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…
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residue . . . diminished--The remnant of Arab warriors, famous in the bow, left after the invasion, shall be small.
That by Sennacherib, in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah; Isa 22:8-11, the preparations for defense and securing of water exactly answer to those in Ch2 32:4-5, Ch2 32:30. "Shebna," too (Isa 22:15), was scribe at this time (Isa 36:3) [MAURER]. The language of Isa 22:12-14, as to the infidelity and consequent utter ruin of the Jews, seems rather to foreshadow the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar in Zedekiah's reign, and cannot be restricted to Hezekiah's time [LOWTH].
Next: Isaiah Chapter 22
John Gill on Isaiah 21:17
And the residue of the number of archers,.... Or of "bow" (g), for "bows": that is, of men that use the bow, or are expert at it, as the Kedarenes were, both for taking wild beasts, and fighting with men, in which they followed their original ancestor Ishmael, Genesis 21:20 the number of these archers it seems had been great, but would be lessened by the calamity threatened; and those that would escape that, and be preserved from it, should be lessened still, as follows:
the mighty men of the children of Kedar shall be diminished; their military men, the most expert at the use of the bow, and the most valiant and courageous; the few of those that were left, and did not fall by the sword of…
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