Isaiah 21:1-2

Contemporary English Version

The Fall of Babylonia^[a]

21 This is a message about a desert beside the sea:^[b]

Enemies from a hostile nation
attack like a whirlwind
    from the Southern Desert.
²What a horrible vision
    was shown to me—
a vision of betrayal
    and destruction.
Tell Elam and Media^[c]
to surround and attack
    the Babylonians.
The Lord has sworn to end
    the suffering they caused.

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Footnotes

21 Title Babylonia: King Cyrus and his army of Medes and Persians captured the city of Babylon in 539 b.c.
21.1 This … sea: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. The prophet may be speaking of Babylonia as a desert, because of the terrible punishment God will bring on it. The southern part of Babylonia on the Persian Gulf was sometimes called “the land beside the sea.”
21.2 Elam and Media: People from the Iranian highlands; the capital of Elam was Susa, in the hill country east of Babylon.