to wake (literally or figuratively) · verb, hiphil active participle, masculine singular absolute
Medes
מָדָ֑יma.Dai
H4074
Madai · proper noun, a place name
regard
יַחְשֹׁ֔בוּyach.Shou
H2803
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
silver
כֶּ֙סֶף֙ke.sef
H3701
silver (from its pale color) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
gold
וְזָהָ֖בve.za.Hav
H2091
gold · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
delight
יַחְפְּצוּyach.pe.tzu-
H2654
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 51:11 Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon,…
Daniel 5:28-31 PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
Isaiah 41:25 I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon prince…
Jeremiah 50:9 For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselve…
Jeremiah 51:27-28 Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdom…
Proverbs 6:34-35 For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
Isaiah 13:3-5 I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.
Isaiah 21:2 A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Med…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 13:6-18
We have here a very elegant and lively description of the terrible confusion and desolation which should be made in Babylon by the descent which the Medes and Persians should make upon it. Those that were now secure and easy were bidden to howl and make sad lamentation; for,
I. God was about to appear in wrath against them, and it is a fearful thing to fall into his hands: The day of the Lord is at hand (Isa 13:6), a little day of judgment, when God will act as a just avenger of his own and his people's injured cause. And there are those who will have reason to tremble when that day is at hand. The day of the Lord cometh, Isa 13:9. Men have their day now, and they think to carry the day; but…
Medes-- (Isa 21:2; Jer 51:11, Jer 51:28). At that time they were subject to Assyria; subsequently Arbaces, satrap of Media, revolted against the effeminate Sardanapalus, king of Assyria, destroyed Nineveh, and became king of Media, in the ninth century B.C.
not regard silver--In vain will one try to buy his life from them for a ransom. The heathen XENOPHON (CyropÃ&brvbrdia, 5,1,10) represents Cyrus as attributing this characteristic to the Medes, disregard of riches. A curious confirmation of this prophecy.
John Gill on Isaiah 13:17
Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them,.... The Babylonians; this explains who are meant by the sanctified and mighty ones, Isaiah 13:3 the Medes were a people that descended from Medai, one of the sons of Japheth, Genesis 10:2 as Josephus observes (i); under these the Persians are included, though they are only mentioned, because Cyrus was sent by Cyaxares king of Media on this expedition against Babylon, and was made by him general of the Medes, and acted as such under him; and when Babylon was taken, and Belshazzar slain, Darius the Median took the kingdom, Daniel 5:31 now these are mentioned by name some hundreds of years before the thing came to pass, as Cyrus their general in Is…
(Verse 17) Behold, I will raise up the Medes against them, who do not seek silver and do not desire gold. What was hidden is now revealed: that the mighty and giant ones are not angels or demons, but rather the people of the Medes, whose leader Darius, the first king of the Babylonians, destroyed the empire after killing Balthasar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, who was the son of Evilmerodach. (Daniel 5) However, it is written about the cruelty of the Medes and Persians that they despise gold and silver in their burning desire to shed blood, considering wealth offered to them as worthless dirt.
Therefore, the prophet is commanded to speak to the sons of Ammon, and to their reproach, that they themselves are to be captured, and he directs the same sword speech to them: Oh sword, sword, which is ready for slaughter, which is sharpened, so that you may shine and kill... nevertheless, after completing your work, which you have done against the sons of Ammon, return to your sheath, that is, to Babylon, to the place where you were made and created: so that in the land of your birth I may judge you, and I will pour out my indignation upon you, and you shall be captured by the power of the Medes and Persians. What is said more fully in the book of Isaiah, in a vision against Babylon: Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them. And a little later: And Babylon, that glorious one among kingdoms, renowned for its pride among the Chaldeans, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, it shall never be inhabited until the end.
(Vers. 17, 18.) Behold, I will raise up against them the Medes, who do not seek silver, nor desire gold; but they will kill the small children with arrows, and have no mercy on the infants in the womb, and their eyes will not spare the children. We find in Genesis (Gen. X) that Madai was the founder of the nation of the Medes, which means measure, or from a mighty or strong one. Therefore, against the Babylonians, who are confused in mind, ministers are raised up by the mighty and strong God to punish their strength: to render to each one according to their works. For in the measure that they measured out, it will be measured back to them. The measure they shook up and jumbled and filled to overflowing will be restored to their own bosom (Matthew 16 and Luke 6). Those who will not receive silver or gold, that is, the beauty of eloquence or the sharpness of wit, in which they used to take pride, but will rather suffer punishments, and will not show pity to little ones and infants in the womb, will receive pity themselves. And may we also be awakened by the Lord, and may we be granted this power, that we do not desire silver or gold, or the eloquence and wisdom of the secular world, but that we may slay the children of heretics, and all who have been deceived, with spiritual arrows, that is, with the testimonies of the Scriptures, and may those who are nourished with the milk of error be mercilessly slaughtered, so that they may perish with merciful cruelty, and may we have no pity for their infancy, and may we be worthy of that blessedness: Blessed is he who will hold and dash his little ones against the rock!
Dictionary and topics
Babylon — The Greek form of BABEL; Semitic form Babilu, meaning “The Gate of God.” In the Assyrian tablets it means “The city of the dispersion of the tribes.” The monumental list of its kings reaches back to…
Medes, Media — (middle land). Media lay northwest of Persia proper, south and southwest of the Caspian Sea, east of Armenia and Assyria, west and northwest of the great salt desert of Iran. Its greatest length was…
Archery · Practiced by the Persians — Practiced by the Persians
Babylon · Predictions respecting: Destruction of — Predictions respecting: Destruction of
Cyrus · Prophecies concerning — Prophecies concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Isaiah 13:17
Behold I raise up against them the Medes. The Prophet, having predicted the destruction of the Babylonians, describes also the authors, or says that God will be the author; and at the same time he explains in what manner, and by means of whom, it will be accomplished; for he says that he will raise up the Medes. He certainly could not have conjectured this by human reason, for there were no jealousies and no quarrels between the Babylonians and the Medes; and if there had been any such, what power did the Medes at that time possess that they could do the Babylonians any harm? Seeing, therefore, that no preparations had been made for the Medes carrying on war against them, it is very certain…
With Isa 13:17 the prophecy takes a fresh turn, in which the veil that has hitherto obscured it is completely broken through. We now learn the name of the conquerors. "Behold, I rouse up the Medes over them, who do not regard silver, and take no pleasure in gold." It was the Medes (Darius Medus = Cyaxares II) who put an end to the Babylonian kingdom in combination with the Persians (Cyrus). The Persians are mentioned for the first time in the Old Testament by Ezekiel and Daniel. Consequently Mâdi (by the side of which Elam is mentioned in Isa 21:2) appears to have been a general term applied to the Arian populations of Eran from the most important ruling tribe. Until nearly the end of Hezek…
The Lord is sovereign and controls history. He can stir up kingdoms to execute his will. • The Medes from northwestern Iran joined Persian King Cyrus in fighting against Babylon in 539 BC.
Rashi on Isaiah 13:17
Behold I stir up Media against them Darius the Mede assassinated Belshazzar. So Scripture states (Dan. 5:30): “On that very night, Belshazzar...was slain”; (ibid. 6:1) “And Darius the Mede acquired the kingdom.”
and do not desire gold They do not care [for anything,] but to kill and to avenge the harm the kings of Babylon did to all the peoples.
