Bible Strands
Isaiah 13:14
Like a hunted gazelle, like a sheep without a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native land.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Isaiah pronounces God’s judgment on Babylon during the cosmic shaking that accompanies the Lord’s burning anger. The prophecy addresses the impending collapse of social order as divine wrath breaks out.
The words — צְבִי (tz.Vi) translates to gazelle, and מְקַבֵּץ (me.ka.Betz) means gathers or collects. These terms frame the image of scattered people fleeing without leadership or rescue.
The thread — The motif of scattered people returning to their native land appears in 1 Kings 22:17, Jeremiah 50:16, and 1 Kings 22:36. Each reference tracks the same pattern of forced displacement following military or divine judgment.
Why it lands — The text states that individuals will abandon their current location to flee to their native land, describing a breakdown of communal cohesion. It demands acknowledgment that judgment dismantles human alliances and forces isolated survival.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 22:17 So Micaiah declared: “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd. And the LORD said, ‘These people have no master; let each one return home in peace.’”
- Jeremiah 50:16 Cut off the sower from Babylon, and the one who wields the sickle at harvest time. In the face of the oppressor’s sword, each will turn to his own people, each will flee to his own land.
- 1 Kings 22:36 As the sun was setting, the cry rang out in the army: “Every man to his own city, and every man to his own land!”
- Jeremiah 51:9 “We tried to heal Babylon, but she could not be healed. Abandon her! Let each of us go to his own land, for her judgment extends to the sky and reaches to the clouds.”
- Isaiah 17:13 The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale.
- Isaiah 47:15 This is what they are to you—those with whom you have labored and traded from youth—each one strays in his own direction; not one of them can save you.
- Revelation 18:9 Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her.