This is a message of the destruction of the anti-God religious and commercial system that Babylon has symbolized throughout history (cf. Rev. 17-18).
21:1 This oracle concerns the wilderness of the sea. This enigmatic title probably refers to the flat Mesopotamian plain near the Persian Gulf, which the Assyrian and Babylonian empires occupied. This area would become a wilderness because of God's judgment. The oracle came as a sirocco (a hot, desert wind) from the Negev, a land infamous in Judah for its barrenness and heat. The destruction coming on Babylonia from a terrifying land would be similar to the devastation that blew into Judah periodically from the Negev.
21:2 Isaiah received this harsh vision. Treachery and destruction continued to mark the Persian Gulf area. Elam and Media were to go up against this foe to put an end to her evil ways that produced groaning in her victims. Elam ceased to oppose the Mesopotamian powers by 639 B.C., so Isaiah evidently gave this oracle before then, possible as early as the Babylonian Merodach-baladan's visit to Jerusalem about 701 B.C. (cf. ch. 39).
21:3-4 The thought that God would destroy Babylon completely undid the prophet (cf. 13:7-8). His reaction evidences some compassion for the Babylonians, even though they were a threat to Judah's security, as well as shock that the destruction would be so great.
21:5 If the setting for the prophecy was the embassy of Merodach-baladan, the people who set the table and provide a meal refers to the Judeans. They entertained representatives of the nation under divine judgment (Babylon) who, as they dined with the Judeans, planned war against them among themselves.195The Assyrians captured and destroyed Babylon in 686 B.C. Another possibility is that Isaiah saw a banquet in Babylon (cf. Dan. 5). The plan for battle would, in that case, be that of Babylon's invading enemy, perhaps the Medes and Persians.196
21:6-7 The sovereign God told Isaiah to post a reliable sentry who would report what he saw. When the sentry saw horsemen in pairs with a train of donkeys and camels, he should pay close attention. According to the Greek historian Xenophon, this is how the Persian army marched.197
21:8-9 The lion-like sentry reported to his sovereign Lord that he was not neglecting his duty but was paying close attention to what he saw. He reported that a troop of riders in pairs had appeared and had announced the fall of Babylon (cf. Rev. 18:2).198Her fallen idols symbolized their inability to protect her from her enemy (cf. Jer. 51:47, 52).
21:10 Isaiah concluded this oracle by telling the Judeans, a people whom he compared to a threshed crop because of their oppressions, that what he had announced about Babylon's destruction was from Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.
This oracle would have encouraged the Judeans to put their trust in God rather than in the Babylonians, as tempting as their power would have been. Babylon would come to an end.
