collapse all  

Text -- Isaiah 21:5 (NET)

Strongs On/Off
Context
21:5 Arrange the table, lay out the carpet, eat and drink! Get up, you officers, smear oil on the shields!
Parallel   Cross Reference (TSK)   ITL  

Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics

Dictionary Themes and Topics: Watchman | Watches | TOWER | SHIELD | Persia | Isaiah, The Book of | Isaiah | HEZEKIAH (2) | Buckler | Babylon | BABEL | Anoint | ARMOR; ARMS | ANOINTING | more
Table of Contents

Word/Phrase Notes
Wesley , JFB , Clarke , Calvin , TSK

Word/Phrase Notes
Barnes , Poole , Gill

Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes , Geneva Bible

Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis , MHCC , Matthew Henry , Keil-Delitzsch , Constable , Guzik

collapse all
Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Wesley: Isa 21:5 - -- Furnish it with meats and drinks. The prophet foretells what the Babylonians would be doing when their enemies were at their doors.

Furnish it with meats and drinks. The prophet foretells what the Babylonians would be doing when their enemies were at their doors.

Wesley: Isa 21:5 - -- To give us notice of any approaching danger, that in the meantime we may more securely indulge ourselves.

To give us notice of any approaching danger, that in the meantime we may more securely indulge ourselves.

Wesley: Isa 21:5 - -- Of Babylon: arise from the table and run to your arms.

Of Babylon: arise from the table and run to your arms.

Wesley: Isa 21:5 - -- Prepare yourselves and your arms for the approaching battle. The shield is put for all their weapons of offence and defence. They used to anoint their...

Prepare yourselves and your arms for the approaching battle. The shield is put for all their weapons of offence and defence. They used to anoint their shields with oil, to preserve and polish them, and to make them slippery.

JFB: Isa 21:5 - -- Namely, the feast in Babylon; during which Cyrus opened the dykes made by Semiramis to confine the Euphrates to one channel and suffered them to overf...

Namely, the feast in Babylon; during which Cyrus opened the dykes made by Semiramis to confine the Euphrates to one channel and suffered them to overflow the country, so that he could enter Babylon by the channel of the river. Isaiah first represents the king ordering the feast to be got ready. The suddenness of the irruption of the foe is graphically expressed by the rapid turn in the language to an alarm addressed to the Babylonian princes, "Arise," &c. (compare Isa 22:13). MAURER translates, "They prepare the table," &c. But see Isa 8:9.

JFB: Isa 21:5 - -- Rather, "set the watch." This done, they thought they might feast in entire security. Babylon had many watchtowers on its walls.

Rather, "set the watch." This done, they thought they might feast in entire security. Babylon had many watchtowers on its walls.

JFB: Isa 21:5 - -- This was done to prevent the leather of the shield becoming hard and liable to crack. "Make ready for defense"; the mention of the "shield" alone impl...

This was done to prevent the leather of the shield becoming hard and liable to crack. "Make ready for defense"; the mention of the "shield" alone implies that it is the Babylonian revellers who are called on to prepare for instant self-defense. HORSLEY translates, "Grip the oiled shield."

Clarke: Isa 21:5 - -- Prepare the table "The table is prepared"- In Hebrew the verbs are in the infinitive mood absolute, as in Eze 1:14 : "And the animals ran and return...

Prepare the table "The table is prepared"- In Hebrew the verbs are in the infinitive mood absolute, as in Eze 1:14 : "And the animals ran and returned, רצוא ושוב ratso veshob , like the appearance of the lightning;"just as the Latins say, currere et reverti, for currebant et revertebantur . See Isa 33:11 (note), and the note there

Arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield - Kimchi observes that several of the rabbins understood this of Belshazzar’ s impious feast and death. The king of a people is termed the shield, because he is their defense. The command, Anoint the shield, is the same with Anoint a new king. Belshazzar being now suddenly slain, while they were all eating and drinking, he advises the princes, whose business it was, to make speed and anoint another in his stead.

Calvin: Isa 21:5 - -- 5.Prepare the table These verbs may be taken for participles; as if he had said, “While they were preparing the table and appointing a guard, while...

5.Prepare the table These verbs may be taken for participles; as if he had said, “While they were preparing the table and appointing a guard, while they were eating and drinking, sudden terror arose; there was a call to arms, Arise ye princes,” etc.. But Isaiah presents lively descriptions, so as to place the actual event, as it were, before our eyes. Certainly Xenophon does not describe so historically the storming of the city; and this makes it evident that it was not natural sagacity, but heavenly inspiration, that taught Isaiah to describe so vividly events that were unknown. Besides, we ought to observe the time when these predictions were uttered; for at that time the kingdom of Babylon was in its most flourishing condition, and appeared to have invincible power, and dreaded no danger. Isaiah ridicules this vain confidence, and shews that this power will speedily be laid in ruins.

Let it not be thought absurd that he introduces the watchmen as speaking; for although the siege had not shaken off the slothfulness of a proud and foolish tyrant so as to hinder him from indulging in gaiety and feasting, still there is no room to doubt that men were appointed to keep watch. It is customary indeed with princes to defend themselves by guards, that they may more freely and without any disturbance abandon themselves to every kind of pleasure; but the Prophet expressly mixes up the sentinels with the delicacies of the table, to make it more evident that the wicked tyrant was seized with a spirit of giddiness before he sunk down to drunken reveling. The king of Babylon was thus feasting and indulging in mirth with his courtiers, when he was overtaken by a sudden and unexpected calamity, not that he was out of danger, but because he disregarded and scorned the enemy. The day before it happened, it might have been thought incredible, for the conspiracy of Gobryas, and of that party which betrayed him, had not yet been discovered. At the time when Isaiah spoke, none would have thought that an event so extraordinary would ever take place.

TSK: Isa 21:5 - -- eat : Isa 22:13, Isa 22:14; Dan 5:1-5; 1Co 15:32 arise : Isa 13:2, Isa 13:17, Isa 13:18, Isa 45:1-3; Jer 51:11, Jer 51:27, Jer 51:28

collapse all
Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Isa 21:5 - -- Prepare the table - This verse is one of the most striking and remarkable that occurs in this prophecy, or indeed in any part of Isaiah. It is ...

Prepare the table - This verse is one of the most striking and remarkable that occurs in this prophecy, or indeed in any part of Isaiah. It is language supposed to be spoken in Babylon. The first direction - perhaps supposed to be that of the king - is to prepare the table for the feast. Then follows a direction to set a watch - to make the city safe, so that they might revel without fear. Then a command to eat and drink: and then immediately a sudden order, as if alarmed at an unexpected attack, to arise and anoint the shield, and to prepare for a defense. The "table"here refers to a feast - that impious feast mentioned in Dan. 5 in the night in which Babylon was taken, and Belshazzar slain. Herodotus (i. 195), Xenophon ("Cyr."7, 5), and Daniel Dan. 5 all agree in the account that Babylon was taken in the night in which the king and his nobles were engaged in feasting and revelry. The words of Xenophon are, ‘ But Cyrus, when he heard that there was to be such a feast in Babylon, in which all the Babylonians would drink and revel through the whole night, on that night, as soon as it began to grow dark, taking many people, opened the dams into the river;’ that is, he opened the dykes which had been made by Semiramis and her successors to confine the waters of the Euphrates to one channel, and suffered the waters of the Euphrates again to flow over the country so that he could enter Babylon beneath its wall in the channel of the river. Xenophon has also given the address of Cyrus to the soldiers. ‘ Now,’ says he, ‘ let us go against them. Many of them are asleep; many of them are intoxicated; and all of them are unfit for battle ( ἀσὺντακτοι asuntaktoi ).’ Herodotus says (i. 191), ‘ It was a day of festivity among them, and while the citizens were engaged in dance and merriment, Babylon was, for the first time, thus taken.’ Compare the account in Dan. 5.

Watch in the watch-tower - place a guard so that the city shall be secure. Babylon had on its walls many "towers,"placed at convenient distances (see the notes at Isa. 13), in which guards were stationed to defend the city, and to give the alarm on any approach of an enemy. Xenophon has given a similar account of the taking of the city: ‘ They having arranged their guards, drank until light.’ The oriental watch-towers are introduced in the book for the purpose of illustrating a general subject often referred to in the Scriptures.

Eat, drink - Give yourselves to revelry during the night (see Dan. 5)

Arise, ye princes - This language indicates sudden alarm. It is the language either of the prophet, or more probably of the king of Babylon, alarmed at the sudden approach of the enemy, and calling upon his nobles to arm themselves and make, a defense. The army of Cyrus entered Babylon by two divisions - one on the north where the waters of the Euphrates entered the city, and the other by the channel of the Euphrates on the south. Knowing that the city was given up to revelry on that night, they had agreed to imitate the sound of the revellers until they should assemble around the royal palace in the center of the city. They did so. When the king heard the noise, supposing that it was the sound of a drunken mob, he ordered the gates of the palace to be opened to ascertain the cause of the disturbance. When they were thus opened, the army of Cyrus rushed in, and made an immediate attack on all who were within. It is to this moment that we may suppose the prophet here refers, when the king, aroused and alarmed, would call on his nobles to arm themselves for battle (see Jahn’ s "Hebrew Commonwealth,"p. 153, Ed. Andover, 1828).

Anoint the shield - That is, prepare for battle. Gesenius supposes that this means to rub over the shield with oil to make the leather more supple and impenetrable (compare 2Sa 1:21). The Chaldee renders it, ‘ Fit, and polish your arms.’ The Septuagint, ‘ Prepare shields.’ Shields were instruments of defense prepared to ward off the spears and arrows of an enemy in battle. They were usually made of a rim of brass or wood, and over this was drawn a covering of the skin of an ox or other animal in the manner of a drum-head with us. Occasionally the hide of a rhinoceros or an elephant was used. Burckhardt ("Travels in Nubia") says that the Nubians use the hide of the hippopotamus for the making of shields. But whatever skin might be used, it was necessary occasionally to rub it over with oil lest it should become hard, and crack, or lest it should become so rigid that an arrow or a sword would easily break through it. Jarchi says, that ‘ shields were made of skin, and that they anointed them with the oil of olive.’ The sense is, ‘ Prepare your arms! Make ready for battle!’

Poole: Isa 21:5 - -- Prepare the table furnish it with meats and drinks, as it follows. The prophet foretells what the Babylonians would be doing when their’ enemie...

Prepare the table furnish it with meats and drinks, as it follows. The prophet foretells what the Babylonians would be doing when their’ enemies were at their doors, that they would give up themselves to feasting and security.

Watch in the watch-tower to give us notice of any approaching danger, that in the mean time we may more securely indulge ourselves in mirth and pleasures.

Arise, ye princes either,

1. Ye Medes and Persians; whilst your enemies the Babylonians are feasting securely, prepare to make your assault. Or,

2. Ye princes of Babylon; arise from the table and run to your arms. Which sudden alarm and change of their posture proceeded from tidings out of the watch-tower, as may be gathered from the former clause,

and is more fully expressed in the following verses.

Annoint the shield prepare yourselves and your arms for the battle approaching: The shield is put for all their weapons of offence and defence. They used to anoint their shields with oil, partly to preserve ahd polish them, and partly to make them slippery, that their enemies’ darts might not fasten in them, but slide off from them.

Gill: Isa 21:5 - -- Prepare the table,.... Set it, spread it, furnish it with all kind of provisions, as at a feast; and such an one Belshazzar made, the night the city w...

Prepare the table,.... Set it, spread it, furnish it with all kind of provisions, as at a feast; and such an one Belshazzar made, the night the city was taken: these words are directed to him by his courtiers or queen, as represented by the prophet, in order to remove his fears; see Dan 5:10,

watch in the watchtower; this is said to his servants, his soldiers, or sentinels, that were placed on watchtowers to observe the motions of the enemy, who were ordered on duty, and to be on guard, that he and his nobles might feast the more securely; and all this being done, a table furnished, and a guard set, he, his nobles, and all his guests, are encouraged to "eat" and "drink" liberally and cheerfully, without any fear of the Medes and Persians, who were now besieging the city; when, at the same time, by the Lord it would be said,

arise, ye princes; not, ye nobles of Babylon, from your table, quit it, and your feasting and mirth:

and anoint the shield; prepare your arms, see that they are in good order, get them in readiness, and defend your king, yourselves, and your city, as some; but the princes of the Medes and Persians, Cyrus and his generals, are bid to take their arms, and enter the city while indulging themselves at their feast: it was usual to anoint shields, and other pieces of armour, partly that they might be smooth and slippery, as Jarchi, that so the darts of the enemy might easily slide off; and partly for the polishing and brightening of them, being of metal, especially of brass; so the Targum,

"polish and make the arms bright;''

see 2Sa 1:21. Aben Ezra understands the words as an exhortation to the princes, to arise and anoint Darius king, in the room of Belshazzar slain; the word "shield" sometimes signifying a king, for which he mentions Psa 84:9 so Ben Melech; but they are a call of the prophet, or of the Lord, to the princes of the Medes and Persians, to take the opportunity, while the Babylonians were feasting, to fall upon them; and the words may be rendered thus u,

"in or while preparing the table, watching in the watchtower, eating and drinking, arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield;''

which was done by their servants, though they are called upon.

expand all
Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 21:5 Smearing the shields with oil would make them more flexible and effective in battle. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:394.

Geneva Bible: Isa 21:5 Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: ( h ) arise, ye princes, [and] anoint the shield. ( h ) While they are eating and drinking, t...

expand all
Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Isa 21:1-17 - --1 The prophet, bewailing the captivity of his people, sees in a vision the fall of Babylon by the Medes and Persians.11 Edom, scorning the prophet, is...

MHCC: Isa 21:1-10 - --Babylon was a flat country, abundantly watered. The destruction of Babylon, so often prophesied of by Isaiah, was typical of the destruction of the gr...

Matthew Henry: Isa 21:1-10 - -- We had one burden of Babylon before (ch. 13); here we have another prediction of its fall. God saw fit thus to possess his people with the belief of...

Keil-Delitzsch: Isa 21:5 - -- On the other hand, what Xenophon so elaborately relates, and what is also in all probability described in Dan 5:30 (compare Jer 51:39, Jer 51:57), i...

Constable: Isa 7:1--39:8 - --III. Israel's crisis of faith chs. 7--39 This long section of the book deals with Israel's major decision in Isa...

Constable: Isa 13:1--35:10 - --B. God's sovereignty over the nations chs. 13-35 This major section of the book emphasizes the folly of ...

Constable: Isa 13:1--23:18 - --1. Divine judgments on the nations chs. 13-23 The recurrence of the Hebrew word massa', translat...

Constable: Isa 21:1--23:18 - --The second series of five oracles chs. 21-23 Compared to the first series of oracles aga...

Constable: Isa 21:1-10 - --The second oracle against Babylon 21:1-10 This is a message of the destruction of the anti-God religious and commercial system that Babylon has symbol...

Guzik: Isa 21:1-17 - --Isaiah 21 - Burdens Against Babylon, Edom and Arabia A. The burden against Babylon. 1. (1-2) An army from Persia marches on Babylon. The burden ag...

expand all
Introduction / Outline

JFB: Isaiah (Book Introduction) ISAIAH, son of Amoz (not Amos); contemporary of Jonah, Amos, Hosea, in Israel, but younger than they; and of Micah, in Judah. His call to a higher deg...

JFB: Isaiah (Outline) PARABLE OF JEHOVAH'S VINEYARD. (Isa. 5:1-30) SIX DISTINCT WOES AGAINST CRIMES. (Isa. 5:8-23) (Lev 25:13; Mic 2:2). The jubilee restoration of posses...

TSK: Isaiah (Book Introduction) Isaiah has, with singular propriety, been denominated the Evangelical Prophet, on account of the number and variety of his prophecies concerning the a...

TSK: Isaiah 21 (Chapter Introduction) Overview Isa 21:1, The prophet, bewailing the captivity of his people, sees in a vision the fall of Babylon by the Medes and Persians; Isa 21:11, ...

Poole: Isaiah (Book Introduction) THE ARGUMENT THE teachers of the ancient church were of two sorts: 1. Ordinary, the priests and Levites. 2. Extraordinary, the prophets. These we...

Poole: Isaiah 21 (Chapter Introduction) CHAPTER 21 The prophet’ s fear and trouble at his vision of Babylon’ s ruin by the Medes and Persians, Isa 21:1-4 . He mocketh Babel, Isa...

MHCC: Isaiah (Book Introduction) Isaiah prophesied in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. He has been well called the evangelical prophet, on account of his numerous and...

MHCC: Isaiah 21 (Chapter Introduction) (Isa 21:1-10) The taking of Babylon. (Isa 21:11, Isa 21:12) Of the Edomites. (Isa 21:13-17) Of the Arabs.

Matthew Henry: Isaiah (Book Introduction) An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of The Book of the Prophet Isaiah Prophet is a title that sounds very great to those that understand it, t...

Matthew Henry: Isaiah 21 (Chapter Introduction) In this chapter we have a prophecy of sad times coming, and heavy burdens, I. Upon Babylon, here called " the desert of the sea," that it should ...

Constable: Isaiah (Book Introduction) Introduction Title and writer The title of this book of the Bible, as is true of the o...

Constable: Isaiah (Outline) Outline I. Introduction chs. 1-5 A. Israel's condition and God's solution ch. 1 ...

Constable: Isaiah Isaiah Bibliography Alexander, Joseph Addison. Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah. 1846, 1847. Revised ed. ...

Haydock: Isaiah (Book Introduction) THE PROPHECY OF ISAIAS. INTRODUCTION. This inspired writer is called by the Holy Ghost, (Ecclesiasticus xlviii. 25.) the great prophet; from t...

Gill: Isaiah (Book Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH This book is called, in the New Testament, sometimes "the Book of the Words of the Prophet Esaias", Luk 3:4 sometimes only t...

Gill: Isaiah 21 (Chapter Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 21 This chapter contains prophecies against Babylon, Idumea, and Arabia. The prophecy against Babylon is called "the burden ...

Advanced Commentary (Dictionaries, Hymns, Arts, Sermon Illustration, Question and Answers, etc)


created in 0.07 seconds
powered by
bible.org - YLSA