men. Hebrew. 'ish. App-14 . Babylon is fallen, &c. Note the Figure of speech Epizeuxis , for emphasis. the graven images of her gods. Reference to Pentateuch. Phrase peculiar to Deuteronomy 7:25 ; Deuteronomy 12:3 . App-92 . read more
Isaiah 21:6-9. For thus hath the Lord said unto me— The Holy Spirit, having proposed to make Isaiah, and by him the church, most certain of this memorable event, confirms the preceding revelation by an elegant emblem, offered to the prophet in vision; which confirmation makes the other part of this prophetic. This emblem exhibits to us the prophet commanded by God to set a watchman, in this verse; and in what follows, the consequence of the execution of the command; namely, that the watchman... read more
9. chariot of men—chariots with men in them; or rather, the same body of riders, horsemen two abreast, as in Isaiah 21:7 [MAURER]. But HORSLEY, "The man drawn in a car with a pair of riders." The first half of this verse describes what the watchman sees; the second half, what the watchman says, in consequence of what he sees. In the interval between Isaiah 21:7; Isaiah 21:9, the overthrow of Babylon by the horsemen, or man in the car, is accomplished. The overthrow needed to be announced to the... 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
The lion-like sentry reported to his sovereign Lord that he was not neglecting his duty but was paying close attention to what he saw. He reported that a troop of riders in pairs had appeared and had announced the fall of Babylon (cf. Revelation 18:2). Her fallen idols symbolized their inability to protect her from her enemy (cf. Jeremiah 51:47; Jeremiah 51:52). Babylon fell several times: to the Assyrians in 710, 702, 689, and 648, and to the Medes and Persians in 539 B.C., among others. The... 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
(9) And, behold, here cometh . . .—Better, Behold, there came . . . The words narrate a second vision, not the watchman’s narrative of the first. He sees now, as it were, a part of the cavalcade which he had beheld before, and now it is no longer silent, but reports what has been accomplished. “Babylon is fallen, is fallen!” The words are applied to the destruction of the mystical Babylon in Revelation 14:8; Revelation 18:2. Stress is laid on the destruction of the idols of Babylon by the... 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
CHAPTER XIDRIFTING TO EGYPT720-705 13. B.C.Isaiah 20:1-6; Isaiah 21:1-10; Isaiah 38:1-22; Isaiah 39:1-8FROM 720, when chapter 11 may have been published, to 705-or, by rough reckoning, from the fortieth to the fifty-fifth year of Isaiah’s life-we cannot be sure that we have more than one prophecy from him; but two narratives have found a place in his book which relate events that must have taken place between 712 and 705. These narratives are chapter 20: How Isaiah Walked Stripped and Barefoot... 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