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2 A
grievous [qasheh] vision [chazuwth] is
declared [nagad] unto me; the treacherous
dealer [bagad] dealeth treacherously [bagad], and the spoiler [shadad]
spoileth [shadad]. Go up [`alah], O Elam [`Eylam]: besiege [tsuwr], O Media [Maday]; all the
sighing ['anachah] thereof have I made to cease
[shabath]. KJV-Interlinear
2 A harsh vision has been shown to me; The treacherous one still
deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, Elam, lay siege,
Media; I have made an end of all the groaning she has caused. NASB
The word for grievous, ‘qasheh,’ means harsh, grievous, violent, treacherous, calamity, catastrophe, annihilation. It is a picture of backstabbing, betrayal and of utter devastation, terror, and suffering beyond imagination and worse.
Declared, ‘nagad,’ means to pass in front of, or to pass before, such that is made clear and known to Isaiah. There are no questions about the vision. There is no guessing about the vision. God made it clear and here it is.
Treacherous and spoiler, ‘bagad’ and ‘shadad,’ refer to disloyalty, cheating, betrayal, double-cross.
Elam was the son of Shem who settled in the region which is known as Persia or today’s Iran. Media is likewise a similar area but more to the east of the Euphrates River. This is the region that had four kings that invaded the plains of Sodom and Gomorrah, who sacked that region, took plunder and took Lot captive, and of whom Abraham had to pursue and take back all that was taken.
The phrases, treacherous dealing treacherously, and spoiler who spoils, or destroyer who destroys, carries the meaning of a criminal who steals and who is stolen from. So, what goes around, comes around. The bad things that you do, are eventually done, right back against you. Poetic justice. A fate that is related to the persons own conduct.
And so, Babylon being our subject, deals treacherously and harshly with others, and therefore will be dealt with in a same manner.
As they say, be careful what you wish for. Then so too, be careful how you behave. For how you behave in life, so too, God will deal with you in life. And do not think that being sincere or self-righteous will gain you spiritual points, for sin in disobedience or works, is still sin, and that gains nothing.
The bottom line is that the human pursuit of satisfaction through conquest or aggression never works.
This does not apply to the legal system for justice, and does not apply to war, when confronted with an evil enemy.
It does apply to evil and its activities, and the reversal of those activities back against evil.
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