Глава 21

1–10. Prophecy about the fall of Babylon. 11–12. About the fate of Edom. 13–17. And Arabia. Isaiah 21:1–10. The prophet sees a strong storm approaching the coastal desert or Babylon. This storm is the enemy hordes of the Medes and Elamites, who will put an end to the suffering of the peoples subject to Babylon. The disaster that will befall Babylon is so severe that even the prophet himself sympathizes with the inhabitants of Babylon. Then the prophet talks in detail about how the fate of Babylon was revealed to him by God. The prophecy concludes with the joyful exclamation of the prophet addressed to Israel freed from the yoke of Babylon. Isa.21:1. Prophecy about the seaside desert. - Like storms in the south, it comes from the desert, from a terrible land. Chapters 21 and 22 contain prophecies, so to speak, of an emblematic nature. Famous countries do not appear here under their own names, but receive somewhat mysterious names. So Babylon is called here the seaside desert. Where does this name come from? In the monuments of Assyrian writing, Babylonia is sometimes called the sea or the country of the sea. The reason for such a name could be given either by the fact that the Euphrates, flowing through Babylonia, overflowed in the south like a sea, or by the fact that, as can be seen from the latest research, in ancient times the Persian Gulf reached almost to Babylon itself, which thus turned out to be a seaside city (see Brockhaus and Ephron. Encyclical dictionary, see Babylon). But since under Isaiah both northern and southern Chaldea were united under one scepter of the Assyrian king, the prophet obviously meant that over time all of Chaldea or all of Mesopotamia would become a desolate desert (cf. Is. 14:23). The entire verse can be translated from Hebrew. so: “like an uncontrollable southern hurricane, this (i.e., the vision described further) comes from the desert, from a terrible land.” Media was so named because the terrible and numerous enemies of Babylon lived there. In addition, Media was separated from Babylon by deserts. Isa.21:2. A terrible vision was shown to me: the robber robs, the ravager devastates; Arise, Elam, besiege, Mid! I will put an end to all lamentations. “Robber” – according to Orelli, the Heb. the word should be translated by the expression: bohed traitor. According to this interpreter, here one can find an indication that the destroyers of Babylon will be the vassal kings who betrayed him. "Arise". Babylon in the Bible is sometimes depicted as a mountain that rises to heaven (Jer. 51:25, 53). Elam (in Assyrian ilamti) is a country east of the Tigris, which stood in the same relationship with Babylon as Media. This is not the same as Persia: the Aryan Persians were not known to the Jews at the time of Isaiah. "To all lamentations". The Russian translation attributes these words to the Almighty, but earlier it was the speech of the prophet, trace. translation does not correspond to the context of speech. In addition, the prophet continues to express his regret about the destruction of Babylon. Meanwhile, this regret would not be inappropriate if at the end of verse 3 the Lord had announced the end of the suffering of the Jews enslaved by Babylon. Condamin therefore, correcting the word: haschbiti I will put an end to, on haschbit put an end to, and instead of anechatan lamentation, reading chanenah compassion, translates this passage: “have no more compassion!” Isa.21:3. This makes my loins tremble; pangs seized me like the pangs of a woman giving birth. I'm excited by what I'm hearing; I'm confused by what I see. Isa.21:4. My heart trembles; trembling hits me; My joyful night turned into horror for me. "I'm excited". - can be translated as follows: “I’m so excited that I can’t hear anything; I’m so embarrassed that I can’t see anything!” Even at night, when it is natural to calm down from the worries of the day, the prophet is haunted by the thought of the terrible fate of Babylon. Isa.21:5. They prepare the table, spread the blankets, eat and drink. “Get up, princes, smear your shields!” In the evening, when the Babylonian princes were having dinner, a cry of alarm was heard. “Bedspreads” - that is, carpets on which those who dined sat down. “Smear the shields” - lubricate the shields so that slashing and piercing blows slide off. Isa.21:6. For this is what the Lord said to me: Go, set a watchman; let him say what he sees. In this verse, the Lord commands the prophet himself to prepare to receive the revelation of the fate of Babylon. That here by watchman we mean not an individual person, but Isaiah himself, this is also clear from verse 11, where Edom addresses Isaiah as a watchman. Thus here we find a special form of poetic metonymy. Isa.21:7. And he saw riders riding in pairs on horses, riders on donkeys, riders on camels; and he listened diligently, with great attention, - Isa.21:8. and cried out like a lion: My lord! I stood guard all day, and remained in my place whole nights: Condamin translates the beginning of this verse as follows: “if he sees...”, and the end as follows: “then let him peer carefully, very carefully, and let them shout: “I see!” Instead of the last expression in the Russian translation, as in many others, there is the expression: “like a lion.” The first translation seems more natural than the second - yes, in addition, the expression areeh could easily have been changed by the Masoretes into the expression ariih (lion): it was only necessary to replace the letter aleph with the letter iod. “I stood on guard.” These are the words of the prophet himself, which clearly show that even before he meant himself to be in custody. Isa.21:9. and behold, people are riding, riders on horses in pairs. Then he cried out and said: Babylon is fallen, fallen, and all the idols of her gods lie broken on the earth. "Then he cried." Condamin translates this passage as follows: “they raise their voices, they speak.” "Idols... broken". This served as proof that Babylon had lost its independence - its gods had already been defeated, and therefore all its power, which was concentrated in these gods, had been crushed (Hos. 8:5, 6). Isa.21:10. O my threshed and son of my threshing floor! What I heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you. The Babylonians treated Israel, to whom the prophet is addressing here, as a farmer treated sheaves of grain, threshing them either with a flail or with a specially designed machine. Isa.21:11. Prophecy about the Duma. They shout to me from Seir: watchman! How long is it night? watchman! How long is it night? Isa.21:12. The watchman answers: morning is approaching, but it is still night. If you are urgently asking, then contact us and come. The prophet announces to Edom that the dawn of liberation from the heavy foreign - probably the Assyrian yoke - will not dawn for him for a long time. "Duma" is a shortened name for Idumea. The country lying south of the Dead Sea received this name from Edom (the nickname of Esau), but perhaps the reddish tint of the soil of this country gave rise to the name of this area Idumea (Edom in Hebrew means: red). In the south, Idumea extended to Elath, which lay at the northern end of the Gulf of Elath and served as a harbor for Edomite ships. The ancient capital of the Idumeans was the city of Botsra, but the main fortress of the country was Sela, better known under the Greek name Petra. From ancient times, the inhabitants of this country were hostile to the Jews, but Saul, David and Solomon humbled them and occupied part of their possessions. With the weakening of the Kingdom of Israel, the Edomites not only recaptured the cities taken from them by the Jews, but also began to raid southern Palestine. Initially, the Edomites were ruled by sheikhs, but when they began to fight with the Horites, who were the oldest inhabitants of Idumea, the Edomites began to elect kings for themselves, although the princes of individual tribes continued to maintain their power under the kings (see Ex. 15:15). According to religion, the Edomites were idolaters, as can be seen from the fact that King Amaziah, having conquered Idumea, brought “the gods of the sons of Seir” to Judea (2 Chronicles 25:14, 15, 20). The Edomites built their dwellings mainly in caves and grottoes carved into soft mountain sandstone. It should be noted that the expression Duma used in Isaiah is in Hebrew. doumah – actually means: silence. Does the prophet not have some hint in this that this Idumea, previously so densely populated and lively, will eventually become a land of silence? Then it would be parallel to the expression: “the land of the shadow of death,” used by the prophet about Galilee (Is. 9:2). "From Seir". – This is another designation for the same Idumea, probably derived from the name of the Horite Seir, whose descendants first occupied the Edomite mountains, later populated by the descendants of Esau (see Interpretation of the Bible, vol. 1). These mountains, stretching all the way to the Elanite Gulf from the Dead Sea, are mainly composed of layers of porphyry, and sometimes have a calcareous consistency. Among these mountains there are many fertile valleys where wheat and grapes grow, as well as various flowers and fruit trees. Only the western slopes of the mountain are a terribly deserted place, devoid of any vegetation. Most likely, in ancient times the eastern part of the said mountain range was called the Mount Seir. “What time is it night” – i.e. what time of the morning? How long will the night last? There is no doubt that the inhabitants of Seir were asking about the proximity of their liberation from the heavy Assyrian yoke. In fact, among the kings who kissed the feet of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, during his campaign against Palestine, the chronicles of Sennacherib also mention the king of Edom. Subsequent Assyrian kings, as powerful monarchs, also, of course, did not let the kings of Edom disobey. The prophet says that the morning of liberation for Edom is approaching, but it is still night, that is, the Edomites will still have to suffer a lot from the Assyrians. The Edomites could indeed turn to the Jewish prophet with a question about their future fate, because they saw in the Lord, whom Isaiah served, the national Deity of the Jews, who knew the secrets of the future (cf. 2 Kings 5 ​​et seq. 2 Kings 8 et seq.). The example of the Ninevites, who believed the preaching of Jonah, could have prompted them to do this. “Turn and come” – more precisely from the Hebrew. “You will come again!” The Prophet in these final words indicates that if the Edomites receive relief from their plight after the fall of Nineveh, this relief will be temporary and they will again have to wait impatiently to find out when they will be freed from the new yoke awaiting them (the Chaldean). Isaiah 21:13–17. And Arabia will suffer from the invasion of the Assyrians. Arabian caravans must hide in the thickets and seek refuge from enemies among the Arabs of the Syrian desert. The prophet predicts that the son of Kidar will lose his former glory. Isa.21:13. Prophecy about Arabia. Spend the night in the Arabian forest, Dedan caravans! “Arabia” is a large peninsula of western Asia, southeast of Palestine, between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. But in Isaiah this name (in Hebrew, arav) obviously denotes not so much a specific country or nationality, but generally nomadic tribes who lived partly in the deserts to the east and southeast of the Holy Land, and mainly in the so-called desert Arabia or the Syrian desert (cf. 2 Chronicles 17:11; 2 Chronicles 22:1; 2 Chronicles 26:7). This desert was densely populated in ancient times. Its inhabitants belonged to the Semitic group of peoples, although Cushitic tribes also lived in the south. More precisely, they can be divided, on the basis of the book of Genesis, into the Joktanides, Keturites and Ishmaelites. (Arabs generally rarely entered into relations with Jews and were not hostile to them). “In the forest of Arabia” – bajaar baarav “in the bushes, in the Arava.” In ancient times there were many such bushes or thickets along the outskirts of the Arabian desert. "Dedansky caravans". The Dedanites are an Arab tribe descended from Abraham through Keturah (Gen. 25:3). There was another tribe with the same name of Cushite origin (Gen. 10:7), but here, obviously, of course, the tribe descended from Abraham, which lived near Edom, as can be concluded from the fact that the prophet speaks about it immediately after speaking about Edom. A trace of this tribe remained in the name of the ruins of a city northwest of Aqaba as Daidan. This tribe traded with Syria with goods obtained from India and Ethiopia (ivory, carpets, etc.). Isa.21:14. Living in the land of Themai! bring water to meet the thirsty; meet those running with bread, Isa.21:15. for they flee from swords, from the drawn sword and from the drawn bow, and from the cruelty of war. The "Land of Themaia", friendly to the Daedanites and other Kedarians, was probably an oasis located southeast of the northern tip of the Elanite Gulf. Arabs flee here to escape the Assyrian hordes advancing from the north. The Fema tribe is of Izmail origin. Isa.21:16. For this is what the Lord said to me: Another year, equal to the year of the mercenary, and all the glory of Kidar will disappear, Isa.21:17. and the brave sons of Kidar will have but few bows left: thus saith the Lord God of Israel. “The year of the mercenary” - see Isaiah 16:14. “Kidar” is also an Ishmael tribe, which lived partly in tents made of fabric made from black goat hair (Song.1:4), partly in villages (Is.42:11) and was rich in herds and camels (Is.60:7). This was a very warlike and at the same time treacherous tribe (Ps. 119:5). The place of migration of this tribe was the northern part of the Syrian-Arabian desert, lying between Damascus and Babylon. The most decisive defeat of this tribe, which stood at the head of all Arab tribes, was inflicted by the Assyrian king Asar-Gaddon. When the prophecy of Chapter 21 was fulfilled. about the fall of Babylon? Some (Smith, Kleinert) see here a prediction about the siege of Babylon by the Assyrian king Sargon (in 701), while others (Kunell, Delich, Dilman) attribute the fulfillment of this prophecy to the capture of Babylon by Cyrus. The latter opinion is more correct, because, not to mention the fact that Isaiah mentions the Elamites and Medes attacking Babylon, the Jews themselves are presented here as a people “threshed to death,” as they could only be called in the era of the Babylonian captivity, which the prophet probably has in mind here. As for Isaiah's prophecies about Eden and Arabia, most critics see no reason to consider them not genuine, although they do not find any data to determine the time of their utterance. This chapter can be divided into stanzas as follows: 2 – Verse 6–10 – (3, 3, 2) Prophecy about Edom – (vv. 11–12) Prophecy about Arabia – (13–15 vv.) You might be interested in: