Isaiah 21:8

8 Then the lookout ^[a] shouted: “Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower; night after night I stay at my post.

Isaiah 21:8 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 21:8

And he cried, a lion
That is, the watchman cried, a lion, or that he saw a lion; not Uriah the priest, as the Septuagint; nor Habakkuk, as some Jewish writers; but Cyrus, at the head of the Persian and Median armies, compared to a lion for his fierceness, courage, and strength; see ( 2 Timothy 4:17 ) a type of Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, by whom antichrist, or mystical Babylon, will be destroyed, ( Revelation 5:5 ) . The Targum is,

``the prophet said, the voice of armies, coming with coats of mail, as a lion.''

Aben Ezra interprets it, the watchman cried as a lion, with a great voice; upon sight of the chariots and horsemen, he lifted up his voice, and roared like a lion, to express the terror he was in, and the greatness of the calamity that was coming upon the city. I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime:
so that nothing could escape his notice: and I am set in my ward whole nights:
which expresses his diligence, vigilance, and constancy, in the discharge of his duty; and therefore what he said he saw might be depended on.

Isaiah 21:8 In-Context

6 For this is what the Lord says to me: “Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees.

7 When he sees chariots with teams of horsemen, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, he must be alert, fully alert.”

8 Then the lookout shouted: “Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower; night after night I stay at my post.

9 Look, here come the riders, horsemen in pairs.” And one answered, saying: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon! All the images of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”

10 O my people, crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heard from the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel.

Footnotes

• [a]. DSS and Syriac; MT lion