Isaiah 13 · a question people ask
The chapter calls those who come "my consecrated ones" (13:3). Does that mean they were serving the LORD?
The chapter calls them his: "I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger" (13:3). Two verses on, "They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land" (13:5), and later, "I will stir up the Medes against them" (13:17). In Hebrew consecrated is qadash, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "be set apart, consecrated" (tap consecrated). The chapter doesn't say whether the Medes knew the LORD, or what they meant to do; it says of them only that they "will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it" (13:17). Chapter 10 has words about Assyria: "Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger" (Isaiah 10:5), then "However, he doesn’t mean so, neither does his heart think so" (Isaiah 10:7), and "I will punish the fruit of the willful proud heart of the king of Assyria" (Isaiah 10:12). Jeremiah says, "The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is against Babylon" (Jeremiah 51:11). Chapter 13 says nothing like 10:7 of the Medes, and these notes don't say whether chapter 10's words fit them; they set the verses side by side and add nothing.
The verses
“I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.”
“They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.”
“Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it.”
“Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation!”