“Look, I will stir up the Medes against Babylon. They cannot be tempted by silver or bribed with 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.
- 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.
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 51:11“Make the arrows sharp! Hold the shields firmly! Yahweh has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it; for it is the vengeance of Yahweh, the vengeance of his temple.
- Dan 5:28–31PERES; your kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
- Isa 41:25“I have raised up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name; and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay.
- Jer 51:27–28“Set 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 Ashkenaz! Appoint a marshal against her! Cause the horses to come up as the rough canker worm!
- Jer 50:9For, behold, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon a company of great nations from the north country; and they will set themselves in array against her. She will be taken from there. Their arrows will be as of an expert mighty man. None of them will return in vain.
- Isa 13:3–5I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.
- Prov 6:34–35For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband. He won’t spare in the day of vengeance.
- Isa 21:2A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media’s sighing.
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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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