Isaiah 21:2

A 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. THE TREACHEROUS DEALER DEALETH TREACHEROUSLY - referring to the military stratagem employed by Cyrus in taking Babylon. Vatablus translates '(There is, or will be) a treacherous dealer (the Medo-Persian invader), to the treacherous dealer' (Babylon). Babylon is repaid in her own coin. ; favour this, The Hebrew is habogeed bogeed, vehashodeed shodeed: 'the treacherous dealer treacherous dealer, the spoiler spoiler!' GO UP. Isaiah abruptly recites the order which he hears God giving to the Persians, the instruments of His vengeance ...

2._A harsh vision. _As the object was to soothe the grief of the people, it may be thought not to be appropriate to call a vision, which is the occasion of joy, _a harsh vision_. But this refers to the Babylonians, who, puffed up with their prosperity, dreaded no danger; for wealth commonly produces pride and indifference. As if he had said, “It is useless to hold out the riches and power of the Babylonians, and when a stone is hard, there will be found a hard hammer to break it.” _The spoiler. _As Babylon had gained its power by plundering and laying waste other nations, it seemed to be free from all danger. Although they had been a terror to others, and had practiced every kind of barbarity and cruelty, yet they could not avoid becoming a prey and enduring injuries similar to those which they had inflicted on others. The Prophet goes farther, and, in order to obtain credit to his state...

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 w...

Verse Isaiah 21:2. _THE TREACHEROUS DEALER DEALETH TREACHEROUSLY, AND THE_ _SPOILER SPOILETH_ - "The plunderer is plundered, and the destroyer is destroyed."] הבוגד בוגד והשודד שודד _habboged boged vehashshoded_ _shoded_. The MSS. vary in expressing or omitting the ו _vau_, in these four words. _Ten_ MSS. of _Kennicott_ are without the ו _vau_ in the _second_ word, and _eight_ MSS. are without the ו _vau_ in the _fourth_ word; which justifies _Symmachus_, who has rendered them passively: ὁ αθετων αθετειται και ὁ ταλαιπωριζων ταλαιπωρει. He read בגוד שדוד _bagud shadud_. _Cocceius_ (Lexicon _in voce_) observes that the _Chaldee_ very often renders the verb בגד _bagad_, by בזז _bazaz_, he spoiled; and in this place, and in...

A GRIEVOUS VISION - Margin, as in Hebrew ‘Hard.’ On the word ‘vision,’ see the note at Isaiah 1:1. The sense here is, that the vision which the prophet saw was one that indicated great calamity Isaiah 21:3. IS DECLARED UNTO ME - That is, is caused to pass before me, and its meaning is made known to me. THE TREACHEROUS DEALER - (חבוגד _chabôgēd_). The perfidious, unfaithful people. This is the usual signification of the word; but the connection here does not seem to require the signification of treachery or perfidy, but of “violence.” The word has this meaning in Habakkuk 2:5, and

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 21:1 THE BURDEN OF THE DESERT OF THE SEA. This is a short and somewhat vague, but highly poetic, "burden of Babylon" It is probably an earlier prophecy than Isaiah 13:1. and 14; and perhaps the first revelation made to Isaiah with respect to the fall of the great Chaldean capital. It exhibits no consciousness of the fact that Babylon is Judah's predestined destroyer, and is expressive rather of sympathy (verses 3, 4) than of triumph. Among recent critics, some suppose it to refer to Sargon's capture of the city in B.C. 710; but the objection to this view, from the entire absence of all reference to Assyria as the conq

A GRIEVOUS VISION IS DECLARED UNTO ME,.... The prophet; meaning the vision of Babylon's destruction, which was "hard", as the word signifies, and might seem harsh and cruel; not to him, nor to the Jews, but to the Chaldeans: THE TREACHEROUS DEALER DEALETH TREACHEROUSLY, AND THE SPOILER SPOILETH; that is, according to Jarchi, one treacherous dealer deals treacherously with another, and one spoiler spoils another; the Medes and Persians deal treacherously with and spoil the Babylonians, who had dealt treacherously with and spoiled other nations: and to this sense some read the words, "the treacherous dealer hath found a treacherous dealer, and the spoiler one that spoileth" n: some take it to be a compellation of the Medes and Persians, calling upon them, under these characters, to go up and besiege Babylon, as, "O treacherous dealer, O spoiler" o; though the words may be understood of th...

CHAPTER 21 The Burdens of the Desert of the Sea, of Dumah, and Arabia 1. _The burden of the desert of the sea (Babylon) (Isaiah 21:1)_ 2. _The burden of Dumah (Isaiah 21:11)_ 3. _The burden upon Arabia (Isaiah 21:13)_ 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 CAPTURE OF BABYLON. This prophecy describes a siege and capture of Babylon by Elam and Media. It is almost universally considered to have been written shortly before the capture of Babylon by Cyrus in 538. The attempts made by a few critics to refer it to a capture of Babylon by Assyria in Isaiah's time 710, 703, or 696 have not been successful. The title wilderness of the sea is difficult. Possibly the point is that Babylon is to become a marshy desert (Isaiah 14:23). LXX omits of the sea. The army of the invader sweeps into Babylon from the desert, the terrible land which separates Babylon from Elam, like as a whirlwind sweeps over Judah from the Negeb. A distressing vision is revealed to the prophet; since Babylon treats the vanquished so brutally, Elam and Media are bidden besiege it, for Yahweh has decreed that the sighing of her captives shall be made to cease. The prophet is

DEALER. one. SIGHING. Caused by the oppression of Babylon....