Isaiah 13:3 - Exposition

I have commanded my sanctified ones . The pronoun "I" is emphatic—"I myself." Not only will an external summons go forth, but God will lay his own orders on them whom he chooses for his instruments, and bid them come to the muster. All who carry out his purposes are, in a certain sense, "sanctified ones" (comp. Jeremiah 22:7 ; Jeremiah 51:27 ; Zephaniah 1:7 , etc.). Here the Modes and Persians are specially in. tended (see Isaiah 13:17 ). For mine anger ; i.e. "for the purpose of executing my anger." Even them that rejoice in my highness ; rather, my proudly exultant ones (Cheyne, Rosenmüller, Gesenius). AE schylus calls the Persians ὑπερκόμπους ; Herodotus, ὑβριστάς (1. 41). The high spirits, however, natural to gallant soldiers on going out to war, rather than any special haughtiness or arrogancy, are intended.