Bible Strands
Isaiah 23:13
Look at the land of the Chaldeans—a people now of no account. The Assyrians destined it for the desert creatures; they set up their siege towers and stripped its palaces. They brought it to ruin.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet delivers a judgment oracle against foreign powers, positioning this oracle between pronouncements against Sidon (Isaiah 23:12) and Tarshish (Isaiah 23:14). The words — הֵן (hen) functions as a demonstrative summons to observe, while כַּשְׂדִּים (kasdim) names the Chaldeans, whom the text states were once a people but are now reduced to nothing. The thread — This judgment mirrors the later prophetic theme of God using the Chaldeans as an instrument of destruction (Habakkuk 1:6) and echoes their ancient territorial origins in the Shinar region (Genesis 10:10). Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that human power and fortified cities are subject to divine reversal, requiring the reader to assess national pride against historical outcomes.
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
Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.
Cross-references
- Habakkuk 1:6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans—that ruthless and impetuous nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.
- Genesis 2:14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
- Genesis 10:10 His kingdom began in Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
- Genesis 11:9 That is why it is called Babel, for there the LORD confused the language of the whole world, and from that place the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth.
- Genesis 11:28 During his father Terah’s lifetime, Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
- Genesis 11:31 And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there.
- 2 Kings 17:24 Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns.
- 2 Kings 20:12 At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard about Hezekiah’s illness.
- 2 Chronicles 33:11 So the LORD brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.
- Ezra 4:9 From Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their associates—the judges and officials over Tripolis, Persia, Erech and Babylon, the Elamites of Susa,