Isaiah 21

1-10. That this prophecy relates to Babylon is evident from ver. 9. The prediction refers to the overthrow of Babylon by Sargon (about 710 B.C.), as shown by the monuments (Sayce’s Assyria: its Princes, Priests, and People, 1926, p. 52).

1 the desert of the sea. “The continent on which Babylon stood was a midbar, a great plain running to the south by Arabia Deserta, and so intersected by the Euphrates, as well as by marshes and lakes, that it floated, as it were, in the sea."—Delitzsch: comp. Jer. li. 13.

from a terrible land. i.e., from Assyria: see Introduction to the chapter.

2. Go up, O Elam. The province of Susis, or Susiana, south of Assyria and north-west of Persia. It was now tributary to Sargon.

5. Prepare the table, Watch in the watch-tower. Rather, as R.V., “They prepare the table, they set the watch.” A picture from the interior of the city: feasting within the palace, sentinels without.

Arise, ye princes, [and] anoint the shield. A sudden cry breaking in upon the festival: To arms! The shields were anointed or oiled before going into action, that the weapon of the enemy might have less effect on the slippery surface.

6. Go, set a watchman. The point of view is now changed; the prophet, at a distance from the city, being directed to send a messenger to watch what befalls.

8 he cried, A lion. Rather, “He cried as a lion” (R.V.), as if impatient and angry with long waiting: see Rev. x. 3.

9 here cometh a chariot of men, etc. Rather, as R.V., “here cometh a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.”

he answered and said. They answered and said; that is, the troop of men who brought the news of the fall of Babylon.

10. O my threshing, etc. That is, “O my oppressed and afflicted people”; language of tenderness addressed to the Jews. It would have been better news for them that Assyria, their great enemy, would be defeated; but the prophet can only declare what had been revealed to him: comp. vers. 3, 4.

VERS. 11, 12. Dumah. “Dumah” was an Arabian town and district lying south of Edom; but the name is perhaps here used for Edom or Idumæa, as the prophet is represented as interrogated “out of Seir.” This prophecy is obscure from its brevity; but its position here, following that respecting Babylon, seems to intimate a connexion with the devastating inroads of Sargon. Would they extend to the desolation of Edom? The word Dumah is literally “silence,” and the name of the town may be used symbolically.

11. He calleth. Rather, as R.V., “One calleth”—a mysterious voice, from the mountains of Seir, reaching the prophet’s watch-tower in Jerusalem.

12. The morning cometh. The only answer that the prophet can give is that intervals of brightness will be followed again by gloom. Luther translates: “If the morning is already coming, yet it will be night.”

return, come. R.V. marg., “Come ye again,” i.e., to inquire afresh, when some further revelation may be given.

VERS. 13-17. Dedanim. The Dedanites (see Gen. x. 7), on the east of Arabia, were a mercantile people, trading with Tyre in ivory, ebony, etc. (see Ezek. xxvii. 15, 20; xxxviii. 13). The interruption of their caravans, and the necessity of lodging in the thickets (out of the beaten track), is a proof of the disturbed state of the country.

14. Tema. A tribe of Ishmaelites (see Gen. xxv. 15) who dwelt in the neighbourhood of Edom, near the present caravan route from Damascus to Mecca.

16 the years of a hireling. See note on xvi. 14.

17. Kedar. “Kedar” (see Gen. xxv. 13) is here put for Arabia in general.