Isaiah 13:8

And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. PANGS AND SORROWS SHALL TAKE HOLD OF THEM. The Hebrew means also a messenger: therefore the Septuagint and Arabic translate, 'the heralds (who bring word of the unexpected invasion) are terrified.' The Chaldaic, Vulgate, and Syriac support the English version. AS A WOMAN THAT TRAVAILETH - (.) THEY SHALL BE AMAZED ONE AT ANOTHER - the stupid, bewildered gaze of consternation. THEIR FACES (SHALL BE AS) FLAMES - `their visages have the livid hue of flame' (Horsley): with anguish and indignation....

8._Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them. _The word צירים (_tzirim_) being ambiguous, the Greek translators render it _ambassadors_. But the comparison of _a woman that travaileth_, which is added immediately afterwards, sufficiently proves that it denotes _pangs_; for here, as if by a single word, he explains what he had previously said, that their _hearts _shall be _melted _and their _hands _shall be _weakened_; because, he says, they shall be struck with terror and dismay. Whence comes this terror? From God. This kind of terror, for which there was no apparent cause, the ancients called a _panic_; (202) for they gave the name _panes _to apparitions and objects of this sort, by which men were terrified, even when there was no outward object that ought to have excited the terror. It was not without reason that they did s

6-18 We have here the terrible desolation of Babylon by the Medes and Persians. Those who in the day of their peace were proud, and haughty, and terrible, are quite dispirited when trouble comes. Their faces shall be scorched with the flame. All comfort and hope shall fail. The stars of heaven shall not give their light, the sun shall be darkened. Such expressions are often employed by the prophets, to describe the convulsions of governments. God will visit them for their iniquity, particularly the sin of pride, which brings men low. There shall be a general scene of horror. Those who join themselves to Babylon, must expect to share her plagues, Revelation 18:4. All that men have, they would give for their lives, but no man's riches shall be the ransom of his life. Pause here and wonder that men should be thus cruel and inhuman, and see how corrupt the nature of man is become. And that...

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....

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;...

EXPOSITION THE BURDEN OF BABYLON. The series of prophecies which commences with this chapter and continues to the close of Isaiah 23:1; is connected together by the word _massa_, burden. It has been argued that the term "burden" is an incorrect translation of _massa_, as used by Isaiah and later prophets (Nahum 1:1; Habakkuk 1:1; Zechariah 9:1; Zechariah 12:1; Malachi 1:1); and that ...

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;

2. THE JUDGMENT OF THE NATIONS AND THE FUTURE DAY OF JEHOVAH (13-27) CHAPTER 13 The Burden of Babylon 1. _Jehovah's call to the judgment of Babylon (Isaiah 13:1)_ 2. _The day of Jehovah: When Babylon falls (Isaiah 13:6)_ 3. _Babylon overthrown (Isaiah 13:17)_ The great judgments announced in this part of Isaiah were only partially fulfilled in the past. The great Babylon which came into existence as the mistress of the world after this prophecy had been given, fell by the Medes (verse 17 and Daniel 5:1. The judgment of this Babylon is meant here first. But the Babylon of the past is the type of a Babylon of

ISAIAH 13:1 TO ISAIAH 14:23. THE UTTER RUIN OF BABYLON AND TRIUMPHAL ODE OVER HER MONARCH'S DEATH. Historical conditions are here presupposed entirely different from those of Isaiah's time. The subject of Isaiah 13 is the overthrow of Babylon by the Medes a century and a half after his age. Since the downfall is said to lie in the near future, the prophecy must have been written very near the close of the Exile. The description of Babylon is also not true to the situation of Isaiah's day. The great oppressing empire, whose downfall he predicted, was Assyria. Babylon was subject to it, though it revolted from time to time, and it was united in friendly relations with Judah by hate for the common oppressor. In our prophecy Babylon is no longer a subject state, but the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldea

AS FLAMES. as [faces of] flames darkened....