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OLD TESTAMENT

Isaiah 21

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1

The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 1. The desert of the sea. So Babylon is here called, because from a city as full of people as the sea is with water, it was become a desert. Challoner.—After its fall, it was mostly inundated. Calmet. 13:20.—Land. Media and Persia, which lay to the south, and were not so beautiful as the environs of Babylon.

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2

A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media’s sighing.

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 2. Spoileth. Baltassar is incorrigible, or his opponents must proceed. Calmet.—Elam; that is, O Persia: ( Challoner.) Cyrus, and Darius, the Mede. Calmet.—The former nation was weak, and the latter strong. Worthington.—Cease. The enemy will shew no pity; nor shall I; as Babylon did not heretofore. Bible.

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3

Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have seized me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I am so dismayed that I can’t see.

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 3. Pain. He bewails the crimes and the fall of Babylon, which at this time was in amity with Ezechias. verse 10. Calmet.

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4

My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me.

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 4. Babylon. Prot. “the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me.” Septuagint “My soul is turned into fear.” Bible.

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5

They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield!

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 5. Drink. Persians refresh yourselves.—Take up. Hebrew “anoint.” He may also allude to the Babylonians, who were feasting.

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6

For the Lord said to me, “Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees.

7

When he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with great attentiveness.”

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 7. Camel. These two riders are the kings of the Persians and Medes. Challoner.—The sentinel, placed by Isaias, in spirit, or rather by the king of Babylon, brings these tidings. Calmet.

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8

He cried like a lion: “Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post.

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 8. Out. Lit. “He cried, a lion.” Bible.—Cyrus appears like one. Septuagint “And call Urias to the watch-tower,” and so forth Calmet. 8:2.

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9

Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.” He answered, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 9. Horsemen, drawn by the ass and camel. verse 7. This was verified long after.

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10

You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor!” That which I have heard from the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 10. Floor: you who must shortly be reduced to the utmost distress. Baladan was friendly to Ezechias. But Assaradon having seized Babylon, took Manasses prisoner; and the city thenceforward continued to fill up the measure of its sins. Calmet.

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11

The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?”

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 11. Duma. That is, Idumea, or Edom. Challoner.—It was a city of that country, twenty miles from Eleutheropolis. Saint Jerome—Assaradon desolated Idumea the following year. verse 16. The Jews absurdly apply to Rome what is said of Edom. Saint Jerome Calmet.

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12

The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again.”

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 12. Night. Instead of joy, I must announce dreadful things. Bible.

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13

The burden on Arabia. You will lodge in the thickets in Arabia, you caravans of Dedanites.

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 13. Arabia. This sentence is not in the Rom. ( Calmet.) or Alex. Septuagint ( Bible.) and Dedan is a city of Idumea. Calmet.—The Israelites are threatened. Worthington.

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14

They brought water to him who was thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread.

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 14. Water. To neglect this was to be accessary to another’s death, in those dreary regions. Calmet. 16:3. Deuteronomy 23:2.

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15

For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle.

16

For the Lord said to me, “Within a year, as a worker bound by contract would count it, all the glory of Kedar will fail,

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 16. Hireling; counting precisely. Calmet. 16:14. Calmet.—Cedar: Arabia, ( Challoner.) near to Edom. Calmet.

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17

and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, will be few; for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken it.”