Isaiah — Chapter 21

The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds come from the south, it cometh from the desert from a terrible land. 'Desert of the sea' = the deserts around Babylon, near the Persian Gulf. Cyrus and Darius are described as whirlwinds from the desert, coming suddenly and devastatingly.

A grievous vision is declared unto me: he that is unfaithful dealeth unfaithfully: and he that is a spoiler maketh spoil. Go up, O Elam, besiege, O Mede: I have made all the sighing thereof to cease. God summons Elam (Persia) and Media to besiege Babylon. 'I have made all its sighing to cease' = Babylon's victims (especially the Jews) will be silenced no more by their captors.

Therefore are my loins filled with pain, anguish hath taken hold of me, as the anguish of a woman in labour: I fell down at the hearing of it, I was troubled at the seeing of it. Isaiah's extraordinary anguish in prophesying Babylon's fall: he suffers like a woman in labor when he sees this terrible vision. Lapide: the prophet is not indifferent to the fate of nations, even enemy nations — his suffering shows the love of a prophet for all humanity.

And behold here cometh a chariot of a man, with two horsemen. And he answered, and said: Babylon is fallen, is fallen: and all the graven gods thereof are broken unto the ground. 'Babylon is fallen, is fallen' — the double repetition for emphasis and certainty. Lapide notes Revelation 14:8 and 18:2 repeat this cry eschatologically. The chariot = Cyrus and Darius; their arrival signals the end of Babylonian power.

The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir: Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The mysterious oracle of Dumah (= Idumaea/Edom): an Edomite voice calls to the Watchman (Isaiah/God): 'what hour of the night?' — meaning 'when will this captivity end?' The watchman's answer is cryptic: 'morning comes, but also night.' Lapide: morning = deliverance from Babylon; night = return to sin; the answer is conditional on Israel's conversion.