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.
The day of the Lord cometh, cruel - not strictly, but unsparingly just; opposed to mercy. Also answering, by just retribution in kind, to the cruelty (in the strict sense) of Babylon toward others (Isaiah 14:17), now about to be visited on itself.
To lay the land desolate - `the earth' (Horsley). The language from Isaiah 13:9 to Isaiah 13:13 can only primarily and partially apply to Babylon; fully and exhaustively, the judgments to come hereafter on the whole earth. Compare Isaiah 13:10 with Matthew 24:29; Revelation 8:12. The sins of Babylon, arrogancy (Isaiah 13:11; Isaiah 14:11; Isaiah 47:7-8), cruelty (Isaiah 14:17), false worship (Jeremiah 50:38), persecution of the people of God (Isaiah 47:6), are peculiarly characteristic of the apostate Church-mystical "Babylon the great," "drunken with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus," and the Antichristian world of the latter days (Daniel 11:32-37; Revelation 17:3; Revelation 17:6; Revelation 18:6-7; Revelation 18:9-14; Revelation 18:24).