ישעיהו, פרק כ״א, פסוק ז׳

High upon a lookout point, a watchman stands guard in a state of tense anticipation. He scans the distant horizon, searching for any movement of armies or the arrival of fateful news. In this prophetic vision, he first relies on his sight to grasp what is happening far away. He spots various mounts, a broad category that includes any animal used for riding [שד״ל]. Specifically, he sees a pair [מצודת ציון] of horsemen, along with riders mounted on donkeys and camels.

The primary approach among commentators is that this scene represents a massive and diverse military force. Because the threat of an enemy attack is so real, the watchman must pay close attention to every routine movement. Any rider could be a scout or the vanguard of an approaching army, signaling the presence of many different types of warriors [מצודת דוד, רד״ק, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. However, others view this scene through a symbolic or specific historical lens regarding the fall of Babylon. The riders on the donkey and the camel can be seen as symbols of the Persian and Median empires [רש״י]. Another perspective suggests this depicts a frantic, isolated event of two officials fleeing Babylon in the middle of the night after the Babylonian king was killed. In their panic, they escaped on a donkey and a camel they managed to find in the moment, rather than taking horses. According to this view, the watchman, who had been waiting a long time for a dramatic display of Babylon's downfall, is surprised to find that the great news is delivered by two terrified fugitives [מלבי״ם].

After the initial visual spotting, the focus shifts to the watchman's sense of hearing, as the eyes naturally perceive things from afar before the ears can pick up approaching sounds [שד״ל]. He enters a state of deep alertness, straining his ears to catch the distant noise of hooves and footsteps [רד״ק, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. As the riders draw closer, the noise steadily increases in volume [שד״ל], eventually swelling into the roaring sound of massive armies [רש״י, מצודת דוד]. The ultimate purpose of this intense listening is not merely to track their physical approach, but to try and catch the fateful message carried by these arriving riders [אבן עזרא, מלבי״ם].