Isaiah 21:6

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹This is an oracle concerning the Desert by the Sea: Like whirlwinds sweeping through the Negev, an invader comes from the desert, from a land of terror. ²A dire vision is declared to me: "The traitor still betrays, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media! I will put an end to all her groaning." ³Therefore my body is filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am bewildered to hear, I am dismayed to see. ⁴My heart staggers; fear makes me tremble. The twilight of my desire has turned to horror. ⁵They prepare a table, they lay out a carpet, they eat, they drink! Rise up, O princes, oil the shields! ⁶For this is what the Lord says to me: "Go, post a lookout to report what he sees.⁷When he sees chariots with teams of horsemen, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, he must be alert, fully alert." ⁸Then the lookout shouted, "Day after day, O lord, I stand on the watchtower; night after night I stay at my post. ⁹Look, here come the riders, horsemen in pairs." And one answered, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon! All the images of her gods lie shattered on the ground." ¹⁰O My people, crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heard from the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Go: Isaiah 62:6, 2 Kings 9:17-20, Jeremiah 51:12, Jeremiah 51:13, Ezekiel 3:17, Ezekiel 33:2-7, Habakkuk 2:1, Habakkuk 2:2

Reciprocal: 2 Samuel 18:24 - the watchman Song of Solomon 3:3 - watchmen Isaiah 21:11 - what

Cross-References

Genesis 17:17
Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, "Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?"

Genesis 21:12
But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to everything that Sarah tells you, for through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.

Genesis 21:15
When the water in the skin was gone, she left the boy under one of the bushes.

Genesis 21:21
And while he was dwelling in the Wilderness of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Genesis 21:22
At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, "God is with you in all that you do.

Genesis 21:27
So Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant.

Genesis 21:28
Abraham separated seven ewe lambs from the flock,

Psalms 113:9
He settles the barren woman in her home, as a joyful mother to her children. Hallelujah!

Psalms 126:2
Then our mouths were filled with laughter and our tongues with shouts of joy. Then it was said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them."

Isaiah 49:15
"Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For thus hath the Lord said unto me,.... This is a confirmation of the above prophecy from the Lord himself, he showing to the prophet, in a visionary way, the ruin of Babylon, and the means and instruments of it:

go, set a watchman; not Habakkuk, as Jarchi; nor Urias, as the Septuagint; nor Jeremiah, as others; but himself, who, in a way of vision, represented a watchman on the walls of Babylon; and which was no way unsuitable to his character and office as a prophet:

let him declare what he seeth; what he sees coming at a distance, or at hand, let him faithfully and publicly make it known: these are not the words of the king of Babylon to one of his watchmen; but of the Lord of hosts to his prophet.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Go, set a watchman - This was said to Isaiah in the vision. He represents himself as in Babylon, and as hearing God command him to set a watchman on the watch-tower who would announce what was to come to pass. All this is designed merely to bring the manner of the destruction of the city more vividly before the eye.