Isaiah 21King James Version
The burden of the desert of the sea. A grievous vision is declared. 'Babylon is fallen, is fallen,' a line later echoed in Revelation. Then a dialogue with Edom: Watchman, what of the night? The morning cometh, and also the night. A haunting exchange.
Three oracles: the Desert of the Sea (Babylon's fall), Dumah (Edom), and Arabia. A horrifying vision overwhelms Isaiah: treacherous dealers, spoilers spoiling. He posts a watchman. The answer comes: Babylon has fallen, all her gods are broken on the ground. Edom gets a cryptic response about the night and morning. Arabia will be stripped within a year.
The watchman metaphor frames prophetic work as sustained vigilance, receiving news others are too busy or too afraid to wait for.
verse: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground", the doubled fallen carries the weight of certainty before the event. This exact phrasing recurs in Revelation 18:2.
Jerusalem, probably during the late eighth century when Babylon was under Assyrian dominance. Isaiah sees beyond the present political moment to Babylon's eventual collapse. The watchman imagery is drawn from the actual practice of posting sentinels on city walls to scan the horizon for riders bearing news.
Isaiah the prophet, physically distressed by the vision. The unnamed watchman on the tower. The rider on horseback and the rider on a donkey who bring the news. The peoples of Dumah and Arabia. The LORD who sets the watchman.
The watchman at the tower (vv. 6-9) became one of the defining images of prophetic vocation, directly influencing Ezekiel 3 and 33. The fallen Babylon announcement, centuries before Babylon's actual fall, is bold enough to be cited verbatim in Revelation as the final word on Babylon's end.
Isaiah reports physical distress from this vision: loins filled with pain, pangs like a woman in labor. This is not comfortable prophesying. The watchman waits through the night. When the answer finally comes, it is terse and enormous.
1The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.
2A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.
3Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.
4My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me.
5Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.
6For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.
7And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed:
8And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights:
9And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.
10O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.
11The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?
12The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come.
13The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim.
14The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that fled.
15For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.
16For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of an hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail:
17And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished: for the LORD God of Israel hath spoken it.