Isaiah Chapter 21 verse 5 Holy Bible
They prepare the table, they set the watch, they eat, they drink: rise up, ye princes, anoint the shield.
read chapter 21 in ASV
They make ready the table, they put down the covers, they take food and drink. Up! you captains; put oil on your breastplates.
read chapter 21 in BBE
Prepare the table, appoint the watch; eat, drink: arise, ye princes, anoint the shield.
read chapter 21 in DARBY
Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.
read chapter 21 in KJV
read chapter 21 in WBT
They prepare the table, they set the watch, they eat, they drink: rise up, you princes, anoint the shield.
read chapter 21 in WEB
Arrange the table, watch in the watch-tower, Eat, drink, rise, ye heads, anoint the shield,
read chapter 21 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 5. - Prepare the table, etc. With lyrical abruptness, the prophet turns from his own feelings to draw a picture of Babylon at the time when she is attacked. He uses historical infinitives, the most lively form of narrative. Translate, They deck the table, set the watch, eat, drink; i.e. having decked the table, they commit the task of watching to a few, and then give themselves up to feasting and reveling, as if there were no danger. It is impossible not to think of Belshazzar's feast, and the descriptions of the Greek historians (Herod., 1:191; Xen., 'Cyrop.,' 7:23), which mark at any rate the strength of the tradition that, when Babylon was taken, its inhabitants were engaged in revelry. Arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield. In the midst of the feast there enters to the revellers one from the outside, with these words, "Rise, quit the banquet; get your shields; anoint them; arm yourselves." That shields were greased with fat or oil before being used in battle appears from Virg., 'AEneid,' 7:625, and other places. It was thought that the enemy's weapons would more readily glance off an oiled surface.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(5) Prepare the table, watch in the watch-tower.--The words (historical infinitive) are better taken as indicative: They prepare . . . they watch. The last clause has been variously rendered, they spread the coverlet; i.e., for the couches of the revellers (Amos 6:4); and they take a horoscopes (Ewald). Here, with hardly a shadow of a doubt, there is a reference to the temper of reckless revel such as was the immediate forerunner of the capture of Babylon. The prophet had, perhaps, an analogue of such blind security before his eyes at the very time he wrote (Isaiah 22:13), which led him to anticipate a like state of things in Babylon.Anoint the shield . . .--The summons is one which in the prophet's vision breaks in on the songs and music of the revel. The shields thought of were those covered with leather, which was oiled, partly to protect it from wet, partly to make the stroke of the sword glide off from it. The call implies that even this precaution had been neglected by the revellers.
