to see · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
chariot
רֶ֗כֶבRe.khev
H7393
a vehicle · noun, common masculine singular absolute
couple
צֶ֚מֶדTze.med
H6776
hence · noun, common masculine singular construct
horsemen
פָּֽרָשִׁ֔יםpa.ra.Shim
H6571
a steed (as stretched out to a vehicle · noun, common masculine plural absolute
chariot
רֶ֥כֶבRe.khev
H7393
a vehicle · noun, common masculine singular construct
asses
חֲמ֖וֹרcha.Mor
H2543
a male ass (from its dun red) · noun, common both genders singular absolute
chariot
רֶ֣כֶבRe.khev
H7393
a vehicle · noun, common masculine singular construct
camels
גָּמָ֑לga.Mal
H1581
a camel · noun, common both genders singular absolute
hearkened
וְהִקְשִׁ֥יבve.hik.Shiv
H7181
to prick up the ears · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
diligently
קֶ֖שֶׁבKe.shev
H7182
a hearkening · noun, common masculine singular absolute
much
רַבrav-
H7227
abundant (in quantity · adjective, masculine singular construct
heed
קָֽשֶׁבKa.shev
H7182
a hearkening · noun, common masculine singular absolute
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
Isaiah 21:9 And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the gr…
Isaiah 37:24 By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, t…
Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 21:1-10
We had one burden of Babylon before (ch. 13); here we have another prediction of its fall. God saw fit thus to possess his people with the belief of this event by line upon line, because Babylon sometimes pretended to be a friend to them (as Isa 39:1), and God would hereby warn them not to trust to that friendship, and sometimes was really an enemy to them, and God would hereby warn them not to be afraid of that enmity. Babylon is marked for ruin; and all that believe God's prophets can, through that glass, see it tottering, see it tumbling, even when with an eye of sense they see it flourishing and sitting as a queen. Babylon is here called the desert or plain of the sea; for it was a flat…
chariot, &c.--rather, "a body of riders," namely, some riding in pairs on horses (literally, "pairs of horsemen," that is, two abreast), others on asses, others on camels (compare Isa 21:9; Isa 22:6). "Chariot" is not appropriate to be joined, as English Version translates, with "asses"; the Hebrew means plainly in Isa 21:7, as in Isa 21:9, "a body of men riding." The Persians used asses and camels for war [MAURER]. HORSLEY translates, "One drawn in a car, with a pair of riders, drawn by an ass, drawn by a camel"; Cyrus is the man; the car drawn by a camel and ass yoked together and driven by two postilions, one on each, is the joint army of Medes and Persians under their respective leaders.…
And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen,.... The drivers of it, or the riders in it; perhaps meaning Cyrus and Darius:
a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; by the former may be meant the Persians, who very much used mules or asses; and the Medes by the latter, who abounded in camels: the words are in the singular number, and may be rendered, "a rider of an ass, and a rider of a camel" (w); and so may describe the couple of riders along with the chariot, which may signify the whole army of the Medes and Persians, chariots being much used in war; and the rider of the ass or mule may design Cyrus, who was called a mule, because of his mixed descent, being a Persian by his father…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 7.) And he saw a chariot with two horsemen, a rider on a donkey, and a rider on a camel. When I placed him on the watchtower, he saw a chariot coming with two horses, and a charioteer high above, and an ass and a camel drawing the chariot. But it signifies Cyrus, the king of the Persians and Medes, coming with little and great authority. For the Persians were formerly unknown before Cyrus and held no place among the nations; the Medes, however, were always very powerful. Therefore, this one, supported by the army of two nations, came against Babylon.
[In the Gospels it is said,] "And he began to send them forth two by two." He sent them two by two that no one of them, being abandoned and alone, might fall into a denial, like Peter, or flee, like John. Human frailty quickly falls if it proudly relies on itself, despises companions and is unwilling to have a colleague. As Scripture says, "Woe to him that is alone, for when he falls, he has none to lift him up." The same Scripture testifies how much one is strengthened by another's aid, when it states, "A brother that is helped by his brother is like a strong city."… This was done also to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah, who testified that he had seen a rider of a two-horse chariot, when he heard it said to him, "What do you see?" And he replied, "I see a rider of a two-horse chariot." Because of this he cried out right away that Babylon had fallen, and all its graven gods. Who doubts, brothers, that by this two-horse chariot Christ was riding upon his saving journeys, since he sees that through the apostles' preaching temples have fallen, idols have perished, the bleating of herds has ceased and the victims, along with even the very altars with their perfume of incense, have already disappeared through all the centuries.
[Daniel 5:1] "Belshazzar the king made a great feast for his one thousand nobles; and each one drank in the order of his age." It should be known that this man was not the son of Nebuchadnezzar, as readers commonly imagine; but according to Berosus, who wrote the history of the Chaldeans, and also Josephus, who follows Berosus, after Nebuchadnezzar's reign of forty-three years, a son named Evilmerodach succeeded to his throne. It was concerning this king that Jeremiah wrote that in the first year of his reign he raised the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, and took him out of his prison (Jeremiah 52:31). Josephus likewise reports that after the death of Evilmerodach, his son Neriglissar succeeded to his father's throne; after whom in turn came his son Labosordach. Upon the latter's death, his son, Belshazzar, obtained the kingdom, and it is of him that the Scripture now makes mention. After he had been killed by Darius, King of the Medes, who was the maternal uncle of Cyrus, King of the Persians, the empire of the Chaldeans was destroyed by Cyrus the Persian. It was these two kingdoms which Isaiah in chap. 21 (Isaiah 21:7) addresses as a charioteer of a vehicle drawn by a camel and an ass. Indeed Xenophon also writes the same thing in connection with the childhood of Cyrus the Great; likewise Pompeius Trogus and many others who have written up the history of the barbarians. Some authorities think that this Darius was the Astyages mentioned in the Greek writings, while others think it was Astyages' son, and that he was called by the other name among the barbarians. "And each one of the princes who had been invited drank in the order of his own age." Or else, as other translators have rendered it: "The king himself was drinking in the presence of all the princes whom he had invited."
Dictionary and topics
Babel — (confusion), Bab’ylon (Greek form of Babel), is properly the capital city of the country which is called in Genesis Shinar, and in the later books Chaldea, or the land of the Chaldeans. The first…
Camel — From the Hebrew gamal, “to repay” or “requite,” as the camel does the care of its master. There are two distinct species of camels, having, however, the common characteristics of being “ruminants…
Watches — The periods into which the time between sunset and sunrise was divided. They are so called because watchmen relieved each other at each of these periods. There are frequent references in Scripture to…
Yoke — (1.) Fitted on the neck of oxen for the purpose of binding to them the traces by which they might draw the plough, etc. (Num. 19:2; Deut. 21:3). It was a curved piece of wood called ’ol. (2.) In Jer.…
Ass (Donkey) · .Drawing chariots — .Drawing chariots
Ass, The Domestic · Was used: In harness — Was used: In harness
Babylon · Predictions respecting: Destruction of — Predictions respecting: Destruction of
Camel · .Drawing chariots — .Drawing chariots
Camel, The · Used for: Drawing chariots — Used for: Drawing chariots
Chariot · Drawn by — Drawn by
Chariots · Drawn by: Asses and camels — Drawn by: Asses and camels
And he saw a chariot. What he now adds contains a lively description of that defeat. Some think that it is told by the king's messenger. This is a mistake; for the Prophet, on the contrary, foretells what he has learned from the watchman whom he appointed by the command of God. Here he represents the watchman as looking and reporting what he saw. As if at the first glance he had not seen it clearly, he says that there is "a chariot," and afterwards observing more closely, he says that there is "a couple of horses" in the chariot. At first, on account of the novelty and great distance of the objects, the report given is ambiguous and confused; but afterwards, when a nearer view is obtained, t…
What the man upon the watch-tower sees first of all, is a long, long procession, viz., the hostile army advancing quietly, like a caravan, in serried ranks, and with the most perfect self-reliance. "And he saw a procession of cavalry, pairs of horsemen, a procession of asses, a procession of camels; and listened sharply, as sharply as he could listen." Receb, both here and in Isa 21:9, signifies neither riding-animals nor war-chariots, but a troop seated upon animals - a procession of riders. In front there was a procession of riders arranged two and two, for Persians and Medes fought either on foot or on horseback (the latter, at any rate, from the time of Cyrus; vid., Cyrop. iv 3); and pâ…
The riders were messengers who reported what had taken place on the battlefield.
Rashi on Isaiah 21:7
And he shall see a chariot and I will show him there a sort of chariot with a pair of riders, one riding a donkey and one riding a camel, and that is a sign of Persia and Media.
and he shall listen attentively And there he shall hear in his prophecy a representation of the mighty rumbling and stirring of armies.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Watchman · On towers — On towers
Watchmen · In time of danger: Reported the approach of all strangers — In time of danger: Reported the approach of all strangers
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).