Isaiah 13:13-16 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Therefore I will shake the heavens— Every one who reads and compares these words with those preceding, must observe, that they contain an explanation of what the prophet had said concerning the mighty storm to be raised against the Babylonians; so that here the same subject is continued and amplified. The same figure is employed in the 13th verse, setting forth the manifestation of the divine justice as the cause of the calamity, the effects of which are related in the following verses; and in the 14th the fear and flight of the Babylonians, in consequence of that fear. And every one shall be as a goat driven away, and as sheep whom no man takes the pains to collect together. They shall look every man to his own people, and shall flee every one to his own land. The metaphor is taken from a dispersed flock of timid sheep and goats; and the prophet refers to those inhabitants in Babylon who were of different nations, and had settled there. See Jeremiah 50:28. The next effect is, the slaughter and desolation of those who should be found; Isaiah 13:15-16. Every one that is joined unto them, according to some, means those soldiers who were called in and hired to their assistance: see Jeremiah 50:30-32. Vitringa, however, seems to prefer the interpretation of Kimchi, who renders it, And every one who is fainting [sick or near to death]: as if the prophet had said, "Not only they who are found, who are at hand, strong and in health, shall be thrust through with the sword, but also the fainting and dying: who, though in a state without hope to escape death, will not be able to obtain from the cruel conqueror, that they may pay this debt to nature. They too shall fall by his bloody and relentless hand."