Against Babylon
21
📚The burden concerning the desert by the sea 📖:As whirlwinds pass through
the south,
so this comes from
the desert,
from a terrible land.
2 📚A grievous vision has been
declared to me:
the treacherous dealer
deals treacherously,
and the plunderer plunders.
Go up, O Elam!
Lay siege, O Media!
I have brought to an end
all the groaning it has caused.
3 📚Therefore my loins are filled
with pain;
pangs have taken hold of me,
like the pangs of a woman
in labour.
I writhe at the hearing of it;
I am dismayed by seeing it.
4 📚My heart pounds,
terror makes me afraid,
the twilight I desired he has
turned into fear for me.
21:3-4 The prophets were sometimes overcome by the visions they saw and the messages they delivered. Thoughts of the destruction, the pains, the miseries they announced caused them deep grief (Isa 16:9-11; Jer 4:19-26; Dan 8:27; 10:15-17).⚜
5 📚Prepare the table!
Be on the lookout in
the watchtower!
Eat, drink!
Arise, you princes,
and anoint the shield!
6 📚For thus the Lord has said to me,
“Go, set a watchman.
Have him declare what he sees”.
7 📚And he saw a chariot with
a pair of horsemen,
a chariot of donkeys,
and a chariot of camels;
and he listened alertly with great care.
8 📚And he cried out like a lion,
“My lord, I stand continually
on the watchtower
in the daytime,
and I have sat at my post
whole nights;
9 📚And, look,
here comes a chariot of men,
with a pair of horsemen”.
And he answered and said,
“Babylon has fallen,
has fallen!
And all the carved images of her
gods he has broken
to the ground”.
21:6-9 In vision Isaiah looks forward to a time long after his own day and hears the report of messengers or refugees from Babylon telling of the complete destruction of that city.⚜
10 📚O my threshing,
and the grain of my floor!
I have declared to you
what I have heard 📖 from
the LORD of hosts,
the God of Israel.
Against Edom
11 📚The burden concerning
Dumah 📖:
He calls out to me
from Seir,
“Watchman,
what of the night?
Watchman,
what of the night?”
12 📚The watchman said,
“The morning 📖 comes,
and also the night.
If you will inquire,
inquire 📖. Return, come”.
Against Arabia
13 📚The burden against Arabia 📖:
In the forest in Arabia you will lodge,
O you caravans of Dedanim 📖.
14 📚The inhabitants of the land
of Tema 📖 brought water
to him who was thirsty,
with their bread
they met him who fled.
15 📚For they fled from the sword,
from the drawn sword,
and from the bent bow,
and from the stress of battle.
21:15 Both the Assyrians and Babylonians attacked the Arabs at different times.⚜
16 📚For thus the Lord has said to me,
“Within a year,
as a hired man counts the years,
all the glory of Kedar 📖 will fail,
17 📚and the remainder of
the number of archers,
the mighty men of the children
of Kedar, will be diminished;
for the LORD God of Israel
has spoken it”.