Isaiah 21:7 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And he saw a chariot with two riders, &c. “This passage,” says Bishop Lowth, “is extremely obscure from the ambiguity of the term רכב,” (here rendered chariot,) “which is used three times; and which signifies a chariot, or any other vehicle, or the rider in it; or a rider on a horse, or any other animal; or a company of chariots or riders. The prophet may possibly mean a cavalry in two parts, with two sorts of riders; riders on asses, or mules, and riders on camels: or led on by two riders, one on an ass, and one on a camel.” Or, as some think, the verse may be rendered, He saw a cavalcade, two file of horse, (צמד פרשׁים,) with ass-carriages, and carriages of camels; and he attended with very close attention. According to this translation, the meaning is, that the watchman saw the army of the Medes and Persians, with their usual cavalcade of horse, (attended by those beasts of burden, asses and camels, which accompanied armies,) moving toward Babylon; upon which he gave the greatest attention possible. Or, according to the common reading, Darius and Cyrus, leading the Medes and Persians, are intended to be distinguished by the two riders, or the two sorts of cattle. The baggage of Cyrus's army, Herodotus tells us, was carried on camels.