Isaiah 21

This is the heavy message against the Desert by the Sea. Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southern desert, it comes from the wilderness, from a land of terror.

1The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.

Note"Burden" is the old word for a prophet's formal pronouncement of doom against a nation, a heavy word laid on the speaker to deliver. Several of these oracles run through Isaiah 13–23, each headed the same way. "The Desert by the Sea" is a riddling name rather than a place on any map; verse 9 reveals that the target is Babylon, which sat on the Euphrates amid marshland in southern Mesopotamia. The "southern desert" is the Negev, the dry country south of Judah, notorious for sudden violent windstorms sweeping up out of it.

2A harsh vision has been shown to me: the traitor still betrays, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up and attack, Elam! Lay siege, Media! I am putting an end to all the groaning she caused.

2A 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.

NoteElam lay east of Babylon, around modern southwestern Iran; Media lay to the northeast, in what is now northwestern Iran. Both were peoples on Babylon's frontier who could be summoned against it. The last line is genuinely ambiguous in Hebrew: it can mean the groaning Babylon inflicted on others is being ended, or the groaning of Babylon's own victims, or the sighing Babylon itself will make.

3That is why my body is filled with pain. Cramps grip me, like the pains of a woman giving birth. What I hear leaves me bent over; what I see leaves me shaken.

3Therefore 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.

4My heart pounds. Fear makes me shake. The evening I looked forward to has been turned into terror for me.

4My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me.

NoteLiterally "the twilight I longed for", the cool evening a person waits for all day, here turned into a time of dread. Verse 5 goes on to describe a feast held in that evening.

5They set the table. They post the lookout. They eat and drink. Get up, you princes! Rub oil on the shields!

5Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.

NoteThe Hebrew phrase behind "post the lookout" is uncertain; it may instead mean "spread out the rugs", the cushions or mats guests reclined on at a banquet. Either reading sits inside the same picture of a feast interrupted. Shields were covered in leather, and oiling them kept the hide supple and made enemy blows glance off. Rubbing oil on the shields was the standard last act before battle.

6This is what the Lord said to me: "Go, post a watchman, and have him report what he sees."

6For thus hath the LORD said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.

NoteA watchman stood on the city wall or a tower to spot approaching travelers, caravans or armies while they were still far off, and shout down what he saw. The word for the office is the same one used for a prophet watching for what is coming.

7And the watchman saw a column of riders, horsemen in pairs, riders on donkeys, riders on camels. He listened hard and paid very close attention.

7And 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:

NoteRiders in pairs, and on donkeys and camels, describe the transport of the desert and the eastern armies rather than Israelite forces, camels in particular marked peoples from the Arabian and Mesopotamian steppe.

8Then he called out, "A lion!" He said, "My lord, I stand on the watchtower all day long, and I stay at my post all night long.

8And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights:

Note"A lion" translates the traditional Hebrew text, and would be a cry of alarm or a comparison to a lion's roar. A copy of Isaiah found among the Dead Sea Scrolls reads instead "the one who saw": that is, the lookout called out. The line has never been settled.

9Look, here comes a column of men, horsemen in pairs." Then someone answered and said, "Babylon has fallen, it has fallen! All the carved images of her gods lie smashed on the ground."

9And, 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.

NoteBabylon was the great imperial city on the Euphrates in what is now Iraq. Its gods were represented by carved statues carried in processions; toppling and smashing those images was the conventional way conquerors announced that a city's gods had failed it.

10My people, you are like grain beaten out and crushed on the threshing floor. What I have heard from the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, is what I have told you.

10O 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.

NoteOn a threshing floor, harvested grain was beaten or trodden to separate the edible kernels from the husks, a standard image for a people pounded by invasion. "LORD of hosts," rendered here "LORD of Armies," is a title meaning the LORD who commands armies, whether Israel's or the heavenly ones. Where the King James has "corn," it means grain of any kind, not maize; the American plant was unknown to the translators' readers in that sense.

11This is the heavy message against Dumah. Someone calls to me from Seir, "Watchman, how much of the night is left? Watchman, how much of the night is left?"

11The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?

NoteDumah was an oasis settlement in northern Arabia. The name is also the ordinary Hebrew word for "silence," so the heading carries a grim pun the English cannot show. Seir is the mountainous country of Edom, southeast of the Dead Sea. The question "what of the night?" is what travelers or the anxious asked a sentry: how much of the night watch is still to run before dawn.

12The watchman answered, "Morning is coming, and night is coming too. If you want to ask, then ask. Come back again."

12The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come.

NoteThe watchman's answer is deliberately unresolved in Hebrew (morning is coming, but the night is coming too) and "return, come" may mean either come back later, or turn around and go home. Translations differ because the original does not decide.

13This is the heavy message against Arabia. You will spend the night in the thickets of Arabia, you traveling caravans of Dedan.

13The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim.

Note"Arabia" here means the northern Arabian desert and its caravan routes, not the whole peninsula as understood today. Dedan was a trading oasis in northwestern Arabia; its people ran the incense and goods caravans through this territory. Spending the night in the thickets rather than at a caravan stop means the ordinary route has become unsafe.

14You people who live in the land of Tema, bring water to those who are thirsty; go out and meet those who are running away, and give them food.

14The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that fled.

NoteTema was another oasis on the same northwest Arabian caravan road, about seventy miles from Dedan and known for its wells. Supplying water and bread to travelers was the expected duty of an oasis community, and refusing it was a serious breach of desert custom. The King James "prevented" here means "went out to meet," not "stopped", the sense of the English word has reversed since 1611.

15For they are running away from swords, from the sword pulled from its sheath, from the bent bow, and from the hard weight of war.

15For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.

16This is what the Lord said to me: "Within one year, counted exactly as a hired worker counts his year, all the glory of Kedar will be gone.

16For 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:

NoteA hired laborer worked to a contract and counted his term to the day, with no allowance made for a good year or a bad one. "A year, as a hired worker counts it" therefore means one year exactly, not a round figure. Kedar was a powerful nomadic Arab tribe of the northern desert, listed in Genesis as descended from Ishmael. They were known for their black goat-hair tents, their flocks and their trade.

17The archers who are left, the fighting men of Kedar, will be few." The LORD, the God of Israel, has said it.

17And 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.

NoteKedar's archers were its recognized military strength; naming them is the equivalent of naming a nation's best regiment. "Will be few" is a deliberate understatement for near-annihilation.