Isaiah 13:22

And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses,.... The Targum and Syriac version, "in their palaces", and so the Vulgate Latin; or "with their widows", such as have lost their

And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged. The wild beasts of the islands - rather, jackals.

Her time is near to come; so it was, though not according to man’ s rash judgment and impatient expectation, yet according to God’ s estimation, and to the eye of faith, whereby Abraham saw Christ’ s day as present, many ages before it came, : and comparatively; for it happened within two hundred years; which is but a small proportion of time, if it be compared either with the foregoing or following ages of the world, or with the immense duration of eternity, from whence it was decreed by God, and therefore might well be said now to be near the accomplishment of it. In like manner the apostles speak of the day of judgment as near in their time, though it was at many ages distance. Her days shall not be prolonged beyond the time prefixed and appointed by God. Compare .

Isaiah 13:22 And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in [their] pleasant palaces: and her time [is] near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.Ver. 22. And the wild beasts of the islands.] Heb., Ijim - i.e., desolate places and far remote. And her time is near to come.] Though two hundred years hence and more ere it commence. So "Babylon is fallen, is fallen" that is, certo, cito, penitus - surely, shortly, utterly. “ O mora! Christe veni. ” “ O delay, Christ, be come.”

(22) Wild beasts of the islands . . .—The Authorised version rests on a false etymology of the words, which strictly mean “wailers,” and in its form ey probably represents the cry of a wild beast, such as the jackal, with which it is commonly identified (see Isaiah 34:14; Jeremiah 50:39), or, possibly, the hyæna. Perhaps, however, as the word “jackal” is wanting in the next clause, it would be best to keep “wailers.” In their desolate houses.—Literally, as the text stands, among their widows; but the word closely resembles that for “castles” or “fortresses” in Isaiah 32:14; Isaiah 34:13. The Authorised version is either an attempt to combine the two meanings, or to take the word “widow” figuratively, as in Isaiah 47:8, for a house bereaved of its owner. Dragons in their pleasant palaces.—Better, jackals (Isaiah 34:13; Jeremiah 51:37, and elsewhere) in their palaces of pleasure.Her time.—The appointed day of visitation (Jeremiah 46:21; Jeremiah 50:27). The whole passage finds a singular parallel in an inscription of Assurbanipal’s recording his devastation of the fields of Elam: “Wild asses, serpents, beasts of the desert and galhus (bull-shaped demons), safely I caused to lie down in them” (Records of the Past, i., p. 80). Isaiah may have known of such boasts, and if so, his words may have pointed to the working of a law of retribution like that invoked by the Babylonian exiles in Psalms 137:8. The doom that Babylon had inflicted on others was to come upon herself. The language of modern travellers illustrates the fulfilment of the prediction. “Owls start from the scanty thickets, and the foul jackal stalks among the furrows” (Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 484, quoted by Kay).

Verse 22. In their pleasant palaces - "In their palaces"] באלמנותיו bealmenothaiv; a plain mistake, I presume, for בארמנתיו bearmenothaiv. It is so corrected in two MSS., the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate. Πουλυποδεςδ' ενεμοιθαλαμαςφωκαιτεμελαιναι Οικαποιησονταιακηδεα, χητεΐλαων. HOM. Hymn. in Apol. 77. Of which the following passage of Milton may be taken for a translation, though not so designed: - "And in their palaces, Where luxury late reigned, sea monsters whelped, And stabled." Par. Lost, xi. 750. This image of desolation is handled with great propriety and force by some of the Persian poets: - [Arabic] "The spider holds the veil in the palace of Caesar; The owl stands centinel on the watch-tower of Afrasiab." On this quotation Sir W. Jones observes, [Arabic] noubet is an Arabic word, signifying a turn, a change, a watch; hence [Arabic] noubet zudun in Persian signifies to relieve the guards by the sounds of drums and trumpets. Their office is given by the poet to the owl; as that of [Arabic] purdeh dar, or chamberlain, is elegantly assigned to the spider.

22. the wild beasts of the islands] R.V. wolves. The word has certainly nothing to do with that for “island.” It probably comes from another root meaning “to howl”; but again it is impossible to specify the particular animal. their desolate houses] The word is ’almânôth, “widows,” which A.V. following, as so often, Jewish authorities understands figuratively. It is either a by-form or a copyist’s error for ’armìnôthâm, their palaces (see ch. Isaiah 34:13). For dragons render jackals (R.V.).

And the wild beasts of the islands - (איים 'ı̂yı̂ym); see the notes at Isaiah 11:11; Isaiah 41:1, on the word rendered ‘islands.’ The word denotes islands, or coasts, and as those coasts and islands

22. Beasts of the islands — See note on Isaiah 11:11. Literally, the first idea is islands, then coasts, and, on further advance of the conception, some desolate place. Shall cry — As in responsive wailing, like that of jackals.