ISAIAH 13:5 “Are coming from a distant land, from the end of the heavens (the distant horizon), Jehovah and (the) weapons of His wrath, to destroy all the land (of Babylon)."
Barnes Commentary.- The assembled armies of the Medes and Persians, called “the weapons of His indignation,” because by them He will accomplish the purposes of His anger against the city of Babylon- to destroy the whole land. The whole territory of Babylonia or Chaldea, not only the city, but the nation and kingdom.
Young Commentary.- From a point remote as the eye can see, even where the vault of heaven seems to touch the earth, comes the enemy host. Persia is this land afar.
At their head is the God of Israel, Jehovah of hosts, and under His command are the instruments wherewith He executes His wrath. Great was the Babylonian empire; indeed, in all world history it was the first of empires, and in its destruction all the earth had been involved.
Calvin Commentary.- Babylon was so strongly fortified, and was surrounded as if there were no way by which an enemy could approach.
Though everything appears to be calm and peaceful, God can bring enemies from the end of the heaven. If this prediction had reached the inhabitants of Babylon, they would undoubtedly have laughed at it as a fable. Even if we should suppose that they paid some respect to the Prophets, yet, having so strong a conviction of their safety, they would have disposed those threatens as idle and groundless. So great is the insensibility of men that they cannot be aroused, unless they are chastised and made to feel the blows.
Henry Commentary.- The summons given them is effectual, their obedience ready, and they made a very formidable appearance: A banner is lifted up upon the high mountain. God’s standard is set up, a flag of defiance hung out against Babylon. It is erected on high, where all may see it; whoever will may come and enlist themselves under it, and they shall be taken immediately into God’s pay. Those who recruit for volunteers must exult the voice in making proclamation, to encourage soldiers to come in; they must shake the hand, to beckon those at a distance and to animate those that have enlisted themselves. And they shall not do this in vain; God has commanded and called those whom He designs to make use of and power goes along with His calls and commands, which cannot be resisted. It is the Lord of hosts that musters the hosts of the battle. He raises them, brings them together, puts them in order, reviews them, has an exact account of them in His muster-roll, sees that they be all in their respective posts, and gives them their necessary orders. Note, all the hosts of war are under the command of the Lord of hosts; and that which makes them truly formidable is that, when they come against Babylon, the Lord comes, and brings them with Him as the weapons of His indignation.
ISAIAH 13:6 “Howl! For the day of Jehovah (is) near; as destruction from the Almighty (who has all power) it shall come. Therefore, all hands shall droop and every heart of man shall melt (as the heralds bring word of the invasion); and they shall be afraid (courage will fail); pangs and sorrows shall seize them; as one giving birth they shall be in pain...’”
Biblical authors also attempt to impress on their audiences the emotional impact of the Day of the Lord by describing the reactions of those who experience God’s activity. For those who suffer under God’s judgment, the reaction is usually described in terms of traditional ancient Near Eastern mourning practices, such as wearing sackcloth, sitting on the ground, wailing loudly and throwing dust or ashes on oneself.
Finally, the Day of the Lord will be a day in which the oppressed people of God will experience deliverance. This is often described in terms including victory in battle; reoccupation of territory; rebuilding of dwellings and rejoicing.
ISAIAH 13:8 “’…a man to his neighbor, they shall be amazed; faces of flames (will be) their faces (red hot with fear of God’s judgments).’”
Barnes Commentary.- They shall look to each other for aid, and shall meet in the countenances of others the same expressions of wonder and consternation. Their faces shall be as flames. Their faces shall glow or burn like fire. When grief and anguish come upon us, the face becomes inflamed. The face in fear is usually pail. But the idea here is not so much that of fear as of anguish; and, perhaps, there is mingled also here the idea of indignation against their invaders.
Young Commentary.- Then will one man look at another and will fall into wonder, for the faces of all will be as flames, glowing red from embarrassment and lack of counsel. All are in the same predicament, and one looks with stupefaction at their condition. All countenances are red, not merely from crying, but glowing from fear. The enemy has come and with him destruction. Here is a picture of the greatest fear which reveals a burning glow both within and on the countenance.
Oswalt Commentary (Expounded).- They will stare at each other in an agony of both indecision and recognition. The recognition will be that everything in which they had reposed their trust had deserted them and they are stripped defenseless before God’s piercing gaze. Probably it is this shame of having trusted in the wrong resources that accounts for the flaming faces, in that terror alone would be expected to produce paleness. All of this should provoke the modern reader to ask, “In what am I trusting to defend me before the Almighty?” There can be no other answer than that of the hymn writer: “Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless I stand before the throne.”
ISAIAH 13:9 “’Behold, the day of Jehovah, comes, cruel, and (with) wrath and heart of anger (“denoting the most intense indignation”), to lay the land waste.’”
Barnes Commentary (Expounded).- This does not mean that God is cruel (“For He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men” Lam. 3:35), but that the day of Jehovah’ that was coming should be unsparing and destructive to them. It would be the exhibition of justice, but not of cruelty; and the world stands opposed here to mercy, and means that God would not spare them.
ISAIAH 13:9 “’And its sinners He (God) shall destroy out of it.’”
Barnes Commentary.- When he says, and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it, he means by sinners not all men without distinction, but the ungodly and wicked men who inhabited Babylon.
ISAIAH 13:10 “’For the stars of the heavens and their constellations shall not shine their light the sun is dark in its going forth and the moon shall not reflect its light.’”
Barnes Commentary.- “For the stars of heaven and their constellations shall not shine their light.” This verse cannot be understood literally, but is metaphorical representation of the calamities that were coming upon Babylon. The meaning of the figure evidently is, that those calamities would be such as would be appropriately denoted by the sudden extinguishment of the stars, and sun and the moon.
ISAIAH 13:11 “’And I (Jehovah) will visit evil on the world, and on the wicked their iniquity. And I will make cease the arrogance of proud ones, and the pride of tyrants I will bring low...’”
Calvin Commentary.- Arrogance was joined, as it usually is, to violence and cruelty; and therefore he adds the loftiness of tyrants; fore when men despise others, this is followed by deeds of violence and injustice and oppression; and it is impossible for men to abstain from doing harm to others, if they do not lay aside all conceit and high estimation of themselves. Let us willingly, therefore, bring down our minds to true humility, if we do not wish to be cast down and laid low to our destruction.
("A case in point would be Hitler’s thousand-year Reich which ended in complete destruction hardly more than ten years after he proclaimed it.")
ISAIAH 13:12 “’I (Jehovah) will make a man more rare than gold; and a man than fine gold of Ophir (a district which was known for its fine gold).’”
Verse 13 “’Therefore, the heavens I will shake, and shall move the earth out of its place, in the wrath of Jehovah of hosts, and in the day of the heart of His anger. And it shall be as a chased Gazelle; and as a sheep and none gathers; each man to his people they shall look, and each one, to his land they shall flee. Everyone who is found shall be pierced (as brother turns against brother); and everyone who is caught (by the Medes and Persians) by the sword shall fall.'”
Verse 16 “’And their children (fig. representation of their heritage and posterity) shall be dashed before their eyes; their houses (which have been filled with deceit) shall be robbed and their wives raped (fig., cities or churches seized and violently abused – through the factions intermingled within).’”
Verse 17 “’Behold, I (Jehovah) stir up against them (the center of a formidable underground political world power of organized crime setting its sights on a bid for world dominion) the Medes, who shall not reckon silver, and shall not delight in it gold (they will not be found guilty of plundering). And, young men bows shall dash to pieces; and the fruit of the womb (fig., representing their posterity and future heritage) not they shall pity; on sons (builders of their family name) not their eye shall spare.”
Verse 19 “And shall be Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the pride of the Chaldeans as when overthrew God Sodom and Gomorrah (completely and entirely overthrown) not it shall be inhabited forever, and not it shall be lived in to generation and generation.”
Barnes Commentary.- It does not mean that it shall be overthrown in the same manner as Sodom was, but that it should be as completely and entirely ruined.
ISAIAH 13:20 “And not there shall the Arabian pitch (a) tent (for Babylon is an unfit abode for a resting place), and not shepherds shall make (flocks) lie there. But shall lie there (wild and uncontrollable) desert creatures. And shall be full their houses of howling creatures, and shall dwell there daughters of ostriches; and he goats shall skip there. And shall cry hyenas with his widows and jackals in palaces of delight, and near to come (is) her time, and her days not shall be prolonged.”
Dragons shall hiss and hungry wolves hall howl;
In courts before by might lords possess’d
The serpent shall erect his speckled crest,
Or fold his circling spires to rest.
Leopards and all the rav’ning brotherhoods
That range the plains, or lurk in woods,
Each other shall invite to come,
And make this wilder place their home.
Fierce beasts of every frightful shape and size
shall settle here their bloody colonies.
-Sir R. Blackmoore
Barnes Commentary.- The idea here is that Babylon, so far from being occupied as a permanent residence for any people, would be unfit even for a resting place. It would be so utterly desolate, so forsaken, and so unhealthy, that the caravan would not even stop there for a night. What a change this from its former splendor! How different from the time when it was the place of magnificent palaces, when strangers flocked to it, and when people from all nations were collected there!
Young Commentary.- Not even for a transitory dwelling place will Babylon be sought. The nomads who wander in the desert will not choose her, nor will shepherds use her for a pasturing place. Can there be a stronger picture of utter forsakenness? The world city is gone, and only wilderness remains. When we doubt the power of our God, let us look to the wilderness where Babylon one was. So will He judge the wicked?
Using the very word of the preceding verse, Isaiah brings in a strong contrast. Shepherds will not cause their flocks to pasture in Babylon, but there will lie down there desert creatures, animals of the steppe (arid clearing) and wilderness (animals whose home is in the desert). There will also be houses, but they will be the houses of desert beings. Yelping creatures will fill them.
Once in Babylon’s palaces there was song and merriment, now the shrieking and howl of wild animals.
Babylon’s palaces! Those houses of pleasure have long since departed. Once they were temples of delight, but when judgment strikes, jackals will howl there. Babylon’s time for judgment is near at hand. It will not delay. Will Babylon take the warning? The days of her existence, in which she may continue as a mighty city, are numbered days. May all who read these lines turn to the Lord of all power in humble supplication for mercy?
Calvin Commentary.- Now the country around Babylon was exceedingly fertile before that calamity, which rendered this change the more astonishing and almost miraculous, either because the place lost its former fertility, or because the constant slaughter made all men abhor the sight of it. Undoubtedly the Prophet means that not only will the building be thrown down, but the very soil will be accursed.
Oswalt Commentary.- This verse speaks of the lack of human population. The point would not be disproven if from time to time Bedouin tents were set up within the confines of what was once Babylon. The point is that humanity cannot sustain itself by itself. It cannot expect in its own strength to produce more and more of everything until it fills the earth. There has come the day, again and again, in war, in famine, or in pestilence when a self-sufficient portion of humanity has been brought fact to face with its insufficiency. Thus far, in His mercy, God as allowed the torch to be passed to other civilizations, but as we move more and more toward a global society, Babylon’s burden becomes more and more the word addressed to the entire earth. God’s glory will fill the earth, not humanity’s. If we will not learn that voluntarily, we must learn it involuntarily.
Although precise identification of many of the animals mentioned in these verses is difficult, the general sense is clear enough. These are animals which inhabit dark and lonely settings. There is something vaguely ominous about many of them. The mighty city is silent except for the hoots and howls of the night-dwellers. The lovely palaces and mighty fortresses alike have become the home of the jackals and hyenas who can only feed on the carrion left behind when the lions have eaten their fill. How are the mighty fallen!
The result of Babylon’s overthrow will be the promised deliverance (for the nation Israel).
Barnes Commentary.- “But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there.” This word denotes properly those animals that dwell in dry and desolate places. They feed upon dead carcasses, and live in the woods, or in desert places, and are remarkable for their howl. Their yell resembles that of infants. “And their houses shall be full of doleful creatures.” “The owls shall dwell there.” The owl is a well-known bird that dwells only in obscure and dark retreats, giving a doleful screech, and seeking its food only at night. The Hebrew does not particularly denote the kind of bird intended, but means those that are distinguished for their sound- “the daughters of sound or clamor.” The ostrich is a sly and timorous creature, delighting in solitary barren deserts. In the night they frequently make a very doleful and hideous noise; sometimes groaning as if they were in the greatest agonies.
DESERT.- The desert is a dry place, were water is rarely found. Nevertheless, animals do live there. Perhaps the most common reference to the desert attempts to characterize the effect this land has upon man. It is a barren and terrifying place, where man does not, cannot live easily. It is lonely, sometimes characterized by a solitude that is threatening and frightening to man. It is desolate, and is often used to symbolize the desolation that will come upon the enemies of the nation Israel.
“The design of the Prophet is to show that the solitude within Babylon would be great- it would be a place deserted by men; for the wicked avail themselves of the tendency of solitary places to produce terror as enemies and robbers, by sallying forth from concealed lurking-places, to frighten men and more, so these creatures take advantage of the night and the darkness, and of places distant from the view of men, that they may be able to excite greater terror in the common man.”
Oswald Commentary.- “Shall dwell there desert creatures with jackals (or hyenas). These are animals which inhabit dark and lonely settings. There is something vaguely ominous about many of them. The mighty city is silent except for the hoots and howls of the night-dwellers.
HYENA.- The hyena is a striped scavenger that looks like a fox. Once numerous in Palestine, the hyena appears only at night. Because of it
scavenger activities of
digging up graves to
devour dead bodies, the
hyena was a repulsive animal in the ancient world. They were easily tamed, and the Egyptians kept them as pets.
Members of the dog family, hyenas have square snouts and powerful jaws. They run down prey and may even attach human beings. The Israelites hated hyenas and considered them unclean because they are scavengers. There eerie howls sound like demented laughter.
Animals as Signs of Desolation. As is true in some cultures today, the appearance of certain animals is regarded as an omen. Frequently these animals are ones whose nighttime calls seem to be messages from the spirit world (owls, hyenas’, frogs) or who themselves seem to be acting as messengers or animals that by habit already possess negative associations with death. Passages in Scripture, in describing he desolation of once inhabited cities, sometimes include among “real” animals reference to mythological creatures that frolic and cry in the ruins. Our post-Enlightenment cultural outlook requires us to distinguish between real and mythical animals; however the ancient poets were under no such constraint. To them some animals held evil associations. Some demons appeared as animals, as when frogs represent unclean spirits. The variation in translation of some animal names reflects the difficulty in identifying these creatures- consider the various translations of “litith” as “night hag” or “screech owl” in Isaiah- but generally their symbolic import is clear enough from the context, and parallelism provides additional hints as well. –
Dictionary of Biblical ImageryAnimals as Dangerous. The Bible names many animals simply because the mere mention of them evokes fear. Their fierce behavior is likened to the dealings of God, enemies or wicked individuals. The predatory armies of Babylon resemble frightful animals. They are swifter than cheetahs, fiercer than wolves. Their horsemen fly from afar like vultures and are as swift as eagles. The imagery implies that the victims of war are a prey.
– Dictionary of Biblical ImageryHYENA.- The
hyena is a scavenging carnivore larger than a wolf. It is about forty inches long, with a very powerful head and forequarters and rather sloping back. It is largely a nocturnal scavenger, though were there is plenty of game it is now know to do more actual hunting than was thought possible. In some countries it was the custom to encourage
hyenas to
remove refuse from compounds and villages, and
even human bodies were left exposed, who no trace being left by morning. Hyenas must have been know to the Israelites to whom their habits would make them unspeakable unclean, but in a land peopled by a nation having a hygienic code far in advance of its times hyenas would have found fewer pickings than in the countries around.
Usually
feeding on putrefying flesh of the dead, occupying deserted human habitations, the hyena was regarded as cowardly and cruel. Its cry is a disagreeable, unearthly sound.
The jaws and teeth of the hyena are exceedingly powerful enabling them to crack and eat bones which even lions cannot manage. Its dens are in desolate places and are littered with fragments of skeletons. They are able to digest bone completely, and they will regurgitate the parts of the animal that they cannot digest. They feed mainly on the remains of the remains of dead animals, often the uneaten part of a lions’ kill. They also eat small creatures and may even feed on fruit. These animals generally live alone, or in small groups. They usually catch very young or sick prey. Hyenas can run at speeds of up to 60 kmph (37 mph) for short distances. If lions and spotted hyenas are seen feeding together, it is likely that the hyenas, not the lions, have made the kill.
In many regions they depend for food on the remains of carcasses left by larger carnivores. The spotted hyena is the most robust and daring of the hyenas, and when food is scarce it has been known to attack sleeping people and to carry off young children. It produces both a wailing and a “laughing” call.
ISAIAH 13:20 “But shall lie there
(in Babylon) (wild and uncontrollable) desert creatures. And shall be full their houses of howling creatures
(yelping scavengers), and shall dwell there daughters of ostriches; and he goats shall skip there. And shall cry
hyenas with his widows and
jackals in palaces of delight, and near to come (is) her time, and her days not shall be prolonged.”
(Criminal Pathologist)
JACKAL.- The word rendered “jackal” are consistently used to conjure images of ruin and desolation, of crying in the night. When a city becomes abandoned, the harbingers (forerunners) of doom that have lurked on the outskirts move in. It becomes the haunt of the jackals along with ominous birds and evil spirits.
– Dictionary of Biblical Imagery
JACKAL.- The prophet Isaiah spoke of jackals – wild dogs that make their dens in desolated places. As scavengers, jackals also feed on garbage in towns and villages in Bible times.
Jackals have an unpleasant smell, and they make a yapping and howling noise at night. They are also agricultural pests. Its food is small mammals, poultry, fruit, vegetables, etc. Canaanite farmer’s put up shelters for watchmen, who guarded their cucumber fields against jackals. Some farmers heaped up whitewashed stone to frighten the jackals, just as scarecrows are used in other places.
The jackal is a flesh-eating animal- a noisy animal, characterized by a nightly wailing.
Jackals usually go about in packs of up to a dozen, feeding mostly at night, and it is interesting that in all cases the Hebrew word is plural. The jackal is basically a scavenger, living rather as a hyena in game country, where it can clean up after the larger carnivores have killed. Several times it is prophesied that lands. Like Babylon, shall become the haunt of jackals.
Times.- “Medical students learn anatomy from cadavers, and in the post they got them on the sly, digging up fresh graves. In April 1788 a student at New York City hospital jokingly told a boy that he was dissecting the boy’s mother. When the boy’s father found that her coffin had been robbed, the discovery set off two days of uproar. Many of New York’s doctors hid in the city jail, where they were defended by local civic leaders, including diplomat John Jay. A mob pelted them with stones, knocking Jay unconscious. Only a volley from the militia, which killed three rioters, dispersed the crowd. The people of New York acknowledged, as a petition against grave robbing put it, that dissection served the ‘benefit of mankind.’ But they didn’t want their loved ones ‘mangled…out of wanton curiosity…’ After the riot, the state legislature appeased the public by giving doctors the corpses of executed criminals.”
(Above)
The god Anubis.- The ancient Egyptian god of the dead, represented by a jackal or the figure of a man with the head of a jackal. He enjoyed a prominent (though not exclusive) position as lord of the dead.
His particular concern was with the funerary cult (those associated with burial, a place in which dead bodies are kept until burial) and the care of the dead: hence he was reputed to be the inventor of embalming, in his later role as the “conductor of souls.”
The Egyptians invented embalming. They believed that the state of the soul in the afterlife was directly dependent upon the preservation of the body.
Burial constituted the biblical procedure from the days of the earliest patriarchs onward. For a corpse to remain unburied or to be exhumed subsequent to burial, and thus become food for beast of prey, was the climax of indignity or judgment. Uncovered blood cried for vengeance and brought defilement upon the whole land. Even criminals were to be allowed burial; and it was an obligation resting upon all to bury the dead found by the way.
Jackal.- The Jackal is a nocturnal animal that usually conceals themselves by day in brush or thickets and venture forth at dusk to hunt. They live alone, in pairs, or in packs and feed on whatever small animals, plant material, or carrion (dead and putrefying flesh) is available. They follow lions and other large cats in order to finish a carcass when the larger animal has eaten its fill. When hunting in packs, they are able to bring down prey in as large as an antelope or sheep.
They sing at evening; their cry is considered more dismaying to human ears than that of the hyena. They have an offensive odor cause by the secretion of a glad at the base of the tail.
ISAIAH 13:21 “But shall lie there (wild and uncontrollable) desert creatures. And shall be full their houses of howling creatures (yelping scavengers), and shall dwell there daughters of ostriches; and he goats shall skip there. And shall cry hyenas with his widows and jackals in palaces of delight, and near to come (is) her time, and her days not shall be prolonged.”
Mounce Commentary.- Although precise identification of many of the animals mentioned in these verses is difficult, the general sense is clear enough. These are animals which inhabit dark and lonely settings. There is something vaguely ominous about many of them. The mighty city is silent except for the hoots and howls of the night-dwellers. The lovely palaces and mighty fortresses alike have become the home of the jackals and hyenas who can only feed on the carrion left behind when the lions have eaten their fill.
Calvin Commentary.- Isaiah continues the description of a desert place, and alludes to what he had formerly said, that Babylon will be destitute of inhabitants.
The design of the Prophet is to show that the solitude will be great; for evil men avail themselves of the tendency of solitary places to produce terror. As enemies and robbers, by sallying forth from concealed lurking- places, frighten men and more, so evil men take advantage of the night and darkness, and of places distant from the view of men, that they may be able to excite greater terror in those who are naturally timorous.
“And shall be full their houses of howling creatures (yelping scavengers).” He expresses the same thing as had been formerly said, and shows how dreadful that change will be, in order to make it manifest that it proceeds from the judgment of God, and not from chance. The picture is even heightened by adding that this will take place not in ordinary buildings, but in delightful palaces. While the shortness of time which is here laid down refers to the approaching calamity, it was at the same time necessary that the hope of believers should be held longer in suspense. I have said that Babylon was not so speedily overturned, and that the Medes did not inflict such a calamity upon it that it could be compared to a desert. He therefore said that it would quickly happen, because the beginnings of it were soon afterwards seen; for the people of God ought to have been satisfied with knowing that the punishment had not been threatened without good grounds.
Henry Commentary.- Nay, it (Babylon) shall be the receptacle of wild beasts that affect solitude; the houses of Babylon, where the sons and daughters of pleasure used to rendezvous, shall be full of doleful creatures, that are themselves frightened thither, as to a place proper for them, and by whom all others are frightened thence. Historians say that this was fulfilled in the letter. Benjamin Bar-Jona, in his itinerary, speaking of Babel which was of old thirty miles in breadth; it is now laid waste. There are yet to be seen the ruins of a palace of Nebuchadnezzar, but the sons of man dare not enter in, for fear of serpents and scorpions, which possess the place.” Let none be proud of their pompous palaces, for they know not but they may become worse than cottages; nor let anything that their houses shall endure forever, when perhaps nothing many remain but the ruins and reproaches of them.
Shall dwell their the daughters of the ostriches – lit., “daughters of crying: or “daughters of shouting”, from the root, making a hideous noise- symbolizing a heartless people- least under the law of natural affection who often contented most for the law of self preservation.
(Som'er forsaken eggs of the communal group)
The Ostrich
Ostriches live in family groups consisting of one cock and several hens. During breeding season, the male will mate with the dominant female and one to four other hens. Each hen lays between two and eleven creamy white eggs in a communal nest which can be nearly 10 ft (3 m) across and is simply a hollow in the ground formed by scraping and body weight. When egg laying is complete there are usually ten to forty or more eggs in the nest; the most ever recorded was seventy-eight. Only about twenty can be incubated, however, so the dominant hen will reject any surplus eggs by pushing them out of the nest. She always ensures, however, that her own eggs remain.Note that what we have here is a perfect example of the ostrich leaving -- indeed, forsaking -- the eggs "belonging" to her as dominant hen of the communal group, to the dust out where they can be trod upon.
So it seems momma is "hardened" against her young ones after all.
Barnes Commentary.- “She is hardened against her young ones.” The obvious meaning of this passage, which is a fair translation of the Hebrew, is that the ostrich is destitute of natural affection for her young; or that she treats them as if she had not the usual natural affection manifested in the animal creation. The ostrich has not that apprehension or provident care for her young which other birds have. She has not the wisdom imparted to her which has been conferred on other animals. Particularly, though apparently so weak, and timid, and unwise, the ostrich had a noble bearing, and when aroused, would scorn the fleetest horse.
Henry Commentary.- Care of herself. She leaves her eggs in danger, but, if she herself be in danger, no creature shall strive more to get out of the way of it than the ostrich. Those that are least under the law of natural affection often contend most for the law of self-preservation.
The New Interpreters Bible (Paraphrased).- The strange lack of parental concern displayed by the ostriches, so alien to the nature of humans, was used to symbolize the collapse of elemental social bounds in a destroyed community.
OSTRICH.- Name meaning: Daughter of the greedy one or daughter of the barren ground, or white, barren ground.
These birds came into the Bible because of their desert life, the companions they lived among there, and because of their night cries that were guttural, terrifying groans, like the roaring of lions. The birds were brought into many pictures of desolations, because people dreaded their fearful voices.
Their homes were on the trackless deserts that were dreaded by travelers, and when they came feeding on the fringe of the wilderness, they fell into company with the vulture, eagle, lion, jackal and adder, and joined their voices with the night hawks and owls. For these reasons no birds were more suitable for drawing strong comparisons from.
When Isaiah predicted the fall of Babylon, he used these words: “But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there.” (Isaiah 13:21) This was to be the destruction of a great city, located on the Euphrates River and built by the fertility and prosperity of the country surrounding it, and the ruins of those homes would be the home of the ostrich. The wild goats clambering over the ruins would be natural companions and the sneaking wolves.
(Above: "he-goat" Satyrs) ISAIAH 13:21 "And shall be full their houses of howling creatures
(yelping scavengers), and shall dwell there daughters of ostriches; and he
goats (symbolizing, the ones selected to carry all the sins of the people to a place of no return) shall skip there. And shall cry
hyenas with his widows and
jackals in palaces of delight, and near to come (is) her time, and her days not shall be prolonged.”
Satyrsā'tər, săt'ər, in Greek mythology, part bestial, part human creature of the forests and mountains. Satyrs were usually represented as being very hairy and having the tails and ears of a horse and often the horns and legs of a goat.
Satyrs have earned a reputation for naughtiness that has made them legendary over the centuries connected with the luxuriant vital powers of nature.
They were lustful, fertile creatures, always merrily drinking and dancing. They roamed the woods and mountains, living in a woodsy version of the Playboy Mansion. They have been described as a race good for nothing and unfit for work being drunken, lustful, and not very smart.
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word sa’ir is found about fifty-two times. It is related to the term se’ar (“hair”), which means a “hairy one.” Mostly the word is used of the male goat that was employed as a sin-offering – especially that solemn sin-offering of the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16).
The Scapegoat –All of the guilt of the people was symbolically placed on the head of the scapegoat, who was then taken out into the wilderness and released.
The original meaning of scapegoat was escape goat, the goat that was allowed to "escape" with its life. He is as guilty as guilty can be, and he deserves everything that's coming to him, instead of being punished it was released into the desert, symbolically carrying with it the sins of the people to a place of no return.
On the Day of Atonement, the scapegoat, symbolically bore the sins of the people of Israel and was sent into the wilderness.
The idea behind the scapegoat is that he is to be sent out into the desert, separated from the people "as far as the east is from the west." That the sin is now returned to him, or put back upon him. This interpretation would mean the guilty party pays for the sin, but was also connected to ritual purification.
In a reconstruction of the scapegoat theory one person is singled out as the cause of trouble and is expelled or killed by the group. This person is the scapegoat. Social order is restored as people are contented that they have solved the cause of their problems by removing the scapegoated individual, and the cycle begins again.
When used as a metaphor, a scapegoat is someone selected to bear blame for a calamity. Scapegoating is the act of holding a person, group of people, or thing responsible for a multitude of problems. Related concepts include frame-up, patsy, whipping boy and fall guy.
Scapegoating is an important tool of deceptively distorting information to mislead the public in singling out a group of individuals as the source of moral woes and social/political collapse.
A tactic often employed is to characterize an entire group of individuals according to the unethical or immoral conduct of a small number of individuals belonging to that group, also known as guilt by association.
"Scapegoated" groups throughout history have included almost every imaginable group of people: adherents of different religions, people of different races or nations, people with different political beliefs, or people differing in behavior from the majority. However, scapegoating may also be applied to organizations, such as governments, corporations, or various political groups.
Mobbing is a form of sociological scapegoating which occurs in the workplace. A summary of research on workplace mobbing by Kenneth Westhues, Prof. of Sociology University of Waterloo, published in OHS Canada, Canada's Occupational Health & Safety Magazine, Vol. 18, No. 8, December 2002, pp. 30–36.
"Scapegoating is an effective if temporary means of achieving group solidarity, when it cannot be achieved in a more constructive way. It is a turning inward, a diversion of energy away from serving nebulous external purposes toward the deliciously clear, specific goal of ruining a disliked co-worker's life. ... Mobbing can be understood as the stressor to beat all stressors. It is an impassioned, collective campaign by co-workers to exclude, punish, and humiliate a targeted worker. Initiated most often by a person in a position of power or influence, mobbing is a desperate urge to crush and eliminate the target. The urge travels through the workplace like a virus, infecting one person after another. The target comes to be viewed as absolutely abhorrent, with no redeeming qualities, outside the circle of acceptance and respectability, deserving only of contempt. As the campaign proceeds, a steadily larger range of hostile ploys and communications comes to be seen as legitimate.
Scapegoating in psychoanalytic theory
Psychoanalytic theory holds that unwanted thoughts and feelings can be unconsciously projected onto another who becomes a scapegoat for one's own problems. This concept can be extended to projection by groups. In this case the chosen individual, or group, becomes the scapegoat for the group's problems. In psychopathology, projection is an especially commonly used defense mechanism in people with certain personality disorders.
In two cases, sa’ir is translated “satyr” in the King James Version (Isa. 13:21; 34:14). In those passages it clearly alludes to wild goats of the sort that lived among the ruins of Babylon and Edom.
ISAIAH 13:21“And shall be full their houses of howling creatures
(yelping scavengers), and shall dwell there daughters of ostriches; and he goats (
symbolizing, the one selected to carry all the sins of the people to a place of no return) shall skip there. And shall cry hyenas with his widows and jackals in palaces of delight, and near to come (is) her time, and her days not shall be prolonged.”
Barnes Commentary.- The following testimonies from travelers will show how minutely this was accomplished:- “There are many dens of wild beasts in various parts.” In most of the cavities are numberless bats and owls. These caverns, over which the chambers of majesty may have been spread, are now the refuge of jackals and other savage animals. The mouths of their entrances are strewed with the bones of sheep and goats; and the loathsome smell that issues from most of them is sufficient warning not to proceed into the den.
The mound was full of large holes; we entered some of them, and found them strewed with the carcasses and skeletons of animals recently killed. The ordure of wild beasts was so strong, that prudence got the better of curiosity, for we had no doubt as to the savage nature of the inhabitants. Our guides, indeed, told us that all the ruins abounded in lions and other wild beasts; so literally has the Divine prediction bee fulfilled, that wild beasts of the deserts should lie there.”
Henry Commentary.- “Her time is near to come.” This prophecy of the destruction of Babylon was intended for the support and comfort of the people of God when they were captives there and grievously oppressed. When the people of Israel were groaning under the heavy yoke of Babylonish tyranny, sitting down in tears by the rivers of Babylon and upbraided with the songs of Zion, when there insolent oppressors were most haughty and arrogant, then let them know, for their comfort, that Babylon’s time, her day to fall, is near to come, and the day s of her prosperity shall not be prolonged, as they have been. When God begins with her He will make and end.
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