Isaiah 21
21
God’s Message to Babylon
1This is a message about the Desert by the Sea:
Disaster is coming from the desert
like wind blowing in the south.
It is coming from a terrible country.
2I have seen a terrible vision.
I see traitors turning against you
and people taking your wealth.
Elam, attack the people!
Media, surround the city and attack it!
I will bring an end to the pain the city causes.
3I saw those terrible things, and now I am in pain;
my pains are like the pains of giving birth.
What I hear makes me very afraid;
what I see causes me to shake with fear.
4I am worried,
and I am shaking with fear.
My pleasant evening
has become a night of fear.
5They set the table;
they spread the rugs;
they eat and drink.
Leaders, stand up.
Prepare the shields for battle!
6The Lord said to me,
“Go, place a lookout for the city
and have him report what he sees.
7If he sees chariots and teams of horses,
donkeys, or camels,
he should pay very close attention.”
8Then the lookout called out,
“My master, each day I stand in the watchtower watching;
every night I have been on guard.
9Look, I see a man coming in a chariot
with a team of horses.”
The man gives back the answer,
“Babylon has fallen. It has fallen!
All the statues of her gods
lie broken on the ground.”
10My people are crushed like grain on the threshing floor.
My people, I tell you what I have heard
from the Lord All-Powerful,
from the God of Israel.
God’s Message to Edom
11This is a message about Dumah:
Someone calls to me from Edom,
“Watchman, how much of the night is left?
Watchman, how much longer will it be night?”
12The watchman answers,
“Morning is coming, but then night will come again.
If you have something to ask,
then come back and ask.”
God’s Message to Arabia
13This is a message about Arabia:
A group of traders from Dedan
spent the night near some trees in Arabia.
14They gave water to thirsty travelers;
the people of Tema gave food
to those who were escaping.
15They were running from swords,
from swords ready to kill,
from bows ready to shoot,
from a hard battle.
16This is what the Lord said to me: “In one year all the glory of the country of Kedar will be gone. (This is a year as a hired helper counts time.) 17At that time only a few of the archers, the soldiers of Kedar, will be left alive.” The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.
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Isaiah 21: NCV
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The Holy Bible, New Century Version, Copyright © 2005 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Isaiah 21
21
God Commands That Babylon Be Taken
1The [mournful, inspired] oracle (#I.e. an urgent message the prophet is under compulsion to proclaim.a burden to be carried) concerning the Desert of the #Probably a reference to the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers and their tributaries which overflowed their banks like a sea. Great dams were constructed to control their floodwaters.Sea (the seasonally flooded plains just south of Babylon):
As windstorms in the Negev (the South) sweep through,
So it (God’s judgment) comes from the desert, from [the hostile armies of] a terrifying land.
2A harsh vision has been shown to me;
The treacherous one deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, Elam! Lay siege, Media!
All the groaning [caused by Babylon’s ruthless oppressions] I [the Lord] have brought to an end.
3Therefore [continues Isaiah] my loins are filled with anguish;
Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in childbirth;
I am so bent and bewildered that I cannot hear, I am so terrified that I cannot see.
4My mind reels, horror overwhelms me;
The twilight I longed for has been #The vision reveals the events to occur at the feast of Belshazzar—the defilement of the golden articles taken from God’s temple, the handwriting on the wall, the murder of Babylon’s great king.turned into fear and trembling for me.
5They set the table [for the doomed banquet], they spread out the cloth, they eat, they drink;
“Rise up, captains [of Belshazzar’s court], oil your shields [for battle, for your enemy is at the gates]!”
6This is what the Lord says to me,
“Go, station the lookout, let him report what he sees.
7When he sees a chariot, horsemen in pairs,
A train of donkeys and a train of camels,
Let him pay attention and listen closely, very closely.”
8And the lookout called like a lion,
“O Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower by day,
And I am stationed every night at my guard post.
9Now look! Here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.”
And one said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
And all the carved images of her gods are shattered on the ground.”
10O my threshed people [Judah, who must be judged and trampled down by Babylon], my afflicted of the threshing floor.
What I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
The God of Israel, I have [joyfully] announced to you [that Babylon is to fall].
Oracles about Edom and Arabia
11The [mournful, inspired] oracle (#I.e. an urgent message the prophet is under compulsion to proclaim.a burden to be carried) concerning Dumah (Edom):
Someone keeps calling to me from Seir (Edom),
“Watchman, what is left of the night [of Assyrian oppression]?
Watchman, what is left of the night? [How long until morning?]”
12The watchman says,
“The morning comes [only briefly], but also [comes] the night [of Babylonian oppression].
If you would ask [of me then], ask [again, if Edom really wishes to know];
Come back again.”
13The [mournful, inspired] oracle (#I.e. an urgent message the prophet is under compulsion to proclaim.a burden to be carried) concerning Arabia:
In the thickets of Arabia you must spend the night,
Caravans of Dedanites.
14Bring water for the thirsty [Dedanites],
O inhabitants of the land of Tema [in Arabia];
Meet the fugitive with bread.
15For they have fled from the swords,
From the drawn sword, from the bent bow
And from the press of battle and grief of war.
16For the Lord has said this to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired man [who will work no longer than was agreed], all the splendor of [the tribe of] Kedar will end; 17and the remainder of the number of archers, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, will be few; for the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.”
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