Isaiah 13:10

King James Version (KJV)

For 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.

Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

For the stars of heaven "Yea, the stars of heaven" - The Hebrew poets, to express happiness, prosperity, the instauration and advancement of states, kingdoms, and potentates, make use of images taken from the most striking parts of nature, from the heavenly bodies, from the sun, moon, and stars: which they describe as shining with increased splendor, and never setting. The moon becomes like the meridian sun, and the sun's light is augmented sevenfold; (see Isaiah 30:26;); new heavens and a new earth are created, and a brighter age commences. On the contrary, the overflow and destruction of kingdoms is represented by opposite images. The stars are obscured, the moon withdraws her light, and the sun shines no more! The earth quakes, and the heavens tremble; and all things seem tending to their original chaos, See Joel 2:10; Joel 3:15, Joel 3:16; Amos 8:9; Matthew 24:29; and De S. Poes. Herb. Prael. 6 et IX.

And the moon shall not cause her light to shine - This in its farther reference may belong to the Jewish polity, both in Church and state, which should be totally eclipsed, and perhaps shine no more in its distinct state for ever.

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Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible

For the stars of heaven - This verse cannot be understood literally, but is a metaphorical representation of the calamities that were coming upon Babylon The meaning of the figure evidently is, that those calamities would be such as would be appropriately denoted by the sudden extinguishment of the stars, the sun, and the moon. As nothing would tend more to anarchy, distress, and ruin, than thus to have all the lights of heaven suddenly and forever quenched, this was an apt and forcible representation of the awful calamities that were coming upon the people. Darkness and night, in the Scriptures, are often the emblem of calamity and distress (see the note at Matthew 24:29). The revolutions and destructions of kingdoms and nations are often represented in the Scriptures under this image. So respecting the destruction of Idumea Isaiah 34:4:

And all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved,

And the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll;

And all their host shall fall down,

As the leaf falleth from off the vine,

And as a falling fig from the fig-tree.

So in Ezekiel 32:7-8, in a prophecy respecting the destruction of Pharaoh, king of Egypt:

And when I shall put time out,

I will cover the heavens, and make the stoa thereof dark,

I will cover the sun with a cloud,

And the moon shall not give her light.

And the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee.

And set darkness upon thy land.

(Compare Joel 2:10; Joel 3:15-16.) Thus in Amos 8:9:

I will cause the sun to go down at noon,

And I will darken the earth in a clear day.

See also Revelation 6:12-14:

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo,

The sun became black as sackcloth of hair,

And the moon became as blood;

And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth,

Even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs

When she is shaken of a mighty wind:

And the heaven deputed as a scroll when it is rolled together.

Many have supposed that these expressions respecting the sun, moon, and stars, refer to kings, and princes, and magistrates, as the “lights” of the state; and that the sense is, that their power arid glory should cease. But it is rather a figurative representation, denoting calamity “in general,‘ and describing a state of extreme distress, such as would be if all the lights of heaven should suddenly become extinct.

And the constellations thereof - (וּכסיליהם ûkı̂sı̂ylēyhem ). The word (כסיל kesı̂yl ) means properly “a fool;” Proverbs 1:32; Proverbs 10:1, Proverbs 10:18; Proverbs 13:19-20, “et al.” It also denotes “hope, confidence, expectation” Job 31:24; Proverbs 3:26; Job 8:14; also “the reins, the flanks or loins” Leviticus 3:4, Leviticus 3:10, Leviticus 3:15; Psalm 38:7. It is also, as here, applied to a constellation in the heavens, but the connection of this meaning of the word with the other significations is uncertain. In Job 9:9; Job 38:31, it is translated ‹Orion.‘ In Amos 5:8, it is translated the ‹seven stars‘ - the Pleiades. In Arabic, that constellation is called ‹the giant.‘ According to an Eastern tradition, it was Nimrod, the founder of Babylon, afterward translated to the skies; and it has been supposed that the name the “impious” or “foolish one” was thus given to the deified Nimrod, and thus to the constellation. The rabbis interpret it “Simis.” The word ‹constellations‘ denotes clusters of stars, or stars that appear to be near to each other in the heavens, and which, on the celestial globe, are reduced to certain figures for the convenience of classification and memory, as the bear, the bull, the virgin, the balance. This arrangement was early made, and there is no reason to doubt that it existed in the time of Isaiah (compare the notes at Job 9:9).

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Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary

We have here the terrible desolation of Babylon by the Medes and Persians. Those who in the day of their peace were proud, and haughty, and terrible, are quite dispirited when trouble comes. Their faces shall be scorched with the flame. All comfort and hope shall fail. The stars of heaven shall not give their light, the sun shall be darkened. Such expressions are often employed by the prophets, to describe the convulsions of governments. God will visit them for their iniquity, particularly the sin of pride, which brings men low. There shall be a general scene of horror. Those who join themselves to Babylon, must expect to share her plagues, Re 18:4. All that men have, they would give for their lives, but no man's riches shall be the ransom of his life. Pause here and wonder that men should be thus cruel and inhuman, and see how corrupt the nature of man is become. And that little infants thus suffer, which shows that there is an original guilt, by which life is forfeited as soon as it is begun. The day of the Lord will, indeed, be terrible with wrath and fierce anger, far beyond all here stated. Nor will there be any place for the sinner to flee to, or attempt an escape. But few act as though they believed these things.

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