Limitless Word

Isaiah 21

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📖 Isaiah introduction

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1The burden against the Wilderness of the Sea. As whirlwinds in the South pass through, So it comes from the desert, from a terrible land. ✦ 2A distressing vision is declared to me; The treacherous dealer deals treacherously, And the plunderer plunders. Go up, O Elam! Besiege, O Media! All its sighing I have made to cease. ✦ 3Therefore my loins are filled with pain; Pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor. I was distressed when I heard it; I was dismayed when I saw it. ✦ 4My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me; The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me. ✦ 5Prepare the table, Set a watchman in the tower, Eat and drink. Arise, you princes, Anoint the shield! ✦ 6For thus has the Lord said to me: “Go, set a watchman, Let him declare what he sees.” ✦ 7And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen, A chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels, And he listened earnestly with great care. ✦ 8Then he cried, “A lion, my Lord! I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime; I have sat at my post every night. ✦ 9And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!” Then he answered and said, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen! And all the carved images of her gods He has broken to the ground.” ✦ 10Oh, my threshing and the grain of my floor! That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, The God of Israel, I have declared to you. ✦ 11The burden against Dumah. He 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; Return! Come back!” ✦ 13The burden against Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you will lodge, O you traveling companies of Dedanites. ✦ 14O inhabitants of the land of Tema, Bring water to him who is thirsty; With their bread they met him who fled. ✦ 15For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, From the bent bow, and from the distress of war. ✦ 16For thus the Lord has said to me: “Within a year, according to the year of a hired man, all the glory of Kedar will fail; ✦ 17and the remainder of the number of archers, the mighty men of the people of Kedar, will be diminished; for the Lord 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.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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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