Isaiah 21:2 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Go up, O Elam; besiege, O Media!— The prophet, in a rapture, had various images succeeding one another before his sight. He had just beheld the Babylonians raging against Asia and Judaea. Presently, this scene being removed, he beholds the city of Babylon itself flourishing in strength and glory; then he observes the motion of a hostile army towards this city, which he understands to consist of the Medes and Persians, raised up by the divine providence to besiege Babylon, and punish it for its pride and wickedness; and he hears at the same moment of time a divine voice, commanding this people to approach and besiege Babylon, with a prediction of undoubted success, which he involves in a short consolatory sentence; All the sighing thereof I have made to cease: that is, "God hath made all that sighing, all those groans and calamities which Babylon had brought upon other nations, and upon the people of God also, to cease and be no more, having determined the destruction of Babylon itself." Elam was an old name for Persia, for the name of Persia does not appear to have been known in Isaiah's time. The Persians seem to have taken their name from becoming horsemen in the time of Cyrus. The country is called Paras, and the inhabitants Parasi, which signifies both Persians and horsemen. Babylon was accordingly besieged by the united force of the Medes and Persians under the command of Cyrus the Persian, the nephew and son-in-law of the king of the Medes. If by Elam we understand the province strictly so called, it is no less true that this also, though subject to Babylon, rose up against it on account of the generous behaviour of Cyrus to Panthea. See Bp. Newton and Vitringa.