Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who have no regard for silver and no desire for gold.
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it.
- KJV Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
- NKJV “Behold,I will stir up the Medes against them, Who will not regard silver; And as for gold, they will not delight in it.
- NASB ¶Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them, Who will not value silver or take pleasure in gold.
- NLT “Look, I will stir up the Medes against Babylon. They cannot be tempted by silver or bribed with gold.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God names the Medes as the agents he will rouse against Babylon. The Lord identifies the very instrument of judgment.
Overview
Long before it happened, God foretells that he will 'stir up the Medes,' a people indifferent to the silver and gold they might plunder — and thus unbribable. This precise prophecy was fulfilled when the Medo-Persian forces took Babylon. It displays God's sovereign foreknowledge and his rule over the rise and fall of empires.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Jer 51:11Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His plan is aimed at Babylon to destroy her, for it is the vengeance of the LORD—vengeance for His temple.
- Dan 5:28–31PERES means that your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”
- Isa 41:25I have raised up one from the north, and he has come—one from the east who calls on My name. He will march over rulers as if they were mortar, like a potter who treads the clay.
- Jer 51:27–28“Raise a banner in the land! Blow the ram’s horn among the nations! Prepare the nations against her. Summon the kingdoms against her—Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a captain against her; bring up horses like swarming locusts.
- Jer 50:9For behold, I stir up and bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the land of the north. They will line up against her; from the north she will be captured. Their arrows will be like skilled warriors who do not return empty-handed.
- Isa 13:3–5I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have even summoned My warriors to execute My wrath and exult in My triumph.
- Prov 6:34–35For jealousy enrages a husband, and he will show no mercy in the day of vengeance.
- Isa 21:2A dire vision is declared to me: “The traitor still betrays, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media! I will put an end to all her groaning.”
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 13:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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