Limitless Word

Isaiah 21

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📖 Isaiah introduction

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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 taken hold on me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I so am 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 Yahweh 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. In the forest in Arabia you will lodge, 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 Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken it.” ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Where this chapter connects

Jer 51 ·21Isa 13 ·13Jer 50 ·10Jer 49 ·6Dan 5 ·61 Chr 1 ·5Gen 25 ·4Isa 16 ·4

Christ at the center

Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).

How Isaiah 21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

  • ★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)

  • ★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical

    A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

  • SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical

    Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Seminary

  • ★ Start hereCommentaryThe Book of Isaiah (NICOT)John N. Oswalt · Paid · evangelical

    The standard evangelical commentary on Isaiah — thorough and devotionally warm.

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Isaiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Isaiah 21YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — Isaiah 21David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on IsaiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Isaiah 21Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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