Category: Isaiah

Background

This section of First Isaiah is commonly called the “oracles against the nations.” The prophet utters oracles concerning Babylon, Assyria, Phillistia, Moab, Damascus, Ethiopia (Cush), Egypt, Dumah, Arabia (“the desert plain”), Kedar, and Tyre. All of these are oracles of judgment. The markers on the map below show the cities and regions mentioned. They include the superpowers of the day — Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon — and other important city states and tribal regions, all of which surround Jerusalem.

There are also, however, oracles against Israel and Judah in this section. So, while one theme of the oracles is that God will judge the nations that are not his own, judgment extends also to God’s own people.

It’s likely that each of these oracles were uttered and published by Isaiah and his associates at various times during his ministry in response to specific threats and circumstances. Scholars offer various theories about what these specific events might have involved, but for the most part there is little consensus.

The overall canonical shape of these oracles as they are knit together in the text of First Isaiah supports the theme of God’s governance over history. From the perspective of First Isaiah, each of these nations — including, at times, Israel and Judah — tried to assert their governing authority and autonomy against Yahweh. It’s important to recall that there is no concept of “separation of church and state” in the ancient near east. Each of these nations aligned themselves with various deities, and many of them asserted that their rulers were living gods. Their claims to authority, then, were direct claims against Yahweh.

The oracles mention several means of judgment, including war, famine, and economic collapse. These judgments are depicted as acts of Yahweh. Wars, famines, and economic crises, of course, were common threats in the ancient near east, just as they are today. First Isaiah depicts the “natural” and “supernatural” as a seamless whole and ascribes Divine purpose to history. But there are also immediately “supernatural” elements to some of the oracles. The stars and constellations, the sun and the moon, understood in the ancient near east as cosmic beings, participate directly in some of the judgments, and where there were once vibrant human communities, the animals and “goat-demons” dance. (13:10, 21-22.)

Although the oracles target specific nations and cities, the scope of Yahweh’s judgment is often depicted as universal: he will “make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place” (13:13); he will “lay waste to the earth and make it desolate” (24:1). At the same time — surprisingly — there are notes of apocalyptic hope even for the powers outside Judah. Egypt, Assyria, and Tyre are depicted as receiving restoration from Yahweh. (19:23-25; 23:17-18.) Chapter 19 concludes with an astonishing blessing from Yahweh: “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage.” (19:25.)

While most of the oracles are delivered in poetic stanzas, there are also some prose passages. One of the most interesting is in chapter 20. Yahweh instructs Isaiah to wander around Jerusalem naked and barefoot as a sign to the Egyptians and Ethiopians that Assyria will control them. This kind of performative sign-oracle occurs frequently in the Hebrew Scriptures’ prophetic literature. We might imagine this kind of activity as a sort of protest performance art by the prophet in some public venue.

Focus: 14:12-20

This section appears in an oracle against Babylon. It is famous in Christian history because the title “Day Star” (helel), translated “Lucifer” in Latin, was taken to refer to Satan. The immediate reference is to the King of Babylon — possibly one of the Babylonian kings who ruled not long before Tiglath-Peleser III of Assyria conquered Babylon. The names helel and ben-sahar (Son of the Morning), however, also draw on Canaanite mythology. The text recognizes, then, that the King of Babylon claims some kind of divine lineage. The text doesn’t deny that the King of Babylon possesses some kind of divine or supernatural power. However, it declares that this power is no match for Yahweh.

Another interesting example of this kind of response to a temporal King’s claim to divinity occurs in Ezekiel 28. In the first part of Ezekiel 28, the prophet declares to the King of Tyre, “your heart is proud and you have said ‘I am a god. . . yet you are a mortal, and no god. . . .” (Ezekiel 28:2). Here, the prophet outright denies the King’s claim to divinity. In the same chapter, however, there is another oracle against the King of Tyre, in which Yahweh says

You were the signet of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
You were in Eden, the garden of God;
every precious stone was your covering
. . . .
You were blameless in your ways
from the day that you were created,
until iniquity was found in you.
In the abundance of your trade
you were filled with violence, and you sinned;
so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God,
and the guardian cherub drove you out
from among the stones of fire.

Ezekiel 28:12-16

Notice how Ezekiel’s oracle against the King of Tyre depicts the King as a kind of semi-divine being, and also as Adam. Notice also that the oracle refers to the city and its King interchangeably. Similarly, the oracle against Babylon refers both the the city / nation and to the King, and is cast in cosmic terms.

Some questions on this section:

• We have been suggesting that Isaiah is a form of “political theology.” How would you describe the political theology of First Isaiah? Is any of this relevant to our contemporary circumstances?
• How does the cosmic dimension of good and evil — God and the “Morning Star” — inform your understanding of the world? How might it affect how you conduct your daily life?

Focus: 19:16-25

This section concludes an oracle against Egypt. In the context of the Hebrew Scriptures’ broader narrative, and also coming on the heels of the oracle of judgment, this section is astonishing. As Brueggemann notes, “[t]he remarkable fact of this rhetoric is that it replicates the ancient Exodus narrative.” (Brueggemann, First Isaiah, 162.) Egypt will be brought into “hard service,” cry out, and be rescued by God, just like Israel when enslaved by Egypt. In the conclusion to this section, as Brueggemann notes, “[t]he oracle takes three pet names by which Yahweh characterizes Israel — ‘my people,’ ‘the work of my hands,’ and ‘my heritage’ — and generously redeploys them across the Fertile Crescent.” (Brueggemann, First Isaiah, 153.)

Some questions on this section:

• What does this section tell you about God’s grace? About God’s plan for history?
• In the context of First Isaiah, is this section suggesting that Egypt is rewarded for becoming like Israel? If Israel is also judged, what does that say about God’s plan for history?

Focus: 24:1-13; 21-23

This is a harsh judgment oracle that seems to summarize all the previous judgments against the nations as a judgment of the whole earth. Notice that this catastrophe levels the poor and rich and affects the natural environment on which people depend for sustenance. The last part of this oracle is cosmic in scope: God judges both heavenly beings and kings, who once again are depicted as somehow connected, as well as the moon and the sun.

• How and why do God’s judgments affect the natural environment? Can we say that our current environmental crisis is a judgment of God?
• Is God’s judgment arbitrary? Is it constrained by anything outside God?

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Background

These chapters continue the oracles of First Isaiah. Most scholars agree that these oracles date to Isaiah ben Amoz, though they probably were edited and arranged at later dates. In chapter 7, we are in the reign of King Ahaz of Judah, who is pictured in the Bible as a bad King. The Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Aram allied to attack Jerusalem in Judah. Aram, the home of the Aramaeans, was located in present day Syria, on the northern border of Israel:

Biblical Scholar Walter Bruggemann describes these chapters as the challenge of fear versus faith. The heart of the people of Judah, Isaiah 7:2 says, “shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.” In verse 2, Ahaz is referred to by the title “the House of David.” This suggests that the threat concerned the future of the entire Davidic dynasty, and therefore implied whether God would really keep his covenant with the nation.

Yahweh instructs Isaiah to bring his son Shear-jashub to confront Ahaz and to challenge Ahaz to be brave. Shear-jashub means “a remnant shall return,” so the son’s name invokes judgment as well as hope. Isaiah’s charge from Yahweh summarizes the key message of these oracles: “If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all” (7:9).

Yahweh invites Ahaz to ask for a sign about how the threat from the north will affect Judah. Ahaz refuses (7:11-12). Although Ahaz’s refusal to ask for a sign is stated in pious terms, it seems he is in fact afraid to hear what God might have to say. Isaiah then offers a number of signs and statements of judgment, but with a final note of hope.

Focus: 7:14-17

The first sign Isaiah gives Ahaz is famous because of how it has been taken up in Christian thought: “Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.”

This sign is mentioned in the infancy narrative of Jesus in Matthew 1:

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means ‘God with us). (Matt. 1 22)

It is also alluded to in Luke 1:

How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:34-35).

The Christian tradition thus has taken the sign to Ahaz as a sign about Jesus as messiah. Further, the Christian tradition has emphasized the virgin birth as a miracle with theological significance. For Christians in the Catholic tradition, the virgin birth is tied closely to an explanation of how Jesus could have been born without the taint of original sin. For both Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Christians, the virgin birth is connected with Mary’s purity and with practices of Marian devotion. Here’s where this text is used in Handel’s Messiah:

The Hebrew word ‘alma means a young woman of marriageable age, but is not a specific word for a “virgin.” The Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures in common use when the Gospels were written uses the word “virgin.” In the modern period, some scholars have questioned whether the notion of the virgin birth therefore rests on a mistake.

As Bruggemann notes, in its original context Isaiah’s sign is not about a virgin birth. It is, rather, about the innocent young woman, the child’s name (God With Us) and the propitious time of the birth, as a sign of reassurance that Yahweh will not allow Israel and Syria to prevail if Ahaz relies on Yahweh. However, as Bruggemann also notes, this doesn’t make the subsequent Christian tradition “wrong.” The scriptures are pregnant (pun intended) with meaning, and the New Testament frequently draws out Christological implications from the Hebrew Scriptures that likely were not on the horizon of the original writers and editors.

Some questions on this section:

• Walter Bruggemann notes that “[f]aith (‘stand firm in faith’) is not a matter of intellectual content or cognitive belief. It is rather a matter of quite practical reliance upon the assurance of God in a context of risk where one’s own resources are not adequate.” (Bruggemmann, Isaiah Vol. 1, 67.) We all are having to do this during the time of COVID. What does this mean for you?
• Do you see any reassuring signs of “God With Us” today?
• How might this example of how the Christian tradition took up the sign of the young woman and the child inform your reading of scripture?

Focus: 9:2-6

Our next focus section provides another example of a sign relating to a child that has been taken up into the Christian tradition. Part of this passage is mentioned in Matthew 4:12-17:

When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:

“Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles—
the people living in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.”
From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Again, this is a very free use of Isaiah by the author of Matthew, but the original context doesn’t necessarily render the Christian usage “wrong.” Jesus is depicted in the New Testament as a rightful heir to David’s throne. (See Matthew 1.)

Here is where 9:2 appears in Handel’s

And here is 9:6:

In its original context, this text seems to refer to God’s promise to keep his covenant regarding the Davidic Kingdom. If Ahaz cannot remain steadfast and faithful, God will provide another King in David’s line.

Some questions on this section:

• How do the various titles ascribed to the child resonate with you? Do any of them reflect your experience of Jesus?
• Can Christians use this text in a way that is not supercessionist — that is, in a way that understands it first as a text of Jewish hope?

Focus: 10:1-6, 20-26

This section repeats some themes we saw in Week 1. One of the basic sins of Judah’s rulers was oppression of the poor; this sin will be judged; and Yahweh will preserve a remnant in Israel.

Focus: 11:1-9

This section is another promise about the Davidic line that Christian thought has understood Christologically. The reference to the “spirit of the LORD” has also been understood in the Christian tradition to refer to the Holy Spirit. Again, the Christian reading goes beyond the original historical context, but can be seen as a creative use of the text in light of the experience of Jesus.

This section also includes the famous eschatological image of the wolf living with the lamb (the lion actually lies with the calf), a vision of a restored creation that also reverberates throughout the New Testament, particularly in the letters of Paul and in the book of Revelation.

Some questions on this section:

• What do you think is the significance of the image of a shoot growing out of a stump? Do you see new shoots growing out of dead stumps anywhere today?
• How do you understand some of the images of the eschatological kingdom in this text? How might those images inform your hope?

Setting

Scholars call Isaiah 1-39 “First Isaiah.” There is general agreement that the oracles in these chapters originally derive from Isaiah Ben Amoz and/or people associated with him. Some scholars argue that the underlying materials in First Isaiah were heavily edited in later centuries.

Verse 1 tells us that the text presents “the vision” (chazon) of Isaiah concerning Judah and Jerusalem during the time of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. By this time the Jewish nation had been divided into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The Kingdom of Judah encompassed the holy city of Jerusalem, which contained the First Temple originally built by King Solomon. This graphic shows the Kings of Israel and Judah:

It’s difficult to know precisely when some of these different Kings ruled. There is extra-Biblical (archeological and textual) evidence, however, to support the existence of many of these Kings, and we do know the dates of some key events mentioned in the narratives. During the period encompassed by this part of Isaiah, Israel and Judah came under increasing pressure from the Kingdom of Assyria.

The Biblical text tells us Uzziah reigned for 52 years. Judah became powerful and prosperous under Uzziah, but the Bible depicts him as deeply flawed. Uzziah’s son, Jotham, took the throne when Uzziah was struck with leprosy for offering incense in the Temple — an act seen as an usurpation of Uzziah’s authority. Only the Priests, who had been consecrated to God, were supposed to perform this function. Jotham, the Bible says, reigned for 16 years until he was deposed by a group that supported his son, Ahaz. Jotham is generally depicted as a good King in the Bible, but not a perfect one, particularly because Jotham failed to preserve the overall morality and piety of the people. Ahaz is depicted in the Bible as an evil King who gave in to the Assyrians, both politically and religiously. Upon his death after 16 years in power, Ahaz was succeeded by his son Hezekiah, who reigned for 29 years according to the Bible. Hezekiah, the Bible says, was a highly righteous King, who rolled back the syncretism introduced by Ahaz — although, again, not a perfect one.

During Hezekiah’s reign, the Northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by King Sargon of Assyria. After Sargon died his son, Sennacherib, became King of Assyria and attacked Judah. Sennacherib’s army laid siege to Jerusalem, but, according to the Bible, God miraculously destroyed the Assyrian army and the siege was turned away. There is an Assyrian inscription which admits that Hezekiah did not submit to Sennacherib but which claims Hezekiah later paid him tribute money.

Here’s a picture of the “Sennacharib Prism,” which contains the Assyrian inscription:

Here’s a translation of the cuneiform on the Sennacherib Prism that mentions Hezekiah:

Here’s a portion of the wall built by Hezekiah to withstand the Assyrian siege:

And here is part of the Siloam Tunnel, dug by Hezekiah to provide water to Jerusalem during the siege:

The oracles in First Isaiah, then, cover a huge amount of territory — a period of about 64 years, from the end of Uzziah’s reign until the start of Hezekiah’s — during a tumultuous time in the life of Israel and Judah. It’s important to remember that the oracles in First Isaiah relate to specific events or issues in Judean society during this stretch of time. We are not entirely sure how these oracles were recorded and collected for publication, either in their original form or in the final canonical form of the book of Isaiah. We might imagine Isaiah sitting at his desk feverishly writing on a scroll with a quill pen, but that is not the likely scenario. It’s more likely that there were scribes attached to Isaiah and his school or movement, who perhaps published some of Isaiah’s sayings at critical times and then arranged and edited them into collections.

As we mentioned in our Introduction and Overview, Prophets played a unique role in ancient Israel during the time of the Kings. There was no concept of “separation of religion and state” in ancient Israel or otherwise in the ancient near east. However, in ancient Israel and Judah, the King and the Priests played different official functions under the Law. Prophets, in contrast, did not have an official civic function under the Law. Nevertheless, important Prophets, including Isaiah, could influence civic and religious policy. At the same time, Prophets, again including Isaiah, could criticize both Kings and Priests for failures to fulfill their roles, in particular in leading the nation to follow God’s Law and enact justice. Prophets were consulted for insight from Yahweh about momentous decisions, but their role usually was more about forthtelling — explaining why things are the way they are — than foretelling the future.

General Themes

Chapters 1-6 of First Isaiah establish what will become a familiar pattern of alternating oracles of judgment and oracles of hope. Notice that the oracles of judgment focus on the decline of the nation and of its cities — its cultural, economic, and religious centers, including in particular Jerusalem. As 1:7 puts it, “Your country lies desolate, your cities are burned with fire. . . .” The judgment oracles often sound xenophobic to our modern ears: 1:7 further says that, “in your very presence aliens devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.” One of the central themes of the Law was that Israel should remain distinct from foreign idolatrous nations.

Focus Sections

Our first “focus” section, 1:18-26, includes a famous text: “Come now, let us reason [argue it out] together.” Notice God’s appeal to the people to enter into discussion or argumentation with God. God judges the nation’s unfaithfulness, but continually remains available for renewal if the nation wishes to return to Him. This section also establishes God’s primary complaints against His people: “Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not defend the orphan, and the widow’s case does not come before them.”

Some questions on this section:

• Do you ever hear God’s invitation to reason / argue things out?
• What do the images of scarlet / crimson sins and snow / white wool suggest for you?

Our second “focus” section, 2:1-4, illustrates the kind of eschatological hope continually held out in Isaiah in between the oracles of judgment. It also contains a famous line about “beating swords into plowshares.” Because it is an eschatological vision, we should be careful about interpreting these images too literally. A tradition did develop among some Jewish interpreters, however, that imagined a literal future highway running from surrounding nations into Jerusalem and to God’s Temple. Notice that there is an apparent contrast here from the seeming xenophobia of the previous oracles of judgment: the nations are welcomed into Jerusalem. This vision reverberates into the New Testament — compare Revelation 21:24-27, in which the nations are welcomed into the New Jerusalem.

Some questions on this section:

• How do you understand the hope offered in this section? Can a hope like this still sustain us today?

Our third focus section, 3:16 to 4:1, is part of a judgment oracle. It can sound sexist to modern ears. The theme, however, is about how the elites of Judean society had adopted Assyrian fashions, aspirations, and manners. They had become arrogant and secure in their wealth, disregarding the threat Assyria posed to the basic identity and existence of God’s people. Notice that God appears as a prosecutor arguing his case as well as the Judge (3:13-14).

Some questions on this section:

• How would you compare God’s invitation to argument in 1:18 with his argument in this oracle?
• What do you see as the core evils identified in this oracle? What might be an analogous warning for us today?

Our final focus section, 6:1-13, presents an awesome vision of Isaiah before the Heavenly Throne. Compare this vision with John the Seer’s vision in Revelation 4. This section also includes the famous scene in which a seraph purifies Isaiah for prophetic speech with a hot coal.

• What does Isaiah’s vision tell us about God? What might it say about our practices of prayer and worship?
• Have you ever experienced God’s purification as a preparation for some ministry or other part of your life?