Isaiah Chapter 21

From The Open Bible Project

21:1 The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.

• (a) On the seaside between Judea and Caldea was a wilderness, by which he means Caldea.
• (b) That is, the ruin of Babylon by the Medes and Persians.

21:2 A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media's sighing.

• (c) The Assyrians and Chaldeans who had destroyed other nations will be overcome by the Medes and Persians: and this he prophesied a hundred years before it came to pass.
• (d) By Elam he means the Persians.
• (e) Because they will find no comfort, they will mourn no more, or I have caused them to cease mourning, whom Babylon had afflicted.

21:3 Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have taken hold on me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can't hear. I so am dismayed that I can't see.

• (f) This the prophet speaks in the person of the Babylonians.

21:4 My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me.

• (g) He prophecies the death of Belshazzar as in (Daniel 5:30) who in the midst of his pleasures was destroyed.

21:5 They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield!

• (h) While they are eating and drinking, they will be commanded to run to their weapons.

21:6 For the Lord said to me, "Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees.

• (i) That is, in a vision by the spirit of prophecy.

21:7 When he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with great attentiveness."

• (k) Meaning, chariots of men of war, and others that carried the baggage.

21:8 He cried like a lion: "Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post.

• (l) Meaning, Darius who overcame Babylon.

21:9 Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs." He answered, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.

• (m) The watchman whom Isaiah set up, told him who came toward Babylon, and the angel declared that it would be destroyed: all this was done in a vision.

21:10 You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor!" That which I have heard from Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.

• (n) Meaning, Babylon.

21:11 The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?"

• (o) Which was a city of the Ishmaelites and was so named by Dumah, (Genesis 25:14).
• (p) A mountain of the Idumeans.

21:12 The watchman said, "The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again."

• (q) He describes the unquietness of the people of Dumah, who were night and day in fear of their enemies, and ever ran to and fro to enquire news.

21:13 The burden on Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you will lodge, you caravans of Dedanites.

• (r) For fear, the Arabians will flee into the woods and he appoints the way they will take.

21:14 They brought water to him who was thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread.

• (s) Signifying that for fear they will not tarry to eat or drink.

21:15 For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle.

21:16 For the Lord said to me, "Within a year, as a worker bound by contract would count it, all the glory of Kedar will fail,

• (t) He appoints them respite for one year only, and then they would be destroyed.
• (u) Read (Isaiah 16:14).

21:17 and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, will be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken it."

• (x) Which was the name of a people of Arabia: and by the horrible destruction of all these nations, he teaches the Jews that there is no place for refuge or to escape God’s wrath, but only to remain in his Church, and to live in his fear.