Isaiah 21:7

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

And he saw: Isaiah 21:9, Isaiah 37:24

he hearkened: Hebrews 2:1

Reciprocal: 1 Chronicles 19:7 - thirty Isaiah 46:11 - Calling Jeremiah 17:24 - if Jeremiah 50:25 - opened

Cross-References

Genesis 21:11
Now this matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son Ishmael.

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 21:32
After they had made the covenant at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army got up and returned to the land of the Philistines.

Genesis 21:34
And Abraham resided in the land of the Philistines for a long time.

Numbers 23:23
For there is no spell against Jacob and no divination against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and Israel, 'What great things God has done!'

Psalms 86:8
O Lord, there is none like You among the gods, nor any works like Yours.

Psalms 86:10
For You are great and perform wonders; You alone are God.

Isaiah 49:21
Then you will say in your heart, 'Who has begotten these for me? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. So who has reared them? Look, I was left all alone, so where did they come from?'"

Isaiah 66:8
Who has heard of such as this? Who has seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be delivered in an instant? Yet as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.

Ephesians 3:10
His purpose was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he saw a chariot [with] a couple of horsemen,.... The drivers of it, or the riders in it; perhaps meaning Cyrus and Darius:

a chariot of asses, [and] a chariot of camels; by the former may be meant the Persians, who very much used mules or asses; and the Medes by the latter, who abounded in camels: the words are in the singular number, and may be rendered, "a rider of an ass, and a rider of a camel" w; and so may describe the couple of riders along with the chariot, which may signify the whole army of the Medes and Persians, chariots being much used in war; and the rider of the ass or mule may design Cyrus, who was called a mule, because of his mixed descent, being a Persian by his father, and a Mede by his mother's side; so the oracle of Apollo told the Babylonians, that their city should stand, until a mule was king of the Medes; and the rider of the camel may point at Darius:

and he hearkened diligently with much heed; the watchman that was set to watch used the utmost attention to what he saw, and listened diligently to the noise of this chariot and horsemen, as they came nearer.

w רכב חמור רכב גמל αναβατην ονου, και αναβατην καμηλου, Sept.; "ascensorem asini, et ascensorem cameli", V. L. "unum equitantium in asinis, alterum equitantium in camelis", Piscator.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen - This passage is very obscure from the ambiguity of the word רכב rekeb - ‘chariot.’ Gesenius contends that it should be rendered ‘cavalry,’ and that it refers to cavalry two abreast hastening to the destruction of the city. The word רכב rekeb denotes properly a chariot or wagon Judges 5:28; a collection of wagons 2Ch 1:14; 2 Chronicles 8:6; 2 Chronicles 9:25; and sometimes refers to the “horses or men” attached to a chariot. ‘David houghed all the chariots’ 2 Samuel 8:4; that is, all the “horses” belonging to them. ‘David killed of the Syrians seven hundred chariots’ 2 Samuel 10:18; that is, all “the men” belonging to seven hundred chariots. According to the present Masoretic pointing, the word רכב rekeb does not mean, perhaps, anything else than a chariot strictly, but other forms of the word with the same letters denote “riders or cavalry.” Thus, the word רכב rakâb denotes a horseman 2 Kings 9:17; a charioteer or driver of a chariot 1 Kings 22:34; Jeremiah 51:21. The verb רבב râbab means “to ride,” and is usually applied to riding on the backs of horses or camels; and the sense here is, that the watchman saw “a riding,” or persons riding two abreast; that is, “cavalry,” or men borne on horses, and camels, and asses, and hastening to attack the city.

With a couple of horsemen - The word ‘couple’ (צמד tsemed) means properly a “yoke or pair;” and it means here that the cavalry was seen “in pairs, that is,” two abreast.

A chariot of asses - Or rather, as above, “a riding” on donkeys - an approach of men in this manner to battle. Asses were formerly used in war where horses could not be procured. Thus Strabo (xv. 2, 14) says of the inhabitants of Caramania, ‘Many use donkeys for war in the want of horses.’ And Herodotus (iv. 129) says expressly that Darius Hystaspes employed donkeys in a battle with the Scythians.

And a chariot of camels - A “riding” on camels. Camels also were used in war, perhaps usually to carry the baggage (see Diod. ii. 54; iii. 44; Livy, xxxvii. 40; Strabo, xvi. 3). They are used for all purposes of burden in the East, and particularly in Arabia.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 21:7. And he saw a chariot, c. - "And he saw a chariot with two riders a rider on an ass, a rider on a camel"] This passage is extremely obscure from the ambiguity of the term רכב recheb, which is used three times, and which signifies a chariot, or any other vehicle, or the rider in it; or a rider on a horse, or any other animal; or a company of chariots, or riders. The prophet may possibly mean a cavalry in two parts, with two sorts of riders; riders on asses or mules, and riders on camels; or led on by two riders, one on an ass, and one on a camel. However, so far it is pretty clear, that Darius and Cyrus, the Medes and the Persians, are intended to be distinguished by the two riders on the two sorts of cattle. It appears from Herodotus, i. 80, that the baggage of Cyrus' army was carried on camels. In his engagement with Croesus, he took off the baggage from the camels, and mounted his horsemen upon them; the enemy's horses, offended with the smell of the camels, turned back and fled. - L.