21:11–12 After hearing the prophet’s vision in verses 1–10, the prophet’s hearers might immediately be struck by verse 11a as having a double reference. Dumah is an oasis near Babylon which, like Babylon, was subject to Assyrian attack in the eighth century and would itself be concerned about Babylon’s fate. The region also experienced Babylonian invasion and withdrawal in the sixth century, not long before Babylon fell. But oracles can be allusive and symbolic, and dumah is also a Hebrew word for silence (see NIV mg.). Both other times this word occurs in the OT, it refers to the silence of death (Ps. 94:17; 115:1…