Isaiah 13:2,3 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Lift up a banner To gather soldiers together for this expedition; upon the high mountain Whence it may be discerned at a considerable distance. Exalt the voice unto them To the Medes, named Isaiah 13:17. Shake the hand Beckon to them with your hand, that they may come to this service. That they may go into the gates of the nobles That they may go and take Babylon, and so may enter into the palaces of the king, and of his princes, and spoil them at their pleasure. I have commanded my sanctified ones Or, my appointed ones, as Dr. Waterland renders מקדשׁי, namely, the Medes and Persians, who were solemnly designed and set apart by God for his service, in this sacred work of executing his just vengeance upon the Babylonians. I have called my mighty ones Those whom I have made mighty for this work; even them that rejoice in my highness Or, exult in my greatness, as Bishop Lowth renders it, that is, in the doing that work which will tend to the advancement of my glory, in destroying the Babylonian empire. Not that the Medes and Persians had any regard to God or to his glory, in undertaking and prosecuting this war: they certainly had only the gratifying their own ambition, and lust of power and empire, in view.