Isaiah 21:2, commentary and pictures

The verse belongs to the series of prophecies about the nations in Isaiah 13–23, within the first part of Isaiah’s book. It stands among the predictions of Babylon’s capture and fall, naming the peoples who would accomplish it and the circumstances of it. It orders Elam to go up or advance and Media to besiege or attack, which was fulfilled in the joint conquest and overthrow of Babylon by the Medes and Persians, Elamites and Medes, under Cyrus. Elam is Persia.

At the time of the prophecy Elam was a province under Babylonian rule. Elam later revolted and went over to the rising Persian power and came under the Medes and Persians, thus regaining the liberties Babylon had taken from it. Elam took part in Babylon’s fall through Cyrus, who was of Elamite origin and the recognized chief of the Susianians, the Elamites, who waited for the opportune moment to revolt from Babylon and join his standard under his leadership. That opportune moment could not come for nearly twenty years while Cyrus and his forces campaigned far away to the northwest, north, and east from the borders of Elam.

Elam went over to Cyrus about three years after Daniel’s vision. The fulfillment came in 539 B.C., when Cyrus started from Ecbatana, his Median capital, toward the conquest of Babylon and had to cross the province of Elam, so that Elam’s people could join him; then Elam could go up and Media could besiege. The historical capture connected with the call for Elam and Media to attack was when the city was taken by surprise and its king was slain. The verse also declares that God made all of Babylon’s sighing to cease, and the promise of Elam’s part in God’s purposes was fulfilled in the events surrounding Babylon and, in many hearts, through knowledge of the true God.

In its prophetic use alongside Daniel 7, the attack it calls for is connected with strife and commotion among nations and peoples, which the winds signify.