Isaiah 13:15

Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(15) Every one that is joined unto them.—Better, every one that is caught. The first clause of the verse refers to those that are in the city at the time of its capture, the second to those who are taken as they endeavour to escape.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:6-18 We have here the terrible desolation of Babylon by the Medes and Persians. Those who in the day of their peace were proud, and haughty, and terrible, are quite dispirited when trouble comes. Their faces shall be scorched with the flame. All comfort and hope shall fail. The stars of heaven shall not give their light, the sun shall be darkened. Such expressions are often employed by the prophets, to describe the convulsions of governments. God will visit them for their iniquity, particularly the sin of pride, which brings men low. There shall be a general scene of horror. Those who join themselves to Babylon, must expect to share her plagues, Re 18:4. All that men have, they would give for their lives, but no man's riches shall be the ransom of his life. Pause here and wonder that men should be thus cruel and inhuman, and see how corrupt the nature of man is become. And that little infants thus suffer, which shows that there is an original guilt, by which life is forfeited as soon as it is begun. The day of the Lord will, indeed, be terrible with wrath and fierce anger, far beyond all here stated. Nor will there be any place for the sinner to flee to, or attempt an escape. But few act as though they believed these things.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Every one that is found - In Babylon, or that is overtaken in fleeing from it. This is a description of the capture of the city, and of the slaughter that would ensue, when the invaders would spare neither age nor sex.

Every one that is joined unto them - Their allies and friends. There shall be a vast, indiscriminate slaughter of all that are found in the city, and of those that attempt to flee from it. Lowth renders this, 'And all that are collected in a body;' but the true sense is given in our translation. The Chaldee renders it, 'And every one who enters into fortified cities shall be slain with the sword.'

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15. found—in the city.

joined—"intercepted" [Maurer]. "Every one that has withdrawn himself," namely, to hide in the houses [Gesenius].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

That is found in Babylon, at the taking of it; the expectation whereof made them flee away with all speed.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Every one that is found shall be thrust through,.... With a sword, spear, or lance, and be slain; that is, everyone that is found in the city of Babylon; and so the Targum adds,

"and everyone that is found in it shall be slain;''

so Kimchi, in the midst of it, or without; in the street, as Jarchi. The orders of Cyrus (h) were, that those that were found without (in the streets) should be slain; and to proclaim in the Syriac language, that those that were within doors should continue there, but, if they were found without, they should be put to death; which orders were executed, and well agrees with this prophecy:

and everyone that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword; or "added" unto them; any of other nations that joined them as auxiliaries, see Revelation 18:4 or "that is gathered"; so the Septuagint, "they that are gathered"; that are gathered together in a body to resist the enemy, and defend themselves. Some render the word, "every one that is consumed", with age; neither old nor young, as follows, should be spared. The Targum is,

"everyone that enters into the fortified cities,''

flees there for safety and protection.

(h) Xenophon. Cyropaedia, l. 7. sect. 23.

Geneva Study Bible

Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. Every one that is found] Chiefly the natives of Babylon, who had no land to flee to. The phrase ‘every one that is joined unto them’ is better translated, every one that is caught.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - Every one that is found... every one that is joined unto them; i.e. all the population, both native and foreign. Isaiah 13:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"Every one that is found is pierced through, and every one that is caught falls by the sword." By "every one that is found," we understand those that are taken in the city by the invading conquerors; and by "every one that is caught," those that are overtaken in their flight (sâphâh, abripere, Isaiah 7:20). All are put to the sword. - The third and fourth disasters are plunder and ravage. Isaiah 13:16 "And their infants are dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses plundered, and their wives ravished." Instead of tisshâgalnâh, the keri has the euphemistic term tisshâcabnâh (concubitum patientur), a passive which never occurs in the Old Testament text itself. The keri readings shuccabt in Jeremiah 3:2, and yishcâbennâh in Deuteronomy 28:30, also do violence to the language, which required עם שכב and את (the latter as a preposition in Genesis 19:34) for the sake of euphemism; or rather they introduce a later (talmudic) usage of speech into the Scriptures (see Geiger, Urschrift, pp. 407-8). The prophet himself intentionally selects the base term shâgal, though, as the queen's name Shegal shows, it must have been regarded in northern Palestine and Aramaean as by no means a disreputable word. In this and other passages of the prophecy Knobel scents a fanaticism which is altogether strange to Isaiah.