Fallen is Babylon, Finished is Kedar: A Unified Reading of Isaiah 21 (original) (raw)

This paper aims to reconstruct a more original form of Isaiah 21:11–17, normally seen as two or three separate prophecies against various North Arabian nations. It is argued that these verses originally formed a unified prophecy relating to Sennacherib's campaign against the Arabs, Kedar and the North Arabian town of Dumah in 690 BCE. This provides some support for the interpretation of Isaiah 21:1–10 as reflecting Sennacherib's destruction of Babylon in 689 BCE. An excursus on the strange morphology of several verbs in Isaiah 21:12 shows that contrary to a commonly expressed opinion, they cannot be Aramaisms.