Isaiah 13:9-12 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, &c.— The prophet begins here to describe the calamity itself coming upon the Babylonians, but in figures, according to his manner, grand, and adapted to raise a terrible image of that calamity. We have the proposition in the ninth verse, and the enarration of it in the three following. The proposition contains both a confirmation of the approach of the day of the Lord, and a general idea of its sorrowful attributes. The first is set forth in the words, Behold, the day of the Lord cometh; in which the prophet plainly alludes to the sixth verse; and the phrase means, the whole time destined by the divine councils for the chastisement of the Babylonians. See Jeremiah 50:31. The attributes of this day are fierceness, wrath, hot anger, &c. phrases chosen to express in the most lively manner the greatness of the approaching calamity; the first and principal cause whereof he teaches to be the divine justice, about to take severe vengeance upon the Babylonians, whose crimes, we learn from this and other prophets, were particularly pride and luxury, cruelty and inhumanity, idolatry and superstition, and, above all, their sins against the people of God, his religion and sanctuary, and so against God himself. See Jeremiah 24:10; Jeremiah 24:10; Jeremiah 24:10. The enarration of the three following verses is so constructed, that though the basis of the discourse is figurative, yet the proper expressions are mixed with the metaphorical ones. In the 10th verse the calamity to be brought upon the Babylonians is described under the figure of a dreadful tempest, inducing such a face of things in the heavens as the prophet here describes. See Isaiah 13:13. Ezekiel 32:7 and Vitringa's Comment on Revelation 6:12. The general meaning of the prophet is, that a most grievous calamity should come upon the Babylonians, which should deprive them of all light; that is to say, of all joy and consolation, as well as of the causes of them; and should fill them with sorrow and distress, and a fearful sense of the divine wrath poured forth from heaven upon them. See Job 18:5. Besides, that their state and government should be utterly subverted, their religion and polity entirely overthrown. This is meant by the darkening of the stars, the sun, &c. metaphors which are fully explained in the 11th verse; And I will visit upon this evil world, and upon these wicked, their iniquity, &c. We cannot help thinking of the pride of Nebuchadnezzar, and his remarkable fate, when we read the latter part of the 11th verse. Bishop Warburton observes, that the prophetic style seems to be a speaking hieroglyphic. In the tropical hieroglyphics, a star was the symbol of a king or a god; and to convince us that the figurative style of the prophets was derived thence, we should take notice, that they frequently call empires, kings, and nobles, by the names of the heavenly luminaries, the sun, moon, and stars; their temporary disasters or entire overthrows by eclipses and extinctions, and the destruction of the nobility by stars falling from heaven. See Matthew 24:29. The 12th verse admits of a twofold sense: First, that there shall be so great a slaughter, that but few men shall remain, who, on this account, will become extremely precious, and more valuable than gold. The second, that the Medes and Persians should be so cruel and relentless, as not to be induced by any price to spare the Babylonians, so that a man will not be able to redeem his life for even the best gold, the gold of Ophir. Vitringa prefers the last sense, which he thinks is confirmed by the 17th verse.