Isaiah 13-14
Large Structure
A The burden of Babylon….
B …the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.
C …they shall be in pain….
D …the day of the Lord comes, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger….
E the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light, the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
F I will punish the world for evil and the wicked for their iniquity ….
E’ Therefore I will shake the heavens….
D’ … in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of his fierce anger.
C’ Everyone that is proud shall be thrust through….
B’ …I will stir up the Medes against them…
A’ And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellence, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
A …In that day that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon….
B He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke….
C …Since you are laid down, no feller has come up against us.’
D Hell… stirs up the dead for you, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
E All they shall speak and say unto you, Are you also become weak as we? Are you become like unto us?
F How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
G For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north;
G’ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.
F’ Yet you shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
E’ …Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; and made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; and opened not the house of his prisoners?
D’ All the kings of the nations, yea, all of them, lie in glory, every one of them in his own house.
C’ But you are cast out of your grave like an abominable branch ….
B’ … you have destroyed your land and slain your people.
A’ For I will…cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and grandson….
Small Structure
This pattern does not follow chiasmic rules, but symbolically follows a chiastic structure:
A Lift ye up my banner
B upon the high mountain,
C exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
D I have commanded my sanctified ones,
D’ I have also called my mighty ones, for mine anger is not upon them that rejoice in my highness.
C’ The noise of the multitude
B’ in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together;
A’ the Lord of hosts mustereth the hosts of the battle.
A 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 everyone into his own land. Everyone that is proud shall be thrust through; and everyone that is joined to the wicked shall fall by the sword.
B Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.
C Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver;
C’ and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
B’ Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.
A’ And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
A But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there;
B and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.
A’ And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry
B’ in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces….
A Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken; for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
B And the first-born of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.
A’ Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved; for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.
B’ What shall then answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.