Isaiah 13:16

Translations

King James Version (KJV)

Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.

American King James Version (AKJV)

Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.

American Standard Version (ASV)

Their infants also shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be rifled, and their wives ravished.

Basic English Translation (BBE)

Their young children will be broken up before their eyes; their goods will be taken away, and their wives made the property of others.

Webster's Revision

Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be plundered, and their wives ravished.

World English Bible

Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.

English Revised Version (ERV)

Their infants also shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.

Barnes's Isaiah 13:16 Bible Commentary

Their children also shall be dashed to pieces - This is a description of the horrors of the capture of Babylon; and there can be none more frightful and appalling than that which is here presented. That this is done in barbarous nations in the time of war, there can be no doubt. Nothing was more common among American savages, than to dash out the brains of infants against a rock or a tree, and it was often done before the eyes of the afflicted and heartbroken parents. That these horrors were not unknown in Oriental nations of antiquity, is evident. Thus, the Psalmist implies that it would be done in Babylon, in exact accordance with this prediction of Isaiah; Psalm 137:8-9 :

O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed:

Happy shall he be who rewardeth these as thou hast served us;

Happy shall he be who taketh and dasheth thy little ones

Against the stones.

Thus, also, it is said of Hazael, that when he came to be king of Syria, he would be guilty of this barbarity in regard to the Jews (2 Kings 8:13; compare Nahum 3:10). It was an evidence of the barbarous feelings of the times; and a proof that they were far, very far, from the humanity which is now deemed indispensable even in war.

Their houses shall be spoiled - Plundered. It is implied here, says Kimchi, that this was to be done also 'before their eyes,' and thus the horrors of the capture would be greatly increased.