13:11 And I will punish the {i} world for [their] evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the {k} proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
(i) He compares Babylon to the whole world because they so esteemed themselves by reason of their great empire.
(k) He notes the principal vice, to which they are most given as are all that abound in wealth.
13:11 The world - The Babylonish empire, which is called the world, as the Roman empire afterwards was, because it was extended to a great part of the world.
13:6-18 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.
