Isaiah 21:2

Yahweh showed me a terrifying vision. In the vision I saw an army that will betray/deceive people and steal their possessions after they conquer them. Yahweh said, “You armies from Elam and Media, surround Babylon and prepare to attack it! I will cause the groaning and suffering that Babylon caused to cease!”

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.

In Context

1I received this message from Yahweh about Babylonia, a land that is near the Persian Gulf but which will soon be a desert. An army will soon come from the desert to invade that land; it is an army that causes its enemies to be terrified, an army that will come like a whirlwind from the south.

3Because of that, my body is full of pain; my pain is like the pain that women who are giving birth experience. When I hear about and see what God is planning to do, I am shocked.

Read all of Isaiah 21

Cross References

Genesis 10:22The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.

Psalms 12:5But Yahweh replies, “I have seen the violent things that they have done to helpless people; and I have heard those people groaning, so I will arise and rescue the people who are wanting me to help them.”

Psalms 79:11Listen to your people groaning while they are in prison, and by your great power free those whom our enemies say that they will certainly execute.

Proverbs 13:15People respect those who have good sense, but those who cannot be trusted are on the road to being ruined/destroyed (OR, will have a lot of difficulties/troubles).

Isaiah 13:2Lift up a flag on the bare top of a hill, to signal that an army should come to attack Babylon. Shout to them and wave your hand to signal to them that they should march through the city gates into the palaces of the proud rulers of Babylon!

Isaiah 14:1But Yahweh will act mercifully toward the Israeli people; he will choose the people of Israel to be his people again, and he will allow them to return here and live in their own land again. Then people from many other countries will come here and unite with the Israeli people.

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 21:2-11

The Doom of Babylon. ( b. c. 714.) 1 The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land. 2 A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease. 3 Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Isaiah 21:2