Isaiah 13:18

18 In their hands are bows and spears; they are cruel, violently putting the young men to death, and crushing the young women; they have no pity for children, and no mercy for the fruit of the body.

Isaiah 13:18 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 13:18

[Their] bows also shall dash their young men to pieces,
&c.] That is, the bows of the Medes should dash in pieces the young men of the Babylonians. The meaning is, either that they should put them into their bows, instead of arrows, and shoot them upon the ground, or against a wall, and so dash them to pieces; or that they should first shoot them through with their arrows, and then dash them with their bows; according to Xenophon ^F12, Cyrus came to Babylon with great numbers of archers and slingers: and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb;
even of those that were in the womb, but should rip up women with child, and cut them in pieces: their eyes shall not spare children;
in the arms of their parents, or running to them, shrieking and crying, and in the utmost fright; and yet their tender and innocent age would meet with no mercy. The Medes were notorious for their cruelty ^F13, and which issued at last in the ruin of their empire.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Cyropaedia, l. 2. sect. 1.
F13 Ammian. Marcellin. l. 23. c. 6. Diodor. Sicul. l. 13. p. 342.

Isaiah 13:18 In-Context

16 Their young children will be broken up before their eyes; their goods will be taken away, and their wives made the property of others.

17 See, I am driving the Medes against them, who put no value on silver and have no pleasure in gold.

18 In their hands are bows and spears; they are cruel, violently putting the young men to death, and crushing the young women; they have no pity for children, and no mercy for the fruit of the body.

19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beautiful town which is the pride of the Chaldaeans, will be like God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

20 People will never be living in it again, and it will have no more men from generation to generation: the Arab will not put up his tent there; and those who keep sheep will not make it a resting-place for their flocks.