Isaiah 21:8

Hebrew Bible

6 For this is what the Lord has told me:“Go, post a guard! He must report what he sees. 7 When he sees chariots, teams of horses, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, he must be alert, very alert.” 8 Then the guard cries out: “On the watchtower, O Lord, I stand all day long; at my post I am stationed every night. 9 Look what’s coming! A charioteer, a team of horses.” When questioned, he replies, “Babylon has fallen, fallen! All the idols of her gods lie shattered on the ground!” 10 O my downtrodden people, crushed like stalks on the threshing floor, what I have heard from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, I have reported to you.

Habakkuk 2:1

Hebrew Bible

1 I will stand at my watch post; I will remain stationed on the city wall. I will keep watching so I can see what he says to me and can know how I should answer when he counters my argument. 2 The Lord responded: “Write down this message. Record it legibly on tablets so the one who announces it may read it easily. 3 For the message is a witness to what is decreed; it gives reliable testimony about how matters will turn out. Even if the message is not fulfilled right away, wait patiently; for it will certainly come to pass—it will not arrive late.

 Notes and References

"... A close and instructive parallel is the account of the soliciting of a visionary experience of the fall of Babylon (Isaiah 21:8-9). The seer is the lookout, who is told to announce what he sees and to listen very hard. He assures Yahveh that he has taken his stand on the watchtower and occupies his station night after night until he sees, in vision, a rider approaching with the news that Babylon has fallen. A similar instance of the soliciting of an oracle or visionary experience by a seer, perhaps in some way connected with the Isaian text, appears in Habakkuk. The prophet says, 'I will take my stand on the watchtower and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me,' at which point he is told by Yahweh to write the vision (2:1-2). Returning to our text: the fact that the watchmen witness with their own eyes, literally 'eye to eye' is consistent with this reading of the prophet as the watchman since 'eye to eye' is a type of expression (compare 'face to face,' 'mouth to mouth') denoting an especially close relationship with the deity (Numbers 14:14) ..."

Blenkinsopp, Joseph Isaiah 40-55: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (p. 342) Doubleday, 2002

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