Isaiah 13:18

Isa 13:18 [Their] bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

Ver. 18. Their bows also shall dash the young men.] They shall double destroy them. O barbaram crudelitatem! O cruel barbarian. {a}

And they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb.] Quamvis adhuc teneri essent et fructus novelli, ripping up their mothers; {as Amo 1:13} or at the Sicilian Vespers; and as in the late Parisian and Irish massacres, which were the most prodigious horrid villanies that ever the sun saw.

Their eye shall not spare children.] In the massacre of Paris, a bloody Papist having snatched up a little child from one of the Protestants in his arms, the poor babe began to play with his beard, and to smile upon him. But he, more merciless than a tiger, stabbed it with a dagger, and so cast it all gory and bloody into the river. {b}

{a} Incredibilis sanguinis aviditas in milite bacchabitur.

{b} Acts. and Mon.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

SPARE THE CHILDREN

(Sunday-School Anniversary Sermon.)

Isa_13:18. Their eye shall not spare children.

This declaration is made concerning the Medes, by whom the power of Babylon was destined to be broken. So thoroughly bent will they be upon their mission of revenge, that they will not be turned away from it by any appeals either to their avarice (Isa_13:17) or to their pity (text). The helplessness of infancy and the innocence of youth, which are naturally so impressive and persuasive, will not avail to stay them in their devastating career.

We should display a singular ignorance of the world in which we live, if we were therefore to pronounce the Medes exceptional monsters of iniquity. Alas! there are many imitators of their relentless cruelty. In our own land children are not spared in relation to evils even more terrible than war. Youth is always beset by dangers, even when it is most carefully guarded; but when it is specially under the influence of wicked men, it is often ruthlessly sacrificed. Widespread is the spirit of evil which knows not how to pity it. Examples of its existence and operations are to be found—

1. In houses where the most hurtful principles and vicious practices are continually set before children. From their youth up they are not spared from the most disastrous influences (H. E. I., 775–779).

2. In business, where often the most sacred interests of childhood are sacrificed for the sake of gain. Their health, by inflicting upon them excessive labour. Even their morality, by fiends who tempt them into haunts of vice. Compared with these incarnations of diabolical cruelty, the Medes were merciful.

The season of childhood appeals to our concern and should awake our compassion—

1. By its helplessness. It has to lean upon others.

2. By its ignorance. It has had no time to learn (H. E. I., 780).

3. By its inexperience. Unless it is aided by the guidance of mature wisdom, it must almost necessarily go astray.

4. By its peculiar susceptibility to every kind of moral influence. To these appeals let us give reverent, cheerful, and thoughtful heed. Let us not be content to shudder at this prediction concerning the Medes, or at such historical records as that of the slaughter of the children of Bethlehem (Matthew 2); let us make the children the objects of our care.

1. Let us spare our own children, from all unreasonable demands upon them, from the mischiefs that will inevitably come upon them if we do not carefully train them in the way they should go.

2. Let us spare the children of the poor from the evils of ignorance. These evils are terrible and far-reaching. Not to rescue them from these evils when we have the power to do so, is to doom them to them. In the Sunday-school we have a means of rescue which we cannot neglect without sin.—William Manning.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

bows--in the use of which the Persians were particularly skilled.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 18. Their bows also shall dash - "Their bows shall dash"] Both Herodotus, i. 61, and Xenophon, Anab. iii., mention, that the Persians used large bows τοξαμεγαλα: and the latter says particularly that their bows were three cubits long, Anab. iv. They were celebrated for their archers, see Isa 22:6; Jer 49:35. Probably their neighours and allies, the Medes, dealt much in the same sort of arms. In Ps 18:34, and Job 20:24, mention is made of a bow of steel; if the Persian bows were of metal, we may easily conceive that with a metalline bow of three cubits' length, and proportionably strong, the soldiers might dash and slay the young men, the weaker and unresisting of the inhabitants (for they are joined with the fruit of the womb and the children) in the general carnage on taking the city. תרתשנה terattashnah, shall be broken or shivered to pieces. This seems to refer, not to נערים nearim, young men, but to קשתות keshathoth, their bows. The bows of the young men shall be broken to pieces.

On the fruit, &c. - "And on the fruit," &c.] A MS. of Dr. Kennicott's reads ועל פרי veal peri and on the fruit. And nine MSS. (three ancient) and two editions, with the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac, add likewise the conjunction ו vau, and, to על al, upon, afterwards.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(18) Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces.—These, as in Isa_22:6, Jer_1:9-14, were the characteristic weapons of the Medo-Persian armies.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Their bows also shall dash their young men to pieces,.... That is, the bows of the Medes should dash in pieces the young men of the Babylonians. The meaning is, either that they should put them into their bows, instead of arrows, and shoot them upon the ground, or against a wall, and so dash them to pieces; or that they should first shoot them through with their arrows, and then dash them with their bows; according to Xenophon (l), Cyrus came to Babylon with great numbers of archers and slingers:

and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; even of those that were in the womb, but should rip up women with child, and cut them in pieces:

their eyes shall not spare children; in the arms of their parents, or running to them, shrieking and crying, and in the utmost fright; and yet their tender and innocent age would meet with no mercy. The Medes were notorious for their cruelty (m), and which issued at last in the ruin of their empire.

(l) Cyropaedia, l. 2. sect. 1. (m) Ammian. Marcellin. l. 23. c. 6. Diodor. Sicul. l. 13. p. 342.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Their bows also - Bows and arrows were the usual weapons of the ancients in war; and the Persians were particularly skilled in their use. According to Xenophon, Cyrus came to Babylon with a great number of archers and slingers (Cyrop. ii. 1).

Shall dash the young men ... - That is, they shall dash the young men to pieces, or kill them by their bows and arrows. Vulgate, ‘And with their arrows shall they slay the young.’ The meaning of the word here rendered ‘dash to pieces,’ is to smite suddenly to the ground.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Their bows; under which are comprehended their arrows, and possibly other weapons of war; for so generally sometimes is the bow used in Scripture, as 2Sa 1:18; Psa 78:9; Isa 41:2. Shall dash the young men to pieces; or, shall pierce the young men through, as the Chaldee readers it.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. Their bows — Of very ancient use, generally made of wood, in a few instances of brass. Persian archers are spoken of with applause in profane history. See also Isa_22:3; Isa_22:6, and Jer_49:35; Jer_50:9; Jer_50:14; Jer_50:29; Jer_50:42.

No pity — Anciently, if the conqueror came in revenge of former wrongs it was the law of war to spare neither men, women, nor children. (On the subject of ancient war, see JAHN’S Hebrew Archaeology.)

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Their bows. (comp. Jer_1:9, Jer_1:14) Both the Medes and the Persians were skilled archers. Herodotus tells us that every Persian youth was taught three things ride, to draw the bow, and to speak the truth" (1. 136). At Persepolis, Modes and Persians are alike represented as carrying bows and quivers. Aeschyius regards the contest between the Persians and the Greeks as one between the arrow and the spear ("Persae," 11. 135, 136).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Bows - Under which are comprehended, other weapons of war. Dash - Or, shalt pierce the young men through, as the Chaldee, renders it.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

"And bows dash down young men; and they have no compassion on the fruit of the womb: their eye has no pity on children." The bows do not stand for the bowmen (see Isa 21:17), but the bows of the latter dash the young men to the ground by means of the arrows shot from them. They did not spare the fruit of the womb, since they ripped up the bodies of those that were with child (Kg2 8:12; Kg2 15:16, etc.). Even towards children they felt no emotion of compassionate regard, such as would express itself in the eye: chuus, to feel, more especially to feel with another, i.e., to sympathize; here and in Eze 5:11 it is ascribed to the eye as the mirror of the soul (compare the Arabic chasyet el-‛ain ala fulânin, carefulness of eye for a person: Hariri, Comment. p. 140). With such inhuman conduct on the part of the foe, the capital of the empire becomes the scene of a terrible conflagration.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

“And bows shall dash boys in pieces, and the fruit of the womb they shall not pity, on children their eye shall not have mercy.” The strong term ‘dash in pieces’ is employed instead of one more strictly appropriate, with evident allusion to its use in v. 16. The cruelty of the Medes seems to have been proverbial in the ancient world.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the bows of the peoples of Media.

youths of Babylon.

shall dash shall split with their arrows that they shoot with their bows.

newborn [lit. fruit of the womb] Frail infants.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

תרטשנה They shall dash to pieces.

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.