Here again, as in the case of the prophecy concerning Moab, what the prophet has given to him to see does not pass without exciting his feelings of humanity, but works upon him like a horrible dream. "Therefore are my loins full of cramp: pangs have taken hold of me, as the pangs of a travailing woman: I twist myself, so that I do not hear; I am brought down with fear, so that I do not see. My heart beats wildly; horror hath troubled me: the darkness of night that I love, he hath turned for me into quaking." The prophet does not describe in detail what he saw; but the violent agitation produced by the impression leads us to conclude how horrible it must have been. Chalchâlâh is the contortion produced by cramp, as in Nahum 2:11; tzirim is the word properly applied to the pains of childbirth; na‛avâh means to bend, or bow one's self, and is also used to denote a convulsive utterance of pain; tâ‛âh, which is used in a different sense from Psalm 95:10 (compare, however, Psalm 38:11), denotes a feverish and irregular beating of the pulse. The darkness of evening and night, which the prophet loved so much (chēshek, a desire arising from inclination, 1 Kings 9:1, 1 Kings 9:19), and always longed for, either that he might give himself up to contemplation, or that he might rest from outward and inward labour, had bee changed into quaking by the horrible vision. It is quite impossible to imagine, as Umbreit suggests, that nesheph chishki (the darkness of my pleasure) refers to the nocturnal feast during which Babylon was stormed (Herod. i. 191, and Xenophon, Cyrop. vii. 23).

Isaiah 21:10 Parallel Commentaries

my threshing

Isaiah 41:15,16 Behold, I will make you a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: you shall thresh the mountains, and beat them small...

2 Kings 13:7 Neither did he leave of the people to Jehoahaz but fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen...

Jeremiah 51:33 For thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor, it is time to thresh her...

Micah 4:13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs brass...

Habakkuk 3:12 You did march through the land in indignation, you did thresh the heathen in anger.

Matthew 3:12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner...

corn. Heb. son
that which

1 Kings 22:14 And Micaiah said, As the LORD lives, what the LORD said to me, that will I speak.

Ezekiel 3:17-19 Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me...

Acts 20:26,27 Why I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men...