Isaiah 13:1
1 The burden [massa'] of Babylon,
[Babel] which Isaiah [Yasha`yah] the son [ben] of Amoz ['Amowts] did see. [chazah] KJV-Interlinear
13 The oracle concerning Babylon
which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw. NASB
This chapter begins a
series of prophecies that continue until chapter twenty-three.
All are connected with
the word, ‘massa,’ usually translated burden, but it also means prophecy,
utterance, doom, heavy weight as in a burden too heavy to carry.
This prophecy is intended
to convey the idea of extremely important information that carries with it the
heavy burden of truth, the burden of conveying the information, and certainly the
burden on the target of the information, which in this chapter happens to be
Babylon, that at the time of Isaiah’s writing, did not exist.
Isaiah or 'Jesahiahu'
means salvation of the Lord, from chapter one. And here, ‘Yashayah,’ meaning Jah has saved,
or the Lord has saved. He is the son of
Amoz, and 'strong' is the meaning of his dads name.
During Isaiah’s early life, the nations to the
north were Samaria, which is the northern half of the split nation of Israel,
which also called itself Israel. And
Judah to the south, was the other half of the nation.
Samaria consisted of ten of the tribes of Israel, while
Judah was combined with Benjamin, making up the remainder of the nation.
To the north of Samaria was Syria, and then beyond
that was Assyria. Babylonia, not
Babylon, coexisted within Assyria and those two fought for centuries but never
ruled each other as such.
Later Assyria would succumb to Babylon as Babylon
will become the first empire listed as such by Daniel.
So, this prophecy is a reference to the vast region
to the north, now controlled by several nations, but will end up under the
control of Babylon.
Babylon is also a reference to Babel where a great
apostasy existed in mans attempt to build a tower to make himself equal with
God.
This prophecy is a condemnation of Babylon for its
rejection of God and truth, and for its actions taken in history against Gods
chosen people, which is in effect a rejection and an interference with Gods
plan.
The penalty for this violation does not come
lightly, but is a very heavy and weighty decision to sentence that and those
transgressions to a most severe penalty of total destruction.
The demise of Babylon will occur later, but the
total concept of this prophecy is targeted for the last days of history, as are
most of the prophecies, when Christ returns and totally destroys all evil at
the second advent.
God is patient and even
when given thousands of years of history to get things right, humanity fails
with one nation and empire after another and will continue to do so until the
end of the Tribulation.
Isaiah says that he saw
this prophecy. To see, ‘chazah,’ means
to understand, to comprehend, to gaze, to perceive, to contemplate.
Regardless of how the
specifics of this information came to Isaiah, the point here is that he thought
out its details thoroughly and understood them completely. Thus the burden of the knowledge and of its repercussions
and decisions which the Lord made clear and certain.
There was no doubt in Isaiah’s
mind but that these events were going to occur, without exception. And so he related them within this prophecy
to a people who by in large would ignore them, as history has demonstrated even
up to our current day, and will continue to demonstrate mans indifference right
up until the end of history.
