211 This message came to me concerning Babylon-the desert by the sea : Disaster is roaring down on you from the desert, like a whirlwind sweeping in from the Negev. 2 I see a terrifying vision: I see the betrayer betraying, the destroyer destroying. Go ahead, you Elamites and Medes, attack and lay siege. I will make an end to all the groaning Babylon caused. 3 My stomach aches and burns with pain. Sharp pangs of anguish are upon me, like those of a woman in labor. I grow faint when I hear what God is planning; I am too afraid to look. 4 My mind reels and my heart races. I longed for evening to come, but now I am terrified of the dark. 5 Look! They are preparing a great feast. They are spreading rugs for people to sit on. Everyone is eating and drinking. But quick! Grab your shields and prepare for battle. You are being attacked! 6 Meanwhile, the Lord said to me, "Put a watchman on the city wall. Let him shout out what he sees. 7 He should look for chariots drawn by pairs of horses, and for riders on donkeys and camels. Let the watchman be fully alert." 8 Then the watchman called out, "Day after day I have stood on the watchtower, my lord. Night after night I have remained at my post. 9 Now at last-look! Here comes a man in a chariot with a pair of horses!" Then the watchman said, "Babylon is fallen, fallen! All the idols of Babylon lie broken on the ground!" 10 OÂ my people, threshed and winnowed, I have told you everything the Lord of Heaven's Armies has said, everything the God of Israel has told me.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Isaiah 21:1-10
Commentary on Isaiah 21:1-10
(Read Isaiah 21:1-10)
Babylon was a flat country, abundantly watered. The destruction of Babylon, so often prophesied of by Isaiah, was typical of the destruction of the great foe of the New Testament church, foretold in the Revelation. To the poor oppressed captives it would be welcome news; to the proud oppressors it would be grievous. Let this check vain mirth and sensual pleasures, that we know not in what heaviness the mirth may end. Here is the alarm given to Babylon, when forced by Cyrus. An ass and a camel seem to be the symbols of the Medes and Persians. Babylon's idols shall be so far from protecting her, that they shall be broken down. True believers are the corn of God's floor; hypocrites are but as chaff and straw, with which the wheat is now mixed, but from which it shall be separated. The corn of God's floor must expect to be threshed by afflictions and persecutions. God's Israel of old was afflicted. Even then God owns it is his still. In all events concerning the church, past, present, and to come, we must look to God, who has power to do any thing for his church, and grace to do every thing that is for her good.