---
title: "Isaiah 21 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/isaiah/21/
description: "The destruction of Babylon by the Medes and Persians: a prophecy against the… Isaiah 21 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Isaiah 21

Isaiah 21 is chapter 21 of 66 in the Book of Isaiah. Here are all 17 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The destruction of Babylon by the Medes and Persians: a prophecy against the Edomites and the Arabians.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Isaiah 21 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. The burden of the desert of the sea. Just as the whirlwinds approach from Africa, it approaches from the desert, from a terrible land.
2. A difficult vision has been announced to me: he who is unbelieving, he acts unfaithfully, and he who is a plunderer, he devastates. Ascend, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media! I have caused all its mourning to cease.
3. Because of this, my lower back has been filled with pain, and anguish has possessed me, like the anguish of a woman in labor. I fell down when I heard it. I was disturbed when I saw it.
4. My heart withered. The darkness stupefied me. Babylon, my beloved, has become a wonder to me.
5. Prepare the table. Contemplate, from a place of observation, those who eat and drink. Rise up, you leaders! Take up the shield!
6. For the Lord has said this to me: “Go and station a watchman. And let him announce whatever he will see.”
7. And he saw a chariot with two horsemen, and a rider on a donkey, and a rider on a camel. And he considered them diligently, with an intense gaze.
8. And a lion cried out: “I am on the watchtower of the Lord, standing continually by day. And I am at my station, standing throughout the night.
9. Behold, a certain man approaches, a man riding on a two-horse chariot.” And he responded, and he said: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon! And all its graven gods have been crushed into the earth!
10. O my threshed grain! O sons of my threshing floor! What I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have announced to you.”
11. The burden of Dumah, cried out to me from Seir: “Watchman, how goes the night? Watchman, how goes the night?”
12. The watchman said: “Morning approaches with the night. If you are seeking: seek, and convert, and approach.”
13. The burden in Arabia. In the forest you shall sleep, in the evening on the paths of Dedanim.
14. You who inhabit the land of the south: upon meeting the thirsty, bring water; meet the fugitive with bread.
15. For they are fleeing before the face of swords, before the face of a sword hanging over them, before the face of a bent bow, before the face of a grievous battle.
16. For the Lord said this to me: “After one more year, just like one year for a hired hand, all the glory of Kedar will be taken away.
17. And the remainder of the multitude of strong archers from the sons of Kedar will be few, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken it.”

## Isaiah 21 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Onus deserti maris. Sicut turbines ab africo veniunt, de deserto venit, de terra horribili.
2. Visio dura nuntiata est mihi: qui incredulus est infideliter agit; et qui depopulator est vastat. Ascende, Ælam; obside, Mede; omnem gemitum ejus cessare feci.
3. Propterea repleti sunt lumbi mei dolore; angustia possedit me sicut angustia parturientis; corrui cum audirem, conturbatus sum cum viderem.
4. Emarcuit cor meum; tenebræ stupefecerunt me: Babylon dilecta mea posita est mihi in miraculum.
5. Pone mensam, contemplare in specula comedentes et bibentes: surgite, principes, arripite clypeum.
6. Hæc enim dixit mihi Dominus: Vade, et pone speculatorem, et quodcumque viderit annuntiet.
7. Et vidit currum duorum equitum, ascensorem asini, et ascensorem cameli; et contemplatus est diligenter multo intuitu.
8. Et clamavit leo: Super speculam Domini ego sum, stans jugiter per diem; et super custodiam meam ego sum, stans totis noctibus.
9. Ecce iste venit ascensor vir bigæ equitum; et respondit, et dixit: Cecidit, cecidit Babylon, et omnia sculptilia deorum ejus contrita sunt in terram.
10. Tritura mea et filii areæ meæ, quæ audivi a Domino exercituum, Deo Israël, annuntiavi vobis.
11. Onus Duma. Ad me clamat ex Seir: Custos, quid de nocte? custos, quid de nocte?
12. Dixit custos: Venit mane et nox; si quæritis, quærite; convertimini, venite.
13. Onus in Arabia. In saltu ad vesperam dormietis, in semitis Dedanim.
14. Occurrentes sitienti ferte aquam, qui habitatis terram austri; cum panibus occurrite fugienti.
15. A facie enim gladiorum fugerunt, a facie gladii imminentis, a facie arcus extenti, a facie gravis prælii.
16. Quoniam hæc dicit Dominus ad me: Adhuc in uno anno, quasi in anno mercenarii, et auferetur omnis gloria Cedar.
17. Et reliquiæ numeri sagittariorum fortium de filiis Cedar imminuentur; Dominus enim Deus Israël locutus est.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 1: “The desert of the sea” … So Babylon is here called, because from a city as full of people as the sea is with water, it was become a desert.
- Verse 2: “O Elam” … That is, O Persia.
- Verse 7: These two riders are the kings of the Persians and Medes.
- Verse 8: “And a lion cried out” … That is, I Isaias seeing the approaching ruin of Babylon, have cried out as a lion roaring.
- Verse 11: That is, Idumea, or Edom.
- Verse 16: Arabia.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).