Commentari biblici

Isa 21:1-10.

REPETITION OF THE ASSURANCE GIVEN IN THE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CHAPTERS TO THE JEWS ABOUT TO BE CAPTIVES IN BABYLON, THAT THEIR ENEMY SHOULD BE DESTROYED AND THEY BE DELIVERED.

He does not narrate the event, but graphically supposes himself a watchman in Babylon, beholding the events as they pass.

1. desert--the champaign between Babylon and Persia; it was once a desert, and it was to become so again.

of the sea--The plain was covered with the water of the Euphrates like a "sea"

(Jer 51:13, 36; so

Isa 11:15,

the Nile), until Semiramis raised great dams against it. Cyrus removed these dykes, and so converted the whole country again into a vast desert marsh.

whirlwinds in the south--

(Job 37:9; Zec 9:14).

The south wind comes upon Babylon from the deserts of Arabia, and its violence is the greater from its course being unbroken along the plain

(Job 1:19).

desert--the plain between Babylon and Persia.

terrible land--Media; to guard against which was the object of Nitocris' great works [HERODOTUS, 1.185]. Compare as to "terrible" applied to a wilderness, as being full of unknown dangers,

De 1:29.

2. dealeth treacherously--referring to the military stratagem employed by Cyrus in taking Babylon. It may be translated, "is repaid with treachery"; then the subject of the verb is Babylon. She is repaid in her own coin;

Isa 33:1; Hab 2:8,

favor this.

Go up--Isaiah abruptly recites the order which he hears God giving to the Persians, the instruments of His vengeance

(Isa 13:3, 17).

Elam--a province of Persia, the original place of their settlement

(Ge 10:22),

east of the Euphrates. The name "Persia" was not in use until the captivity; it means a "horseman"; Cyrus first trained the Persians in horsemanship. It is a mark of authenticity that the name is not found before Daniel and Ezekiel [BOCHART].

thereof--the "sighing" caused by Babylon

(Isa 14:7, 8).

3. Isaiah imagines himself among the exiles in Babylon and cannot help feeling moved by the calamities which come on it. So for Moab

(Isa 15:5; 16:11).

pain--(Compare

Isa 13:8; Eze 30:4, 19; Na 2:10).

at the hearing--The Hebrew may mean, "I was so bowed down that I could not hear; I was so dismayed that I could not see"

(Ge 16:2; Ps 69:23)

[MAURER].

4. panted--"is bewildered" [BARNES].

night of my pleasure--The prophet supposes himself one of the banqueters at Belshazzar's feast, on the night that Babylon was about to be taken by surprise; hence his expression, "my pleasure"

(Isa 14:11; Jer 51:39; Da 5:1-31).

5. Prepare the table--namely, the feast in Babylon; during which Cyrus opened the dykes made by Semiramis to confine the Euphrates to one channel and suffered them to overflow the country, so that he could enter Babylon by the channel of the river. Isaiah first represents the king ordering the feast to be got ready. The suddenness of the irruption of the foe is graphically expressed by the rapid turn in the language to an alarm addressed to the Babylonian princes, "Arise," &c. (compare

Isa 22:13).

MAURER translates, "They prepare the table," &c. But see

Isa 8:9.

watch in . . . watchtower--rather, "set the watch." This done, they thought they might feast in entire security. Babylon had many watchtowers on its walls.

anoint . . . shield--This was done to prevent the leather of the shield becoming hard and liable to crack. "Make ready for defense"; the mention of the "shield" alone implies that it is the Babylonian revellers who are called on to prepare for instant self-defense. HORSLEY translates, "Grip the oiled shield."

6. Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth--God's direction to Isaiah to set a watchman to "declare" what he sees. But as in

Isa 21:10,

Isaiah himself is represented as the one who "declared." HORSLEY makes him the "watchman," and translates, "Come, let him who standeth on the watchtower report what he seeth."

7. chariot, &c.--rather, "a body of riders," namely, some riding in pairs on horses (literally, "pairs of horsemen," that is, two abreast), others on asses, others on camels (compare

Isa 21:9; Isa 22:6).

"Chariot" is not appropriate to be joined, as English Version translates, with "asses"; the Hebrew means plainly in

Isa 21:7,

as in

Isa 21:9,

"a body of men riding." The Persians used asses and camels for war [MAURER]. HORSLEY translates, "One drawn in a car, with a pair of riders, drawn by an ass, drawn by a camel"; Cyrus is the man; the car drawn by a camel and ass yoked together and driven by two postilions, one on each, is the joint army of Medes and Persians under their respective leaders. He thinks the more ancient military cars were driven by men riding on the beasts that drew them;

Isa 21:9

favors this.

8. A lion--rather, "(The watchman) cried, I am as a lion"; so as is understood

(Isa 62:5; Ps 11:1).

The point of comparison to "a lion" is in

Re 10:3,

the loudness of the cry. But here it is rather his vigilance. The lion's eyelids are short, so that, even when asleep, he seems to be on the watch, awake; hence he was painted on doors of temples as the symbol of watchfulness, guarding the place (Hor. Apollo) [HORSLEY].