Bible Study Lesson/Notes for Isaiah 21:13-17: Arabia is Judged

(When I taught my two year long Bible study on Isaiah, I used The Pulpit Commentary Volume 10: Isaiah edited by H.D.M. Spence and Joseph S. Exell to give me a starting point and rough outline of the material covered in the chapters. In this article, when you read the phrase "my commentary", I am referring to this volume.)

This last section of this chapter deals with a prophecy of Arabia. More specifically, with some of the northern Arab tribes that share a border with Edom. { Show map of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires from personal Bible } As we can see from the map, Arabia will be conquered in part first by Assyria, then later completely by the Babylonians. {Show pictures of Assyrians attacking Arabs from "Cradle of Civilization", pages 72-73 }

Let's read the whole prophecy through once to get a general feel for what is happening here. Read Isaiah 21:13-17

Without going into specifics, we see that the Arabas are going to be fleeing from the battlefield and are going to become refugees. There is going to be little left of the fighting men after this battle. This is going to happen all within the span of a year "as a servant bound by contract would count it." It is not stated here exactly who the Arabs will be fighting, but from the context it is generally assumed they are fighting with Assyria. King Sargon of Assyria did invade Arabia in 715/716 BC.

Now let's study these verses more closely. Read Isaiah 21:13 Firstly, who were the Dedanites? The word "Dedanites" is used only once, here; not surprising, it means the tribe of people from Dedan. We first hear of Dedan in Genesis 10:7, so they were Cushites (that is, from the line of Cush) Notice that Dedan's brother's name is Sheba. The name Dedan, however, shows up later in scripture, as a grandson of Abraham by his second wife, Keturah. Read Genesis 25:1-3. Notice that once again Dedan's brother's name is Sheba. This seems to imply that the two groups of people were related and intermarried, occupying the same country, becoming known as the Dedanites.

The Dedanites were important commercial people, traders who traveled in caravans all throughout Arabia and as far north as Tyre. { Show Arabia and Tyre on map } We know that Dedan traded with Tyre from passages in Ezekiel. Read Ezekiel 27:15. My Bible Dictionary says that "Rhodes" here is actually "Dedan" in the Hebrew. Read Ezekiel 27:20-22. Remember that Raamah was Dedan's father (the first Dedan, mentioned in Genesis 10) and later became the name of a city; Sheba was Dedan's brother, and referred to the southwest corner of the Arabian penisula (modern day Yemen).

Dedan is included in the long list of nations that Jeremiah prophesizes will fall to the sword. Jeremiah 25:15-29 This passage, in a sense, summarizes all the nation prophecies we have been studying in Isaiah. The Lord comes against all these nations, bringing warfare and battle upon battle, treating all ungodly nations alike.

Dedan is included in Jeremiah's and Ezekiel's prophecies against Edom (Esau). Read Jeremiah 49:8, Ezekiel 25:13-14 This implies that Dedan at the very least shares a border with Edom, and in fact might have been part of Edom at one time. The Dedanties were also thought to have had their chief settlements on the shores of the Persian Gulf. As a tribe of traders, they would have traveled widely and had settlements at the extents of their caravan routes.

From what I could find regarding the Dedanites, no mention of any specific sins were given that I can point to and say "here, this is why Dedan is coming under judgment." All I can refer to is our passage in Jeremiah 25 in which Dedan is included as one of the guilty nations which shall "drink from the cup." Let's continue reading Jeremiah's prophecy in chapter 25. Read Jeremiah 25:31 All of mankind is coming under judgment, and the wicked are being put to the sword. Since Dedan is included in that list of guilty nations, we can only assume that she was a godless, wicked nation.

Let's return to our passage in Isaiah. Read Isaiah 21:13-15 The caravans of the Dedanites will be camping (or hiding) in the thickets, leaving the beaten track. This appears to imply "trees", but there are no trees in the desert of Arabia. This is probably referring to thorny bushes and shrubs, which are common in Arabia. Notice here that those who live in Tema are exhorted to bring water and food for the fugitives. Tema is the name for another Arab tribe. My commentary says that this verse implies that the people of Tema would have been willing to provide help for the Dedanites; there is no indication of hostilities between the two peoples.

Teman is a city in Edom, and should not be confused with Tema, which is an oasis in northern Arabia about 400 miles southwest of Babylon, and is also the name of an Arab tribe. We first hear of Tema in Genesis 25, as the name of one of Ishmael's sons. Read Genesis 25:13-16 In all, Tema is mentioned only 5 times in the Bible, twice in genealogy lists; once in Job, as part of an extended metaphor comparing the fickleness of Job's friends and unreliable streams in the desert. Read Job 6:14-21 (We see here that the people of Tema were also traders, using caravans to travel the desert.) Besides being mentioned in our passage in Isaiah, Tema is lastly mentioned in Jeremiah 25, in the list of guilty nations commanded to drink the cup of God's wrath. So though in this passage it does not say that Tema, specifically, will be attacked, later we know she, too, will come under judgment, when Nebuchanezzar of Babylon invades.

Read Isaiah 21:16-17. Here a new proper name is mentioned, Kedar. From the two commentaries I have read, apparently Kedar is a more general expression for the Arab/Bedouin tribes from Aram to the Arabian Desert. To relate this to modern day, we have the Cheyenne and Navajo tribes, but they are both called Native Americans. Here we have the Dedan and the Tema, but they both called Kedar. (It is possible Kedar is referring only to the northern Arab tribes, but it is uncertain.) These two verses in Isaiah, therefore, are implying that all the Arab tribes will be invaded and attacked within one year. This again fits what we know about the Assyrian invasions of Arabia.

We first see Kedar mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 25, as one of Ishmael's sons. As we continue to read in this chapter, we see that the descendants of Ishmael did not get along with the other descendants of Abraham. Read Genesis 25:17-18

Kedar is mentioned in the Psalms. Read Psalms 120:5-7 The psalmist wasn't actually living among the Kedar or in Meshech (a city in central Asia Minor) '" he is using this as a metaphor of how his present situation was like living among barbaric, warlike people. (We might say, "I'm living among savages!")

The tents of the Kedar are mentioned in the Song of Songs. Read Song of Songs 5:1 The tents were woven from black goat hair. The speaker (the woman) is saying she has dark skin or tanned skin, which was not desirable in Solomon's day because it meant she had to be outside working in the sun. A refined person would have been inside and had light, delicate skin.

Later in Isaiah, the Kedar are included among those singing praises to God. Read Isaiah 42:11 (Sela is probably another name for Petra, the capital of Edom.)

Jeremiah gives a specific prophecy regarding Kedar and how they will fall to Nebuchadnezzar. Read Jeremiah 49:28-33 "Hazor" here might not actually be a proper name, as in Hazor, the city. My commentary says Hazor in this context comes from the common noun in Hebrew which means "settlement." So the prophecy here may be simply saying that all the Kedar settlements will be deserted. From the passage we see that the Kedar had flocks, camels, tents, lived isolated from other peoples and did not live in houses or have walled cities, like other nations. I'm guessing their settlements were probably no more than oasises with surrounding tent cities (since their shelters could be "carried off.")

And lastly the Kedar are mentioned in Ezekiel as also having done business with Tyre. Read Ezekiel 27:21 So when we think of the Arab tribes, we should think of nomadic peoples, who were traders, lived in tents, kept flocks, and were known as warriors and bowmen (from our passage in Isaiah.)

As we close this chapter in Isaiah, we see once again how God dealt with all the nations surrounding Israel, even with the less known, Arab tribes. They were important enough to be included in Isaiah's and Jeremiah's prophecies and can be used as examples today of how God's Word can be trusted.

Blessings!

Source
H.D.M. Spence and Joseph S. Exell (editors). The Pulpit Commentary Volume 10: Isaiah
Time-Life Editors. Cradle of Civilization