What Does Isaiah 13:19 Mean in the King James?
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The height of empire is not merely lost; the word “overthrew” makes it a turning into its opposite.
THE MEANING
The verse places the reader’s sense of what is permanent beside an image of total collapse: splendor and pride can be overturned, not secured by their own height. What looks magnificent can become a picture of desolation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that visible greatness guarantees lasting security.
THE ROOT
מַהְפֵּכַת
mahpekhat
GROWS FROM
הפך
hāpak
To turn, overturn, or transform.
The word translated “overthrew” comes from the language of turning: Babylon’s splendor is not simply diminished but turned into its opposite. The verse’s force lies in the reversal from the height of kingdoms to the devastation associated with Sodom and Gomorrah.
ALSO GROWS
hāpak: To turn or overturn.
הָפַךְ
The verb names the action contained in the verse’s image of overthrow.
mahpekah: An overthrow or upheaval.
מַהְפֵּכָה
This noun from the same root describes the kind of total reversal the verse sets before the reader.
בָּבֶל
Bāvel
GROWS FROM
בלל
balal
To mix or mingle; Genesis uses a sound-link with the sense of confusing.
Genesis links the name Babel with the word for confusing or mixing; this is the text’s wordplay, not a certain historical etymology. Set beside Babylon’s splendor here, that name carries a scriptural echo of what cannot hold together.
ALSO GROWS
bālal: To mix or confuse.
בָּלַל
Genesis uses this word when describing the confusion of language, giving the name Babel its scriptural sound-link.
Bāvel: Babel or Babylon, the name associated with that confusion in Genesis.
בָּבֶל
The name’s sound-link adds an echo of confusion beneath the empire’s display of power.
תִּפְאֶרֶת
tifʾeret
GROWS FROM
פאר
paʾar
To adorn, beautify, or make splendid.
The word rendered “glory” belongs to the language of adornment and visible splendor. Its root makes Babylon’s glory feel like a display that can be overturned, rather than a quality that secures itself.
ALSO GROWS
pāʾar: To adorn or beautify.
פָּאַר
The verb shows the root’s movement from beauty to the act of making something splendid.
peʾer: An ornament or headdress.
פְּאֵר
This concrete branch keeps the verse’s glory close to adornment on display, which the stated overthrow can strip away.
THE PATTERN
The tallest claims of beauty and power are not self-securing; they can be overturned into public evidence of their fragility.
Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.THE THREAD
And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.Isaiah’s comparison draws on this same overthrow: the word carries the sense of turning or overturning. Genesis makes the image concrete as the cities, plain, inhabitants, and growth are all caught in the reversal.
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