Isaiah 21:17

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹³This is an oracle concerning Arabia: In the thickets of Arabia you must lodge, O caravans of Dedanites. ¹⁴Bring water for the thirsty, O dwellers of Tema, meet the refugees with food. ¹⁵For they flee from the sword, the sword that is drawn, from the bow that is bent, and from the stress of battle. ¹⁶For this is what the Lord says to me: "Within one year, as a hired worker would count it, all the glory of Kedar will be gone. ¹⁷The remaining archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few." For the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.

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

Cross-References

Genesis 15:1
After these events, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward."

Genesis 16:9
So the Angel of the LORD told her, "Return to your mistress and submit to her authority."

Genesis 16:11
The Angel of the LORD proceeded: "Behold, you have conceived and will bear a son. And you shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard your cry of affliction.

Genesis 21:1
Now the LORD attended to Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what He had promised.

Genesis 21:2
So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.

Genesis 21:4
When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him.

Genesis 21:6
Then Sarah said, "God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears of this will laugh with me."

Genesis 21:13
But I will also make a nation of the slave woman's son, because he is your offspring."

Genesis 21:14
Early in the morning, Abraham got up, took bread and a skin of water, put them on Hagar's shoulders, and sent her away with the boy. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba.

Genesis 46:3
"I am God," He said, "the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.

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.