Isaiah 21:3

Therefore 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. THEREFORE ARE MY LOINS FILLED WITH PAIN. Isaiah imagines himself among the exiles in Babylon, and cannot help feeling moved by the calamities which come on it. So for Moab (Isaiah 15:5; Isaiah 16:11). PAIN - (cf. Isaiah 13:8; Ezekiel 30:4.) I WAS BOWED DOWN AT THE HEARING (OF IT); I WAS DISMAYED AT THE SEEING (OF IT). The Hebrew may mean, 'I was so bowed do...

3._Therefore are my loins, filled with pain. _Here the Prophet represents the people as actually present, for it was not enough to have simply foretold the destruction of Babylon, if he had not confirmed the belief of the godly in such a manner that they felt as if the actual event were placed before their eyes. Such a representation was necessary, and the Prophet does not here describe the feelings of his own heart, as if he had compassion on the Babylonians, but, on the contrary, as we have formerly said, (67) he assumes, for the time, the character of a Babylonian. (68) It ought undoubtedly to satisfy our minds that the hidden judgments of God are held out to us, as in a mirror, that they may arouse the sluggishness of our faith; and therefore the Prophets describe with greater beauty and copiousness, and paint in lively colors, those things which exceed the capacity of o

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...

THEREFORE - In this verse, and the following, the prophet represents himself as “in” Babylon, and as a witness of the calamities which would come upon the city. He describes the sympathy which he feels in her sorrows, and represents himself as deeply affected by her calamities. A similar description occurred in the pain which the prophet represents himself as enduring on account of the calamities of Moab (see Isaiah 15:5, note; Isaiah 16:11, note). MY LOINS - (see the note at Isaiah 16:11). WITH PAIN - The word used here (חלחלה _chalchâlâh_) denotes properly the pains of par

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

THEREFORE ARE MY LOINS FILLED WITH PAIN,.... As a woman at the time of childbirth, as the following words show: these words are spoken by the prophet, not with respect to himself, as if he was pained at heart at the prophecy and vision he had of the ruin of Babylon, since that was a mortal enemy of his people; and besides, their sighing being made to cease could never be a reason of distress in him, but of joy: these words are spoken by him in the person of the Babylonians, and particularly of Belshazzar their king: PANGS HAVE TAKEN HOLD UPON ME, AS THE PANGS OF A WOMAN THAT TRAVAILETH; which come suddenly and at once, are very sharp and strong, and inevitable, which cannot be escaped; so the sudden destruction of the wicked, and particularly of antichrist at the last day, and the terror that shall attend it, are expressed by the same metaphor, 1 Thessalonians 5:2

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

_are my loins filled with pain_ Nahum 2:10. _I was bowed down at the hearing_ or, as R.V. I AM PAINED SO THAT I CANNOT HEAR, &c. Similar metaphorical descriptions of mental anguish are frequent....

THEREFORE ARE MY LOINS FILLED WITH PAIN, &C.— We have here a symbolical description of the greatness of the Babylonish calamity; the prophet exhibiting in himself, as in a figure, an emblem of the extreme distress, consternation, and horror, which should ensue upon this occasion. See ch. Isaiah 15:5 Isaiah 16:8. Luke 21:26. The expression, _The night of my pleasure,_ alludes to the remarkable circumstance of Babylon's being taken in the night of an annual festival, which is more fully set forth in the fifth verse. Vitringa renders it very properly, _The table is spread: the watchman stands upon the watch; they eat; they drink: Arise now, ye princes,_ &c. where, as in a picture, the revelling of the Babylonians is