Isaiah 13:19
New International Version
Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the pride and glory of the Babylonians, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.

New Living Translation
Babylon, the most glorious of kingdoms, the flower of Chaldean pride, will be devastated like Sodom and Gomorrah when God destroyed them.

English Standard Version
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.

Berean Standard Bible
And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.

King James Bible
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

New King James Version
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

New American Standard Bible
And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

NASB 1995
And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

NASB 1977
And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

Legacy Standard Bible
And it will be that Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the honor of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

Amplified Bible
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.

Christian Standard Bible
And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.

American Standard Version
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And Babel, the power of the Kingdoms and the glory of the majesty of the Chaldeans, shall be as when God overturned Sadom and Amora

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And Babylon, which is called glorious by the king of the Chaldeans, shall be as when God overthrew Sodoma, and Gomorrha.

Contemporary English Version
The city of Babylon is glorious and powerful, the pride of the nation. But it will be like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah after I, the Lord, destroyed them.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And that Babylon, glorious among kingdoms, the famous pride of the Chaldeans, shall be even as the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha.

English Revised Version
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the proud beauty of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God destroyed them.

Good News Translation
Babylonia is the most beautiful kingdom of all; it is the pride of its people. But I, the LORD, will overthrow Babylon as I did Sodom and Gomorrah!

International Standard Version
Babylon, that jewel of kingdoms, the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah, when God overthrew them—

JPS Tanakh 1917
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, The beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, Shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

Literal Standard Version
And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, | The glory, the excellence of the Chaldeans, | Has been as overthrown by God, | With Sodom and with Gomorrah.

Majority Standard Bible
And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.

New American Bible
And Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory and pride of the Chaldeans, Shall become like Sodom and Gomorrah, overthrown by God.

NET Bible
Babylon, the most admired of kingdoms, the Chaldeans' source of honor and pride, will be destroyed by God just as Sodom and Gomorrah were.

New Revised Standard Version
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.

New Heart English Bible
Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

Webster's Bible Translation
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellence, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

World English Bible
Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

Young's Literal Translation
And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, The glory, the excellency of the Chaldeans, Hath been as overthrown by God, With Sodom and with Gomorrah.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
An Oracle Concerning Babylon
18Their bows will dash young men to pieces; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; they will not look with pity on the children. 19And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. 20She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there.…

Cross References
Romans 9:29
It is just as Isaiah foretold: "Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah."

Revelation 18:11
And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, because there is no one left to buy their cargo--

Revelation 18:19
Then they will throw dust on their heads as they weep and mourn and cry out: "Woe, woe to the great city, where all who had ships on the sea were enriched by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been destroyed."

Genesis 19:24
Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah--from the LORD out of the heavens.

Genesis 19:25
Thus He destroyed these cities and the entire plain, including all the inhabitants of the cities and everything that grew on the ground.

Deuteronomy 29:23
All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger.

Isaiah 13:1
This is the burden against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received:


Treasury of Scripture

And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

Babylon.

Isaiah 14:4-6,12-15
That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! …

Jeremiah 51:41
How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!

Daniel 2:37,38
Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory…

when God overthrow.

Genesis 19:24
Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;

Deuteronomy 29:23
And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:

Jeremiah 49:18
As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the LORD, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.

Jump to Previous
Babylon Babylonians Beautiful Beauty Chaldaeans Chaldeans Chalde'ans Chaldees Excellence Excellency Glory God's Gomorrah Gomor'rah Jewel Kingdoms Overthrew Overthrown Pride Sodom Splendor
Jump to Next
Babylon Babylonians Beautiful Beauty Chaldaeans Chaldeans Chalde'ans Chaldees Excellence Excellency Glory God's Gomorrah Gomor'rah Jewel Kingdoms Overthrew Overthrown Pride Sodom Splendor
Isaiah 13
1. God musters the armies of his wrath
6. He threatens to destroy Babylon by the Medes
19. The desolation of Babylon














(19) And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms.--The words paint the impression which the great city, even in Isaiah's time, made upon all who saw it. So Nebuchadnezzar, though his work was mainly that of a restorer, exulted in his pride in the greatness of the city of which he claimed to be the builder (Daniel 4:30). So Herodotus (i. 178) describes it as the most famous and the strongest of all the cities of Assyria, adorned beyond any other city on which his eyes had ever looked. (Compare the descriptive notices in Jeremiah 51:41, and the constantly recurring epithet of "gold-abounding Babylon" in the Persians of ?schylus.)

As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.--The phrase had clearly become proverbial, as in Isaiah 1:9; Jeremiah 50:40; Deuteronomy 29:23, carrying the picture of desolation to its highest point. The present state of the site of Babylon corresponds literally to the prediction. It is "a naked and hideous waste" (Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 484). The work was, however, accomplished by slow degrees, and was not, like the destruction of Nineveh, the result of a single overthrow. Darius dismantled its walls, Xerxes pulled down the Temple of Belus. Alexander contemplated its restoration, but his designs were frustrated by his early death. Susa and Ecbatana, Seleucia and Antioch, Ctesiphon and Bagdad, became successively the centres of commerce and of government. By the time of Strabo (B.C. 20) the work was accomplished, and "the vast city" had become a "vast desolation" (Strabo, xvi. 15). At no time within the range of Old Testament literature did such a consummation come within the range of the forecast which judges of the future by an induction from the past. . . .

Verse 19. - Babylon, the glory of kingdoms. The "glory" of Babylon consisted:

1. In her antiquity. She had been the head of a great empire long before Assyria rose to power.

2. In her origination of literature, architecture, and the other arts, which all passed from her to Assyria, and thence to the other nations of Asia.

3. In her magnificence and the magnificence of her kings, which provoked the admiration of the Assyrians themselves ('Records of the Past,' vol. 9. p. 15). As time went on, she grew in wealth and splendor. Perhaps it was granted to Isaiah to see her in ecstatic vision, not merely such as she was in the time of Sargon under Merodach-Baladan, but such as she became under Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest of her kings, who raised her to the highest pitch or glory and eminence. The beauty of the Chaldees' excellency. The Kaldi appear to have been originally one of the many tribes by which Babylonia was peopled at an early date, From the expression, "Ur of the Chaldees," which occurs more than once in Genesis (Genesis 11:28, 31), we may gather that they were inhabitants of the more southern part of the country, near the coast. The same conclusion may be drawn from the Assyrian inscriptions, especially those of Shalmaneser II. - the Black Obelisk king. The term never became a general name for the Babylonian people among themselves or among the Assyrians; but, somehow-or other, it was accepted in that sense by the Jews, and is so used, not only by Isaiah, but also by the writers of Kings and Chronicles, by Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Habakkuk. As when God overthrew Sodom. Equally sudden and complete as that destruction.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
And Babylon,
בָבֶל֙ (ḇā·ḇel)
Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 894: Babylon -- an eastern Mediterranean empire and its capital city

the jewel
צְבִ֣י (ṣə·ḇî)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 6643: Splendor, a gazelle

of the kingdoms,
מַמְלָכ֔וֹת (mam·lā·ḵō·wṯ)
Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 4467: Kingdom, sovereignty, dominion, reign

the glory
תִּפְאֶ֖רֶת (tip̄·’e·reṯ)
Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 8597: Beauty, glory

of the pride
גְּא֣וֹן (gə·’ō·wn)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 1347: Arrogance, majesty, ornament

of the Chaldeans,
כַּשְׂדִּ֑ים (kaś·dîm)
Noun - proper - masculine plural
Strong's 3778: Chaldeans -- a region of southern Babylon and its inhab

will be
וְהָיְתָ֤ה (wə·hā·yə·ṯāh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

overthrown
כְּמַהְפֵּכַ֣ת (kə·mah·pê·ḵaṯ)
Preposition-k | Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 4114: A destruction

by God
אֱלֹהִ֔ים (’ĕ·lō·hîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

like Sodom
סְדֹ֖ם (sə·ḏōm)
Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 5467: Sodom -- a Canaanite city near the Dead Sea

and Gomorrah.
עֲמֹרָֽה׃ (‘ă·mō·rāh)
Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 6017: Gomorrah -- a city in the Jordan Valley


Links
Isaiah 13:19 NIV
Isaiah 13:19 NLT
Isaiah 13:19 ESV
Isaiah 13:19 NASB
Isaiah 13:19 KJV

Isaiah 13:19 BibleApps.com
Isaiah 13:19 Biblia Paralela
Isaiah 13:19 Chinese Bible
Isaiah 13:19 French Bible
Isaiah 13:19 Catholic Bible

OT Prophets: Isaiah 13:19 Babylon the glory of kingdoms the beauty (Isa Isi Is)
Isaiah 13:18
Top of Page
Top of Page