Isaiah 13:9

cruel--not strictly, but unsparingly just; opposed to mercy. Also answering to the cruelty (in the strict sense) of Babylon towards others (Isa 14:17) now about to be visited on itself.

the land--"the earth" [HORSLEY]. The language of Isa 13:9-13 can only primarily and partially apply to Babylon; fully and exhaustively, the judgments to come, hereafter, on the whole earth. Compare Isa 13:10 with Mat 24:29; Rev 8:12. The sins of Babylon, arrogancy (Isa 13:11; Isa 14:11; Isa 47:7-8), cruelty, false worship (Jer 50:38), persecution of the people of God (Isa 47:6), are peculiarly characteristic of the Antichristian world of the latter days (Dan 11:32-37; Rev 17:3, Rev 17:6; Rev 18:6-7, Rev 18:9-14, Rev 18:24).

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

Isa 13:9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

Ver. 9. Behold the day of the Lord cometh cruel.] So it shall seem to the enemies, because "an evil, an only evil, behold, is come," {Eze 7:5} without mixture of mercy.

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.

Isa 13:9-10. Behold the day — cruel both with wrath and fierce anger — Dr. Waterland renders the clause, fierceness, wrath, and hot anger: divers words are heaped together, to signify the extremity of the divine indignation; to lay the land desolate — Hebrew, לשׁום לשׁמה, to make it a desolation, an entire and perpetual desolation, Isa 13:19-22. And he shall destroy the sinners thereof — The inhabitants of that city, who had persisted in their idolatries, oppressions, and all sorts of luxuries, notwithstanding the faithful testimony against their practices borne by Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and other pious Jews, and the solemn warnings given by God himself to Nebuchadnezzar, in repeated dreams and visions, and the humiliating and distressing affliction wherewith that monarch was chastised: see Dan 4:13-33. For the stars of heaven — Here the calamity to be brought upon them is set forth “under the figure of a dreadful tempest, inducing such a face of things in the heavens as the prophet describes.” It would be so grievous as to “deprive them of all light, that is, of all joy and consolation, as well as of the causes of them, and would fill them with sorrow and distress, and a fearful sense of the divine wrath poured forth from heaven upon them.” Or, rather, the prophet foretels the utter subversion of their republic, and the entire overthrow of their religion and polity, under the emblem of the extinction or passing away of the sun, moon, and stars, and all the heavenly bodies. For, as Bishop Lowth observes, the Hebrew writers, “to express happiness, prosperity, the instauration and advancement of states, kingdoms, and potentates, make use of images taken from the most striking parts of nature; from the heavenly bodies, from the sun, moon, and stars, which they describe as shining with increased splendour, and never setting; the moon becomes like the meridian sun, and the sun’s light is augmented seven-fold: see Isa 30:26. New heavens and a new earth are created, and a brighter age commences. On the contrary, the overthrow and destruction of kingdoms are represented by opposite images; the stars are obscured, the moon withdraws her light, and the sun shines no more; the earth quakes, and the heavens tremble; and all things seem tending to their original chaos.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Day of the Lord

(Day of Jehovah) vs.

Isa 2:10-22; Isa 4:1-6; Isa 11:10-13; Isa 13:9-16; Isa 24:21-23; Isa 26:20; Isa 26:21; Isa 63:1-6; Isa 66:15-24; Rev 19:11-21.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. land] Rather, earth, as in Isa_13:5.

9–16. The middle division of the prophecy enlarges on the nature, purpose and effects of this day of Jehovah.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Behold, the day of the Lord cometh,.... Or "is come" (e); said in Isa 13:6 to be at hand, but now it is represented in prophecy as already come:

cruel both with wrath and fierce anger; which, whether referred to "the Lord", or to "the day", the sense is the same; the day may be said to be cruel, and full of wrath and fury, because of the severity and fierceness of the Lord's anger, exercised upon the Babylonians in it; and he may be said to be so, not that he really is cruel, or exceeds the bounds of justice, but because he seemed to be so to the objects of his displeasure; as a judge may be thought to be cruel and severe by the malefactor, when he only pronounces and executes a righteous judgment on him; a heap of words are here made use of, to express the greatness and fierceness of divine wrath:

to lay the land desolate; the land of the Chaldeans:

and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it; this shows that what is before said most properly belongs to the Lord, to whom the destruction of Babylon, and the country belonging to it, must be ascribed; and indeed it was such as could not be brought about by human force; the moving cause of which was the sin of the inhabitants, some of whom were notorious sinners, for whose sakes it was destroyed by the Lord, and they in the midst of it, or out of it; see Psa 104:35.

(e) "venit", Piscator; "veniens", Montanus.

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

The day of the Lord cometh - See Isa 13:6.

Cruel - (אכזרי 'akezārı̂y). This does not mean that “God” is cruel, but that the ‘day of Yahweh’ that was coming should be unsparing and destructive to them. It would be the exhibition of “justice,” but not of “cruelty;” and the word stands opposed here to mercy, and means that God would not spare them. The effect would be that the inhabitants of Babylon would be destroyed.

Fierce anger - Hebrew, (חרון אף 'aph chărôn) ‘A glow, or burning of anger.’ The phrase denotes the most intense indignation (compare Num 25:4; Num 32:14; 1Sa 28:18).

To lay the land desolate - Chaldea, Isa 13:5.

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

Desolate. This was effected in the course of many centuries. (Calmet) --- The building of Seleucia caused Babylon to be deserted. (Pliny, [Natural History?] vi. 27.) --- Hence we know not at present where it was situated.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Cruel both with wrath and fierce anger; divers words are heaped together, to signify the extremity of his anger.

The sinners thereof; the inhabitants of that city, who were guilty of so much idolatry and cruelty, and all sorts of luxury.

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

9, 10. Day of the Lord cometh — The meaning the same as in Isa_13:6.

Cruel — Applied to “day,” etc., and means, rather, terrible, inexorable; a judgment so viewed abstractly, and to human view.

Wrath… fierce anger — Predicates also applying to “day,” and characterizing it. If the preposition “with” is to be used, (which from the text is doubtful,) the sense remains the same.

Sinners — They who in Babylon had incurred such fierce retribution.

Stars of heaven — The Chaldeans were of note, far and near, as cultivators of astronomy; hence Isaiah’s use of this illustration.

Shall not give their light — No metaphor so vividly represents calamity as extinguishment of light. (See Isa_34:4; Mat_24:29, et plura.) Not Babylonians alone, but Egyptians and Phenicians gave much attention to astronomy, as evidenced by very early attempts at regulating time divisions by the solar and lunar motions and revolutions. Exo_7:11; Lev_20:27; Lev_19:31; Deu_18:10. These passages show that astrology, which was interdicted to the Hebrews, was connected with their study of astronomy.

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

The day of the Lord (see the comment on ver. 6). Cruel; i.e. severe and painful, not really "cruel." To lay the land desolate. As in ver. 5, so here, many would translate ha-arets by "the earth," and understand a desolation extending far beyond Babylonia. But this is not necessary.

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

Behold - Divers words are heaped together, to signify the extremity of his anger.

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

The day of Jehovah's wrath is coming - a starless night - a nightlike, sunless day. "Behold, the day of Jehovah cometh, a cruel one, and wrath and fierce anger, to turn the earth into a wilderness: and its sinners He destroys out of it. For the stars of heaven, and its Orions, will not let their light shine: the sun darkens itself at its rising, and the moon does not let its light shine." The day of Jehovah cometh as one cruelly severe ('aczâri, an adj. rel. from 'aczâr, chosh, kosh, to be dry, hard, unfelling), as purely an overflowing of inward excitement, and as burning anger; lâsūm is carried on by the finite verb, according to a well-known alteration of style (= ūlehashmı̄d). It is not indeed the general judgment which the prophet is depicting here, but a certain historical catastrophe falling upon the nations, which draws the whole world into sympathetic suffering. 'Eretz, therefore (inasmuch as the notions of land generally, and some particular land or portion of the earth, are blended together - a very elastic term, with vanishing boundaries), is not merely the land of Babylon here, as Knobel supposes, but the earth. Verse 10 shows in what way the day of Jehovah is a day of wrath. Even nature clothes itself in the colour of wrath, which is the very opposite to light. The heavenly lights above the earth go out; the moon does not shine; and the sun, which is about to rise, alters its mind. "The Orions" are Orion itself and other constellations like it, just as the morning stars in Job 38:7 are Hesperus and other similar stars. It is more probable that the term cesiil is used for Orion in the sense of "the fool" (= foolhardy),

(Note: When R. Samuel of Nehardea, the astronomer, says in his b. Berachoth 58b, "If it were not for the heat of the cesil, the world would perish from the cold of the Scorpion, and vice versa," - he means by the cesil Orion; and the true meaning of the passage is, that the constellations of Orion and the Scorpion, one of which appears in the hot season, and the other in the cold, preserve the temperature in equilibrium.)

according to the older translators (lxx ὁ ̓Ωρίων, Targum nephilehon from nephila', Syr. gaboro, Arab. gebbâr, the giant), than that it refers to Suhêl, i.e., Canopus (see the notes on Job 9:9; Job 38:31), although the Arabic suhêl does occur as a generic name for stars of surpassing splendour (see at Job 38:7). The comprehensive term employed is similar to the figure of speech met with in Arabic (called taglı̄b, i.e., the preponderance of the pars potior), in such expressions as "the two late evenings" for the evening and late evening, "the two Omars" for Omar and Abubekr, though the resemblance is still greater to the Latin Scipiones, i.e., men of Scipio's greatness. Even the Orions, i.e., those stars which are at other times the most conspicuous, withhold their light; for when God is angry, the principle of anger is set in motion even in the natural world, and primarily in the stars that were created "for signs (compare Gen 1:14 with Jer 10:2).

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.)

All this must happen and at a set time, “for behold the day of Jehovah cometh, terrible, and wrath and heat of anger, to place (or make) the land a waste, and its sinners he (or it, the day) will destroy from it (or out of it).” The moral causes of the ruin threatened are significantly intimated by the Prophet’s calling the people of the earth or land its sinners.

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

the day of Yahweh comes with cruel wrath and overflowing anger

The day coming with wrath and anger means that there will be wrath and anger on that day. The abstract nouns "wrath" and "anger" can be expressed with the adjectives "furious" and "angry." AT: "on the day of Yahweh, he will be furious and extremely angry" (See: Metaphor and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

overflowing anger

Anger here is spoken of as if the one who is angry is a container filled with anger. Overflowing anger means that he is extremely angry. (See: Metaphor)

to make the land a desolation

This can be reworded so that the abstract noun "desolation" is expressed with the verb "ruin." AT: "to ruin the land" (See: Abstract Nouns)

The stars of heaven and the constellations

"The stars in the sky"

will not give their light

Giving light represents "shining." AT: "will not shine" (See: Idiom)

The sun will be darkened

This can be stated in active form. AT: "Yahweh will darken the sun" or "The sun will be dark" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

day of the Lord

wrath

anger

desolate

sin

heaven

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

and its sinners Heb. וְחַטָּאֶיהָ, similar to חוֹטְאֶיהָ.

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.

אכזרי Cruel. The י is paragogic, as in ) not radical but formative; (b) not essential but superfluous. פנימי inner (1 Kings 6:27).

The land, viz., of the Chaldæans.

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.