Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 25:23-24 Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners,
Genesis 25:3 And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim.
1 Chronicles 1:32 Now the sons of Keturah, Abraham’s concubine: she bare Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. And the sons of Jo…
Ezekiel 27:15 The men of Dedan were thy merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony…
1 Kings 10:15 Beside that he had of the merchantmen, and of the traffick of the spice merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of t…
1 Chronicles 1:9 And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabta, and Raamah, and Sabtecha. And the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.
Isaiah 13:1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
Isaiah 13:20 It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 21:13–end
Arabia was a large country, that lay eastward and southward of the land of Canaan. Much of it was possessed by the posterity of Abraham. The Dedanim, here mentioned (Isa 21:13), descended from Dedan, Abraham's son by Keturah; the inhabitants of Tema and Kedar descended from Ishmael, Gen 25:3, Gen 25:13, Gen 25:15. The Arabians generally lived in tents, and kept cattle, were a hardy people, inured to labour; probably the Jews depended upon them as a sort of a wall between them and the more warlike eastern nations; and therefore, to alarm them, they shall hear the burden of Arabia, and see it sinking under its own burden.
I. A destroying army shall be brought upon them, with a sword, with a dr…
PROPHECY THAT ARABIA WOULD BE OVERRUN BY A FOREIGN FOE WITHIN A YEAR. (Isa 21:13-17)
upon--that is, respecting.
forest--not a grove of trees, but a region of thick underwood, rugged and inaccessible; for Arabia has no forest of trees.
travelling companies--caravans: ye shall be driven through fear of the foe to unfrequented routes (Isa 33:8; Jdg 5:6; Jer 49:8 is parallel to this passage).
Dedanim--In North Arabia (Gen 25:3; Jer 25:23; Eze 25:13; Eze 27:20; a different "Dedan" occurs Gen 10:7).
John Gill on Isaiah 21:13
The burden upon Arabia,.... Which lay heavy upon it, as a burden upon a beast; or "concerning" it, or "against" it, as Kimchi notes; which Arabia, or what part thereof, is meant, may be gathered from the names after mentioned. The Targum is,
"the burden of the cup of cursing, to give the Arabians to drink.''
Ben Melech says, these are the Arabians that dwell in the wilderness:
in the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge; not in their tents and huts, which they had used to carry with them, and set up where they pleased; since now in their fright and flight they would leave them behind them, and so be obliged to take up their lodging in woods and forests; perhaps the desert of Arabia Petraea is…
(Verse 13.) Burden in Arabia. This is not found in the edition of the Seventy Interpreters: but what follows is: In the evening you shall sleep in the paths of Dodanim, which is connected with the previous vision, so that it is read, if you seek, seek: and dwell with me in the woodland. In our language, Arabia means evening, which is the beginning of night and darkness, and everyone who has the beginning of sins is involved in the evening. But whoever comes to the highest point, stands in the middle of the night. And in Egypt the firstborn are killed in the middle of the night (Exod. 12). And the Apostle Peter, before the rooster crowed, denied the Lord three times, which is understood as the middle of the night (Mat. XXVI): But after the night had passed, and the day began to approach, having overcome the darkness of the middle of the night, and with the rooster, the messenger of light, resounding, he wept bitterly, and understood his sin, and at that time he could say: At evening weeping endures, and in the morning there is joy (Ps. XXIX, 6). Meanwhile, let's talk about the present place. However, the name Arabia, that is, the evening and the west, receives different interpretations in other passages of the Scriptures. In the forest you will sleep until evening, on the paths of Dodanim. LXX: In the forest you will sleep until evening on the road to Dedan. Those who have begun in wickedness and enter the path of sin do not sleep, nor do they tarry in cultivated fields and fallow lands, nor in meadows and fields of grain, where the Savior teaches that they should be burning for harvesting, nor among fruit-bearing trees; but in barren forests, where there are brambles and thorns, and beasts dwell. We read in the book of Kings that the forests or woods devoured more people than were killed by the sword when Absalom, the enemy of his father, rebelled against him (1 Kings 18). And it is rightly said that evening is the beginning of evils, to dwell on the road and on the paths, and on the way of Dedan, which is interpreted as judgments. For as many kinds of sins as they have, so many sentences of judgments do they deserve. Moreover, Dedan can be interpreted as a great judgment.
(Verse 13 onwards) Burden in Arabia. In the evening you will sleep in the thicket, in the paths of Dodanim. Bring water to the thirsty ones you encounter: you who live in the land of the South, offer bread to the ones fleeing. Because they have fled from the swords, from the menacing sword, from the drawn bow, from the severity of battle. For this is what the Lord says to me: In yet one year, like the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end, and the remaining number of archers, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, will be few. For the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken. To me, who was searching and pondering for a long time about what Arabia was, to which the prophetic speech is directed, whether it should be understood as the Moabites, or the Ammonites, and the Edomites, and all the other regions which are now called Arabia, an opportunity is given in this Vision that follows: All the glory of Cedar will be taken away, and the remaining number of mighty archers from the sons of Cedar will be diminished (Isaiah 21:16, 17), to be understood as the Ishmaelites. The book of Genesis teaches that Ishmael, Cedar, and the Hagarites, who are called Saracens by a perverse name, were born. They inhabit the whole wilderness, about whom I think even the poet says: 'And the wandering Barcaeans far and wide' (Virg. Aeneid. IV); and the aforementioned volume, 'He shall dwell against the face of all his brothers' (Gen. XVI, 12): because the very wide desert stretches from India to Mauritania, and the Atlantic Ocean, which I believe sounds the title of Jeremiah: 'Against Cedar and against the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck' (Jer. XLIX, 28); and immediately follows: 'Thus says the Lord, Arise, and ascend to Cedar, and devastate the sons of the East: their tents, and their flocks shall they take, their skins and all their vessels, and they shall take camels for themselves' (Ibid., 29); and again: 'For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has thought a thought against you, and has deliberated against you.' Arise and go up to a quiet and confidently dwelling nation, says the Lord: there are no gates, no bars for them: they dwell alone. And their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil. And I will scatter them to every wind, them that are clipped on the sides: and I will bring destruction upon them…
Dictionary and topics
Arabia — Arid, an extensive region in the south-west of Asia. It is bounded on the west by the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the east by the Persian Gulf and the…
Dedan — Low ground. (1.) A son of Raamah (Gen. 10:7). His descendants are mentioned in Isa. 21:13, and Ezek. 27:15. They probably settled among the sons of Cush, on the north-west coast of the Persian Gulf.…
Dedanim — The descendants of Dedan, the son of Raamah. They are mentioned in Isa. 21:13 as sending out “travelling companies” which lodged “in the forest of Arabia.” They are enumerated also by Ezekiel (27:20)…
Ivory — (Heb. pl. shenhabbim, the “tusks of elephants”) was early used in decorations by the Egyptians, and a great trade in it was carried on by the Assyrians (Ezek. 27:6; Rev. 18:12). It was used by the…
Kedar — Dark-skinned, the second son of Ishmael (Gen. 25:13). It is the name for the nomadic tribes of Arabs, the Bedouins generally (Isa. 21:16; 42:11; 60:7; Jer. 2:10; Ezek. 27:21), who dwelt in the…
Tema — South; desert, one of the sons of Ishmael, and father of a tribe so called (Gen. 25:15; 1 Chr. 1:30; Job 6:19; Isa. 21:14; Jer. 25:23) which settled at a place to which he gave his name, some 250…
Commerce · Inland, by caravans — Inland, by caravans
Dedanim · General references — General references
Forests · Mentioned in scripture: Arabian — Mentioned in scripture: Arabian
John Calvin on Isaiah 21:13
The burden upon Arabia. He now passes on to the Arabians, and foretells that they too, in their own turn, will be dragged to the judgment-seat of God; so that he does not leave unnoticed any of the nations which were known to the Jews. He declares that they will be seized with such fear that they will leave their houses and flee into the woods; and he states the direction in which they will flee, that is, to "Dedanim."
Keil & Delitzsch on Isaiah 21:13-15
The heading בּערב משּׂא (the ע written according to the best codd. with a simple sheva), when pointed as we have it, signifies, according to Zac 9:1 (cf., Isa 9:7), "oracle against Arabia." But why not massâ ‛Arâb, since massâ is followed by a simple genitive in the other three headings? Or again, is this the only heading in the tetralogy that is not symbolical? We must assume that the Beth by which this is distinguished is introduced for the express purpose of rendering it symbolical, and that the prophet pointed it first of all בּערב, but had at the same time בּערב in his mind. The earlier translators (lxx, Targum, Syr., Vulg., Ar.) read the second בּערב like the first, but without any…
Cp. Jer 49:28-33.
21:13 Dedan was a tribe in Arabia (see Ezek 27:20; 38:13). • Caravans would hide in the deserts of Arabia from attacks by the Assyrians and Babylonians, both of whom harassed the Arabian tribes (see Isa 21:1-10; Jer 49:28-29).
Rashi on Isaiah 21:13
The harsh prophecy concerning Arabia About the Arabs.
In the forest in Arabia did you lodge I saw what you did when Assyria exiled my people, and they begged their captors to lead them through your land, since you are the descendants of their uncles, perhaps you would have mercy on them, and you were going out and lodging in the forest, the road where the caravans pass.
the roads of your cousins the children of your uncle.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Ishmaelites, The
· Predictions respecting: Their glory, & c to be diminished
— Predictions respecting: Their glory, & c to be diminished
Travellers · Often collected together and formed caravans — Often collected together and formed caravans
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
