Isaiah 21:4

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 21:1-10

We had one burden of Babylon before (Isa. 13:1-22); here we have another prediction of its fall. God saw fit thus to possess his people with the belief of this event by line upon line, because Babylon sometimes pretended to be a friend to them (as Isa. 39:1), and God would hereby warn them not to trust to that friendship, and sometimes was really an enemy to them, and God would hereby warn them not to be afraid of that enmity. Babylon is marked for ruin; and all that believe God's prophets... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 21:4

My heart panted ,.... Fluttered about, and could hardly keep its place: or, "my mind wandered" F18 תעה לבבי "erravit cor meum", Montanus; "errat animus meus", Junius & Tremellius; "errat cor meum", Piscator. ; like a person in distraction and confusion, that knew not what to think say or do: fearfulness affrighted me ; the terror of Cyrus's army seized him, of its irruption into the city, and of his being destroyed by it; the writing on the wall threw him into a panic, and... 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

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 21:1-10

THE BURDEN OF THE DESERT OF THE SEA . This is a short and somewhat vague, but highly poetic, "burden of Babylon" It is probably an earlier prophecy than Isaiah 13:1-22 . and 14; and perhaps the first revelation made to Isaiah with respect to the fall of the great Chaldean capital. It exhibits no consciousness of the fact that Babylon is Judah's predestined destroyer, and is expressive rather of sympathy (verses 3, 4) than of triumph. Among recent critics, some suppose it... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 21:1-10

Fall of Babylon. It is thought, by some recent commentators, that the description refers to the siege of Babylon in B.C. 710 by Sargon the Assyrian. The King of Babylon at that time was Merodach-Baladan, who sent letters and a present to Hezekiah when he was sick ( Isaiah 39:1 ; 2 Kings 20:12 ). The prophet may well grieve over the fall of Babylon, as likely to drag down with it weaker kingdoms. I. THE SOUND OF THE TEMPEST . What sublime poesy have the prophets found in the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 21:3-4

The sadness of a nation's overthrow. A nation is God's creation, no less than an individual. And it is a far more elaborate work. What forethought, what design, what manifold wisdom, must not have been required for the planning out of each people's national character, for the partitioning out to them of their special gifts and aptitudes, for the apportionment to each of its place in history, for the conduct of each through the many centuries of its existence! It is a sad thing to be witness... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 21:4

My heart panted ; rather, my heart trembleth , or fluttereth . The night of my pleasure ; i.e. "the night, wherein, I am wont to enjoy peaceful and pleasant slumbers." read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Isaiah 21:4

My heart panted - Margin, ‘My mind wandered.’ The Hebrew word rendered ‘panted’ (תעה tâ‛âh) means to wander about; to stagger; to be giddy; and is applied often to one that staggers by being intoxicated. Applied to the heart, it means that it is disquieted or troubled. The Hebrew word “heart” here is to be taken in the sense of “mind.”The night of my pleasure - There can be no doubt that the prophet here refers to the night of revelry and riot in which Babylon was taken. The prophet calls it... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Isaiah 21:3-4

Isaiah 21:3-4. Therefore my loins, &c. “We have here a symbolical description of the greatness of the Babylonish calamity; the prophet exhibiting in himself, as in a figure, an emblem of the extreme distress, consternation, and horror, which should ensue on this occasion.” See Isaiah 15:5; Isaiah 16:8-9; Luke 21:26. He speaks of his loins being filled with pain, with a reference to the following similitude of child- bearing. Pangs have taken hold on me Sharp and grievous pains, or... read more

Donald C. Fleming

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

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