Isaiah 21:5 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Prepare the table Furnish it with meats and drinks, as it follows. The prophet foretels what the Babylonians would be doing when their enemies were upon the point of entering their city: Watch in the watch-tower To give us notice of any approaching danger, that we may more securely indulge ourselves in mirth and pleasures. Arise, ye princes Either, 1st, Ye princes of Babylon. Arise from the table, and run to your arms: which sudden alarm was the consequence of tidings from the watch- tower. Or, 2d, Ye Medes and Persians; as if he had said, While your enemies, the Babylonians, are feasting securely, prepare and make your assault. Most commentators understand the clause in this latter sense. Dr. Waterland, after Vitringa, renders it, The table is spread: the watchman stands upon the watch; they eat, they drink: Arise now, ye princes, &c. The words paint in lively colours the security and revelling of the Babylonians, at the very time when the divine command is given to the Medes and Persians to seize this proper moment to make the assault. See Jeremiah 51:11; Jeremiah 51:28, &c. The expression, Anoint the shield, means, Prepare your arms: make ready for the battle. The shield is put for all their weapons, offensive and defensive. They used to anoint their shields with oil to preserve and polish them, and make them slippery, that their enemies' darts might not fix in and penetrate, but slide off from them.