Babylon’s Doom (21:1–10)

Desert by the Sea (21:1). This is another descriptor of Babylon (v. 9).

Elam . . . Media (21:2). As Israel was constantly pressed by the Mesopotamians from the east, so Mesopotamia itself experienced incursions of people like the Elamites and Medes from the east (present-day Iran). From their capital in Susa, Elamites supported Merodach-Baladan’s successful takeover of the Babylonian throne in 720 B.C. Their help ebbed and flowed, however. By 710 it had withdrawn such aid, allowing Sargon to take Babylon, but it sent more support in 703 (probably referred to here; cf. 22:6), and in 700, though unsuccessfully. It was finally defeated by Assyria in 646.601

The Medes joined the Babylonians to defeat Assyria in the late seventh century and soon thereafter expanded control into Asia Minor. They themselves were soon incorporated into the Persian empire.602

Pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor (21:3). Labor pains are a common symbol of physical and mental distress and anguish (13:8; 26:17–18).603 In the Gilgamesh Epic, when the goddess Ishtar realized the ramifications of destroying humanity, she “screamed like a woman giving birth, the Mistress of the gods wailed” because, she said, “I bore my people.”604

My heart falters (21:4). Fear and suffering often present themselves metaphorically through physical manifestations such as this (see 19:1). A Middle Kingdom Egyptian complaint says, “My limbs are weighed down; I grieve in my heart.”605

They set the tables, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink! (21:5). Preparations for banquets could be elaborate, showing off the wealth and power of the host.606 When the Ugaritic god Kothar-wa-Hasis arrived, he was similarly feted: “They arrange a chair and he sits to the right of Mighty Baal, while [the gods] ate and drank.”607 A Hittite banquet scene shows a guest seated before a set table,608 and a Punic banquet scene from Spain shows a sumptuous meal.609

Riders on donkeys or riders on camels (21:7). Assyrian wall reliefs show soldiers riding horses in battle, including one scene where they pursue a camel rider.610 Camels were more regularly used as beasts of burden,611 as were donkeys,612 though at times camels were also ridden.

Raiders riding camels on stone relief from the palace of Ashurbanipal

Werner Forman Archive/The British Museum

Babylon has fallen (21:9). This prophecy anticipates the fall of Babylon to a Medio-Persian alliance when Nabonidus, the last Babylonian king, lost his own power base. He was defeated by Gubaru, a former Babylonian general who had defected to the Persians in October, 539.613

All the images of its gods lie shattered (21:9). A nation’s gods were supposed to protect them, leading them in military conquest. Their weakness and defeat are symbolized by their destruction. An Aramaic text from Elephantine in Egypt from 407 B.C. describes an attack by the Egyptians on the temple there: “They went up against the Temple, destroyed it to the ground, and the stone pillars there, they smashed them.”614

Threshing floor (21:10). See comment on 27:12.