Isaiah 13:4

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹This is an oracle concerning 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 musters 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.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

noise: Isaiah 22:1-9, Jeremiah 50:2, Jeremiah 50:3, Jeremiah 50:21-46, Jeremiah 51:11, Jeremiah 51:27, Jeremiah 51:28, Ezekiel 38:3-23, Joel 3:14, Zechariah 14:1-3, Zechariah 14:13, Zechariah 14:14, Revelation 19:11-21

like as: Heb. the likeness of, Joel 2:4-11, Revelation 9:7-19

the Lord: Isaiah 10:5, Isaiah 10:6, Isaiah 45:1, Isaiah 45:2, Jeremiah 50:14, Jeremiah 50:15, Jeremiah 51:6-25, Joel 2:1-11, Joel 2:25, Revelation 18:8

Reciprocal: 1 Chronicles 14:15 - for God Isaiah 9:5 - confused noise Isaiah 18:3 - see ye Isaiah 21:1 - from Isaiah 48:14 - he will do Jeremiah 21:4 - and I Joel 2:11 - utter

Cross-References

Genesis 4:26
And to Seth also a son was born, and he called him Enosh. At that time men began to invoke the name of the LORD.

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 13:7
And there was discord between the herdsmen of Abram and the herdsmen of Lot. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were also living in the land.

Genesis 13:8
So Abram said to Lot, "Please let there be no contention between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen. After all, we are brothers.

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.

Psalms 26:8
O LORD, I love the house where You dwell, the place where Your glory resides.

Psalms 84:10
For better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.

Psalms 107:1
Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people,.... That is, like the noise of a very numerous people; this noise was heard either on the mountains of Media, where they flocked in vast numbers to the standard set; or on the mountains upon the borders of Chaldea, when the army under Cyrus was marching towards Babylon:

a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together; for Cyrus's army consisted of several kingdoms and nations; for besides the thirty thousand Persians he brought with him into Media, where he was made general of the Medes also, and was sent with the joint forces of both nations against Babylon, the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz, were prepared, gathered together, and called forth against it, Jeremiah 51:27:

the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle; or the warlike army: it was the Lord, that has the armies of heaven and earth at his command, who in his providence caused such a numerous army to be formed, directed them where to march, and put them in battle array, and gave them the victory.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The noise of a multitude in the mountains - The prophet here represents himself as hearing the confused tumult of the nations assembling to the standard reared on the mountains Isaiah 13:2. This is a highly beautiful figure - a graphic and vivid representation of the scene before him. Nations are seen to hasten to the elevated banner, and to engage in active preparations for the mighty war. The sound is that of a tumult, an excited multitude hastening to the encampment, and preparing for the conquest of Babylon.

Like as of a great people - Hebrew, ‘The likeness of a great people.’ That is, such a confused and tumultuous sound as attends a great multitude when they collect together.

A tumultuous noise - Hebrew, ‘The voice of the tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together.’

The Lord of hosts - Yahweh, the God of hosts, or armies (note Isaiah 1:9).

Mustereth - Collects; puts in military array. Over all this multitude of nations, hastening with confused sounds and tumult like the noise of the sea, putting themselves in military array, God, unseen, presides, and prepares them for his own great designs. It is not easy to conceive a more sublime image than these mighty hosts of war, unconscious of the hand that directs them, and of the God that presides over them, moving as he wills, and accomplishing his plans.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 13:4. Of the battle - "For the battle."] The Bodleian MS. has למלחמה lemilchamah. Cyrus's army was made up of many different nations. Jeremiah calls it an "assembly of great nations from the north country," Jeremiah 50:9. And afterwards mentions the kingdoms of "Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz, (i.e. Armenia, Corduene, Pontus or Phrygia, Vitring.,) with the kings of the Medes," Jeremiah 51:27-28. See Xenophon. Cyrop.