The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.
Parallel Translations
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The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.
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The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.
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The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweeping on, it cometh from the wilderness, from a dreadful land.
Cross-references (12)
Passages linked to Isaiah 21:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 14:23 “I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Isaiah 13:1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
- Jeremiah 51:42 The sea has come up on Babylon. She is covered with the multitude of its waves.
- Zechariah 9:14 Yahweh will be seen over them; and his arrow will go flash like lightning; and the Lord Yahweh will blow the trumpet, and will go with whirlwinds of the south.
- Isaiah 13:20-22 It will never be inhabited, neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent there, neither will shepherds make their flocks lie down there. But wild animals of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of jackals. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will frolic there. Wolves will cry in their fortresses, and jackals in the pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.
- Isaiah 17:1 The burden of Damascus. “Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap.
- Job 37:9 Out of its room comes the storm, and cold out of the north.
- Isaiah 13:4-5 The noise of a multitude is in the mountains, as of a great people; the noise of an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Yahweh of Armies is mustering the army for the battle. They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Yahweh, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
- Ezekiel 31:12 Strangers, the tyrants of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him. His branches have fallen on the mountains and in all the valleys and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land. All the peoples of the earth have gone down from his shadow, and have left him.
- Daniel 11:40 “At the time of the end the king of the south will contend with him; and the king of the north will come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, with horsemen, and with many ships. He will enter into the countries, and will overflow and pass through.
- Isaiah 13:17-18 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it. Their bows will dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not spare children.
- Ezekiel 30:11 He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, will be brought in to destroy the land. They will draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That is, the ruin of Babylon by the Medes…
That is, the ruin of Babylon by the Medes and Persians.
On the seaside between Judea and Chaldea was a wilderness, whereby he meaneth Chaldea.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 21:1 The burden of the desert of the…
Isa 21:1 The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; [so] it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.
Ver. 1. The burden of the desert of the sea,] i.e., Of Babylon, {Isa 21:9} which is here called a sea, because situated by many waters, {Jer 51:13; Jer 51:36} and the desert or plain of the sea, because it stood in a plain, {Gen 11:2} or was to be turned into a desert. See Isa 13:1-22; Isa 14:1-32 Jer 51:1-64. It is so often prophesied against; (1.) For the comfort of God’s people, who were to suffer hard and heavy things from this city; (2.) For a caution to them not to trust in such a tottering state. A Lapide saith, that about the time of this prophecy, Hezekiah was making a league and amity with Merodach, king of Babylon, to whose ambassadors he had showed all his treasures, and was well shent for it. {2Ki 20:12} To take him off which design, the ruin of Babylon is here before prophesied.
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As whirlwinds in the south {a} pass through.] Patentibus campis, ac locis arenosis, vehementissimo impetu cuncta prosternentes, without stop or stay, bearing down all before them, covering whole armies with sand sometimes, and destroying theirs.
So it cometh.] Or, So he cometh, that is, Cyrus with his armies; Vastator Babyloniae, he cometh fiercely and furiously.
From the wilderness.] From Persia, which is desert in many places, especially toward Babylon.
From a terrible land.] From Media, the people whereof were barbarous and brutish, skilful to destroy. Nitocris, queen of Babylon, feared a hostile irruption from this land, did her utmost to prevent it, but that would not be. {b}
{a} Pliny saith the greatest tempests at sea come from the South.
{b} Herodot.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The desert of the sea; Babylon, as is evident…
The desert of the sea; Babylon, as is evident both from her destroyers, the Medians, Isa 21:2, and especially from Isa 21:9, where she is named. She seems to be called
desert prophetically, to intimate, that although she was now a most populous city and kingdom, yet shortly she should be turned into a desolate wilderness, as was threatened, Isa 13:19, &c. But the word here rendered desert sometimes signifies a plain, as a very learned interpreter hath observed, and thus it most properly agrees to Babylon, and the land about it, which geographers note to be a very plain country, without any considerable mountains in it. It is called the desert of the sea, because it is situate by the sea, as the isles of the sea, Est 10:1, are those countries which were beside the sea. And the title of the sea might well be given to the waters of Babylon, because of the great plenty and multitude of them, the great channel of Euphrates, and the several several lesser channels cut out, and the vast lakes of water; in which respects it is said to sit upon many waters, Jer 51:13, the name of sea being given by the Hebrews to every great collection of waters.
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In the south; in those parts which lay southward from Judea where there were many and grreat deserts, in which the winds have greater force. See Job 1:19; Jer 4:11. Pass through; as meeting with no stop or opposition. It; the burden or judgment. Or, he, the Median, as it is in the next verse.
Cometh from the desert; from Media and Persia; thus expressed, either because those countries were full of deserts, or because a great desert lay between them and Chaldea, as geographers and historians report.
From a terrible land; from the Medes, a warlike and formidable people, as appears both from sacred and profane writers.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain We had one burden of Babylon before (ch. 13);…
We had one burden of Babylon before (ch. 13); here we have another prediction of its fall. God saw fit thus to possess his people with the belief of this event by line upon line, because Babylon sometimes pretended to be a friend to them (as Isa 39:1), and God would hereby warn them not to trust to that friendship, and sometimes was really an enemy to them, and God would hereby warn them not to be afraid of that enmity. Babylon is marked for ruin; and all that believe God's prophets can, through that glass, see it tottering, see it tumbling, even when with an eye of sense they see it flourishing and sitting as a queen. Babylon is here called the desert or plain of the sea; for it was a flat country, and full of lakes, or loughs (as they call them in Ireland), like little seas, and was abundantly watered with the many streams of the river Euphrates. Babylon did but lately begin to be famous, Nineveh having outshone it while the monarchy was in the Assyrian hands; but in a little time it became the lady of kingdoms; and, before it arrived at that pitch of eminency which it was at in Nebuchadnezzar's time, God by this prophet plainly foretold its fall, again and again, that his people might not be terrified at its rise, nor despair of relief in due time when they were its prisoners, Job 5:3; Psa 37:35, Psa 37:36. Some think it is here called a desert because, though it was now a populous city, it should in time be made a desert. And therefore the destruction of Babylon is so often prophesied of by this evangelical prophet, because it was typical of the destruction of the man of sin, the great enemy of the New Testament church, which is foretold in the Revelation in many expressions borrowed from these prophecies, which therefore must be consulted and collated by those who would understand the prophecy of that book. Here is,
I. The powerful irruption and descent which the Medes and Persians should make upon Babylon (Isa 21:1, Isa 21:2): They will come from the desert, from a terrible land. The northern parts of Media and Persia, where their soldiers were mostly bred, was waste and mountainous, terrible to strangers that were to pass through it and producing soldiers that were very formidable. Elam (that is, Persia) is summoned to go up against Babylon, and, in conjunction with the forces of Media, to besiege it. When God has work of this kind to do he will find, though it be in a desert, in a terrible land, proper instruments to be employed in it. These forces come as whirlwinds from the south, so suddenly, so strongly, so terribly, such a mighty noise shall they make, and throw down every thing that stands in their way. As is usual in such a case, some deserters will go over to them: The treacherous dealers will deal treacherously. Historians tell us of Gadatas and Gobryas, two great officers of the king of Babylon, that went over to Cyrus, and, being well acquainted with all the avenues of the city, led a party directly to the palace, where Belshazzar was slain. Thus with the help of the treacherous dealers the spoilers spoiled. Some read it thus: There shall be a deceiver of that deceiver, Babylon, and a spoiler of that spoiler, or, which comes all to one, The treacherous dealer has found one that deals treacherously, and the spoiler one that spoils, as it is expounded, Isa 33:1. The Persians shall pay the Babylonians in their own coin; those that by fraud and violence, cheating and plundering, unrighteous wars and deceitful treaties, have made a prey of their neighbours, shall meet with their match, and by the same methods shall themselves be made a prey of.
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II. The different impressions made hereby upon those concerned in Babylon. 1. To the poor oppressed captives it would be welcome news; for they had been told long ago that Babylon's destroyer would be their deliverer, and therefore, "when they hear that Elam and Media are coming up to besiege Babylon, all their sighing will be made to cease; they shall no longer mingle their tears with Euphrates' streams, but resume their harps, and smile when they remember Zion, which, before, they wept at the thought of." For the sighing of the needy the God of pity will arise in due time (Psa 12:5); he will break the yoke from all their neck, will remove the rod of the wicked from off their lot, and so make their sighing to cease. 2. To the proud oppressors it would be a grievous vision (Isa 21:2), particularly to the king of Babylon for the time being, and it should seem that he it is who is here brought in sadly lamenting his inevitable fate (Isa 21:3, Isa 21:4): Therefore are my loins filled with pain; pangs have taken hold upon me, etc., which was literally fulfilled in Belshazzar, for that very night in which his city was taken, and himself slain, upon the sight of a hand writing mystic characters upon the wall his countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another, Dan 5:6. And yet that was but the beginning of sorrows. Daniel's deciphering the writing could not but increase his terror, and the alarm which immediately followed of the executioners at the door would be the completing of it. And those words, The night of my pleasure has he turned into fear to me, plainly refer to that aggravating circumstance of Belshazzar's fall that he was slain on that night when he was in the height of his mirth and jollity, with his cups and concubines about him and a thousand of his lords revelling with him; that night of his pleasure, when he promised himself an undisturbed unallayed enjoyment of the most exquisite gratifications of sense, with a particular defiance of God and religion in the profanation of the temple vessels, was the night that was turned into all this fear. Let this give an effectual check to vain mirth and sensual pleasures, and forbid us ever to lay the reins on the neck of them - that we know not what heaviness the mirth may end in, nor how soon laughter may be turned into mourning; but this we know that for all these things God shall bring us into judgment; let us therefore mix trembling always with our joys.
III. A representation of the posture in which Babylon should be found when the enemy should surprise it - all in festival gaiety (Isa 21:5): "Prepare the table with all manner of dainties. Set the guards; let them watch in the watch-tower while we eat and drink securely and make merry; and, if any alarm should be given, the princes shall arise and anoint the shield, and be in readiness to give the enemy a warm reception." Thus secure are they, and thus do they gird on the harness with as much joy as if they were putting it off.
IV. A description of the alarm which should be given to Babylon upon its being forced by Cyrus and Darius. The Lord, in vision, showed the prophet the watchman set in his watch-tower, near the watch-tower, near the palace, as is usual in times of danger; the king ordered those about him to post a sentinel in the most advantageous place for discovery, and, according to the duty of a watchman, let him declare what he sees, Isa 21:6. We read of watchmen thus set to receive intelligence in the story of David (Sa2 18:24), and in the story of Jehu, Kg2 9:17. This watchman here discovered a chariot with a couple of horsemen attending it, in which we may suppose the commander-in-chief to ride. He then saw another chariot drawn by asses or mules, which were much in use among the Persians, and a chariot drawn by camels, which were likewise much in use among the Medes; so that (as Grotius thinks) these two chariots signify the two nations combined against Babylon, or rather these chariots come to bring tidings to the palace; compare Jer 51:31, Jer 51:32. One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end while he is revelling at the other end and knows nothing of the matter. The watchman, seeing these chariots at some distance, hearkened diligently with much heed, to receive the first tidings. And (Isa 21:8) he cried, A lion; this word, coming out of a watchman's mouth, no doubt gave them a certain sound, and every body knew the meaning of it, though we do not know it now. It is likely that it was intended to raise attention: he that has an ear to hear, let him hear, as when a lion roars. Or he cried as a lion, very loud and in good earnest, the occasion being very urgent. And what has he to say? 1. He professes his constancy to the post assigned him: "I stand, my lord, continually upon the watch-tower, and have never discovered any thing material till just now; all seemed safe and quiet." Some make it to be a complaint of the people of God that they had long expected the downfall of Babylon, according to the prophecy, and it had not yet come; but withal a resolution to continue waiting; as Hab 2:1, I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, to see what will be the issue of the present providences. 2. He gives notice of the discoveries he had made (Isa 21:9): Here comes a chariot of men with a couple of horsemen, a vision representing the enemy's entry into the city with all their force or the tidings brought to the royal palace of it.
V. A certain account is at length given of the overthrow of Babylon. He in the chariot answered and said (when he heard the watchman speak), Babylon has fallen, has fallen; or God answered thus to the prophet enquiring concerning the issue of these affairs: "It has now come to this, Babylon has surely and irrecoverably fallen. Babylon's business is done now. All the graven images of her gods he has broken unto the ground." Babylon was the mother of harlots (that is, of idolatry), which was one of the grounds of God's quarrel with her; but her idols should now be so far from protecting her that some of them should be broken down to the ground, and others of them, that were worth carrying way, should go into captivity, and be a burden to the beasts that carried them, Isa 46:1, Isa 46:2.
VI. Notice is given to the people of God, who were then captives in Babylon, that this prophecy of the downfall of Babylon was particularly intended for their comfort and encouragement, and they might depend upon it that it should be accomplished in due season, Isa 21:10. Observe,
1. The title the prophet gives them in God's name: O my threshing, and the corn of my floor! The prophet calls them his, because they were his countrymen, and such as he had a particular interest in and concern for; but he speaks it as from God, and directs his speech to those that were Israelites indeed, the faithful in the land. Note, (1.) The church is God's floor, in which the most valuable fruits and products of this earth are, as it were, gathered together and laid up. (2.) True believers are the corn of God's floor. Hypocrites are but as the chaff and straw, which take up a great deal of room, but are of small value, with which the wheat is now mixed, but from which it shall be shortly and for ever separated. (3.) The corn of God's floor must expect to be threshed by afflictions and persecutions. God's Israel of old was afflicted from her youth, often under the plougher's plough (Psa 129:3) and the thresher's flail. (4.) Even then God owns it for his threshing; it is his still; nay, the threshing of it is by his appointment, and under his restraint and direction. The threshers could have no power against it but what was given them from above.
2. The assurance he gives them of the truth of what he had delivered to them, which therefore they might build their hopes upon: That which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel - that, and nothing else, that, and no fiction or fancy of my own - have I declared unto you. Note, In all events concerning the church, past, present, and to come, we must have an eye to God both as the Lord of hosts and as the God of Israel, who has power enough to do any thing for his church and grace enough to do every thing that is for her good, and to the words of his prophets, as words received from the Lord. As they dare not smother any thing which he has entrusted them to declare, so they dare not declare any thing as from him which he has not made known to them, Co1 11:23.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain The burden of the desert of the sea,.... That…
The burden of the desert of the sea,.... That this is a prophecy of the destruction of Babylon is clear from the express mention both of the Medes and Persians, by whom it should be, and of Babylon itself, and its fall, Isa 21:2 which, though prophesied of before, is here repeated, partly for the certainty of it, and partly for the comfort of the people of the Jews, who would be captives in it, and so break off and prevent their confidence in a nation that would be ruined; and perhaps this prophecy might be delivered out about the time or on account of Merodach king of Babylon sending letters and a present to Hezekiah, who showed to his messengers all his treasures. Babylon is here called "the desert of the sea", not because it was a desert land, for it was a very fruitful one; or because it would be laid desolate, and become as a wilderness; but either because there was one between that and the countries of Media and Persia, as Kimchi, from whence its destroyers would come; or rather, because it was, as the word may be rendered, a "plain", for so the land of Chaldea was, and the city of Babylon particularly was built in a plain, Gen 11:2 and because this country abounded with pools and lakes, which with the Hebrews are called seas; and especially since the city of Babylon was situated by the river Euphrates, which ran about it, and through it and which therefore is said to dwell upon many waters, Jer 51:13 hence it has this name of the desert of the sea; besides, Abydenus (l), from Megasthenes, informs us, that all the places about Babylon were from the beginning water, and were called a sea; and it should be observed that mystical Babylon is represented by a woman in a desert, sitting on many waters, which are interpreted of a multitude of people and nations, Rev 17:1 and some here by "sea" understand the multitude of its riches, power, and people. The Targum is,
"the burden of the armies, which come from the wilderness, as the waters of the sea;''
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understanding it not of Babylon, but of its enemies and invaders, as follows:
as whirlwinds in the south pass through; and nothing can hinder them, such is their force and power; they bear all before them, come suddenly, blow strongly, and there is no resisting them; see Zac 9:14,
so it cometh from the desert; or "he", that is, Cyrus; or "it", the army under him, would come with like irresistible force and power as the southern whirlwinds do, which come from a desert country; at least that part of it in which their soldiers were trained up, and which in their march to Babylon must come through the desert, that lay, as before observed, between that and their country, and through which Cyrus did pass (m):
from a terrible land; a land of serpents and scorpions, as Jarchi; or a land afar off, as Kimchi and Ben Melech; whose power and usage, or customs, were not known, and so dreaded, as the Medes and Persians were by Nitocris queen of Babylon, who took care to preserve her people, and prevent their falling into their hands. The Targum is,
"from a land in which terrible things are done.''
(l) Apud Euseb. Prepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 41. (m) Xenophon. Cyropaedia, l. 5. c. 5, 6.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The prophet's fear and trouble at his vision of…
The prophet's fear and trouble at his vision of Babylon's ruin, the Medes and Persians, ver. 1-4. He mocketh Babel, ver. 5-9. Edom scorning the prophet is called to repentance, ver. 11, 12. The time of Arab's calamity set, ver. 13-17.
The plain - Of Babylon, which lay in a very plain country. And the title of the sea might well be given to the waters of Babylon, because of the great plenty and multitude of them. South - In those parts which lay southward from Judea, where there were many and great deserts. Pass through - As meeting with no opposition. It - The burden or judgment. Desert - From Media and Persia; a great desert lay between them and Chaldea. A terrible land - From the Medes, a warlike and formidable people.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Prediction of the taking of Babylon by the Medes…
CHAPTER XXI
Prediction of the taking of Babylon by the Medes and Persians
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at the time of a great festival, 1-9.
Short application of the prophecy to the Jews, partly in the
person of God, and partly in his own, 10.
Obscure prophecy respecting Dumah, 11, 12.
Prophecy concerning the Arabians to be fulfilled in a very
short time after its delivery, 13-17.
The first ten verses of this chapter contain a prediction of the taking of Babylon by the Medes and Persians. It is a passage singular in its kind for its brevity and force, for the variety and rapidity of the movements, and for the strength and energy of colouring with which the action and event are painted. It opens with the prophet's seeing at a distance the dreadful storm that is gathering and ready to burst upon Babylon. The event is intimated in general terms, and God's orders are issued to the Persians and Medes to set forth upon the expedition which he has given them in charge. Upon this the prophet enters into the midst of the action; and in the person of Babylon expresses, in the strongest terms, the astonishment and horror that seizes her on the sudden surprise of the city at the very season dedicated to pleasure and festivity, Isa 21:3-4. Then, in his own person, describes the situation of things there, the security of the Babylonians, and in the midst of their feasting the sudden alarm of war, Isa 21:5. The event is then declared in a very singular manner. God orders the prophet to set a watchman to look out, and to report what he sees; he sees two companies marching onward, representing by their appearance the two nations that were to execute God's orders, who declare that Babylon is fallen, Isa 21:6-9.
But what is this to the prophet, and to the Jews, the object of his ministry? The application, the end, and design of the prophecy are admirably given in a short, expressive address to the Jews, partly in the person of God, partly in that of the prophet: "O my threshing - " "O my people, whom for your punishment I shall make subject to the Babylonians, to try and to prove you, and to separate the chaff from the corn, the bad from the good, among you; hear this for your consolation: your punishment, your slavery, and oppression will have an end in the destruction of your oppressors." - L.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXI
Verse 1. The desert of the sea] This plainly means Babylon, which is the subject of the prophecy. The country about Babylon, and especially below it towards the sea, was a great flat morass, overflowed by the Euphrates and Tigris. It became habitable by being drained by the many canals that were made in it.
Herodotus, lib. i. 184, says that "Semiramis confined the Euphrates within its channel by raising great dams against it; for before it overflowed the whole country like a sea." And Abydenus, (quoting Megasthenes, apud Euseb. Praep. Evang. IX. 41,) speaking of the building of Babylon by Nebuchadonosor, says, "it is reported that all this part was covered with water, and was called the sea; and that Belus drew off the waters, conveying them into proper receptacles, and surrounded Babylon with a wall." When the Euphrates was turned out of its channel by Cyrus, it was suffered still to drown the neighbouring country; and, the Persian government, which did not favour the place, taking no care to remedy this inconvenience, it became in time a great barren morassy desert, which event the title of the prophecy may perhaps intimate. Such it was originally; such it became after the taking of the city by Cyrus; and such it continues to this day.
As whirlwinds in the south - "Like the southern tempests"] The most vehement storms to which Judea was subject came from the desert country to the south of it. "Out of the south cometh the whirlwind," Job 37:9. "And there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house," Job 1:19. For the situation of Idumea, the country (as I suppose) of Job, see La 4:21 compared with Job 1:1, was the same in this respect with that of Judea: -
"And JEHOVAH shall appear over them,
And his arrow shall go forth as the lightning;
And the Lord JEHOVAH shall sound the trumpet;
And shall march in the whirlwinds of the south."
Zec 9:14.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Isa 21:1. The burden of the desert of the…
Isa 21:1. The burden of the desert of the sea — That is, of Babylon, as is evident from Isa 21:9. Some think it is so called prophetically, because, although it was at present a populous city, it was shortly to be made desolate, and turned into a marsh, and pools of water. But מדבר יםmay be properly rendered, the plain of the sea: for Babylon stood on a plain, and the country about it, and especially below it, toward the sea, was a great flat morass, often overflowed by the Euphrates and Tigris. “Semiramis,” says Herodotus, “confined the Euphrates within its channel, by raising great dams against it; for before it overflowed the whole country like a sea.” And Abydenus, speaking of the building of Babylon, observes, “It is reported that all this part was covered with water, and was called the sea; and that Belus drew off the waters, conveying them into proper receptacles.” It was only by these means, it appears, and by the many canals that were made in the country, that it became habitable. It, however, still more fully and perfectly answered the title of the plain, or desert of the sea, here given it, in consequence of the Euphrates being turned out of its channel by Cyrus, and afterward suffered still to drown the neighbouring country, by which it became, in time, a great barren, morassy desert, which it continues to be to this day. See note on Isa 13:20.
This second prediction, concerning Babylon, (which, with the two short prophecies following, makes the sixth discourse of this second part of Isaiah’s Visions,) “is a passage,” says Bishop Lowth, “of a singular kind for its brevity and force; for the variety and rapidity of the movements; and for the strength and energy of colouring, with which the action and event are painted. It opens with the prophet’s seeing, at a distance, the dreadful storm that is gathering, and ready to burst upon Babylon: the event is intimated in general terms; and God’s orders are issued to the Persians and Medes to set forth upon the expedition which he has given them in charge. Upon this the prophet enters into the midst of the action; and in the person of Babylon expresses, in the strongest terms, the astonishment and horror that seizes her on the sudden surprise of the city, at the very season dedicated to pleasure and festivity. Then, in his own person, he describes the situation of things there; the security of the Babylonians, and, in the midst of their feasting, the sudden alarm of war. The event is then declared in a very singular manner. God orders the prophet to set a watchman to look out, and to report what he sees; he sees two companies marching onward, representing, by their appearance, the two nations that were to execute God’s orders; who declare that Babylon is fallen.”
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As whirlwinds in the south, &c. — Bishop Lowth’s translation of this passage gives it a peculiar force and elegance.
“Like the southern tempests, violently rushing along,
From the desert he cometh, from the terrible country.
A dreadful vision! it is revealed unto me:
The plunderer is plundered, and the destroyer is destroyed.
Go up, O Elam; from the siege, O Media!
I have put an end to all her vexations.”
By southern tempests, or whirlwinds in the south, the prophet means tempests in those extensive deserts which lay southward from Judea, in which the winds rush along with great force, as meeting with no obstruction from mountains, hills, trees, or buildings. To these he compares the sweeping and irresistible ruin which, by terrible armies, was about to come on Babylon from Media and Persia, through the deserts that lay between it and those countries. “The prophet,” says Lowth, “renews his threatenings against Babylon, as he does afterward, (chap. 47.,) to convince the Jews, by this repetition, of the certainty of the event, and thereby support them under their captivity when it should come.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The burden - (see the note at Isa 13:1).
The burden - (see the note at Isa 13:1).
Of the desert - There have been almost as many interpretations of this expression, as there have been interpreters. That it means Babylon, or the country about Babylon, there can be no doubt; but the question why this phrase was applied, has given rise to a great diversity of opinions. The term ‘desert’ (מדבר midbâr) is usually applied to a wilderness, or to a comparatively barren and uncultivated country - a place for flocks and herds (Psa 65:13; Jer 9:9 ff); to an actual waste, sandy desert Isa 32:15; Isa 35:1; and particularly to the deserts of Arabia Gen 14:6; Gen 16:7; Deu 11:24. It may here be applied to Babylon either historically, as having been “once” an unreclaimed desert: or by “anticipation,” as descriptive of what it “would be” after it should be destroyed by Cyrus, or possibly both these ideas may have been combined. That it was “once” a desert before it was reclaimed by Semiramis is the testimony of all history; that it is “now” a vast waste is the united testimony of all travelers. There is every reason to think that a large part of the country about Babylon was formerly overflowed with water “before” it was reclaimed by dykes; and as it was naturally a waste, when the artificial dykes and dams should be removed, it would again be a desert.
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Of the sea - (ים yâm). There has been also much difference of opinion in regard to this word. But there can be no doubt that it refers to the Euphrates, and to the extensive region of marsh that was covered by its waters. The name ‘sea’ (ים yâm) is not unfrequently given to a large river, to the Nile, and to the Euphrates (see the note at Isa 11:15; compare Isa 19:5). Herodotus (i. 184), says, that ‘Semiramis confined the Euphrates within its channel by raisin great dams against it; for before, it overflowed the whole country like a sea.’ And Abydenus, in Eusebius, (“Prepara. Evang.,” ix. 457) says, respecting the building of Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, that ‘it is reported that all this was covered with water, and was called a sea - λέγεται δὲ πάντα μεν ἐξ ἀρχῆς ὕδωρ εἶναι, θαλασσων καλουμένην legetai de panta men ech archēs hudōr einai, thalassōn kaloumenēn (Compare Strabo, “Geog.” xvi. 9, 10; and Arrianus, “De Expedit. Alexandri,” vii. 21). Cyrus removed these dykes, reopened the canals, and the waters were suffered to remain, and again converted the whole country into a vast marsh (see the notes at Isa. 13; 14)
As whirlwinds - That is, the army comes with the rapidity of a whirlwind. In Isa 8:8 (compare Hab 1:11), an army is compared to an overflowing and rapid river.
In the south - Whirlwinds or tempests are often in the Scriptures represented as coming from the south, Zec 9:14; Job 37:9 :
Out of the south cometh the whirlwind,
And cold out of the north.
So Virgil:
- creberque procellis
Africus -
AEneid, i. 85.
The deserts of Arabia were situated to the south of Babylon, and the south winds are described as the winds of the desert. Those winds are represented as being so violent as to tear away the tents occupied by a caravan (Pietro della Valle, “Travels,” vol. iv. pp. 183, 191). In Job 1:19, the whirlwind is represented as coming ‘from the wilderness; that is, from the “desert” of Arabia (compare Jer 13:24; Hos 13:15).
So it cometh from the desert - (see Isa 13:4, and the note on that place). God is there represented as collecting the army for the destruction of Babylon ‘on the mountains,’ and by mountains are probably denoted the same as is here denoted by the desert. The country of the “Medes” is doubtless intended, which, in the view of civilized and refined Babylon, was an uncultivated region, or a vast waste or wilderness.
From a terrible land - A country rough and uncultivated, abounding in forests or wastes.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain The desert of the sea. So Babylon is here…
The desert of the sea. So Babylon is here called, because from a city as full of people as the sea is with water, it was become a desert. (Challoner) --- After its fall, it was mostly inundated, chap. xiii. 20. --- Land. Media and Persia, which lay to the south, and were not so beautiful as the environs of Babylon.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Isaiah 21, 22
III. LIBELLUS EMBLEMATICUS: CONTAINING PROPHECIES AGAINST BABYLON, EDOM, ARABIA AND JERUSALEM. TO THIS LAST PROPHECY THERE IS ADDED A SUPPLEMENTAL ONE DIRECTED AGAINST SHEBNA THE STEWARD OF THE PALACE
Isaiah 21, 22
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These two chapters contain prophecies against Babylon, Edom, the Arabians, Jerusalem. The last of them has an appendix relating to an individual, namely, Shebna, the steward of the palace. The reason of the juxtaposition of these prophecies is seen in their peculiar inscriptions, which are all of an emblematic character. The countries spoken of are not designated by their real names, but Babylon is called the desert of the sea; Edom, Dumah, i.e. silence; Jerusalem, valley of vision. Arabia retains its own name, but that name is seen to be used in a double signification. For the context shows that עֲרַב is intended to stand not only for Arabia, but also for evening. We have, moreover, to remark, that in three of these prophecies (Isa_21:1; Isa_21:13; Isa_22:1) the inscription is an expression taken from the prophecy over which it is placed. In arranging these prophecies so much weight was attached to the analogous character of their inscriptions, that from a regard to it even chapter 22 although directed against Jerusalem, has been taken into the series of prophecies against heathen nations (13–23) The four prophecies here placed together have yet other points of contact. The first and second exhibit the prophet very prominently in his character as a watcher on his high tower: the fourth presents the antithesis between false and true seeing. In the first Elam and Madai appear as enemies of Babylon; in the fourth, Elam and Kir as enemies of Jerusalem. Moreover, the mode of attack is twice described in the same manner. (Comp. Isa_21:7 with Isa_22:6). Worthy of observation too, are the frequent points of agreement with the book of Job which both these chapters contain. Comp. Isa_21:3 b, and Isa_21:4 a with Job_21:6; Job_18:11, etc.; Isa_22:2 with Job_36:29; Job_39:7; Isa_22:4 with Job_7:19; Job_14:6; Isa_22:22 with Job_12:14; Isa_22:24 (צאצאים) with Job_5:25, etc. (See the exposition).
The genuineness of Isa_21:1-10 is contested by the rationalistic interpreters. The chief reason is that they hold such a prophecy to be an impossibility. But as the form and contents of the piece are so decidedly after Isaiah’s manner that, as Delitzsch says, “a prophecy constructed more exactly in the style of Isaiah than this, is inconceivable,” it would follow that we have primarily and properly only to consider the question as a problem which is presented to us: How is it possible that Isaiah could foreknow the fall of Babylon by nations that he calls Elam and Madai? A thing is here held to be impossible, whose impossibility is by no means scientifically established. For it is not demonstrated that there is not a personal God.
It is very difficult to make any definite statement respecting the time of the composition of this prophecy against Babylon. The only thing on which we can base an opinion seems to be the identity of expressions in Isa_21:3; Isa_13:8. This suggests the inference that the prophecy Isa_21:1-10 and the related chapters 13 and 14 were composed at the same time. On the question respecting the time of the composition of the three other prophecies, consult the introductions to them and the exposition that follow.
__________________
A.—Against Babylon
Isa_21:1-10
1 The burden of the desert of the sea.
As whirlwinds in the south pass through;
So it cometh from the desert,
From a terrible land.
2 A 1grievous vision is declared unto me:
The treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously,
And the spoiler spoileth.
Go up, O Elam; besiege O Media;
All the sighing thereof have I made to cease.
3 Therefore are my loins filled with pain;
Pangs have taken hold upon me,
As the pangs of a woman that travaileth:
I was bowed down at the hearing of it;
I was dismayed at the seeing of it.
4 2My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me;
3The night of my pleasure hath he 4 turned into fear unto me.
5 Prepare the table,
Watch in the watch-tower,
Eat, drink;
Arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.
6 For thus hath the Lord said unto me,
Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.
7 And he saw a5 chariot with a couple of horsemen,
A chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels;
And he hearkened diligently with much heed:
8 And 6he cried, A lion;
My lord, I stand continually upon the watch-tower in the day time,
And I am set in my ward 7whole nights.
9 And, behold, here cometh 8a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen.
And he answered and said,
Babylon is fallen, is fallen;
And all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.
10 O my threshing, and the 9corn of my floor:
That which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
Have I declared unto you.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_21:1. לחלף supply הָיוּ, conjugatio periphrastica, comp. Gesen., § 132, Anm. 1; Ewald, § 237, c. The design of this periphrastic construction seems to be to denote what is habitual: ut transire solent—a usage which marks chiefly the later books (2Ch_26:5; Ezr_3:12) The construction is in every case a peculiar one.
Isa_21:2. חזות קשׁה is the accusative depending on the transitive notion latent in the passive הֻגַּר. The ה in אנחתה (אֲנָחָה, in Isaiah besides only Isaiah 35:10, 11) is marked by the Masorets as רָכָּה, although “the majority of the most correct codd. and editt.” (see Gesen. and De Rossi on our place) have the Mappiq in the הּ The sense is the same; for even the form with the quiescent ה denotes “gemitus ejus” for there is no absolute form אַנְחָתָה. Respecting the feminine suffix without Mappiq, comp. Ewald, § 247, d.
Isa_21:6. The article before מְצַפֶה (Mic_7:4) is the generic.
Isa_21:7. The primary signification of רֶכֶב is vectura. This can mean 1) id quo vehitur, and that is a) and indeed predominantly the chariot, but also b) the horse. Here however we have to remark that רכב is not the riding horse, but the chariot horse, and that it has this signification not immediately from the root רָכַב, but per metonymiam from the derivative רֶכֶב chariot, which also signifies the chariot with horses, and then (pars pro toto) the horses alone (comp. 2Sa_8:4; 2Sa_10:18); 2) vectura signifies also id quod vehitur, i.e., men riding or driving, whether singly (Eze_39:20 סוּס וָרֶכֶב equus et vector), or in numbers, as a band, a train (comp. in Arabic rakb a band of camel riders). In this latter signification the word is to be understood here and Isa_21:9; Isa_22:6. קשׁב marks everywhere only the activity of the ear and not attentive observation in general. קֶשֶׁב is the simple accusative of the object “et attendit attentionem magnam” (compare Deu_13:2 חָלַם חְַלוֹם, also Zec_1:15, and Psa_14:5).
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The first verse contains the theme: the Prophet beholds a violent tempest, which as a Simoon in the South, sweeps from a terrible land against Babylon. In Isa_21:2 the vision is more exactly defined, both as to the subjective and objective side. In the former relation it is characterized as a hard one, i.e. one which makes a deep and perturbing impression on him who sees it. Objectively the vision is seen to relate to a martial expedition against the perfidious and devastating Babylon. This expedition, in which Elam and Madai are the actors, will at the same time make an end to the sighing, i.e. to the bondage of Israel. In Isa_21:3-4 the feelings of the Prophet at the “hard” vision are more nearly described. Pain seizes him as a travailing woman; he writhes and is terrified at what he hears and sees. His heart beats wildly from the horror which has taken hold of him; the twilight, hitherto so pleasant, as a time of rest, has become a time of dread. In Isa_21:5 there is a brief description of the way in which Babylon, the object of the announced invasion, behaves in view of it. They furnish the table for a banquet without thinking of any other defence than the appointment of watchmen; they eat and drink till suddenly, in the midst of the feast, the cry is heard: Arise, ye princes, anoint the shield! The following verses depict the issue. In order to observe it, the Prophet had been ordered by the Lord to set a sentry on the watch-tower (Isa_21:6). The sentry beholds a mighty train of horses, asses and camels, and attends sharply to what it will do (Isa_21:7). Many days and nights the sentry keeps watch without marking anything (Isa_21:8). At last he calls with a loud voice; there comes a troop; it is but small, but it announces that Babylon is fallen, that its idols are overthrown (Isa_21:9). The Prophet in the words of the last verse (Isa_21:10) declares that he proclaims this as certain truth from the Lord to comfort his people threshed (crushed) in the captivity.
The burden——of the sea.
Isa_21:1 a. The four prophecies which are placed together in chaps. 21 and 22, have inscriptions of an emblematical character. It is disputed whether מדבר ים is a title derived from the text of this passage, or is an independent figurative designation of the country of Babylon. It is well-known that writings were denominated after their initial word, or, indeed, any word contained in them. Compare the Hebrew names of the Pentateuch, and of Proverbs and Lamentations; also קֶשֶׁת2Sa_1:18. [In the last passage the E. V. has “the use of the bow;” but the ellipsis is best supplied in the rendering “the song of the bow.” D. M.]. On such titles the Commentary of Gesenius may be consulted. The משֹׂא בערב Isa_21:13 (comp. בערב as the second word of the text) and the משׂא ניא חזיון22:1 (comp. the same expression, Isa_22:5) seem to have been designated on the same principle. But although מדבר occurs in Isa_21:1, ים is not found in the whole prophecy. Vitringa in a juvenile production (Observv Sacr. L. I., diss. 2, op. 4) expressed the unwarranted opinion which he retracted in his commentary, that יָם is substituted for נֶגֶב. But why should not מדבר נֶנֶב be written? And although the sea lay to the south of Babylonia, that is no reason for calling the country “the desert of the sea.” There is just as little ground for taking ים in the signification “West,” and giving this explanation of the whole expression, that Babylon is called מדבר ים because it lay west of Media and Persia, and a desert intervened (Kimchi). I see no reason why we should not explain the expression מדבר ים after the analogy of the expressions בערב and גיא חזיון. The title מדבר is therefore taken from Isa_21:1. But מדבר by itself would be too obscure. Another word had therefore to be supplied for nearer specification. Now Babylon was situated on the Euphrates. The Euphrates, with its canals, ponds and swamps, might as well be called a sea as the Nile, Isa_19:5, In Jer_51:13 Babylon is thus addressed “O thou that dwellest on great waters.” See also Jer_50:38; Jer_51:32; Jer_51:36. Interpreters refer to Herod. I. 184 where speaking of the Euphrates he says: “πρότερον δὲ (namely, previous to the erection of the dikes by Semiramis) ἐώθεε ὁ ποταμὸς ἀνὰ τὸ πεδίον πᾶν πελαγίζειν.” A passage from Abydenus is also cited (in Euseb.Praep. Evang. IX. 41), where in reference to Mesopotamia which is watered by the Euphrates it is said: λέγετααι δὲ πάντα μὲν ἐξἀρχῆς ῦδωρ είναι, θάλασσαν καλεομένην.” Finally, it is of great weight that Babylonia is on the Assyrian monuments often designated simply as “sea, sea-country,” (tihamtu = תְּהוֹם, in Assyrian the common word for “sea,” Schrader, p. 1 sq.). Tiglath-Pileser says in the pompous inscription proceeding from the last year of his reign (Schrader, p. 129 sq.), that he subdued Merodach-Baladan, son of Jakin, king of the sea (Sar tihamtiv). The same Merodach-Baladan is elsewhere called Sar Kardunias, i.e., king of Southern Chaldaea (Schrader, p. 214 note). Further, Asarhaddon states on a cylinder-inscription (Schrader, p. 227) that he made over “the Sea-country,” (mat tihamtiv) in its whole extent, to Nahid-Merodach, son of Merodach-Baladan. It is clear, therefore, that “sea, sea-country” was just an Assyro-Babylonian designation at least of Southern Chaldaea. If now we take into consideration that Babylon with its many and great waters was formerly a sea-country, and till the times of Asarhaddon was called “sea” (tihamtu) at least in its southern part, and that it still “swims as in the sea;” if, on the other hand, we bear in mind that the prophets depict the future desolation of Babylon with all possible colors, comparing it with Sodom and Gomorrah, places now covered with water, and speaking of its being turned into a lake of water, we might say that the expression “the desert of the sea” comprehends the past, present and future of the country in one conception. But we perceive from the book of the Rev_17:1; Rev_17:3; Rev_17:15 that our passage was understood in yet another sense [?] There Babylon, the great whore, sits on many waters (Isa_21:1) and at the same time in the desert (Isa_21:3). The waters, however, are (Isa_21:15) interpreted “peoples, and multitudes and nations and tongues” (comp. Isa_8:7; Jer_47:2). The apostle appears, therefore, to have in his mind a wilderness of peoples, and the expression מִדְבַּר עַמִּים (Eze_20:35; comp. Hos_2:16) might also have been present to his view. We see, then, that the expression “the desert of the sea” is capable of a manifold interpretation. Did the Prophet himself use it? I, for my part, find the choice of an expression capable of various explanations, as the inscription of a prophecy, to be quite in accordance with Isaiah’s manner (comp. Isa_21:11; Isa_21:13, Isa_22:1; Isa_30:6). [The Seer in the Apocalypse does not put the alleged arbitrary and erroneous construction on the inscription before us. The prototype of the figurative language in Revelation 17 is rather to be sought in Jeremiah 51. This chapter of Jeremiah was undoubtedly before the mind of John in depicting the mystic Babylon, and in it we have Babylon represented as dwelling on many waters (Jer_51:13), and as destined to be a desert (Jer_51:43). The sitting of the whore in the wilderness refers to her impending desolation, and does not exclude her sitting before that time on many waters. John does not employ the expression “a wilderness of peoples.” In the whore sitting on many waters we have her condition at the time John wrote. Her appearance in the wilderness denotes her future solitude. It is plain, then, that the Apocalyptic Seer does not misinterpret the enigmatical title of this chapter of Isaiah, “the desert of the sea.”—D. M.].
3. As whirlwinds——land.
Isa_21:1 b. According to the Masoretic punctuation this part of the verse consists of three members, of which the middle one is formed by the words ממדבר בא. But against this division the objections lie, 1) that we cannot say the south in general, or for every land its south is the region of storms; 2) that the Prophet does not indicate by a single word that he means the countries situated south of Babylonia; 3) that it is not said “from the south.” The expression בנגכ taken strictly does not involve the idea of a storm observed in the south by the Babylonians, but only the idea of a storm sweeping south of them: 4) that הַנֶּגֶב has for the native of Palestine a quite definite signification; it is the south of Judah (Gen_13:1; Num_21:1; Deu_34:3; Jos_10:40; Jos_11:16 et saepe) which is connected with the desert of Sinai called likewise κατ’ ἐξοχὴνהַמִּדְבָּר (comp. Herz.R. Encycl. XIVII. p. 304). The Prophet says therefore: as in the נֶגֶב of Palestine storms coming from Arabia Petraea (Hos_13:15; Jer_4:11; Jer_13:24; Job_1:19; Zec_9:14) sweep along (חלף properly “change,” thence transire, Isa_8:8) so it comes upon Babylonia from a terrible land.—בָּא is neuter and impersonal, a form of expression which we have already found frequently in Isa_6:10; Isa_10:4; Isa_14:32; Isa_15:2; Isa_18:5. A terrible land the country is called, because it is inhabited by a terrible people (Isa_18:2; Isa_18:7). What country is meant by the Prophet we learn from Isa_21:2 b.
4. A grievous vision——fear unto me.
Isa_21:2-4. The vision (חזות in this meaning in Isaiah only here, and Isa_29:11; in another sense Isa_28:18; it is found besides only in Dan_8:5-8) is first defined as to its subjective side, and in general as hard, i.e., hard to bear, causing perturbation (comp. similar inward experience of the Prophets at the incalculable greatness and importance of what they beheld, Dan_7:15; Dan_7:28; Dan_10:16 sqq.; Heb_12:21). To this general description of the subjective impression is added a more particular account of the objective nature of the vision. Here the first question is, whether the words הבִוגד to שׁודד refer to the Chaldeans or to the Persians. In the former case we should be told how the oppressive rule of the Babylonians, while in full swing, was rudely checked. In the latter case, the work of the enemy before approaching the city itself, would be described. Both explanations are grammatically possible. A worldly power in so far as it is opposed to the kingdom of God, can be reproached with acting perfidiously (comp. Isa_24:16 and especially Isa_33:1, where also the two expressions בגד and שׁדד occur together. Comp. Isa_48:8), but why stress should be laid on this point as a prominent characteristic of the nation serving God as His instrument is inconceivable. בִֹּזִז or שֹׁסֶה (Isa_17:14) would be less strange. I hold therefore with Drechsler that the words הבוגד to שׁודד denote the worldly power absolutely hostile to God, not that one which serves as His instrument. This view requires that we do not attach to בנד the sense of robbing. This signification has been assumed, as if supported by the places Isa_21:2; Isa_24:16; Isa_33:1. And indeed no other sense than that of robbing suits the passage before us, if it be applied to the Persians. But this application is untenable, and in the other passages the context requires no other signification than that of acting perfidiously. While we refer these words to the Babylonians, we find in them a reason for their punishment. With dramatic liveliness the discourse is directed to those commissioned to execute the judgment. Elam (Isa_11:11; Isa_22:6), and Media (Isa_13:17) are to go up (on עלה comp. on Isa_7:1) and besiege the city of Babylon (צוּר in this sense only here in Isaiah; besides only Isa_29:3 where the signification is similar, but not the same). That the Prophet makes mention not of the Persians, but of the Elamites, a nation adjacent to the Persians on the west, is assuredly not favorable to the view that this part of Isaiah was composed during the exile (comp. on Isa_13:17). An author living in the exile would certainly have named the Persians. That the Prophet under Elam includes Persia also, is in a certain sense possible. Not that Elymais formed a part of Persis. It was at a later period that Elam was incorporated in the Persian empire, though Susa, one of the three residences of the Persian kings, was (Dan_8:2) in Elam. Elam was a land known to the Hebrews in the times of Isaiah (Gen_14:1; Gen_14:9), while the Persians were then still quite unknown. We might say that to the view of the Prophet Elam concealed Persia, and so, more or less consciously to him, involved it. And thus this discourse has that character of dimness and obscurity, of oscillating between light and darkness, which befits the prophetic vision, and belongs to the marks of a genuine prophecy. The concluding words of Isa_21:2 are for those who were oppressed by Babylon, for those who were the victims of the בוגד and שׁודד. The genitive in אנחתה, “her sighing,” is to be taken as the objective, the sighing over her. [We prefer to understand it of the sighing which she, Babylon, caused by her oppression.—D. M.]. In Isa_21:3-4 the Prophet justifies the expression קָשָׁה (Isa_21:2). From the variety and violence of the painful feelings which the Prophet experienced at the vision, we can infer the fearful nature of the things which he saw. They give us, moreover, to know that the Prophet not only heard the command “Go up, Elam,” etc., but also beheld in spirit its execution. What he then saw is what was terrible; and therefore his loins are full of חלחלה (in Isaiah only here; besides Nah_2:11; Eze_30:4; Eze_30:9),i.e., trepidatio, spasm in the loins. צירים (with חְַבָלִים the most common word for the pains of parturition Isa_13:8; it occurs in another signification, Isa_45:16; Isa_18:2; Isa_57:9) have seized him as a travailing woman; he writhes from hearing (נעוה the bowing downwards; in Isaiah besides only in Piel Isa_24:1) and trembles (Isa_13:8). Many interpreters take מראות ,משׁמוע as marking a negative result: so that I do not hear, or see. But why should the hearing be hindered through bending, or seeing through terror? On the contrary, as we see from חזות קשׁה, horror which seizes the inmost soul, proceeds from a seeing and hearing only too accurate. It is certainly not a matter of chance that almost all the expressions here employed occur in Isa_13:8, which passage also treats of Babylon, and that some of the words as צירים and נבהל are found only in these two places in Isaiah. There is indeed this difference, that the Prophet here applies to himself what he there says of the Babylonians; but still a relation of the one place to the other indicating a contemporaneous origin is indisputable. תָּעָה is more frequently used of spiritual going astray, of aberration of heart, (Psa_95:10, comp. Isa_29:24, et saepe), but stands here in the physical sense of the abnormal beating of the heart (palpitation). Also כּלצות (in Isaiah only here; besides Job_21:6; Psa_55:6; Eze_7:18) involves the notion of tottering, concussio (Job_9:6). בעת Piel, a word of special frequency in Job, is used by Isaiah only here. This passage, then, by the words כּלצות ,בעת and נבהל (comp. especially Job_21:6) reminds one strongly of the phraseology of the book of Job. בִּעֵת signifies in every place (even 1Sa_16:14) “to terrify, affright, disturb.” The twilight (Isa_5:11; Isa_59:10) at other times a welcome bringer of rest to the Prophet after his exciting work during the day (חֵשֶׁקdesiderium, deliciae, in Isaiah only here, comp. 1Ki_9:1; 1Ki_9:19), is to him now a source of new disquietude (חרדה substantive in Isaiah only here). We see from this that the Prophet had the vision in the night, either when awake or dreaming.
Prepare the table——the shield. Isa_21:5. The Prophet here paints the judgment falling on Babylon in few, quickly thrown off, but powerful strokes. He indicates by hints couched in brief, mysterious words, wherein that terrible thing consists, which according to Isa_21:2-4 he must see, and in what way Elam and Media fulfil their mission. These words, too, bear that character of prophetic indefiniteness which we have already noticed in Isa_21:2. The Prophet speaks as in a dream; he draws nebulous forms. Only when we compare the fulfilment, do the images assume a distinct shape, and we are astonished at their accuracy. This is neither mantic prediction, nor vaticinium post eventum. The prophet does not understand his own words (comp. 1Pe_1:11); he is the unconscious organ of a higher being who speaks through him. Comp. my remarks on Jer_50:24; Jer_51:31; Jer_51:39. It is well known that Cyrus captured Babylon in a night when the Babylonians were celebrating a festival with merry carousals (Dan. v.; Herod. I. 191; Xenoph.Cyrop. VII. 5, 15 sqq.). Isaiah certainly did not know this. He is, therefore, ignorant as to what the ערך השׁלחן refers, why and how it was done. The infinitives absolute leave the action without indication of time or subject. This indefiniteness admirably suits the prophetic style. The expression ערך השׁלחן is found also in Isa_65:11; Psa_23:5; Psa_78:19; Pro_9:2; Eze_23:41. That it is the Babylonians who prepare the table, is clear from the context. It is they who are surprised during the carousal. If we take the words צכּה הצכּית in their obvious meaning (watching, to look out) they seem inappropriate. Other meanings have therefore been sought out from all quarters; they kindle the lamps—they clarify the wine—they set the ranks in order—they prepare carpets, etc. But צָפָּה means in Hebrew nothing else than speculari; and צפית (which occurs only here, but with which צִפִּיָה, Lam_4:17, and מִצְפֶּה, Isa_21:8, may be compared) must accordingly denote specula, “watchtower, watch, looking out.” It seems to me that the Prophet does not wish us to suppose that in a city surrounded by the enemy, a merry carousal took place without the precaution of appointing guards. He means to say only that they were so reckless as to enjoy a banquet even though watches had been set. How dangerous even that could be, is soon apparent when the cry reaches the revellers in the midst of their carousal: the foe is come, anoint the shield! So foolhardy are they that they do not abandon their revelry (which was proverbial and is mentioned in Scripture Isa_14:11; Isa_47:1; Jer_51:7; Dan_5:1, and elsewhere, e.g., in Curtius V. 6); but in the presence of the beleaguering foe indulge in banqueting, though they took the precaution of setting a watch. According to Xenophon as quoted above, § 25, there was really a guard in the castle, but they were (§ 27) intoxicated. The princes who are said only now to arise and anoint the shield, are the surprised Babylonians. The anointing of the leather shield (2Sa_1:21) was in order to make it more compact, firm, smooth and shining (comp. HerzogR.- Enc., and WinerReal-Lex. Art. Schild). [In 2Sa_1:21 the Hebrew text must be consulted. The anointing which in the E. V. is made, by supplying an imaginary ellipsis, to refer to Saul, refers not to him, but to his shield.—D. M.]. It is a sign of great negligence that the Babylonians have not anointed their shields, notwithstanding the enemy is before the gates. Now they must either fight with unanointed shields, or yield without a struggle.
6. For thus hath—broken unto the ground. Isa_21:6-9. כִּי in the beginning of Isa_21:6 seems to be explicative. In fact the Isa_21:6-9 are related to the preceding 2–5 as an explanation and more particular description. If we could already from verses 2–5 know in general that the ruin of Babylon through Elam and Media was decreed, and that it would be effected by an assault, we see (Isa_21:7) the army of the Elamites and Medians in march before our eyes, and (Isa_21:9) the complete success of the attack is announced. The train of thought is the following: Babylon is to be besieged by Elam and Media, and to be captured by a surprise. For the Prophet sees a mighty army moving against Babylon, and soon after, another band coming from Babylon, which proclaims the downfall of the city and of its idols. The connecting of the two parts by the formula: “For thus said Jehovah,” reminds one of Isa_8:11. What the Prophet now beholds in vision is represented in what follows, as if a watchman appointed by the command of God had seen it, and communicated it to him. This style of costume is very effective (comp. 2Sa_18:24 sqq.; 2Ki_9:17 sqq.). Elsewhere the Prophet himself is represented as a watchman on the pinnacle (Hab_2:1; Zec_1:8 sqq.). And, indeed, here too Isaiah himself is the watchman, though another is made to take his place. This is only a rhetorical artifice to heighten the effect. The very words “what he sees he will declare,” contain a praise of the watchman. For it is not said יַגֵּד. That would indicate only the duty of the watchman. But יַגִיד gives us to understand that he will really fulfil this duty. The perfects וְהִקְשִׁיב וְרָאָה Isa_21:7, cannot mean, “and he shall see, hearken.” For the watchman is not to be dictated to in regard to what he shall see. Neither is it allowable with Drechsler to take the words as a conditional sentence, “and if he sees. … he shall hearken. ....” That the Prophet actually appointed the watchman, would properly be told immediately after issuing the command. But this point, as self-evident, is here passed over, as in other cases where a command given by the Lord to the Prophet is related (Isa_7:3 sqq.; Isa_8:1 sq., 3 sqq.). The watchman saw first a train of horsemen (צֶמֶד is a collective, besides in Isaiah only, Isa_5:10, in the signification jugum;פָּרָשׁ is eques, then sometimes equus, Isa_21:6-7; Isa_28:28; Isa_31:1; Isa_36:9) followed by a train of asses and camels. Interpreters have called attention to the fact that the Medes were renowned for their cavalry (Cyrop. I. 6, 10), which Cyrus was the first to introduce among the Persians (Cyrop. 4:3-4 sqq.; 6:1, 26 sqq.). We learn from this last place that Cyrus furnished his army with numerous and improved chariots of war. To what a formidable arm Cyrus raised the Persian cavalry in a brief period, appears from his being able to march against Babylon with 40,000 horsemen (Cyrop. VII. 4, 16). The employment of asses and camels, not only for transport, but also in battle, is an established fact. In regard to asses, Strabo relates of the Caramanians, a nation dwelling next the Persians to the east, and subdued by them, that they “χρῶνται ὄνοις οἱ πολλοὶ καὶ πρὸς πόλεμον σπάνει τῶν ἴππων.” And Herodotus relates that the Scythians in fighting against the Persians under Darius Hystaspis, found no worse enemies than the asses, at whose strange appearance and braying the horses took fright ( 4:129). That Cyrus himself employed camels in battle is expressly related by Xenophon:Cyrop. 6:1, 30 : 7:1, 22, 27. The watchman sees then an army in march. The Prophet does not mention that he saw infantry. Prominence is evidently given only to what is peculiar and characteristic. And, in fact, hardly another army could have been then found which presented such a diversity of animals used in war as the Persian host with its wonderful variety of races. The watchman not only saw, he also heard, or rather tried to hear; for he really heard nothing at first. The strange, long, martial train disappeared. The watchman then sees and hears nothing for a long time. This surprises him. He becomes impatient. He is not aware that meanwhile a great work is accomplishing which requires time: the capture of Babylon. In his impatience, which does not, however, lessen his zeal, he calls now with a lion’s voice (properly as a lion, comp. Psa_22:14; Isa_46:3, etc.;Rev_10:3): I stand in vain night and day on the watch-tower. We see from this that that army in march, Isa_21:7, was a passing appearance, and that after it had vanished, there had been a pause, which the watchman could not explain. He addresses his call to אְַדֹנָי, that is to Jehovah. At the same time the Prophet gives up the assumed character, and lets us see plainly that he himself is the watchman. Hitzig and Meier would read אְַרֹנִי “my lord.” This would suit the connection better, but must the more readily be rejected as a correction, as the Prophet could quite easily drop the character which he personates. The watchman had hardly uttered these complaining words when that for which he had waited so long took place. He sees again something which gives information: a little band of men who ride in pairs, comes from Babylon. The והנה־זה is to be regarded as spoken with emphasis. For it stands in a certain contrast to what precedes; hitherto I have perceived nothing, but now, etc. We must, therefore, translate, “but, lo, there comes,” etc. Who is the subject of וַיַּעַן in Isa_21:9? Obviously the watchman. We might think of the troop of horsemen coming from Babylon. This would be possible. But this alteration of the subject would need to be indicated in some way. The want of any indication of this kind is in favor of our assuming the same subject that had governed the whole preceding series of sentences. The watchman learned by inquiry or knew it from infallible signs: Babylon is fallen! A grand utterance! Hence the repetition of In נפלה. Jer_51:8 this place is quoted. Also in Rev_18:2. Jeremiah likewise emphatically sets forth the downfall of Babylon as a defeat of its gods (Jer. 1. 2, 38; Jer_51:44; Jer_51:47; Jer_51:52). The subject of שִׁבַּר can be Jehovah. It can also be he who was Jehovah’s instrument for this work, the conqueror of Babylon: Cyrus. This “he” who afterwards comes clearly and distinctly under his proper name into the Prophet’s field of vision, appears here still veiled as it were: שׁבר לארץ is a pregnant construction, comp. Isa_8:11; Isa_13:8; Isa_14:9-10; Isa_20:2. Drechsler makes the not inappropriate remark that Isaiah has perhaps in his eye here “the well-known iconoclastic zeal of the Persians.”
7. O my threshing—unto you.
Isa_21:10. These words intimate the proper immediate object of the prophecy. Judah is to be comforted by the prediction of the fall of the Babylonian fortress. The words seem aimless, if what precedes them is regarded as vaticinium post eventum. We have in Isa_21:10 a summary of chaps. 40–66מְדֻשָֹּׁה (for which other editions read מְדוּשָה) is ἅπ. λεγ. It means what is crushed by threshing. Israel is so called as the object of the divine judgment which was executed on him by means of the exile. דּוּשׁ is frequently employed in the sense of cleansing and sifting by divine judgments, Isa_25:10; Isa_28:27 sq.; Isa_41:15; Mic_4:13; Hab_3:12. The expression בֶּן־גֹרז reminds one of such expressions as בֶּן־הַכּוֹת ,כֶּן־יִצְהָר. A son of the threshing-floor is one who lies on it, and is threshed, and that not merely briefly and accidentally, but for a long time, as it were habitually. For he belongs to the floor as a child to its mother. Accordingly בז־גרז is stronger than מדשׁה. Israel is so named because in the exile the threshing floor had become his home, his mother-country. It is the Prophet who speaks, but in the name, and as it were, out of the soul of God. Otherwise the second half of this verse would contain an intolerable transition. This threshed people, to whom the threshing-floor had become a home, is still the Prophet’s own beloved people. With sorrow he announces to them that they must be threshed in Babylon; with joy he declares that they will be delivered from the threshing-floor. Both events are certain. And Israel may and ought to believe this. It is indeed inconceivable that the Prophet can make such an announcement. He himself does not understand even the connection. He therefore declares emphatically: I have not excogitated this; but I have heard it from Jehovah, and therefore declare I it to you as certain truth.
Footnotes:
[1]Heb. hard.
[2]Or, My mind wandered.
[3]the twilight, my joy.
[4]Heb. put.
[5]a troop of horsemen in pairs, a troop of asses, a troop of camels.
[6]Or, cried as a lion.
[7]Or, every night.
[8]a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.
[9]Heb. son.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1. The desert of the sea — Babylon lay…
1. The desert of the sea — Babylon lay on an extended plain of its own, and this was contiguous to the great desert of Arabia on the southwest, from which violent winds often rush. Artificial checks preserved the Euphrates from becoming a sea in its overflowings, like the Nile during its inundations. The word “desert” seems to be used in anticipation of what this great plain will become in the fall of Babylon, when all the embankments of the great river shall be removed.
Terrible land — This, according to Isa_21:2, is Persia and Media. Media, especially “terrible,” because of its wild mountain warriors. A rush of these is to be made upon Babylon, like to the hurricanes from the southern deserts.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. The burden of the desert of the sea]…
1. The burden of the desert of the sea] Perhaps, The oracle, “Desert of the Sea.” The first of a series of enigmatic headings, all but peculiar to this section of the book: Isa_21:11; Isa_21:13, Isa_22:1 (cf. Isa_30:6). In the majority of cases they are to be explained as catchwords, taken from the body of the oracle (in this instance the fourth word of the original, “desert”). Similarly David’s lament over Saul and Jonathan is entitled the song of “the bow,” 2Sa_1:18, cf. 2Sa_21:22. The words “of the sea” are wanting in the LXX. Some render “deserts” (reading midbarîm for midbar-yâm). Others, again, regard the fuller form as an emblematic designation of Babylon or Babylonia: the country that was once a sea (θάλασσα Herod. i. 184) and shall be so again.
in the south] Lit. “in the Negeb,” the dry pastoral region in the south of Judah and beyond. The inference that the prophecy was written in Palestine is plausible, but not inevitable, since the word is used of the southern direction. For pass through, render sweeping along.
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it (the undefined danger) cometh from the desert] probably the flat region S.E. of Babylon, between it and Elam. a terrible land] cf. Isa_30:6; Deu_1:19; Deu_8:15, &c.
1, 2. The “hard vision” of Babylon’s fate.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) The burden of the desert of the sea…
XXI.
(1) The burden of the desert of the sea . . .—The title of the prophecy is obviously taken from the catch-word of “the desert” that follows. The “sea” has been explained (1) as the Euphrates, just as in Isa_18:2; Isa_19:5, it appears as used of the Nile (Cheyne). (2) As pointing to the surging flood of the mingled myriads of its population. (3) Xenophon’s description of the whole plain of the Euphrates, intersected by marshes and lakes, as looking like a sea affords, perhaps, a better explanation.
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As whirlwinds in the south . . .—The “South” (or Negeb) is here, as elsewhere, the special name of the country lying south of Judah. The tempests of the region seem to have been proverbial (Zec_9:14; Jer_4:11; Jer_13:24; Hos_13:15).
So it cometh.—The absence of a subject to the verb gives the opening words a terrible vagueness. Something is coming “from the wilderness, a terrible land,” beyond it. The “wilderness” in this case is clearly the Arabian desert, through part of which the Euphrates flows. The context determines the “terrible land” as that of Elam and Media.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 1-10. THE BURDEN OF THE DESERT OF THE…
Vers. 1-10. THE BURDEN OF THE DESERT OF THE SEA. This is a short and somewhat vague, but highly poetic, "burden of Babylon" It is probably an earlier prophecy than Isaiah 13. and 14., and perhaps the first revelation made to Isaiah with respect to the fall of the great Chaldean capital. It exhibits no consciousness of the fact that Babylon is Judah"s predestined destroyer, and is expressive rather of sympathy (vers. 3, 4) than of triumph. Among recent critics, some suppose it to refer to Sargon"s capture of the city in B.C. 710; but the objection to this view, from the entire absence of all reference to Assyria as the conquering power, and the mention of "Elam" and "Media" in her place, is absolutely fatal to it. There can be no reasonable doubt that the same siege is intended as in Isaiah 13., where also Media is mentioned (ver. 17); and there are no real grounds for questioning that the event of which the prophet is made cognizant is that siege and capture of Babylon by Cyrus the Great which destroyed the Babylonian empire.
The desert of the sea. The Isaianic authorship of this title is doubtful, since "the desert of the sea" is an expression elsewhere wholly unknown to biblical writers. Some regard "the sea" as the Euphrates, in which case "the desert of the sea" may be the waste tract west of the Euphrates, extending thence to the eastern borders of Palestine. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; rather, as whirlwinds in the south country, sweeping along. The "south country" is that immediately to the south of Judaea. Its liability to whirlwinds is noticed in Zec_9:14 Job_37:9 (compare Major Palmer"s "Sinai," p. 33). It cometh. What cometh? Dr. Kay says, "God"s visitation;" Rosenm "a numerous army." But is it not rather the "grievous vision" of the next verse? From the desert. The great desert bounding Palestine on the east a truly "terrible land." Across this, as coming from Baby-Ionia to Palestine, seemed to rush the vision which it was given to the prophet to see.
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HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-10. Fall of Babylon.
It is thought, by some recent commentators, that the description refers to the siege of Babylon in B.C. 710 by Sargon the Assyrian. The King of Babylon at that time was Merodach-Baladan, who sent letters and a present to Hezekiah when he was sick. (Isa_39:1 2Ki_20:12) The prophet may well grieve over the fall of Babylon, as likely to drag down with it weaker kingdoms.
I THE SOUND OF THE TEMPEST. What sublime poesy have the prophets found in the tempest! We are perhaps impressed more through the perception of the ear than that of the eye, by the sense of vague, vast, overwhelming power working through all the changes of the world. The sweeping up of a tempest from the southern dry country of Judah is like the gathering of a moles belli, and this, again betokens that Jehovah of hosts is stirring up his might in the world unseen. Hence his arrows go forth like lightning, his trumpet blows. (Zec_9:14) This movement comes from the terrible land, the desert, the haunt of serpents and other horrible creatures.
II THE VISION OF CALAMITY. The march of the barbarous conqueror is marked by cruelty and devastation. The prophet"s heart is overpowered within him. He writhes with anguish as in the visions of the even-tide the picture of Babylon"s fall passes before his mind. He beholds a scene of rivalry. There is feasting and mirth. We are reminded of that description which De Quincey adduced as an example of the sublime: "Belshazzar the king made a great feast unto a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand"; (Dan_5:1) and of Byron"s description of the eve of the battle of Waterloo at Brussels. Suddenly an alarm is given; the walls have been stormed, the palace is threatened; the banqueters must start from the couch and exchange the garb of luxury for the shield and the armor. The impression of the picture is heightened by the descriptions in Herodotus (1. 191) and Xenophon ("Cyrop.," 7:5), whether they refer to the same event or no. It is the picture of careless ease and luxury surprised by sudden terror. "Let us go against them," says Cyrus in Xenophon. "Many of them are asleep, many intoxicated, and all of them unfit for battle." The scene, then, may be used parabolically to enforce those lessons of temperance, of watchfulness, of sobriety, and prayerfulness which our religion inculcates.
III THE WATCHMAN. The word of Jehovah directs that a watchman shall be posted, the prophet "dividing himself into two persons his own proper person and that of the speculator or scout upon the height of the watch-tower. So Habakkuk stands upon his watch, and sets him upon the tower". (Hab_2:1) And what does the prophet see? Cavalry riding two abreast, some on horses, others on asses, others (with the baggage) on camels. This he sees; but he hears no authentic tidings of distant things, though straining his ear in utmost tension. Then he groans with the deep tones of the impatient lion. How long is he to remain at his post? We cannot but think of the fine opening of the "Agamemnon" of Aeschylus, where the weary warder soliloquizes"The gods I ask deliverance from these labors, Watch of a year"s length, whereby, slumbering thro" it On the Atreidai"s roof on elbow, dog-like, I know of mighty star-groups the assemblage, And those that bring to men winter and summer. (R. Browning"s translation.)
As he waits for "the torch"s token and the glow of fire," so does Isaiah wait for certain news about Babylon. And, no sooner is the plaint uttered, than the wish is realized. The watchman sees a squadron of cavalry, riding two abreast, and the truth flashes on him Babylon is fallen! The images, symbols of the might of the city, protected by the gods they represented, are dashed to the ground and broken. What was felt under such circumstances may be gathered by the student of Greek history from the awful impression made, on the eve of the expedition to Sicily, by the discovery of the mutilation of the statues of the Hermai. It is all over with Babylon.
IV THE ANGUISH OF THE PATRIOT. "O my threshed and winnowed one!" Poor Israel, who has already suffered so much from the Assyrian, how gladly would the prophet have announced better tidings! The threshing-floor is an image of suffering, and not confined to the Hebrews. It may be found in old Greek lore, and in modern Greek folk-poesy. No image, indeed, can be more expressive. (comp. Isa_41:15 Mic_4:12, 13 Jer_51:33) "But love also takes part in the threshing, and restrains the wrath.
V GENERAL LESSONS. The Christian minister is, too, a watcher. He must listen and he must look. There are oracles to be heard by the attentive ear, breaking out of the heart of things hints in the distance to be caught by the wakeful and searching eye. "They whom God has appointed to watch are neither drowsy nor dim-sighted. The prophet also, by this example, exhorts and stimulates believers to the same kind of attention, that by the help of the lamp of the Word they may obtain a distant view of the power of God. J.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-9. The effect of God"s judgments on the good and on the guilty.
We gather, preliminarily:
1. That God uses not only elemental forces but human agents for the accomplishment of his righteous purposes. The winds and the waves are his ministers; but sometimes, as here, the whirlwinds he invokes are not the airs of heaven but the passions and agitations of human minds.
2. That the greatest human power is nothing in his mighty hand. Babylon was a "great power" indeed in human estimation at that time, but it needed only the whirlwind of God"s holy indignation to sweep it away. Concerning the judgments of the Lord, we mark
I THEIR EFFECT ON THE GUILTY.
1. The suddenness and surprise of their overthrow. "Prepare the table... eat, drink," say they in the palace. But even while they are feasting comes the cry from the watchman on the walls, "Arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield" (ver. 5). How often, when the ungodly are in the midst of their unjust exactions or their unlawful pleasures, comes the blow which strikes the weapon from their hand, the cup from their lips! (see Dan_5:30 Act_12:22, 23 Luk_12:20)
2. The completeness of their downfall. "Babylon is fallen, is fallen" (ver. 9) fallen utterly, never more to rise; her tyranny broken to pieces, her fires of persecution put out. When God arises to judgment his enemies are not merely defeated, they are scattered.
1. The abasement of their pride. "Babylon is fallen." The word is suggestive of an inglorious descent from a high seat of assumption and is certainly descriptive of the destruction of the Babylonian power. We know that God wills to humble the haughty, and that nothing is more certain to ensure humiliation than the spirit of pride. (Pro_16:18 Pro_17:17 Isa_10:33 Luk_14:11)
2. The rebuke of their impiety. "The graven images he hath broken," etc. As idolatry was visited with the signs of God"s wrath, so impiety, covetousness, absorbing worldliness which are idolatry in modern form must expect to receive the proofs of his displeasure.
II THEIR EFFECT ON THE GOOD.
1. Merciful relief from oppression. "All the sighing thereof have I made to cease." The downfall of the tyrant is the deliverance of the oppressed; hence the close connection between Divine judgments and human praise. As God, in his providence, brings cruelty, injustice, inconsiderateness, to its doom, he makes sighing and sorrow to flee away. There is much tyranny still to be struck down before all burdens will have been taken from the heavy-laden, and before all sighs shall cease from the heavy-hearted.
2. Conversion frown resentment to compassion. The vision which the prophet saw, albeit it was one of triumph over his enemies, excited his compassion; it was "a grievous vision" (ver. 2). He was even bowed down at the hearing of it," "dismayed at the seeing of it" (ver. 3). The night which he loved (the night of his pleasure), instead of bringing him the sacred joy of communion with God and prophetic inspiration, brought to him sympathetic pain and distress. Thus was burning patriotic indignation turned into humane compassion. It may be taken, indeed, as an anticipation of that Christian magnanimity which "loves its enemies, and prays for them that despitefully use and persecute" it. When God"s judgments on our enemies thus soften our spirits and call forth the kindlier and more generous sentiments, then do they serve an even higher end than when they make our sighs to cease and our songs to sound. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain The burden of the desert of the sea
Isa_21:1-10
The burden of the desert of the sea
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The desert of the sea
This enigmatical name for Babylon was no doubt suggested by the actual character of the country in which the city stood.
It was an endless breadth or succession of undulations like the sea, without any cultivation or even any tree: low, level, and full of great marshes; and which used to be overflowed by the Euphrates, till the whole plain became a sea, before the river was banked in by Semiramis, as Herodotus says. But the prophet may allude also to the social and spiritual desert which Babylon was to the nations over which its authority extended, and especially to the captive Israelite; and perhaps, at the same time, to the multitude of the armies which it poured forth like the waters of the sea. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
The prophecy against Babylon
It is a magnificent specimen of Hebrew poetry in its abrupt energy and passionate intensity. The prophet is, or imagines himself to be, in Babylon. Suddenly he sees a storm of invasion sweeping down through the desert, which fills him with alarm. Out of the rolling whirlwind troops of armed warriors flash into distinctness. A splendid banquet is being held in the great Chaldean city; the tables are set, the carpets are spread; they eat, they drink, the revel is at its height. Suddenly a wild cry is heard, Arise, ye princes, anoint the shield!--in other words, the foe is at hand. Spring up from the banquet, smear with oil the leathern coverings of your shields that the blows of the enemy may slide off from them in battle. The clang of arms disturbs the Babylonian feast. The prophet sitting, as it were an illuminated spirit, as a watchman upon the tower calls aloud to ask me cause of the terror. What is it that the watchman sees? The watchman, with deep, impatient groan, as of a lion, complains that he sees nothing; that he has been set there, apparently for no purpose, all day and all night long. But even as he speaks there suddenly arises an awful need for his look-out. From the land of storm and desolation, the desert between the Persian Gulf and Babylon, he sees a huge and motley host, some mounted on horses, some on asses, some on camels, plunging forward through the night. It is the host of Cyrus on his march against Babylon. In the advent of that Persian host he sees the downfall of the dynasty of Nebuchadnezzar and the liberation of Judah from her exile. On the instant, as though secure of victory, he cries out, Babylon is fallen. And he, that is, Cyrus the Persian king, a monotheist though he be, a worshipper of fire and the sun, has dashed in pieces all the graven images of the city of Nimrod. Then he cries to his fellow exiles in Babylonian captivity, O my people, crushed and trodden down--literally, O my grain, and the son of my threshing floor--this is my prophecy for you; it is a prophecy of victory for your champions; it is a prophecy of deliverance for yourselves. (Dean Farrar, D. D.)
The Persian advance on Babylon
(Isa_21:7; Isa_21:9):--It is a slight but obvious coincidence of prophecy and history that Xenophon represents the Persians advancing by two and two. (J. A. Alexander.)
The Persian aversion to images
The allusion to idols (Isa_21:9) is not intended merely to remind us that the conquest was a triumph of the true God over false ones, but to bring into view the well-known aversion of the Persians to all images. Herodotus says they not only thought it unlawful to use images, but imputed folly to those who did it. Here is another incidental but remarkable coincidence of prophecy even with profane history. (J. A. Alexander.)
The burden of the desert of the sea
There is a burden in all vast things; they oppress the soul. The firmament gives it; the mountain gives it; the prairie gives it. But I think nothing gives it like looking on the sea. The sea suggests something which the others do not--a sense of desertness. In the other cases the vastness is broken to the eye. The firmament has its stars; the mountain has its peaks; the prairie has its flowers; but the sea, where it is open sea, has nothing. It seems a strange thing that the prophet, in making the sea a symbol of lifes burden, should have selected its aspect of loneliness. Why not take its storms? Because the heaviest burden of life is not its storms but its solitude. There are no moments so painful as our island moments. One half of our search for pleasure is to avoid self-reflection. The pain of solitary responsibility is too much for us. It drives the middle-aged man into fast living, and the middle-aged woman into gay living. I cannot bear to hear the discord of my own past. It appalls me; it overwhelms me; I fly to the crowd to escape my unaccompanied shadow. (G. Matheson, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain
CHAPTER XI
DRIFTING TO EGYPT
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720-705 13. B.C.
Isaiah 20; Isa_21:1-10; Isaiah 38, 39
FROM 720, when chapter 11 may have been published, to 705-or, by rough reckoning, from the fortieth to the fifty-fifth year of Isaiahs life-we cannot be sure that we have more than one prophecy from him; but two narratives have found a place in his book which relate events that must have taken place between 712 and 705. These narratives are chapter 20: How Isaiah Walked Stripped and Barefoot for a Sign against Egypt, and chapters 38 and 39: The Sickness of Hezekiah, with the Hymn he wrote, and his behaviour before the envoys from Babylon. The single prophecy belonging to this period is Isa_21:1-10, "Oracle of the Wilderness of the Sea," which announces the fall of Babylon. There has been considerable debate about the authorship of this oracle, but Cheyne, mainly following Dr. Kleinert, gives substantial reasons for leaving it with Isaiah. We postpone the full exposition of chapters 38 and 39 to a later stage, as here it would only interrupt the history. But we will make use of chapters 20 and Isa_21:1-10 in the course of the following historical sketch, which is intended to connect the first great period of Isaiahs prophesying, 740-720, with the second, 705-701.
All these fifteen years, 720-705, Jerusalem was drifting to the refuge into which she plunged at the end of them-drifting to Egypt. Ahaz had firmly bound his people to Assyria, and in his reign there was no talk of an Egyptian alliance. But in 725, when the "overflowing scourge" of Assyrian invasion threatened to sweep into Judah as well as Samaria, Isaiahs words give us some hint of a recoil in the politics of Jerusalem towards the southern power. The "covenants with death and hell," which the men of scorn flaunted in his face as he harped on the danger from Assyria, may only have been the old treaties with Assyria herself, but the "falsehood and lies" that went with them were most probably intrigues with Egypt. Any Egyptian policy, however, that may have formed in Jerusalem before 719, was entirely discredited by the crushing defeat, which in that year Sargon inflicted upon the empire of the Nile, almost on her own borders, at Rafia.
Years of quietness for Palestine followed this decisive battle. Sargon, whose annals engraved on the great halls of Khorsabad enable us to read the history of the period year by year, tells us that his next campaigns were to the north of his empire, and till 711 he alludes to Palestine only to say that tribute was coming in regularly, or to mention the deportation to Hamath or Samaria of some tribe he had conquered far away. Egypt, however, was everywhere busy among his feudatories. Intrigue was Egypts forte. She is always represented in Isaiahs pages as the talkative power of many promises. Her fair speech was very sweet to men groaning beneath the military pressure of Assyria. Her splendid past, in conjunction with the largeness of her promise, excited the popular imagination. Centres of her influence gathered in every state. An Egyptian party formed in Jerusalem. Their intrigue pushed mines in all directions, and before the century was out the Assyrian peace in Western Asia was broken by two great explosions. The first of these, in 711, was local and abortive: the second, in 705, was universal, and for a time entirely destroyed the Assyrian supremacy.
The centre of the Explosion of 711 was Ashdod, a city of the Philistines. The king had suddenly refused to continue the Assyrian tribute, and Sargon had put another king in his place.
But the people-in Ashdod, as everywhere else, it was the people who were fascinated by Egypt-pulled down the Assyrian puppet and elevated Iaman, a friend to Pharaoh. The other cities of the Philistines, with Moab, Edom, and Judah, were prepared by Egyptian promise to throw in their lot with the rebels. Sargon gave them no time. "In the wrath of my heart, I did not divide my army, and I did not diminish the ranks, but I marched against Asdod with my warriors, who did not separate themselves from the traces of my sandals. I besieged, I took, Asdod and Gunt-Asdodim . . . I then made again these towns. I placed the people whom my arm had conquered. I put over them my lieutenant as governor. I considered them like Assyrians, and they practised obedience." It is upon this campaign of Sargon that Mr. Cheyne argues for the invasion of Judah, to which he assigns so many of Isaiahs prophecies, as, e.g., chapters 1 and Isa_10:5-34. Some day Assyriology may give us proof of this supposition. We are without it just now. Sargon speaks no word of invading Judah, and the only part of the book of Isaiah that unmistakably refers to this time is the picturesque narrative of chapter 20.
In this we are told that "in the year" the Tartan, the Assyrian commander-in-chief, "came to Ashdod when Sargon king of Assyria sent him" [that is to be supposed the year of the first revolt in Ashdod, to which Sargon himself did not come], "and he fought against Ashdod and took it:-in that time Jehovah had spoken by the hand of Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth," the prophets robe, "from off thy loins, and thy sandal strip from off thy foot; and he did so, walking naked," that is unfrocked, "and barefoot." For Egyptian intrigue was already busy; the temporary success of the Tartan at Ashdod did not discourage it, and it needed a protest. "And Jehovah said, As My servant Isaiah hath walked unfrocked and barefoot three years for a sign and a portent against Egypt and against Ethiopia" [note the double name, for the country was now divided between two rulers, the secret of her impotence to interfere forcibly in Palestine] "so shall the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt and exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, stripped and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. And they shall be dismayed and ashamed, because of Ethiopia their expectation and because of Egypt their boast. And the inhabitant of this coastland" [that is, all Palestine, and a name for it remarkably similar to the phrase used by Sargon, "the people of Philistia, Judah, Edom, and Moab, dwelling by the sea"] "shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we had fled for help to deliver ourselves from the king of Assyria, and how shall we escape-we?"
This parade of Isaiah for three years, unfrocked and barefoot, is another instance of that habit on which we remarked in connection with Isa_8:1 : the habit of finally carrying everything committed to him before the bar of the whole nation. It was to the mass of the people God said, "Come and let us reason together." Let us not despise Isaiah in his shirt any more than we do Diogenes in his tub, or with a lantern in his hand, seeking for a man by its rays at noonday. He was bent on startling the popular conscience, because he held it true that a peoples own morals have greater influence on their destinies than the policies of their statesmen. But especially anxious was Isaiah, as we shall again see from chapter 31, to bring, this Egyptian policy home to the popular conscience. Egypt was a big-mouthed, blustering power, believed in by the mob; to expose her required public, picturesque, and persistent advertisement. So Isaiah continued his walk for three years. The fall of Ashdod, left by Egypt to itself, did not disillusion the Jews, and the rapid disappearance of Sargon to another part of his empire where there was trouble, gave the Egyptians audacity to continue their intrigues against him.
Sargons new trouble had broken out in Babylon, and was much more serious than any revolt in Syria. Merodach Baladan, king of Chaldea, was no ordinary vassal, but as dangerous a rival as Egypt. When he rose, it meant a contest between Babylon and Nineveh for the sovereignty of the world. He had long been preparing for war. He had an alliance with Elam, and the tribes of Mesopotamia were prepared for his signal of revolt. Among the charges brought him by Sargon is that, "against the will of the gods of Babylon, he had sent during twelve years ambassadors." One of these embassies may have been that which came to Hezekiah after his great sickness (chapter 39). "And Hezekiah was glad of them, and showed them the house of his spicery, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armour and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah showed them not." Isaiah was indignant. He had hitherto kept the king from formally closing with Egypt; now he found him eager for an alliance with another of the powers of man. But instead of predicting the captivity of Babylon, as he predicted the captivity of Egypt, by the hand of Assyria, Isaiah declared, according to chapter 39, that Babylon would some day take Israel captive; and Hezekiah had to content himself with the prospect that this calamity was not to happen in his time.
Isaiahs prediction of the exile of Israel to Babylon is a matter of difficulty. The difficulty, however, is not that of conceiving how he could have foreseen an event which took place more than a century later. Even in 711 Babylon was not an unlikely competitor for the supremacy of the nations. Sargon himself felt that it was a crisis to meet her. Very little might have transferred the seat of power from the Tigris to the Euphrates. What, therefore, more probable than that when Hezekiah disclosed to these envoys the whole state of his resources, and excused himself by saying "that they were come from a far country, even Babylon," Isaiah, seized by a strong sense of how near Babylon stood to the throne of the nations, should laugh to scorn the excuse of distance, and tell the king that his anxiety to secure an alliance had only led him to place the temptation to rob him more in the face of a power that was certainly on the way to be able to do it? No, the difficulty is not that the prophet foretold a captivity of the Jews in Babylon, but that we cannot reconcile what he says of that captivity with his intimation of the immediate destruction of Babylon, which has come down to us in Isa_21:1-10.
In this prophecy Isaiah regards Babylon as he has been regarding Egypt-certain to go down before Assyria, and therefore wholly unprofitable to Judah. If the Jews still thought of returning to Egypt when Sargon hurried back from completing her discomfiture in order to beset Babylon, Isaiah would tell them it was no use. Assyria has brought her full power to bear on the Babylonians; Elam and Media are with her. He travails with pain for the result. Babylon is not expecting a siege; but "preparing the table, eating and drinking," when suddenly the cry rings through her, "Arise, ye princes; anoint the shield. The enemy is upon us." So terrible and so sudden a warrior is this Sargon! At his words nations move; when he saith, "Go up, O Elam! Besiege, O Media!" it is done. And he falls upon his foes before their weapons are ready. Then the prophet shrinks back from the result of his imagination of how it happened-for that is too painful-upon the simple certainty, which God revealed to him, that it must happen. As surely as Sargons columns went against Babylon, so surely must the message return that Babylon has fallen. Isaiah puts it this way. The Lord bade him get on his watchtower-that is his phrase for observing the signs of the times-and speak whatever he saw. And he saw a military column on the march: "a troop of horsemen by pairs, a troop of asses, a troop of camels." It passed him out of sight, "and he hearkened very diligently" for news. But none came. It was a long campaign. "And he cried like a lion" for impatience, "O my Lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower by day, and am set in my ward every night." Till at last, "behold, there came a troop of men, horsemen in pairs, and" now "one answered and said, Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the images of her gods he hath broken to the ground." The meaning of this very elliptical passage is just this: as surely as the prophet saw Sargons columns go out against Babylon, so sure was he of her fall. Turning to his Jerusalem, he Says, "My own threshed one, son of my floor, that which I have heard from Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you." How gladly would I have told you otherwise! But this is His message and His will. Everything must go down before this Assyrian.
Sargon entered Babylon before the year was out, and with her conquest established his fear once more down to the borders of Egypt. In his lifetime neither Judah nor her neighbours attempted again to revolt. But Egypts intrigue did not cease. Her mines were once more laid, and the feudatories of Assyria only waited for their favourite opportunity, a change of tyrants on the throne of Nineveh. This came very soon. In the fifteenth year of his reign, having finally established his empire, Sargon inscribed on the palace at Khorsabad the following prayer to Assur: "May it be that I, Sargon, who inhabit this palace, may be preserved by destiny during long years for a long life, for the happiness of my body, for the satisfaction of my heart, and may I arrive to my end! May I accumulate in this palace immense treasures, the booties of all countries, the products of mountains and valleys!" The god did not hear. A few months later, in 705, Sargon was murdered; and before Sennacherib, his successor, sat down on the throne, the whole of Assyrian supremacy in the southwest of Asia went up in the air. It was the second of the great Explosions we spoke of, and the rest of Isaiahs prophecies are concerned with its results.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain Isa 21:11-12
Isa 21:11-12
The prophet appears to introduce himself as addressed in scorn by the people of the land which he is commissioned to warn. "Watchman, what of the night?" What new report of woe hast thou to unroll, thou who hast placed thyself as an authorised observer and censurer of our doings? But the prophetical watchman—the calm commissioner of heaven—replies, adopting their own languages, "Yes, the morning (the true morning of hope and peace) cometh, and also the night (the real and terrible night of God’s vengeance): if ye will (if ye are in genuine earnest) inquire, inquire. Obtain the knowledge you seek, the knowledge of the way of life; and acting on this knowledge, repent, and turn to the Lord your God."
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I. Consider the question. (1) Some ask the report of the night with utter carelessness as to the reply. (2) Some ask in contempt. (3) Some ask it in horror and anguish of heart.
II. What is still the duty of him who holds the momentous position of watchman in the City of God? (1) He did not turn away from the question, in whatever spirit it was asked. (2) He uttered with equal assurance a threat and a promise. (3) He pressed the necessity of care in the study and earnest inquiry after the nature of the truth. (4) He summed up all by an anxious, a cordial, and a reiterated invitation to repentance and reconciliation with an offended but pardoning God. Thus, the single verse might be regarded as an abstract of the duties of the ministerial office. May God grant to His ministers a genuine desire to fulfil that office, to His people an equal anxiety to receive its labours.
W. Archer Butler, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, 2nd series, p. 342.
References: Isa 21:11, Isa 21:12.—S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. no; S. Cox, Expositions, 4th series, p. 336 (see also An Expositor’s Note-book, p. 201). Isa 22:23.—Preacher’s Lantern, vol. ii., p. 429; J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 45. Isa 23:4.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 390. Isa 24:1-6.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 212. Isa 25:6.—Pulpit Analyst, vol. ii., p. 541.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Vision of Babylon's Fall
Vision of Babylon's Fall
The subject of this section is the siege of Babylon, and the dismay with which the prophet receives tidings of its fall. The siege referred to can scarcely be the one at the close of the exile, as is maintained by many scholars, because (a) the prophet is much depressed at the thought of Babylon's fall, which he foresees will involve calamity for Judah (Isa_21:2-4, Isa_21:10); (b) distance from Babylon is presupposed (Isa_21:6-9); and (c) Assyrian researches have revealed three earlier sieges, in 710 by Sargon, and in 703 and 696 by Sennacherib. In 710 and 703 the king of Babylon was Merodach Baladan, who sent an embassy to Hezekiah (Isa_39:1), and whose immediate interests were identical with those of Hezekiah with whom he desired an alliance. This would account for the depression in this prophecy; in the capture of Babylon by the Assyrians, Isaiah sees a warning of the fate that may overtake Judah (Isa_21:10). The prophecy accordingly may be dated either after 710 or 703.
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1-5. The prophet is filled with terror at a vision of the fall of Babylon.
6-9. To the expectant prophet tidings of its fall is brought by a travelling caravan.
10. His dismay because of the suffering involved for Judah.
1. Burden] see Isa_13:1. Desert of the sea] i.e. Babylonia: sea refers to the Euphrates, the word being used in Hebrew of a large river, as in Isa_19:5 of the Nile. South] the technical name for the S. of Judah, a region specially liable to tempests: Jer_4:11-13; Hos_13:15; Zec_9:14.
It cometh] i.e. the tidings conveyed in the prophet's vision.
2. Treacherous dealer] i.e. the Assyrian (Isa_33:1). Go up, etc.] the command of the Assyrian to the tributaries serving in his army. Sighing thereof] i.e. caused by Babylon.
5. Prepare.. drink] read these verbs as present indicative, 'they prepare,' etc.; the Babylonian feast is at its height when the cry to arms is raised. Anoint the shield] Leather shields were greased before going to battle that the weapons of the enemy might glide off.
6. The prophet himself is the watchman.
7. RV 'And when he seeth a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of asses, a troop of camels, he shall hearken,' etc.
8. RV 'cried as a lion.'
9. Just as he groans aloud in impatience, he sees a company approaching, and recognises that they are the bearers of the expected tidings.
10. Referring to Judah which has suffered much from the Assyrian invader already (Isa_10:5). The news of this fresh Assyrian victory over Babylon is distasteful, but the prophet must deliver his message.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain (See Scofield "Isa 13:1")
burden
(See Scofield "Isa 13:1")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain The Burdens of the Desert of the Sea, of…
CHAPTER 21
The Burdens of the Desert of the Sea, of Dumah, and Arabia
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1. The burden of the desert of the sea (Babylon) (Isa 21:1-10) 2. The burden of Dumah (Isa 21:11-12) 3. The burden upon Arabia (Isa 21:13-17)The fall of Babylon is predicted, for Media is mentioned. This event was over two centuries in the future. Isaiah beholds the Persian hosts advancing. Such is prophecy, “history written in advance.”
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Oracle Against Babylon
The Oracle Against Babylon
v. 1. The burden of the desert of the sea, the valley and plain of the Euphrates and Tigris, where the Babylonian nation had its home. This country had been alternately a desert and a sea, depending upon the season of the year. Great dikes and levees built by Semiramis had served to control the water and make it available for irrigation purposes, but the razing of these dikes again converted the plain into a swampy sea. Cf Jer 51:13-36. As whirlwinds in the south pass through, coming up with irresistible force, from the deserts of Arabia, so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land, said of the enemy forces which would conquer the land of Babylon.
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v. 2. A grievous vision is declared unto me, one which he could endure and record only with difficulty on account of its importance and consequences; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, the enemies of Babylon repaying her in her own coin, by a military stratagem overthrowing her, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam, a nation bordering on Persia on the west, and often named together with the latter country; besiege, O Media, the country which first conquered Babylon; all the sighing thereof, namely, that which was caused by the tyrannical Babylon, have I made to cease, by giving the victory to her adversaries.
v. 3. Therefore, on account of the calamities which would come upon Babylon, are my loins filled with pain, with trepidation, as in the case of spasms; pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth; I was bowed down at the hearing of it, writhing in pain; I was dismayed at the seeing of it, prevented from seeing at the horror of it all.
v. 4. My heart panted, beating wildly, fearfulness affrighted me, with a terrifying, numbing force; the night of my pleasure, the darkness of night, which ordinarily was pleasant to the prophet on account of the bodily rest and the conduciveness to quiet contemplation associated with it, hath He turned into fear unto me, namely, on account of the horrible vision connected with it in this instance.
v. 5. Prepare the table, watch in the watch-tower, eat, drink, the prophet in the spirit witnessing and describing a carousal in Babylon. Arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield, to keep it from becoming rusty and to cause strokes of the enemy to glide off. Thus matters were going on in Babylon, and during all this time its destruction was imminent.
v. 6. For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth, this watchman being the prophet’s substitute in declaring the vision.
v. 7. And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a whole army of mounted soldiers riding two abreast, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels, the various mounts thus being described, as the enemy rode forward to the attack, their pack-animals remaining behind with the baggage. And he hearkened diligently with much heed, with the closest application, his object being to get more information concerning the Persian invaders.
v. 8. And he cried, in growing impatience, A lion, properly, "as a lion," with a lion-like voice, My lord, I stand continually upon the watch-tower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights, in sleepless vigilance, in order to find out about the army which he saw passing on its way to attack the country of Babylon;
v. 9. and, behold, even while he was voicing his complaint, he makes a discovery, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen, a small troop of men riding in pairs. And he answered and said, the watchman hearing the triumphant cry even from a distance as the little band rides for-word, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, the army which had gone down before having been victorious; and all the graven images of her gods He hath broken unto the ground, Jehovah Himself having proved His almighty power over against all idolatry.
v. 10. O my threshing and the corn of my floor, literally, "son of my threshing-floor," the reference being to Israel, as being subject to the severe punishment of Babylon, in which the love of the Lord, however, interferes and guides. That which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you. Israel, the object of divine punishment, which was administered to him through the exile, is here given the comfort that Jehovah Himself is concerned about His people’s welfare and will hold back the wrath in due time.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 A declaration
A declaration
"This is what Yahweh declares" or "This is Yahweh's message"
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about the desert by the sea
This refers to the people who live in Babylon as being a desert, even though God has not made it into a desert yet. This event will certainly happen. AT: "about the people who live in a land that soon will be a desert" (See: Metonymy and Predictive Past)
Like stormwinds sweeping through the Negev
Isaiah compares the army that will attack the people to a storm with strong winds. They will be quick and powerful. (See: Simile)
from the wilderness
Here "wilderness" refers to the wilderness of Judea. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
from a terrible land
The army is from a people that cause great fear.
A distressing vision has been given to me
This can be stated in active form. AT: "Yahweh showed me a troubling vision" (See: Active or Passive)
the treacherous man deals treacherously
"those who deceive will deceive"
the destroyer destroys
"those who destroy will destroy"
Go up and attack, Elam; besiege, Media
In the vision given to Isaiah, Yahweh speaks to the armies of Elam and Media as if they are there listening to him. (See: Apostrophe)
Go up and attack, Elam; besiege, Media
It is understood that they are to attack the Babylonians. AT: "Go up and attack the Babylonians, you soldiers of Elam; go and besiege the Babylonians, you soldiers of Media" (See: Ellipsis)
Elam ... Media
Here "Elam" and "Media" represent the soldiers from these places. (See: Metonymy)
I will stop all her groaning
Here "her" represents all the people who are suffering because of the Babylonians. Yahweh will cause them to stop groaning when he sends the armies of Elam and Media to destroy the Babylonians. (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
declare
desert
Negev
vision
Elam
siege
Medes
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 21:1 concerning Babylon—the desert by the sea: This description…
21:1 concerning Babylon—the desert by the sea: This description of Babylon was perhaps an ironic way to say that the land was physically lush but spiritually desolate. • Disaster . . . from the desert: Literally from the desert, from the terrifying land (cp. Deut 8:15).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.