Isaiah 21

Isaiah 13–23 gathers a series of burdens against various nations, and this chapter is one of them. Following the prophecy of a symbolic act concerning Egypt and Ethiopia in Isaiah 20, this chapter presents three burdens in succession. "Burden" translates the Hebrew massa, meaning "load" or "oracle" (a message entrusted by God).

Outline

• Verses 1–5: The burden of the desert of the sea. The enemy sweeps in like whirlwinds in the south, and the command goes forth: "Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media." The prophet trembles with pangs like those of a woman in travail. The princes, who are eating and drinking, are then told to arise and anoint the shield.
• Verses 6–10: The Lord commands that a watchman be set. When the watchman cries that a chariot with a couple of horsemen is coming, the declaration follows that Babylon is fallen and her graven images are broken. This news is delivered to the people called "my threshing."
• Verses 11–12: The burden of Dumah. One calls out of Seir, "What of the night?" and the watchman answers that the morning comes, and also the night.
• Verses 13–17: The burden upon Arabia. The traveling companies of Dedan lodge in the forest, and the inhabitants of Tema are told to bring bread to the fugitives. Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, the glory of Kedar will fail, and few of its mighty archers will remain.

Key Verses

• Isaiah 21:9 "Babylon is fallen, is fallen" — the Book of Revelation takes up the same expression.
• Isaiah 21:11–12 "Watchman, what of the night?" — a passage well known for the watchman's exchange.

People and Places

• Babylon: The city whose fall the first burden announces.
• Elam and Media: Peoples east of Babylon, presented as the powers that attack it.
• Dumah and Seir: Seir is the mountain country of Edom, so Dumah is read in connection with Edom.
• Dedan and Tema: An Arabian caravan group (merchants traveling in companies) and an oasis region.
• Kedar: An Arabian nomadic tribe; Genesis 25:13 names Kedar as a son of Ishmael.

Interpretive Notes

• Because Elam and Media appear, a widely known interpretation reads this chapter as a prophecy of the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 BC. Some scholars instead place its background in a fall of Babylon during the Assyrian period.
• Many interpreters take the "desert of the sea" to refer to the lowlands of southern Mesopotamia near the sea.
• The name "Dumah" means "silence." The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament) renders it as "Idumea" (Edom).
• "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city" in Revelation 14:8 and 18:2 echoes verse 9 of this chapter.