Chapter 21
Prophecy about the "wilderness of the sea". MSB says this refers to an area of southern Babylon near the Persian Gulf know for its fertility. TCR does not comment. Vss 1-7 make it pretty clear that this place is going to fall, perhaps by invasion from Elam and Media. Elam is on the East side of the Persian Gulf, southeast of Ancient Babylon, and Media is straight east of Babylon, and north of Elam. So these two countries are in a position to invade Babylon's eastern and southern flanks.
2022 - The first five verses seem to give an overall picture of what is about to happen in this wilderness. There must have been people there, despite it being called wilderness. It seems to have been suddenly and devastatingly overrun - as when whirlwinds go by. Look at these phrases in 3-5...anguish, pangs like labor, bowed down with pain, heart staggers, appalling horror. Something truly bad happened to the people in the "wilderness of the sea". I found this: "Of the desert - There have been almost as many interpretations of this expression, as there have been interpreters. That it means Babylon, or the country about Babylon, there can be no doubt; but the question why this phrase was applied, has given rise to a great diversity of opinions." It was on this page: https://biblehub.com/commentaries/isaiah/21-1.htm This would be good to bookmark because it puts together numerous commentaries on each of these passages. It would be a GREAT HELP when reading the OT major and minor prophets. I will be keeping it open from here on in Isaiah.
2023 - Read the "Pulpit Commentary" on this chapter today. That's a different section of the Biblehub entry. What I learned is that nobody agrees at all on what this chapter is about. Therefore, it is best to read it, think about it, and move on. I wouldn't expect to be able to make sense of the historical time or place this chapter is about with any real certainty. Any conclusion I would come to would be opinion, and pretty much uninformed opinion at that! This one thing though...I think Isaiah is giving us a prophecy, not a history lesson. So I think it is fair to say that when Isaiah talks about this stern vision concerning the "wilderness of the sea", it had not yet happened. I found this link: https://www.worldhistory.org/timeline/assyria/ and it says here that Assyria, in 1225 BC more or less, sacked Babylon under King Tukulti-Ninerta. Apparently, Babylon regained its independence, because later, in 729 BC, it is again conquered/occupied by Assyria. This was under Tiglath-Pilesar III. Israel was conquered by Assyria in 722 BC and I don't think it has been conquered as Isaiah writes Chapter 21. So the 729 BC occupation may be what he is predicting. But...It seems a lot more likely to me that Isaiah is talking about the fall of Babylon in Belshazzar's time, as found in Daniel. I don't think Isa 21 is about Assyria at all. Elam and Media are the besiegers, and THAT is who conquered Babylon in Daniel.
At any rate, a number of commentaries say that "the wilderness of the sea" refers to Babylon and the area around it. The Euphrates regularly flooded, covering all the surrounding desert into something that looked for all the world like a "sea". So the phrases noted above are about the sudden and devastating fall of the great city Babylon. We know from Daniel that it fell in a night. It was overrun by the Medes and the Persians, who came out of the deserts of Arabia to the south. I wonder if vs 2 tells us how Babylon fell? A traitor perhaps showed the invaders how to access the city without a siege. And the invaders - the destroyers - came in and raised havoc.
This is so absolutely compelling in its similarity to the fall of Babylon in Revelation. There has to be something more we are supposed to see here. This passage of Isaiah, in real time, is before Assyria fell and we are also seeing prophecy about Babylon. Babylon must have been a truly awful, evil place to deserve these things - just as the Babylon in Revelation. So what is this "evil" that ancient and future Babylon have in common that provokes God to bring about this kind of destruction? Can they somehow represent the depths of cruelty that man sinks to apart from God? Neb was chosen by God, God put the power into his hands, and Neb instead patted himself on the back instead of God. But Neb was long gone when Babylon finally fell. What was done in that city? I think I need to do a whole "history search" of what has come down to us about that empire and its fall. Maybe in secular literature we can find some indication of what Revelation is talking about?
Isaiah's oracle is symbolized by a watchman, on the wall, watching for mounted riders coming toward him.
A watchman sees horses coming two by two in vs 9:
And behold, here come riders, horsemen in pairs!" And he answered, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the carved images of her gods he has shattered to the ground."
Isaiah 21:9 ESV
This language is much like that in Revelation. Has this prophecy jumped so far ahead and into the tribulation? MSB says Babylon fell to the Assyrians first, then to the Medes, and that John in Revelation quotes this verse in Rev 14 and18. The prophecy about Babylon earlier seemed to have both near and far implications. So MSB may be talking about an early conquest of Babylon - before she was really a "world power" and before Assyria fell to the Medes. My "timeline" is that Assyria took Israel, then besieged Jerusalem. 185,000 Assyrians died of disease outside Jerusalem, so the Assyrians went home and their ruler was assassinated by his sons. Sometime after that the Medes conquer what is left of Assyria. Then Babylon rises to power - pushing back the Medes in the process and conquering all that area previously occupied by the Assyrians. Babylon carries away the Southern Kingdom, then they are conquered by the Medes and Persians in Daniel's time. The Medes let Israel go home. So...if my timeline is right, to when exactly does "Fallen, fallen is Babylon..." in vs 9 refer? Either to its early conquest by the Assyrians, which I doubt because it wasn't much of a power then and it's fall would be no big deal - except that the Assyrians were now in charge of the local "food belt". It could be the conquest in Daniel's time. That would be a pretty big deal. Or it could be symbolic, not about geography at all but about the world economic system represented by the name Babylon, as talked about in Revelation. I don't know. I doubt anyone else really "knows" either, except for maybe Isaiah.
2023 - These verses:
8 Another angel, a second, followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality." [Rev 14:8 ESV]
2 And he called out with a mighty voice, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. [Rev 18:2 ESV]
It is pretty difficult to make a case that John isn't quoting Isaiah when he writes these verses in Revelation. So...either another Babylon will rise, and also fall, as did the Babylon of Daniel's time...or John is using this reference to the fall of "old Babylon" to more clearly express the fall of the Kingdom of the MoL. It may not be a reference to a real place at all. Surely all that is said about that future Babylon applies to the kind of kingdom the MoL would set up! That's why we cannot figure out what that future Babylon might be. It is not a place, it is a government that must fall. It is the future one world government, where favoritism and corruption and enrichment of evil men finally falls before the coming of the Millennial reign. WHEN does future Babylon fall? At some point during great trib?
2022 - In vs 7, Donkeys might well have been the symbol of the Medes, camels the symbol of the Persians. So the watchman sees these two coming.
Prophecy of Dumah, which is Edom. Esau's land. This section is only 2 verses. MSB interprets the question "what time of the night" as asking how long the Assyrian oppression will last. The answer to that question - "Morning comes, and also the night" means the Assyrians won't be there long, but that the Babylonian invasion will come soon after the Assyrians fall. And this is about Edom. Isaiah takes time to talk about how Esau's land will fare during this time.
Prophecy of Arabia. Says that within the year, Arabia will be conquered by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. So already fulfilled, per MSB. Actually, what it says is a lot more complex than that. It seems that those fleeing the Assyrians and later the Babylonians will make their way to the desolate areas of Arabia - and the desert. They will be thirsty and hungry, and these Dedanites will send caravans of supplies there. Probably in secret lest they incur the wrath of Assyria. But...apparently the Assyrians do figure out what is going on, and the result is that they invade and destroy the areas around the desert, so that supplies can no longer come in, and preventing some leader from raising an army against them with those forced out of their homelands. This would be good strategy for Assyria.
2022 - Kedar is the name given generically to the nomadic tribes that inhabited Arabia, one of which was Dedan. It says these would be brought low. Apparently the Assyrians were ruthless in "disarming" any who might rise up - or accompany those who might rise up - against them. They even wiped out nomadic tribesman said to be good with bows.
2022 - So I've learned today that there is a LOT of material that will fill in the details of these prophecies. I don't need to be speculating nearly so much as to what they are about. BibleHub will need to play a bigger part from here on.