Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.

ISAIAH 13:16KJV
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Isaiah 13:16 (KJV)

What does Isaiah 13:16 mean?

Isaiah 13:16 describes the cruelty that will accompany Babylon’s fall. The verse pictures an attack reaching beyond soldiers to the most vulnerable people and the places where families live. Its blunt language makes the suffering of the defeated population impossible to overlook.

After the killing described in verse 15, Isaiah turns the reader’s attention to family members forced to witness violence. “Before their eyes” makes the scene especially painful: parents see their children killed and cannot protect them. The attack also reaches into homes, where possessions are taken and women are sexually violated.

The Hebrew behind Isaiah 13:16

  • “children” — עוֹלָל (ʿolal): This word refers to a very young child. It sharpens the picture of victims who are especially defenseless.
  • “spoiled” — שָׁסַס (shasas): This word carries the sense of plundering or looting. The KJV means that the houses will be robbed, not that they will go bad or be merely damaged.

Why Isaiah 13:16 matters

  • The verse shows that the predicted attack reaches into family life. “Their houses” and “their wives” place the violence inside the household, not just on a battlefield.
  • The surrounding passage identifies the target as Babylon. Isaiah 13:17 names the Medes as the people stirred up against it, and Isaiah 13:19 names Babylon as the kingdom facing overthrow.
  • The verse presents the invasion as part of a judgment announced by God, while describing the acts of the attackers in stark human terms. That connection runs through the passage, from the announcement against Babylon in Isaiah 13:1 to the attack pictured here.

Where else these words appear

“ravished” Hebrew H7693 · used in 4 verses

  • Deuteronomy 28:30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.
  • Jeremiah 3:2 Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.
  • Zechariah 14:2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

“spoiled” Hebrew H8155 · used in 5 verses

  • Judges 2:14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.
  • 1 Samuel 17:53 And the children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled their tents.
  • Psalms 89:41 All that pass by the way spoil him: he is a reproach to his neighbours.

“pieces” Hebrew H7376 · used in 6 verses

  • 2 Kings 8:12 And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child.
  • Isaiah 13:18 Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.
  • Hosea 13:16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.

“children” Hebrew H5768 · used in 20 verses

  • 1 Samuel 15:3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
  • Psalms 137:9 Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
  • Lamentations 2:19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.