Isaiah 21:4-9

21:4 My heart palpitates, ¹ 

I shake in fear; ² 

the twilight I desired

has brought me terror.

21:5 Arrange the table,

lay out ³  the carpet,

eat and drink! ⁴ 

Get up, you officers,

smear oil on the shields! ⁵ 

21:6 For this is what the sovereign master ⁶  has told me:

“Go, post a guard!

He must report what he sees.

21:7 When he sees chariots,

teams of horses, ⁷ 

riders on donkeys,

riders on camels,

he must be alert,

very alert.”

21:8 Then the guard ⁸  cries out:

“On the watchtower, O sovereign master, ⁹ 

I stand all day long;

at my post

I am stationed every night.

21:9 Look what’s coming!

A charioteer,

a team of horses.” ¹⁰ 

When questioned, he replies, ¹¹ 

“Babylon has fallen, fallen!

All the idols of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”

[21:4]  ¹ tn Heb “wanders,” perhaps here, “is confused.”

[21:4]  ² tn Heb “shuddering terrifies me.”

[21:5]  ³ tn The precise meaning of the verb in this line is debated. Some prefer to derive the form from the homonymic צָפֹה (tsafoh, “keep watch”) and translate “post a guard” (cf. KJV “watch in the watchtower”; ASV “set the watch”).

[21:5]  ⁴ tn The verbal forms in the first three lines are infinitives absolute, which are functioning here as finite verbs. It is uncertain if the forms should have an imperatival or indicative/descriptive force here.

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

[21:6]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 8, 16 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[21:7]  ⁷ tn Or “a pair of horsemen.”

[21:8]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text has, “the lion,” but this makes little sense here. אַרְיֵה (’aryeh, “lion”) is probably a corruption of an original הָרֹאֶה (haro’eh, “the one who sees”), i.e., the guard mentioned previously in v. 6.

[21:8]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay). Some translations take this to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV), while others take it to refer to the guard’s human master (“my lord”; cf. NIV, NLT).

[21:9]  ¹⁰ tn Or “[with] teams of horses,” or perhaps, “with a pair of horsemen.”

[21:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he answered and said” (so KJV, ASV).