Isaiah 13:18

18 sed sagittis parvulos interficiant et lactantibus uteri non misereantur et super filios non parcat oculus eorum

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.


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 infantes eorum adlident in oculis eorum diripientur domus eorum et uxores eorum violabuntur
17 ecce ego suscitabo super eos Medos qui argentum non quaerant nec aurum velint
18 sed sagittis parvulos interficiant et lactantibus uteri non misereantur et super filios non parcat oculus eorum
19 et erit Babylon illa gloriosa in regnis inclita in superbia Chaldeorum sicut subvertit Deus Sodomam et Gomorram
20 non habitabitur usque in finem et non fundabitur usque ad generationem et generationem nec ponet ibi tentoria Arabs nec pastores requiescent ibi
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