Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Walter Mattfeld" <mattfeld AT mail.pjsnet.com>]

Mr. Gathaus wondered how to account for Isaiah's oracle that sees Babylon
being destroyed by the Medes. He understood this to be a clue that the
oracle was of the Neo-Babylonian period, the 6th century BCE, not the world
of King Ahaz (735-715 bCE).

As pointed out in my earlier post arguing that the king of Babylon is an
Assyrian, I noted that Ahaz died in 715 BC. The preceeding verses,
Isa.14:22-25, suggest to me that Assyrian kings are being alluded to as the
kings of Babylon:

"I will rise up against them says the Lord of Hosts and will cut off from
Babylon name and remnant, offspring and posterity...I will break the
ASSYRIAN in my land, and upon my mountains trample him under foot, and his
yoke shall depart from them..."  The Chaldean Babylonians, ie.
Marduk-apal-iddina (Merodach-baladan), never terrorized Israel in Ahaz's
days, so the only alternative is the Assyrians being the king of Babylon (in
Ahaz's days Tiglath-pileser III and Shalmaneser V claimed the title king of
Babylon).

Now, in regards to George's observation about the Medes destroying Babylon,
while it is true that the Neo-Babylonians feared the power of the Medes
after 612 BCE and the fall of Nineveh, I want to point out that in Isaiah's
and Ahaz's days the Assyrians had "their hands full" fighting the Medes.

The first mention of the Medes is in the annals of the Assyrian king
Shalmaneser III (858-824 BCE), his successor launched repeated forays in the
Median mountains, time after time, attempting to subjugate these restless
peoples. It was only with the capture of Dayaukku (Herodotus' Deioces ?) in
715 BCE by Sargon II (721-705 BCE) that the wars with the Medes came to an
end and Media quieted down and accepted for a time its subjugation until the
mid 7th century BCE.

So, Isaiah quite logically, in the days of Ahaz (735-715 BCE) saw the Medes
as the most likely peoples capable of destroying the Assyrian King of
Babylon. One hears stories of the Conqueror being conquered culturally by
the conquered and this happened with the Assyrians. They admired Babylon's
ancient cultural heritage and borrowed the Enuma Elish ceremony, changing
Asshur for Marduk, and naming Assyrian kings as chosen by the gods to bear
rule. Babylonian literary forms and expressions were also borrowed by the
Assyrians. It was with great pride then that the Assyrian king took on the
title King of Babylon.

If my above suppositions are correct, then Isa. 13 & 14 are genuine oracles
of the 8th century BCE, not 7th century BCE interpolations as commonly held
by many Humanist scholars.

All the best,

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden-Wurttemburg
Germany