Roe, Host, Glory

Isaiah 13 moves forward in part by regular puns. One thread of wordplay works with the tzb- combination. When the Medes come, Isaiah says, men will scatter like roebucks, like tzebyi (v. 14). The very same word is translated as “glory” or “beauty” in verse 19. Babel is the roebuck among the kingdoms, but the glory of Babylon will skip away like a startled deer.

And underlying this little pun is the repeated use of the word tsebaoth , “hosts” (vv. 4 [2x], 13). The puns lead to this proposition: When Yahweh of hosts gathers the hosts against Babylon, all the beauty of Babylon will be chased like a hunted roe.