Isaiah 21

The prophet renews his threatenings against Babylon, as he does afterward, (chap, xlvii.) to convince the Jews, by this repetition, of the certainty of the event; (see Gen. xli. 32.) and thereby support them under their captivity, when that should come. To this are added two short prophecies against ldumea and Arabia. [chap. X£I. was usual for watchmen to do in times of danger. (See 2 Sam. xviii. 24, 25. 2 Kings ix. 17.) Vcr. 7. And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen.] The two horsemen may denote Cyrus and Darius, the principal leaders of the army against Babylon. As chariots were much used in war among the ancients, so wc 6ften read in Homer, of two heroes sitting in the same chariot: thus iEncas and Pandarus are described, Iliad v. vcr. 220. So Diomedes and Sthenelus, ib. ver. 835. one of them to guide the horses, the other to fight the enemy: the same way of fighting was used among the Germans, as Diodor. Sicnlus testifies, lib. v. A chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels.’] To denote two different nations, the Medes and Persians, who were to besiege Babylon: as Cyrus was called a mule by the oracle, because his father was a Persian, and his mother a Mede. (See Ilcrodot. lib. i. cap. 55. 91.) The foregoing part of the verse may thus be rendered, He saw a chariot with a couple of horses, a chariot of asses, &c. and then the first part of the verse will denote the main body of the Persian and Median army, and the following sentences will signify their baggage and provisions.

Isaiah 21:1

, JL HE burden of the desert of the sea. The ninth verse explains this of Babylon, which is here described by the name of the desert of the sea, because although it were at present very populous, yet it should be made desolate, and \ turned into pools of water. (Seexiv. 23.) Or the words may be rendered, The burden of the plain of the sea; for Babylon stood in a plain,(Gen. xi. 2.) and among many waters. (See Jer. li. 13.) The Hebrew expresses all great. collecr tions of waters by the name of seas. As whirlwinds in the south pass through.] The south is, described.by all writers as a stormy wind. (Cojnpare Zeclr. ix. 14.) God’s anger and the overbearing. force of a victorious army are elsewhere compared to a whirlwind, or tempest.,(See Job xxvii. 20. Psal. lviii.9. lxxxii.15. Isa. v. 28. xxix. 6. lxvi. 15. Jer. iv. 13.) So it cometh from the desert:] From the desert which lieth between Media, or Persia, and Babylon. *

Isaiah 21:2

A grievous vision is declared ttnto me; Tfie treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and tfie spoiler spoileth. ’ The words may be thus translated more agreeably both to grammar and sense: A grievous vision:.There is made knomi* (or declared) to me an oppressor of (or for) the oppressor, and spoiler for the spoiler: that is, it is now come to the • king of Babylon’s turn to feel that oppression and ravage himself, which he before had brought upon others. (Compare xxxiii. 1.) Go up, O Elam lor Persia]; besiege, O Media:] The Babylonian monarchy was to be divided between the Medes’ and Persians. (See Dan. v. 28.) All the sighing thereof I have made to cease.] Or, I have made all sorrow (or sighing) to cease: i. e. the sighing of those who have been oppressed by the Babylonian tyranny. (Compare xiv. 3.) For the termination of the word ancha-; tah; sighing, seems to be only emphatical, as the grammarians speak, not relative to any person beforementioned.

Isaiah 21:3

Therefore my loins are filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, &c. This is spoken as in the person of the Chaldeans. (See note on xv. 5.) I was bowed down at the hearing of it.] As persons that are under great pain or trouble. (Sec Psal. xxxv.*15: xxxviii. 5.)..:■..,

Isaiah 21:4

The night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me. When I thought to be at ease, and to have some respite from trouble and anxiety, then the fearful apprehensions of God’s judgments seized me. (Compare Job vii. 13.) This is still spoken by the prophet, as representing the Chaldeans: some understand the words of that festival night, wherein Belshazzar was slain; (Dan. v. 1.30.) The following verse favours this sense.

Isaiah 21:5

Prepare a table, watch in the watch-tower, &c. 2 The verse" may be thus translated: While they prepare a table, while they watch in the watch-tower, while they eat and drink, arise ye princes, &c. • While* the Babylonians make some faint provisions for. war, but are tnore intent upon feasting and luxury, arise ye princes and leaders of (he Persian army, and prepare for war in earnest: it appears by Dan. v. 1. 30, 31. and Jer. li. 30. that Babylon was surprised and taken the night after a great festival. (See likewise Herodot. lib. i. cap. 1D0, 191.) Anoint the shield.] To make it more beautiful, and more serviceable for war. * Ver. G. For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, &c] The prophets are often compared to watchmen, because they foresee evils at a distance, and warn others to avoid them:, (seo Hi. 8. Ixii. G. Ezek. iii. 17. xxxiii. 7. Habak. ii. 1.) so here God orders the prophet, or somebody for him, to act the part of, a watchman, and give notice what enemy is marching towards Babylon, as it 3T2

Isaiah 21:7

) And thereby to confirm the truth of the prediction which follows, (ver. 9.) as that which would as certainly come to pass, as if a watchman had described the approach of the enemy from afar. (Compare Habak. ii. 1.).

Isaiah 21:8

And he cried, A “Hon. Some understand the place, as if by a lion were meant Cyrus: but the marginal reading, he cried as a lion, makes an easier sense; the particle as being frequently understood. (See xv. 5. PsaL xi. 1. 1 Sam. xxv. 37. Job xi. 12. Nahiim iii. 12.) My lord, I stand continually upon the watch-tower in the day-time, and lam set in my ward whole nights.] This is Said to* express his great care and attentiveness. (See

Isaiah 21:9

And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a Couple of horsemen. He confirms the vision related ver. 7. The Hebrew word parashim signifies horses as well as horsemen: (see note on xxii. 6.) and the sense would run easier, if the words were translated, Here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horses. And he answered and said.] Some suppose this to be the answer of the prophet, by which he explains the foregoing vision to be meant of Babylon: but there is no necessity of admitting this interpretation, for the word answer is often used in Scripture for the continuation of a discourse. (See particularly Matt. xi. 25. and elsewhere in the gospels.) Babylon is fallen, is fallen.] The expression is doubled, to denote the certainty of the event. (See Gen. xli.32.) It is usual, likewise, for the prophets to represent a thing future, as if it were already accomplished, to signify that it will certainly come to pass. (See Jer. 1. 2.) To the same sense we are to understand those words of Christ, (John iii. 18.) He that believethnot, is condemned already; i. e. will infallibly be condemned, if he persists in his infidelity. (See like instances, xli. 3. xlviii. 21.) All the graven images of her gods he hath broken to the ground:] See note on xix. 1. Other prophecies speak of tho destruction of Babylon, as a decisive stroke, which should give a fatal blow to idolatry: (sec xlv. 16. xlvi. 1. Jer. 1. 2. Ii. 17, 18. 47.) which prophecies will be fully completed in the fall of mystical Babylon.

Isaiah 21:10

Only thrashing, andlhe.com of my floor. The prophet addresses himself to \hr Jews, who were nearly concerned in the destruction of the Babylonish empire: (though the admonition extends to remote ages. See notes on the beginning of chap. xiii. xiv.) These he applies himself to/ as groaning under the oppressions of that heathen government; whereupon he calls them God’s thrashing, and the com of his floor, because they had been so severely bruised by their oppressors, although these calamities were intended by God to purge the pure corn from the chatf. To be thrashed signifies to undergo great calamities, or be subdued by a potent enemy. (See xli. 15. Jer. Ii. 33. Micah iv. 13.) [The way of thrashing, in the eastern countries, was by leading oxen over the corn lying on the floor, who drew after them a pair of dented iron wheels, or else heavy planks stuck lull of sharp flints; so that the corn was trodden out by the feet of the oxen, and the straw cast into small parcels by the wheels or flints. (See xxviii. 27, 28.) The same way of treading out tho com was practised by the Romans, as appears by Varro, (lib. i. do Re Rust. cap. 52.) " Excutl grassa jumentis, junctis, ac tribulo; id fit e tabula lapidibus aut ferro asperata, quas imposito auriga, aut pondere grandi, trahitur jumentis junctis;? aut ex asseribus dentatis, cum orbiculis.”] This way of bruising the corn doth fitly resemble the weak being crushed by the mighty.

Isaiah 21:11

TIte burden of Dumah. Or Jdumea, as appear by the mention of Mount Seir, which follows. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night?] One or other of the Idumeans is inquisitive every night what tidings the watchman brings of the approach of the enemies. (See ver. 6.). Vcr. 12. Hie watchman said, The morning cometh’,, and also the night.] This verse hath puzzled all the commentators. Without repeating their several conjectures, one may conceive the sense to be this: You inquire every night what tidings that brings, but the morning may be as cfrmgerous as the night. (See Ezek. vii. 7. 10.) If ye will inquire, inquire ye; return, come.] Or, return, and come again, as the old translation reads, which was published under king Henry VIII. (Compare Job xvii. 10.) If you will inquire indeed, and ask questions in earnest, inquire of God first, ask his mercy, and afterward come again, and ye shall have a more favourable answer.

Isaiah 21:13

In the forest of Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim. This prophecy threatened one clan of the Arabians, those who were the posterity of Dcdan, the grandson of Abraham, (Gen. xxv. 3.) and tells them they shall be driven from their tents orhabitations, and forced to seek for shelter in the woods and thickets. They are called travelling companies, because most of the Arabians lived in moveable tents, and were therefore called Seenitce, and removed with their cattle from place to place, for the convenience of pasture, like the Nomades in Africa.

Isaiah 21:14

The inhabitants of Tenia brought water to him that was thirsty. The words describe the straits the Dedanites were reduced to, being forced to fly from the enemy without any provisions for their present sustenance -/whereupon their neighbours, the Tcraanitcs, (the posterity of Tema, Ishmael’s son, Gen. xx. 15.) took pity upon their forlorn condition. To relieve travellers with necessaries, was an instance of hospitality received among all nations. (See Deut. xxiii. 4.)