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Isaiah 21

Isaiah announces God’s judgment over nations through a terrifying vision, a watchman’s report, and warnings of war and loss.

A grievous vision of invasion leaves Isaiah in bodily distress as he announces judgments concerning Babylon, Dumah, and Arabia. At the Lord’s command, a watchman takes his post and reports Babylon’s fall and the breaking of its idols. A caller from Seir asks how much night remains, receiving an answer that leaves trouble ahead. In Arabia, fugitives receive bread and water, while the Lord sets a one-year limit on Kedar’s glory.

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1The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.
2A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media’s sighing.
3Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have seized me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I am so dismayed that I can’t see.
4My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me.
5They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield!
6For the Lord said to me, “Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees.
7When he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with great attentiveness.”
8He cried like a lion: “Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post.
9Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.” He answered, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.
10You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor!” That which I have heard from the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.
11The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?”
12The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again.”
13The burden on Arabia. You will lodge in the thickets in Arabia, you caravans of Dedanites.
14They brought water to him who was thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread.
15For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle.
16For the Lord said to me, “Within a year, as a worker bound by contract would count it, all the glory of Kedar will fail,
17and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, will be few; for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken it.”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Isaiah 21:2The grievous vision names treachery and destruction, bringing Elam and Media into the announcement of Babylon’s downfall.
Isaiah 21:3The prophet’s labor-like pains show the bodily cost of witnessing the judgment he must declare.
Isaiah 21:4Desired twilight becomes a time of terror, showing how the vision overturns the prophet’s expectation of rest.
Where this chapter reaches

Jeremiah shares Isaiah’s announcement of Babylon’s downfall and the disgrace of its idols, while Revelation takes up the repeated declaration of Babylon’s fall. Habakkuk shares the watchman image: a prophet stands at a post, waiting for what God will make known.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What do Isaiah’s bodily distress and the fugitives’ thirst bring into view about the cost of war?

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What remains unresolved in the watchman’s answer about morning and night?

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Questions people ask about Isaiah 21

Which fall of Babylon does Isaiah 21 describe?

The vision announces Babylon’s fall and the destruction of its idols, with Elam and Media named near its beginning. It is often connected with Babylon’s capture by Persian forces in 539 BC. The chapter does not name a king or date, so the precise historical identification remains debated.

What does “Watchman, what of the night?” mean in Isaiah 21?

A voice from Seir asks the watchman about the night, suggesting a plea to know how long trouble will last. His answer places morning and night together, offering no clear promise of lasting relief. The brief oracle does not explain the exact events behind the exchange.

Who are Dedan, Tema, and Kedar in Isaiah 21?

These names refer to peoples or places associated with Arabia. Dedanite caravans take shelter in thickets, and the inhabitants of Tema bring water and bread to people fleeing battle. Kedar is associated here with glory and skilled archers, whose numbers the Lord says will shrink within a year.

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Isaiah · 66 chapters
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).