إِشَعْيَاءَ 21:17

Smith Van Dyke Version

وبقية عدد قسي ابطال بني قيدار تقل لان الرب اله اسرائيل قد تكلم

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

archers: Heb. bows

the mighty: Isaiah 10:18, Isaiah 10:19, Isaiah 17:4, Isaiah 17:5, Psalms 107:39

for: Isaiah 1:20, Numbers 23:19, Jeremiah 44:29, Zechariah 1:6, Matthew 24:35

Reciprocal: Genesis 25:13 - Kedar 1 Chronicles 1:29 - Kedar Isaiah 24:3 - the Lord Jeremiah 49:28 - Kedar Ezekiel 28:26 - when I

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the residue of the number of archers,.... Or of "bow" g, for "bows": that is, of men that use the bow, or are expert at it, as the Kedarenes were, both for taking wild beasts, and fighting with men, in which they followed their original ancestor Ishmael,

Genesis 21:20 the number of these archers it seems had been great, but would be lessened by the calamity threatened; and those that would escape that, and be preserved from it, should be lessened still, as follows:

the mighty men of the children of Kedar shall be diminished; their military men, the most expert at the use of the bow, and the most valiant and courageous; the few of those that were left, and did not fall by the sword of the Assyrians, should gradually diminish, and be fewer and fewer:

for the Lord God of Israel hath spoken [it]; who cannot lie, nor will repent, and whose word never fails, what he has said he will do, nor will he alter the thing that is gone out of his lips; and he is spoken of as the God of Israel, because it was to the Israelites that this was said, and for their sakes; either because these Arabians some way or other were injurious to them, or they had put some confidence in them. The Targum is,

"because by the word of the Lord God of Israel it is so decreed.''

g מספר קשת "numeri arcus", Montanus, Cocceius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And the residue of the number - That is, those who shall be left in the invasion. Or perhaps it may be read, ‘There shall be a renmant of the number of bowmen; the mighty people of Kedar shall be diminished.’

Of archers - Hebrew, ‘Of the bow;’ that is, of those who use bows in war. The bow was the common instrument in hunting and in war among the ancients.

Shall be diminished - Hebrew, ‘Shall be made small;’ they shall be reduced to a very small number. We cannot indeed determine the precise historical event to which this refers, but the whole connection and circumstances seem to make it probable that it referred to the invasion by the Assyrian when he went up against Judah, or when he was on his way to Egypt.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 21:17. The archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar - "The mighty bowmen of the sons of Kedar"] Sagittariorum fortium, Vulg.; transposing the two words, and reading גבורי קשה gibborey kesheth; which seems to be right. The strong men of the bow, the most excellent archers.

For the Lord - hath spoken it - "For JEHOVAH hath spoken it."] The prophetic Carmina of Marcius, foretelling the battle of Cannae, lib. xxv. 12, conclude with the same kind of solemn form: Nam mihi ita Jupiter fatus est; "Thus hath Jupiter spoken to me." Observe that the word נאם naam, to pronounce, to declare, is the solemn word appropriated to the delivering of prophecies: "Behold, I am against the prophets, saith (נאם naam, pronounceth) JEHOVAH, who use their tongues, וינאמו נאם vaiyinamu neum, and solemnly pronounce, He hath pronounced it;" Jeremiah 23:31. What God says shall most assuredly come to pass; he cannot be deceived.