“565. INCIDENTS OF ANCIENT WARFARE—ISAIAH 21”

Incidents of Ancient Warfare—Isaiah 21

The fourteenth chapter of Isaiah is occupied with a magnificent triumphal ode on the overthrow of Babylon. But as this supplies no circumstantial details of the kind we here seek, we pass on to Isaiah 21. The subject, as we have already partly considered it, is resumed with many new and interesting intimations.

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. Note: Not well translated. Better thus, as in Henderson—

“The plunderer plundering, and the destroyer destroying.”

Go up, Olam! besiege, O Media!

All the sighing thereof have I made to cease. Note: Rather, “all the cause of sighing,” that is, the oppression, etc.

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 Watch-tower,

Eat and 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; Note: Some render this into, “He cried out like a lion;” others by “Like a lion they come].” The latter seems to come in best. The original is simply “A lion,” as in the authorized version.

My lord, I stand continually upon the watch-tower in the day-time,

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.”

“This oracle or ode,” says Mr. Barnes, in his Note on Isaiah (here amplifying Lowth), “is one of very singular beauty. It is distinguished for its brevity, energy, and force; for the variety and rapidity of the action; and for the striking manner in which the events are made to pass before the mind. It is the language of strong excitement and alarm; language that expresses rapid and important movements; and language that belongs to great vigor in conception and sublimity in description. In the oracle the prophet supposes himself in Babylon, and the events which are described are made to pass rapidly in vision before him.”

He first sees a dreadful storm coming at a distance—figuring the hostile armies—approaching like a whirlwind, and threatening destruction to everything in its way. This comparison is the more appropriate, as the approach of such whirlwinds as the prophet has in view, is indicated by vast and dense bodies of dust and sand raised into the air, and presenting in the distance an appearance not at all dissimilar to that which is occasioned by the clouds of dust raised by the advance of a large body of men and cattle. In Babylon, as in Palestine, such whirlwinds come mostly from the South, in which direction the arid deserts of Arabia extend. Hence the whirlwind is here properly referred to that direction, although the invasion figured by it came from another quarter.

The prophet then (Isa_21:2) represents himself as acquainted with the real purport of the vision; and he hears the voice of God, summoning Elam (Persia) and Media to the siege. Regarding himself as among the exiles in Babylon, and in view of these invading hosts (Isa_21:3-4), he describes himself as deeply affected at the view of this sudden invasion, and of the calamities that hung over Babylon. The images here employed are such as are frequently used in Scripture to express the utmost intensity of agitation and concern. It is somewhat doubtful whether the prophet expresses this in his own person or in that of Babylon. Barnes thinks the former; Lowth and Henderson the latter, and with them we are disposed to agree, as there is no reason why the prophet should express so much concern at the accomplishment of that at which he elsewhere exults, and which is everywhere upheld as a triumphal fulfillment of the Lord’s purposes.

In the next verse (Isa_21:5), the prophet, in his own person, describes the state of the Babylonians. This is done in a few rapid and graphic words. The night of fear is one of destined pleasure. They are represented as preparing the table, making ready for feasting and revelry, setting the watch on the watchtower, and giving themselves up to feasting; and then as being suddenly alarmed, and called upon to anoint the shield, and prepare for war. Nothing can more strikingly than this depict the night-capture of the city by Cyrus during a night of feasting, as already described. Take it as we will, this is one of the most surprising prophecies ever uttered, and second only, in convincing effect, to that in which Cyrus is called by name to the great work which was given him to do. It is in every respect as exact as if the whole scene were, as it seems to have been in vision, present, in all its circumstances, to the narrator’s mind; or as being, at least, written immediately after, instead of several generations before the event. As it was impossible for any human imagination to have guessed at so singular a combination of circumstances, we must regard this as one of the strong points calculated to impress the mind of Cyrus, when the prophecy was presented to his notice, and to work in him the convictions on which he acted. Those who strive to illustrate the memory of this great man, have little to exult in that he yielded to such evidence; for he must have been not only much less candid and open-minded than he really was, but much less so than mankind usually are, had he resisted the sunbeam evidence which this and other passages supply.

Even the circumstances of fixing the guards finds corroboration; for in the account which Xenophon gives of the transactions in Babylon, he says that the inhabitants, “having arranged their guards, drank till light.”

The call to “anoint the shield” seems to have been a well-known call to arms, amounting to, “Hold your weapons ready for action.” And this was founded upon the circumstance, that the ancient shields being mostly of stout leather stretched over a frame or rim of metal or wood, it was necessary to rub them with oil, lest they should become hard and crack, or lest they should become so rigid that an arrow or spear might easily penetrate them. Shields of this kind are still much in use, and still require the same treatment, in Western Asia; and we have ourselves frequently seen them on sale in the bazaars, and in use among the Arabs, the Kurds, and the Caucasians.

The prophet neat proceeds to describe what came to pass. He does not narrate the matter, but he describes himself as directed to appoint a watchman to announce what he shall see. The watchman sees troops approaching, variously mounted, and intended, without doubt, to indicate what would actually be most conspicuous to a person viewing the advancing hosts from the high places of Babylon. He sees a troop of horses, two abreast (for so the text is to be understood), then a troop of camels, then a troop of asses. The horses require no particular explanation, as the Persians have been famous for their cavalry in all ages, and were so in the age of Cyrus. But let it be observed, that in this prediction there is something of the same nature as the prediction of that hero’s name before he existed. For the Persians had no partiality for cavalry before his time; and it was owing to his measures, his care, and his exhortations, that they were rendered so famous as horsemen, and acquired a taste which survives among them to this day. This matter is very conspicuously set forth by Xenophon; and by him also it is particularly mentioned, that, as here described, the Persian cavalry marched in double ranks.

Persian Horse, with Bell on the Neck

It is remarkable, however, that the contemporary Persian sculptures afford no examples of men on horseback, although they occur abundantly in the Sassanian sculptures of a later date, when the costumes of the people and the caparisons of the horses had become strongly different. There are, however, a few led horses, as if ready for mounting; and the simplicity of their furniture is in striking contrast with the showy trappings of the Assyrian cavalry. But in these we still find the “bell,” mentioned in Zec_14:20. The horses also seem of heavier form than those of the Assyrians. The same comparative simplicity is likewise seen in the chariots, which are devoid of ornament, and are of a much heavier build than those of the Assyrians.

Persian War Chariot

Then as to the camels. There has been much conjecture with respect to them. The Bedouin Arabs certainly use them in their battles, and the modern Persians have a kind of artillery mounted on camels. It is known also, that in all Eastern armies camels have been much in request for the carriage of baggage. But we need not any of these sources of illustration, for we have seen in the description of the battle of Thybarra, that Cyrus had in his army a corps of camels mounted by Arabian archers; and that these camels rendered him essential service on more than one occasion. Some persons have supposed, from the anecdotes there related, that the camels were employed merely to frighten the horses of the enemy; but if they had examined the matter more closely, they would have seen that this use of them was merely incidental, and was founded upon an observation (made probably by Cyrus himself), that the sight and smell of camels were offensive to horses not accustomed to them—their proper use being to carry two skilful archers, back to back. It is highly probable that the Arabians, who, as Xenophon states, were present at the siege of Babylon, were no other than the riders of these camels.

We trace the same minute accuracy in the mention of asses. Many of our readers will say that they never heard of asses being employed in war. Yet so it was; and that, too, in the army of the Persians. We do not, indeed, find any direct testimony of their use in the army of Cyrus; but the fact that they were so, may be inferred from our knowledge that asses are expressly mentioned by Strabo, as having been employed by Darius Hystaspis in his warfare against the Scythians. Whether they formed a regular part of the military force, or that there was something in the special service against Babylon which rendered the services of asses important, cannot be determined. It is enough to show, that they were sometimes employed by the Persians in their military operations; and it is to be borne in mind, that the asses in question were something very different from those we are in the habit of seeing—the species in those parts being the finest in the world, of large size, of comely proportions, of much strength, and of considerable fleetness.

It appears to us that Isa_21:8, in which the watchman describes himself as having watched day and night, is introduced to mark an interval of the action, corresponding to the two years which Cyrus spent before the walls of Babylon, during which he carefully took note of what was to come of this great array. With reference to that passage, let it be observed, that when the ancients stationed a watch for a special purpose, they did not continually relieve and change the watcher, but kept the same man as much as possible on duty, that they might secure the benefit of his practised observation. The text, “I stand continually upon the watch-tower in the day-time, and am set in my ward whole nights,” has been pointed out in the Pictorial Bible as being remarkably similar to a passage at the opening of the Agamemnon of Eschylus, being the speech of the watcher who had long been stationed upon his tower to look out for the signal which should make known that Troy had fallen. It is given in the words of Symmons’ translation—

“Forever thus? O keep me not, ye gods,

Forever thus; fixed in the lonely tower

Of Atreus’ palace, from whose height I gaze

O’erwatched and weary, like a night dog still

Fixed to my post: meanwhile the rolling year

Moves on, and I my wakeful vigils keep,

By the cold star-light sheen of spangled skies.”

After this pause, the sacred watcher perceives the final movement; he sees them come in “like lions,” and, in his certainty of the inevitable consequences, cries—“Babylon is fallen—is fallen!”

This has been pointed out by writers on rhetoric as a very fee example of intensity of expression given by iteration. It has been imitated with advantage, though to the verge of exaggeration, by Dryden, in the only great ode the English language possesses; and that with reference to the last of the ancient Persian kings.

“He sang Darius great and good,

By too severe a fate,

Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,

Fallen from his high estate,

And weltering in his blood:

Deserted at his utmost need

By those his former bounty fed;

On the bare earth exposed he lies,

With not a friend to close his eyes.”—Alexander’s Feast.

Autor: JOHN KITTO