Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 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.
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 midbarm for midbar-ym). Others, again, regard the fuller form as an emblematic designation of Babylon or Babylonia: the country that was once a sea ( 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.
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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1, 2. The “hard vision” of Babylon’s fate.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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 ( midbar) 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.
Of the sea – ( yam). 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 ( yam) 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 – , legetai de panta men ech arches hudor einai, thalasson kaloumenen (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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 21:1-10
The burden of the desert of the sea
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.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXI
Prediction of the taking of Babylon by the Medes and Persians
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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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.
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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. desertthe champaignbetween Babylon and Persia; it was once a desert, and it wasto become so again.
of the seaThe plainwas covered with the water of the Euphrates like a “sea”(Jer 51:13; Jer 51:36;so Isa 11:15, the Nile), untilSemiramis raised great dams against it. Cyrus removed these dykes,and so converted the whole country again into a vast desert marsh.
whirlwinds in the south(Job 37:9; Zec 9:14).The south wind comes upon Babylon from the deserts of Arabia, and itsviolence is the greater from its course being unbroken along theplain (Job 1:19).
desertthe plainbetween Babylon and Persia.
terrible landMedia; toguard against which was the object of Nitocris’ great works[HERODOTUS, 1.185].Compare as to “terrible” applied to a wilderness, as beingfull of unknown dangers, De 1:29.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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, Ge 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, Re 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;”
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 Zec 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The power which first brings destruction upon the city of the world, is a hostile army composed of several nations. “As storms in the south approach, it comes from the desert, from a terrible land. Hard vision is made known to me: the spoiler spoils, and the devastator devastates. Go up, Elam! Surround, Maday! I put an end to all their sighing.” “Storms in the south” (compare Isa 28:21; Amo 3:9) are storms which have their starting-point in the south, and therefore come to Babylon from Arabia deserta; and like all winds that come from boundless steppes, they are always violent (Job 1:19; Job 37:9; see Hos 13:15). It would be natural, therefore, to connect m immidbar with lachaloph (as Knobel and Umbreit do), but the arrangement of the words is opposed to this; lachalooph (“pressing forwards”) is sued instead of yachaloph (see Ges. 132, Anm. 1, and still more fully on Hab 1:17). The conjunctio periphrastica stands with great force at the close of the comparison, in order that it may express at the same time the violent pressure with which the progress of the storm is connected. It is true that, according to Herod. i. 189, Cyrus came across the Gyndes, so that he descended into the lowlands to Babylonia through Chalonitis and Apolloniatis, by the road described by Isidor V. Charax in his Itinerarium,
(Note: See C. Masson’s “Illustration of the route from Seleucia to Apobatana, as given by Isid. of Charax,” in the Asiatic Journal, xii. 97ff.)
over the Zagros pass through the Zagros-gate (Ptolem. vi. 2) to the upper course of the Gyndes (the present Diyala), and then along this river, which he crossed before its junction with the Tigris. But if the Medo-Persian army came in this direction, it could not be regarded as coming “from the desert.” If, however, the Median portion of the army followed the course of the Choaspes ( Kerkha) so as to descend into the lowland of Chuzistan (the route taken by Major Rawlinson with a Guran regiment),
(Note: See Rawlinson’s route as described in Ritter’s Erdkunde, ix. 3 (West-asien), p. 397ff.)
and thus approached Babylon from the south-east, it might be regarded in many respects as coming m immidbar (from the desert), and primarily because the lowland of Chuzistan is a broad open plain – that is to say, a m idbar . According to the simile employed of storms in the south, the assumption of the prophecy is really this, that the hostile army is advancing from Chuzistan, or (as geographical exactitude is not to be supposed) from the direction of the desert of ed-Dahna, that portion of Arabia deserta which bounded the lowland of Chaldean on the south-west. The Medo-Persian land itself is called “a terrible land,” because it was situated outside the circle of civilised nations by which the land of Israel was surrounded. After the thematic commencement in Isa 21:1, which is quite in harmony with Isaiah’s usual custom, the prophet begins again in Isa 21:2. Chazuth (a vision) has the same meaning here as in Isa 29:11 (though not Isa 28:18); and c hazuth kashah is the object of the passive which follows (Ges. 143, 1, b). The prophet calls the look into the future, which is given to him by divine inspiration, hard or heavy (though in the sense of difficilis , not gravis , c abed ), on account of its repulsive, unendurable, and, so to speak, indigestible nature. The prospect is wide-spread plunder and devastation (the expression is the same as in Isa 33:1, compare Isa 16:4; Isa 24:16, bagad denoting faithless or treacherous conduct, then heartless robbery), and the summoning of the nations on the east and north of Babylonia to the conquest of Babylon; for Jehovah is about to put an end ( hishbatti , as in Isa 16:10) to all their sighing ( anchathah , with He raf. and the tone upon the last syllable), i.e., to all the lamentations forced out of them far and wide by the oppressor.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Doom of Babylon. | B. C. 714. |
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 grievous 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 My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me. 5 Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, 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 a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed: 8 And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights: 9 And, behold, here cometh a 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 corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.
We had one burden of Babylon before (ch. xiii.); 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 ch. xxxix. 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 37:37. 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, ch. xxxiii. 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.
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 (Ps. xii. 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 (v. 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, c., 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. v. 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 (v. 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, v. 6. We read of watchmen thus set to receive intelligence in the story of David (2 Sam. xviii. 24), and in the story of Jehu, 2 Kings ix. 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 (v. 8) he cried, A lion; this word, coming out of a watchman’s mouth, no doubt gave them a certain sound, and everybody 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. ii. 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 (v. 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, v. 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 (Ps. cxxix. 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, 1 Cor. xi. 23.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ISAIAH – CHAPTER 21
CONCERNING BABYLON, EDOM AND ARABIA
Verse 1-10: CONCERNING BABYLON
1. Though most commentators see in this passage a reference to the fall of Babylon to the Medes and Persians (as described in Daniel 5), it may refer to an earlier defeat by Sargon, the Assyrian (with whom Elam and Media were allied) about 710 B.C. Whereas the fall of Babylon, under Cyrus, was a cause of great joy for Judah; the prophet is here filled with pain, anxiety, gloom, consternation, terror and utter despair for his beloved people. There seemed nothing they could do to stop the despised Assyrian!
2. Like an irresistible whirlwind from the South, the prophet sees the approach of Babylon’s enemy from the land of terror, (Verse 1).
3. It is a terrible vision that he sees – involving treachery and destruction, (Verse 2).
4. Edom is commanded to “Go up!” and Media to “Lay siege!”
5. In verses 3-4 Isaiah describes his own feelings – resulting from the terrible vision: anguish, pain, dismay, fear and trembling.
6. So swiftly and unexpectedly did the enemy appear that Babylon was taken unaware: in fact, she was preparing for a celebration when the cry came: “Arise, ye princes! Anoint your shields!” (Verse 5)
7. The prophet shrank from beholding what was to come upon Babylon, but, at the command of the Lord, went to his watchtower, (Verse 6).
8. Faithful as a watchman, he observed carefully and then cried as a lion: “Behold! a troop of men; horsemen in pairs! Babylon is fallen! The images of her gods are shattered to the ground!” (Verse 9)
9. It was with tenderness that the prophet addressed his afflicted people as “my threshing – son of the threshing floor” and assured them that he had only declared to them what he had heard from “the Lord of hosts”, (Verse 10).
10. They must not put their trust in Babylon; but lean on the strong arm of their God! He alone can save them!
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. The burden of the desert of the sea. The Prophet, after having taught that their hope ought to be placed, not on the Egyptians, but on the mercy of God alone, and after having foretold that calamities would come on the nations on whose favor they relied, adds a consolation in order to encourage the hearts of the godly. He declares, that for the Chaldeans, to whom they will be captives, a reward is prepared; from which it follows, that God takes account of the injuries which they endure. By the desert (62) he means Chaldea, not that it was deserted or thinly inhabited, but because the Jews had a desert on that side of them; just as if, instead of Italy, we should name “the Alps,” because they are nearer to us, and because we must cross them on our road to Italy. This reason ought to be kept in view; for he does not describe the nature of the country, but forewarns the Jews that the destruction of the enemies, which he foretells, is near at hand, and is as certain as if the event had been before their eyes, as that desert was. Besides, the prophets sometimes spoke ambiguously about Babylon, that believers alone might understand the hidden mysteries, as Jeremiah changes the king’s name. (63)
As storms from the south. He says from the south, because that wind is tempestuous, and produces storms and whirlwinds. (64) When he adds that “it cometh from the desert,” this tends to heighten the picture; for if any storm arise in a habitable and populous region, it excites less terror than those which spring up in deserts. In order to express the shocking nature of this calamity, he compares it to storms, which begin in the desert, and afterwards take a more impetuous course, and rush with greater violence.
Yet the Prophet appears to mean something else, namely, that as they burst forth like storms from that direction to lay Judea desolate, so another storm would soon afterwards arise to destroy them; and therefore he says that this burden will come from a terrible land. By this designation I understand Judea to be meant, for it was not enough to speak of the ruin of Babylon, if the Jews did not likewise understand that it came from God. Why he calls it “a terrible land” we have seen in our exposition of the eighteenth chapter. (65) It was because, in consequence of so many displays of the wrath of God, its disfigured appearance might strike terror on all. The occasion on which the words are spoken does not allow us to suppose that it is called “terrible” on account of the astonishing power of God by which it was protected. Although therefore Babylon was taken and plundered by the Persians and Medes, Isaiah declares that its destruction will come from Judea; because in this manner God will revenge the injuries done to that nation of which he had promised to be the guardian.
(62) “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, often overflowed by the Euphrates and Tigris. It became habitable by being drained by the many canals that were made in it.” — Lowth.
FT320 The allusion appears to be to the use of the name “Coniah” instead of “Jehoiachin.” “Though Coniah… were the signet upon my right hand. Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol?” (Jer 22:24.) — Ed
FT321 Lowth remarks, and quotes Job 1:19, in support of the statement, that “the most vehement storms to which Judea was subject came from the great desert country to the south of it.” — Ed
FT322 See p. 37
FT323 See vol. 1 p. 341
FT324 See vol. 1 p. 494
FT325 “Vivacity is here imparted to the description by the Prophet’s speaking of himself as of a Babylonian present at Belshazzar’s feast, on the night when the town was surprised by Cyrus.” — Stock
FT326 “The corn (Heb. son) of my floor.” — Eng. Ver.
FT327 “Of Dumah there are two interpretations, J. D. Michaelis, Gesenius, Maurer, Hitzig, Ewald, and Umbreit understand it as the name of an Arabian tribe descended from Ishmael, (Gen 25:14,) or of a place belonging to that tribe, perhaps the same now called Dumah Eljandil, on the confines of Arabia and Syria. In that case, Seir, which lay between Judah and the desert of Arabia, is mentioned merely to denote the quarter whence the sound proceeded. But as Seir was itself the residence of the Edomites or children of Esau, Vitringa, Rosenmüller, and Knobel follow the Septuagint and Jarchi in explaining דומה ( Dumah) as a variation of אדום, ( Edom,) intended at the same time to suggest the idea of silence, solitude, and desolation. — Alexander
FT328 See vol. 1 p. 265
FT329 “Brought water (or, bring ye, or, prevent ye) to him that was thirsty.” — Eng. Ver. Calvin’s version follows closely that of the Septuagint, εἰς συνάντησιν ὕδωρ διψῶντι φέρετε, and agrees with other ancient versions; but modern critics assign strong reasons for reading this verse in the preterite rather than in the imperative.” — Ed
FT330 It would appear that, instead of “ geminus est sensus,” some copies had read, “ genuinus est sensus;” for the French version gives “ Cependant l’exposition que j’ay mise en avant est plus simple;” “but the exposition which I have given is more simple.” — Ed
FT331 “From the swords,” or, for fear (Heb. from the face.) — Eng. Ver. “From before the swords.” — Stock. “From the presence of swords.” — Alexander
FT332 See vol 1 p. 496
FT333 “ Diesque longa videtur opus debentibus.” — Hor. Ep. I.21. Another reading of this passage, which gives “ lenta “ instead of “ longa,” is not less apposite to the purpose for which the quotation is made. “To those who perform task-work the day appears to advance slowly. ” — Ed
(63) Bogus footnote
(64) Bogus footnote
(65) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
D. IRREVERENT ENEMIES CHAPTERS 2123
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
1.
BABYLON, EDOM AND ARABIA
a. BABYLON
TEXT: Isa. 21:1-10
1
The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it cometh from the wilderness, from a terrible land.
2
A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous man dealeth treacherously, and the destroyer destroyeth. Go up, O Elam; besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.
3
Therefore are my loins filled with anguish; pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman in travail: I am pained so that I cannot hear; I am dismayed so that I cannot see,
4
My heart fluttereth, horror hath affrighted me; the twilight that I desired hath been turned into trembling unto me.
5
They prepare the table, they set the watch, they eat, they drink: rise up, ye princes, anoint the shield,
6
For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman; Let him declare what he seeth:
7
and when he seeth a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of asses, a troop of camels, he shall harken diligently with much heed.
8
And he cried as a lion: O Lord, I stand continually upon the watch-tower in the day-time and am set in my ward whole nights;
9
and, behold, here cometh a troop of men, horsemen in pairs. And he answered and said, Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the graven images of her gods are broken unto the ground.
10
O thou my threshing, and the grain of my floor! that which I have heard from Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.
QUERIES
a.
Who is the wilderness of the sea?
b.
Who is preparing the table and eating and drinking?
c.
Who is the watchman?
PARAPHRASE
This is the message of Jehovah concerning Babylon, that city sitting in a wilderness of waters. A storm of devastation is roaring down upon her from the territory of terror, like the cyclone sweeps out of the southern deserts of the Negev. I see a vision that makes me grieve. Babylon has deceived and exploited many peoples. So I command the Elamites and Medes to besiege her and bring her oppressions to an end. This will give peace and healing to those she has oppressed. When I see what God has planned for Babylon I am overcome with horror and feeling for them. My stomach cramps and churns with sharp pain like that of a woman giving birth to a child. The awesomeness of it consumes all my senses so that I do not hear or see anything else around me. My mind reels; my heart palpitates; I am overwhelmed with the terror of it. The nightonce affording me relaxation and rest and pleasurehas now become long hours of restless trembling. Look! They are engrossed in banqueting, watching their enemy approach. They are oblivious to their danger because they are reveling with eating and drinking. Suddenly, their enemy upon them before they know it, they will be crying, Quick, quick, grab your shields and anoint them for battle! We are being attacked! And the Lord told me, Put a watchman there to observe. Let this watchman tell what he sees. When this watchman sees soldiers, cavalrymen in pairs, troops of donkeys, troops of camels, tell him to pay diligent attention to everything he sees and hears. So I put the watchman to watch and eventually he cried, O Sovereign Lord, I have been standing continually in my place of watching day after day and night after night, and suddenly troops of soldiers come, including troops of cavalrymen. And the watchman reported what he had beheld, Fallen, fallen is Babylon and all her false gods lie broken on the ground. O my oppressed people, that which I, Isaiah, have heard from Jehovah, the God of Israel, I declare to you to comfort you and strengthen your faith.
COMMENTS
Isa. 21:1-5 VISION: That this is Babylon is evident from Isa. 21:9. Babylon was situated in the Mesopotamian lowlands, in the Euphrates River valley. In fact, the Euphrates River cut through the center of the great city. Hundreds of canals branched off the River into all the areas of the city making it literally a wilderness of seas. It is not unusual for a river to be called a sea (Cf. Isa. 19:5). A cyclonic force of humanity from a terrible land is to swoop down upon Babylon at some future time. If Isaiah made this prediction of Babylons fall near 706705 B.C. it would anticipate the actual historical event by approximately 170 years! Babylon did not win domination of the world until about 612 B.C. (at the battle of Carcemish). The Jewish captivity of Babylon began about 606 B.C. The conquest of Babylon by the Medes and Persians took place about 538 B.C. (See our comments on Daniel, chapter 5, for details on the conquest of Babylon by Medo-Persia). Why Isaiah deals with an empire yet to be born so many years in advance of its birth we shall speak of later. In Isa. 21:2 the prophet characterizes his feelings and the personality of the Babylonian empire. The vision grieves the prophet. The Babylonians will be deceitful and devious and a people who will despoil and exploit the whole world. It is nothing short of amazing that Isaiah should know 170 years in advance the very people, by name, who would conquer this unborn Babylonian empire! It can only be explained by supernatural revelation. The Elamites and the Medes (later to become the Medo-Persian amalgamation) were the very ones history records as Babylons conquerors. This territory now belongs to Iran.
Isaiah was overwhelmed with grief at this vision. He writhed in anguish like a woman giving birth to a child. He could concentrate on nothing else. Its horror consumed him. Its awesomeness made his mind reel and his heart palpitate. He could not sleep at night. Why was he so gripped with its horribleness? Edward J. Young writes, From this it appears that the prophet experienced deep emotion not merely over his own people, but even over the enemy. He was a man of tender compassion, and the news that stark events were to overcome the world brings upon him painful anguish. Perhaps if we knew today of the future catastrophic and cataclysmic upheavels in national and international structures we would be overwhelmed with grief and anguish. Any man of God grieves over the tribulation and oppression of others any time it occurs. Most Americans who can remember the atomic holocaust over Hiroshima, Japan, and its consequences, even though Japan was at the time Americas enemy, remembers his horror and compassion for those Japanese who suffered in it. Perhaps the stupidity and gross sensuality of the Babylonians visualized by Isaiah even as their enemies marched toward their city, also caused the prophet to be upset. Again, amazingly, Isaiah predicts the exact situation among the Babylonians upon the night of their downfall (Cf. our comments in Daniel, chapter 5). Belshazzar was eating and drinking with his noblemen when the handwriting appeared on the wall and Cyrus and the Medes appeared inside the city. The Medes were upon them so suddenly the Babylonians hardly had time to prepare (anoint with oil from their pagan altars) their shields for war. This anointing was probably some superstition seeking the aid of their gods in battle.
Isa. 21:6-10. VERIFICATION: Who is this watchman? It is our opinion that God was instructing Isaiah to appeal to those who believed his prophecy to pass along this prophecy to future generations who would watch diligently as historic events fullfilled and verified Isaiahs predictions. These future generations of a faithful remnant would then read and remind all who would hear that Isaiahs prophecies were sure and certain. God would chasten His people, but He would also deliver them. Joel bids those who witnessed the locust plague to pass on the information from one generation to another in order to interpret Gods actions of chastening in the world. Jeremiah predicted the death of Hananiah. Hananiahs death verified Jeremiahs authenticity as a prophet (Cf. Jer. 28:5-17). The Elamites used asses and the Medes used camels as animals of warfare. When the Judeans of the future should see this great mass of mounted warriors approaching Babylon they should know their deliverance from Babylons captivity was near. All their songs and sighings of oppression in captivity would cease. The Persians in two short years would begin (536) the restoration of the Jews to their land. The word lion is not in the best, most ancient, Hebrew texts. It is not in the Isaiah manuscript of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The cry of those with faith to take Isaiah at his word and watch is: Fallen, fallen, is Babylon! Babylons gods are impotent and they are ground into the dust of destruction.
Fallen Babylon proclaimed the defeat of the great enemy of Gods people and their deliverance. In a certain sense, this is the basic theme of the entire book of Isaiah. It is the prelude to the triumphant messages of conquest and joy found in chapters 40-66. It is the same message John the apostle sees in a vision concerning the Roman empire in Revelation 18, which is symbolic of Gods final defeat of His enemies and the deliverance of His people. Babylon was symbolic of all the forces opposed to God and His redemptive work in the earth. Especially did she symbolize the forces of sensuality and worldliness as they oppose God and His kingdom in luring humanity to commit adultery with the gods of carnality. That is why Babylon is called a mistress and a whore. The overthrow of Babylon in the book of Revelation is a prelude to the joyous conquest of Revelation 21-22.
Isaiahs heart goes out to Gods people, so long threshed by their oppressors. They have been ground into the earth as. grain on a threshing floor, but the precious grain is Gods. He will separate the wheat from the chaff by the Babylon captivity. And when the Medes have delivered Judah from Babylon, the wheat-seed will produce a harvest in the Messiah. What the aged prophet had heard from Jehovah, he tenderly but forth-rightly declared to all who would listen and believe.
QUIZ
1.
Why was Isaiah grieved at this vision?
2.
How many years before the actual downfall of Babylon is Isaiah probably predicting it?
3.
How would Isaiah know it?
4.
In what detail does Isaiah predict it?
5.
Why would Isaiah be told to set a watchman to tell of these events when they began to be fulfilled ?
6.
What does Babylon symbolize in the redemptive working of God?
7.
Who is his threshing?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
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) Xenophons description of the whole plain of the Euphrates, intersected by marshes and lakes, as looking like a sea affords, perhaps, a better explanation.
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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
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.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Burden of the Wilderness of the Sea ( Isa 21:1-10 ).
The interpretations of this prophecy have been varied although all finally must relate it to one of the sackings of Babylon (Isa 21:9) of which there were a number. The area around the Persian Gulf in southern Babylonia was called in ancient times ‘mat tamtim’ (‘the land of the sea’, in Akkadian). Perhaps there is then a prophetic recognition here in the term ‘wilderness of the sea’ that it was to be turned into a wilderness. As burdens are always concerning those who will suffer under the prophecy this is a very good possibility.
Or it may be that Isaiah was drawn into the wilderness around the Dead Sea in order to receive the message both verbally and in terms of the surrounding conditions that he found himself in, in that dry, arid desert land. As the whirlwinds swept through the land perhaps he saw them as coming from the direction of Babylon.
Either way the message is stark. Wilderness conditions are involved, as a judgment from God, on Babylon and on all who support her and look to her for support. The message is similar to previously. Neither Babylon nor her allies can be relied on. Great Babylon is doomed.
The Initial News Comes Through, Babylon is Besieged By Its Erstwhile Allies ( Isa 21:1-5 ).
Analysis
a The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from a terrible land (Isa 21:1).
b A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous dealer deals treacherously, and the spoiler spoils. “Go up, O Elam, besiege, O Media. I have made all its groaning cease” (Isa 21:2).
c Therefore my loins are filled with anguish, pangs have taken hold of me like the pangs of a woman in intensive labour (Isa 21:3 a).
c I am pained so that I cannot hear. I am dismayed so that I cannot see (Isa 21:3 b).
b My heart pants. Horror has affrighted me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me (Isa 21:4).
a They prepare the table, they set the watch, they eat, they drink. Rise up, you princes, anoint the shield. (Isa 21:5).
In ‘a’ the whirlwinds sweep in from the terrible land (bringing in a terrible vision) and in the parallel this causes the leaders of Judah to prepare a table, set a watch and eat and drink as they confer together, followed by an exhortation to prepare for battle. In ‘b’ a grievous vision is declared to the prophet. Elam and Media may attack and besiege Assyria, but it is too late, Yahweh has made all the groanings of Babylon, their ally cease. Babylon is defeated. That is why in the parallel his heart pants, horror affrights him and the end that he had looked for has turned into one of trembling. In ‘c’ he is filled with anguish and distress, and in the parallel he is so pained and dismayed that he cannot accept what he hears and sees.
Isa 21:1-2
‘The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from a terrible land. A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous dealer deals treacherously, and the spoiler spoils.’
As Isaiah possibly stood in the dry, arid conditions of the wilderness around the Dead Sea area in the south of Judah, or in the Negeb (which ‘the south’ regularly means. Compare Gen 12:9), he was aware of the whirlwinds that swirled around him, and became aware that those treacherous winds were bringing him a message of treachery from another wilderness, the wilderness of a terrible land. ‘Terrible land’ was a name well suited to Babylon (see Isa 13:11), although not only limited to them. All who could be a major threat to Judah were ‘terrible’ lands. If the Wilderness of the Sea was ‘the land of the sea’ in southern Babylonia it was the homeland of Merodach Baladan, king of Babylon, at that time a rebel against Assyria, who had asserted and obtained the independence of Babylon.
But Isaiah foresaw that that land would become a wilderness, as the Assyrians swept through it pillaging and destroying, a firm lesson to one they saw as a traitor. He found the picture a grievous one. And he foresaw that there would be treachery involved, and also ravaging and spoiling of the land. Possibly the treachery was something to do with Sennacherib himself, who was known to deal treacherously and renege on treaties (see Isa 33:1). Who more likely to be described as the treacherous spoiler? Or possibly the treachery related to the allies of Babylon who are mentioned next, whose dealings may not have been of the most honourable. A defeated army regularly changed sides in order to save itself. The indefiniteness of it may depict a general state of treachery and spoiling among mankind. None can be fully trusted. This is, of course, in contrast with Yahweh Who can be full trusted.
Isa 21:2
‘Go up, O Elam, besiege, O Media. I have made all its groaning cease.’
At the time Elam and Media came in as allies of Merodach Baladan and Babylon. Here they are depicted as being called on to enter the fray on her behalf, attacking the Assyrians on another quarter. It is to be noted that Elam ceased to be a positive threat around 639 BC so that this must apply before then while they were still a force to be reckoned with.
It may be that the exhortations are prior to what follows, (Babylon’s vain efforts ceasing), or it may be an indication to Elam and Media that their efforts will be pointless. ‘Carry on, but you are wasting your time’. If ‘I have made all its groanings cease’ refers to the total destruction of Babylon that resulted from Sennacherib’s victory, then the indication is that either way their action was too late. (Once again allies have failed). Sennacherib was merciless. He had had enough of Babylon. He thoroughly destroyed it and carried off its main idols.
Isa 21:3-4
‘Therefore my loins are filled with anguish,
Pangs have taken hold of me like the pangs of a woman in intensive labour.
I am pained so that I cannot hear.
I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
My heart pants. Horror has affrighted me.
The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me.’
This is the day of Yahweh for Babylon. As in Isa 13:8 her fate arouses anguish and pain like that of a woman in intensive labour, but this time the pain is Isaiah’s. It has affected his hearing and his sight, as well as his heart (or it may mean that he refuses to hear and see). The thought of what will now be done to Babylon, and what it may mean for Judah, leaves him in a state of horror. It was true that he had desired the end of Babylon, its twilight, but not like this. The thought can only leave him trembling. This was no hard hearted prophet of doom. He had to declare his message of judgment, but his tender nature was wracked with concern.
Isa 21:5
‘They prepare the table, they set the watch, they eat, they drink. Rise up, you princes, anoint the shield.’
This is possibly a picture of the princes of Judah in discussions with the Babylonian ambassadors, or even just conferring between themselves on the situation, having no idea what is about to happen to Babylon. Calmly they prepare the table, they station sentries, they eat and drink, unaware of the catastrophe that is about to occur. They are waiting for news. And the prophet is moved to cry to the princes in conference that they must anoint their shields and prepare to defend themselves.
Or it may be an emergency conference as the winds sweep in ‘from the wilderness’ with bleak news. Thus they are preparing for whatever news comes through, and at the same time advise each other meanwhile to be ready for battle.
The Final News Comes Through, “Babylon is Fallen, Is Fallen!”
The expected news arrives. Babylon is fallen, is fallen. The repetition stresses both the shock and the certainty.
Analysis.
a For thus has the Lord said to me, “Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he sees (Isa 21:6).
b And when he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of asses, a troop of camels, he will listen carefully, taking careful note” (Isa 21:7).
c And he cried as a lion, “O Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime” (Isa 21:8 a).
c “And am set in my post whole nights” (Isa 21:8 b).
b “And see, here come a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.” And he answered and said, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the graven images of her gods are broken into the ground” (Isa 21:9).
a Oh you who are my threshing, and the corn of my floor, what I have heard from Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you (Isa 21:10).
In ‘a’ the Lord has told the prophet to set a watchman who is to declare what he sees, and in the parallel says that he has declared to them what he has heard from Yahweh. In ‘b’ he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, and listens carefully and takes note, and in the parallel a troop, horsemen in pairs, arrive and the reply comes that Babylon is fallen, and all her gods are broken and cast on the ground. In ‘c’ and its parallel the watchman declares that he watches, by day and night.
Isa 21:6-7
For thus has the Lord said to me,
“Go, set a watchman,
Let him declare what he sees.
And when he sees a troop,
Horsemen in pairs,
A troop of asses,
A troop of camels,
He will listen carefully,
Taking a great deal of notice.” ’
Yahweh has given Isaiah warning in advance by commanding him to set up a watchman. And he thus knows the tenseness of the position. He knows that bad news is to be expected. He has been told to set a watchman who will honestly declare what he sees, to keep an eye on the road for the bad news that is coming. And when he sees an important embassage arriving the watchman must take careful note of its significance. For its news will be worthy of consideration. The horsemen in pairs, travelling speedily as messengers, have a spare horse so that when their first horse is tired they can transfer to the other.
Shields had to be oiled to keep them in fighting condition. The shields would be made of leather, or of wood covered with leather, and would have leather straps. They had to be kept in trim.
Isa 21:8-9
‘And he cried as a lion,
“O Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime,
And am set in my post whole nights.
And see, here come a troop of men.
Horsemen in pairs.” ’
Isaiah has taken no chances. He has made himself the watchman. With the heart of a lion he watches, continually day and night, and at last he sees what he is looking for, what Yahweh had warned him of, a troop of men and horsemen in pairs. And he cries out to the sovereign Lord, to Yahweh of what he has seen.
The horsemen in pairs have been variously explained but we are surely to see them in context as representing urgent messengers who bring a spare horse so that they can speed on their journey.
Isa 21:9
‘And he answered and said,
“Babylon is fallen, is fallen,
And all the graven images of her gods,
Are broken into the ground.”
Yahweh explains to Isaiah the vision. The horsemen bring news, horrific news. Babylon is truly fallen and her gods with her. The repetition of ‘is fallen’ stresses the greatness and certainty of the disaster. The king who had boasted of his ascent to the gods is on his way to the pit (Isa 14:12-19). He will flee the country and die in a foreign land. Thus will Yahweh’s words be fulfilled, and thus will Judah become aware of the folly of trusting in men. The vision of chapters 13-14 has come to partial fulfilment.
Isa 21:10
‘Oh you who are my threshing, and the corn of my floor, what I have heard from Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.’
Finally Isaiah brings home the message to Israel. He knows that his words are acting on them like a threshing instrument, that Israel are like grain being threshed, they are like corn on Isaiah’s threshingfloor. But he wants them to know that what he has so declared, is what Yahweh of hosts would say to them. God is still speaking to them and waiting for them to respond. For Yahweh is still the God of Israel.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Chapter 21 The Burdens on The Wilderness of the Sea, on Dumah and on Arabia.
We now come to the second five of the ten burdens. And here we pause to note the careful way in which the prophecy has been put together. Like the first of the ten this sixth burden refers to Babylon. But while the first referred to a triumphant Babylon, then humiliated, this time it is a Babylon defeated from the beginning. The third burden spoke of Moab and its search for refuge from Assyria, and ended with the time reference ‘three years as the years of a hireling’ (Isa 16:14). The eighth burden speaks of Arabia and a search for refuge from Assyria, and ends similarly, ‘within a year according to the year of a hireling’ (Isa 21:16). In both cases the fewness of those who will be left is emphasised. The fourth burden, although addressed to Syria, majored on Israel, the people of God, their destruction and their final hope. The ninth burden, addressed to the valley of vision, majors on Judah, the people of God, although the concentration is on its destruction. However, hope is always there if they repent. And finally the fifth burden deals with Egypt, the ancient and important country to the south with its great claims about itself, which alone had been the one who sought supremacy over that part of the world until the great threat had come from the north. And this burden will result finally in deliverance. And the tenth burden deals with Tyre, the great and important country to the north which had from time immemorial ruled the seas, with its similar great claims, and this burden also ends in deliverance. There is clearly some form of pattern here.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 21:1-10 Prophecy Upon Babylon Isa 21:1-10 is popularly understood to be Isaiah’s prophecy against Babylon, which is called “the desert of the sea” in this passage of Scripture. This prophecy predicts the fall of Babylon at the hands of the Medes and Persians.
Isa 21:3-4 Comments – Isaiah’s Pain In Isa 21:3-4 the prophet describes the pain that someone feels when terrible news is given, when a person’s heart fails because of fear and distress. There have been a number of occasions when the Lord gave me a similar experience in which I felt what others feel. For example, I joined my church’s 24-hour prayer minister as a seminary student and was praying through the list of prayer requests. As I began to prayer for a child with a brain tumor, I felt a pain in the back of my head that came and went away. I have had a number of dreams in which the Lord has show me the feelings of others by letting me experience them. My sister had a dramatic dream in which the Lord took her through the pain that our mother has experienced over a period of years. This is what Isaiah was expressing in Isa 21:3-4.
Isa 21:9 And, behold, here cometh a 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.
Isa 21:9
Rev 14:8, “And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
Rev 18:2, “And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Prophecies Against the Nations Isa 13:1 to Isa 27:13 records prophecies against twelve nations, culminating with praise unto the Lord. God planted the nation of Israel in the midst of the nations as a witness of God’s plan of redemption for mankind. Instead of embracing God’s promises and commandments to mankind, the nations rejected Israel and their God, then they participated in Israel’s destruction. Although God judges His people, He also judged these nations, the difference being God promised to restore and redeem Israel, while the nations received no future hope of restoration in their prophecies; yet, their opportunity for restoration is found in Israel’s rejection when God grafts the Church into the vine of Israel (Rom 11:11-32). The more distant nations played little or no role in Israel’s idolatry, demise, and divine judgment, so they are not listed in this passage of Scripture.
It is important to note in prophetic history that Israel’s judgment is followed by judgment upon the nations; and Israel’s final restoration is followed by the restoration of the nations and the earth. Thus, some end time scholars believe that the events that take place in Israel predict parallel events that are destined to take place among the nations.
Here is a proposed outline:
1. Judgment upon Babylon Isa 13:1 to Isa 14:27
2. Judgment upon Philistia Isa 14:28-32
3. Judgment upon Moab Isa 15:1 to Isa 16:14
4. Judgment upon Damascus Isa 17:1-14
5. Judgment upon Ethiopia Isa 18:1-7
6. Judgment upon Egypt Isa 19:1-25
7. Prophecy Against Ethiopia & Egypt Isa 20:1-6
8. Judgment upon the Wilderness of the Sea Isa 21:1-10
9. Judgment upon Dumah Isa 21:11-12
10. Judgment upon Arabia Isa 21:13-17
11. Judgment upon Judah Isa 22:1-25
12. Judgment upon Tyre Isa 23:1-18
13. Judgment upon the Earth Isa 24:1-23
14. Praise to God for Israel’s Restoration Isa 25:1 to Isa 27:13
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Oracle Against Babylon
v. 1. The burden of the desert of the sea, v. 2. A grievous vision is declared unto me, v. 3. Therefore, v. 4. My heart panted, v. 5. Prepare the table, watch in the watch-tower, eat, drink, v. 6. For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth, v. 7. And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, v. 8. And he cried, v. 9. and, behold, v. 10. O my threshing and the corn of my floor,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Isa 21:1-10
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 Isa 13:1-22. 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 (verses 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 Isa 13:1-22; where also Media is mentioned (Isa 13:17); 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.
Isa 21:1
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 and in Job 37:9. It cometh. What cometh? Dr. Kay says, “God’s visitation;” Rosenmller, “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 easta 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.
Isa 21:2
A grievous vision; literally, a hard vision; not, however, “hard of interpretation” (Kay), but rather “hard to be borne,” “grievous,” “calamitous.” The treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously; rather, perhaps, the robber robs (Knobel); or, the violent man uses violence (Rosenmller). The idea of faithlessness passes out of the Hebrew boged occasionally, and is unsuitable here, more especially if it is the army of Cyrus that is intended. Go up, O Elam. The discovery that Cyrus, at the time of his conquest of Babylon, Bore the title of “King of Ansan,” not “King of Persia,” coupled with the probability that “Ansan” was a part of Elam, lends a peculiar interest to these words. Isaiah could not describe Cyrus as “King of Persia,” and at the same time be intelligible to his contemporaries, since Persia was a country utterly unknown to them. In using the term “Elam” instead, he uses that of a country known to the Hebrews (Gen 14:1), adjoining Persia, and, at the time of his expedition against Babylon, subject to Cyrus. Besiege, O Media. Having given “Elam” the first place, the prophet assigns to Media the second. Eleven years before he attacked Babylon, Cyrus had made war upon Astyages (Istuvegu), King of the Medes, had captured him, and become king of the nation, with scarcely any opposition (see the ‘Cylinder of Nabonidus’). Hence the Medes would naturally form an important portion of the force which he led against Babylon. All the sighing thereof have I made to cease. The “sighing” caused by Babylon to the nations, to the captives, and to the kings whose prison-doors were kept closed (Isa 14:17), God has in his counsels determined to bring to an end.
Isa 21:3
Therefore are my loins filled with pain, etc. (comp. above, Isa 15:5; Isa 16:9-11). The prophet is horrorstruck at the vision shown himat the devastation, the ruin, the carnage (Isa 13:18). He does not stop to consider how well deserved the punishment is; he does not, perhaps, as yet know how that, in smiting Babylon, God will be specially avenging the sufferings of his own nation (see the introductory paragraph). I was bowed down at the hearing, etc.; rather, I am so agonized that I cannot hear; I am so terrified that I cannot see.
Isa 21:4
My heart panted; rather, my heart trembleth, or fluttereth. The night of my pleasure; i.e. “the night, wherein, I am wont to enjoy peaceful and pleasant slumbers.”
Isa 21:5
Prepare the table, etc. With lyrical abruptness, the prophet turns from his own feelings to draw a picture of Babylon at the time when she is attacked. tie uses historical infinitives, the most lively form of narrative. Translate, They deck the table, set the watch, eat, drink; i.e. having decked the table, they commit the task of watching to a few, and then give themselves up to feasting and reveling, as if there were no danger. It is impossible not to think of Belshazzar’s feast, and the descriptions of the Greek historians (Herod; 1.191; Xen; ‘Cyrop.,’ 7.23), which mark at any rate the strength of the tradition that, when Babylon was taken, its inhabitants were engaged in revelry. Arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield. In the midst of the feast there enters to the revellers one from the outside, with these words, “Rise, quit the banquet; get your shields; anoint them; arm yourselves.” That shields were greased with fat or oil before being used in battle appears from Virg; ‘AEneid,’ 7.625, and other places. It was thought that the enemy’s weapons would more readily glance off an oiled surface.
Isa 21:6
Go, set a watchman. The event is not to be immediate, it is to be watched for; and Isaiah is not to watch himself, but to set the watchman. Moreover, the watchman waits long before he sees anything (verse 8). These unusual features of the narrative seem to mark a remote, not a near, accomplishment of the prophecy.
Isa 21:7
And he saw he hearkened; rather, he shall see he shall hearken (Kay). He is to wait and watch until he sees a certain sight; then he is to listen attentively, and he will hear the crash of the falling city. A chariot with a couple of horsemen; rather, a troop of horsemen riding two and two. This is exactly how a cavalry force was ordinarily represented by the Assyrians. Chariots are not intended either here or in Isa 21:9. They were not employed by the Persians until a late period of their history. A chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; rather, men mounted on asses and on camels. It is well known that both animals were employed by the Persians in their expeditions to carry the baggage (Herod; 1.80; 4.129; Xen; ‘Cyrop.,’ 7.1, etc.). But neither animal was ever attached to a chariot.
Isa 21:8
And he cried, A lion; rather, he cried as a lion; i.e. with a loud deep voice (comp. Rev 10:3). The watchman, after long waiting, becomes impatient, and can contain himself no longer. He makes complaint of his long vain watch. My lord; rather, O Lord. The watchman addresses his complaint to Jehovah.
Isa 21:9
And, behold, here cometh, etc. Our translators make the words those of the watchman. But they are better taken as the prophet’s statement of a fact, “And behold, just then there cometh a troop of men, riding two and two”the sign for which he was to watch (Isa 21:7), or rather the first part of it. We must suppose the rest of the sign to follow, and the watchman then to listen awhile attentively. Suddenly he hears the sound of a sacked town, and he exclaims, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, etc. All the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground. Recent documents, belonging to the time of Cyrus, and treating of his capture of Babylon, show that this expression is not to be understood literally. Cyrus was not an iconoclast; he did not break into pieces, or in any way destroy or insult the Babylonian idols. On the contrary, he maintained them in their several shrines, or restored them where they had been displaced; he professed himself a worshipper of the chief Babylonian godsBel, Nebo, and Merodachhe repaired the temple of Merodach; he prayed to Bel and Nebo to lengthen his days; he caused his son, Cambyses, to take part in the great religious ceremony wherewith the Babylonians opened the new year. Thus his conquest of Babylon did not bring upon its gods a physical, but only a moral, destruction. The Persian victory discredited and degraded them. It proclaimed to Western Asia that the idolatrous system so long prevalent in the region between Mount Zagros and the Mediterranean was no longer in the ascendant, but lay at the mercy of another quite different religion, which condescended to accord it toleration. Such was the permanent result. No doubt there was also, in the sack of the city, much damage done to many of the idols by a greedy soldiery, who may have carried off many images of gold or silver, and broken up others that were not portable, and stripped off the plates of precious metal from the idols of “brass, and iron, and wood, and stone” (Dan 5:6).
Isa 21:10
O my threshing, and the corn of my floor. These are the words of the prophet to Israel. Her chastisements have long been “threshing” Israel, separating the grain from the chaff, and will do so still more as time goes on. The prophet’s message is for the comfort of those who shall have gone through the process and become the true “children of the threshing-floor”pure wheat, fit to be gathered into the garner of God (Mat 3:12).
Isa 21:11, Isa 21:12
THE BURDEN OF DUMAH. This short “burden” is probably to be understood as uttered with reference to Edom, which the prophet prefers to call “Dumah,” i.e. “silence,” in reference to the desolation which he sees to be coming upon the country. Such a play upon words is very usual in the East. Isaiah has already given an instance of it in the name under which he has designated Heliopolis (Isa 19:18).
Isa 21:11
Dumah. There were at least two towns of this name; but neither of them is in the district of Seir. It is best, therefore, to regard “Dumah“ here as representing Edom, or Iaumaea (so the LXX; Jarchi, Rosenmller, Kay, Cheyne, and others). He calleth to me; rather, one calleth to me; i.e. I seem to hear a call from Mount Seir, as of one making inquiry of me. There is no need to suppose that the inquiry was actually made. Mount Self, or the district south-south-east of the Dead Sea, was the heart of the Idumaean country, which thence extended vaguely eastward and westward. What of the night? i.e. what hour, or, rather, perhaps, what watch of the night is it? May we consider that “the night is far spent, and the day at hand? Edom had offended Sargon by joining with Ashdod, and was probably at tiffs time oppressed by Sargon in consequence.
Isa 21:12
The morning cometh, and also the night. An oracular reply, but probably meaning
(1) that a brighter time would soon dawn upon the Edomite people; and
(2) that this brighter time would be followed by a return of misery and affliction. We may (conjecturally) understand the “morning” of the earlier part of Sennacherib’s reign, when Edom was at peace with Assyria, merely paying a moderate tribute, and the “night” of the later period in the same king’s reign, when the country suffered from another Assyrian invasion, in which the king’s treasures and his gods were carried off to Nineveh. If ye will inquire, inquire ye; return, come. Some take this very literally, as meaning, “If ye would inquire further into the meaning of this answer, do so; return to me; come again.” But this implies that the Edomites had sent an actual messenger to make the inquiry of Isa 21:5, which is improbable. Others understand a reproach to Edom: “If ye will have recourse to God in the time of trouble, do so; but then do morereturn to him altogether; come, and be one with Judah.”
Isa 21:13-17
THE BURDEN OF ARABIA. Edom will have companions in misfortune among the Arab tribes upon her borders, Dedan, Tema, and Kedar. War will enter their territory, derange their commerce (Isa 21:13), cause flight and privation (Isa 21:14, Isa 21:15), and within a year greatly diminish the number of their fighting men (Isa 21:16, Isa 21:17). The date of the prophecy is uncertain, but can scarcely be earlier than B.C. 715, when Sargon made an expedition into Arabia.
Isa 21:13
The burden upon Arabia; rather, in Arabia. The phrase is varied from its usual form, probably because it is not Arabia generally, but only certain of the more northern tribes, on whom calamity is about to fall. In the forest shall ye lodge. The word used is commonly translated “forest;” but Arabia has no forests, and the meaning hero must be “brushwood.” Thorny bushes and shrubs are common in all parts of Arabia. The general meaning is that the caravans will have to leave the beaten track, and obtain such shelter and concealment as the scanty brushwood of the desert could afford. Ye traveling companies of Dedanim. The Dedanim, or Dedanites, were among the chief traders of the Arabian peninsula. They had commercial dealings with Tyre, which they supplied with ivory, ebony, and “precious clothes for chariots” (Eze 27:15, Eze 27:20). This trade they carried on by means of large caravansthe “travelling companies” of the present passage. They are thought to have had their chief settlements on the shores of the Persian Gulf, where the island of Dadan may be an echo of their name.
Isa 21:14
The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water; rather, bring? water, O inhabitants. Tema is reasonably identified with the modern Taima, a village of the Hauran, on the caravan route between Palmyra and Peira. Its inhabitants are exhorted to bring water to the thirsty Dedanites, as they pass along this route with their “travelling companies.” (For other mentions of Tome, which must not be confounded with Teman, see Job 6:19 and Jer 25:23.) They prevented with their bread him that fled. Several commentators take this clause as imperative, like the last, and render, “With his bread meet the fugitive;” but the existing Hebrew text seems to require the rendering of the Authorized Version. Dr. Kay understands the prophet to mean that the men of Tema did not need exhortation; already of their own accord had they given of their bread to the fugitive Dedanites.
Isa 21:15
For they fled; rather, they have fled. The Dedanites have been attacked with sword and bow, and have fled from their assailants. Probably the enemy was Assyria, but no trace of the war has been found on the Assyrian monuments.
Isa 21:16
Within a year, according to the years of an hireling (see the comment on Isa 16:14). All the glory of Kedar shall fail. “Kedar” is a name of greater note than either Dedan or Tome. It seems to be used here as inclusive of Dedan, perhaps as a designation of the northern Arabians generally. The people of Kedar, like those of Dedan, carried on trade with Tyro (Eze 27:21). They dwelt partly in tents (Psa 120:5; Jer 49:29), partly in villages (Isa 42:11), and were rich in flocks and herds and in camels. Though not mentioned in the inscriptions of Sargon, Sennacherib, or Esarhaddon, the contemporaries of Isaiah, they hold a prominent place in those of Esarhaddon’s son and successor, Asshurbanipal, with whom they carried on a war of some considerable duration in conjunction with the Nabathaeans.
HOMILETICS
Isa 21:3, Isa 21:4
The sadness of a nation’s overthrow.
A nation is God’s creation, no less than an individual. And it is a far more elaborate work. What forethought, what design, what manifold wisdom, must not have been required for the planning out of each people’s national character, for the partitioning out to them of their special gifts and aptitudes, for the apportionment to each of its place in history, for the conduct of each through the many centuries of its existence! It is a sad thing to be witness of a nation’s demise. Very deeply does Isaiah feel its sadness. His “loins are filled with pain;” the pangs that take hold of hint are “as the pangs of a woman that travaileth;” he is “so agonized that he cannot hear,” “so terrified that he cannot look” (verse 3). “His heart flutters,” like a frightened bird; terror overwhelms him; he cannot sleep for thinking of the dread calamity; “the night of his pleasure is turned into fear.” The sadness of such a calamity is twofold. It consists
(1) in the fact;
(2) in the circumstances.
I. THE SADNESS OF THE FACT. We mourn an individual gone from ushow much more a nation! What a blank is created! What arts and industries are not destroyed or checked! What possibilities of future achievement are not cut off! Again, an individual is only removed; he still exists, only in another place. But a nation is annihilated. It has but one life. There is “no healing of its bruise” (Nah 3:19), no transference of it to another sphere. From existence it has passed into nonexistence, and nothing can recall it into being. It is like a sun extinguished in mid-heaven.
II. THE SADNESS OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES. The end of a nation comes necessarily by violence, from within or from withoutfrom without most commonly. A fierce host invades its borders, spreads itself over its fertile fields, tramples down its crops, exhausts its granaries, consumes its cattle, burns its towns and villages, carries everywhere ruin and desolation. Wanton injury is added to the injury which war cannot but inflictfruit-trees are cut down (Isa 16:8), works of art are destroyed, good land is purposely “marred with stones” (2Ki 3:10). And if inanimate things suffer, much more do animate ones. Beasts of burden are impressed and worked to death; horses receive fearful wounds and scream with pain; cattle perish for want of care; beasts of prey increase as population lessens, and become a terror to the scanty remnant (2Ki 17:25). Not only do armed men fall by thousands in fair fight, but (in barbarous times) the unwarlike mass of the population suffers almost equally. “Every one that is found is thrust through, and every one that is joined to them is slain by the sword” (Isa 13:15). Even women and children are not spared. Virgins and matrons are shamefully used (Isa 13:16); children are ruthlessly dashed to the ground (Isa 13:16; Psa 137:9); every human passion being allowed free course, the most dreadful excesses are perpetrated. No doubt in modern times civilization and Christianity tend to alleviate in some degree the horrors of war; but in a war of conquest, when the destruction of a nationality is aimed at, frightful scenes are almost sure to occur, sufficient to sadden all but the utterly unfeeling. It should be the earnest determination of every Christian to endeavor in every possible way to keep his own country free from the guilt of such wars.
Isa 21:11, Isa 21:12
Half-hearted turning to God of no avail.
There are many who, in the hour of distress, turn to God and his ministers with the question, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?” They are anxious to be assured that the dark time of their trouble is well-nigh over, and light about to dawn upon their horizon. And they so far believe in God’s ministers as to think that they can, better than others, give them an answer to their question. Accordingly, they importune their clergymen with such inquiries as these: “Will this sickness, or the effect of this accident, or this time of slack work, last long? Is there likely to be much more of it? Or may we look to be free from our trouble speedily?” To such the “watchman” had best answer with some reserve, or even with some obscurity, so far as he gives any direct answer at all to their questions. “The trouble will no doubt pass in timeit may be sooner, it may be later; God only knows the times and the seasons which he has put in his own power.” But he may take the opportunity of the inquiry to give a very clear lesson. “If ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come;” that is to say, “Be not half-hearted, beat not about the bush. If ye throw yourselves upon God for one purpose, do so for every purpose; look to him, not for an answer to one inquiry only, but for everything. Return to himcome.” “The Spirit and the Bride” are always saying, “Come” (Rev 22:17). Christ himself has said, most emphatically, Come (Mat 11:28). If they return and come, they will be no longer Edom, but Israel; no longer aliens and strangers, but “fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God” (Eph 2:19). Let the cry, then, be sounded in their ears unceasingly, “Return, come.”
Isa 21:15
The grievousness of war.
The grievousness of war is especially felt in defeat. Kedar was the most turbulent of the sons of Ishmael (Gen 25:13). “His hand” like that of his father, “was against every man, and every man’s hand against him” (Gen 16:12). So long as his “mighty men,” armed with their formidable bows, could ravage and plunder the inhabitants of more peaceable districts at their pleasure, and carry off plenty of spoil to their fastnesses in the rocky parts of the desert (Isa 42:11), the “grievousness of war” was not felt. Rather, “the inhabitants of the rock sang, and shouted from the top of the mountain” (Isa 42:11). But at length the tide of battle had turned. Kedar was itself attacked, invaded, plundered. The “drawn sword” and the “bent bow” of the men of Asshur were seen in the recesses of Arabia itself, and the assailants, becoming the assailed, discovered, apparently to their surprise, that war was a “grievous” thing. Does not history “repeat itself?” Have we not heard in our own day aggressive nations, that have carried the flames of war over half Europe or half Asia, complain bitterly, when their turn to be attacked came, of the “grievousness” of invasion? The Greeks said, “To suffer that which one has done, is strictest, straitest right;” but this is not often distinctly perceived by the sufferers. It is only “God’s ways” that are “equal;” man’s are apt always to be “unequal” (Eze 18:25).
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Isa 21:1-10
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 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 himBabylon 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, Mic 4:13; 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 thingshints 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.
Isa 21:11, Isa 21:12
The watchman.
I. THE CALL FROM SEIR. The Edomites are asking, “Will the light soon dawn? What hour is it?” Like the sick man tossing on his bed, they long for the first tidings that the night of tribulation is past.
II. THE ENIGMATIC ANSWER. “Morning cometh, and also night.” There were “wise men” in Edom, and probably the answer is couched in the style they loved. What does it mean? We can but conjecture. It may mean that the coming light of prosperity and joy is soon to be quenched in the night of calamity again. Or, the dawn of joy to some will be the night of despair to others. “When the morning comes, it will still be night” (Luther). Even if morning dawns, it will be swallowed up again immediately by night. And in what follows, also obscure, seems to be a hint that only in case of Edom’s conversion can there be an answer of consolation and of hope. The design may be
(1) “to reprove them for the manner in which they had asked the question;
(2) to assure them that God was willing to direct humble and serious inquiries;
(3) to show in what way a favorable answer could be obtained, viz. by repentance.”
III. APPLICATION.
1. Historical. “History was quite in accord with such an answer. The Assyrian period of judgment was followed by the Chaldean, the Chaldean by the Persian, the Persian by the Grecian, and the Grecian by the Roman. Again and again there was a glimmer of morning dawn for Edom (and what a glimmer in the Herodian age!); but it was swallowed up directly by another night, until Edom became an utter Dumah, and disappeared from the history of nations.” Herod the Great, “King of the Jews,” was son of Autipater of Edom, who became procurator of Judaea. Under the Mussulman rule in the seventh century A.D; the cities of Edom fell into ruin, and the laud became a desolation (comp. Eze 35:3, Eze 35:4, Eze 35:7, Eze 35:9, Eze 35:14). The famed rock-built city of Petra was brought to light in our own time by Burckhardt, 1812.
2. General. The prophetic outlook upon the world at any epoch is of the same general character. Night struggles with morning in the conflicts and changes of nations, in the controversies of truth with error. In the closing chapters of St. Matthew’s Gospel we do not find a prospect of unmingled brightness, very far from it. Christianity will call into existence vast organized hypocrisies; the shadow attends closely upon the light. At the conversion of the empire under Constantine, at the Reformation, etc; “the morning came, and also night.” History pursues a spiral line; old errors return, decayed superstitions revive; then again the day breaks. And so with the individual; the light we gain at happy epochs must yield to fresh doubts or fears, again to be dispelled by redawning faith. Such is the condition of our life; we dwell in the chiaroscuro, the twilight of intuition; we “see as in a glass, enigmatically.” But hope and endeavor remain to us; and the looking forward to the everlasting light of Jehovah, the glory of God, the rising of the sun that shall no more go down; the end of mourning; the “one day” that shall be neither day nor night; the evening time when it shall be light (Isa 60:19, Isa 60:20; Zec 14:7).J.
Isa 21:13-16
The tribes of Arabia.
I. THE FATE OF THE DEDANITES. Their caravans must hide in the thorn-bushes away from the beaten track. These Dedanites belong to Edom (Jer 49:8; Eze 25:13). They were merchants, and among others traded with wealthy Tyre (Eze 27:15). And probably the meaning is that when on their way from Tyre they would be compelled to camp in the desert, because of the wide spreading war from north to south.
II. THE SYMPATHY OF THE PROPHET. He calls the people of Tema to supply the thirsty and hungry fugitives with water and with bread. Tema lay on the route between Palmyra and Petra. The tribe was among the descendants of Ishmael. In these sad scenes the light of human kindness in the heart of the prophet, reflected in the picture of Temanite hospitality, shines forth.
“These are the precious balsam-drops
That woeful wars distil.”
Hospitality is still found in generous flow among the Arabs of these regions, and reminds the wayfarer how near God is to man in the most desolate places. Wherever there is a loving human heart, there indeed is a fount and an oasis in life’s desert. And this scene reminds us how good comes out of evil, even the bitterest; the sight of the flying warriors, showing the bent bow and the wave of war, touches the spring of sympathy and mercy in yonder wild hearts.
III. THE PROPHECY OF DOOM. In a year, “as the years of a hireling,” i.e. swiftly, certainly, without delay, and without time of grace, Kedar’s glory shall be at an end, the powerful tribes of nomad archers will be reduced to a remnant. Those tents, “black but comely,” of which the bard of the Canticles sang (Son 1:5), those splendid flocks, and the famed “rams of Nebaioth,” shall disappear, or melt down to a fraction of the former numbers. So again the night sets on Edom, after a brief dawn.
IV. THE WORD OF THE GOD OF ISRAEL.
1. These events were to happen by Divine appointment.
2. The God of Israel is the true God.
Let us take the saying to heart, amidst all that is most saddening in the fates of nations and institutions, “God hath done it, God hath said it.” The true God who revealed himself to the fathers, and manifested himself to men in Christ, is the Being whose will is made known in the course of history. And amidst his heaviest punishments we have this consolation, that he chastises gently, and does not “give men over to death” (Psa 118:18). J
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM
Isa 21:11
A momentous question.
“Watchman, what of the night?” This is the question which ever occupies earnest minds. That the darkness of sin is here wise men note, without wasting metaphysical thought upon the how or why. Here is sin. On that all are agreed. Is there salvation too?
I. PROPHETIC VISION. Isaiah sees. Far away on the world’s horizon he beholds a rising light; and, in anticipation of that, he himself is permitted to reveal truths which shall brighten the darkness of Israel. All deliverance is a prophecy of the great Deliverer; all returnings of Israel are foreshadowings of that day when to Christ shall the gathering of the people be.
II. PROPHETIC DECLARATION. “The morning cometh.” Always a musical note that. To the sufferer in the chamber of affliction, longing for the first beams of day; to the dismantled ship out far away on the melancholy sea; to the oppressed people waiting for deliverance; to the idolatrous Israel in returning to the true and living God. “The morning cometh.” A thought to be meditated on in all long and weary nights of disappointment, disaffection, doubt, and trial. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Patience, poor heart! The morning cometh to the penitent Peter and the doubtful Thomas. “The morning cometh.” Not for Israel only, bat for the world. The nations that sat in darkness have seen a great light. Isaiah was right.
III. PROPHETIC COUNSEL. “If ye will inquire, inquire ye.” But do more than that. “Return, come.” This is the condition on which the morning glory rests. “Return.” Give up your love of darkness, and “come.” God waits to forgive and bless. “Come.” The curiosity of inquiry may belong to mere intellectual states of being. The return of the soul means a great moral change. We must feel the truth of these words, “The morning cometh, and also the night.” For the morning will be no morning unless the veil of night is taken away from our hearts.W.M.S.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Isa 21:1-9
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” (Isa 21:5). 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, Act 12:23; Luk 12:20)!
2. The completeness of their downfall. “Babylon is fallen, is fallen“ (Isa 21:9)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.
3. 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).
4. 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 worldlinesswhich are idolatry in modern formmust 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” (Isa 21:2). He was even “bowed down at the hearing of it,” “dismayed at the seeing of it” (Isa 21:3). 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.
Isa 21:10
Tribulation.
There is no little tenderness in this Divine address or invocation; it reminds us that God’s love may be set upon us when there seems least reason to think so if we judge of his feeling by our outward circumstances. We think naturally of
I. TRIBULATION. The instrument by which corn was threshed (tribula) has given us the word with which we are so familiar. To some it speaks of long-continued sickness, or weakness, or pain; to others of depressing disappointment; to others of bereavement and consequent desolation; to others of loss and the inevitable struggle with poverty; to others of human frailty or even treachery and of the wounded spirit which suffers from that piercing stroke. The heart knows its own bitterness, and every human soul has its own peculiar story to tell, its own especial troubles to endure. But this human suffering is only appropriately called tribulation when it is recognized that the evil which has come is sent (or allowed) of God as Divine chastening, when it is understood that the Divine Father takes a parental interest in the well-being of his children, that he is seeking their highest good, and that he is passing his threshing-instrument over “his floor” in the exercise of a benign and holy discipline.
II. SEPARATION. When the “tribula” passed over the reaped corn it separated the valuable grain from the worthless chaff; one was then easily distinguishable from the other. Sorrow, persecution, trial, tribulation, is a “discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Before it comes, the genuine and the pretentious may be mingled indistinguishably; after it has come, it is apparent who are the loyal and true disciples, and who are they that have nothing but “the name to live.” We cannot be sure of “the spirit of our mind” or the real character of others until we, or they, have been upon the threshing-floor, and the Divine instrument of threshing has done its decisive and discriminating work. It comes, like Christ himself, “for judgment;” and then many who were supposed not to see are found to have a true vision of God and of his truth, while many who have imagined that they saw have been found to be blind indeed (see Joh 9:39).
III. SYMPATHY. Israel in Egypt may have thought itself unpitied and even forgotten of God; but it would have been wrong in so thinking (Exo 3:7). The Jews in Babylon may have imagined themselves disregarded of Jehovah; but they were mistaken if they so thought. “O my threshing,” etc; exclaims the sympathetic voice of the Lord. When we are tempted to bewail our unpitied and forgotten condition, we must check ourselves as the psalmist had to do (Psa 73:1-28.), or we shall be unjust and even ungrateful; “for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.” The mark of tribulation is the sign of parental love and care.
IV. PREPARATION. The process of threshing prepared the corn for the granary, and so for the table, and thus for the fulfillment of its true function. When God stretches us on his floor and makes us undergo the process of tribulation, it is that we may be refined and purified; that we may be made “meet for his use” both on earth and in heaven; that we may be prepared for such higher work and such nobler spheres as we should have remained unfitted for, had he not subjected us to the treatment which is “not joyous but grievous” at the time.C.
Isa 21:11, Isa 21:12
Taunt, retort, and overture.
1. We take this to be a bitter taunt on the part of the Idumaean. “Watchman,” he says, “what of this long night of national calamity through which you are passing? Where is the God of David, of Josiah, and of Hezekiah? What about those promises of Divine deliverance which have been your trust,” etc.?
2. Then we have the calm retort of the prophet. He says, “‘The morning cometh.’ You may see nothing but darkness; but to me, on my watch-tower, there are apparent the grey streaks of dawn. I see afar off, but approaching, a glorious deliverance and returna repopulated city, rebuilt walls, a reopened temple, a rehonored sabbath, a regenerate and a rejoicing people. ‘The morning cometh, and also the night: ‘to us the morning, to you the night. The sun that shines on you is a setting sun; it is sloping to the west. The dark pall of defeat, captivity, destruction, will soon veil your skies; you have little reason to triumph. We are down, but we are moving up; you are up, but you are moving down.”
3. And then comes the prophet’s overture. “I do not want,” he says, “to gain a barren victory of words. If you will approach me in the spirit, not of mockery, but of inquiry, really wishing to know the mind of God, I will reply to your question. ‘If ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come.'” As the scoffing Idumaean thus assailed the Jewish Church, so the skeptical European assails the Christian Church, and we have
I. THE TRIUMPHANT TAUNT OF THE SCOFFER. “What,” says the scoffer, “of this long night through which the Church is passing? Eighteen centuries have gone since Jesus Christ declared that his cross would attract all men unto him; but barbarism is still found on island and continent, idolatry still prevails among the millions of Asia, corrupt Christianity still deludes the peoples of Europe, and infidelity, immorality, crime, and ungodliness still hang, like angry clouds, over ‘Christian England.’ What about this long night of Christendom?” Similarly the hostile critic speaks concerning the individual Christian life. “What of this long night of protracted sickness, of unsuccessful contest with financial difficulties, of undeserved dishonor, of repeated losses in the family circle by death, etc.?”
II. THE CALM RETORT OF THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. He says, “‘The morning cometh.’ Barbarism is steadily disappearing before Christian civilization; superstition is being honeycombed by doubt; unbelief is finding itself unsatisfied with its hollow husks; earnest, practical religion is making its attack, by a hundred agencies, on immorality and irreligion; the Churches of Christ are putting on strength, and there is a sound of victory in the air, there are streaks of morning light in the sky. On the other hand, there are signs that overthrow and utter discomfiture will overtake and overwhelm the unholy doubts of the scoffer. To the oppressed Christian man, even though weeping should endure for the whole night of this mortal life, ‘joy cometh in the morning’ of the everlasting day.”
III. THE OVERTURE OF THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. He does not content himself with an effective retort. His mission is not to silence, but to convince and to help. He knows that beneath the sneer is doubt or disbelief, and this is too serious and too sad a thing to be left unanswered. So he says, “If you will ‘inquire,’ do inquire. Come into the court of inquiry with a candid, honest spirit; do not delude yourself by holding up one or two modern objections before your eyes and declaring that there is nothing to be seen. Take into account all the evidenceof prophecy; of miracle; of the life, character, truth, works, of Jesus Christ; of the effects of his gospel on the world, on human hearts, homes, lives; on man, on woman, on the slave, the poor, the prisoner, etc. Set against this what has to he considered on the other side, and then decide whether this redemption in Jesus Christ is not from heaven. Or, again, if you have any serious doubts as to the efficacy of true piety and its actual worth to a man as he goes through life, inquire; but take heed of whom you inquire. Ask of one who has had large and varied experience of life; ask of one who has seen much of men, in whom men have trusted and who knows the thoughts of their hearts; take the testimony of men to whom religion has been not a mere name, or a mere ceremony, but a solid conviction and a living power; and you will find, on such fair inquiry, that it is not only a stay and succor, but is the mainstay and the strength of the human soul in the labors and conflicts of life.”C.
Isa 21:13-17
Our ills and their remedies.
In this “burden” upon Arabia we may detect a picture or, at least, find a suggestion of
I. THE ILLS TO WHICH FLESH IS HEIR.
1. Being turned out of our course. The caravans of Dedan are obliged to forsake their track and find refuge in the forests or stony retreats of the desert (Isa 21:13). Continually are we compelled to change our route as travelers along the road of life. We mark out our course and set out on our way, but the irresistible obstacle is confronted and we are obliged to deviate into some other track, or wait in hope until the hindrance be removed.
2. Being straitened for the necessities of life. The refugees are reduced to such straits that they are glad to receive the bread and water which “the inhabitants of the land of Tema” bring (Isa 21:14). Though God has made this earth to be large and bountiful enough for a vastly greater population thou even now exists upon it, yet, chiefly owing to human folly or iniquity, though sometimes to misfortune, men are reduced to such extreme hardship that the common necessaries are beyond their reach. Between this exigency and the condition of competence, how many degrees of want, and how many thousands of the children of want, are there to be found!
3. Being assailed and pursued by the enemies of our spirit. (Isa 21:15.) There are adverse powers from beneaththe “principalities and powers” of the kingdom of darkness; there are hostile powers that are around usunprincipled and ungodly men, evil practices and harmful institutions in society; but our worst foes are those which are “of our own household,” those that are within the chambers of our own soulsbad habits, evil propensities, those inclinations toward folly and sin which pursue us even when the main battle has been fought and won.
4. Finding our life oppressive and burdensome to us. “According to the years of a hireling” (Isa 21:16). The time thus counted is reckoned with extreme carefulness; there is no danger that a single day will be left untold. The hireling is impatient for the time to be past that he may lay down the yoke and receive his wage. How many are there to whom life is so much of a burden, who are so oppressed by toil, or weighed down with care, or overwhelmed by sorrow, that they look gladly, if not eagerly, forward to its evening hour, when the night of death will release them from their struggle!
5. Being distinctly and at length fatally enfeebled. “The glory of Kedar shall fail,” the bowmen and the mighty men “be diminished” (Isa 21:16, Isa 21:17). Up to a certain point human life means, not only enjoyment, but increase; from that point it means diminutionat first unconscious, but afterwards sensible and painful; at length fatal diminutionin the capacity for enjoyment, in intellectual grasp, in physical endurance, in force of character. The glory of life goes; the faculties of soul and of body are palpably diminished; death draws near. Bat we may take into our view
II. DIVINELY PROVIDED REMEDIES.
1. Pursuing the straight path to the goal which is set before us, from which no enemy need make us turn aside.
2. Trusting in the faithful Promiser.
3. Hiding in the pavilion of Divine power, and securing the mighty aid of the Divine Spirit.
4. Seeking and finding the comfort of the Holy Ghost.
5. Awaiting the immortal youth of the heavenly land.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Isa 21:2
Nations working out God’s providences.
The reference of this “burden“ is to Babylon, which was the successor to Assyria in executing the Divine judgments on the Jews. Babylonia is called “the desert of the sea,” as a poetical figure, suggested by the fact that its surging masses of people were like a sea-desert; or because it was a flat country, and full of lakes, like little seas. It was abundantly watered by the many streams of the river Euphrates. The prophet, writing when Babylon was the rising and triumphing nation, sees in vision her terrible fall and humiliation. Which siege of Babylon he refers to cannot be assured, but much can be said for Cheyne’s suggestion, that the depression under which Isaiah writes is best explained by referring the vision to the first siege of Babylon, when Merodach-Baladan was king, whose interests were in harmony with those of Hezekiah, and whose humiliation Isaiah would regard as injurious to Judah. Watching the movements of these several nations, Assyria, Babylonia, Elam, Media, Judah, we meditate on
I. RIGHT IDEAS OF GOD‘S PROVIDENCE. We do not speak of providence so freely as our fathers did, because we have less impressive views of the Divine rule and control. As Dr. Bushnell expresses it, “our age is at the point of apogee from all the robuster notions of the Divine Being.” We are more interested in the ordinary workings of Law, than in the continuous adjustments and qualifications of Law by the ever-pre-siding Lawgiver. Yet, if our eyes were opened, we might see manifest signs of what our fathers called “providence” in the personal, the family, and the national spheres of today. The proper idea of providence may be thus expressedit is God using for moral purposes commonplace events, and therefore adjusting, arranging, and fitting together those events. Providence ordering or controlling the nations is “God in history.” And the illustrations of Divine overruling which we see in the large spheres of the world-kingdoms, are designed to convince us of the reality of that overruling in the small details of our personal life.
II. THE PROVIDENTIAL DISTINGUISHED FROM THE MIRACULOUS. The distinction is in our apprehension; we cannot conceive of the distinction as recognized by God. As by the “providential” we mean God intervening to readjust the usual order of material events, it is plain that sometimes he may use forces with which we are familiar, and then we call his working “providential;” but at other times he may use forces with which we are unfamiliar, and then we call his working “miraculous.” There need be no difficulty in recognizing resources in God beyond what he has been pleased to explain to man. God has not exhausted himself in making revelations to man. If we could see clearly we should see that “providential” and “miraculous” are convertible terms.
III. THE RELATION OF PROVIDENCE TO MORAL LAW. This may be put into a sentence. It is the executor of its sanctions. The rewards of obedience and the penalties of disobedience are not things deferred until some yet far-distant day. They are continually operating in all spheres, private and public. Ann what we call “providence” is the agency in their distribution. But our “providence” differs from “fate,” or the pagan conception of the “furies,” because it is the working of an infinitely wise and good Being, who acts upon comprehensive knowledge and sound judgment.
IV. THE RELATION OF PROVIDENCE TO NATIONS. Here we take one single point. Nations have a corporate life, so they are, as it were, individuals, with a distinct individual character and action. Just as God uses the individual man for his purposes, so he uses the individual nation. For the characteristics of nations, see Greece, Rome, Germany, France, etc. The natural expression of a nation’s character or genius becomes the providential agency for carrying out God’s purposes. Illustrate the conquering genius of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar doing God’s work in the destruction of the kingdom of Judah. The fact that a nation employed as an executor is still in God’s control, is shown in God’s judging that nation for evils that become manifest in its doing of that executive work. Efficient illustrations may be found in the movements and enterprises of the European nations during the last century.R.T.
Isa 21:3
Sympathy of bodies with distress of mind.
The prophet is only seeing in a vision something that is going to happen by-and-by. But the scene presented to him is so terrible that he cannot exult in it, though it is the overthrow of an enemy’s city. He is deeply distressed, and the mental anguish finds its response in acutest bodily pains. The “loins” are referred to in Scripture as the seat of the sharpest pains (Eze 21:6; Nah 2:10). The most familiar illustration of the sympathy between body and mind is the expression of mental emotion by tears. Ministers and public speakers know, from bitter experience, how nervous excitement stands related to sharp bodily pain and serious bodily depression. The connection may be seen in Job, in Hezekiah, in the Apostle Paul, and in David, who, with vigorous poetical figures describes the bodily distress which accompanied his months of restraining himself, in his hardness and impenitence: “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day tong.”
I. SOUL AND BODY ARE KIN. Our normal condition is the perfect harmony of the two, so that the soul only uses the body for good and right purposes; and the body responds perfectly to all the demands which the soul makes upon it. Combat the idea that the body is evil, or that evil lies in matter, and so our great effort should be to get free of our bodies. The true triumph is to win the use of our body, or, as the Apostle Paul puts it, to get “the body for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”
II. BODY MAY MASTER SOUL. This is the abnormal condition into which men have passed. They are practically ruled by “sensations” which dominate the will, and so the mass of men are merely animated bodies, in whom the soul is silenced and crushed. Illustrate by the demoniacs in our Lord’s time, in whom the man was crashed by the vice.
III. SOUL SHOULD CONTROL BODY. This is the recovered normal condition and relation; and to energize the soul unto a full and efficient mastery and use of the body is precisely the work of the Divine redemption. The indwelling Spirit of God is a new life for the soul, in the power of which it may overcome the body and the world.R.T.
Isa 21:9
The work of the iconoclast.
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the images of its gods he hath broken unto the ground.” Recent researches have disclosed the fact that there were three sieges of Babylon during the time of Isaiahin B.C. 709 by Sargon, and in 703 and 691 by Sennacherib. Mr. George Smith, writing of the last of these three sieges, says, “Babylon was now wholly given up to an infuriated soldiery; its walls were thrown down, its temples demolished, its people given up to violence and slavery, the temples rifled, and the images of the gods brought out and broken in pieces.” Herodotus is our authority for the supposed aversion of the Medes and Persians to all images. “They not only thought it unlawful to use images, but imputed folly to those who did so.” But modern researches do not confirm the statement of Herodotus, and we need see in the destruction of the Babylonian idols no more than the signs of a humiliating and overwhelming conquest. Cyrus has been hitherto regarded as a Persian and monotheist; it is now argued that he was an Elamite and a polytheist. Illustrating the subject, we note
I. SOME MEN‘S LIFE–WORK IS BUILDING UP. They make businesses; they found families; they start theories; they commence organizations; they build churches; they initiate societies. Such men are full of schemes. Moses founds a nation. David organizes a kingdom. Paul establishes a Christian society in the Gentile world. Wesley begins a sect.
II. SOME MEN‘S LIFE–WORK IS KEEPING UP. They cannot begin. They are not fertile in resources. Initial difficulties crush them. But quiet perseverance, good faithful work, enables them well to sustain what others have begun.
III. SOME MEN‘S LIFE–WORK IS BREAKING DOWN. As was Carlyle’s. He broke down society shams, and conceits and hypocrisies of modern thought. So Mahomet broke down corrupt Christianity. The skeptic is an iconoclast; but he breaks down for the pleasure of breaking down. The critic is an iconoclast; but he only attacks the evil. The reformer must often be an iconoclast; but he breaks down only that he may rebuild. Sometimes things reach such a pass that they cannot be reformed, and then “destruction cometh from the Lord,” whatever agents he may use; as in the old world, Sodom, captivity of Israel, destruction of Babylon, etc.R.T.
Isa 21:10
God’s people threshed and winnowed.
Isaiah was familiar with the threshing and winnowing processes, and what was in his mind may be presented to ours. In the East, the threshing-floor is prepared upon some level spot, on high ground. The soil is beaten hard, clay is laid over it and rolled; this soon dries in the heat of the sun, and makes a firm clean floor. Sometimes horses or oxen, tied together and led round in a circle, tread out the corn-grains; but the more general plan is to use a sort of sled made of thick boards, four or five feet in length, with many pieces of flint or iron set firmly in the wood of the under surface. This is drawn over the sheaves, as they are laid on the threshing-floor, by a pail’ of oxen. The winnowing is done by throwing up the heap with a largo shovel, so that the wind may separate the lighter chaff from the heavier grain. The familiar word “tribulation,” it will be remembered, is taken from the Latin word tribulum, a heavy threshing-roller. The comparison of severe oppression or affliction to threshing is a common one. We may work the figure out by sayingLife is God’s floor; his people are the corn laid upon it; dispensations of providence are the sharp threshing-instruments; but their Working only proves how anxious God is for the final good of his people; and over their separating and refining he anxiously and lovingly presides. The reference of the text is to Judah, suffering under Babylonian oppression. Isaiah sees the fall of Babylon, and he would gladly have reported that the success of its enemies would prove a permanent relief to Judah; but alas! he only sees more trouble, and heavier trouble still, in store for his country.
I. THRESHING AND WINNOWING ARE ALWAYS TRYING PROCESSES. They crush and cut and bruise; they seem to fling away as we fling away worthless things. And the answering providential dealings of God try faith, try patience, try endurance, try submission. They are trying only because they must be. No man would bruise his corn, if it could be separated from its husk in some simpler and easier way. When we think of the work God would do in usget the corn of goodness quite free from the husk of evilthen the wonder is that, even with such threshing-instruments of trouble, suffering, humiliation, disappointment, as he uses, he yet can accomplish so great a result. Only Divine grace can make such means adequate to such an end. On this dwell further.
II. THRESHING AND WINNOWING ARE PROCESSES HAVING A GRACIOUS END IN VIEW. That end is variously stated. It is “holiness;” it is our “sanctification;” it is knowing how rightly to use these “vessels of our bodies;” it is “likeness to Christ;” it is “meetness for the inheritance of the saints in the light;” it is the “liberty of righteousness.” God would have the grain clean, free from all chaff, or dust, or straw; it must be “meet for the Master’s use.” The ends of Divine threshing are the further ends sought by the Divine redemption. God forms a people for himself; by providential threshings and winnowings, he beautifies them for himself.
III. THE TRYING PROCESS MAY BE BORNE IF WE KEEP THE GRACIOUS END IN VIEW. “No affliction for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.” Yet does the child of God yield submissively, singing his restful refrain, and saying, “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” Even in view of further threshing-times, Judah may be quiet; they would but be God‘s threshings, with a view to final good.R.T.
Isa 21:11
The watchman’s response.
“Dumah,” meaning “silence,” is probably a mystical prophetic name for Edom. It seems that Edom was at this time in a condition of humiliation and depression that is well represented by the nighttime. As the night passes, Edom calls to Isaiah, as the prophet-watchman, asking how much longer the darkness is to last. Isaiah cannot return a comfortable and satisfying answer; he can only say, “If this night of trouble passes, it will but give place to another.” The prophet foresees a short day of prosperity followed by a new night of trouble. “The words sum up the whole future of Edom, subject as it was to one conqueror after another, rising now and then, as under Herod and the Romans, and then sinking to its present desolation.”
I. NIGHT–TIMES OF LIFE HAVE THEIR MISSION. They stand, in private life, for the times in which we are put aside from active work, compelled to rest. In national life they stand for the times in which national enterprise is checked by calamities, invasions, plagues, famines, etc. It is found that night has an important and necessary place in the economy of nature. Isaac Taylor has, in a very interesting way, proved that one or two absolutely dark nights in a year are essential to the well being of vegetation. Resting-times are important for individual growth, and national calamities are found to bear directly on the conquest of national evils and the culture of national virtues. We may thank God that in our moral life he never gives continuous day, but relieves the overstrain by recurring nights.
II. NIGHT–TIMES OF LIFE HAVE THEIR BELIEFS, There are the moon and stars to shine in them; and they presently give place to the “garish day.” Pain is never intense for more than a little while. The light of love and friendship and sympathy relieves the darkness of suffering. National calamities develop national unity and energy, that presently issue in national triumph and stability; as is well illustrated in Prussia’s night-time when she was humiliated by Napoleon I. Out of that night-lime came German unity, and the recovery of German territory. “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment.”
III. NIGHT–TIMES OF LIFE HAVE THEIR RETURNS. They are like the tunnels on some of our railways. We are scarcely out of one, and enjoying the open sky, the free air, and the sunshine, before we rush screaming into another. “If there be a morning of youth and health, there will conic a night of sickness and old age; if a morning of prosperity in the family, in the public, yet we must look for changes.” And such returns of trying experiences are so essential for our moral training, that it is the most serious calamity to an individual, or to a nation, that they should be spared then, “Because they have no changes, therefore they forget God.” “Moab hath been at case from his youth, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity; therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent hath not changed.” Only of the heavenly and the sinless world may it be said, “There is no night there.” These two thoughts may suggest an effective conclusion. No explanations can avail for more than just the piece of life now over us. We cannot know God’s meaning for us until the whole of life is before us, and we can fit together the missions of the darkness and the light. Well did our Lord quiet our restless desire to read the mystery of life by saying, “Ye shall know hereafter.” And David turned away from the mystery, saying, “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.” And nobody can ever know the meanings of a life if he fixes attention only on its nighttimes. They are the shades in the picture, necessary to bring out the picture, but they are not the picture. We must rise to the outlook of God, of whom it is said, “The darkness and the light are both alike to thee.”R.T.
Isa 21:15
The grievousness of war.
“For before the swords have they fled, before the drawn sword, and before the bent bow, and before the pressure of war.” The figures imply that the people are conquered, their camp or city taken, and they pursued and cut down by a relentless, blood-thirsty enemy. As this subject is a familiar one, and illustrations lie ready to hand, only divisions need be given. The grievousness of war may be shown.
I. IN THE SACRIFICES IT DEMANDS.
II. IN THE LIVES IT DESTROYS.
III. IN THE TREASURE IT WASTES. The Franco-German War of 1870 cost France 371, 000, 000, and Germany at least 47, 000, 000. The American Civil War cost 330, 000, 000. The Crimean War cost England 167, 000, 000.
IV. IN THE PASSIONS IT ENGENDERS,
V. IN THE NATIONAL ALIENATIONS IT LEAVES BEHIND,
VI. IN THE SUFFERINGS IT ENTAILS. In the Franco-German War, one hundred and thirty thousand soldiers died on the battle-fields or in the hospitals, and thousands more lost limbs and health. What a wail of sorrow from thousands of homes and hearts such facts bring to our ears!
VII. IN THE RESULTS IT SECURES. Which are usually most insignificant when compared with the expenditure and loss. Talk of the glory of war! The Bible reminds us how much wiser and how much truer it is to talk of its grievousness.R.T.
Isa 21:17
The security of the Divine Word.
“They shall, for the Lord God of Israel hath spoken it.” This sentence intimates that God, as the God of Israel, has a quarrel with Kedar, and at; the same time that his power and omniscience will secure the fulfillment of the threatening.
I. THE DIVINE FOREKNOWLEDGE. “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do;” “He knoweth the end from the beginning.” God may be pleased to leave man his freedom, and yet he may so know man, and each man, as to see beforehand how each wilt act in given circumstances; and the Divine plans can be based on such foreknowings and fore-estimatings.
II. THE DIVINE UTTERANCES ARE RASED ON SUCH FOREKNOWLEDGE. God may not be pleased to tell us all he knows, but we may have perfect confidence in what he tells. Revelation is limited, but it is absolutely true within its limitation, because based on complete, adequate knowledge.
III. TIME PROVES THE HARMONY OF THE UTTERANCE AND THE EVENTS. Because the utterance was made in full view of the event. To God the unexpected never happens, and his Word never fails. Men do, in their freedom, just exactly what God, surveying their work, anticipated that they would do. “He will let none of his words fall to the ground.”
IV. THE CONFIDENCE IN GOD‘S UTTERANCES INVOLVES THE PRACTICAL ORDERING OF OUR CONDUCT. This applies to prophetic anticipations; but how much more to announcements of ever-working principles! There are no exceptions to the great laws of righteousness, which are Jehovah’s Word to men. “God has said,” is enough for us, and it may shape out lives. It will come to pass, if the “Lord God of Israel hath spoken it.”R.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Isa 21:1. The burden of the desert of the sea. The sixth discourse contained in this chapter represents, under a mystical name, Babylon, (the rulers whereof made great desolations in the world, and much distressed many other nations as well as the Jews,) besieged and overthrown by the Medes and Persians, after a long and patient expectation hereof by the people of God; and that in the night, when the Babylonians were luxuriously enjoying themselves; an event most pleasing and joyful to the Jewish exiles: and hereto is subjoined the fate of the Edomites, and of the Arabians. It is not certain at what time this prophesy was delivered: but it seems most probable that it was delivered at the same time with that immediately preceding; that is, in the seventh year of king Hezekiah. It contains, first, an inscription, and secondly, the body of the prophesy; wherein we have, first, a prediction of the fall of Babylon, for its crimes committed against the people of God, Isa 21:1-5; secondly, an emblematical confirmation hereof; Isa 21:6-9; and thirdly, the conclusion, Isa 21:10. The desert of the sea, taken literally, signifies a vast tract of plain land, which is surrounded and sometimes overflowed with much water; but figuratively, a vast empire, which is sustained by a populous metropolis. It seems probable, that the prophet uses the expression here figuratively, and yet alludes to some analogous property of those countries which formed a principal part of the Babylonish dominions. See Eze 20:35 and Hos 2:14. Vitringa is of opinion, that the sea here alluded to was the Euphrates. See Jer 51:36. Zec 10:11 and Rev 17:3; Rev 17:15 where we find that St. John, when he was to see the spiritual Babylon, was carried into the Wilderness, where he beheld a woman sitting upon a scarlet-coloured beast, and that near many waters. See chap. Isa 14:23 and Vitringa.
As whirlwindsVer. 2. The spoiler spoileth. This prophesy has principally for its object the fall of Babylon; but, as the divine judgment against the Babylonians had sufficient foundation, the Holy Spirit, before he foretells the fate of Babylon, exhibits to the prophet, in vision, those grievous evils which the kings of Babylon should bring perfidioudly upon other nations, and principally upon the Jews; which done, in an extatic rapture, he calls upon the Medes and Persians to besiege and destroy Babylon. He sees, therefore, in a vision, Nebuchadnezzar moving with his forces from Babylon to subdue those people of Asia who refused his yoke, or had shaken it off; among whom were the Jews. He compares this prince, incited by rage and revenge, and armed with great power, to whirlwinds in the south, rushing with great force, and carrying away whatever opposed them: He beholds him like a southern tempest troubling Asia; promiscuously raging upon all who refuse to obey him; invading Jerusalem, impiously destroying the temple of the true God, and leading the remnant of his people into banishment; which revelation he calls a hard or grievous vision. So I understand these words, says Vitringa, after a long and most serious consideration; and, I think, rightly. Some understand them of Cyrus, to whom yet it is evident the words, the treacherous dealer, &c. cannot be applied. See Jer 4:6; Jer 7:11.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
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
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 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 (1323) 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 () 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 Isaiahs 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.
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A.Against Babylon
Isa 21:1-10
1The burden of the desert of the sea.
As whirlwinds in the south pass through;
So it cometh from the desert,
From a terrible land.
2A 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.
3Therefore 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.
42My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me;
3The night of my pleasure hath he 4 turned into fear unto me.
5Prepare the table,
Watch in the watch-tower,
Eat, drink;
Arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.
6For thus hath the Lord said unto me,
Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.
7And 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:
8And 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.
9And, 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.
10O 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. supply , 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 solenta 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. is the accusative depending on the transitive notion latent in the passive . The in (, in Isaiah besides only Isaiah 35:10, 11) is marked by the Masorets as , although the majority of the most correct codd. and editt. (see Gesen. and De Rossi on our place) have the Mappiq in the The sense is the same; for even the form with the quiescent denotes gemitus ejus for there is no absolute form . Respecting the feminine suffix without Mappiq, comp. Ewald, 247, d.
Isa 21:6. The article before (Mic 7:4) is the generic.
Isa 21:7. The primary signification of 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 is not the riding horse, but the chariot horse, and that it has this signification not immediately from the root , but per metonymiam from the derivative 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 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. marks everywhere only the activity of the ear and not attentive observation in general. is the simple accusative of the object et attendit attentionem magnam (compare Deu 13:2 , 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 burdenof 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 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 2Sa 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 Isa 21:13 (comp. as the second word of the text) and the 22:1 (comp. the same expression, Isa 22:5) seem to have been designated on the same principle. But although occurs in Isa 21:1, 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 is substituted for . But why should not 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 in the signification West, and giving this explanation of the whole expression, that Babylon is called because it lay west of Media and Persia, and a desert intervened (Kimchi). I see no reason why we should not explain the expression after the analogy of the expressions and . The title is therefore taken from Isa 21:1. But 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: (namely, previous to the erection of the dikes by Semiramis) . 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: , . Finally, it is of great weight that Babylonia is on the Assyrian monuments often designated simply as sea, sea-country, (tihamtu = , 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 (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 Isaiahs 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 whirlwindsland.
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 . 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 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 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 (comp. Herz.R. Encycl. XIVII. p. 304). The Prophet says therefore: as in the of Palestine storms coming from Arabia Petraea (Hos 13:15; Jer 4:11; Jer 13:24; Job 1:19; Zec 9:14) sweep along ( properly change, thence transire, Isa 8:8) so it comes upon Babylonia from a terrible land. 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 visionfear unto me.
Isa 21:2-4. The vision ( 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 to 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 and 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. or (Isa 17:14) would be less strange. I hold therefore with Drechsler that the words to 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 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 comp. on Isa 7:1) and besiege the city of Babylon ( 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 and . The genitive in , 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 (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 (in Isaiah only here; besides Nah 2:11; Eze 30:4; Eze 30:9),i.e., trepidatio, spasm in the loins. (with 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 ( the bowing downwards; in Isaiah besides only in Piel Isa 24:1) and trembles (Isa 13:8). Many interpreters take , 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 , 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 and 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. 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 (in Isaiah only here; besides Job 21:6; Psa 55:6; Eze 7:18) involves the notion of tottering, concussio (Job 9:6). Piel, a word of special frequency in Job, is used by Isaiah only here. This passage, then, by the words , and (comp. especially Job 21:6) reminds one strongly of the phraseology of the book of Job. 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 (desiderium, deliciae, in Isaiah only here, comp. 1Ki 9:1; 1Ki 9:19), is to him now a source of new disquietude ( 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 tablethe 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 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 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 in their obvious meaning (watching, to look out) they seem inappropriate. Other meanings have therefore been sought out from all quarters; they kindle the lampsthey clarify the winethey set the ranks in orderthey prepare carpets, etc. But means in Hebrew nothing else than speculari; and (which occurs only here, but with which , Lam 4:17, and , 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 hathbroken unto the ground. Isa 21:6-9. in the beginning of Isa 21:6 seems to be explicative. In fact the Isa 21:6-9 are related to the preceding 25 as an explanation and more particular description. If we could already from verses 25 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 . That would indicate only the duty of the watchman. But gives us to understand that he will really fulfil this duty. The perfects 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 ( is a collective, besides in Isaiah only, Isa 5:10, in the signification jugum; 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 . 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 lions 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 , 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 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 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 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 . 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 can be Jehovah. It can also be he who was Jehovahs instrument for this work, the conqueror of Babylon: Cyrus. This he who afterwards comes clearly and distinctly under his proper name into the Prophets field of vision, appears here still veiled as it were: 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 threshingunto 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. 4066 (for which other editions read ) is . . 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. 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 reminds one of such expressions as ,. 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 is stronger than . 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 Prophets 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.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
Here, are several burdens brought into one chapter in succession to each other: the burden of the Desert of the Sea; of Dumah, and of Arabia: but all in relation to God’s covenant people Israel.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Desert of the Sea can mean no other than Babylon; and the ruin of it is foretold by way of comforting God’s people in their captivity. It is blessed to observe, how beforehand the Lord is for his people, in laying in comforts again a time of tribulation; Elam and Media, that is, Persia and the Medes, were to conquer Babylon; and therefore, when the church in her captivity found that the Medians were come to besiege Babylon, the recollection of this prophecy might give them comfort: for in the ruin of Babylon, would be their deliverance. Dan 5:31 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Twilight and Trembling
Isa 21:4
You all know that the twilight is a great wizard. I do not know whether you have ever thought to analyse its subtle power. If you have, I think you will have found that the spell of the twilight lies quite as much in what it hides from us as in what it reveals. It casts a filmy veil of indistinctness over all things we see softening their hardness, dealing gently with their defects, making such beauty as they possess more suggestive and idealistic.
The twilight hour is the one merciful hour in the day the hour when there is just enough light to see by, but when criticism has to be suspended. This hour, one feels, is in the beautiful fitness of things. There is a sense in which the whole span of our human life is but the twilight hour that ushers in the bright eternal day. God has set a merciful limit to our seeing.
I. There is a twilight that God giveth, that God willeth a merciful limitation of light. But this is not the twilight of which the Prophet speaks. There is a twilight not of God’s willing but of man’s desiring, that brings the spirit of trembling into men’s lives. ‘The twilight that I desired.’ Here is the picture of a man who is afraid to look life in the face; who does not want to see things as they are. He wants to limit his own vision to see things less plainly. He is seized with a desire to shirk the responsibilities and pains of life’s larger knowledge. He is desirous for the moment of laying aside his powers of insight and discrimination and delicate judgment and keen appreciation of life’s ever-changing situation. He is willing to forgo the power of introspection.
The awful drama of pain and misery is being played out before our very eyes. We live in a suffering world. The outlook at times is unutterably pathetic, tragic, and saddening; and I am afraid that so long as these things do not cut their way into our own lives we try to ignore them, to live as if they were not.
II. The secret of quiet confidence in a world that furnishes us with the sight of so many sad things does not lie in shutting our eyes. That is the expedient of the cowardly and the faithless. It lies in looking at things as they are, and letting the sad vision force us back upon the mercy and power of God. If only we have the courage and faith to look into these things that pain the heart and try the spirit and lay rough hands on life’s sensitiveness, we shall learn more of the patience and tenderness of God than ever gladness alone could have taught us; and we shall find awaiting us among these things a ministry of help in the offering of which God shall perfect our hearts in the knowledge of Himself and the love of the brethren.
III. ‘The twilight that I desired hath been turned into trembling unto me.’ The man who shuns the light forfeits his own final peace of heart. He who refuses to face his worst forfeits the possibility of finding his best He does not solve the question of his sinfulness; he shelves it. It is there, gathering darker meaning and more bitter consequence. Every day twilight and trembling go together. You cannot build the house of peace on the foundation of self-deceit. Darkness hides wrong, but it does not alter it. There is no salvation among the shadows of moral delusion. There is no quietness in uncertainty. There are some who deliberately refuse to look at their own spiritual position their relation to God the Saviour and the kingdom of peace and the promise of life lest they should find it unsatisfactory. They live their lives in the vague hope that things will be well with them by and by. They do not desire anything more illuminating than the twilight of a hopeful speculation. That is, at the best, but an indefinite postponement of the day of trembling.
P. Ainsworth, The Pilgrim Church, p. 138.
References. XXI. 11. R. H. McKim, The Gospel in the Christian Year, p. 72. W. Landels, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. 1895, p. 133. E. M. Geldart, Echoes of Truth, p. 222. XXI. 11, 12. F. W. Farrar, ibid. vol. xlvii. 1895, p. 17. G. Campbell Morgan, ibid. vol. lxvi. 1904, p. 40. R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, vol. i. p. 19. D. Rowlands, The Cross and the Dice-Box, p. 217. W. C. Magee, Growth in Grace, p. 26. W. Laing, The Dundee Pulpit, 1872, p. 57. S. Cox, Expositions, p. 336. J. A. Craigie, The Country Pulpit, p. 31. XXI. 12. J. Milne, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxiv. 1903, p. 409.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
XXVII
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH
The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.
Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.
In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.
In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.
In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.
The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.
In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.
In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.
In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.
In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).
The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7
In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:
1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.
2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.
3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:
According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .
In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.
In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.
In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”
In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”
The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.
The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.
In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”
In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”
Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .
The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”
So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?
In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”
The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”
The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23
QUESTIONS
1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?
2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?
3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?
4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?
5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?
6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?
7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?
8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?
9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?
10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?
11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?
12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?
13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?
14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?
15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?
16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?
17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?
18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?
19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?
20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?
21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?
22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?
23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?
24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?
25. Where is the great invitation and promise?
26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?
27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?
28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?
29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?
30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?
31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XIV
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 6
Isaiah 13-23
This section is called “The Book of Foreign Prophecies,'” because it treats of the foreign nations in their relation to Judah and Israel.
There are ten foreign nations here mentioned, as follows: Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Ethiopia, Egypt, Dumah, Arabia, and Tyre, with second prophecies against Egypt, Ethiopia, and Babylon, and one thrown in against Israel, Judah) Jerusalem, and Shebna, each. This Shebna was probably a foreigner. He was to be degraded from his high office and Eliakim was to take his place.
The radical critics assign to this section a much later date because of the distinctly predictive prophecies contained in it. There is no question that it reflects the condition of Babylon long after the time of Isaiah, and unless one believes heartily in supernatural revelations, the conclusion that it was written much later than the time of Isaiah, is unavoidable. The author accepts it as a prophecy of Isaiah and holds tenaciously to the theory of the unity of the book.
In Isaiah 13-23 the prophet gives us a series of judicial acts on various surrounding peoples, each of whom embodied some special form of worldly pride or ungodly self-will. But Asshur-Babel was conspicuous above all the rest. After fourteen centuries of comparative quiet, she was now reviving the idea of universal empire, notwithstanding the fact that Nimrod’s ruined tower stood as a perpetual warning against any such attempt. This was the divine purpose, that God might use it for his own instrument to chastise, both the various Gentile races, and especially his own people, Israel. This was the “hand that is stretched out upon all the nations” (Isa 14:26 ), to break up the fallow ground of the world’s surface, and prepare it for the good seed of the kingdom of God. Not only are these chapters (Isaiah 13-23) thus bound together inwardly, but they are also bound together outwardly by a similarity of title. We cannot detach Isaiah 13-14 from what has gone before without injury to the whole series, because
1. It is only in these chapters that we have the full antithesis to the mighty overflowing of the Assyrian deluge in Isaiah 7-8, and Isa 10 .
2.Isa 12 is a fit introduction to Isaiah 13-14, in that the deliverance of Zion, so briefly alluded to in Isa 12 , requires a further view of the enemies’ prostration, which these chapters supply. In Isa 14:2-27 we find the song of triumph analogous to Exo 15 , rather than in Isa 12 .
3.Isa 14:27 seems to be a fit termination of the section which began with Isa 7:1 .
4. There are many verbal links that connect these chapters with the preceding chapters. For example, take Isa 10:25 and Isa 13:3 ; Isa 10:27 and Isa 13:5 ; Isa 9:18 and Isa 13:13 , et multa al.
5. The complete cutting off of Ephraim foretold in Isa 7 requires a fuller revelation of the divine purpose concerning Asshur-Babylon, as its counterpoise and this is found in Isaiah 13-14.
From Isa 14:28 we infer that this prophecy was written toward the end of Ahaz’s reign. At that time spiritual darkness had won the conquest of the whole world. The “lamp of God” was now dark in his tabernacle. Hoshea, king of Israel, was the vassal of Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and Ahaz had long ago surrendered himself to Tiglath-pileser. So the light of prophecy, with such a background, was very luminous now. Assyria was at this time at the height of her power, but Isaiah tells with distinctness that Assyria shall be broken in pieces in the Holy Land, and it is certain that Assyria received just such a blow in the defeat of Sennacherib’s army.
The prophet also saw the doom of Babylon, the city which was at this time the real center of the empire. He even mentions the instruments of the destruction, commencing with the Medes, who were not at this time an independent nation. Nothing can be more definite than Isaiah’s statements as to the absolute ruin of the “Golden City,” which prediction at the time must have seemed to violate all probability. Yet we have abundant evidence that it was all fulfilled, both regarding the nearer event of its capture by the Medes and also the ultimate desolation of its site.
The significant word with which each of these prophecies opens is the word “burden” which has here its original and ordinary meaning. This original meaning of the word seems to be supplied from 2Ki 9:25 , where it is used to mean the divine sentence on Ahab: “Jehovah laid this burden upon him.” The appropriateness of its use here is in the fact that the prophecy to which it is prefixed is usually denunciatory in character, and always so in Isaiah. It is easy to see that it here means a grievous threatening oracle. It is claimed by some that this word is used elsewhere in a good sense, as in Zec 12:1 and Mal 1:1 , but upon close examination of these passages in their connection it will be seen that they are denunciatory and that the word has its primary meaning in these instances also.
The reason that Babylon was given first consideration among the enemies of God’s people seems to be the fact that a divine revelation came to Isaiah at this early date (725 B.C.) showing that Babylon was to be the great enemy to be feared, as the ultimate destroyer of Judah and Jerusalem, the power that would carry the Jewish people into captivity. The main points of the denunciation against her are as follows:
1. The instruments of God’s destruction of Babylon are the far-away nations, which God himself will assemble for this work of destruction (Isa 13:2-5 ).
2. The vivid description of the sweeping devastation, which is all inclusive in the objects of its vengeance (Isa 13:6-16 ).
3. The Medes are named as the instruments to begin this work, and the permanent effects of the desolation to follow (Isa 13:17-22 ).
4. The reason for all this is God’s favor to Jacob who had been oppressed by these foreigners (Isa 14:1-2 ).
5. Israel’s parable of exaltation over Babylon reciting their oppressive work and God’s intervention which humbled Babylon and exalted Israel (Isa 14:3-20 ).
6. The final announcement of Babylon’s doom and the permanency of its desolation (Isa 14:21-23 ).
The prophecy against Assyria under this first burden consists of God’s oath of assurance to his people that his purpose already foretold concerning Assyria should stand. Babylon in the first part of the prophecy is presented as the most formidable enemy of God’s people, but it had not yet become so fearful then. But Assyria was their dread at this time. So Isaiah comes nearer home to meet their present need and assures them that they need not fear the Assyrian for God’s purpose concerning him should stand.
There are several things in this burden that call for special consideration:
1. In Isa 13:2-5 the prophet speaks of the mustering of the host to battle as if it were then in the process of assembling, indicating the vividness of it all to the prophet’s mind as present, though it was only a vision of the future.
2. In Isa 13:3 Jehovah speaks of his “consecrated ones,” clearly referring to the Medes and Persians. Now in what sense were they “consecrated ones”? It means that they were the instruments of his purpose, set apart for the specific work of executing his judgment. They were consecrated, or set apart, by the Lord for this work though they themselves were ungongcious of the function they performed. There are many illustrations of such use of men by the Lord recorded in the Scriptures, two notable examples of which are Cyrua and Caesar Augustus.
3. In Isa 13:10 there is a reference to the darkening of the heavenly luminaries. This is an expression of Nature’s sympathy with the Lord. When he is angry, the lights of the heavens grow dark, as at the crucifixion of our Lord, and as it will be at the end of the world. So it is often the case in the time of great judgments. There seems also to be a special fitness in the expression here in view of the importance attached to the signs of the heavenly bodies by the Chaldeans at this time.
4. The desolation described in Isa 13:20-22 is witnessed by every traveler of today who passes the site of this once glorious and proud Babylon.
5. In Isa 14:9-11 we have the glad welcome given to these Babylonians in their entrance into the lower spirit world. The inhabitants of this region are represented as rising up to greet and welcome these unfortunate Babylonians. The idea of personal identity and continued consciousness after death is here assumed by the prophet.
6. In Isa 14:12 there is a back reference to the fall of Satan who, before his fall, was called Lucifer. Here Babylon in her fall is represented as Lucifer) the bright star of the morning from heaven. Our Saviour refers to the incident of Satan’s falling also in Luk 10:18 , and we have a like picture of him in Rev 12:7-9 , all of which must be considered in the light of the analogue of Satan’s fall when he sinned and was cast out of heaven.
7. In Isa 14:25 Jehovah says he will “break the Assyrian in his land,” which refers to the destruction of Sennacherib’s host from which Assyria never recovered. In Isa 14:26 the Lord explains that Assyria was the hand that he had stretched out for chastisements upon the nations of the world as they were related to Judah and Israel.
The series of burdens from Isa 14:28-23:18 may be viewed as an unrolling of the “purpose concerning the whole earth,” just mentioned in Isa 14:26 . Though the prophet stands on his watchtower and turns his eye around to the different points of the horizon and surveys the relation in which each nation stands to the advancing judgment, his addresses to the nations must be thought of as chiefly meant for the warning and comfort of Israel, which had too often adopted the sins of those whom she was meant to sanctify.
The burden of prophecy against Philistia is a warning to Philistia, following closely upon the death of Tiglath-pileser which brought great rejoicing to Philistia, because they thought the rod that smote them was broken. The prophet here reminds them that out of the serpent’s root there would come forth the adder. In other words, there would arise from Assyria an enemy far more deadly than the one who had been cut off, and instead of being a mere serpent he would be a fiery flying serpent. The reference is, probably, to Sargon who took Ashdod, made the king of Gaza prisoner and reduced Philistia generally to subjection. At this time the poor of Israel would feed safely, but Philistia was to be reduced by famine and the remnant slain by the Assyrians who are here referred to as “a smoke out of the north.” Then God’s people will answer Philistia’s messengers that Jehovah had founded Zion and in her the afflicted would take refuge.
Some critics say that the bulk of the prophecy against Moab (Isa 15:1-16:12 ) is quoted by Isaiah from an earlier writer, and that he merely modified the wording and added a few touches here and there. To this we answer that speculations of this kind are in the highest degree uncertain and lead to no results of any importance whatever. What matters it whether Isaiah quoted or not? There is no proof that he did and it makes no difference if be did. The author will contend that Isaiah was the original author of these two chapters until the critics produce at least some proof that he quoted from an earlier author.
A brief outline of these two chapters is as follows:
1. A vivid picture of Moab’s overthrow (Isa 15 ).
2. Moab exhorted to flee to the house of David for shelter, but refuses to make the right use of his affliction (Isa 16:1-12 ).
3. A confirmation of the prophecy and its speedy fulfilment (Isa 16:13-14 ).
For the picture of Moab’s overthrow the reader may read Isa 15 . It is a vivid account of this overthrow and cannot be well improved upon.
In Isa 16:1-5 we have an exhortation to Moab to take refuge with the house of David. Perhaps there is here an implication that Moab is not safe in his relation to Israel but that there would be safety for him if he would take shelter under the wings of Judah. Anyhow, there is a promise to Moab that he might find shelter and security, if only he would comply with the conditions herein set forth. But the pride of Moab was the cause of his downfall, which was utterly complete and accompanied by great wailing (Isa 16:6-8 ).
The prophet was moved to pity and tears for Moab upon witnessing such desolation and sadness as should come to this people. No gladness, no joy, no singing, and no joyful noise was to be found in his borders (Isa 16:9-12 ). Such a prophetic sight of Jerusalem made Jeremiah the weeping prophet and moved the blessed Son of God to tears. “Your house is left unto you desolate” is the weeping wail of our Lord as he saw the sad fate of the Holy City.
The time set here by the prophet for the humiliation of Moab is exactly three years, strictly measured, as a hireling would measure the time for which he would receive his pay, the fulfilment of which cannot be determined with certainty because we do not have the exact date of the prophecy, nor do we know which one of the different invasions that would fulfil the conditions is really meant. Considering the date given in Isa 14:28 we may reasonably conclude that the date of this prophecy was in the first or second year of Hezekiah’s reign, and may have had its fulfilment by Shalmaneser, who besieged Samaria in the fourth year of the reign of Hezekiah, sending a detachment to these eastern parts of the country.
It is said that Damascus has been destroyed and rebuilt oftener than any other Eastern city. This may account for the fact that Damascus, treated so severely by Tiglath-pileser, was again in a position to attract the attention of Shalmaneser when he advanced against Samaria. In the time of Jeremiah the city had been rebuilt, but we do not hear of any more kings of Damascus.
The burden of prophecy against Damascus includes two prophecies concerning Israel and Judah and one concerning Ethiopia, and the main points of this prophecy are the ruin of Damascus (Isa 17:1-3 ) ; only a remnant left to Jacob who would look to Jehovah, because he had forgotten the God of his salvation (Isa 17:4-11 ) ; the multitude of the heathen invaders suddenly destroyed (Isa 17:12-14 ) ; Ethiopia’s interest in these movements, and her homage to Jehovah according to which she sends a present to him (Isa 18:1-7 ).
There are several things in this burden that need special attention:
1. The language referring to the overthrow of Damascus is not to be pressed too far. Damascus was besieged and temporarily destroyed, but it revived. See Jer 49:23-27 ; Eze 27:18 ; and the New Testament references. Damascus is still a city of importance.
2. In Isa 17:12-14 we have an account of the sudden destruction of the Assyrian army which was literally fulfilled in the destruction of Sennacherib’s host (2Ki 19:35-37 ).
3. There is some controversy as to what nation is referred to in Isa 18:2 ; Isa 18:7 , but it is surprising that there should be such controversy, since the evidence is overwhelming that the nation here mentioned was Ethiopia. This is a region south of Egypt and far up the Nile. The inhabitants, though black, were not ignorant and weak, but a nation of vigor and influence in the days of Isaiah. Cf. the Abyssinians.
4. The act of homage to Jehovah by Ethiopia as mentioned in Isa 18:7 is not given and therefore not easily determined and can be ascertained only with some probability. There is evidence that Ethiopia was intensely interested in the downfall of Sennacherib which is prophesied in this connection, therefore, it is probable that the present was sent to Jehovah in connection with Ethiopia’s alliance with Israel which existed at this time. It is true that the conditions in Egypt at the time Isaiah gave his prophecy against it were not favorable. The government and idolatry were most securely established and the things predicted seemed most improbable, from the human point of view.
Then what the reason for a prophecy against Egypt at such a time as this? The men of Ephraim and some in Judah were at this time bent on throwing themselves upon Egypt for protection against Assyria. This was both wrong in itself and impolitic. So Isaiah was hedging against such alliance by showing the coming humiliation of the power to which they were looking for aid.
There was an element of hope in this prophecy for the Israelites. The tender sympathy expressed for penitent Egypt in Isa 19:20-23 must have assured the Israelites that if they would return to their God, he would be entreated of them and heal them.
The prophecy against Egypt in Isa 19:1-4 is a prophecy relating to the political condition of Egypt, in which Jehovah will cause civil strife and confusion, destroying the power of their idols and the wisdom of their wise, and will place over them one who is a “cruel Lord” and a “fierce king.”
The fulfilment of this prophecy is found in the internal strife in Egypt during the days of Tirhakah and Psammetichus iii the early part of the seventh century B.C. and the conquering of Egypt by Esar-haddon, who was decidedly a “cruel prince” and treated Egypt with severity, splitting it up into a number of governments, yet this prophecy has been referred to Sargon, to Cambyses, and to Darius Ochus, and some think it is applicable to the successive rulers of Egypt, generally, viz: Chaldean, Persian, Greek, Roman, Saracen, and Turkish. But this is not probable.
The picture in Isa 19:5-10 is a picture of the distressful condition of Egypt while passing through the trying ordeal just prophesied. Then follows (Isa 19:11-15 ) a picture of the confusion of the wise men of Egypt as their wisdom is turned into folly.
There are five happy effects of this judgment on Egypt, in stages which reach a happy climax:
1. The Egyptians are stricken with fear because of Jehovah and because of the land of Judah, similar to the fear that came upon them when they were visited with the ten plagues (Isa 19:16-17 ).
2. Egypt shall learn the language of Canaan and swear unto Jehovah. The language here referred to is the Hebrew which was spoken largely in the country after the introduction of so many Jews there. The “five cities” represents, perhaps, the low and weakened condition of Egypt after the judgment is visited upon it (Isa 19:18 ).
3. The worship of Jehovah is established in Egypt (Isa 19:19-22 ). This was literally fulfilled in the building of the temple at Leontopolis by Onias IV, with special license from Ptolemy Philometor, to whom he is said to have quoted this passage from Isaiah. Here was offered sacrifice to Jehovah and the oblation, according to this prophecy. Through the Jewish law and influence the idolatry of Egypt was overthrown and they were prepared for the coming Saviour, whom they received through the evangelization of the missionaries in the early centuries of the Christian era.
4. The consequent union of Egypt and Assyria in worship (Isa 19:23 ).
5. The unity and equality of the nations in blessing. This and the preceding stage of this happy effect finds a primary fulfilment in the wide-spread influence of the Jews over Syria and the adjacent countries under the Syro-Macedonian kings, as well as over Egypt under the Ptolemies. But a larger fulfilment is to be found in the events at Pentecost, which sent devout men back from Jerusalem into Egypt and Libya on one side, and into Parthis, Media, Elam, and Mesopotamia, on the other, to tell how God, having raised up his Son Jesus (the Prince and Saviour), had sent him to bless the Jews first, and in them all nations.
The prophecy of Isa 20 is a prophecy against Egypt and Ethiopia, who were the hope of Israel in alliance, to be delivered from Assyria, which the prophet labored to prevent. It consists, (1) of the historical circumstance. This is related in Isa 20:1 which gives the date at the year in which Tartan came to Ashdod, etc. (2) Isaiah’s symbolical action and its meaning (Isa 20:2-4 ). This was a common occurrence with the prophets. Here the action symbolized the humiliating captivity of Egypt and Ethiopia which was fulfilled either by Sennacherib or by Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. (3) The reason for this visitation upon Egypt and Ethiopia, viz: Israel looked to these powers instead of Jehovah and they could not be blessed while they were in alliance with backslidden Israel. So the Lord was taking care of Israel in his dealings with Egypt and Ethiopia.
“The burden of the wilderness of the sea” (Isa 21:1-10 ), is a prophecy against Babylon and contains a vivid description of the marshalling of forces against Babylon for her destruction, the overwhelming sympathy of the prophets, the expelling of sensual security, instructions to the Lord’s watchman, the fulfilment, and the final declaration. The forces marshalled for her destruction are the Medes and Elamites under Cyrus and the prophet leaves us not in doubt that the reference here is to Babylon. There can be no mistake that this prophecy has its fulfilment in the capture of Babylon by Cyrus. All this is because of her relation to Israel and therefore the encouragement of God’s people and the glory of the one eternal Jehovah.
“The burden of Dumah” is generally conceded to be a prophecy against Edom, because the word “Seir” occurs in it as the place from which the one is represented as calling to the prophet. The word “Dumah” means silence and is used allegorically, “of the Silent Land” of the dead (Psa 94:17 ), and refers here, perhaps, to the silent or low state of Edom at this time. In this burden someone is represented as calling to the prophet out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night?” To which the watchman replied, “There is a brighter day ahead, but it is to be followed by a period of darkness for you; if you will repent, you may do so.”
The prophecy against Arabia is a prophecy of the desolation to come upon Arabia and her borders, deranging their commerce and causing flight and privation, which would be accomplished in one year. The date of the prophecy is not very well determined but the fulfilment is found in Sargon’s expedition into Arabia during which the caravans had to leave their regular routes and “take to the woods.”
“The burden of the valley of vision” (Isa 22:1-25 ) is a prophecy against Jerusalem in which we have set forth a vivid picture of the revellings of the city (Isa 22:1-4 ) ; then a description of an outside foreign army threatening the city, causing surprise, and a hasty preparation for the siege (Isa 22:5-11 ); instead of humbling themselves, putting on sackcloth and weeping, and appealing to God’s mercy, they try to drown care in drink and sensual enjoyment (Isa 22:12-14 ) ; then follows the degrading of Shebna from his high office and the placing of Eliakim in his position (Isa 22:15-25 ). The events herein described were fulfilled either in Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem or in that of Nebuchadnezzar. There are some difficulties in fitting this prophecy to either siege and in matters where we have such limited knowledge it does not become us to be dogmatic. Some parts fit one better, and other parts fit the other better, but all things considered, the author is inclined to believe that this prophecy refers to the Assyrian invasion.
There are three distinct paragraphs given to the burden of Tyre (Isa 22:13 ): (1) The greatness of Tyre as a city of commerce and the wail of distress for the fate of the city; (2) Jehovah’s purpose to cause this destruction and stain the pride of all her glory; (3) Babylon, an example of what will come to Tyre and the promise of Tyre’s returned prosperity after seventy years. After this period Tyre will revive and be of service to Jehovah’s people. The first part of the prophecy fits into the history which shows the many reverses of this city and may refer to the Babylonian siege specifically. The last part of the prophecy may have its fulfilment in the orders of Cyrus to the Tyrians to rebuild the Temple, and the Tyrian ships were of incalculable aid in disseminating Judaism before Christ and Christianity since Christ.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the section (Isaiah 13-23) called and what the appropriateness of the title?
2. What the foreign nations mentioned in this book of prophecies and what additional prophecies thrown in?
3. What the position of the radical critics relative to this section?
4. What the connection between the parts of this section?
5. What the special connection between Isaiah 13-14 and the preceding section?
6. What the date of the prophecy in Isaiah 13-14, what the conditions both in Israel and Judah, and also in the other nations, at this time, and what the sure light of prophecy in this dark hour?
7. What the significant word with which each of these prophecies opens, what its meaning, and what its appropriateness in this connection?
8. Why was Babylon given by the prophet first consideration among the enemies of God’s peoples and what the main points in this denunciation against her?
9. What the prophecy against Assyria under this first burden and why put in here?
10. What the special things to be noted in this burden?
11. How may the series of burdens from Isa 14:28 and Isa 23:18 be viewed and what the object of the warnings?
12. What the burden of prophecy against Philistia and how is the destructive work upon the country here described?
13. What say the critics of this prophecy against Moab (Isa 15:1-16:12 ) and what the reply?
14. Give a brief outline of these two chapters.
15. Give the picture of Moab’s overthrow?
16. What the exhortation and promise to Moab in. Isa 16:1-5 ?
17. What the cause of the downfall that was to follow?
18. How did this sight of the future destruction of Moab affect the prophet and what examples of other such sympathy in the Bible?
19. What the time fixed for the humiliation of Moab and when its fulfilment?
20. What is a remarkable characteristic of Damascus, and for what does it account?
21. What does this burden against Damascus include and what the main points in it?
22. What are the things in this burden that need special attention?
23. What the conditions in Egypt at the time Isaiah gave his prophecy against it?
24. What is the reason for a prophecy against Egypt at such a time as this?
25. What element of hope in this prophecy for the Israelites?
26. What the prophecy against Egypt in Isa 19:1-4 and when was it fulfilled?
27. What the picture in Isa 19:5-10 ?
28. What is set forth in Isa 19:11-15 ?
29. What the important and happy effects of this judgment on Egypt?
30. What the prophecy of Isa 20 and what its contents?
31. What “The burden of the wilderness of the sea” (Isa 21:1-10 ), and what its striking points?
32. What is “The burden of Dumah” and what its interpretation?
33. What the prophecy against Arabia and when the fulfilment?
34. What “The burden of the valley of vision” (Isa 22:1-25 ), and what the salient points in the prophecy?
35. What the outline of the burden of Tyre and what the salient points of the interpretation?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
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.
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.
From the wilderness.
From a terrible land.
a Pliny saith the greatest tempests at sea come from the South.
b Herodot.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah Chapter 21
Is this chapter, though not a long one, are three sentences of judgement – on Babylon (vv. 1-10), on Dumah (vv. 11, 12), and on Arabia (vv. 13-17).
“The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through, it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land. A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, Elam; besiege, Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease” (vv. 1, 2). There can be no doubt to any fair mind that the great Chaldean capital is referred to. The command to the Medes and Persians to go up and besiege is one indication; and so yet more is the graphic description of the sudden destruction in verses 3-5, which turned the night of revelry into the pangs of terror and death for the dissolute king and his court (Dan 5 ). “Therefore are my loins filled with pain; pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman in travail; I am bowed down so as not to hear; I am dismayed so as not to see. My heart panteth, horror affrighteth me; the night of my pleasure hath he turned into trembling unto me” (vv. 3, 4). Is this vindictive feeling or language? It is a holy man of God deeply moved by the prophetic vision of the fall of Babylon, so awful and unexpected. Yet was Babylon Judah’s captor.
“Prepare the table, appoint the watch; eat, drink; arise, ye princes, anoint the shield” (v. 5).
“For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman; let him declare what he seeth. And he saw chariots, horsemen by pairs, a chariot with asses, a chariot with camels, and he hearkened diligently with much heed. And he cried [as] a lion, Lord, I stand continually upon the watch-tower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward every night; and, behold, chariots of men come, horsemen by pairs. And he answered and said Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground. O my threshing, and the corn of my floor! what I have heard of Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you” (vv. 6-10).
The latter part of the ninth verse crowns the proof, and expressly names Babylon’s fall as the object intended. The prophet personifies the city or its people in verse 10.
Nevertheless there is somewhat to be noted in the phrase used of the doomed mistress of the world, especially as there seems to be an evident link between this enigmatic title, “the burden of the desert of the sea,” and that applied to Jerusalem, “the burden of the valley of vision,” in the beginning of Isa 22 . As the rise and glory of the first Gentile empire was only permitted sovereignly of God in consequence of hopeless idolatry in Judah and Jerusalem, so the judgement of Babylon was the epoch of deliverance for the Jewish remnant, the type of the final dealings of God with the last holder of the power which began with the golden head of the great image. There is thus a correlation between these two cities Jerusalem and Babylon – whether historical or symbolic; and as the latter is designated “the desert of the sea,” the former is “the valley of vision.” Jeremiah in his vision (Jer 51:42 ) beholds the sea come up upon Babylon, so as to cover her with the multitude of the waves. In fact too we know to what a waste this seat of human pride sunk; and so; notoriously it remains until this day.
In verses 6-10 is set forth the twofold leadership of the coming invasion, or at least the twofold nationality of the armies that conquered. The watchman in the vision attests his vigilance, and reports what he saw. This is followed by the solemn tidings of Babylon’s fall, and the prophet’s seal on the truth of the announcement. The ruin also we saw in Isa. 13 – 14 irremediable, in the face of the fullest hope and stoutest purpose to make it the metropolis of the earth. So too predicted Jer. 50-51, that Babylon should sink and not rise again.
Next comes “the burden of Dumah,” which some consider to border on, if not to be identified with, Idumea. “The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire; return, come” (vv. 11, 12). The Edomite cry is one of proud scorn and self-security. The brief answer is pregnant with serious expostulation. Let them not trust to hopes of the bright morn; for the dark and dangerous night would assuredly come. Nevertheless a door was still open for repentance. Let them “return, come.” How great is the long-suffering of God, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance! But whatever man does or fails to do, His purpose stands, and the day of Jehovah will come as a thief; not more welcome, as little expected. Insult as the world may during the night, the morning will surely come. But there is no morning for the earth till He comes, Who was and is the true Light, and Whose it will be to judge the habitable earth. This is neither the gospel or church time, nor is it eternity when the new heavens and earth are wherein dwells righteousness (2Pe 3:13 ). It will be an age of government when He reigns Whose right it is, alone competent to put all evil down, and to maintain both the glory of God and the blessing of man, as He will surely do in that day.
As for “the burden upon Arabia,” little remark is needed. “The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O travelling companies of Dedanites. Unto him that was thirsty they brought water; the inhabitants of the land of Tema did meet the fugitives with their bread. For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war. For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail; and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, shall be diminished for Jehovah, the God of Israel, hath spoken” (vv. 13-17). The thickets of Arabia* would be no more an effectual hiding place from the storm than the rocks and mountain fastnesses of Edom. It is not only the travelling companies or caravans of Dedan which are cast on the pity and care of the men of Tema; but utter wasting within a year is pronounced on the mighty men of the sons of Kedar. Man fails, great or small; Jehovah abides and will reign over this earth and all the races of mankind. What a gap there is in the outlook of all who do not believe in the world-kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ!
*Dr. Driver (Lit. of the O.T. 206) remarks that Arab denotes not Arabia In our sense of the word but a particular nomad tribe inhabiting the north of the Peninsula and mentioned (Eze 27:21 ) with Dedan and Cedar as engaged in commerce with Tyre. Kedar was a wealthy pastoral tribe (Isa 9:7 ; Jer 49:29 ). Tema lay some 250 miles south-east of Edom. Sargon s troops were engaged in war with the Philistines in B.C. 720 and in 711; and it may be conjectured he adds that these two prophecies were delivered In view of an expected campaign of the Assyrians in the neighbouring regions in one of these years. How sad to leave God out of prophecy.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 21:1-10
1The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.
As windstorms in the Negev sweep on,
It comes from the wilderness, from a terrifying land.
2A harsh vision has been shown to me;
The treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys.
Go up, Elam, lay siege, Media;
I have made an end of all the groaning she has caused.
3For this reason my loins are full of anguish;
Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor.
I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see.
4My mind reels, horror overwhelms me;
The twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.
5They set the table, they spread out the cloth, they eat, they drink;
Rise up, captains, oil the shields,
6For thus the Lord says to me,
Go, station the lookout, let him report what he sees.
7When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
A train of donkeys, a train of camels,
Let him pay close attention, very close attention.
8Then the lookout called,
O Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower,
And I am stationed every night at my guard post.
9Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.
And one said, Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
And all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground.
10O my threshed people, and my afflicted of the threshing floor!
What I have heard from the LORD of hosts,
The God of Israel, I make known to you.
Isa 21:1 the wilderness of the sea This may be an attempt to translate (1) the Assyrian name for Babylon (Mat + Amil, cf. JB footnote) or (2) the Akkadian title Land of the Sea (Mat tam-tim), but it was now destroyed, so land changed to wilderness. The Peshitta translates it as the desert of the sea, probably referring to the marshy area near the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. TEV just has Babylon. The term wilderness (BDB 184) denotes large pieces of uninhabited land.
Isa 21:1-2 a Isaiah tries to express his deep emotion when he receives this oracle.
1. like a windstorm in the Negev, Isa 21:1
2. from a wilderness, Isa 21:1
3. from a terrifying (BDB 431, KB 432, Niphal PARTICIPLE) land, Isa 21:1
4. harsh (BDB 904) vision, Isa 21:2 a
Isa 21:2 b This describes the invader of Babylon (i.e., Assyria, cf. Isa 21:9).
1. the treacherous one still deals treacherously, play on BDB 93, KB 108, two Qal ACTIVE PARTICIPLES, Isa 24:16; Isa 33:1; Jer 3:20; Jer 5:11 (it is possible that the NIV translation traitor, REB, traitor, or NRSV, betrayer historically fits Merodach-baladan, the king of Babylon, better)
2. the destroyer still destroys, play on BDB 994, KB 1418, two Qal ACTIVE PARTICIPLES, Isa 16:4; Isa 33:1; Jer 6:26
Isa 21:2 c God commands two northern Mesopotamian powers to attack Babylon.
1. Go up (BDB 748, KB 828, Qal IMPERATIVE) Elam (BDB 743). This is surprising since initially Elam helped Babylon to hold off Assyrian domination.
2. Lay siege (BDB 848, KB 1015, Qal IMPERATIVE) Media (BDB 552). This was another ethnic group in the northern Euphrates area.
It is possible that these are war cries of those in the anti-Assyrian coalition (i.e., Elam, Media, so says the Jewish commentator Ibn Ezra). This would make more sense if Babylon of Isaiah’s day is being addressed.
Isa 21:2 d The NASB has I have made an end of all the groaning she has caused. The MT has all the sighing I bring to an end (BDB 991, KB 1407, Hiphil PERFECT). The phrase, she has caused, NASB, is not in the MT. If it is to be assumed, it must be stated that this line of poetry fits Neo-Babylon better. This later empire had a much larger area of influence (i.e., Nebuchadnezzar, cf. Daniel 4).
Again, some (including me) see this last line as a statement from the Babylonian king (Merodach-baladan) or his deities (Marduk) directed to a to-be-defeated Assyria/Nineveh. There are so many speakers in this chapter it is hard to know the intended speaker (the prophet, YHWH, Babylonian king, several watchmen, unknown voices).
Isa 21:3-4 The prophet describes the effect the message had on him personally. Daniel also experienced physical distress at YHWH’s revelations (cf. Dan 7:15; Dan 7:28; Dan 8:27; Dan 10:16-17).
1. loins are full of anguish
2. pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor, cf. Isa 13:8; Isa 26:17
3. I am so bewildered I cannot hear, cf. Isa 19:14 (i.e., an idiom of drunkenness)
4. so terrified I cannot see
5. my mind reels
6. horror overwhelms me
7. the twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling (twilight possibly Babylon’s defeat meant a stronger, more expansionistic Assyria)
All of these VERBS are PERFECTS, which denote a complete situation. Why was he so distressed? There is no one to stop Assyria now! She is coming!
Isa 21:4 This verse expands on Isa 21:2 a (a harsh vision). It describes Isaiah’s reaction to this oracle.
1. my mind reels, BDB 1073, KB 1766, Qal PERFECT
2. horror overwhelms me, BDB 129, KB 147, Piel PERFECT
3. the twilight I long for has been turned for me into trembling, BDB 962, KB 1321, Qal PERFECT
The question is, Why was Isaiah so upset at the fall of Babylon? Possibly because of
1. the terrible violence involved
2. Babylon kept Assyria in balance. Now Assyria was free to expand region-wide (see Exposition Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 134).
Isa 21:5 This verse has a series of four Qal INFINITIVE ABSOLUTES (functioning as IMPERATIVES) and then two Qal IMPERATIVES.
1. set the table
2. spread the rugs (see note following)
3. eat
4. drink
This would denote a lavish meal. Some commentators see this as referring to Daniel 5. If so, then this chapter refers to Neo-Babylon of a later period (i.e., Nebuchadnezzar).
In the midst of the party a messenger arrives and calls them to military preparations (captains, BDB 978).
1. rise up, BDB 877, KB 1086, Qal IMPERATIVE
2. oil the shields, BDB 602, KB 643, Qal IMPERATIVE. The ancient warriors covered their shields with leather so that flaming arrows would penetrate the soft leather and be extinguished, cf. 2Sa 1:21.
NASB, NJBspread out the cloth
NKJV,
PESHITTAset a watchman in the tower
NRSV, TEV,
REBspread the rugs
JBcover it with cloth
This phrase is made up of a NOUN and a very similar VERBAL root.
1. NOUN, (BDB 860 II) found only here, some scholars see it as carpet, others as watchman (BDB 859,
2. VERBAL, (BDB 860 II, INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE), meaning lay out or lay over
Since people of the ANE ate sitting on the floor with pillows, this could refer to this type of sitting/eating arrangement (i.e., arrange the pillows, cf. NIDOTTE, vol. 3, p. 832).
Isa 21:6 Notice the prophet is relaying YHWH’s words.
1. go, BDB 229, KB 246, Qal IMPERATIVE
2. station the lookout, BDB 763, KB 840, Hiphil IMPERATIVE (sentry, lit. one who watches, BDB 859, KB 1044, Piel PARTICIPLE)
3. let him report, BDB 616, KB 665, Hiphil IMPERFECT used in a JUSSIVE sense
Isa 21:7 He is instructed to watch for a very specific kind of military formation.
1. riders on horses in pairs
2. a train of donkeys
3. a train of camels
The term riders (BDB 935) could be understood as chariots pulled by two horses (NKJV, Peshitta). For #2 and #3, this could also designate riders (cf. NRSV, LXX).
At the sight of this type of military equipment and formation, he is to report immediately (double use of attention, BDB 904). Assyria is coming!
Isa 21:8 This is a way of announcing a loud military-type (i.e., like a lion) report by the watchman on the wall. He has so far seen nothing.
The MT is difficult and the Hebrew manuscripts from DSS make the watchman call out like a lion, which is the best option for understanding a cryptic Hebrew text.
However, it is possible to see lion, (BDB 71) as a copyist’s error for saw, (BDB 906), thereby resulting in the translation, then the one who sees the sentry (i.e., watchman) cries out.
Isa 21:9 Suddenly the military formation and equipment come into view! Its presence in Palestine shows the previous fall of the city of Babylon. This fall is expressed by doubling the VERB (BDB 656, KB 709, Qal PERFECTS), which is so common in Isaiah. The city of Babylon fell several times to different Assyrian kings.
Her demise is complete as illustrated by the shattering (BDB 990, KB 1402, Piel PERFECT) of her idols (cf. Isaiah 46-47). With Babylon defeated and Elam and Media inactive, Assyria can resume her expansionistic intentions!
Isa 21:10 The prophet tells the oppressed covenant people that their God (i.e., LORD of hosts, God of Israel) has acted, but how?
1. The fall of Babylon was not a victory for them, but a sure promise that Assyria will come.
2. The question remains which Babylon is the prophet referring to?
a. Babylon of Merodach-baladan of Isaiah’s day
b. Neo-Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar of Ezekiel and Jeremiah’s day
The issue is not one of the reality of the predictive prophecy, but of historical setting!
Just a note about an alternate way of interpreting this verse. It is possible that the ones who are addressed are the Babylonians who Assyria will destroy. YHWH has earlier heard the fall of Moab (cf. Isa 15:5; Isa 16:11) and the prayers of the oppressed Egyptians (cf. Isa 19:20).
my afflicted of the threshing floor This is a Hebrew idiom son of my threshing floor. The Hebrew term son has many semantic usages in Isaiah.
1. son of fatness, Isa 5:1 (see note at Isa 5:1)
2. son of dawn, Isa 14:12
3. son of the wise, Isa 19:11
4. son of man, Isa 56:2
5. son of a foreign land (lit. foreigners), Isa 56:6
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
burden. The fifth of the seven burdens.
of = relating to. Genitive of Relation. App-17.
the sea. The waters of the Euphrates in flood were so called, as the Nile was (Isa 19:6). Compare Rev 17:3, Rev 17:15.
whirlwinds = storms.
pass = sweep.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Shall we turn to Isaiah, chapter 21.
Isaiah begins this particular prophecy and addresses it to Babylon which was referred to as,
The desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass ( Isa 21:1 )
Or in the Negev. We call them sun devils out in Arizona. You’ve seen those whirlwinds that have been created by the sun out there in the desert and they move along and pick up dust and weeds and trash. “As whirlwinds in the south pass,”
so it cometh from the desert, from an awesome land. A grievous 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. Therefore are my loins filled with pain ( Isa 21:1-3 ):
And he speaks of the response upon himself. So interestingly enough, 200 years before the event, when at this point in history, Media was just a small tribe and Persia was known as Elam by its tribal name, before Babylon has even become the first major world empire. While Assyria was in its period of ascendancy historically, he prophesies the destruction of Babylon by a combination of Media and Persia.
Now there is no way, absolutely no way, that any man in that day could foresee the two little tribal provinces of Media and Persia or Elam becoming a major world power that would destroy the tremendous empire of Babylon. This, of course, is just another one of those what we call internal proofs of inspiration. These fulfilled prophecies or these predictions that are made that are so unlikely at the time that they are made and yet was so completely fulfilled.
Now it is interesting the effect that this particular vision had upon Isaiah. And it was interesting that oftentimes when God would speak to a prophet that it would seem to have a physical effect upon him. Sometimes of just great weakness, just sort of a physically draining experience to have that kind of a close relationship with God. God speaking to you, showing you things and the effect would just be physically very draining.
Daniel speaks of how that after a set of visions that the Lord had given to him, how that on his bed his head was just sort of spinning and how he just felt that he was, “My beauty is turned into ugliness” ( Dan 10:8 ). And just the presence of God and all, it had a very powerful adverse physical effect upon him. And Isaiah here describes that “my loins filled with pain.”
pangs have taken hold upon me, the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it. My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear ( Isa 21:3-4 ).
And so this is the physical reaction that Isaiah had to seeing this vision of the Medo-Persian Empire conquering the Babylon Empire. He bowed over. He was in pain like a woman that was in labor and his heart panted. He began to have this… of course, he describes it; he was filled with fear, and it had a very adverse physical effect.
Now it is interesting here that he begins to describe a little bit of the circumstances by which Babylon is to be conquered. Now he expands this further in the forty-fifth, forty-fourth and forty-fifth chapters of Isaiah, he expands more on the destruction of Babylon, even there naming the conquering king or general. Calling him by name a hundred and fifty years before he’s born. Telling how that the very method by which the city would be taken. How that the river Euphrates would be diverted and how that they would come in onto the banks of the river and through the levied gates that would be unlocked. And when we get to that forty-fifth chapter we will again take a little time to show you as you get into the historical record by Xenophon and you take a look at the conquering of Babylon by Cyrus. And it is exactly as Isaiah described a hundred and fifty years before Cyrus was born, naming him, and two hundred years before Babylon fell. Gives you details.
Now here he indicates that it is suddenly in the midst of their revelry. “The night of pleasure he has turned into fear.” You remember the night that Babylon fell, Belshazzar was having this great feast with all of his lords. Actually, they were celebrating the invincibility of Babylon. Though the city was encircled by their enemies, because the walls were three hundred feet high, eighty feet thick, they figured that there was no way anybody could conquer Babylon. And thus, it was just sort of a smear to their enemies who were outside and they had this great feast. In that while they were drinking, while they were getting pretty drunk, he ordered the vessels that were taken by his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar in the siege of Jerusalem brought in and they drank the wine out of the vessels of gold and silver that had been sanctified to the service of God in the temple. And they began to praise the gods of gold and silver. And so he describes here, “The night of my pleasure,” the banqueting and all, “he has turned into fear.”
Prepare the table ( Isa 21:5 ),
The big feast that they had.
watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint your shield ( Isa 21:5 ).
For suddenly in the midst of the banquet, the cry comes. Now, the anointing of the shield was the greasing of the shields so that the sword would glance off of it. It was harder to pierce through a greased shield. There is more of a tendency of the spear or sword to glance off of a greased shield. So that was the idea of the anointing of the shield. But suddenly the cry comes from the watchtower in the midst of the banquet. “Anoint your shields.”
For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he sees. And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed: And he cried, A lion: My Lord ( Isa 21:6-8 ),
Now it is interesting that when Daniel had his vision of the world governing empires and he saw them as beasts, the lion was representative of Babylon. So he cried, “A lion: My Lord,”
I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights: And, behold, here cometh a 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. O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you ( Isa 21:8-10 ).
So Isaiah’s declaring, “Hey, what I heard from God I’ve declared unto you. I saw this guy coming and he was crying, ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen!'” Of course, this reminds us over into the book of Revelation when the destruction of spiritual and commercial Babylon takes place. We read of these angels that declare, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen!” That great religious system that caused people to commit spiritual fornication, idolatry, and so forth. And so this one little aspect, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen” has a twofold fulfillment, at the fall at the time of the Medo-Persian invasion, but then also in the future as it is picked up by the angel in Revelation.
In verses Isa 21:11 , and Isa 21:12 I don’t understand the vision that he had. It’s concerning Dumah, which is Edom.
He calleth to me out of Seir ( Isa 21:11 ),
Mount Seir, which marked the borders of Edom.
Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning comes, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire: return, come ( Isa 21:11-12 ).
Now, I frankly don’t understand what the watchman was saying. Or the, what he… what was he indicating? I don’t know. So I’ll just leave it.
Next we get:
The burden on Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim ( Isa 21:13 ).
Dedan, of course, is one of the tribes. The Dedanim, being plural, would be the peoples of the tribe of Dedan.
Now Saudi Arabia was originally made up of two major tribal families. Those of Sheba and those of Dedan. So when you move into the book of Ezekiel and you read the prophecies in Ezekiel of the coming invasion of Israel by Russia with her allies, it is important to note that though Iran does come with Russia in the invasion of Israel, Saudi Arabia does not.
So evidently, you know, right now… and to me this is very important, because one of the major concerns of our government today is the oil supply that comes to the United States from Saudi Arabia. We are dependent upon those oil supplies for our whole industry, economy and everything else. And so there’s quite a bit to do right now in government circles on how much aid, military aid, we should give to Saudi Arabia. The F-15, shall we equip them? You know. Two thousand tow missiles for antitank missiles and so forth. And everytime we speak of aiding Saudi Arabia, Israel begins to lobby, because Israel is fearful that these weapons that we are giving to Saudi Arabia could very well be used against Israel. And thus, they seek to lobby against any aid that we might be giving to Saudi Arabia.
But there is concern, great concern, that Russia may seek to move into Saudi Arabia to take those oil supplies and thus to cut us off from our much-needed oil that we get from Saudi Arabia. Obviously, Russia does not take Saudi Arabia because Saudi Arabia is not. In fact, they are listed as not being with Russia in Russia’s invasion of Israel. And so Israel really doesn’t need to worry about an invasion from Saudi Arabia from the scriptures.
In fact, Saudi Arabia is listed with those nations, of which the United States is perhaps one, because it speaks of the “merchants of Tarsus” which are thought to be England, and “the young lions thereof” ( Eze 38:13 ). Now the United States could conceivably be a young lion from England. Break off from England and one of the young lions. Canada, Australia. They say unto Russia, “What are you doing invading this little land of Israel? That isn’t fair. That isn’t right.” But Saudi Arabia joins with the objection with the United States and with England and the break off nations of England.
So as we look at the major decisions that are being made today in the State Department and in our government that are dealing with these very issues and these very nations that have been predicted in the Bible, having a biblical background helps tremendously. I am really excited over the number of military officers that are now beginning to look to the Bible as sort of a guideline for these days. Somehow they’ve gotten hold of a lot of my tapes that deal with these subjects of the Middle East and so forth. They’ve been listening to them and they have been actually using the Word of God as sort of a guideline. I was told of this one commander in the Navy who used to just have no time for God, no time for the Bible. I mean, it’s just so much stuff that he didn’t need to get involved with and was very antagonistic. But got hold of a tape and God got hold of his heart and they said that on his desk there’s always an open Bible. And as he’s going over the plans and so forth and developing strategies, he’s always looking now to the Bible and seeking guidance from the Bible. And this was shared by another military officer who is in a Bible study with him and there in Hawaii. There’s just a big bunch of military officers that get together and study the Word of God now and are looking to the Bible as a guideline for these days. And that’s very wise, because surely God has set things out.
He said to Amos, “I won’t do anything unless I tell my prophets in advance” ( Amo 3:7 ). And God has told us in advance of the situations that would be existing today. So if Israel would read the Bible, they would realize they have no fears of Saudi Arabia. Because Saudi Arabia will take up their part when Russia invades. Russia’s the thing that they need to be concerned about, not Saudi Arabia. Iran, yes.
Now at this particular time, Israel is not so worried about Iran. In fact, people have wondered how Iran was able to keep these phantom jets going. Because when they kicked out the United States they didn’t have any more spare parts. And with this hostage situation and all, they… Iraq was surprised that Iran, they thought that Iran would crumble. That they would soon no longer be able to fly the phantoms because they didn’t have the technicians to keep them in repair. They didn’t have the spare parts to repair them and they figured the Iranian Air Force would be put out of commission very quickly and that they would then be able to just control the whole scene. What is happening, and what most people don’t know, what is happening is that Israel is repairing. They’re flying these jets to Israel. Israel is repairing all these phantoms for them.
So there is an underground kind of an alliance still between Iran. Israel feels a debt to Iran because during all of the oil crises and so forth, they supplied Israel with all of their oil needs. Now Israel is trading off the repair of the jets and all for oil needs and all. But Israel is keeping the Iranian Air Force going. And some of the Israeli officers were sharing that with me when we were over in Israel this last time, how that they’re flying these jets in and out from Iran almost everyday and they’re keeping them. And that’s the big surprise of the war is how the Irani Air Force could keep going. And that’s how they’re doing it. And I trust I’m not revealing any great military secrets and get in trouble for it. But that’s what’s happening.
Now Israel, though still underground, is friendly toward Iran. If they would only read the Bible, they would realize that Iran is the one to watch, not Saudi Arabia. That in the end, when the conflict comes, Saudi Arabia will join in the protest-not in the fighting-just in the protest of Russia’s invasion of Israel. So the fact that these things are all moving in that direction right now makes, of course, the Bible extremely relevant to our own world in which we live and the current decisions that are being made by the State Department and all of those guys that deal with world strategy. How much support shall we give to Saudi Arabia and all of this. And yet the Bible lays out the whole story of the future.
Now this burden that he has for Dedanim, one of the tribes of Arabia.
The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that fled. For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war ( Isa 21:14-15 ).
Now this prophecy of Isaiah had an immediate fulfillment.
For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail: And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished: for the LORD God of Israel hath spoken it ( Isa 21:16-17 ).
Within a year and within a year Sargon in 716 B.C. conquered Saudi Arabia. So that prophecy could be checked off as one that was fulfilled. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Isa 21:1-5
Isa 21:1
THE BURDEN OF BABYLON;
THE BURDEN OF EDOM;
THE BURDEN OF ARABIA
Three “burdens” are delivered by the prophet in this chapter: that of Babylon (Isa 21:1-10), that of Edom (Isa 21:11-12), and that of Arabia (Isa 21:13-17).
THE BURDEN OF BABYLON (Isa 21:1-10)
The critical community as a whole have decided that this prophecy applies to the fall of Babylon to Cyrus and Darius, which occurred long after Isaiah’s lifetime; and, of course, in keeping with their crazy rule that there is no such thing as predictive prophecy they imagine that it had to have been written “after the exile,” in 539 B.C. It is true that there are expressions in these ten verses which seem to point squarely to that drunken feast of Belshazzar and the fall of Babylon to the Medo-Persians; but our confident conviction remains the same. Even if this passage does apply to that overthrow, Isaiah must still be accepted as the author of the chapter, because, as Cheyne said, “Both the ideas of the passage and the phraseology are in harmony with the authorship of Isaiah. As a matter of fact, it is altogether possible that the prophecy, looking forward to the distant future, has a double application, as we shall see. In a similar manner, the prophecy of Jesus Christ in Matthew 24 applies: (1) to the destruction of Jerusalem, an event that occurred within forty years, and (2) to the final advent of Christ, an event that has not occurred yet.
That the “burden” here is a reference, primarily, to an event much earlier than the exile was affirmed by Dummelow thus:
“This siege can scarcely be the one at the close of the exile. Assyrian researchers have revealed three earlier sieges: (1) in 710 B.C. by Sargon; (2) in 703 B.C., and (3) in 696 B.C. by Sennacherib. Accordingly, the prophecy may be dated after 710 or 703 B.C. (but prior to conquest and fall of the city in 696 B.C.).
Thus, Dummelow joined Cheyne and other discerning scholars in rejecting the post-exilic date and in the acceptance of a date consistent both with Isaiah’s authorship and the predictive nature of the prophecy. We shall cite some of the reasons why this understanding is absolutely required by the passage itself.
(1) The facts presented, the style and spirit of the author, the phraseology used, and the correspondence with the other writings of Isaiah all point squarely at the great eighth century prophet as the author. (2) Note the grief and depression of Isaiah upon reporting this revelation from God. The notion of some that Isaiah was simply overcome emotionally at the fall of Babylon makes no sense at all. Why should he have been grieved at the overthrow and destruction of that wicked power that had defeated Judah, carried them into captivity, etc.? On the other hand, if this is a prophecy of the fall of Babylon to Sennacherib in 696, which we believe it is, then it is clear why the prophecy was bad news to Isaiah. It meant that Judah’s last hope of some earthly power to intervene against Assyria had failed, and that Judah would have to face the full terror of Assyrian assault, which, of course they did, only a few years after this prophecy was given. (3) The author of this prophecy (humanly speaking) was not in Babylon but in Jerusalem when it was written. “Isa 21:6-9 imply a distance from Babylon. (4) The conclusive argument against the event of 539 B.C. as being the primary focus here lies in the character of the conqueror prophesied. Note that, “All of the graven images of her gods are broken down to the ground” (Isa 21:9). By no stretch of imagination is this a view of the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C.; but it was definitely a picture of what happened under Sennacherib in 696. It is a known fact that, “Cyrus was not an iconoclast; he did not break into pieces, nor in any way destroy or insult the Babylonian idols. On the contrary, he retained them in their several shrines, or restored them where they had been replaced.
The fact thus cited, namely, that the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C., did not provide the “broken images” required by the prophecy’s fulfillment lies behind statements like that of Hailey: “This (the prophecy) does not necessarily indicate that the conqueror has destroyed the images, but that Jehovah’s power has triumphed over the powerless gods of the heathen. Barnes, in a similar statement, said that it means, “In spite of its idols, the whole city would be mined. These comments are not untrue as regards what they say, but they have no reference whatever to this prophecy or its fulfillment; but one writer even wrote that the fulfillment was “spiritual,” admitting that no images were broken! Such an interpretation is incorrect. There could not possibly have been anything “spiritual” about a conquest of Babylon, either by the Assyrians or the Medo-Persians.
There are further evidences which we shall note in the comments below; but these are sufficient to demonstrate that the 539 B.C. fall of Babylon cannot possibly be the primary focus of these verses.
Isa 21:1
“The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it cometh from the wilderness, a terrible land.”
This is a surprising title of Babylon; “But it plainly means Babylon, ] as clearly stated in Isa 21:9 below. Why, then, should it have been called “wilderness of the desert”? Lowth believed it was because the whole area of Babylon was indeed once a desert, and that it was recovered by an intricate system of irrigation, using the waters of the Euphrates. There could also be an overtone here of the ultimate fate of Babylon, which included its return to desert status. “This title probably includes the whole tract of waste land west of the Euphrates.
The reference to the Euphrates as “a sea” is not uncommon in the Bible. Barnes says this probably came about due to a fact mentioned by Herodotus, that before the system of irrigation was developed, “The river often overflowed the whole area like a sea.” For the very same reason, the Nile also was called “a sea.”
Isa 21:2
“A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous man dealeth treacherously, and the destroyer destroyeth. Go up, O Elam; besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.”
The true meaning here is that the vision brought great pain and sorrow to the heart of the prophet, a statement that cannot possibly be reconciled with the destruction of the oppressor of God’s people in 539 B.C.
Note also that Elam is the principal force mentioned here in the overthrow of Babylon, not the Persians. Could any sixth century writer have been guilty of such an error? The only answer is that it cannot refer to that particular fall of Babylon.
“The treacherous man … the destroyer …” “These,” according to Dummelow, “Are references to the Assyrians.
Isa 21:3-4
“Therefore are my loins filled with anguish; pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman in travail: I am pained so that I cannot hear, I am dismayed so that I cannot see. My heart fluttereth, horror hath affrighted me; the twilight that I desired hath been turned into trembling unto me.”
It is simply impossible that the news of Babylon’s fall in 539 B.C. could have been the occasion of the reaction on Isaiah’s part, as described in these two verses. He was so upset, dismayed, astounded, and pained that he could not hear, could not see, and could not rest. Even twilight, when ordinarily he would have rested became a time of trembling. This verse makes it mandatory to see the object of this prophecy in a prior fall of Babylon in 696 B.C., long before the captivity, in the ruin of the city by Sennacherib.
Isa 21:5
“They prepare the table, they set the watch, they eat, they drink: rise up ye princes, anoint the shield.”
This is the verse which some say points inevitably to the drunken feast of Belshazzar on the night of the Medo-Persian capture of Babylon. It surely does suggest it; but there are some problems with thus accepting it. “Spread the table,” as used here is a “far from certain rendition. Furthermore, “Anointing the shield” suggests a preparation for battle that was not evident at all on the night when Belshazzar was slain and Darius took the kingdom. Thus, upon closer examination, the “certain” reference to that feast appears to be very questionable.
Isa 21:1-5 VISION: That this is Babylon is evident from Isa 21:9. Babylon was situated in the Mesopotamian lowlands, in the Euphrates River valley. In fact, the Euphrates River cut through the center of the great city. Hundreds of canals branched off the River into all the areas of the city making it literally a wilderness of seas. It is not unusual for a river to be called a sea (Cf. Isa 19:5). A cyclonic force of humanity from a terrible land is to swoop down upon Babylon at some future time. If Isaiah made this prediction of Babylons fall near 706-705 B.C. it would anticipate the actual historical event by approximately 170 years! Babylon did not win domination of the world until about 612 B.C. (at the battle of Carcemish). The Jewish captivity of Babylon began about 606 B.C. The conquest of Babylon by the Medes and Persians took place about 538 B.C. (See our comments on Daniel, chapter 5, for details on the conquest of Babylon by Medo-Persia). Why Isaiah deals with an empire yet to be born so many years in advance of its birth we shall speak of later. In Isa 21:2 the prophet characterizes his feelings and the personality of the Babylonian empire. The vision grieves the prophet. The Babylonians will be deceitful and devious and a people who will despoil and exploit the whole world. It is nothing short of amazing that Isaiah should know 170 years in advance the very people, by name, who would conquer this unborn Babylonian empire! It can only be explained by supernatural revelation. The Elamites and the Medes (later to become the Medo-Persian amalgamation) were the very ones history records as Babylons conquerors. This territory now belongs to Iran.
Isaiah was overwhelmed with grief at this vision. He writhed in anguish like a woman giving birth to a child. He could concentrate on nothing else. Its horror consumed him. Its awesomeness made his mind reel and his heart palpitate. He could not sleep at night. Why was he so gripped with its horribleness? Edward J. Young writes, From this it appears that the prophet experienced deep emotion not merely over his own people, but even over the enemy. He was a man of tender compassion, and the news that stark events were to overcome the world brings upon him painful anguish. Perhaps if we knew today of the future catastrophic and cataclysmic upheavels in national and international structures we would be overwhelmed with grief and anguish. Any man of God grieves over the tribulation and oppression of others any time it occurs. Most Americans who can remember the atomic holocaust over Hiroshima, Japan, and its consequences, even though Japan was at the time Americas enemy, remembers his horror and compassion for those Japanese who suffered in it. Perhaps the stupidity and gross sensuality of the Babylonians visualized by Isaiah even as their enemies marched toward their city, also caused the prophet to be upset. Again, amazingly, Isaiah predicts the exact situation among the Babylonians upon the night of their downfall (Cf. our comments in Daniel, chapter 5). Belshazzar was eating and drinking with his noblemen when the handwriting appeared on the wall and Cyrus and the Medes appeared inside the city. The Medes were upon them so suddenly the Babylonians hardly had time to prepare (anoint with oil from their pagan altars) their shields for war. This anointing was probably some superstition seeking the aid of their gods in battle.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
In this chapter we have prophecies concerning Babylon, Dumah, and Arabia. With regard to Babylon, the prophet has seen the vision of the whirlwind sweeping against it, and so terrible is it that he is filled with horror. Babylon, all unconscious, is described as given over to carousal. The prophet at the command of Jehovah has been on the watch tower and has now seen the foe coming against Babylon. He makes this the occasion of warning to his own people.
Very brief but very forceful is the burden of Dumah. The prophet has heard some inquiring voice demanding the hour of the night. In briefest words he answers, declaring that he sees morning and night, and inviting further inquiry.
The burden of Arabia consists of a vision and interpretation. The vision is of a fugitive people. The interpretation is of judgment coming on the children of Kedar within a year.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
EXPOSITORY NOTES ON
THE PROPHET ISAIAH
By
Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.
Copyright @ 1952
edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago
ISAIAH CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
BABYLON, DUMAH, AND ARABIA
THREE burdens, or oracles, are grouped together in this chapter, all having a common interest to us because each country mentioned in its turn became prominent as an oppressor or enemy of Israel and Judah.
Verses 1-10 relate to Babylon, and here the prophet is looking far on into the future, for in his lifetime Babylon could scarcely have been recognized us even a potential enemy to the people of GOD. After Hezekiah’s healing, as recorded later on in this book, messengers came from the apparently friendly king of Babylon to bring their felicitations to the Jewish king and to inquire as to the wonder done in the land; that is, the going back of the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz.
Hezekiah received this embassage without hesitation or suspicion, but Isaiah later informed him that the day would come when all that they had seen would be carried away to their distant land. GOD had already made it clear to His servant that Babylon was preeminently the enemy they had to fear. In this vision, however, he foreshows the doom of this great enemy, and that in a most graphic manner that fits perfectly with what actually took place in the day of its overthrow.
“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. A grievous 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. 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. My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me” (verses 1-4).
It might seem strange to describe the great and prosperous city of Babylon as “the desert of the sea,” but GOD speaks of the things which are not as though they are, and Isaiah was looking forward prophetically to the hour when that great political, religious, and commercial center would be utterly destroyed and become but a part of the waste desert lands through which the Euphrates flowed.
In the Old Testament the literal city of Babylon was the original home of idolatry, and under its later kings was to become the great commercial center of the ancient world. Because of its opposition to GOD, it was at last entirely destroyed, as already depicted in chapter 13 of this book; as also in Jeremiah, chapters 50, 51.
Literal Babylon is to remain a waste forever; it is never to be rebuilt. But that city was, a type of a great religious, political, and commercial system which has been slowly rising for many centuries and is to come to the fullness of its power after the true Church has been caught up to be with the Lord. Of this Babylon we read in Revelation 17, 18, and it is a significant fact that when the angel called upon John to behold a vision of this mystical Babylon he took him out into a wilderness, for wherever Babylonish principles prevail, all true spirituality disappears and parched, arid wastes abound. So we need not be surprised at the designation of the vision here as “the burden of the desert of the sea.”
Isaiah foresaw in Babylon the treacherous enemy of everything divine, and yet it was the unconscious instrument in the hands of GOD for the chastisement of His rebellious people – the flail with which they were to be threshed in order to separate the chaff from the wheat.
When GOD’s purpose had thus been accomplished, Babylon itself was to be judged, and so terrible was that judgment that the prophet’s whole being was stirred with deepest concern as the Spirit of GOD revealed to him the fearfulness of the overwhelming disaster which was to bring that pretentious city to an inglorious end. GOD even declared the names of the countries whose mighty armies would be used to this end. Elam is Persia, and Media was to be confederate with it. Together they took the chief cities of Chaldea, Ecbatana and Borsippa, and finally Babylon itself, as told in Daniel 5.
“Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield. For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth. And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed: And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights: and, behold, here cometh a 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. O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you” (verses 5.10).
It gave Isaiah no pleasure to be able to predict the awful suffering to which Israel’s enemies were to be exposed. His tender heart grieved deeply over the desolation and destruction that their idolatry and corruption were to bring down upon them.
He speaks almost as an eye-witness of the scene of revelry which took place on Belshazzar’s last night. In few but lucid words, he pictures the scene of terror that followed the influx of the troops of the allies who entered Babylon through the dry bed of the Euphrates, according to Herodotus, after Cyrus had turned away the water of that river some miles above the city. It is true that some modern historians reject this story, but whether Herodotus was right or not, in some way the
Medes and the Persians overcame every obstacle to the taking of the city and thronged its streets, slaying old and young, while the princes of Babylon, utterly unprepared for such an unexpected assault, tried in terror to rally the defenders of the city. But it was too late: “In that night was Belshazzar . . . slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom” (Dan 5:30, 31).
Isaiah, himself, takes the place of a watchman and beholds with prophetic eye the chariots of the triumphant conquerors and hears the cry, so similar to that which we have in the New Testament, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods hath he broken unto the ground.”
And so at last this great fountainhead of idolatry was to be destroyed. That the vision was given by GOD, the prophet asserts solemnly even while he cries out as he realizes that Babylon’s destruction means the deliverance of Israel, whom he designates “the corn of my floor.”
The burden of Dumah, given in the next two verses, is worthy of our most careful attention. It has a message which applies to any time ere the final judgments of GOD fall upon the earth.
“The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman laid, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come” (verses 11, 12).
Dumah means “silence” and the Hebrew word is almost exactly the same as our English word “dumb.” It stands here as a synonym for the land of Edom, called also Seir. This was Esau’s inheritance, a rugged mountainous region inhabited by a nation of the Esau type – virile men of the open air, delighting in war and the chase. Esau himself, their progenitor, was revered as a great hunter and a fearless fighter. So closely related to Israel, they might have been expected to be their allies, but the opposite was the case.
The picture that we seem to have before us here is that of two watchmen on opposite sides of a great chasm. On the one side we may think of a city of the Judean wilderness, on the other an Edomite stronghold. As the watchmen pace back and forth upon the walls of these cities they are near enough to each other for their voices to be heard.
Many have been the predictions uttered by Jewish prophets of Edom’s coming doom, hut these predictions were completely ignored by the Edomites. Now the voice from Dumah calls out in skeptical tones, “Watchman, what of the night?” That is, “How much of the night” or “How much of the night has gone?” He seems to mean, “How near is it to the time when Israel’s glory will be revealed as their prophets had been predicting?” The answer comes back, “The morning cometh.”
It is the declaration of a faith that takes God at His word and dares to believe that Israel shall then be brought into fullness of blessing, but the watchman adds, “And also the night.” The day of Israel’s glory will be the night of Edom’s doom. And then comes the serious entreaty, “If ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come.” It is the voice of GOD speaking through His servant, calling upon Edom, as representing the insensate men of a godless world, and pleading with them to make diligent inquiry as to what the Lord has actually revealed and to return from their
sin and rebellion to Him who still says “Come,” and who waits to receive all who accept His invitation.
The burden of Arabia, though brief, contains much that we may not be able to explain clearly because of our limited knowledge of what actually took place in connection with the cities of the sons of Ishmael.
The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim. The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that fled. For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war. For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of an hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail: and the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished: for the Lord God of Israel hath spoken it” (verses 13-17).
Whether or not we are able to follow each detail here recorded, it is evident that Arabia was to suffer at the hand of the Assyrians in a very definite manner. For the time at least, the pride of the Ishmaelite tribes was to be humbled and their cities spoiled, yet there is no hint of their eventual destruction, as in the case of the Edomites, for Arabia is still to be blessed in the coming day and throughout all the centuries GOD has preserved these descendants of Abraham’s son, born after the flesh, whereas the sons of him who was born after the promise have been scattered throughout all the world because of their iniquities.
~ end of chapter 21 ~
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Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
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.”
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.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 21
The Burdens of the Desert of the Sea, of Dumah, and Arabia
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.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
burden
(See Scofield “Isa 13:1”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
The burden: The first ten verses of this chapter contain a prediction of the taking of Babylon by the Medes and Persians; which is here denominated “the desert of the sea,” because the country around it, and especially towards the sea, was a great morass, often overflowed by the Tigris and Euphrates, and only rendered habitable by being drained by a number of canals. Isa 13:1, Isa 17:1
the desert: Isa 13:20-22, Isa 14:23, Jer 51:42
As whirlwinds: Job 37:9, Dan 11:40, Zec 9:14
from: Isa 13:4, Isa 13:5, Isa 13:17, Isa 13:18, Eze 30:11, Eze 31:12
Reciprocal: Psa 79:6 – upon Psa 137:8 – who art Isa 14:6 – is persecuted Jer 23:19 – General Jer 25:12 – that I Jer 50:1 – against Babylon Eze 1:4 – a whirlwind Eze 38:9 – shalt ascend Dan 5:26 – God Nah 1:1 – burden Zec 7:14 – scattered
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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 may 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 Isaiahs 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 prophets seeing, at a distance, the dreadful storm that is gathering, and ready to burst upon Babylon: the event is intimated in general terms; and Gods 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 Gods orders; who declare that Babylon is fallen.
As whirlwinds in the south, &c. Bishop Lowths 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.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 21:1. The desert of the sea. The army which invaded Babylon came not directly against it; but Cyrus made a circuitous route, and collected part of his army from the deserts and mountains towards the Caspian sea. Others call Babylon a sea, because at Easter, the time of the first fruits, Sir 24:25, the rivers Pison or Tigris, &c. overflowed their banks, by the melting snows on the mountains of Armenia.
Bishop Lowth has much relieved this prophecy of the fall of Babylon by the following translationLike the southern tempest, rushing violently along, from the desert he cometh, from the terrible country. A dreadful vision! It is revealed unto me: the plunderer is plundered, the destroyer is destroyed. Go up, oh Elam; form the siege, oh Media. I have put an end to all her vexations. Therefore are my loins filled with pain: anguish hath seized me, as the anguish of a woman in travail. I am convulsed so that I cannot hear. I am astonished so that I cannot see. My heart is bewildered: terrors have seized me: the evening for which I longed, hath he turned into horror. The table is spread, the watch is set: they eat, they drink. Rise up, oh ye princes, and anoint the shield; for thus hath the Lord said unto me. Go, set a watchman on his station; whatsoever he shall see, let him report it unto thee. And he saw a chariot with two riders; a rider on an ass, and a rider on a camel; and he observed diligently with extreme diligence. And he that looked out on the watch cried aloud, Oh my lord, I keep my station all the day long; and on my ward have I continued every night. And behold there cometh a man, one of the two riders; and he answered and said Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven idols of her gods are broken down to the ground.
Isa 21:2. The treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously. Babylon assumed splendid titles: the Lord here gives her the true one. In her grasp at universal empire, the very existence of neighbouring nations was a crime. She robbed and murdered the earth. Now the Medes were divinely commissioned to spoil the spoiler.
Isa 21:7. A couple of horsemen. This is a catachresis, a figure which improperly puts one thing for another; for these horsemen turn out to be an ass and a camelDarius and Cyrus.
Isa 21:8. A lion, my lord. This animal was anciently used to denote a king, and a conqueror. Perhaps the prophet did not deem it prudent to speak more plainly.
Isa 21:11. Dumah. The LXX write it Idumea. Being now under the Babylonian yoke, they enquire with great and redoubled eagerness concerning Babylon. Watchman, what of the night; watchman, what of the night. Shall we have peace or war, prosperity or renewed calamities, life or death?
Isa 21:12. The morning cometh, of joy and repose; but also the night cometh, of darkness and affliction. These words are brief, and by consequence obscure. The Chaldaic gives a paraphrase, which becomes a watchman to utter in calamitous times. The prophet replied, God shall reward the righteous, and the wicked shall be the victims of his wrath; therefore if you will be converted, be converted while you may.
REFLECTIONS.
What a striking view have we again of Babylons fall! The Medes and Persians we see had a high commission to execute the sentence passed in the court of heaven. Hence providence succeeded them in all their measures. The captive Jews, as all other nations, willingly joined the invading army; and all their sighing was made to cease. On the other hand, pangs, horror, and travail fell on the guilty city.
The night of pleasure, the sumptuous table, the eating and drinking, on the very night the city was taken are distinctly marked; and the consequent confusion of the proud infidel and drunken court, when the guards alarmed them with a cryRise up ye princes, and anoint the shield: for shields were anointed with oil, that the blow might be parried off with greater ease. The prophet having thus seen in vision the fall of Babylon one hundred and sixty years or more before it occurred, cast next a yearning look on his own country, as foreseeing their captivity, and exclaimed, oh my threshingfloor.
We have another prophecy against mount Seir and Dumah, inhabited by the Edomites and the Arabs to the south. Hear one trembling for his sinful country ask the prophet as a watchman, what he thinks of their situation. He answers, the morning of prosperity cometh, in which men are wanton in sin, and forgetful of God; then cometh the night of visitation. Therefore, if they wished to avoid the punishment, it was high time to awake out of sleep, and enquire and return to the Lord. The sense given by Grotius appears very wide of the mark. He supposes an Idumean soldier escaped from Babylon to be the watchman; and travelling by night, his countrymen asked him what news. He says, Babylon is fallen, and bids them return and escape the danger. But Idumea was too distant from Babylon to admit this whimsical notion. Besides, the fall of the oppressor placed all the nation under Cyrus, famed for his humanity.
The next prophecy is against the descendants of Dedan, a son of Abraham by Keturah. God warns before he strikes, but here the warning was short; for benoth shanah signifies before the present year is ended. This prophecy was no doubt fulfilled by the swarms of Sennacheribs army.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 21:1-10. The Capture of Babylon.This prophecy describes a siege and capture of Babylon by Elam and Media. It is almost universally considered to have been written shortly before the capture of Babylon by Cyrus in 538. The attempts made by a few critics to refer it to a capture of Babylon by Assyria in Isaiahs time 710, 703, or 696have not been successful. The title wilderness of the sea is difficult. Possibly the point is that Babylon is to become a marshy desert (Isa 14:23). LXX omits of the sea.
The army of the invader sweeps into Babylon from the desert, the terrible land which separates Babylon from Elam, like as a whirlwind sweeps over Judah from the Negeb. A distressing vision is revealed to the prophet; since Babylon treats the vanquished so brutally, Elam and Media are bidden besiege it, for Yahweh has decreed that the sighing of her captives shall be made to cease. The prophet is overwhelmed with pain and dismay; far other than he anticipated is the twilight that he desired, the still evening hour when the spirit is exalted to receive visions or other Divine communications. For before the captives can be delivered there are the horrors of war and of the siege to be endured, in which they must suffer severely. He now describes the state of things in Babylon with all the vividness of the immediate impression of his vision. He sees the foe rush on Babylon, he sees the unreadiness of the Babylonians for the conflict. They are feasting when the foe is upon them. Next the seer describes how the vision has come to him. The watchman is the prophet himself in his trance condition. The description casts an interesting light on the psychological character of this state, and on the mode in which revelation was mediated (p. 430). Similar distinctions in self-consciousness are familiar to students of anthropology and psychology. The watchman is bidden listen very attentively, when he sees a troop come in sight. The troop is the army which is to attack Babylon. For a long time nothing happens, and he cries out in his impatience. At last the appointed vision comes, and he divines that Babylon has fallen. The prophecy concludes with words addressed to Judah. The metaphor refers to the severe treatment that Judah has undergone at the hands of the Babylonians.
Isa 21:5. set a watch: the rendering is very uncertain. Perhaps we should accept mg.
Isa 21:8. as a lion: perhaps a metaphor for impatience, but the text is corrupt. Read either I see or in my ears.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
21:1 The burden of the {a} desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; [so] it cometh from the desert, {b} from a terrible 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.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The second oracle against Babylon 21:1-10
This is a message of the destruction of the anti-God religious and commercial system that Babylon has symbolized throughout history (cf. Revelation 17-18).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
This oracle concerns the wilderness of the sea. This enigmatic title probably refers to the flat Mesopotamian plain northwest of the Persian Gulf, which the Assyrian and Babylonian empires occupied (cf. Isa 21:9). This area would become a wilderness because of God’s judgment. The oracle came as a sirocco (a hot, desert wind) from the Negev, a region infamous in Judah for its barrenness and heat. The destruction coming on Babylonia from a terrifying land would be similar to the devastation that blew into Judah periodically from the Negev.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER XI
DRIFTING TO EGYPT
720-705 13. B.C.
Isa 20:1-6; Isa 21:1-10; Isa 38:1-22; Isa 39:1-8
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.