Isaiah 21

Chap. XXI. Ver. 1—17. Oracles respecting Babylon, Edom, and Arabia.—‘’ The first ten verses of this chapter (Bp. Lowth) contain a prediction of the taking of Babylon by the Medes and Persians. It opens with the prophet’s seeing at a distance the dreadful storm that is gathering, and ready to burst on Babylon,” which, by the flooding of the Euphrates sometimes became a marshy desert. The event is intimated in general terms; and the Almighty orders the Persians and Medes to set forward on the expedition. Upon this, the prophet enters at once into the midst of the action; and in the person of Babylon, strongly expresses the astonishment and horror that seize her, on the sudden surprise of the city, at the very season dedicated to pleasure and festivity, (ver.

4.) The prophet then, in his own person, describes the false security of the scene and in the midst of their feasting is given the sudden alarm of war. The event is now depicted in a very peculiar 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, and immediately upon hearing this, the seer declares that the fall of Babylon is come: “Babylon is fallen—is fallen.” (Comp. (Revelation 14:8).) The fulfilment of this prophecy will be found in Dan. (Isaiah 5)The prophet then makes a short application of the prophecy to his countrymen; “O my threshing,”

&c.—as if he had said, “O my people, against whom I have been long denouncing the severe operations of the great Husbandman, who will ‘thoroughly purge his floor;’ that accomplished, now shall ye be delivered and avenged!” And then he adds like a faithful messenger from God, ‘‘ That which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, that have I declared unto you.” The short prophecy in the 11th and 12th verses, called “ the burden,” (or oracle of Dumah,) is generally understood, and we think justly, to refer to Edom, (or Idumea,) because the inquiring voice came from Mount Seir. It is certainly obscure and perhaps enigmatical. Watchmen were always stationed in fortresses, and it should seem, at certain periods, gave reports of the progress of time, and possibly of the weather.

Prophets were watchmen, ((Ezekiel 3:17).) whose office it was to warn the people of the advance of divine judgments or deliverances. The inquiry is made in a tone of earnestness and apparent impatience; the answer implies, that the prophet had no commission to announce present deliverance to them; but directs them to wait and watch for it, as God was bringing many revolutions to pass; and to come again from time to time, till he should have an answer for them. The remaining verses of this chapter (ver. 13 to the end) contain a burden or oracle respecting Arabia. It was probably delivered about the same time with the prophecies immediately preceding, that is, about the 14th year of Hezekiah, and immediately preceding Sennacherib’s invasion of Judea.

It is supposed, that in his return from his Egyptian expedition, or soon after, he might overrun these Arab clans and that their distress on that occasion forms the subject of these predictions, which were fulfilled in the year following that in which they were delivered.

Notes on the verses

Chap. XXI. Ver. 1. The desert of the sea.—‘‘ The country about Babylon, and especially toward the sea, was a great, flat morass, often overflowed by the Euphrates and Tigris. It became habitable through being drained, by the many canals that were made in it.”—Lowth.——It cometh from the desert.— (The whirlwinds in Arabia, to the south of Judea, often come with the most destructive fury; and thus ruin would irresistibly come upon the armies of Persia and Media, the armies of which were very terrible, through the deserts that intervened between those countries.)—Bagster. 4 Ver. 2. The treacherous dealer, &c.—Lowth, ‘* The plunderer is pierced, and the destroyer is destroyed !""——O Elam.—The ancient name of Persia.

Ver. 4. My heart panted.—See margin. Lowth, “Is bewildered.” _ Ver. 5. Prepare the table.—Lowth reads, ‘* The table is prepared; the watch is set; they eat,” &c. ‘In the Hebrew, the words are in the infinitive absolute.”——Anoint the shield.—That is, prepare for war. We have elsewhere supposed it was customary to anoint the shield when done with: by this it should seem that it was also an act of military preparation, and perhaps of consecration also. Compare note on (1 Samuel 1:21). and see (Isaiah 22:6). The shields of the ancients were commonly of wood, covered with ox-hides. See Orient. Lit. No. 918. Ver. 6. Thus hath (or had) the Lord said.—The former verse states that the Babylonians had set a watch, which had a note of alarm; ‘ Anoint the shield:”

this informs us, that the prophet himself had been ordered to set a watch also, who had given a like alarm.; Ver. 7. And he saw a chariot.—The great ambiguity of the Hebrew word for a chariot, renders this passage very obscure. It signifies both a chariot and a rider. Lowth renders it, “* A chariot with two riders; a rider on an ass, a rider on a camel.” But Boothroyd reads, “ And he saw chariots and bands of horsemen; riders on asses, and riders on camels;’’ which also Lowth hints at. It is, however, agreed, that the Medes and Persians are here intended, led on by Darius and Cyrus. We are told that the latter, in his engagements with Cresus, took the baggage from off his camels, and mounted his cavalry on them, and the enemy’s horses were so offended with the smell of the camels, that they turned back, and fled.

(Lowth.): 4 Ver. 8. And he cried, ** A lion.”—See margin. But we conceive this was a proverbial expression, and the common note of alarm. Thus the sluggard, as an excuse for keeping within doors, says, ‘‘ There is a lion in the way—a lion in the street.” (Proverbs 26:13). So when Jeremiah gives the alarm to Judah, (ch. iv. 7.) he says, “ The lion is come up!”’ it was a note of danger. Ver. 9. A chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen.—Lowth, ‘* A man, one of the two riders;” Boothroyd, “ Chariots with men and bands of horsemen.” ——And he answered.—This is differently explained; but we conceive them to be the words of the prophet, who immediately perceived the fall of Babylon was now approaching.

See Gataker in Assembly’s Ann. Ver. 10. O my threshing.—The term threshing is here used passively, for the grain threshed.——The corn of my floor;—implying, that his office was to thresh and to winnow the Lord’s harvest. Ver. 11. Dumah.—{Dumah is probably the same as Duwmatha, a city of Arabia mentioned by Stephanus; and the modern Dumah and Dumathalgandel on the borders of Arabia and Syria in a rocky valley. See Michaelis Supplem. The Edomites, says Bishop Lowth, as well as Jews, were subdued by the Babylonians. They inquire of the prophet, how long their subjection is to last: he intimates that the Jews should be delivered from their captivity; not so the Edomites.—‘ The morning cometh, and also the night.”

]—B. Ver. 12. Return, come.—That is, in the Hebrew idiom, Come again. Ver. 13. The burden upon—or, oracle concerning Arabia. Bishop Lowth expresses some doubts concerning this title, as being wanting in some of the best copies of the LXX., but we do not find it wanting in the Hebrew. Ver. 14. Brought water, &c.—These were the usual acts of hospitality in the East. See (Genesis 24:32, 43). &c.