Isaiah 21:1-10

A Judgment on Babylon

1 An oracle against the desert by the sea: Like storms that pass over the Negev, it comes from the desert, from the land of terror.

2 A troubling vision is declared to me: "The treacherous one acts treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Advance, Elam! Lay siege, you Medes! I will put an end to all her groaning."

3 Therefore I am^[a] filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pain of a woman in labor. I am too perplexed to hear, too dismayed to see.

4 My heart staggers; horror terrifies me. He has turned my last glimmer of hope^[b] into sheer terror.

5 Prepare a table, and spread out a carpet! Eat and drink! Rise up, you princes, and oil the shields!

6 For the Lord has said to me, "Go, post a lookout; let him report what he sees.

7 When he sees riders- pairs of horsemen, riders on donkeys, riders on camels- pay close attention."

8 Then the lookout^[c] reported, "Lord, I stand on the watchtower all day, and I stay at my post all night.

9 Look, riders come- horsemen in pairs." And he answered, saying, "Babylon has fallen, has fallen. All the idols of her gods have been shattered on the ground."

10 My downtrodden and threshed people, I have declared to you what I have heard from the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel.

Isaiah 21:1-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 21

This chapter contains prophecies against Babylon, Idumea, and Arabia. The prophecy against Babylon is called "the burden of the desert of the sea"; whose enemies are described by the fierce manner of their coming, and by the land from whence they came, Isa 21:1 which vision being declared to the prophet, is called a grievous one; what made it so was treachery among themselves; and the Medes and Persians are invited to besiege them, Isa 21:2 their terror and distress upon it are represented by the pains of a woman in travail, whom the prophet personates, Isa 21:3,4 and by the methods they took to defend themselves, to which they were alarmed, when in the greatest security and jollity, Isa 21:5 all which is illustrated by the vision of the watchman, who saw the Medes and Persians on the march, signified by a chariot and a couple of horsemen, who declares the fall of Babylon, and the destruction of its gods, Isa 21:6-9 which would issue in the good and comfort of the church and people of God, Isa 21:10 then follows the prophecy against Idumea, which consists of a question put to the watchman, and his answer to it; to which an exhortation is added, Isa 21:11,12 and the chapter concludes with another prophecy against Arabia: the calamities threatened are lodging in a forest, thirst, famine, and fleeing from the sword Isa 21:13-15, and the time is fixed when all this should be, by which their glory would fail, and the number of their archers and mighty men be lessened; for the confirmation of which the divine testimony is annexed, Isa 21:16,17.

Footnotes

• [a] Lit Therefore my loins are
• [b] Lit my twilight
• [c] DSS, Syr; MT reads Then a lion