Isaiah 13:10

Isaiah uses pictures in words to describe how total is the effect of God’s action. The darkness will be extraordinary because no light whatever reaches the world from the stars. Or from the sun, or from the moon. This does not mean that God removes them from the sky. But he covers them so completely that no light whatever reaches people on the earth.

The end of Babylon’s power

v14 Foreigners who were living in Babylon will rush home to their own land. Just as an animal runs from the hunter. Just as sheep scatter when nobody looks after them. v15-16 In Babylon, the soldiers will kill anyone that they catch. They will even kill children. They will rob houses of all valuable things. The soldiers will force women to have sex with them. v17 God declares that he is sending the *Medes to ruin Babylon. No amount of silver or gold will tempt them not to attack.

v18 The *Medes will kill the young men with bows and arrows. They will not pity babies or children. v19 Babylon is the most beautiful of cities. But I shall completely destroy it, just as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. v20 Nobody will ever live there again. No *Arab will erect a tent there. Nobody who looks after sheep will ever take them there.

v21 Only wild goats and other animals of the desert will live there. And birds will nest there. v22 The noise in Babylon’s castles and palaces will be the sound of wild dogs. Babylon’s end has come. Babylon will not continue to exist.