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Isaiah 14 describes a figure arrogantly climbing above the stars, alluding to ancient Near Eastern traditions connected to Babylon where ziggurats connected heaven and earth, including the details from the tower of Babel in Genesis.
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Genesis 11:4
Hebrew Bible
2 When the people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” (They had brick instead of stone and tar instead of mortar.) 4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise we will be scattered across the face of the entire earth.” 5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people had started building.
Isaiah 14:13
Hebrew Bible
12 “Look how you have fallen from the sky, O shining one, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O conqueror of the nations! 13 You said to yourself, ‘I will climb up to the sky. Above the stars of El I will set up my throne. I will rule on the mountain of assembly on the remote slopes of Zaphon. 14 I will climb up to the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High!’
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Notes and References
"... Since the time of the rabbis in late antiquity, people have searched for the city ruins and the tower of babel. According to Jewish and Islamic lore, it was King Nimrod (mentioned in Genesis 10:8-12) who ordered the tower be erected “with its head in heaven” (Genesis 11:4). Ruins called Birs Nimrud in Arabic, 17 kilometers south of Babylon, were thus regarded as the most likely location of the tower until early in the 20th century; today they are identified as the remains of a ziggurat that once was part of the main temple of ancient Borsippa and its patron god Nabu. European Renaissance humanists further identified the tower of Gen 11 with what the Greek historian Herodotus describes in his Histories 2.89 as a huge structure of superimposed towers (plural!) in the center of ancient Babylon. This structure, called E-temen-an-ki (“House: Foundation of heaven and earth”) or “ziggurat of the god Marduk” by the ancient Babylonians, was excavated in 1913 ..."
Uehlinger, Christoph
The Mesopotamian Influence behind the Tower of Babel
(pp. 1-3) Bible Odyssey, 2020
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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