What Does Isaiah 13:18 Mean?
Their bows will dash the young men; they will show no compassion on the fruit of the womb; their eye will not pity the children.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “pity” also forms the word for “womb,” setting withheld compassion beside the image of life-bearing.
THE MEANING
The violence here reaches beyond armed young men: it refuses pity for the fruit of the womb and spares no child. The Hebrew word for “pity” belongs to the root that also forms “womb” and “compassion,” setting withheld tenderness beside the image of life-bearing. The verse speaks plainly about harm that does not stop before the most vulnerable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It breaks the comforting belief that innocence itself guarantees protection: here, children are explicitly within the violence.
THE ROOT
יְרַחֵמוּ
yeraḥemu
GROWS FROM
רחם
To have or show compassion; this root family also forms the word for womb.
“show no compassion” in this verse is yeraḥemu. The verb יְרַחֵמוּ (yeraḥemu, “they show compassion”) belongs to the same root as רֶחֶם (rechem, “womb”), though this verse uses בֶּטֶן (beten, “belly” or “womb”) in “fruit of the womb.” That echo sets the refusal of pity beside the image of life-bearing, a connection English leaves between separate words.
ALSO GROWS
rechem: Womb
רֶחֶם
This word shares the root of “pity”; its echo beside the verse’s image of the womb makes the refusal of compassion especially stark.
rachamim: Compassion
רַחֲמִים
This branch makes clear that “pity” belongs to the same word family as compassion, which the verse says is withheld.
rachum: Compassionate
רַחוּם
This related form names a quality the verse’s attackers do not show toward children.
THE PATTERN
Compassion becomes visible in care for vulnerable life, while violence is revealed by its refusal to spare it.
Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she would not have compassion on the son of her womb? Even they may forget, but I will not forget you.As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those in awe of him.But a certain Samaritan, walking the road, came where he was, and when he saw him, his insides moved over him.THE THREAD
Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she would not have compassion on the son of her womb? Even they may forget, but I will not forget you.Isaiah 13:18 says the attackers show no pity; Isaiah 49:15 asks whether a mother could fail to show compassion to her child, then makes that bond a measure of what will not be forgotten. The compassion verb comes from the root that also forms the Hebrew word for “womb,” bringing the shared language of tenderness into view.
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