Yesaya 13:18-19

13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; ¹ 

they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, ² 

they will not ³  look with pity on children.

13:19 Babylon, the most admired ⁴  of kingdoms,

the Chaldeans’ source of honor and pride, ⁵ 

will be destroyed by God

just as Sodom and Gomorrah were. ⁶ 

[13:18]  ¹ tn Heb “and bows cut to bits young men.” “Bows” stands by metonymy for arrows.

[13:18]  ² tn Heb “the fruit of the womb.”

[13:18]  ³ tn Heb “their eye does not.” Here “eye” is a metonymy for the whole person.

[13:19]  ⁴ tn Or “most beautiful” (NCV, TEV).

[13:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “the beauty of the pride of the Chaldeans.”

[13:19]  sn The Chaldeans were a group of tribes who lived in southern Mesopotamia. The established the so-called neo-Babylonian empire in the late seventh century b.c. Their most famous king, Nebuchadnezzar, conquered Judah in 605 b.c. and destroyed Jerusalem in 586 b.c.

[13:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “and Babylon…will be like the overthrow by God of Sodom and Gomorrah.” On מַהְפֵּכַת (mahpekhat, “overthrow”) see the note on the word “destruction” in 1:7.