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.

ISAIAH 13:10KJV
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Isaiah 13:10 (KJV)

What does Isaiah 13:10 mean?

Isaiah 13:10 pictures the lights of the sky going dark as part of a fearful day of judgment. The loss of starlight, sunlight, and moonlight gives the scene a vast scale: the upheaval is pictured as reaching beyond the earth into the heavens.

After the announcement of the day of judgment in verse 9, Isaiah describes a sky that offers no light even when the sun rises. The image gives the coming disaster a sense of darkness from which there is no ordinary relief.

The Hebrew behind Isaiah 13:10

  • “constellations” — כְּסִילִים (kesilim): The word refers to groups of stars and is often understood to include Orion. The KJV’s plural makes the picture broader than a single familiar pattern in the sky.
  • “in his going forth” — יָצָא (yatsa): The verb means “to go out” or “come forth.” Here the phrase pictures the sun at its rising, when daylight would normally begin.

Why Isaiah 13:10 matters

  • The darkness belongs to a message about judgment, not merely a description of the night sky. Verse 9 introduces “the day of the LORD,” and verse 11 connects that day with the punishment of evil.
  • The picture reaches beyond Babylon’s city walls. The passage begins with a message concerning Babylon in verse 1, while verse 10 describes the heavens above the whole scene.
  • The sun’s darkness at its rising adds force to the image. Even the expected arrival of daylight brings no light.

Where else these words appear

“constellations” Hebrew H3685 · used in 4 verses

  • Job 9:9 Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.
  • Job 38:31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
  • Amos 5:8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:

“shine” Hebrew H5050 · used in 6 verses

  • 2 Samuel 22:29 For thou art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness.
  • Job 18:5 Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.
  • Psalms 18:28 For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.

“darkened” Hebrew H2821 · used in 18 verses

  • Exodus 10:15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
  • Psalms 105:28 He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word.
  • Lamentations 4:8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

“moon” Hebrew H3394 · used in 26 verses

  • Genesis 37:9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
  • Psalms 8:3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
  • Ecclesiastes 12:2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: