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21. Prophecy Against Babylon

1 A prophecy against the Desert by the Sea:

   Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland,
   an invader comes from the desert,
   from a land of terror.

    2 A dire vision has been shown to me:
   The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot.
Elam, attack! Media, lay siege!
   I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.

    3 At this my body is racked with pain,
   pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor;
I am staggered by what I hear,
   I am bewildered by what I see.
4 My heart falters,
   fear makes me tremble;
the twilight I longed for
   has become a horror to me.

    5 They set the tables,
   they spread the rugs,
   they eat, they drink!
Get up, you officers,
   oil the shields!

    6 This is what the Lord says to me:

   “Go, post a lookout
   and have him report what he sees.
7 When he sees chariots
   with teams of horses,
riders on donkeys
   or riders on camels,
let him be alert,
   fully alert.”

    8 And the lookout Dead Sea Scrolls and Syriac; Masoretic Text A lion shouted,

   “Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower;
   every night I stay at my post.
9 Look, here comes a man in a chariot
   with a team of horses.
And he gives back the answer:
   ‘Babylon has fallen, has fallen!
All the images of its gods
   lie shattered on the ground!’”

    10 My people who are crushed on the threshing floor,
   I tell you what I have heard
from the LORD Almighty,
   from the God of Israel.

A Prophecy Against Edom

    11 A prophecy against Dumah Dumah, a wordplay on Edom, means silence or stillness.:

   Someone calls to me from Seir,
   “Watchman, what is left of the night?
   Watchman, what is left of the night?”
12 The watchman replies,
   “Morning is coming, but also the night.
If you would ask, then ask;
   and come back yet again.”

A Prophecy Against Arabia

    13 A prophecy against Arabia:

   You caravans of Dedanites,
   who camp in the thickets of Arabia,
    14 bring water for the thirsty;
you who live in Tema,
   bring food for the fugitives.
15 They flee from the sword,
   from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow
   and from the heat of battle.

    16 This is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end. 17 The survivors of the archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” The LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

9. Babylon is fallen, is fallen. This shews plainly that it is not king Belshazzar’s watchman who is introduced, for this speech would be unsuitable to such a character. The Prophet therefore makes known, by the command of God, what would happen. Now, this may refer either to God or to Darius, as well as to the watchman; and it makes little difference as to the meaning, for Darius, being God’s servant in this matter, is not inappropriately represented to be the herald of that judgment. There would be greater probability in referring it to God himself; for Darius had no such thoughts when he overthrew the idols of the Babylonians. But the speech agrees better with the character of a guardian, as if an angel added an interpretation to the prophecy.

And all the graven images of her gods. There is here an implied contrast between the living God and dead idols. This mode of expression, too, deserves notice, when he calls them “images of gods;” for the Babylonians knew, as all idolaters loudly proclaim, that their images are not gods. Yet they ascribed to them divine power, and when this is done, “the truth of God is changed into a lie,” (Romans 1:25,) and not only so, but God himself is denied. But on this subject we shall afterwards speak more largely. Here we see, that by her destruction Babylon was punished for idolatry, for he assigns the reason why Babylon was destroyed. It was because the Lord could not endure that she should glory in her “graven images.”
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