If I was going to be flippant, I might say that 54:1-17 is the equivalent to “and they lived happily ever after,” or perhaps less flippantly, the equivalent of a tough parent saying “yes, I’ve been angry and tough with you and had to punish you but I will be different from now on.” Flippancy aside, this section does have the tone of reassurance, the tone of someone who has been through an ordeal being told that the worse is over, a new happy chapter has begun.
The beginning of the section – 54:1:
Sing out, you barren woman, who has borne no child;
break out in shouts of joy, you who have never been in labor;
for the children of the wife that was abandoned
will outnumber those of the wife with a husband.
– begins with an image and metaphor that hearkens back to the founding of the covenant with Israel. This could have been words spoken to Abraham and Sarah, who did not bear a child until old age. And in fact, Abraham and Sarah are mentioned in 51:2:
Look to Abraham your father
and to Sarah who gave you birth.
When I called him he was but one,
but I blessed him and made him many.
The image of a barren woman is probably one that is used frequently throughout the Hebrew Bible. The image is used somewhat similarly in Isaiah 49:21:
Who has begotten these children for me
when I was bereaved and barren,
exiled, cast aside...
Clearly, the overall message in the first part of 54 is that Israel will grow, proper and reproduce after years of baroness – i.e. captivity and oppression. However, on a symbolic level, this appears to be a new covenant, or a mirroring or renewal of the covenant begun with Abraham, when “a great nation,” to use the words of the Hebrew Bible, developed from a barren old couple because of their faith in Yahveh.
The “tent” metaphor that follows in 54:2 also expands on the theme of expansion and growth. It is an interesting metaphor and not one found previously in 2nd Isaiah.
Passages 54:9-10 relay that like the destruction of the earth by the flood, an event which Yahveh took an oath not to repeat, Yahveh swears a similar oath never to reject Israel again. The swearing of oaths and Yahveh giving his word recur throughout the second part of 54 – more specifically, it is mentioned three times in verses 9 – 17 and the section concludes with the proclamation: “A word of Yahveh.” In other words, the previous section has been an oath and promise by Yahveh.
54:11-17 indicates that the city of Jerusalem or perhaps the nation as a whole will be physically rebuilt. The most intriguing item in the latter part of 54 is the mention of “the Destroyer” (it would be helpful to know how this reads in the original Hebrew). What exactly is “the Destroyer” – the doomsday device from Dr. Strangelove?
Monday, April 27, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Isaiah 43:1-21
Isaiah 43:1-21
Isaiah 43:1-21 has many of the same motifs and themes found in the previous sections we have analyzed. However, unlike some of the passages of 2nd Isaiah, such as 40:1-8, 43:1-7 is clear regarding the speakers (if not always the audience). The omniscient prophet/narrator introduces Yahveh, the main speaker, placing the latter’s speech within quotes following the narrator’s introduction:
Now these are the words of Yahveh who created you, Jacob,
who formed you Israel:
Similar to many of the other passages we have discussed, 43:1-7, presents the pattern of, one, the special relationship between Yahveh and Israel; two, the uniqueness and omnipotence of Yahveh; third, the special status of Israel due to its relationship with Yahveh. With the narrator’s introduction, both Yahveh’s omnipotent power and special relationship with Israel are established simultaneous. Yahveh is powerful because he/she created Jacob and formed Israel and their relationship is special and unique because he/she is Israel’s creator.
The special status of Israel – because of Yahveh’s covenant – is developed in the lines that follow:
I have called you by name, you are mine.
If you cross over water, I am with you.
The other nations are secondary, according to Yahveh; they serve the needs of Israel:
I have set aside Egypt as your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in your stead,
...
Nations in exchange for your life.
Section 43:8-13 begins again with the prophet/narrator. This reader is not sure who the narrator’s audience is or who is referred to in verses 8-9. Obviously, it is a group who does not recognize the truth (of Yahveh):
the people who have eyes yet are blind,
who have ears yet are deaf.
For this reader, it is not clear if these are all the people of Israel or perhaps those in exile who prefer not to return to Palestine.
Starting with 43:10, Yahveh resumes as the speaker, emphasizing the uniqueness and the oneness of Yahveh, along with Israel’s special role as his/her servant. More so than any passage thus far in 2nd Isaih, 10-13 declares and emphasizes Yahveh as “the One” and only God:
Before me no god was formed,
and there will be none after me.
I, I am Yahveh;
there is none that can save but me.
I proclaimed salvation, I announced it;
this is no alien god in your midst.
The use of the double “I” in 11 emphasizes that the one who has saved Israel, who has freed her from foreign bondage, is Yahveh, not a foreign god (perhaps some exiles attributed their salvation to other gods? Those of Babylon perhaps.)
In 43:14 - 21, the narrator mirrors the troupe of the first part of 43, introducing Yahveh’s voice with the same introduction. As seen previously in 2nd Isaiah, the prophet places the events of the exile within Yahveh’s divine plan (though it is not clear to this reader who is referred to in the line: “to Babylon to lay low all those who flee”). The freedom from Babylonian bondage is placed within the context of one of the Hebrew Bible’s most powerful myths: the exodus from Egypt:
This is what Yahveh says,
he who cut a passage through the sea,
a track through the mighty waters
These lines, along with perhaps the earlier line about crossing over water, clearly echo the exodus and deliverance from Egypt. Yet, interestingly, Yahveh tells the reader to forget these past events:
Call no more to mind these past events
or ponder deeds done long ago,
I am about to do something new,
now it is unfolding;
do you not perceive it?
So even though these passages and the liberation of the Israelis from Babylon echo the exodus from Egypt, this is not simply a duplication of the formation of Israel; this is “something new,” according to Yahveh’s pronouncement. Within the context of these passages, it is not clear, however, what this “something new” is.
Interpreting Isaiah 43:1-21 within the possible context we have proposed in class – that some or many of the exiled community may not have wished to return to Israel due to Babylon’s material and cultural superiority – Isaiah 43:1-21 might be viewed as offering an ontological reason for the exiles to return to Jerusalem. If only Yahveh is “the One”– with no god before and none after; if only Yahveh offers salvation to Jacob, who is Yahveh’s servant, the question seems to be proposed: do you really want to reject this relationship, this unique covenant?
If 43:1-21 is the carrot, we might propose that the rest of 43 is the stick, or at least the explanation of the exile in the first place: Israel’s lack of devotion to Yahveh in addition to Israel’s sinfulness. To conclude, it seems possible that the purpose of this passage, along with the rest of 2nd Isaiah, serves the purpose of encouraging the exiles to return to Jerusalem, or at the least, to place catastrophic (and redemptive) events within a meaningful ontological context.
Isaiah 43:1-21 has many of the same motifs and themes found in the previous sections we have analyzed. However, unlike some of the passages of 2nd Isaiah, such as 40:1-8, 43:1-7 is clear regarding the speakers (if not always the audience). The omniscient prophet/narrator introduces Yahveh, the main speaker, placing the latter’s speech within quotes following the narrator’s introduction:
Now these are the words of Yahveh who created you, Jacob,
who formed you Israel:
Similar to many of the other passages we have discussed, 43:1-7, presents the pattern of, one, the special relationship between Yahveh and Israel; two, the uniqueness and omnipotence of Yahveh; third, the special status of Israel due to its relationship with Yahveh. With the narrator’s introduction, both Yahveh’s omnipotent power and special relationship with Israel are established simultaneous. Yahveh is powerful because he/she created Jacob and formed Israel and their relationship is special and unique because he/she is Israel’s creator.
The special status of Israel – because of Yahveh’s covenant – is developed in the lines that follow:
I have called you by name, you are mine.
If you cross over water, I am with you.
The other nations are secondary, according to Yahveh; they serve the needs of Israel:
I have set aside Egypt as your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in your stead,
...
Nations in exchange for your life.
Section 43:8-13 begins again with the prophet/narrator. This reader is not sure who the narrator’s audience is or who is referred to in verses 8-9. Obviously, it is a group who does not recognize the truth (of Yahveh):
the people who have eyes yet are blind,
who have ears yet are deaf.
For this reader, it is not clear if these are all the people of Israel or perhaps those in exile who prefer not to return to Palestine.
Starting with 43:10, Yahveh resumes as the speaker, emphasizing the uniqueness and the oneness of Yahveh, along with Israel’s special role as his/her servant. More so than any passage thus far in 2nd Isaih, 10-13 declares and emphasizes Yahveh as “the One” and only God:
Before me no god was formed,
and there will be none after me.
I, I am Yahveh;
there is none that can save but me.
I proclaimed salvation, I announced it;
this is no alien god in your midst.
The use of the double “I” in 11 emphasizes that the one who has saved Israel, who has freed her from foreign bondage, is Yahveh, not a foreign god (perhaps some exiles attributed their salvation to other gods? Those of Babylon perhaps.)
In 43:14 - 21, the narrator mirrors the troupe of the first part of 43, introducing Yahveh’s voice with the same introduction. As seen previously in 2nd Isaiah, the prophet places the events of the exile within Yahveh’s divine plan (though it is not clear to this reader who is referred to in the line: “to Babylon to lay low all those who flee”). The freedom from Babylonian bondage is placed within the context of one of the Hebrew Bible’s most powerful myths: the exodus from Egypt:
This is what Yahveh says,
he who cut a passage through the sea,
a track through the mighty waters
These lines, along with perhaps the earlier line about crossing over water, clearly echo the exodus and deliverance from Egypt. Yet, interestingly, Yahveh tells the reader to forget these past events:
Call no more to mind these past events
or ponder deeds done long ago,
I am about to do something new,
now it is unfolding;
do you not perceive it?
So even though these passages and the liberation of the Israelis from Babylon echo the exodus from Egypt, this is not simply a duplication of the formation of Israel; this is “something new,” according to Yahveh’s pronouncement. Within the context of these passages, it is not clear, however, what this “something new” is.
Interpreting Isaiah 43:1-21 within the possible context we have proposed in class – that some or many of the exiled community may not have wished to return to Israel due to Babylon’s material and cultural superiority – Isaiah 43:1-21 might be viewed as offering an ontological reason for the exiles to return to Jerusalem. If only Yahveh is “the One”– with no god before and none after; if only Yahveh offers salvation to Jacob, who is Yahveh’s servant, the question seems to be proposed: do you really want to reject this relationship, this unique covenant?
If 43:1-21 is the carrot, we might propose that the rest of 43 is the stick, or at least the explanation of the exile in the first place: Israel’s lack of devotion to Yahveh in addition to Israel’s sinfulness. To conclude, it seems possible that the purpose of this passage, along with the rest of 2nd Isaiah, serves the purpose of encouraging the exiles to return to Jerusalem, or at the least, to place catastrophic (and redemptive) events within a meaningful ontological context.
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