Babylon is mentioned in several of Isaiah’s prophecies, and scholars typically date such prophecies to be later than Isaiah of Jerusalem. However, Babylon was a major player in the days of Isaiah, and it is possible to interpret Isaiah’s oracles about Babylon in relation to the history of his own times. It is important to recognize that while we know something about Babylon from historical records, the prophetic texts are themselves primary texts for constructing history.
Historical Background
Babylon was a significant city in Isaiah’s day, more so than Nineveh. Nineveh’s status “oscillated between being a centre of power and a centre of resistance”.[1] Prior to Sargon II (721-705 BCE), Assyrian kings had ruled from Calah, but Sargon II ruled from Sargon’s Fort. It was Sennacherib who made Nineveh the capital, but when he moved the court to Nineveh it was “a relatively small and rather run-down city”.[2] It was after Sennacherib’s retreat from his siege of Jerusalem that he set about making Nineveh into a great city. The “greatness” of the city is reflected in the prophecies of Zephaniah and Jonah. The point we want to note, however, is that “Babylon” is not a term used to refer to Nineveh in Isaiah’s prophecies; the descriptions of Babylon do not fit what we know about Nineveh prior to 701 BCE.
Babylon was a more significant city than Nineveh until the seventh century. Assyrian kings were intermittently kings of Babylon in Isaiah’s day. Tiglath-Pileser III first assumed the title around 728-727 BCE, and introduced the institution of the “dual monarchy” over Assyria and the Babylonia region, adopting the title “king of Babylon”. He was succeeded by his son Shalmaneser’s who reigned until 722 BCE. Around this time, in the confusion following Shalmaneser’s death and the succession of Sargon II, Merodach-Baladan, an Aramean tribal lord, assumed control of the city of Babylon until Sargon II took the city back in 709 BCE and once more assumed the crown. Merodach-Baladan accepted Assyrian rule until the death of Sargon II in 705 BCE. When Sennacherib, Sargon’s successor, installed a puppet king over the city of Babylon, around 703 BCE, Merodach-Baladan overthrew him and was again king of the city for a brief period until 702 BCE. Sennacherib retook the southern half of Mesopotamia in a campaign in 702 BCE and installed another puppet king who was unable to assume effective control. Eventually, one of Sennacherib’s sons took the title of “King of Babylon” in 700 BCE, reigning on behalf of his father. Sennacherib eventually sacked Babylon in 689 BCE, after an uprising by Elamites who had killed his son and taken the city.
Isaiah 13-14
Scholars typically treat Isaiah 13-14 (“the burden of Babylon”) as exilic or post-exilic and about the Babylonian empire. They do this primarily on the basis of the occurrence of “Babylon” in these oracles. However, the king of Assyria was at times during the eighth/seventh centuries the “king of Babylon” (e.g. 2 Kgs 17:24), and he boasted of this status.[3] Accordingly, Isa 14:4 could be about the king of Assyria, and this identity is suggested by Isa 14:25, which uses the term “the Assyrian” of this king.[4]
Sennacherib was never “King of Babylon”. Following the lead of Isa 14:25, the “king of Babylon” of Isa 14:4 could well be Shalmaneser, who invaded Northern Israel. This identification fits the dating superscription for the next oracle in Isa 14:28, which dates that oracle to ca. 715 B.C.E. (Ahaz’ death). Further, this king “boasts” that he will exalt himself above the “stars of God” (Isa 14:13), which is a figure for the tribes of Israel, and a suitable piece of propaganda supporting a programme of conquest for Israel and Judah. On this basis, we suggest that the king is Shalmaneser and that the context of the oracle is the invasion of Northern Israel in 722/721 B.C.E.
The imperial policy of the Assyrian kings towards Israel and Judah causes Yahweh to declare that he will “break” the king of Babylon (Isa 14:5), and that he will “break” the Assyrian (Isa 14:25) upon the mountains of Israel. The intention is declared and spoken against Shalmaneser, but it is not “fulfilled” until 701 B.C.E. against Sennacherib.[5] The oracle is not spoken against the individual Assyrian monarch, but rather the Assyrian monarchy.
On this reading, it cannot be assumed that Isa 13:17 refers to a Median conquest of the city of Babylon. Rather, it is just as possible that since the Israelites were transported to Media (2 Kgs 17:6) by Shalmaneser, this caused unrest in that region, with the result that their places of settlement were attacked by the Medes. The Medes are brought against “them”—the displaced people, not against “it”—a city.
Similarly, it cannot be assumed that the oracle is predicting a destruction of the city of Babylon in Isa 13:19. There were several sackings of the city prior to its rise as the capital of the Babylonian empire, and the Medo-Persian conquest of the city did not result in its destruction. The prediction does not describe an event of destruction, but rather the eventual desolate state of Babylon. This changes the rhetorical purpose of the oracle. The eventual desolate state of Babylon is contrasted with the favour to be bestowed on Israel (Isa 14:1).
The prediction is that the city would become a “possession” for animals (Isa 13:20-22, 14:22-23), and the rhetoric here is a contrast: it will become a possession for animals instead of being a “possession” of the king of Assyria.[6] Babylon was “the glory of kingdoms” (KJV), which conveys the idea of a glorious possession of the kingdoms (2 Sam 1:19, Jer 3:19, Ezek 20:6), but it changed hands several times during Isaiah’s lifetime between the Chaldean tribes and Assyria.
The point in declaring that Babylon would be a possession for animals is to discourage Judah from making alliances with the Chaldeans. During the eighth century, overtures were made to Judah by the Chaldean tribes for strategic purposes (Isaiah 39). As such, the prediction may have had the intended function of deterring those in Judah from seeking an alliance with Babylon against Assyria. There was no basis for security in such an alliance, because the “glory of the kingdoms” would be a possession for animals.
For these reasons, we locate Isaiah 13-14 in an Assyrian context, although it is possible to re-apply the oracles (in a secondary, typical, sense,) to Babylon.
[1] G. Leick, Mesopotamia, (London: Penguin, 2001), 224.
[2] Leick, Mesopotamia, 226.
[3] There is a comparison to be struck between the king of Babylon and Nimrod (Gen 10:9-10) in echoes such as: the motif of a city (Gen 11:4, Isa 13:9), ascending to heaven (Gen 11:4, Isa 14:13), a name (Gen 11:4, Isa 14:22), filling the face of the world with cities (Gen 10:9-11, Isa 14:21), and the mighty man (Gen 10:9, Isa 14:16).
[4] Accordingly, some scholars see the mention of Babylon in Isa 13-14 as a “Babylonizing” of earlier Assyrian oracles; see C. T. Begg, “Babylon in the Book of Isaiah” in The Book of Isaiah, (ed., J. Vermeylen; Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1989), 121-125.
[5] This means that the Book of Isaiah contains historical records of competing claimants to the throne of Babylon—the Assyrian kings and Chaldeans like Merodach-Baladan.
[6] For a detailed interpretation of Isaiah 13-14 in an Assyrian context, see J. D. Watts, Isaiah 1-33, (WBC; Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1984), 187-188; for a review of the history of the period see J. Oates, Babylon, (London: Thames Hudson, 1986), 115-120, J. Bright, A History of Israel, (London: SCM Press, 1977), ch. 7.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One