The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through, so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.
Isaiah opens a new oracle with a riddle. He gives no city name, only a strange title — "the wilderness of the sea" — and something is already sweeping toward it out of the desert. Who is meant, and when does the storm break?
The ESV calls this an "oracle." Older translations say "burden," and that is the word the commentators explain. The Hebrew behind it is massa.
Besides the common use of this word, it appears at the start of several prophecies; as "The burden of Babylon," "the burden of Moab." Isa. 13:1; Isa. 15:1; etc. Scholars do not agree about the force of massa in such places. Its natural meaning would be "a judgement that lies heavy on the people," but some take its meaning to be "an oracle or sentence pronounced against them."
These burdens fall on nation after nation in these chapters. Hole adds who else carried the weight.
A burden lay upon them from the hand of God and as the prophet uttered the burden it lay also no doubt on his own spirit.
The title is strange for a city, and commentators reach for Jeremiah to unlock it. The older translation they quote reads "the desert of the sea."
In Isaiah 21 we return to the doom of Babylon. It is to be "the desert of the sea." In Jeremiah's prophecy against the city he says, "The sea has come up upon Babylon" (Jer. 51:42), which helps to explain the expression. Babylon would be swamped by the sea of nations and become a desert.
Darby explains what the "sea" stands for in prophecy.
These two chapters introduce us to God's mind. They show the contrast between Babylon, "the desert of the sea," and Jerusalem, "the vision of peace." When the Holy Spirit speaks of Babylon, the idea is that it becomes a "wilderness." The "sea" in prophetic language means the mass of peoples.
The riddle is not unsolvable. The chapter itself supplies the clues.
No fair mind can doubt that the prophet means the great Chaldean capital. The command to the Medes and Persians to go up and besiege is one sign. The vivid description of the sudden destruction in verses 3-5 is a stronger one still. It turned the night of revelry into the pangs of terror and death for the immoral king and his court (Dan. 5).
The verse likens what comes to whirlwinds sweeping through the Negeb, the dry country in the south.
The Old Testament often mentions the whirlwind as one of the means God uses in His judgements on the earth. It is twice connected with the south. Job 37:9; Isa. 21:1; Isa. 40:24; Isa. 41:16; Jer. 23:19; Jer. 30:23.
Speed is the point here, not method.
The "desert of the sea" is an odd name for a city. But a dreadful invasion is before the prophet's eyes, and Babylon falls. It comes like a whirlwind of the south, and the power of Babylon is at an end — we are not told in what manner.
Kelly links this veiled title with the name given to Jerusalem in the next chapter.
There seems to be a clear link between this puzzling title, "the burden of the desert of the sea," and the one given to Jerusalem at the start of Isa. 22, "the burden of the valley of vision." God in His sovereignty allowed the rise and glory of the first Gentile empire only because of hopeless idolatry in Judah and Jerusalem. In the same way, the judgement of Babylon was the moment of deliverance for the Jewish remnant. That judgement is the pattern of God's final dealings with the last holder of the power which began with the golden head of the great image.
Commentators differ over how much of this is already past. Darby weighs the order of the two chapters against history.
Babylon and Jerusalem fall one after the other, Jerusalem last. It is quite evident that this connection of events is still future. What is said of Babylon and Jerusalem may have found its occasion in the capture of Babylon by Cyrus, and partly in the condition of Jerusalem when Sennacherib threatened it. But neither the connection nor the order of events noted in this prophecy was there.
- Weight. "Burden" means a load. It is either a judgment lying heavy on a people or a sentence spoken against them. It also lay on the prophet's own spirit.
- Riddle. The load falls on a city with no name, only a picture. In prophecy the sea means the mass of peoples. That sea rises over Babylon and leaves her a wilderness.
- Identity. The chapter solves its own riddle. Elam and Media get the call to attack, and the feast that turns to terror matches Daniel 5. The city is Babylon.
- Speed. The whirlwind from the south is one of God's means of judgment. The fall is certain; how it comes is not told.
- Pairing. The next chapter gives Jerusalem a riddle-name too, "the valley of vision." Babylon's fall was the moment of rescue for the Jewish remnant, and it pictures God's last dealings with world power.
A grievous vision is declared unto me the treacherous dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, Elam! besiege, Media! All the sighing thereof have I made to cease.
Isaiah does not open this "burden" with the word Babylon. He calls it a desert of the sea, and commentators look to Jeremiah for the sense of it.
In Isaiah 21 we return to the doom of Babylon. It is to be "the desert of the sea." In Jeremiah's prophecy against the city he says, "The sea has come up against Babylon" (Jer. 51:42), which helps to explain the expression. Babylon would be swamped by the sea of nations and become a desert. In verse 2 the call comes to Elam and Media to go up and lay siege, with treachery helping them to the plunder.
The riddle has a partner. The next chapter gives Jerusalem a strange title of its own.
There seems to be a clear link between this puzzling title, "the burden of the desert of the sea," and the one given to Jerusalem at the start of Isaiah 22, "the burden of the valley of vision"... So these two cities — Jerusalem and Babylon — are tied together, whether in history or as symbols.
The two nations summoned to the siege are the reason readers identify the target as Babylon.
No fair mind can doubt that this speaks of the great Chaldean capital. The command to the Medes and Persians to go up and lay siege is one sign. The vivid description of the sudden destruction in verses 3-5 is a stronger one. That night of partying turned into pangs of terror and death for the immoral king and his court (Dan. 5).
Elam is a real place with a long history, and the name later stands for the empire that swallowed it.
Elam settled in a highland district east of Babylonia, and it became the centre of a powerful kingdom... When Assyria declined, its Persian neighbours conquered Elam... In Scripture the name Elam often stands for Persia. In Isaiah 21:2-10 Elam and Media were to destroy Babylon.
The gap between the word and the event is the point.
The verse predicts the fall of Babylon, since it names Media. That event was over two centuries away. Isaiah sees the Persian armies advancing. Such is prophecy, "history written in advance."
The verse speaks of a traitor and a destroyer. The record of how Babylon fell shows both.
Its downfall was unexpected... In B.C. 538 the city was taken in a remarkable way. The attackers chose a night when the people were about to hold a festival, and the whole city would give itself to drunkenness and wild living. They turned the river out of its bed to make it shallow enough for the troops to walk through. They found the gates open, and they took the city.
Whose sighing stops? Babylon had held God's people captive, and her collapse was their release.
Its doom has come under the Medes, led by Cyrus the Persian. What matters most to God is this: the fall of Babylon opens the door for His people to return from captivity. It is a picture of a final deliverance, when One greater than Cyrus will be there to destroy completely the last holder of the last empire.
Yet the prophet takes no pleasure in it. In the verses that follow he is in anguish, not triumph.
Is this vindictive feeling or language? It is a holy man of God deeply moved by the prophetic vision of the fall of Babylon, so awful and unexpected. Yet Babylon was Judah's captor.
Commentators differ on how much of this chapter is already history. Some read the siege as fulfilled under Cyrus. Others point to the order of events here: Babylon falls, then Jerusalem.
Notice that Babylon and Jerusalem fall (Isaiah 21, 22), one after the other, Jerusalem last. It is quite clear that this link between the events is still future. What is said of Babylon and Jerusalem may have had its occasion in Cyrus's capture of Babylon, and partly in the state of Jerusalem when Sennacherib threatened it. But neither that link nor that order of events happened then.
Elam's own story, too, is not finished in the books of history.
Elam was ravaged in the past (Ezek. 32:24-25 and Jer. 49:34-38). Even so, its captives will be brought back in the latter days, as Jeremiah 49:39 says.
- Named — the city is described, not named: "the desert of the sea." A sea of nations will swamp Babylon and leave it a waste.
- Summoned — the call goes out to Elam (later Persia) and Media over two centuries before they marched. That is why writers call prophecy "history written in advance."
- Betrayed — the vision is grievous, and the fall matched it. Babylon went down by treachery on a festival night, with the river drained low and the gates open.
- Released — the sighing stops because Babylon's fall opened the door home for God's captive people. It pictures a final deliverance under One greater than Cyrus.
- Unfinished — commentators differ on how much lies in the past. The order of Babylon then Jerusalem, and Jeremiah's word about Elam, keep the chapter looking forward.
Therefore are my loins filled with pain; anguish hath taken hold upon me, as the anguish of a woman in travail I am bowed down so as not to hear, I am dismayed so as not to see.
Isaiah describes what this chapter's vision does to his own body: it doubles him over, and leaves him unable to hear or see. The verse raises two questions — what disaster is he watching, and why does an enemy's downfall cost the messenger so much?
Commentators identify the city without hesitation. The armies named in the previous verse and the speed of the collapse point to one place and one night.
"Go up, Elam; besiege, Media; all the sighing of it I have made to cease" (v. 2). No fair mind can doubt that the great Chaldean capital is meant. The command to the Medes and Persians to go up and besiege is one sign. An even stronger one is the vivid description of the sudden destruction in verses 3-5. It turned the night of revelry into the pangs of terror and death for the immoral king and his court (Dan. 5).
Babylon was the power that carried Judah away captive. Yet its fall does not make the prophet glad. One writer places his pain beside Isaiah's earlier grief over Moab, and traces both to the heart of God.
Despite everything, the heart of God yearns over men. His interest is not limited to any one nation, nor to a group of nations… But the compassionate Creator can never stop caring about the sufferings of His creatures, however wayward they are. He would have His saints share His compassion. Isaiah was deeply distressed when he had to speak judgement against Moab, the bitter enemy of his own people. "My heart cries out for Moab" (Isa. 15:5)… In the same way, when Babylon's doom came before him in prophetic vision he cried out, "my loins are filled with anguish; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in labor."
Kelly asks whether such language is vindictive, and answers his own question.
Is this vindictive feeling or language? It is a holy man of God deeply moved by the prophetic vision of the fall of Babylon, so awful and unexpected.
The chapter opens with an oracle about "the wilderness of the sea" — older translations say "the burden of the desert of the sea." It is a strange name for a great capital city. Jeremiah supplies the picture that explains it.
In Isaiah 21 we return to the doom of Babylon. It is to be "the desert of the sea." In Jeremiah's prophecy against the city he says, "The sea has come up on Babylon" (Jer. 51:42), which helps to explain the expression. Babylon would be swamped by the sea of nations and become a desert.
The next chapter gives Jerusalem a matching title. Kelly reads the pairing as deliberate: Babylon's fall is the moment that sets God's people free.
There is something to notice in the phrase used of the doomed mistress of the world. This puzzling title, "the burden of the desert of the sea," clearly seems to match the title given to Jerusalem at the start of Isaiah 22: "the burden of the valley of vision." God sovereignly allowed the rise and glory of the first Gentile empire only because of hopeless idolatry in Judah and Jerusalem. In the same way, the judgement of Babylon was the moment of deliverance for the Jewish remnant. It is the pattern of God's final dealings with the last holder of the power that began with the golden head of the great image… In fact, we know what a waste this seat of human pride sank to, and it plainly remains so to this day.
Commentators differ over how much of this chapter history has already used up. Kelly is certain the Chaldean capital is in view. Darby agrees that a real invasion is in sight, yet holds that the order of events in chapters 21 and 22 is still future.
Notice that Babylon and Jerusalem fall (Isa. 21, 22), one after the other, Jerusalem last. Now it is quite clear that this sequence of events is still future. What is said of Babylon may have had its occasion in Cyrus taking the city. What is said of Jerusalem may partly reflect its state when Sennacherib threatened it. But neither the connection nor the order of events noted in this prophecy was there. Babylon is named in a way that gives no clue at all to its condition. But a dreadful invasion is before the prophet's eyes, and Babylon falls.
- Vision. Isaiah sees Elam and Media closing on the Chaldean capital. A night of revelry turns into terror and death for the king and his court.
- Weight. The vision hits the prophet's body before it reaches his mouth. Pangs like childbirth bow him down, and he cannot hear or see.
- Compassion. He is not gloating over the enemy that enslaved his nation. God never stops caring about the sufferings of His creatures. He would have His people share that compassion.
- Reversal. Babylon, the mistress of the world, becomes "the desert of the sea" — swamped by the sea of nations, left a waste.
- Deliverance. The same blow that ends Babylon frees the captive remnant. It pictures God's final dealings with the last holder of that world power.
My heart panteth, horror affrighteth me the night of my pleasure hath he turned into trembling unto me.
Isaiah 21 opens with a vision so heavy that the man receiving it can barely stand. Judgment falls on Babylon, the empire that held Judah captive, yet the prophet shakes instead of celebrating.
The chapter is a set of three verdicts, and this is the first. One writer sets the scene for the section:
In this chapter, though not a long one, are three sentences of judgement — on Babylon (vv. 1-10), on Dumah (vv. 11, 12), and on Arabia (vv. 13-17).
Verses 3 and 4 belong together: the pain in the body, then the panic in the heart. The same writer reads these lines as a report of what Isaiah felt as he watched, and ties the picture to the fall of the Chaldean capital:
No fair mind can doubt that this refers to the great Chaldean capital. One sign is the command to the Medes and Persians to go up and lay siege. An even stronger sign is the vivid description of the sudden destruction in verses 3-5. That destruction turned the night of partying into the pangs of terror and death for the immoral king and his court (Dan. 5).
The verse turns on one ruined evening. The ESV calls it "the twilight I longed for"; older translations read "the night of my pleasure." Babylon's own last night was a feast night:
Scripture fully foretold the destruction of Babylon, though some of these prophecies may also point to events still future. Its downfall was unexpected. For 24 years after Nebuchadnezzar died, Babylon remained the seat of the imperial court. In 538 B.C. the city fell in a remarkable way. The attackers chose a night when the people were about to hold a festival, a night when the whole city would give itself up to drunkenness and wild living. They turned the water of the river out of its bed, so that it was shallow enough for the troops to march along. They found the gates open, and took the city.
The chapter labels Babylon strangely — not as a city but as a drowned wasteland. One writer explains the phrase by borrowing from another prophet:
In Isaiah 21 we return to the doom of Babylon. It is to be "the desert of the sea." In Jeremiah's prophecy against the city he says, "The sea is come up upon Babylon" (Jer. 51:42), which helps to explain the expression. Babylon would be swamped by the sea of nations and become a desert.
Why would the prophet of a captive nation break down at the fall of his people's oppressor? One writer puts the objection and answers it:
Is this a spirit of revenge, in feeling or in words? It is a holy man of God, deeply moved by the vision of Babylon's fall, so terrible and so unexpected. And yet Babylon was Judah's captor.
Another writer traces this grief back to God's own heart:
The heart of God yearns over people in spite of everything. His interest is not limited to one nation, or to a group of nations… The compassionate Creator can never stop caring about the sufferings of His creatures, however wayward they are, and He wants His people to share His compassion. Isaiah was deeply distressed when he had to announce judgement against Moab, the bitter enemy of his own people: "My heart cries out for Moab" (Isa. 15:5). In the same way, when Babylon's doom came before him in a vision he cried out, "My loins are filled with anguish; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in labor" (Isa. 21:3).
Belshazzar was the king feasting on the night Babylon fell. One writer holds that night up as a warning, not just a record:
Belshazzar's Feast, with its splendour and sudden doom, stands as history and as warning. But how few believe it is a picture of the surprising judgment that will overtake the boasting and splendour of this world of pleasure and greatness, in the day of the Lord! The same unerring scriptures that record the past declare the future just as surely. Woe to those who refuse to listen and fail to escape before it is too late.
One more writer describes the morning after this world's night of pleasure:
"Those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night." But the morning is at hand. Then the wine — a fitting symbol of this world's joy — will have completely evaporated. The feverish excitement in which Satan now wraps the spirits of the men of this world will have calmed down. Then comes the stern reality of an eternity of misery — unspeakable misery, in the company of Satan and his angels.
- Night — the hour Babylon set aside for pleasure became the hour of trembling. The city fell while it feasted.
- Suddenness — nobody expected Babylon to fall. The attackers drained the river, found the gates open, and ended an empire before the feast was over.
- Anguish — the pain in the verse is the prophet's own: a holy man of God, deeply moved by a vision so terrible and so unexpected.
- Compassion — Isaiah grieved over Moab and over Babylon alike. The Creator never stops caring about His creatures' suffering, and He wants His people to feel the same.
- Warning — the fall is history and warning at once. It pictures the judgment coming on this world of pleasure and greatness. There is still time to heed it.
Prepare the table, appoint the watch; eat, drink arise, ye princes, anoint the shield.
Isaiah watches a city at its ease — the table laid, the rugs spread, the wine poured. Then the alarm sounds, and the banquet becomes a scramble for weapons. Two questions run through the chapter: which city is this, and why does the prophet feel its last night as his own pain?
Commentators read this chapter as a prophecy against Babylon. They tie its broken feast to the night described in Daniel 5, and they hear real grief in the prophet's words.
There can be no doubt to any fair mind that this refers to the great Chaldean capital. The command to the Medes and Persians to go up and besiege is one indication; and so yet more is the graphic description of the sudden destruction in verses 3-5, which turned the night of revelry into the pangs of terror and death for the self-indulgent king and his court (Dan. 5). Is this a spirit of revenge, or spiteful words? It is a holy man of God deeply moved by the prophetic vision of Babylon's fall, so terrible and so unexpected. And Babylon had been Judah's captor.
Where the ESV has "they spread the rugs," other translations read "set the watch." Babylon did post lookouts, and it made no difference. The enemy came by a route no watchman guarded.
History tells us that Babylon's walls had tall towers set at intervals, two hundred and fifty of them. From these the Chaldeans could watch for their enemy, and they saw no sign of danger… The Euphrates bends near Babylon. So Cyrus cut a new bed for the water a few miles upstream and turned the river into it… As a result the river bed was almost dry as far as Babylon was concerned. The Persian troops marched quietly along that bed, under the bronze gates, and took possession of the city.
"They eat, they drink" sits at the heart of the verse. The army was far closer than anyone at that table guessed.
With what pomp Belshazzar had come into that banquet hall! Secure in his proud position, the crowned centre of his thousand attendants gives the order for the banquet to begin. They eat and drink in honour of the king and of the gods he served. Almost within earshot a mighty enemy is coming, and he will turn their drunken boasting into shrieks of terror and the groans of dying men.
The verse ends with a call to the princes to arm. Writers stress how sudden the end was: fully foretold, and still unexpected.
The destruction of Babylon was fully foretold in Scripture, though some of these prophecies may also refer to events still future — the overthrow by the Lord (pictured by Cyrus) of the last holder of Nebuchadnezzar-like authority, that is, the beast, the last head of the revived Roman empire. Its downfall was unexpected. For 24 years after the death of Nebuchadnezzar Babylon continued as the seat of the imperial court. In 538 B.C. the city fell in a remarkable way. The night chosen was one when the people were about to hold a festival, and the whole city would give itself over to drunkenness and wild living.
Writers do not stop at 538 B.C. Some treat the interrupted feast as a picture of how judgment will meet a confident world.
So the fact of Belshazzar's Feast, with its splendour and sudden doom, stands as history and as warning. But how few believe it is a picture of the judgment that will take this world by surprise in the day of the Lord? That judgment will overtake all its boasting and splendour, all its pleasure and greatness. The same Scriptures never fail. They record the past, and they declare the future just as surely. Woe to those who refuse to listen and fail to escape before it is too late.
That same night has another side. Daniel was not at the banquet, and his absence was a verdict on it.
Where is Daniel? The feast does not attract him… Daniel knew the character of it before its judgment was pronounced. He does not wait for the hand that wrote on the wall to show him where he stood in relation to it. Sudden destruction, like a thief in the night, does not come upon him… Their separation was not sleep. "For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night." They were not indifferent to it, and they were not enjoying it either… In a divine sense they watched and were sober.
- Table — The verse pictures Babylon's last banquet. The sudden ruin of verses 3–5 turned a night of revelry into terror for the king and his court.
- Watch — Babylon posted lookouts on hundreds of towers and saw no danger. The enemy came up the drained river bed and under the gates.
- Cup — They ate and drank to their king and their gods while an army was almost within earshot.
- Shield — The verse ends with a call to arm. The fall was fully foretold, yet it still came as a surprise, on a night of festival and drunkenness.
- Escape — Daniel was not at the feast, because he had already judged it. That same night pictures judgment on a confident world. Escape before it is too late.
For thus hath the Lord said unto me Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.
This command comes inside a prophecy against Babylon — a night of feasting that ends in terror. God's answer to a coming crisis is to post a man who will look, and then speak.
The chapter opens with a strange name for a city, and the invaders are named before they arrive. One writer traces the whole picture, from the title to the moment the lookout appears.
In Isaiah 21 we come back to the doom of Babylon. It is to be "the desert of the sea." In Jeremiah's prophecy against the city he says, "The sea has come up on Babylon" (Jer. 51:42), and that helps to explain the phrase. The sea of nations would swamp Babylon, and it would become a desert. In verse 2 the call goes out to Elam and Media to march up and lay siege, with treachery helping them to the spoil. Verses 3-5 describe in vivid language the scenes of feasting that turn into confusion and terror — the same scenes Daniel 5 sets before us. Then the prophet sees a watchman, who gets the news of Babylon's fall from an oncoming chariot and announces it with a voice like the roar of a lion.
The verse gives the watchman one job in two halves: he takes his post, and he reports. The rest of the chapter follows both halves.
Verses 6-10 set out the double leadership of the coming invasion, or at least the two nationalities of the armies that conquered. The watchman in the vision proves his vigilance and reports what he saw. Then comes the solemn news of Babylon's fall, and the prophet's seal on the truth of the announcement.
Babylon was not just another city. Its rise and its ruin both sit inside God's dealings with His own people.
God in His sovereignty allowed the first Gentile empire to rise and to have its glory only because idolatry in Judah and Jerusalem had become hopeless. In the same way, the judgment of Babylon was the moment of deliverance for the Jewish remnant. It is the pattern of God's final dealings with the last holder of that power, the power that began with the golden head of the great image.
The timing is not simple. One writer read the chapter as looking first at the fall of Babylon that was then near.
Isaiah 21. My impression is that this chapter refers to nearer times — the fall of Babylon that was then coming. But we must remember that this was the judgment on the golden head that God had set up, and the deliverance of Israel. In that sense it was a typical event in what it points to.
Elsewhere the same writer weighs the order of the chapters — Babylon first, then Jerusalem — and finds that sequence still unfulfilled.
Notice that Babylon and Jerusalem fall (Isaiah 21, 22) one after the other, Jerusalem last. It is quite clear that this connection of events is still future. What is said of Babylon and Jerusalem may have had its occasion in the capture of Babylon by Cyrus, and in part in the state of Jerusalem when Sennacherib threatened it. But neither the connection nor the order of events set out in this prophecy was found there.
The lookout is more than ancient history. The same attention teaches anyone who wants to know what God is doing with the world.
How instructive this is for the soul that watches like a sentinel for what God is going to do in His government of the earth! Men count for nothing and know nothing at all. All their wisdom and all their caution only help to bring about the very result God has prepared, so that His glory may be shown in the person of Jesus, among the Jewish people.
The command assumes someone will be there. One writer turns the verse into a charge against people who had every warning and still kept no watch.
We have not been on the alert. We have not done what the prophet of old did and kept watch on the watchtower: "Go, set a watchman; let him announce what he sees" (Isa. 21:6). There has been no watchman on his tower, and the warnings have gone unheeded. So the enemy has invaded the very stronghold of our faith. He has broken down our walls, and he has robbed us of our treasures.
- Posted — the Lord stations the watchman. The man on the tower is not a volunteer; God's own word puts him there.
- Sees — his first duty is to keep watch, and his report proves that he kept it.
- Says — what he sees, he must announce. The prophet sets his seal on the truth of that announcement; it is not guesswork.
- Timing — the near fall of Babylon fits these words in part, but the order of events here is still future. Either way, God's judgment on Babylon opens deliverance for His people.
- Empty tower — where no one watches, warnings go unheeded and the enemy gets inside the walls. The verse still calls for a sentinel.
And he saw chariots, horsemen by pairs, a chariot with asses, a chariot with camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed.
The prophet posts a lookout, and this verse tells him what to watch for: riders in pairs, some on donkeys, some on camels. Who are these riders, and why should a prophet in Jerusalem care about traffic on a distant road?
Commentators read this verse as a picture of the army that would take Babylon.
Verses 6-10 set out the twofold leadership of the coming invasion, or at least the twofold nationality of the armies that conquered. The watchman in the vision proves that he is keeping watch, and reports what he saw.
The chapter names those two nations earlier: Elam and Media. One of those names covers a larger power.
In Scripture Elam often designates Persia. In Isaiah 21:2-10 Elam and Media were to destroy Babylon. Elam afterwards became part of the Medo-Persian empire.
Older translations read "a chariot of camels" here, and that wording has puzzled readers. The answer lies in where the riders come from.
In Isaiah 21:7 we read of a "chariot of camels." Camels were not used this way in Palestine. But the prophecy refers to messengers coming from Babylon. There another kind of camel was common, called the Bactrian camel, with two humps. People sometimes linked these in pairs to rough chariots.
These animals belong to the East, not to Judah. The watchman is watching traffic from Babylon's world.
The verse ends by doubling the command to listen. What the watchman hears is news worth that much attention.
Then the prophet sees ahead to a watchman. From an oncoming chariot the watchman gets the news that Babylon has fallen. He announces it with a voice like the roar of a lion.
He does not guess. He watches, he listens, and only then does he speak.
Isaiah names the power that would bring Babylon down long before that power mattered.
The fall of Babylon is predicted, for Media is mentioned. This event was over two centuries in the future. Isaiah beholds the Persian hosts advancing. Such is prophecy, "history written in advance."
The fall itself, when it came, caught the city off guard.
Its downfall was unexpected… In 538 B.C. the city was taken in a remarkable way. A night was chosen when the inhabitants were about to hold a festival, when the whole city would give itself up to drunkenness and wild living. The water of the river was diverted from its bed so as to make it shallow enough to let the troops pass along. The gates were found open, and the city was taken.
Babylon's fall was more than one empire replacing another. For God's people it was rescue, and it also looked ahead.
The judgment of Babylon was the moment of deliverance for the Jewish remnant. It is the pattern of God's final dealings with the last holder of the power that began with the golden head of the great image.
This picture of a man who watches and listens speaks to the reader too.
How instructive for the soul that, like a sentinel, pays attention to what God is going to do in His government of the earth! Men are of no value and know nothing at all. All their wisdom and all their good sense only help to bring about the result God has prepared: to show His glory in the person of Jesus, among the Jewish people.
- Watch — the prophet posts a lookout. The chapter's whole message comes through a man whose job is to see and report.
- See — two nations made up the army that took Babylon: Media, and Elam, which in Scripture often stands for Persia.
- Listen — the doubled command matches the weight of the news. It reaches the watchman from an oncoming chariot, and he cries it out like a lion.
- Verify — Isaiah names Media over two centuries early. The city then fell in a night of feasting, with the river turned aside and the gates open.
- Announce — Babylon's fall meant deliverance for God's people. It is also the pattern of His final dealings with the last holder of that power.
And he cried [as] a lion, Lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights.
Isaiah 21 opens with a strange title: Babylon is to be "the desert of the sea." At the centre of the chapter stands a lookout on a tower. Verse 8 is the moment he speaks. Everything turns on whether his report can be trusted.
One writer traces the chapter from its strange title to the watchman on the tower:
In Isaiah 21 we return to the doom of Babylon. It is to be "the desert of the sea." In Jeremiah's prophecy against the city he says, "The sea has come up upon Babylon" (Jer. 51:42), and that helps to explain the phrase. The sea of nations would swamp Babylon, and it would become a desert. In verse 2 the call comes to Elam and Media to go up and lay siege, and treachery helps them to the spoil. Verses 3-5 look ahead and paint in vivid words the scenes of feasting that turn into confusion and terror. Daniel 5 describes those same scenes for us. Then the prophet sees a watchman ahead. From an oncoming chariot the watchman gets the news of Babylon's fall, and he announces it with a voice like the roar of a lion.
Why a lion? An older reading of the verse has "he cried, A lion." The ESV has "Then he who saw cried out." Either way, the man on the tower does not mutter his news. He roars it.
In verse 8 the watchman answers the charge given him in verse 6. He does not start with what he saw. He starts with where he has stood:
Verses 6-10 set out the twofold leadership of the coming invasion, or at least the two nationalities of the armies that conquered. The watchman in the vision gives proof of his watchfulness, and reports what he saw. Then comes the solemn news of Babylon's fall, and the prophet sets his seal on the truth of the announcement.
He stands by day and stays at his post through the nights. That is why his news about Babylon carries weight: he never left the tower.
Babylon's strange name has a partner title in the next chapter. One writer sets the two cities side by side, and reads the fall of one as the release of the other:
God in His sovereignty allowed the first Gentile empire to rise and shine, and He allowed it only because idolatry in Judah and Jerusalem had become hopeless. In the same way, the judgement of Babylon was the moment of deliverance for the Jewish remnant. It is the type of God's final dealings with the last holder of the power that began with the golden head of the great image. So there is a link between these two cities, Jerusalem and Babylon, whether in history or in symbol. Babylon is called "the desert of the sea," and Jerusalem "the valley of vision."
How far ahead is the watchman looking? One writer answers on two levels. First, the vision rests on the fall of Babylon as it happened:
Isaiah 21. My impression is that this chapter refers to nearer times — the fall of Babylon as it then happened. But we must remember that this was the judgment on the golden head that God had set up, and the deliverance of Israel. In this sense it was an event that stands as a pattern.
Second, the same writer says history has not yet matched the order of chapters 21 and 22:
Notice that Babylon and Jerusalem fall (Isaiah 21, 22) one after the other, Jerusalem last. It is quite clear that this connection of events is still future. What is said of Babylon and Jerusalem may have taken its occasion from the capture of Babylon by Cyrus, and in part from the state of Jerusalem when Sennacherib threatened it. But history showed neither the connection nor the order of events that this prophecy sets out.
One writer turns the charge "set a watchman" on us, and counts the cost of leaving the tower empty:
Despite every warning, we have not stayed alert. We have not done what the prophet of old did, who watched on the watchtower: "Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he sees … Watchman, what of the night? … The watchman said, The morning comes, and also the night; if you will inquire, inquire; return, come." No watchman has stood on his tower, and the warnings have gone unheeded. As a result, the enemy has invaded the very stronghold of our faith. He has broken down our walls and robbed us of our treasures.
- Posted — the charge is "set a watchman"; the man does not choose the tower, and his orders are to declare what he sees.
- Continual — his answer names day and night together. He never leaves the tower, and that is why his report can be trusted.
- Seeing — he reports only what came into view: a chariot on the road, and the news it brings.
- Crying — he announces Babylon's fall with a voice like the roar of a lion. He does not whisper it.
- Empty — where no one keeps the tower, warnings go unheeded and the enemy walks in.
-- And behold, there cometh a chariot of men; horsemen by pairs. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.
The details of the chapter tie the vision to the Chaldean capital and to a night of feasting that ended in terror.
"The burden of the desert of the sea… A harsh vision is announced to me: the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; besiege, Media" (vv. 1, 2). No fair mind can doubt that the great Chaldean capital is meant. The command to the Medes and Persians to go up and besiege is one sign. The vivid description of the sudden destruction in verses 3-5 is a stronger one still. That night of pleasure turned into terror and death for the self-indulgent king and his court (Daniel 5).
The watchman's cry was not a report of something already in the news. It went out while Babylon was still at the height of her power.
Babylon stood on a broad plain, and was exactly square. Its walls ran fifteen miles in each direction. They were 300 feet high and 75 feet broad, with a hundred bronze gates set in them. So defended, Babylon thought no one could take her… The king and the inhabitants thought themselves proof against every power, either heavenly or earthly. But they were wrong, for they had forgotten God. One hundred and fifty years before, He had said through one servant, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon" (Isaiah 21:9).
The riders come two by two, and the watchman tells what he sees. The ruin he announces is one that other prophets call permanent.
Verses 6-10 set out the twofold leadership of the coming invasion, or at least the twofold nationality of the armies that conquered. The watchman in the vision shows he is alert, and reports what he saw. Then comes the solemn news of Babylon's fall, and the prophet's seal on the truth of the announcement. The ruin we also saw in Isaiah 13-14 was beyond repair, though men had the fullest hope and the strongest purpose to make Babylon the chief city of the earth. Jeremiah 50-51 predicted the same, that Babylon should sink and not rise again.
The second half of the verse shows where the real quarrel lay. Babylon was famous for two things, and it is her idols that the verse names.
First, it was "a land of trade, a city of merchants"… Next, it was full of idolatry. Isaiah 21:9; so Jeremiah 50:38. "It is the land of carved images, and they are mad over their idols." So in Isaiah Jehovah settles His controversy with these idols by judging Babylon… Let any thoughtful Christian say which is the real, full departure from God — commerce or idolatry.
The news is bad for Babylon and good for the captives she held. Her rise and her fall both turned on God's dealings with Judah.
God in His sovereignty allowed the first Gentile empire to rise and shine only because Judah and Jerusalem had sunk into hopeless idolatry. So the judgement of Babylon was the moment of deliverance for the Jewish remnant. It is also the pattern of God's final dealings with the last holder of the power that began with the golden head of the great image.
The same cry returns at the end of the Bible, and it is aimed at more than one Babylon.
Babylon is the oppressor. Babylon as a political power oppressed God's people Israel. In principle it is religious Babylon that oppresses today. So Babylon must be overthrown in both ways, to make room for Christ and His own. Room for Christ and His earthly people Israel, and for Christ the Son of God and His heavenly assembly. Then multitudes will mourn aloud, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon!" (See Isaiah 21:9, and likewise Revelation 18:2.)
Commentators differ on how far this chapter reaches. Some read it as the historic capture by the Medes and Persians. Others hold that the events of Isaiah 21 and 22 are still future (J. N. Darby).
- Named. The verse names Babylon outright. The chapter around it fits the Medes and Persians and the night of Daniel 5.
- Early. God announced the fall about 150 years before it came, while the city thought no power in heaven or earth could touch her.
- Final. The ruin was beyond repair. Jeremiah said the same: Babylon would sink and not rise again.
- Idols. The broken images show what the judgment was about. God settled His controversy with idolatry, the deepest departure from Him.
- Deliverance. Babylon's fall set God's people free. It also pictures the fall of the last such power, when the cry sounds again in Revelation 18.
O my threshing, and the corn of my floor! What I have heard of Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.
Isaiah 21 ends its vision of Babylon with a watchman's cry, then a word to a people beaten like grain on a threshing floor. Who is this crushed grain God calls His own, and why does the fall of a far-off empire reach them as news from the LORD of hosts?
The verse closes a scene that has been building since verse 6. The prophet passes on only what he has heard, and puts his own seal on it.
Verses 6-10 set out the twofold leadership of the coming invasion, or at least the twofold nationality of the armies that conquered. The watchman in the vision shows he has kept watch, and reports what he saw. Then comes the solemn news of Babylon's fall, and the prophet's seal on the truth of the announcement.
Isaiah spoke while Babylon still stood.
The prophet predicts the fall of Babylon, for he mentions Media. This event was over two centuries in the future. Isaiah sees the Persian hosts advancing. Such is prophecy, "history written in advance."
This is not neutral world news. God Himself had set Babylon up, and her fall meant deliverance for Israel.
My impression is that this chapter refers to present or more immediate times — the fall of Babylon then. But we must remember what this was. It was the judgment on the golden head that God had set up, and the deliverance of Israel. In that sense it was a characteristic event in what it points to.
Kelly draws the same link from the parallel prophecy in Jeremiah.
Babylon's doom came under the Medes, led on by Cyrus the Persian. The consequence of deepest interest to God is that the fall of Babylon opens the door for the return of His people from captivity. It is a picture of a final deliverance, when One greater than Cyrus will be there to destroy the last holder of the last empire completely.
Threshing is farm work, not random violence.
On the threshing floor the hoofs of the ox, or the teeth of the threshing tool, separate the grain from the chaff. In that way it would suggest the enemy, but looked at as God's instrument to purge His people.
Ridout traces the same picture through the other prophets and finds an order in it: the threshed people become the threshers.
The prophets use the figure of threshing quite often, and nearly always apply it to the nations (see Isaiah 21:10 with Jeremiah 51:33; Isaiah 41:15; Micah 4:13; Habakkuk 3:12). Israel herself will one day thresh the nations. But before that time she herself must pass through the purifying chastening. It will drive the chaff away and leave the pure grain alone.
God calls this beaten people "my threshed and winnowed one" — the grain is His own. John the Baptist used the same picture of a floor and a harvest.
"His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire." (Compare Isaiah 21:10.) God's floor was Israel; there He was getting His wheat, if any were to be found.
Threshing is a means, never the goal.
The threshing is not the end, but it has an end in view; that end is separating the chaff from the wheat and the cumin and the barley and the rye. And it is "his God who instructs him rightly, and teaches him" (v. 26). And will not God who has given men wisdom in these things be wise Himself in what He does? He will break up the hard ground of His people's hearts with the plough of His chastisement and judgments. Then they will cry to Him in their sorrow, and their hearts will be ready for the sowing of His Word within them.
- Watched. A watchman keeps watch and reports what he sees. Babylon's fall comes as verified news, sealed by the prophet who passes it on.
- Foretold. Media is named as conqueror more than two centuries before it happened — prophecy as "history written in advance."
- Threshed. Threshing separates grain from chaff. The enemy tramples, but he serves as God's instrument to purge His people.
- Owned. The threshing and the grain belong to God. He looks for wheat on His floor, and gathers it into His barn.
- Ended. He will not always be threshing. The crushing has a goal — clean grain, and hearts broken up and ready for the sowing of His Word.