicted and heartbroken parents. That these horrors were not unknown in Oriental nations of antiquity, is evident. Thus, the Psalmist implies that it would be done in Babylon, in exact accordance with this prediction of Isaiah; Psalms 137:8-9 :

O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed:

Happy shall he be who rewardeth these as thou hast served us;

Happy shall he be who taketh and dasheth thy little ones

Against the stones.

Thus, also, it is said of Hazael, that when he came to be king of Syria, he would be guilty of this barbarity in regard to the Jews (2 Kings 8:13; compare Nahum 3:10). It was an evidence of the barbarous feelings of the times; and a proof that they were far, very far, from the humanity which is now deemed indispensable even in war.

Their houses shall be spoiled - Plundered. It is implied here, says Kimchi, that this was to be done also ‘before their eyes,’ and thus the horrors of the capture would be greatly increased.