Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
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.
- BSB Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who have no regard for silver and no desire for gold.
- 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 51:11Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple.
- Dan 5:28–31PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
- Isa 41:25I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon morter, and as the potter treadeth clay.
- Jer 51:27–28Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillers.
- Jer 50:9For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain.
- Isa 13:3–5I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.
- Prov 6:34–35For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
- Isa 21:2A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.
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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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