Isaiah 13:19

Babylon, the most admired ¹  of kingdoms, the Chaldeans’ source of honor and pride, ²  will be destroyed by God just as Sodom and Gomorrah were. ³ 

Ge 19:24; De 29:23; Isa 14:4-6,12-15; Jer 49:18; Jer 50:40; Jer 51:41; Da 2:37,38; Da 4:30; Zep 2:9

¹ tn Or “most beautiful” (NCV, TEV).

² tn Heb “the beauty of the pride of the Chaldeans.”

sn The Chaldeans were a group of tribes who lived in southern Mesopotamia. The established the so-called neo-Babylonian empire in the late seventh century b.c. Their most famous king, Nebuchadnezzar, conquered Judah in 605 b.c. and destroyed Jerusalem in 586 b.c.

³ tn Heb “and Babylon…will be like the overthrow by God of Sodom and Gomorrah.” On מַהְפֵּכַת (mahpekhat, “overthrow”) see the note on the word “destruction” in 1:7.