Isaiah 21 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
late 700s BC in its setting, with the Babylon vision looking to the city's fall centuries later
Location
a lookout post in Jerusalem, with the visions reaching to Babylon on the lower Euphrates, to Dumah in northern Arabia, and to the desert caravan routes around Dedan and Tema
Audience
the people of Judah, who depended on caravan trade and on news carried by travellers
Situation
The prophet is doubled over with pain at a vision of a besieged city, and posts a watchman who finally calls out that Babylon has fallen and its idols lie shattered. Two brief oracles follow, one an unanswered night question from Edom and one about Arabian caravans driven off their routes.
Key Background
A watchman on the city wall was the standard early warning system of an ancient town, and rider messengers arriving in pairs were how military news actually travelled, so the scene is drawn from ordinary security practice. Dedan and Tema were real oasis trading towns in northwest Arabia on the incense routes, and Kedar was a powerful Arab tribal confederation that Assyrian kings campaigned against. The exchange about how much of the night is left uses the standard night watch divisions kept by sentries, turning a routine question into a question about how long the crisis will last.
A against the by the sea: Like storms tearing through the Negev, it comes from the wilderness, from a land that makes you shudder.
A devastating vision has been shown to me — the betrayer betrays, the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam! Lay siege, Media! All the groaning she caused — I am ending it.
That is why my body is full of anguish. Cramps me a in labor. I am too shattered to hear, too terrified to see.
My mind reels, panic overwhelms me. The I for has turned into my horror.
They set the table, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink — Get up, officers!
This is what told me: "Go, post a lookout. Have him report what he sees."
"When he sees cavalry— pairs of horsemen, a column of donkeys, a column of camels— let him watch carefully, very carefully."
Then the lookout cried out: "My lord, I stand at the watchtower all day long. I am stationed at my post every single night."
And look — here they come! Cavalry, pairs of horsemen! Then he spoke up and said: "Fallen! is Babylon! Every carved image of her gods lies shattered on the ground."
My people — threshed and on the — what I have heard from Yahweh, of Armies, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.
A pronouncement against Dumah: Someone is calling to me from Seir: "Watchman, how much of the night is left? Watchman, how much of the night is left?"
The watchman answers: "Morning is — but so is night. If you want to ask, ask. Come back again."
A pronouncement against Arabia: In the of Arabia you will camp for the night, you caravans of
Bring water to the thirsty! You who live in the land of Tema, meet the refugees with bread.
They are fleeing from swords — from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, from the crush of battle.
This is what Yahweh told me: "Within one year — counted a — all the glory of will be gone."
The surviving — the warriors of Kedar — will be few. Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken.