Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

21. Prophecy Against Babylon

¹ A prophecy against the Desert by the Sea:

   Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland,
   an invader comes from the desert,
   from a land of terror.

    ² A dire vision has been shown to me:
   The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot.
Elam, attack! Media, lay siege!
   I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.

    ³ At this my body is racked with pain,
   pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor;
I am staggered by what I hear,
   I am bewildered by what I see.
⁴ My heart falters,
   fear makes me tremble;
the twilight I longed for
   has become a horror to me.

    ⁵ They set the tables,
   they spread the rugs,
   they eat, they drink!
Get up, you officers,
   oil the shields!

⁶ 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 horses,
riders on donkeys
   or riders on camels,
let him be alert,
   fully alert.”

⁸ And the lookout Dead Sea Scrolls and Syriac; Masoretic Text A lion shouted,

   “Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower;
   every night I stay at my post.
⁹ Look, here comes a man in a chariot
   with a team of horses.
And he gives back the answer:
   ‘Babylon has fallen, has fallen!
All the images of its gods
   lie shattered on the ground!’”

    ¹⁰ My people who are crushed on the threshing floor,
   I tell you what I have heard
from the LORD Almighty,
   from the God of Israel.

A Prophecy Against Edom

¹¹ A prophecy against Dumah Dumah, a wordplay on Edom, means silence or stillness.:

   Someone calls to me from Seir,
   “Watchman, what is left of the night?
   Watchman, what is left of the night?”
¹² The watchman replies,
   “Morning is coming, but also the night.
If you would ask, then ask;
   and come back yet again.”

A Prophecy Against Arabia

¹³ A prophecy against Arabia:

   You caravans of Dedanites,
   who camp in the thickets of Arabia,
    ¹⁴ bring water for the thirsty;
you who live in Tema,
   bring food for the fugitives.
¹⁵ They flee from the sword,
   from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow
   and from the heat of battle.

¹⁶ This is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end. ¹⁷ The survivors of the archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” The LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.

5. Prepare the table. These verbs may be taken for participles; as if he had said, “While they were preparing the table and appointing a guard, while they were eating and drinking, sudden terror arose; there was a call to arms, Arise ye princes,” etc.. But Isaiah presents lively descriptions, so as to place the actual event, as it were, before our eyes. Certainly Xenophon does not describe so historically the storming of the city; and this makes it evident that it was not natural sagacity, but heavenly inspiration, that taught Isaiah to describe so vividly events that were unknown. Besides, we ought to observe the time when these predictions were uttered; for at that time the kingdom of Babylon was in its most flourishing condition, and appeared to have invincible power, and dreaded no danger. Isaiah ridicules this vain confidence, and shews that this power will speedily be laid in ruins.

Let it not be thought absurd that he introduces the watchmen as speaking; for although the siege had not shaken off the slothfulness of a proud and foolish tyrant so as to hinder him from indulging in gaiety and feasting, still there is no room to doubt that men were appointed to keep watch. It is customary indeed with princes to defend themselves by guards, that they may more freely and without any disturbance abandon themselves to every kind of pleasure; but the Prophet expressly mixes up the sentinels with the delicacies of the table, to make it more evident that the wicked tyrant was seized with a spirit of giddiness before he sunk down to drunken reveling. The king of Babylon was thus feasting and indulging in mirth with his courtiers, when he was overtaken by a sudden and unexpected calamity, not that he was out of danger, but because he disregarded and scorned the enemy. The day before it happened, it might have been thought incredible, for the conspiracy of Gobryas, and of that party which betrayed him, had not yet been discovered. At the time when Isaiah spoke, none would have thought that an event so extraordinary would ever take place.