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1 The
burden [massa'] of the desert [midbar] of
the sea [yam]. As whirlwinds [cuwphah] in the south [negeb] pass [chalaph] through; so it cometh [bow']
from the desert [midbar], from a terrible [yare'] land ['erets]. KJV-Interlinear
1 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea. As windstorms in
the Negev sweep on, It comes from the wilderness, from a terrifying land. NASB
This chapter and the next two chapters begin the second series of oracles, of God ruling over the nations and revealing the inner human character and human treachery escalating, and a more ominous message against the nations. The regions being held accountable are, the wilderness by the sea, Dumah, Arabia, the valley of vision, and Tyre.
Chapter twenty-four will then reveal the final set of oracles and the certainty of judgment, that even merely knowing about it all is not enough. You have to inculcate it into your soul in order to be set apart from Gods wrath.
The cryptic beginning of this chapter, speaks of Babylon, revealed in verse nine. Babylon is portrayed as a vast flooded sea, a deserted wasteland.
This is the condition of the whole world, hopeless and pathetic. The world is a wasteland when left to its own devices.
The wilderness is a hopeless uninhabited wasteland.
The sea is often used to describe the flooded Euphrates river that, when at flood stage, can stretch far and wide beyond view, like a sea.
And thus the phrase, the desert of the sea, portrays a vast area like a sea, but a desert or an uninhabited and worthless wasteland.
The whirlwind describes a powerful judgment.
The terrible land, is the final result of a land that has been judged. There is nothing left.
The phrase, in the south, describes the condition of the vast desert area that is to the south of Babylon and to the east of Judah.
And so, the beginning of this chapter describes what will be the result not only of the nations at the end of history, after God has applied His judgment against them, but to anyone, any individual who likewise disregards Christ, doctrine, and especially their own spiritual life.
You will be left with a vast and empty life, with no meaning, no purpose, a total waste of your existence, with nothing to show for your having been here.
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