threshing. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause) for the results of it. Here = my oppressed People. Compare Isaiah 41:15 .Micah 4:13 .Jeremiah 51:33 . corn of my floor. Literally son of my threshingfloor. the LORD of hosts. See note on Isaiah 1:9 . the God of Israel. See note on Isaiah 29:23 . God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4 . read more
"O thou my threshing, and the grain of my floor! that which I have heard from Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you."This verse is in the form of a lament by Isaiah over the fate of God's people as it looms in this prophecy. There will be no help from Babylon. Assyria will completely subdue it and rule over it; and now there is absolutely nothing left in the whole world to protect God's people (from the earthly viewpoint) from the terrifying cruelty and oppression of... read more
Isaiah 21:10. O my threshing, &c.— These words, which form the conclusion of the prophesy, contain an address of the prophet to the church, signifying that he had faithfully related to them what God had revealed to him. The church is elegantly called the threshing-floor, where the true wheat is separated from the chaff. See chap. Isaiah 28:27. Mat 3:12 and Galatians 4:19. read more
10. my threshing—that is, my people (the Jews) trodden down by Babylon. corn of my floor—Hebrew, "my son of the floor," that is, my people, treated as corn laid on the floor for threshing; implying, too, that by affliction, a remnant (grain) would be separated from the ungodly (chaff) [MAURER]. HORSLEY translates, "O thou object of my unremitting prophetic pains." See Isaiah 28:27; Isaiah 28:28. Some, from Jeremiah 51:33, make Babylon the object of the threshing; but Isaiah is plainly... read more
The second oracle against Babylon 21:1-10This is a message of the destruction of the anti-God religious and commercial system that Babylon has symbolized throughout history (cf. Revelation 17-18). read more
Isaiah concluded this oracle by telling the Judeans, a people whom he compared to a threshed crop because of their oppressions, that what he had announced about Babylon’s destruction was from Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.This oracle would have admonished the Judeans to put their trust in God rather than in the Babylonians, as tempting as their power would have been. Babylon would come to an end. read more
Vision of Babylon’s FallThe subject of this section is the siege of Babylon, and the dismay with which the prophet receives tidings of its fall. The siege referred to can scarcely be the one at the close of the exile, as is maintained by many scholars, because (a) the prophet is much depressed at the thought of Babylon’s fall, which he foresees will involve calamity for Judah (Isaiah 21:2-4, Isaiah 21:10); (b) distance from Babylon is presupposed (Isaiah 21:6-9); and (c) Assyrian researches... read more
(10) O my threshing, and the corn of my floor.—Literally, and child of my threshing-floor. . . The words are abrupt, and we have to read the thoughts that lie below them. The “child of the threshing-floor “is none other than Israel, thought of as the corn which is under God’s chastisements, Assyrian and Chaldæan invasions, Babylonian exile, and the like, severing the wheat from the chaff (Micah 4:12-13; Jeremiah 51:33; Matthew 3:3). The prophet looks on those chastisements with yearning pity,... read more
Twilight and Trembling Isaiah 21:4 You all know that the twilight is a great wizard. I do not know whether you have ever thought to analyse its subtle power. If you have, I think you will have found that the spell of the twilight lies quite as much in what it hides from us as in what it reveals. It casts a filmy veil of indistinctness over all things we see softening their hardness, dealing gently with their defects, making such beauty as they possess more suggestive and idealistic. The... read more
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Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Isaiah 21:1-10
Vision of the fall of Babylon (21:1-10)The next message of judgment concerns ‘the wilderness of the sea’ (RSV), which we soon learn is another name for mighty Babylon. The prophet has a vision of its destruction, which occurred in 539 BC when the combined forces of Persia (Elam) and Media conquered the city (21:1-2). (Daniel 5:1-31 records the story of Babylon’s capture while the king was feasting with his mighty men.)Although the prophet always longed for the destruction of Judah’s oppressors,... read more