Isaiah 21-22 - Fallen, Fallen is Babylon
Notes
The four oracles contained in chs. 21–22 share a certain visionary character. They depend on less rational, more atmospheric elements for their impact (at least through 22:14), and have in common a rather fearful watching for calamity, an expectation of death, in the midst of partying and hilarity.
This unity would lie in the fact that Judah was tempted to put her reliance in Babylon as well as in Egypt during the last years of the eighth century B.C.
But Sargon did not destroy either Merodach’s or Babylon’s rebellious designs, and in the ensuing decade they continued to be a thorn in Assyria’s side. During this time, as indicated by 39:1, Babylon must have been encouraging revolt among Assyria’s other tributaries, offering moral support if nothing else. Since Assyria held a firm grip on the lines of communication in the north, Babylon’s only contact with the small countries of the Mediterranean coast would have been via the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea or across the northern end of Arabia through the oases of Dumah and Temah (so 21:11–16). But such help as the Babylonians could offer was severely restricted by their defeat under Sennacherib in 702 and his final destruction of the city in 689.
Ch. 22 seems to deal with Jerusalem in the general light of this data. In the face of impending doom, given Babylon’s collapse and failure, surely Jerusalem should repent and turn to God.
Instead, they look to their weapons, hold parties, and build tombs. All this in the “Valley of Vision!”
From the Judeans’ point of view, between 715 and 700 it was important to say that Babylon could offer no lasting help to them at that time. That Babylon would fall to Cyrus in 539 would be of little significance. At the same time any historically accurate picture of Babylon’s fate with regard to Judah and with regard to God’s sovereignty over the nations would have had to reckon with the truth that Babylon’s ultimate defeat was yet to come (39:5–7). Thus the vision seems to combine the pictures of both the near and the far situations in order to give a complete statement.
If chs. 19–20 and 22 are taken into account as the context of this chapter, it seems even more certain that the function is not comfort, but warning—the continuing warning that the nations of this earth are under the judgment of God and are neither to be trusted nor feared as to our ultimate conditions and destiny.
Especially in the winter, as weather systems move to the north of Israel, strong windstorms come from the east and the southeast out of the wilderness (Job 1:19; Jer. 4:11; 13:24; Hos. 13:15; Zech. 9:14). These storms come with terrifying suddenness and force. So this experience strikes the prophet.
For we are not told what comes. Gray inserted “roaring,” while Driver and Scott altered the title to get a subject: “stormwind” and “words,” respectively.
The writer is not attempting to affect the reader cognitively but emotionally. Thus the images are jumbled and incomplete. But they are entirely effective in conveying the impression of sudden, breathless doom.
“It” comes, the more portentous because it is undefined.
A severe vision speaks of the nature of the events which the prophet foresees. Merely because he prophesies doom and bloodshed does not mean that he delights in these. The same sensitivity which made the prophets aware of what God was saying to them also made them empathize with the human tragedies which their messages portended (cf. 1 K. 14:6).
Go up, Elam; besiege, Media is the command to Babylon’s enemies to attack her.
Generally it is taken to refer to groaning or complaining under Babylonian oppression when she became a world empire after 605. This is probably the ultimate meaning.
The violence of the vision which has come to the prophet is almost more than he can bear.
He expresses this dismay in physical terms: abdominal cramps wrack him like birth-pains; he is doubled up and disoriented; his heart palpitates; he is seized with uncontrollable shuddering.
One may ask why this should be.
Kaiser suggests that such language was a rhetorical device used by prophets to underline the severity of their pronouncements (15:5; 16:9, 11; Ezek. 21:6, 7; Dan. 10:2, 3).
Over against this view is Scott’s opinion that these words betray the depth of the prophet’s ecstatic involvement in the experience.
the prophet’s deep humanity is revealed in this kind of response. With terrific intensity the prophet is aware of individual persons bleeding and suffering, of families ripped apart and destroyed, of hope shattered. The prophet who does not feel some empathy for the personal horrors which destruction of his enemies will entail is not reflecting accurately the character of the God for whom he speaks.
One of sin’s functions is to deaden moral sensitivities until the possibility of retribution becomes unthinkable. So it was at Sodom (Gen. 19:14), and so it will be at the last day (Mark 13:35, 36).
Probably the shields were oiled to make the leather covering more flexible and less susceptible to cracking or being punctured in battle, but several other possibilities have been mentioned, including making enemy blows slide off and making the edges of the leather softer against the user’s body.
The scene now changes back from Babylon to Judah. In his vision, the prophet is charged to post a watchman who must watch the eastern horizon for the signs of Babylon’s fall. Virtually all commentators are agreed that the watchman is Isaiah himself (Hab.2:1; cf. also vv. 11, 12; 52:8).
This concept of the signs of the times is picked up by Jesus in his discourse on the last days. These signs are evidences of God’s workings in history, bringing all things to final consummation. Not only will there be cataclysms in nature (Matt. 24:7, 29), but also in human society (Matt. 24:6) and in the Church (Matt. 24:9–12). The person who sees these signs can interpret the message. As surely as Babylon has fallen, Christ is coming.
In the affairs of the world, he is Isaiah’s Sovereign, but also Babylon’s, indeed, the Sovereign of all time. He sends a watchman to his post and Babylon to its doom.
virtually all other students of the passage agree that it is a military cavalcade (as the predominantly military usage of reḵeḇ, “chariotry, riders,” would indicate; cf. 43:17; Jer. 46:9).
it may refer to the Persian army, which Xenophon said advanced by twos and specially utilized donkeys and camels to unsettle the enemy.
Likewise the Church waits, and has waited, for the announcement of Babylon’s doom (Rev. 18:2). And what of the watchmen in the meantime? Will they have the same testimony as Isaiah, or will they be like the ten foolish virgins (Matt. 25:1–13)?
When an event has been anticipated for a long time, its actual arrival is almost surprising. One has gotten so used to the anticipation that its passing into reality comes unexpectedly.
Idolatry is the attempt to project human values and understandings upon the stars. Modern humanism is simply ancient idolatry in a three-piece suit or a pair of designer jeans. But the city of human pride cannot stand, as the Londons and Dresdens and Hiroshimas of our own century ought to tell us, and when they fall, our human pretensions must go with them. But the marvel of humanity is our capacity to resurrect the old pride from the ruins and refurbish it again.
Those who take the oracle as dating to the eighth century generally see in it the note of regret: although you hoped for relief from Assyria, Babylon will not be able to give any.
threshed and winnowed refers to the crushing and trampling used to separate grain from the stalks and husks.
Animals were driven over the cut grain, sometimes pulling a sled or a heavy cart (28:27, 28; 41:15, 16; Amos 1:3; Mic. 4:13). The grain and chaff, having been thus separated, were tossed into the air on a windy day with the result that the chaff was blown away, while the heavier grain fell back to earth.
So Isaiah envisions his people: trampled under the threshing sledge, tossed into the winds, falling back to earth.
But there is a word of hope in all of this judgment. The whole process goes forward at the word of Israel’s God. History is not out of control, nor in the hand of some demon who wishes to destroy Israel. The shocks that had come and were yet to come could be endured so long as Israel could yet believe that it was God who was bringing her through the fire.
