Isaiah 21:1-10 NIV

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 21:10

O my threshing, and the corn of my floor ,.... Which may be understood either of the Babylonians, now threshed or punished by the Lord, and whom he had made use of as instruments for the punishment of others; or rather of the people of the Jews, whom the prophet calls "his", as being his countrymen, to whom he was affected, and with whom he sympathized; and besides, he speaks in the name of the Lord; or it is the Lord that speaks by him, calling the church of the Jews his floor, and the... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 21:1

The desert of the sea - This plainly means Babylon, which is the subject of the prophecy. The country about Babylon, and especially below it towards the sea, was a great flat morass, overflowed by the Euphrates and Tigris. It became habitable by being drained by the many canals that were made in it. Herodotus, lib. 1:184, says that "Semiramis confined the Euphrates within its channel by raising great dams against it; for before it overflowed the whole country like a sea." And Abydenus,... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 21:2

The treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth "The plunderer is plundered, and the destroyer is destroyed" - שודד והשודד בוגד הבוגד habboged boged vehashshoded shoded . The MSS. vary in expressing or omitting the ו vau , in these four words. Ten MSS. of Kennicott are without the ו vau in the second word, and eight MSS. are without the ו vau in the fourth word; which justifies Symmachus, who has rendered them passively: ὁ αθετων αθετειται και ὁ... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 21:5

Prepare the table "The table is prepared" - In Hebrew the verbs are in the infinitive mood absolute, as in Ezekiel 1:14 ; : "And the animals ran and returned, ושוב רצוא ratso veshob , like the appearance of the lightning;" just as the Latins say, currere et reverti, for currebant et revertebantur . See Isaiah 33:11 ; (note), and the note there. Arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield - Kimchi observes that several of the rabbins understood this of Belshazzar's impious feast... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 21:7

And he saw a chariot, etc. "And he saw a chariot with two riders; a rider on an ass, a rider on a camel" - This passage is extremely obscure from the ambiguity of the term רכב recheb , which is used three times, and which signifies a chariot, or any other vehicle, or the rider in it; or a rider on a horse, or any other animal; or a company of chariots, or riders. The prophet may possibly mean a cavalry in two parts, with two sorts of riders; riders on asses or mules, and riders on... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 21:8

And he cried, A lion "He that looked out on the watch" - The present reading, אריה aryeh , a lion, is so unintelligible, and the mistake so obvious, that I make no doubt that the true reading is הראה haroeh , the seer; as the Syriac translator manifestly found it in his copy, who renders it by דקוא duka , a watchman. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 21:9

Here cometh a chariot of men, etc. "A man, one of the two riders" - So the Syriac understands it, and Ephrem Syr. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 21:10

O my threshing - "O thou, the object upon which I shall exercise the severity of my discipline; that shalt lie under my afflicting hand, like corn spread upon the floor to be threshed out and winnowed, to separate the chaff from the wheat!" The image of threshing is frequently used by the Hebrew poets, with great elegance and force, to express the punishment of the wicked and the trial of the good, or the utter dispersion and destruction of God's enemies. Of the different ways of threshing... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 21:1

The desert of the sea . The Isaianic authorship of this title is doubtful, since "the desert of the sea" is an expression elsewhere wholly unknown to biblical writers. Some regard "the sea" as the Euphrates, in which case "the desert of the sea" may be the waste tract west of the Euphrates, extending thence to the eastern borders of Palestine. As whirlwinds in the south pass through ; rather, as whirlwinds in the south country , sweeping along . The "south country" is that... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 21:1-9

The effect of God's judgments on the good and on the guilty. We gather, preliminarily: 1. That God uses not only elemental forces but human agents for the accomplishment of his righteous purposes. The winds and the waves are his ministers; but sometimes, as here, the whirlwinds he invokes are not the airs of heaven but the passions and agitations of human minds. 2. That the greatest human power is nothing in his mighty hand. Babylon was a "great power" indeed in human estimation at... read more

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 21:10

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 21:1

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 21:2

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 21:5

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 21:7

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 21:8

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 21:9

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 21:10

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 21:1

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 21:1-9

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