Isaiah 21:13-17 - They flee from the sword

21:13-17

Arabia covered a large area. The text actually says “against arabs”, needless to say this should not be taken in any “hate speech” sense! Verses 13 and 14 are speaking about various peoples helping other peoples recover from the effects of conflict. So they had found temporary refuge, but the emphasis of these words is that it is temporary.

“Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it”. The “as a servant would count it” bit means that it really would be within one year. A servant would work the hours and days of his “contract” and no more. The respite the people had found in Arabia would be brief, and then there would be few survivors.

So why does God give this prophecy? What is the point? The point is this. Judah was under great threat. In those circumstances the tendency is to look at other peoples, and some of them seem to be doing OK, seem to be finding a way out of the trouble. The people who had found relief from the war were one such people, and some Judeans would have looked at them and thought “they seem to be doing alright”. Isaiah is telling them that very soon these people would not be “doing alright”. Judah needed to look in one place, and one place only, and that was to look to God and at their own lives in the light of God’s word.