Isaiah 21:10

O my people, crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heard from the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — The prophet addresses Israel as "my people" while delivering a divine oracle immediately after announcing Babylon's fall. He speaks at a transitional point in the chapter's sequence of judgments against foreign nations.

The words — The Hebrew מְדֻשָׁתִי (medushati) literally means "O threshed one" or "crushed on the threshing floor," depicting a people subjected to divine judgment. The phrase יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת (Yahweh Tsebaoth) identifies the source of this oracle as the LORD of Hosts.

The thread — This threshing imagery recurs in Jeremiah 51:33 and Micah 4:13 to describe both Babylon's judgment and Zion's future victory. The motif of military depletion also appears in 2 Kings 13:7 regarding Israel's weakened army.

Why it lands — The text demands recognition that divine communication originates from Yahweh rather than human insight. It calls the reader to accept the stated oracle without alteration or evasion.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

מְדֻשָׁתִ֖יme.du.sha.T/iO threshed one/ my וּבֶן־u./ven-and/ [the] son of גָּרְנִ֑יga.re.N/ithreshing floor/ my אֲשֶׁ֣ר'a.Sher[that] which שָׁמַ֗עְתִּיsha.Ma'.tiI have heard מֵאֵ֨תme./'Etfrom/ with יְהוָ֧הYah.wehYahweh צְבָא֛וֹתtze.va.'otof hosts אֱלֹהֵ֥י'e.lo.Hei[the] God of יִשְׂרָאֵ֖לYis.ra.'ElIsrael הִגַּ֥דְתִּיhi.Gad.tiI have toldלָכֶֽם׃ סla./Khemto <the>/ you

King James Version

O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.

Cross-references

Jeremiah 51:33 For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled. In just a little while her harvest time will come.”
Micah 4:13 Rise and thresh, O Daughter of Zion, for I will give you horns of iron and hooves of bronze to break to pieces many peoples. Then you will devote their gain to the LORD, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.
2 Kings 13:7 Jehoahaz had no army left, except fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers, because the king of Aram had destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing.
Isaiah 41:15 Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.
Ezekiel 3:17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me.
Matthew 3:12 His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Habakkuk 3:12 You marched across the earth with fury; You threshed the nations in wrath.
1 Kings 22:14 But Micaiah said, “As surely as the LORD lives, I will speak whatever the LORD tells me.”
Acts 20:26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.