Matthew Poole and continuators on Isaiah 21:2

2 A grievous vision is declared unto me, the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth : Go up , O Elam ; Besiege , O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.

A Vision or Prophecy, containing dreadful Calamities which were to fall upon Babylon.

This is spoken either, 1. of the Chaldeans, as their Sin, for which God sends the following Judgment: So the sence is, The Chaldeans still persist in the Practice of Treachery and Rapine, to which they have been so long accustomed: Or, 2. of the Medes and Persians, who are here noted to pay the Babylonians in their own Coin, and to use the same Treachery and Violence towards them, which they had done to others. To which purpose the Words are and may well be rendred otherwise, either thus, The treacherous dealer hath found a treacherous dealer, and the spoiler hath found a spoiler: or thus, O thou that dealest treacherously with the treacherous dealer, and that spoilest the spoiler, go up, O Elam, &c. as it followeth. These Words will be much illustrated by comparing them with Isa. 33. 1. There is no doubt to be made, but the Medes and Persians used Treachery as well as Force against Babylon: And besides other Instances now unknown, we have one upon Record, of their entertaining those two Traytors, Gadatas and Gobrias, and following their Counsel and Conduct in taking the City, which made them Partakers of their Treason.

To fight against her. These are God's Words, either giving them Command and Commission to do so, or rather foretelling what they would do; which is oft done in this form of Speech.

Persia, called Elam Synechdochically, because Elam was an eminent Province of Persia, bordering upon the Medes.

To wit, Babylon, v. 9.

Either, 1. Babylons sighing, which shall cease, because they shall have no time to sigh, or lament their Miseries, being suddenly surprised, and cut off in a moment, as they were. As God is said to seek out the wickedness of wicked men till he find none, Psal. 10. 15. when he utterly destroyeth them in or with their Sins: Or, 2. the sighing and groanings of God's People, and other Nations under the heavy Oppressions of that potent and cruel Empire; the Pronoun her, or thereof, being taken here not passively, as commonly it is; but actively, or efficiently, as sometimes it is, as Deut. 11. 25. your fear, i. e. the fear of you; and Iob 33. 7. my terrour, i. e. the terrour or dread of me upon thee.

Marginal references: Heb. hard.; Chap. 13. 17.