Isaiah 21:17

17 Only a few of its courageous archers will survive. I, the LORD, the God of Israel, have spoken!”

Isaiah 21:17 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 21:17

And the residue of the number of archers
Or of "bow" {g}, for "bows": that is, of men that use the bow, or are expert at it, as the Kedarenes were, both for taking wild beasts, and fighting with men, in which they followed their original ancestor Ishmael, ( Genesis 21:20 ) the number of these archers it seems had been great, but would be lessened by the calamity threatened; and those that would escape that, and be preserved from it, should be lessened still, as follows: the mighty men of the children of Kedar shall be diminished;
their military men, the most expert at the use of the bow, and the most valiant and courageous; the few of those that were left, and did not fall by the sword of the Assyrians, should gradually diminish, and be fewer and fewer: for the Lord God of Israel hath spoken [it];
who cannot lie, nor will repent, and whose word never fails, what he has said he will do, nor will he alter the thing that is gone out of his lips; and he is spoken of as the God of Israel, because it was to the Israelites that this was said, and for their sakes; either because these Arabians some way or other were injurious to them, or they had put some confidence in them. The Targum is,

``because by the word of the Lord God of Israel it is so decreed.''

FOOTNOTES:

F7 (tvq rpom) "numeri arcus", Montanus, Cocceius.

Isaiah 21:17 In-Context

15 They have fled from the sword, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow and the terrors of battle.
16 The Lord said to me, “Within a year, counting each day, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end.
17 Only a few of its courageous archers will survive. I, the LORD, the God of Israel, have spoken!”
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.