Yeshayah 21:1-10

1 1 The massa (burden) concerning the Midbar Yam (desert by the sea). As sufot (whirlwinds) in the Negev sweep through; so it cometh from the midbar, from eretz nora’ah.

2 A chazut kashah (harsh vision) is declared unto me; the boged (traitor) dealeth treacherously, and the shoded (destroyer) destroyeth. Go up, O Elam; besiege, O Media; all the groaning she [Babylon] caused have I made to cease.

3 Therefore are my loins filled with pain; tzirim (pangs) have taken hold upon me, as the tzirim (pangs) of a woman in labor; I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.

4 My lev panted, fearfulness seized upon me; the neshef (twilight) of my longing hath become unto me as kharadah (shuddering horror).

5 [They are] setting the shulchan, spreading the tzafit (dining carpet), to eat, to drink; arise, ye sarim (princes), and anoint the mogen.

6 For thus hath Adonoi said unto me, Go, post the metzapeh (watchman), let him report what he seeth.

7 When he sees riders with a pair of parashim, donkey riders and camel riders, then he pays heed diligently with great care;

8 And the one seeing cried out, Adoni, I stand continually on the mitzpeh (watchtower) in the daytime, and I am set in my mishmeret (guard duty) kol halailot (every night),

9 And, hinei, here cometh a merkavah with a man, a pair of parashim. And he answered and said, Bavel (Babylon) is fallen, is fallen; and all the pesilim (images) of her elohim (g-ds) hath been shattered on the ground.

10 O my threshed [people], and the grain of my goren (threshing floor); that which I have heard of Hashem Tzva’os Elohei Yisroel, have I declared unto you.

Yeshayah 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.