Isaiah 13:6

Isaiah 13:6 says, Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.  The people of Babylon were told to howl, because the day of the Lord was at hand, and it would bring great destruction from God.  This was a temporary destruction of an evil nation, but when the final day of the Lord comes when He returns to claim His people, all those who have never accepted Him as Savior and Lord will be sent away to howl in everlasting pain and suffering. 

Verse seven adds, Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:  Isaiah said that these once mighty and proud people of Babylon would then faint, and their hearts would melt in fear.  They would no longer be full of self-pride, and all those who have worked so proudfully against God and His people will one day faint in fear, realizing how powerless they really are.

Verse eight continues, And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.  Isaiah continued to speak about how afraid the people of Babylon would be in the coming day of the Lord that would be carried out by Persia, and people who are standing proudly against God today will cower in fear in the coming day of the Lord, when Jesus Christ returns to judge all who have stood against Him.  

Verse nine states, Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.  This may have applied to the people of Babylon, but it also applies even more so the coming day of the Lord when Jesus Christ returns.  Those who have felt so powerful while denying God will face His wrath because they refused to turn from their sin by accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.  Everyone has the choice of either accepting God’s gift of salvation and having everlasting life with Him or of rejecting it and being sent away to everlasting punishment one day. 

Verse ten adds, 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 said at the day of the Lord that all light would be removed from the world.  Matthew Henry says that this means everything would be hidden by dark clouds in that day, but I believe this can only apply to the second coming of Christ, Who is the everlasting Light.  I say this because Isaiah tells us that the sun, stars and moon would not send out light, not that they would just not be seen. 

Verse eleven continues, And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.  I believe this refers to the second coming because it doesn’t say Babylon, which may have been punished at that time, but that the wicked of the world would be punished and have their arrogance to cease.