Isaiah 13:8

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

pangs: Isaiah 21:3, Isaiah 21:4, Isaiah 26:17, Psalms 48:5, Psalms 48:6, Jeremiah 30:6, Jeremiah 50:43, Daniel 5:5, Daniel 5:6, 1 Thessalonians 5:3

be amazed one at another: Heb. wonder every man at his neighbour

flames: Heb. faces of the flames, Joel 2:6, Nahum 2:10

Reciprocal: Genesis 3:16 - in sorrow Judges 20:41 - were amazed Job 4:15 - the hair Psalms 18:4 - sorrows Psalms 69:24 - take Jeremiah 4:31 - I have heard Jeremiah 13:21 - shall not Jeremiah 27:7 - until Jeremiah 48:41 - as the heart Jeremiah 49:22 - the heart of the Jeremiah 51:30 - The mighty Ezekiel 7:17 - hands Hosea 13:13 - sorrows Micah 4:9 - for

Cross-References

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 13:6
But the land was unable to support both of them while they stayed together, for they had so many possessions that they were unable to coexist.

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 13:9
Is not the whole land before you? Now separate yourself from me. If you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left."

Genesis 13:11
So Lot chose the whole plain of the Jordan for himself and set out toward the east. And Abram and Lot parted company.

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 13:17
Get up and walk around the land, through its length and width-for I will give it to you."

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 45:24
Then Joseph sent his brothers on their way, and as they were leaving, he said to them, "Do not quarrel on the way!"

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And they shall be afraid,.... Troubled, dismayed, frightened, at the sudden taking of the city, and at the sight of Cyrus's troops marching up into the very heart of it, and to the king's palace:

pangs and sorrow shall take hold of them; as convulsions, pains in the bowels, c. more fully explained in the next clause:

they shall be in pain, as a woman that travaileth that is in labour, and ready to bring forth her child, whose pains are very sharp, and agonies great; the same is said of the king of Babylon,

Jeremiah 50:43:

they shall be amazed one at another; that so great a city should be so surprised, and so suddenly taken; and that they shall not be able to help one another; and that such as were so famous for courage and valour should be at once so dispirited:

their faces [shall be as] flames; not red with blushing, through shame, as Kimchi; but pale with fear, as the colour of flame, or, as the faces of smiths, that work at a forge: the words may be rendered, "their faces are as the faces of Lehabim" d; the name of a people mentioned in Genesis 10:13 the same with the Libians, which were of a blackish or tawny colour; so Jarchi interprets it, and says they were a people of a yellow complexion: and Aben Ezra observes, that some interpret it of a nation like the Ethiopians; and so it denotes, that the Babylonians, their faces should be black with distress and anguish; see Joel 2:6.

d פני להבים פניהם "ut facies Lehabim, [sive] Lybiorum facies eorum", Gataker.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth - This comparison is often used in the Scriptures to denote the deepest possible pain and sorrow, as well as the suddenness with which any calamity comes upon a people Psalms 48:6; Isaiah 21:3; Isaiah 42:14; Jeremiah 6:24; Jeremiah 13:21; Jeremiah 22:23; Jeremiah 49:24; Jeremiah 50:43; Hosea 13:13; Micah 4:9-10; John 16:21; Galatians 4:19; 1 Thessalonians 5:3.

They shall be amazed one at another - They shall stare with a stupid gaze on one another, indicating a state of great distress, anxiety, and alarm. They shall look to each other for aid, and shall meet in the countenances of others the same expressions of wonder and consternation.

Their faces shall be as flames - Their faces shall glow or burn like fire. When grief and anguish come upon us, the face becomes inflamed. The face in fear is usually pale. But the idea here is not so much that of fear as of anguish; and, perhaps, there is mingled also here the idea of indignation against their invaders.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 13:8. And they shall be afraid - "And they shall be terrified"] I join this verb, ונבהלו venibhalu, to the preceding verse, with the Syriac and Vulgate.

Pangs and sorrows shall take hold on them - "Pangs shall seize them"] The Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee read יאחזום yochezum, instead of יאחזון yochezun, which does not express the pronoun them, necessary to the sense.