Isaiah 21

Isaiah 21:1-10 . REPETITION OF THE ASSURANCE GIVEN IN THE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CHAPTERS TO THE JEWS ABOUT TO BE CAPTIVES IN BABYLON, THAT THEIR ENEMY SHOULD BE DESTROYED AND THEY BE DELIVERED.

He does not narrate the event, but graphically supposes himself a watchman in Babylon, beholding the events as they pass.

1. desert--the champaign between Babylon and Persia; it was once a desert, and it was to become so again.
of the sea--The plain was covered with the water of the Euphrates like a "sea" ( Jeremiah 51:13 Jeremiah 51:36 ; so Isaiah 11:15 , the Nile), until Semiramis 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 , Zechariah 9:14 ). The south wind comes upon Babylon from the deserts of Arabia, and its violence is the greater from its course being unbroken along the plain ( Job 1:19 ).
desert--the plain between Babylon and Persia.
terrible land--Media; to guard against which was the object of Nitocris great works [HERODOTUS, 1.185]. Compare as to "terrible" applied to a wilderness, as being full of unknown dangers, Deuteronomy 1:29 .

2. dealeth treacherously--referring to the military stratagem employed by Cyrus in taking Babylon. It may be translated, "is repaid with treachery"; then the subject of the verb is Babylon. She is repaid in her own coin; Isaiah 33:1 , Habakkuk 2:8 , favor this.
Go up--Isaiah abruptly recites the order which he hears God giving to the Persians, the instruments of His vengeance ( Isaiah 13:3 Isaiah 13:17 ).
Elam--a province of Persia, the original place of their settlement ( Genesis 10:22 ), east of the Euphrates. The name "Persia" was not in use until the captivity; it means a "horseman"; Cyrus first trained the Persians in horsemanship. It is a mark of authenticity that the name is not found before Daniel and Ezekiel [BOCHART].
thereof--the "sighing" caused by Babylon ( Isaiah 14:7 Isaiah 14:8 ).

3. Isaiah imagines himself among the exiles in Babylon and cannot help feeling moved by the calamities which come on it. So for Moab ( Isaiah 15:5 , 16:11 ).
pain--(Compare Isaiah 13:8 , Ezekiel 30:4 Ezekiel 30:19 , Nahum 2:10 ).
at the hearing--The Hebrew may mean, "I was so bowed down that I could not hear; I was so dismayed that I could not see" ( Genesis 16:2 , Psalms 69:23 ) [MAURER].

4. panted--"is bewildered" [BARNES].
night of my pleasure--The prophet supposes himself one of the banqueters at Belshazzar's feast, on the night that Babylon was about to be taken by surprise; hence his expression, "my pleasure" ( Isaiah 14:11 , Jeremiah 51:39 , Daniel 5:1-31 ).