A Voice of Warning to the Wicked: Comments on Isaiah 13–23

"Isaiah 13–23 contains a collection of 'burdens' or pronouncements upon nations of Isaiah’s time. Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus (Syria), Egypt, and others all came under the prophet’s gloomy oracles of judgment. These chapters may seem like a vengeful series of pronouncements, but in context, these burdens provide significant insights into both the ancient and modern worlds.
"In Isaiah 14 the Lord condemned the wickedness of the house of Israel and prophesied that it would be brought into great judgments because of its evils. Generally these judgments were to be carried out by other nations. We could say: 'Granted that Israel was wicked, but even at her worst she was no worse than her heathen neighbors, and often was much better. Why should she be destroyed and the others escape?'
"The Lord showed through these burdens that the world too would be brought to judgment. Here, as in the previous chapters, Isaiah often used dualism to prophesy simultaneously to his own people and to us in modern times. Though chapters 13–23 were given to nine different nations, giving them notice that the divine timetable for their repentance had run out and that they were to reap the judgments of God, each nation was also a symbol of the modern world. You may feel a spirit of doom associated with the condition and future of Babylon and the other nations, but you should also realize that ancient Babylon with its evil and judgment was a shadow and a type of present-day Babylon, or the world. It is to present-day Babylon that Isaiah delivered the sharpest warnings."

This is the introduction to the notes and commentary on Isaiah chapters 13-23 in the church educational system's institute course on the Old Testament. If you wish to read this, please click on this link.

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