Hell is Made Holy

How the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Book of Revelation show that the wicked and hell cease to exist

By David Aaron Beaty

Visit author’s web site at www.davidaaronbeaty.com

Chapter 6

The Meaning of the Sacrifice Symbolism in Isaiah 34

Now with our being thoroughly convinced that Revelation describes the wicked as a sacrifice, we can begin to let go of our skepticism against the idea that John uses the phrases like "The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night" as pointers to the sacrificial symbolism of the continual morning and evening regular sacrifice. How are we to interpret this though? Do these connections John is making describe endless torment for the wicked and Satan, or does the sacrifice symbolism mean something else? If we look in Isaiah 34, where John is directly pointing, we see that the land of Edom does not continue burning endlessly. In the last half of the chapter it clearly turns into a wild garden with an animal zoo in it.

Have you ever seen an abundance of plants and animals living in flames, smoke, and burning pitch? If you've ever watched the animal show where they do some filming at the edge of a wildfire, you can see the animals running out of the burning area lickety split. They don't stick around and take up residence for generations in flames. And there's only one bush that has ever burned and not been consumed, see Exodus 3. Plants die in fire and smoke. The ancient audience of Isaiah 34 would have easily picked up on this contradiction. Then they would have asked themselves how this contradictory juxtaposition could be harmonized with the obvious sacrifice symbolism seen throughout the chapter as evidenced by the excerpts of the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible and NASB20 of Isaiah 34 again below:

[DSSB] It will burn night and day and will never be extinguished.

Its smoke will go up from generation to generation. [NASB20]

The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, It drips with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, With the fat of the kidneys of rams.

For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom. - Wild oxen will also fall with them And young bulls with strong ones;

So their land will be soaked with blood, And their dust become greasy with fat.

The people of Edom, as they are depicted above from Isaiah 34, are not really animals are they? There won't literally be a gigantic divine sword swooping down over and over again and dripping with the fat and blood of lambs, goats, kidneys, and rams will there? Will the fire really be burning endlessly if animals and plants are going to come live in it? Of course the ancient audience of Isaiah 34 would have taken just a little bit of time to realize that the "burning night and day", "smoke going up from generation to generation", and the fire "never being extinguished" are all nonliteral sacrificial symbolism being pasted onto the literal destruction of Edom in order to clearly and vividly communicate some special concepts. The ancient audience of Isaiah lived under the endless plume of smoke burning night and day from generation to generation ascending over the temple. It was essentially "never extinguished". They would have seen all the sacrifice imagery in Isaiah 34 and made this connection very quickly. So the language of Isaiah 34 creates a hard termination point in a leafy animal zoo for the duration of the judgment of the wicked at Jesus' second coming. It then obviously puts forth abundant nonliteral symbolism leading to deeper ponderance of its content. It does not point us towards endless torment. We will see that this is a pattern in Revelation happening numerous times. Revelation repeatedly provides an intentional hard stop for the duration of the torment, making it almost painfully obvious that the phrases like, "The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night." contain the nonliteral sacrifice symbolism of the continual morning and evening regular sacrifice. As I mentioned previously, the destruction of Babylon in Revelation is another easy to recognize example of this:

[Revelation 18:21 WEB] A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down, and will be found no more at all.

[Revelation 19:1-3 WEB] 1 After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Hallelujah! Salvation, power, and glory belong to our God; 2 for his judgments are true and righteous. For he has judged the great prostitute, who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand." 3 A second said, "Hallelujah! Her smoke goes up forever and ever. "

Is the city of Babylon "found no more" or does it literally sit there and smoke for eternity? The contradiction again exposes the fact that "Her smoke goes up forever and ever" is nonliteral sacrifice symbolism taken directly from the nonliteral sacrifice symbolism of Isaiah 34 and the Old Testament sacrificial system.

I've already shown that the "second death" in Revelation may point to the Aramaic Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah 51 where "second death" is clearly associated there in Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah 51 with sacrifice symbolism. So the "second death" being used in Revelation may constitute a pointer to sacrifice symbolism in Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah in a similar way to how the phrase, "the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever" points to sacrifice symbolism in Isaiah 34. For that reason, gaining an understanding of the "second death" as it is defined in the Targums may indirectly also give us an understanding of the sacrifice symbolism in Isaiah 34. A good first question to ask in order to gain an understanding of the meaning of the second death as it is found in the Targums is, "What Hebrew phrase did the Targum translator put the Aramaic phrase 'second death' onto in Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah 51?" See the Jeremiah Targum and Jeremiah Hebrew verses below to see what Hebrew phrase the Targum translator converted to "second death":

[Jeremiah 51:39, 57 Targum Jonathan] 39 Bring distress upon them, and they shall be like drunken men, so that they shall not be strong; and they shall die the second death, and shall not live for the world to come, says the Lord. ... 57 And I will make her princes and her wise men drunk, her governors and her tyrants and her mighty men; and they shall die the second death and not live for the world to come. " says the King; the Lord of Hosts is his Name. (Hayward, 1987, Vol. 12, pgs. 187 to 189)

[Jeremiah 51:39,57 WEB Hebrew] 39 When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up, " says Yahweh ... 57 I will make her princes, her wise men, her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men drunk. They will sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up, " says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies.

And of course, some of John's ancient audience members of Revelation would have been reading the Septuagint. They would have seen the second death represented by this other similar phrasing in the Septuagint here:

[Jeremiah 51:39 LES2] When they are hot, I will give them a drink, and I will make them drunk in order that they might go into a deep sleep, and sleep an eternal sleep, and shall not be awakened," says the Lord.

Have you ever observed that scene in Sunday school where the scripture is being read aloud and someone says, "Hey that's not what my translation says!"? Then they proceed to compare the translations and analyze the differences. John's audience may have done something similar. His Targum listeners from the synagogues might have been the first to catch onto the "second death" reference to Jeremiah 51, then after that his Hebrew Old Testament and Greek Septuagint users may have been wanting to know what their versions say in Jeremiah 51. Now we know what their versions say. As you can see from the Septuagint and Hebrew versions of Jeremiah 51 above, they both describe what can be very reasonably interpreted as a permanent, endless, cessation of life and consciousness. It's possible that John's use of the phrase "second death" to point to Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah 51 may have also been an indirect way of pointing to these two descriptions of cessation of life and consciousness found in the corresponding versions of Jeremiah 51 in the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek Septuagint shown above. A total cessation of life and consciousness for the wicked is what we see elsewhere in the Bible too. So is it possible that John is pointing to the same concept from Revelation by using the phrase "second death"? I would say it is likely:

[Isaiah 26:14, 19 NASB20] 14 The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise; Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, And You have eliminated all remembrance of them. ... 19 Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.

Anytime John points to a specific ancient version using a peculiar phrase, it's very likely that something like the Sunday School scene I've just described would have always happened. John's pointing to it in one ancient version would very likely always eventually reveal it to those who had access to the content of the other ancient versions. Now we have the benefit of this same knowledge today. We have the content of the Hebrew text, the content of the Septuagint, and the content of the Targums. All of them are helpful to understand what John was saying. These ancient versions of the Bible are the context of the book of Revelation. These are the Bibles of John's audience. These are what they knew. Christians need to be dipping into these today or they will continue to interpret the Bible very erroneously according to what it sounds like, instead of what the referenced content is intentionally intended to mean.

We would be neglectful if we stopped at just demonstrating that a Targum interpreter has equated "sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up" from the Hebrew to "die the second death, and shall not live for the world to come" by substituting one for the other in his Aramaic Jeremiah Targum. To have some more confidence that we know how the Targums are defining the second death, we should do some more thorough analysis of the six places where the second death appears in the Targums of Jonathan and Onkelos. First we should gain an understanding of what the "world to come" is, as it is used with the second death in Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah 51, "they shall die the second death, and shall not live for the world to come". To help gain this understanding of the Targum phrase "world to come" we will consult an ancient commentary on the book of Deuteronomy. The commentary is a Rabbinic Jewish commentary which is commonly referred to as "Sifre Deuteronomy". The history of its development is similar to the Targums of Jonathan and Onkelos, in the sense that it is a blend of content which is dated to be very early, with other content that is dated a century or two later. Sifre Deuteronomy is full of quotations of 1st and 2nd century AD rabbis who are actually named and given credit directly in Sifre Deuteronomy for their interpretations of various passages. Many interpretations in Sifre Deuteronomy are named in Sifre Deuteronomy as coming from a particular rabbi, and some are left anonymous, which may make their dating less certain. These details indicate that some Sifre Deuteronomy content originates very early from the 1st century AD and some may be from the later 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. The explanation for "the world to come" found in Sifre Deuteronomy does not name a particular rabbi as its source, but there is some specific dating evidence for the explanation. Some scholars have high confidence that the content of Sifre Deuteronomy is highly characterized by the teachings of Rabbi Akiva who lived between 50 and 135 AD. The many rabbis named directly in Sifre Deuteronomy are all known to be associated with the school of Akiva. There are many other unique characteristics of the content of Sifre Deuteronomy which give it associations with the teachings of Rabbi Akiva. The Babylonian Talmud even directly states in Sanhedrin 86a that those scriptural interpretations found in Sifre Deuteronomy which are not attributed to a particular rabbi by name in Sifre Deuteronomy are the work of Rabbi Shimon whose teachings are all according to the views of Rabbi Akiva. (Grossfeld, 1990, Vol. 6, pg. 33 main text and note 22) Rabbi Shimon is also known as Rabbi Simeon. The quote from the Babylonian Talmud is here:

"and an unattributed baraita in the Sifrei is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Shimon. And all of these are in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Akiva, as all the Sages mentioned were his disciples. Therefore, it is unlikely that an unattributed baraita from the Sifrei would run counter to the opinion of Rabbi Shimon." (KTB, 2017, Vol. 30, Sanhedrin 86a)

The word "Baraita" in the Babylonian Talmud quote above is used to refer to the individual scriptural interpretations found in the Sifre. Sifre Deuteronomy's explanation of "the world to come" is found distributed in several of the "unattributed baraita" which are mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud above as being according to the teachings of Rabbi Shimon whose teachings were in turn according to Rabbi Akiva who lived between 50 and 135 AD. So we have some significant evidence pointing to that idea that the explanation of the "world to come" found in Sifre Deuteronomy may be a very ancient concept which has high relevance for explaining the second death in the Targums and in the New Testament. Counterbalancing this significant evidence is the fact that there is scholarly support for the idea that the completion of the writing and editing of Sifre Deuteronomy took place in the mid to late 3rd century AD (Fraade, 2011, pg. 173 note 8, pg. 420 | Hammer, 1986, pgs. 1 to 2). This might mean that there is some chance that some of its content is characteristic of 2nd or 3rd century scriptural interpretations which would have less relevance to understanding Targums Onkelos and Jonathan and the New Testament. Regardless, Sifre Deuteronomy is obviously a worthwhile place to look for information which may help us to understand the second death in the Targums and in the book of Revelation.

In Piska 31 of Sifre Deuteronomy the ancient rabbi writes:

"Another interpretation: The Lord, our God, over us (the children of Israel); the Lord is one, over all the creatures of the world. the Lord, our God, in this world; the Lord is one, in the world to come, as it is said, The Lord shall be king over all the earth. In that day shall the Lord be one and His name one (Zech. 14:9)." (Hammer, 1986, pg. 59)

As you can see in the Sifre quote above, the ancient rabbi defines "the world to come" as being the world which exists at the time of the fulfillment of the quoted Zechariah 14:9 prophecy in italicized print. The Zechariah 14:9 prophecy is describing the new world after God has made it new after the second coming of Jesus and/or after all the events of the book of Revelation have taken place. So the rabbi in the Sifre is defining the "world to come" as the new world which God creates when God fulfills end times prophecy. Just one of the reasons we know that Zechariah 14:9 is describing the new world of fulfilled end times prophecy is due to the fact that Zechariah 14 describes a very special end times river which flows from Jerusalem after God comes to earth to rule his freshly renewed kingdom of peace and safety, praise the Lord God our Loving King! This end times river, or one like it, is seen in these places: at the end of the book of Revelation in the new heavens and the new earth, flowing from the new temple described in Ezekiel, and of course in Zechariah 14. See the passages below:

[Zechariah 14:8-12 WEB] 8 It will happen in that day, that living waters will go out from Jerusalem: half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea. It will be so in summer and in winter. 9 Yahweh will be King over all the earth. In that day Yahweh will be one, and his name one. 10 All the land will be made like the Arabah, from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and she will be lifted up, and will dwell in her place, from Benjamin’s gate to the place of the first gate, to the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses. 11 Men will dwell therein, and there will be no more curse; but Jerusalem will dwell safely. 12 This will be the plague with which Yahweh will strike all the peoples who have fought against Jerusalem: their flesh will consume away while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will consume away in their sockets, and their tongue will consume away in their mouth.

[Revelation 22:1-3 WEB] 1 He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2 in the middle of its street. On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 There will be no curse any more. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will serve him.

[Ezekiel 47:1, 7, 12 WEB] 1 He brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, waters flowed out from under the threshold of the house eastward, for the front of the house faced toward the east. The waters came down from underneath, from the right side of the house, on the south of the altar. ... 7 Now when I had returned, behold, on the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. ... 12 By the river on its bank, on this side and on that side, will grow every tree for food, whose leaf won’t wither, neither will its fruit fail. It will produce new fruit every month, because its waters issue out of the sanctuary. Its fruit will be for food, and its leaf for healing."

From these passages above and from the fact that the rabbi narrator of the Sifre quotes Zechariah 14:9, we can be confident that the rabbi narrator is referring to God's new world of fulfilled end times prophecy when he says "world to come". This characteristically end times definition of the "world to come" makes us ready to go to another place in Sifre Deuteronomy which indirectly defines the "second death" as simply not living in the end times "world to come". In Piska 347, the rabbi narrator of Sifre Deuteronomy is interpreting Deuteronomy 33:6 which is in the blessing Moses pronounces over Israel just before his death, right before the people of Israel enter the promised land. See the verse here:

[Deuteronomy 33:6 WEB] "Let Reuben live, and not die; Nor let his men be few."

The rabbi narrator of Sifre Deuteronomy says this below as his interpretation of the verse:

‘May Reuben live and not die’, but is he not dead already? So what does the teaching in the scriptural text ‘and not die’ intimate? For the World to Come! (Houtman, 2008, pg. 414)

As you can see our rabbi narrator assumes that by the time Moses pronounces his blessing over Israel, Reuben has long since died when Reuben entered Egypt under the rule of his brother Joseph. Following on from that, our rabbi narrator assumes that this means that Deuteronomy 33:6 must instead be calling for Reuben to reap the blessing of not dying a second time in the end times, "World to Come". (Houtman, 2008, pg. 413 to 414) Notice that the type of death our rabbi narrator is assuming is just death in the usual sense, just not being alive. There is no endless torment assumed in the way he is understanding what it means to "die". He recognizes Reuben as already being "dead" in the usual sense of not being alive, and then goes on to apply this same usual sense of "die" without further alteration or explanation to Reuben not dying a second time in the World to Come. Ahhh, but you will say that I am inserting the wording "second" death into our rabbi's comments where it really does not appear. To that I will say the insertion may have already been done for us without me cheating on any rules of fairness. Look at Targum Onkelos of Deuteronomy 33:6 again below compared with the actual verse from the Hebrew Old Testament:

[Deuteronomy 33:6 Targum Onkelos] May Reuben live an everlasting life and not die a second death, and may his descendants receive their inherited possession according to their number. (Grossfeld, 1988, Vol. 9, pg. 104)

[Deuteronomy 33:6 WEB] "Let Reuben live, and not die; Nor let his men be few."

As you can see by the verse comparison above, the Targum translator of Targum Onkelos of Deuteronomy seems to have the same understanding of Deuteronomy 33:6 as the rabbi narrator of Sifre Deuteronomy. The rabbi narrator of the Sifre and the Targum translator both seem to interpret Deuteronomy 33:6 as just a simple call for Reuben to receive the blessing of not dying a second time in the usual sense of just plain old death in the end times world to come. The Targum translator calls for Reuben to have "everlasting life" which he clearly describes as being the opposite of a "second death". No endless torment is in his translation or interpretive additions. The rabbi narrator of the Sifre does the same thing, just clearly assuming by the wording of his interpretation, that he believes Deuteronomy 33:6 is just a blessed call for Reuben to not die another death which is just the same as Reuben's plain old simple first death. He makes absolutely zero distinction between Reuben's plain old simple first death and the death in the world to come which he believes the Deuteronomy 33:6 blessing is calling for Reuben to not experience. His interpretation describes no endless torment. You might say though that the "second death" described by the Targum Deuteronomy translator and not dying in the "world to come" described by the rabbi narrator of Sifre Deuteronomy don't appear related enough to confidently exhibit a unified meaning of the second death which can be understood to appear in both the Sifre and the Targum. This is where circling back to look again at Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah 51:39, 57 can give us some additional confidence that the rabbi narrator of Sifre Deuteronomy 33:6 and the Targum translator of Targum Jonathan of Deuteronomy 33:6 are describing the same concept of the second death. The Targum translator of Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah 51:39, 57 unifies the phrases "world to come" seen in Sifre Deuteronomy and "second death" seen in Targum Deuteronomy into one single description with one single meaning. This helps to demonstrate further that Sifre Deuteronomy and Targum Deuteronomy are both defining the second death in the same way. This single meaning, as you can see directly in the wording of Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah 51:39, 57 below, has the same face value, easy to understand meaning as we just saw in Sifre Deuteronomy and Targum Deuteronomy:

[Jeremiah 51:39, 57 Targum Jonathan] 39 Bring distress upon them, and they shall be like drunken men, so that they shall not be strong; and they shall die the second death, and shall not live for the world to come, says the Lord. ... 57 And I will make her princes and her wise men drunk, her governors and her tyrants and her mighty men; and they shall die the second death and not live for the world to come." says the King; the Lord of Hosts is his Name. (Hayward, 1987, Vol. 12, pgs. 187 to 189)

The "second death" is simply not being alive in ancient Jewish theology! No endless torment is described! Circling back again to see a reminder of what it is that the Jeremiah Targum translator above may be translating from the Hebrew drives the point home even further:

[Jeremiah 51:39, 57 WEB Hebrew] 39 When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up, " says Yahweh. ... 57 I will make her princes, her wise men, her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men drunk. They will sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up," says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies.

So the Jeremiah Targum translator above is using phrases to describe not living in the world to come, which are elsewhere used to also describe not living in the world to come, to translate a Hebrew scripture which describes never having consciousness again. Does that in any sense add up to endless torment? On the contrary, it demonstrates that several very old Jewish theological works which contain content that dates as far back as the 1st century AD or even before, all agree together that the concept of the "second death" is just that: death, not being alive, not being conscious ever again, an endless irrecoverable dirt nap. Is this the concept of the "second death" that John was using in the book of Revelation? As you may recall from some of our previous discussion, Targum Onkelos of Deuteronomy, Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah, and Sifre Deuteronomy all were produced with a prolonged development which has instilled them with some content which very likely originates from before the writing of Revelation and some content which came later. So the question still stands to be researched and answered in more detail using more in depth literary dating analysis, "Do they contain the same concept of the second death used by John in the book of Revelation, or do they define the second death in an altered way that dates to some time long after the writing of the book of Revelation?" Does the concept of the second death that they contain match other biblical passages? See again below:

[Matthew 10:28 WEB] Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

[Isaiah 26:14, 19 NASB20] 14 The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise; Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, And You have eliminated all remembrance of them. ... 19 Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.

As we can see there is a consistency for the meaning of the second death across all the ancient documents, Sifre Deuteronomy, Targum Onkelos of Deuteronomy, and Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah. In all of Targums Onkelos and Jonathan, the second death only appears three more times in addition to the three instances we've already just analyzed for interpretation. One of these three additional appearances of the second death is somewhat ambiguous, but still does nothing to contradict the definition of the second death that we've seen already in Sifre Deuteronomy, Targum Onkelos of Deuteronomy, and Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah. The other two appearances of the second death are a strong additional support to the definition of the second death that we've already seen in Sifre Deuteronomy, Targum Onkelos of Deuteronomy, and Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah. One of the three additional appearances of the second death occurs in Isaiah 22 where we see a tragic account of rebellious Israelites who are trapped in Jerusalem under siege by a foreign army as a judgment by God for their sinfulness. In spite of this, they still refuse to repent of their sin, and instead they decide to party like it's 1999 inside Jerusalem until they are killed by their enemies. See below their idiotic response to God's call for repentance:

[Isaiah 22:12-14 WEB] 12 In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth; 13 and behold, joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: "Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die." 14 Yahweh of Armies revealed himself in my ears, "Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die," says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.

The Targum Jonathan translator of Isaiah 22 seems to fashion his version of this passage above in such a way as if to say, "Sure you can die your first death and you'll escape your current terrible situation in relative ease, but you won't get off so light. You won't be squared away with God until you die a second time." Take a look at the Targum Jonathan version of the pronouncement against the rebels:

[Isaiah 22:12-14 Targum Jonathan] 12 And the prophet of the Lord God of hosts called on that day for weeping and mourning, and for shearing of head and girding with sackcloths; 13 and behold, joy and gladness; they say, "Let us slay oxen and slaughter sheep, eat flesh and drink wine. Let us eat and drink, since we will die and not live." 14 The prophet said, With my ears I was hearing when this was decreed before the LORD God of hosts: "Surely this sin will not be forgiven you until you die the second death," says the LORD God of hosts. (Chilton, 1990, Vol. 11, pgs. 43 to 44)

If analyzed in total isolation, there is of course nothing in the Targum passage above which would very forcibly prevent someone from assuming that the meaning of the second death seen in it is altogether different from the meaning of the second death as I have already shown it in Sifre Deuteronomy, Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah, and Targum Onkelos of Deuteronomy. The passage is not so incredibly descriptive that it communicates a full and detailed definition of the second death on its own. In spite of that, the point that I would like to make here is that the definition of the second death that I have previously shown being used in Sifre Deuteronomy, Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah, and Targum Onkelos of Deuteronomy fits perfectly into Targum Jonathan of Isaiah 22:12-14 above without contradicting anything in it. The definition of the second death as it is found in Sifre Deuteronomy, Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah, and Targum Onkelos of Deuteronomy also generally fits perfectly into the broader context of the whole of Isaiah 22 without creating any contradictions. If the argument of the rebellious Israelites who were under siege in Isaiah 22 was, "We're going to get off light for our rebellion. We're just going to easily die in the usual sense after a big party and take the easy way out.", would it have made sense for the Targum translator just to fashion his interpretive version in a way that just goes right along with their easy escape plan: "Ok your sin is such a reprehensible affront to God that he'll require you to pay for what you're doing by taking the easy way out. You'll at least have to take the easy way out with a big party and die the first time in the usual easy sense in order to pay the heavy price which is a fitting punishment for your terrible offense to God." No, it makes more sense that the Targum translator would recognize an interpretation which would demolish their flimsy argument by showing that they would only find a way out of this mess which would be very hard for them. They would not escape God's judgment just by going through a big easy party and then an easy and simple first death in the usual sense. They would easily die the first time during the siege in the usual sense and then also have to later experience the terrible fate of God's final judgment of the second death which would ultimately cause them to never live again. Even the words which the Targum translator has chosen not to insert into the passage may support the understanding that I have just described. In the passage it very much appears that he recognizes the simple first death/deprivation of life in the passage that is desired by the rebels in the siege, and then very conspicuously, without any insertion of any redefinition or alterations, assumptively inserts another death almost just like it further on in the timeline as occurring a second time to the rebels. The second death though, will permanently deprive them of life in the world to come. He very conspicuously doesn't insert any additional description of endless torment. His choice to not offer any additional description of the second death which would redefine it as not being a simple deprivation of life seems like a clear message to his audience to assume that the second death is also a simple deprivation of life just as the first death of the rebels is in the passage. If the second death meant endless torment in the mind of the Targum translator, wouldn't the Targum translator have altered the passage to be something more like, "Hey you guys aren't gonna get off light by dying in the siege. You are gonna be burned alive for trillions of years!" If the Targum translator believed that the second death meant that something like this would be coming for the rebels in the siege, wouldn't he have added something more into the passage to that effect instead of just using the word "death" to describe their second future fate? If the Targum translator believed that the second death meant that trillions of years of torment would also be coming for his readers who rebel against God in the future, wouldn't he have said something instead of just using the word "death" to describe their future fate? Why would the Targum translator use a word, "death", which he knew his audience all understood as just not being alive to warn them of trillions of years of consciously burning alive? It seems he would definitely have wanted to add an extra word or two, especially considering that the concept of death in the Isaiah 22 passage is already, with 100% confidence, being used as just simple deprivation of life, only a few words before the place in the passage where the Targum translator has inserted "second death". The death of the rebels in the siege is, with 100% confidence, just simple deprivation of life. So would the Targum translator expect his readers to see the concept of "death" in the siege being used as just the simple deprivation of life, and then without any further reason or explanation from their narrator just change their understanding of "death" to be trillions of years of torment just a few words further in the narrative? It seems very unlikely.

So assuming that the Targum translator in Isaiah 22:14 is using the definition of the second death that we saw back in Sifre Deuteronomy, Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah, and Targum Onkelos of Deuteronomy fits the passage well. It even seems likely that in his reading of the Hebrew of Isaiah 22:14, the Targum translator recognized the same mismatch of an easy punishment for a terrible offense that I have described. In other words, he saw something like this in the Hebrew of Isaiah 22:14, "Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die", and he genuinely concluded, "This simply cannot be referring to just the first death in the usual sense. That would just be the easy way out that the rebels wanted. This must be referring to a future more fitting punishment, to die the second death and not live in the world to come." If this was the thought process that the Targum translator used to conclude that he needed to put the "second death" into his version, was his interpretation of the verse correct? It seems to match the overall theology of the Bible quite well. Sinners who reject God aren't squared away with him until they pay the final price of the second death in Gehenna/hell. The first death does nothing to clear the debt. Without the blood of the Precious Lamb they must be their own sacrifice and be punished, then die a second time in Gehenna/hell before their account with our Holy God is settled. In the Targum Jonathan of Isaiah 65 group of verses quoted below we may even see some parts of this reflected in the remaining two instances of the second death that we have not yet interpreted. As you can see, the second death involves judgment on people's bodies. It is Gehenna/hell, and while it may last for some time, "all the day", "while they live", it ultimately results in being slain, not endlessly tormented:

[Isaiah 65:3-6, 14-17 Targum Jonathan] 3 a people who incite to anger against my Memra before me continually, sacrificing in your gardens of the idols and offering up spices upon bricks; 4 who sit in the houses they build from the dust of tombs, and reside with the corpses of the sons of men; who eat swine’s flesh, and abominable broth is in their vessels; 5 who say, "Get behind, do not come near me, for I am more clean than you." These, their anger is as smoke before me, their retribution is in Gehenna where the fire burns all the day. 6 Behold, it is written before me: "I will not give them respite while they live, but theirs is the retribution of their sins; I will hand over their bodies to the second death. ... 14 behold, my servants, the righteous, shall sing from goodness of heart, but you shall cry from pain of heart, and shall wail from breaking of spirit. 15 You shall leave your name to my chosen for an oath, and the LORD God will slay you with the second death; but his servants, the righteous, he will call by a different name. 16 He who blesses in the land shall bless by the living God, and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the living God; because the former troubles shall be forgotten and hid from before me. 17 For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former thing shall not be remembered or be brought into mind. (Chilton, 1990, Vol. 11, pgs. 123 to 124)

Look below at the content from the Hebrew Bible that has been labeled the "second death" in the Targum above:

[Isaiah 65:14-17 WEB] 14 Behold, my servants will sing for joy of heart, but you will cry for sorrow of heart, and will wail for anguish of spirit. 15 You will leave your name for a curse to my chosen; and the Lord Yahweh will kill you. He will call his servants by another name, 16 so that he who blesses himself in the earth will bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth will swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from my eyes. 17 "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered, nor come into mind.

Does the Hebrew Bible content of Isaiah 65 above look anything like the "world to come" which Targum theology says that the "second death" will deny access to, "not live in the world to come"? It seems that even in the Hebrew Bible version of Isaiah 65 above, we have a slaying that looks as if it is excluding people from the world to come, or also known as, "the new heavens and the new earth". When we take in a little more of the context from the Hebrew Bible above describing what it was that the Targum translator was translating from the Hebrew, it's obvious why the Targum translator inserted the second death into Isaiah 65. In the Hebrew of Isaiah 65 above it very much looks to be describing the new world to come and a slaying from God that will exclude the wicked from it. This is precisely what the Targum translator would have recognized as the second death in the framework of the Targum theology of the second death that we have already looked at. Whether we read Isaiah 65 in the Targum or in the Hebrew Bible, we can see the underlying concept of the wicked not living in the world to come, especially if we recognize that the second death is not living in the world to come in Targum theology. The scribes of the Dead Sea scrolls also seem to witness to the same concept. According to the version of Isaiah they had, back well before the time of Christ, the wicked will, "die permanently". Take a look at how the slaying is described in Isaiah 65 in the great Isaiah scroll below from the Dead Sea scrolls:

[Isaiah 65:14-17 DSSB] 14 my servants will sing in gladness of heart, but you will lament from anguish of heart, and will wail from brokenness of spirit. 15 You will leave your name for my chosen ones to use as a curse, and the Lord God will put you to death permanently. 16 Then whoever takes an oath by the God of faithfulness, and whoever takes an oath in the land, will swear by the God of faithfulness; for the former troubles are forgotten and are hidden from my eyes. 17 For see, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.

Does that sound familiar? Here it is again:

[Isaiah 26:14 NASB20] The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise; Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, And You have eliminated all remembrance of them.

Once we see the context of Isaiah 65:14-17 from the Dead Sea scrolls far above compared with the Isaiah 26:14 verse above, should we think that both passages are talking about the same thing? There's a lot of not remembering and a lot of what looks to be permanent irreversible dirt napping in both passages huh? Could this mean that they are both describing a total and complete death of both the body and soul?

So now you have seen that in all of the total of six times that the "second death" is mentioned in some of the oldest Targums we have (Jonathan and Onkelos), it can very soundly be interpreted as just a final death which results in just not being alive in the future blessed world which God has in store for us. Targums Jonathan and Onkelos contain many concepts and phrases from the first century AD or even before, right around the time of the writing of Revelation. Their definition of the second death is consistent throughout. Is this consistent definition a product of the later second phase of Amoraic editing of these Targums and Sifre Deuteronomy in Babylonia well after the writing of the book of Revelation, or is it the pre-Christian Targum definition that John was assuming his audience knew from before Revelation was written? As I mentioned before, I will punt and invite others to unscramble this scrambled egg of a question, but I will point out that the Bible is overflowing with the same concept of the second death that we see in these Targums Onkelos and Jonathan. Not being saved results in just death, not eternal, immortal life and never-ending torment in a non-preferred location called hell:

[John 3:16 WEB] For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

[2 Timothy 1: 10 WEB] but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News.

Considering verses like the two above and the dozens of others like them throughout the Bible, is it likely that John in Revelation is pointing to the concept of the second death, "not living in the world to come", that we see presently installed in Targums Jonathan and Onkelos?

When you read the Targum Jonathan of Isaiah 65 group of verses that I showed far above did you notice any familiar grouping of concepts or words regarding hell that we have already discussed? Look at the underlined boldened words in the Targum Jonathan of Isaiah 65 group of verses again below compared with Revelation 14:10-11 shown below it:

[Isaiah 65:3-6, 14-15 Targum Jonathan] 3 a people who incite to anger against my Memra before me continually, sacrificing in your gardens of the idols and offering up spices upon bricks; 4 who sit in the houses they build from the dust of tombs, and reside with the corpses of the sons of men; who eat swine’s flesh, and abominable broth is in their vessels; 5 who say, "Get behind, do not come near me, for I am more clean than you." These, their anger is as smoke before me, their retribution is in Gehenna where the fire burns all the day. 6 Behold, it is written before me: "I will not give them respite while they live, but theirs is the retribution of their sins; I will hand over their bodies to the second death. ... 14 behold, my servants, the righteous, shall sing from goodness of heart, but you shall cry from pain of heart, and shall wail from breaking of spirit. 15 You shall leave your name to my chosen for an oath, and the LORD God will slay you with the second death; but his servants, the righteous, he will call by a different name. (Chilton, 1990, Vol. 11, pgs. 123 to 124)

[Revelation 14:10-11 NASB20] 10 he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 "And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name. "

As you can see, the smoke, prolonged fire, naming, and deprivation of rest or respite from those being judged create what may be a strong connection directly between Targum Jonathan of Isaiah 65 and Revelation 14:10-11. Of course we can also generally see additional indirect connections between Targum Jonathan of Isaiah 65 and Revelation 14:10-11 by recalling the numerous connections that Revelation 14:10-11 otherwise has throughout the Bible with Gehenna, the lake of fire, dead bodies in Gehenna, the second death, and the slaying of the wicked. As I showed at the beginning of chapter 2, starting on page 10, Revelation 14:10-11 with its fire and brimstone is the "lake of fire" which is mentioned in Revelation 20. I also showed near the middle of chapter 4, starting on page 71, that Gehenna is the "lake of fire". Revelation 20 names the "lake of fire" as being the "second death". Jesus says the wicked will be destroyed body and soul in Gehenna in Matthew 10:28. Jesus himself describes Gehenna as being full of dead bodies by pointing to its description to that effect at the end of Isaiah 66 when he uses the phrase, "where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched", which is also found in Isaiah 66. With all of these things called back to mind, it's possible to recognize that Targum Jonathan of Isaiah 65 far above is full of the biblical language of hell (Gehenna, smoke, no respite, second death, fire, bodies, slaying) found directly in Revelation 14:10-11 and in its closely associated passages found elsewhere in the Bible.

Look again at Targum Jonathan of Isaiah 65 shown far above and pay close attention to how the theme of not giving the wicked "respite" is being used. They are not given "respite", "while they live", but then in verse 15 they are slain. We could very reasonably understand this to mean that their deprivation of rest/"respite" only lasts until they are slain in verse 15, and in no way shape or form means that their deprivation of rest is endless for eternity. This understanding may be a more detailed explanation of the deprivation of rest found in Revelation 14:11 that John intended for his audience to call to mind from the Targums. This may describe a punishment of finite length which is then followed by just a second death, which is a simple deprivation of life, body and soul. Here it is again:

[Isaiah 26:14 NASB20] The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise; Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, And You have eliminated all remembrance of them.

So with this in view, the traditionalist interpretation of Revelation 14:11 which understands that the wicked are there writhing in torment for trillions of years with no rest, altogether may not match the background that John may have been directly referencing in the Targums.

Let's ignore the Targums for just a minute and use only Revelation and the Hebrew Bible version of Isaiah 65 to test this theory that John is pointing to Isaiah 65 in Revelation in order to describe just simple death, deprivation of life, not never ending torment. First, take a look at Revelation 2:17 below:

[Revelation 2:17 WEB] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.

Where is John pointing to with this phrase "new name" in Revelation 2:17 above? You probably guessed right. This is very likely also a pointer to the Masoretic Hebrew version of Isaiah 65 which also describes the giving of a new name which is a very obvious antonym to just being simply plain old killed and deprived of life in the new world to come. See here:

[Isaiah 65:15-17 WEB] 15 You will leave your name for a curse to my chosen; and the Lord Yahweh will kill you. He will call his servants by another name, 16 so that he who blesses himself in the earth will bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth will swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from my eyes. 17 "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered, nor come into mind.

Is Revelation 2:17 really pointing to the simple deprivation of life found in this Hebrew version of Isaiah 65 above though? The only thing connecting Revelation 2:17 and this Isaiah 65 passage above is just a brief little concept of receiving a new name. What if we could find another reference directly in Revelation 2:17 which points to a simple concept of death as just deprivation of life? Would this make it more likely that the new name in Revelation 2:17 is pointing to just simple death? Of course it would, and that is exactly what we can find again in the passage. All we need to do is think back to Sunday school and recall what role manna played when the Israelites were wandering in the desert. Manna just kept the Israelites from being dead in the usual sense, not tormented for eternity. And yet here we see the concept being called upon in Revelation 2:17:

[Revelation 2:17 WEB] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.

I know you might think that this pointer to manna in Revelation 2:17 above might be a little too vague to conclude that Revelation 2:17 is describing just simple death by using "manna", but look at how John combines the "white stone" and the "new name" together. What is this "white stone"? We have at least one likely answer if we look at how manna is described in the Septuagint, which many in John's ancient audience of Revelation would very likely have been familiar with:

[Numbers 11:7 NETS Septuagint] Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance was the appearance of rock-crystal.

For a little more confidence in the translation we can see that the Lexham English Septuagint below has the same translation as the New English Translation of the Septuagint above:

[Numbers 11:7 LES2 Septuagint] Now the manna is like coriander seed, and its appearance is the appearance of rock crystal.

Further, we can see in the Hebrew Bible version of Exodus that manna was white:

[Exodus 16:31 WEB] The house of Israel called its name "Manna", and it was like coriander seed, white; and its taste was like wafers with honey.

The Babylonian Talmud, in Yoma 75a, describes manna as being white just as Exodus 16 above does:

"Rabbi Asi said: The manna was round like coriander seed but white like a pearl." (KTB, 2013, Vol. 9, Yoma 75a)

Famous Greek scholar G.K. Beale in the 1999 Revelation volume of The New International Greek Testament Commentary on page 253 affirms the connection between the "white stone" in Revelation 2:17 and the manna in the Septuagint that I have just described. We even see that in the Septuagint of Isaiah 65, the same Greek words for "new name", "ὄνομα καινὸν" are used as in Revelation 2:17 for the "new name" written on the white manna stone. Of course, this creates an even stronger connection between Revelation 2:17 and Isaiah 65:15. See the Septuagint passage here below in two different translations to show some of the additional nuances of meaning:

[Isaiah 65:15 LES1 Septuagint] For you will leave your name behind as satisfaction for my elect, but the Lord will destroy you. And a new name will be proclaimed over those who serve me,

[Isaiah 65:15 NETS Septuagint] For you shall leave your name for fullness to my chosen ones, but the Lord will do away with you. But to those who are subject to him, a new name shall be called,

Bear in mind that the Septuagint verse above is very likely using "destroy you" or "do away with you" to translate something like, "put you to death permanently" from the Dead Sea scrolls version of Isaiah 65:15, or possibly something like, "will kill you" from the Hebrew Masoretic text of Isaiah 65:15. So "destroy you" or "do away with you" in the Septuagint translations of Isaiah 65:15 above can be very reasonably seen as also describing just simple death, the deprivation of life; which not so coincidentally is what would also happen to an Israelite wandering 40 years in the desert if they did not eat the white stone manna provided by God. The Greek word being translated as "destroy you" or "do away with you" in the two Septuagint translations of Isaiah 65:15 above is translated by the 1995 edition of the New American Standard Bible in 20 of its total of 23 occurrences in the New Testament with several different words which all mean killing. The 1995 edition of the New American Standard Bible translates it these 20 of 23 times as: "executed, kill, killed, put to death, slain, slay, slaying, and slew". The King James Version takes the same approach, translating the word in 20 of its total of 23 occurrences in the New Testament with words which denote killing. The King James Version uses "kill, slay, or put to death" to translate it. So we can very reasonably recognize that "destroy you" or "do away with you" in the two Septuagint translations of Isaiah 65:15 that I show above very likely should have just been translated as something like, "kill you", just as it is in the translations of the Targum and the Hebrew Bible that I previously showed. Recall that in the Targum translation of Isaiah 65:15 it is ranslated as, "slay you" and in the translation of the Hebrew of Isaiah 65:15 it is translated as, "kill you".

So it could be that John is combining the image of the manna as a white stone with the theme of the new name to create a description which is twice pronouncing itself to be the opposite of just simple death, deprivation of life, not endless torment. Your new name, which means just not dying, is written on your white piece of manna stone, which is also equivalent to just not dying from starvation as you wander in the desert, and then this double antonym to simple deprivation of life is associated with the phrase, "To him who overcomes" in Revelation 2:17 which points us back to Revelation 2:11 where we see the overcomers mentioned again as being spared from the second death. See the overcomer connection between Revelation 2:17 and Revelation 2:11 below:

[Revelation 2:17 WEB] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.

[Revelation 2:11 WEB] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. He who overcomes won’t be harmed by the second death.

Of course, the second death in Revelation 2:11 above may be referring to Targum Jonathan of Isaiah 65 where, as we've already seen, the second death is defined as a simple deprivation of life, being slain, after a period of no rest/respite, "all the day", "while they live". When we are deciding whether or not we believe that Revelation 2:11 & 17 above are pointing to the simple deprivation of life described by the second death in Targum Jonathan of Isaiah 65, it's important to remember that the ears to hear that are mentioned in Revelation 2:11 & 17 above are also a Targum theme found in the same Targum book of Isaiah. See here again:

[Isaiah 22:14 Targum Jonathan] The prophet said, With my ears I was hearing when this was decreed before the LORD God of hosts: "Surely this sin will not be forgiven you until you die the second death," says the LORD God of hosts. (Chilton, 1990, Vol. 11, pg. 44)

So Revelation 2:17 may be directly and indirectly referencing descriptions of a simple deprivation of life a total of three times. This is typical of John though. Why say something once when you can say it over and over and over again, so that your users of the Hebrew Bible get it, your listeners of the Aramaic Targums get it, and your users of the Septuagint get it? As you may have noticed, I've just now given enough evidence to show that John may be describing a simple deprivation of life in Revelation 2:11 & 17 by pointing to content from all three of these ancient versions of the Old Testament. The manna and the new name point to a simple deprivation of life in the Hebrew Bible, the white stone manna with a new name on it points to a simple deprivation of life in the Septuagint, and the second death with the ears that hear may point to a simple deprivation of life, a slaying, in the Targums. I think it's safe to assume that it was clear to John's ancient audience what John was laying down: overcomers live, the wicked just die and are simply deprived of life. They aren't tormented endlessly. They are as follows: put to death permanently, killed by Yahweh, do not live in the world to come, die the second death, slain.

For one more very likely pointing reference made by John with the odd and extremely rare word construction "αἰῶνας αἰώνων", "ages ages" in Revelation 14:11, we should look at some verses from Psalm 37 below. This pointing reference provides yet another hard stop for the duration of punishment in Revelation. Psalm 37 in the Septuagint has two instances of the rare word construction found in Revelation 14:11. As I described before, this reveals to us that John is very likely also pointing to Psalm 37. Do the verses shown below from Psalm 37 look as if they are compatible with a literal interpretation of Revelation 14:11, "The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night"? Do you see any resting or smoke in Psalm 37 below, the same as Revelation 14:11? Is this just a coincidence? In Psalm 37 below, the wicked are "no more". Does that sound like the fate of Babylon being "no more" in Revelation 18 & 19 of which it is also said "smoke goes up forever and ever"?

[Psalm 37:7, 9-10, 20, 22, 27-29, 34-36, 38 NASB20] 7 Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him; Do not get upset because of one who is successful in his way, Because of the person who carries out wicked schemes. ... 9 For evildoers will be eliminated, But those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land. 10 Yet a little while and the wicked person will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there. ... 20 But the wicked will perish; And the enemies of the LORD will be like the glory of the pastures, They vanish-- like smoke they vanish away. ... 22 For those blessed by Him will inherit the land, But those cursed by Him will be eliminated. ... 27 Turn from evil and do good, So that you will dwell forever. 28 For the LORD loves justice And does not abandon His godly ones; They are protected forever, But the descendants of the wicked will be eliminated. 29 The righteous will inherit the land And dwell in it forever. ... 34 Wait for the LORD and keep His way, And He will exalt you to inherit the land; When the wicked are eliminated, you will see it. 35 I have seen a wicked, violent person Spreading himself like a luxuriant tree in its native soil. 36 Then he passed away, and behold, he was no more; I searched for him, but he could not be found. ... 38 But wrongdoers will altogether be destroyed; The future of the wicked will be eliminated.

Considering the content of Psalm 37 above, I would say it is much more likely that Revelation 14:11 and its smoke going up "forever and ever" is simply using nonliteral sacrifice symbolism to communicate concepts, just as in Isaiah 34 for Edom and in Revelation 18 & 19 concerning Babylon. Does the smoke literally go up forever and ever from the destruction of Babylon and Edom in Isaiah 34 and Revelation 18 & 19? No it doesn't. Animals don't live in flames, and just as in Isaiah 34 for Edom, the animals ultimately take up residence in a place that is not burning where Babylon used to be but is "no more". See the critters moving into the place where Babylon was after it literally has stopped smoking, here again below:

[Revelation 18:21 WEB] A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down, and will be found no more at all.

[Jeremiah 51:37 NASB20] 37 "Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, An object of horror and hissing, without inhabitants.

[Revelation 18:2 NASB20] 2 And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.

[Isaiah 13:19-22 NASB20] 19 And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans' pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 20 It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there, Nor will shepherds allow their flocks to lie down there. 21 But desert creatures will lie down there, And their houses will be full of owls; Ostriches also will live there, and shaggy goats will frolic there. 22 Hyenas will howl in their fortified towers And jackals in their luxurious palaces. Her fateful time also will soon come, And her days will not be prolonged.

Recall from our previous extensive discussion in Chapter 5, pages 91 to 95, that Jeremiah 51 above is a parallel prophecy which is repeatedly connected by shared phraseology to the destruction of Babylon in Revelation, so its description of animals taking over the former site of Babylon is just as applicable to the final end of Babylon as Revelation 18 is. Additionally, we can see by reading all of Isaiah 13 and 14 that the few verses I show from Isaiah 13 above are sandwiched in between end times verses coming just before them and then more end times verses coming just after them in the highly related Isaiah chapter 14. So the Isaiah 13 passage above and its animal zoo remnants of Babylon is highly related to the destruction of Babylon in both Revelation 18-19 and Jeremiah 51. We might be tempted to think that the Isaiah 13 passage above is only about the historical attack on Babylon by the Medes as Isaiah 13:17-18 might persuade us. In contradiction to this, history shows that when king Darius the Mede conquered the city of Babylon as the Bible describes, ultimately bringing the Babylonian kingdom to its past historical end, he did not destroy it. He left the city standing, and it stood for long after that. This gives us more motivation to see Isaiah 13 and 14 as pertaining to an end times destruction of Babylon, and not only just an attack from a historical enemy. Jeremiah 51 also mentions the Medes just like Isaiah 13, and yet this does not prevent Revelation from pointing to Jeremiah 51 repeatedly as end times prophecy. This demonstrates that Isaiah 13 can operate in the same style as Jeremiah 51, having what could be a mix of future prophetic and historically fulfilled content.

So Revelation 14:11, using the rare word construction "αἰῶνας αἰώνων", "ages ages" to point to Psalm 37 seems to provide yet another intentional hard stop for the duration of the torment of the wicked in Revelation. This provides us with even more motivation to understand the phrases like "The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night" in Revelation 14:11; 19:3; and 20:10 as nonliteral symbolism or having some other conditionalist interpretation.

---

---