Isaiah 21:10 - Printer Friendly

ESV: O my threshed and winnowed one, what I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I announce to you.

NIV: My people who are crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heard from the Lord Almighty, from the God of Israel.

NASB: My downtrodden people, and my afflicted of the threshing floor! What I have heard from the Lord of armies, The God of Israel, I make known to you.

CSB: My people who have been crushed on the threshing floor, I have declared to you what I have heard from the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel.

NLT: O my people, threshed and winnowed, I have told you everything the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has said, everything the God of Israel has told me.

KJV: O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.

NKJV: Oh, 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.

In the end, the purpose of the oracles is to motivate God's people to put their hope in Him alone. The might and power of these other nations will only fail. Judah was not the only nation holding out hope that Babylon's defiance of Assyria would protect them from invading Assyrian armies. The Lord did not want Judah to seek help from other sources. He wanted them to depend on Him alone for salvation from all that threatened them.

The prophet concludes this short oracle by calling Judah his "threshed and winnowed one." This farming phrase was sometimes used to describe those who had been judged by the Lord and endured much. A further breakdown of this phrase would be farmers used animals, sometimes pulling large carts, to trample the harvested grain. Crushing the grain in this manner separated it from the worthless chaff or husks. Then the grain would be tossed in the air so the chaff would blow away leaving the true grain to fall back to the earth. Judah has also gone through such a process.

The message here is either that Judah will experience more of this painful threshing, or that they had already experienced it. The good news is that after the process was over only the best "grain" remained. Although it would have hurt at the time to lose the hope that Babylon might save them from Assyria, it cleared away the "chaff." Babylon's destruction at the hands of Assyrians removed an "option" that the people of Judah had to save them. When the destroyer of Babylon later had Jerusalem surrounded and under siege, the Lord demonstrated His power to save His people without any outside help (Isaiah 37:33–38).

What Isaiah has been revealing to the people of Judah is exactly as it was revealed to him by the Lord of hosts. These formal names for the Lord show just how serious Isaiah's revelation is.

Chapter 21:1–10 contains Isaiah's prophecy against Babylon. God sends Isaiah a fierce vision which causes him great physical suffering and emotional terror. His heart falters, and his body trembles at what he witnesses. Isaiah calls the leaders to prepare for battle. He obeys the Lord's call for a watchman, taking his post on the tower until the riders come. When they arrive, the prophet announces that Babylon is fallen and her gods have all been smashed.

This chapter delivers oracles against three people groups. Isaiah is terrified to the point of physical pain by the vision he sees. God reveals the terrible things coming for Babylon. Isaiah answers the Lord's call to be a watchman. When he sees the arrival of riders approaching the city, he announces that Babylon has fallen. The oracle against Dumah presents a question from an Edomite with an unsatisfying answer. The oracle against Arabia pictures starving refugees that must be fed and declares that the warriors of Kedar will be nearly wiped out within a year.

Earlier chapters included prophecies about nations such as Aram, Egypt, and Cush. Chapter 21 presents three more oracles against Israel's regional neighbors. What Isaiah sees is so horrific that he suffers intense physical pain just from watching. He answers the call to be a watchman, eventually announcing that Babylon has fallen. An oracle against Dumah provides no real answer to the question of how long the night of suffering will continue for Edom. Arabia, too, will suffer at the hand of powerful regional forces. Next is a prophecy about Jerusalem.

Isaiah is among the most important prophetic books in the entire Bible. The first segment details God's impending judgment against ancient peoples for sin and idolatry (Isaiah 1—35). The second part of Isaiah briefly explains a failed assault on Jerusalem during the rule of Hezekiah (Isaiah 36—39). The final chapters predict Israel's rescue from Babylonian captivity (Isaiah 40—48), the promised Messiah (Isaiah 49—57), and the final glory of Jerusalem and God's people (Isaiah 58—66).