This chapter deals with Babylon identified with Rome, the Arabs (perhaps Iraq), and Edom also identified with Rome but more specifically with Germany or Europe led by Germany. Descendants of Edomites are also present (as a minority factor) in Russia and Japan and amongst the Israelite nations.
This chapter has been interpreted differently by every commentator who applied himself to it. There is agreement on some points but on others opinions are wideley divergent. We must remember that Isaiah spoke primarily for the future while dressing his message in events pertinenet to his own time or just afterwards. All prophecy is like this.
[Isaiah 21:1] THE BURDEN OF THE DESERT OF THE SEA. AS WHIRLWINDS IN THE SOUTH PASS THROUGH; SO IT COMETH FROM THE DESERT, FROM A TERRIBLE LAND. "THE DESERT OF THE SEA”: To get to Babylon the deser had to be crossed. Babylon was at the head of a portion of Mesopotamia known as the Sea-Lands north of the Persian Gulf.
[Isaiah 21:2] A GRIEVOUS VISION IS DECLARED UNTO ME; THE TREACHEROUS DEALER DEALETH TREACHEROUSLY, AND THE SPOILER SPOILETH. GO UP, O ELAM: BESIEGE, O MEDIA; ALL THE SIGHING THEREOF HAVE I MADE TO CEASE.
Babylon was eventually overcome by the Persian Empire that included Media.
GO UP, O ELAM: BESIEGE, O MEDIA “Elam” was in effect Persia. The Persian elite spoke an Indo-European dialect but the rank and file were descended from Elamites. The Baltic languages (Lithuanian, Latvian) are said to be very similar to that of Ancient Media. Craig White and others identify some of the Slavic peoples (such as the Serbs) are descended from Elam.
[Isaiah 21:3] THEREFORE ARE MY LOINS FILLED WITH PAIN: PANGS HAVE TAKEN HOLD UPON ME, AS THE PANGS OF A WOMAN THAT TRAVAILETH: I WAS BOWED DOWN AT THE HEARING OF IT; I WAS DISMAYED AT THE SEEING OF IT. [
[Isaiah 21:4] MY HEART PANTED, FEARFULNESS AFFRIGHTED ME: THE NIGHT OF MY PLEASURE HATH HE TURNED INTO FEAR UNTO ME. [
[Isaiah 21:5] PREPARE THE TABLE, WATCH IN THE WATCHTOWER, EAT, DRINK: ARISE, YE PRINCES, AND ANOINT THE SHIELD. [
[Isaiah 21:6] FOR THUS HATH THE LORD SAID UNTO ME, GO, SET A WATCHMAN, LET HIM DECLARE WHAT HE SEETH. [
[Isaiah 21:7] AND HE SAW A CHARIOT WITH A COUPLE OF HORSEMEN, A CHARIOT OF ASSES, AND A CHARIOT OF CAMELS; AND HE HEARKENED DILIGENTLY WITH MUCH HEED: [
[Isaiah 21:8] AND HE CRIED, A LION: MY LORD, I STAND CONTINUALLY UPON THE WATCHTOWER IN THE DAYTIME, AND I AM SET IN MY WARD WHOLE NIGHTS:
[Isaiah 21:9] AND, BEHOLD, HERE COMETH A CHARIOT OF MEN, WITH A COUPLE OF HORSEMEN. AND HE ANSWERED AND SAID, BABYLON IS FALLEN, IS FALLEN; AND ALL THE GRAVEN IMAGES OF HER GODS HE HATH BROKEN UNTO THE GROUND.
[Isaiah 21:10] O MY THRESHING, AND THE CORN OF MY FLOOR: THAT WHICH I HAVE HEARD OF THE LORD OF HOSTS, THE GOD OF ISRAEL, HAVE I DECLARED UNTO YOU.
[Isaiah 21:11] THE BURDEN OF DUMAH. HE CALLETH TO ME OUT OF SEIR, WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT? WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?
“DUMAH” was in northern Arabia. Seir means Edom. Amos Chacham suggested that refugees from Dumah go to Edom and there send inquiries to the Prophet.
[Isaiah 21:12] THE WATCHMAN SAID, THE MORNING COMETH, AND ALSO THE NIGHT: IF YE WILL ENQUIRE, ENQUIRE YE: RETURN, COME.
Isaiah in these passages uses difficult Hebrew interspersed with expressions more common in Aramaic. The readers in Isaiah’s time would have felt an added touch of autheniticity through his choice of languages that echoed that associated with the n\eighborhood of the areas he spoke of.
IF YE WILL ENQUIRE, ENQUIRE YE: RETURN, COME: a general message to all of us. If we to repent and find God Let us seek HIM out while we can, while we have time. Seek and you will find.
[Isaiah 21:13] THE BURDEN UPON ARABIA. IN THE FOREST IN ARABIA SHALL YE LODGE, O YE TRAVELLING COMPANIES OF DEDANIM.
Dedanim: mixed ancestry Arabs, partly Semitic, partly Hamitic.
[Isaiah 21:14] THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND OF TEMA BROUGHT WATER TO HIM THAT WAS THIRSTY, THEY PREVENTED WITH THEIR BREAD HIM THAT FLED.
[Isaiah 21:15] FOR THEY FLED FROM THE SWORDS, FROM THE DRAWN SWORD, AND FROM THE BENT BOW, AND FROM THE GRIEVOUSNESS OF WAR. [
[Isaiah 21:16] FOR THUS HATH THE LORD SAID UNTO ME, WITHIN A YEAR, ACCORDING TO THE YEARS OF AN HIRELING, AND ALL THE GLORY OF KEDAR SHALL FAIL:
[Isaiah 21:17] AND THE RESIDUE OF THE NUMBER OF ARCHERS, THE MIGHTY MEN OF THE CHILDREN OF KEDAR, SHALL BE DIMINISHED: FOR THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL HATH SPOKEN IT.
KEDAR- may well refer to North America. See the book “Ephraim”.
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