An Appendix to Chapter 10

An Imagined Journey

10:28-32

 

One has the sense that the text at this point was trying to find a conclusion with verse 20, but that it quickly amended itself with a brief summation, verse 21: ‘The remnant shall return, the remnant of Jacob to the God the Almighty,” signaling it bond with text that preceded it. This amendment, however, opened the door and though it came a series of restatements, 22-27 from a more protracted time. Through this door came also a unit that I find particularly interesting, as it sheds light on the capacity of those who were contributing to the early Isaiah text. It proports to be an account of the journey of a particular Assyrian campaign, without making clear which one that would be. The vagueness of the place names and the difficulty of mapping an actual journey, have long plagued interpreters.  This is not a history, but a poem, as the consonance and rhythm suggest.

 

בא על-עית

עבר במגרון למכמש

     יפקיד כליו

עבר מעברה גבע מלןן לנו

     רדה הרמה

     גבעת שאול נסה:

יצהלי קולך בת-גלים

הקשיבי לישה עניה ענתות

     נדדה מדמנה

     ישבי הגבים העיזו

עוד היום בנב לעמד ינפף ידו   הר בית-ציון   גבעת ירושלם

 

It is difficult to hear Hebrew poetry, much to our loss. Chanting or Cantillation are not much help as they focus on the text as text and on the capacity of an audience to hear the text. One can, however, see in the poem the predominance of ayin, beth and gimel sounds that give the poem a consonant ring.  The lineation, form the first three-word line, cascades down with sustained rhythm unto it final line where it slows and pools into a depth and encompasses it audience.  

Verse 28 begins without an introduction: “He came upon Aiath.” This suggests that some prior verses have been dropped. The “he” is not identified but it is assumed that reader will understand from the context that is the king of Assyria or one of his generals. Aiath is probably the twin city of Bethel known more simply as Ai. Ai lies on the main north-south road where it  is intersected by an east west road. The invading army appears to travel west through to Migron, to Michmash where he leaves his baggage. From there he crosses the ford and lodges at Giba.  Ramah quaked; Gib’ath Saul fled.” The poet suddenly surfaces with a call to villages on the periphery of this imagined journey. Bath-gallim is to raise her voice in alarm. Laishah, Aniah, Annathoth are to pay attention.   Madmenah retreats and the inhabitants of Gebim fortify themselves. This indicates that the attention of the invading army was focused on the Benjamine town along the Northern Kingdom southern border.  In the course of this activity, the king finds himself among the northern villages of the Southern Kingdom. At one point it is said “he” stood at Nob, a hilltop village, from which Jerusalem could be seen. His audience well in hand by his account, poet closes by turning his description of what had happening to others to what was likely to happen to those in his audience. The king “waves his hand,” ינפף ידו, to Jerusalem.  This is not so much a threat, as if it were a fist, but a jester of contempt. In this sense it is an illustration of the arrogance of the Assyrian king, which explains why editor thought it belonged here in connection with the two previous examples of Assyrian arrogance.

While many have claimed that this itinerary is based on Sennacherib’s attack on Jerusalem in 701, and was written back into the Isaiah text, it should be clear a poet needed more than the knowledge of the Assyrian campaign of 733 to create this splendid poem. Moreover, the poet had ever reason to believe after two successive seasons of campaigning in the west, that third would soon follow.  As it turned out, Assyria turned its attention to the east, and by 730 was totally preoccupied with its newly acquired control of Babylon and the west had a respite. It is somewhere in this respite that he writes not history, but a poem which was relevant to preparing the Southern Kingdom for its future. The value for us that it gives us evidence of the creative capacity of early first Isaiah.

 

 

Event and Text in Early First Isaiah

Part IV

Theological Reflections on an Emerging Text

Chapter 10:1-21, 33-34

 

Somewhere in the order of five-to-six-years after Ahaz’s ascension to the throne of Judah, the prophetic school of Jerusalem was in possession of a text built around a historical narrative of the encounter between king and prophet at the Gihon Spring. That text was approximately what we know as chapters 3-9 of the Isaiah scroll. While the school continued to edit this text, they also were in the process of reflecting theologically on it. This was registered as corrections and additions to the text. My version of how the Isaiah text has come about is based on a different understanding of authorship than is commonly assumed. Traditionally, a text is supposed to be the result of a single inspired individual, in this case, Isaiah, who was writing with personal knowledge of the events not long after they happened.  Alternatively, critical studies which came along with time, continued to think about authorship as the work of an individual, but at some distance from the events, possibly centuries, who composed text based on the needs of his or her times.

I have been arguing that the authorship of the Isaiah text lies in the working of a community, which I identify as “the prophetic school of Jerusalem.” That school included Isaiah as well as poets, historians, thinkers and editors.  Particularly, in the special case of chapter 3-12 this process is quite visible, and, in being so, enhances what this text has to say to us. We have seen in our study of Chapter 8, that there are three brief testimonials which were clearly the work of Isaiah, dateable to months following the prophetic event.   Before that, in chapter 7, we identified an author which we have called “the historian.” He was an anonymous member of the prophetic school of Jerusalem, and he was responsible for the opening section of the chapter 7.  Since historians are seldom poets or poets, historian, we imagine the existence of one or more poets, who authored units as “the ballade of the beloved vineyard,” Chapter 6, or the birth announcement of Hezekiah, Chapter 9, or the splendid poem, “Surly it is God who saves me,” chapter 12, which was used to close this literary unit which I call proto-Isaiah.

In addition to these testimonials, historical narratives and poems, there are what I call “theological reflections.” They were the result of the community reflecting theological on particular units like the historical narratives or one of the poems, some of which were then recorded and appended to those units, augmenting the text. 

Finally, there were editors who recorded, shaped and preserved the various materials.  In the course of the critical study of ancient texts, Biblical and otherwise, editors have often been dismissed as uninspired technicians, standing in the way of discovering the original genius of the individual author, the beguiling conviction of Western culture under which we continue to struggle.  One of the major changes in textual studies in the last 50 years was to reappraise the role of the editor.  Source criticism which searched for individual authors was joined by redaction criticism which valued the contribution of an editors. This led to an understanding that editors are an inspired part of the authorship. Clearly editors have played an important role in the formation of the Isaiah scroll and in the material on which we are presently focusing.  Indeed, we can recognize the work of a chief editor who has been assembling a text. By the end of the 730’s, the text had become what we know as chapters 3-9.  At this point the prophetic school’s theological reflection turned from individual units, as we have seen, to the new text as whole.  It is this change that gave rise to the material which we find in Chapter 10, on which this talk is focused.

It is characteristic of editors that they leave poems alone, the poem’s interior logic making it difficult to make changes. Historical narratives are more tempting and easier to amendments but are rather easy to sort out.  Theological reflections are another matter, being a more fluid and subjective. Not only do they tempt an editor, but amendments are more difficult to spot since in reality they are unfolding discussions in which various opinions are coming together.  All that is to say, Chapter 10 presents us with more difficulties than the material we have looked at up to now.

Our initial problem with Chapter 10 is where does the chapter begin?  The two modern commentators on whom we have relied, Childs and Blenkinsopp, are of the opinion that it is not with verse 1, but with verse 5. Blenkinsopp argues that the “Woe unit” of verse 1-4 belongs to Chapter 5, as it properly pairs with the series of woes found there.  For him, Chapter 10 begins, verse 5, “Woe to Assyria.”  This works, if the description of being the rod and the staff of God is bracketed out as an aside, for in the long run Assyria, after serving God’s purpose, would come to woe, being punished for its arrogance.  Child agrees, except for a different reason.  He makes verses 1-4 part of Chapter 9 on the grounds that verse 4 ends with the refrain which we already encountered in Chapter 9; “for all this his anger did not turn and his hand remained outstretched.”  In 9, this refrain appears three times, at ends of three units, each of which describes the suffering that the Israel is experiencing, which however, has not led to and end of God’s wrath.  Not only is the triadic unit sufficiently eloquent by itself, the content of an alleged fourth, 1-4, which is not about a punishment that is happening, but one that was to come and is a question addressed to specific individuals about how they will respond: “to whom then will you leave your wealth/glory when you are visited from afar?”

            The ending in verse 4, “for all this .. .” is a good example of the work of the editor who is compiling this text. Not only is it awkward, but we can also see that it is an editorial suture, tying chapter 10 to 3-9.  Doing so, however, has obscured the fact that 10 begins with a single “woe” directed at Israel’s leadership.  They are identified, in an unusual manner, as החקקים hchakakim and  מכרבים  makarabim , ruler makers and writers.  We might, say from our own context, politicians and media people.  The rulers rule vainly, doing nothing, and the writers write corruptly and about things that are beside the point. The graphic image suggests a firsthand experience and not a more generalized condemnation of injustice by not hearing the poor. The condemnation continues not only do they distort the defense of the poor but they steals from the judgment of the lower class and loot  שללם shallam the widows and יבזו ybzu prey on the orphans. These two verbs shalal and bz, are not actions usually directed at widows and orphans, but they are directly link with the name of Isaiah’s son, mahar shalal, chash bz who we learned about in chapter 8.

Given that, on the day of a visitation “which will come from afar,” clearly a reference an Assyrian campaign, it asks the “politicians and media” from whom they will seek aid and to whom they will leave their glory.  

This introductory woe sets the stage for a primary proposition, verse 5.  It is not “Woe to Assyria,” but Assyria is the woe.  With it, the prophetic school is announcing its major theological claim, in the very words of text:

 

“Assyria is the rod of my wrath and my fury is a staff in their hand.”

 

God will direct them, the rod and the staff, against a hypocritical nation, גוי חנף, and he will order them to loot and plunder. ( לשלל משלל ולבז בז ) and to make this people trodden down like the mud of the street.  The words, “loot” and “plunder,” links the theological proposition to the opening lines of this chapter, and to the amending prophesy of Isaiah which was recorded in chapter 8.

The primary theological proposition has a corollary. While Assyria is the agent of God, they are not exempt from punishment for the manner in which they carry out their commission. As it is, Assyria is acting with arrogance. Verse 7, while the king of Assyria is God’s agent, “he does deem it so, and his heart does not think it so.”  In the following verse Assyria is given a voice: “Are not my princes together kings?”  Victories are listed, Carchemish, Calno, Arpad, Damascus and so will Samaria be added to the list.  Verse 12 bring this to an end with an important summation: “When the Lord completes all His work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will bring retribution upon the Assyrians.”  Underline first the proposition that what has been done by Assyria against Isreal is God’s work, and then note that when it is done, with transforming Israel to accord with God’s will, the punishment of Assyria will follow.

 There is a special delight in giving voice to the arrogant speech of Assyria, mimicking the kings, so in verse 13 it is given a second round. “I have erased borders,” “My hand found the wealth of the peoples as one gathers eggs from untended nests. No one moved a hand, or opened his mouth, or even chirped.”  With verse 15, we now have a second argument on the nature of Assyrian arrogance.  An instrument, an ax or a saw does vaunt itself over the one who wields it.  There follows with this new argument a rather cryptic version of the retribution which in the end Assyria will suffer.  The light of Israel will become a fire, and the fire will rid the land of thorns and thistles. This is likely the work of a secondary editorial process which is a common part of the textual tradition, and it is neither the first of the last that we will find in the Isaiah text.

In spite of this reset, the theological reflection that began with the “Woe,” verse 1, finds its ending in verse 20: “It shall come to pass that on that day the remnant שאר of Israel and the survivors פליטצ of the house of Jacob shall not continue to lean on him that smote them,” Assyria, “but they shall lean on the Lord, the Holy one of Israel, Amen.” This is immediately echoed:  with final summation of the prophetic school, “The remnant shall turn,” שאר ישבו .” Recall that is the name of Isaiah’s first son who accompanied him on the prophesy in Chapter 7. Continuing, the people will turn “to God All Mighty, אל גבר.” The name, el gabor is one of the names given to the child whose birth is announced in Chapter 9. This ties the theological reflection of chapter 10 to a core text, well on its way to being that text we know of as Isaah, Chapter 3-9.

The text that follows 22 to 32 is an intrusion on the part of an editor which Blenkinsopp calls commentary. As intrusions in text frequently do, they make room for others to follow, here it is a wonderful poem which recounts the itinerary of an invading army, which I will pass over in interest of time, but, it you are interested you will find my take on this material in my blog, the Elder of Omaha.

For now, let us follow Blenkinsopp suggestion that the first draft of chapter 10 continued with verse 33 where the text returns to the metaphor of the saw and the ax.  “Behold the Lord, God Sabaoth lops off the branches with a saw. . .” leading to a deforestation of the land, Lebanon in the wake of the Assyrian campaign of 734 comes to mind.  This image of deforestation lead directly into the announcement in chapter 11 that “a branch shall spring forth from the stump of Jesse, resulting in the renewal of the Davidic dynasty.  Our next talk will be on “the royal figure” of chapter 11,  and on its preludes in chapter 9, and 7. 

Before bringing this talk to a close, I would like to go back for another look at the theological position, “Assyria is the rod of my wrath and my fury is a staff in their hand.” This likely strikes a modern ear as a theology that belongs to darker ages that we have somehow left behind.  This, however, misses the point that the prophet school of the 8^th century was not resting on, or turn back to some dark ancient mystagogue.  It was essaying a theology that was a radical innovation. Their world posited “local gods,” and with that the attack of the Assyrian would be understood as a struggle between gods, theirs and ours.  Was the god of Assyria, Assur, stronger than the god of Damascus or of Samaria?  Corollary of  “local gods” is that the violences that one is enduring is meaningless and that suffering one going through is irredeemable.

Once the prophetic school of Jerusalem committed themselves the conviction of a universal monotheism, it was necessary to conclude that the violence to come must be, in  some way, God’s will.  If it was God’s will then it had purpose and meaning. The corollary of their conviction was the Assyrian king was an agent of God, even if unaware of it. The suffering that resulted could be redeeming.  For the prophetic school, this meant that through suffering Israel would be transformed into the Israel of the future.  This, as we have seen in 10:12, explicit stated: “When the Lord Sabaoth will have completed all that he would do on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem . . .”

Thus, proto-Isaiah, at the close at the 8^th century, launches the trajectory that passes though the later sections of its text, where it finally takes on the mature form of “the suffering servant,” and ultimately, passes on into the Christian interpretation of the cross.

Next time, in our fifth talk we will bring our series, “Event and Text in Early First Isaiah” to a study of those fascinating royal figures found in Chapter 7:13-16, 9:5-6 and 11:1-5, which were so fundamental to the hope the prophetic school held for the Israel in their own times and so provocation for the age to come.

 An Addenda to The Study of Chapter 8

An Isaiah Poem  

The Waters of Shiloah

Chapter 8:6-11

This poetic unit is appended to the “Mahar” prophesy, 1-4.  It is remarkable metaphorically, rhythmically and theologically.  Since there is every reason to assign this poem to the young Isaiah, we have the evidence to consider him to be among the skilled poets of the Prophetic School of Jerusalem.

 

 

       ינן כי מאס העם הזה את מי השלח ההלכים לאט

משוש את רצין ובן-רמליהו             

ולכן הנה אדמי מעלהם אתמי הנהר העצומים והרבים

            את-מלך אשור ואת-כל-כהודו

 

ועלה על-כל-אפיקיו והלך על-כל-גדותיו

וחלף היהודה שטף           

     ועבר עד-צוואר           

יגיע והיה מטות כנפיו          

מלא רחב ארצך          

 עמנו אל

 

רעו עמים וחתו                 

והאזיני כל מריקי—ארץ        

התאזרו וחתו התאזרו וחתו        

עצו עצה ותפרו דברו דבר ולא יקום        

כי עמנו אל

       

 

This poem, addressed to the Northern Kingdom, begins with a metaphor, the flow of water, and unfold in a pattern three stanza.  The first stanza addresses the northern kingdom with reproach or warning and puts the chief metaphor into play.  In the first instance, it references the flow of water that is the source of Jerusalem’s water that flows softly down the conduit from the Gihon Spring to pool in the lower city call Shiloh.  This links the poem to the event is chapter 7 in which Isaiah encountered Ahaz at the Gihon spring.  This water has been rejected by the northern kingdom in favor of Rezin and Pekah, the kings of Damascus and Samaria.  As a result, they will be engulfed in a flow of water that is mighty and vast, which are known as the Euphrates, simply referred to here as “the river.”

Two stanzas follow which change the rhythm of the soft flow in the long opening lines, to staccato of short verb driven lines.  The Water of the river is identified as the Assyria Empire (the king of Assyria and his glory) who is flooding the northern kingdom and is even pass beyond it, right up the neck of Jerusalem, to its very wing tips.  The new metaphors, neck, wings, address the geography of Jerusalem. 

The second stanza ends with a refrain: Emmanuel.  This is the name of the child promised in chapter 7, and which again links this poem with the chapter 7 event.  The third stanza is addressed to “peoples,” to “distant lands,” all of whom will share in the rise of the Assyrian Empire.  The are called to be broken in an intense play on the words “harken,” “gird,” and “broken” which literally sounds like breaking glass or wood collapsing!  And, of course, the stanza ends with refrain, “Emmanuel.”

This makes us ask, is this young Isaiah an accomplished poet as well as a seasoned prophet.

My attempt at translation.

How Waters Flow

 Because this people rejected the waters of Shiloah which flows softly,

                and have rejoiced in Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

The Lord will cause to flow over them the river water which flows strong and broadly out,

                                The king of Assyria and his all his glory.

 

Up over all the feeder streams and out over all the banks 

                                Gushing out upon Judah

                                Flowing up to its neck

                                Reaching tips of its wings

                                                                                                Emmanuel

             The peoples gather, but will be broken

                                                Harken, all you distant lands

                                gird yourselves and be broken

                                                harken and be broken  

                                Counsel intensely, speak crafted words,

                                                they will not stand.

                                                                                                Emmanuel  

 

 

Part III

Isaiah’s Voice and the Aftermath of the Event

A study of Chapter 8

 

This is the third talk in my Series: “Event and Text in Early First Isaiah.” The two previous talks, “Setting the Stage” and “The Event Narrative,” brings us to Chapter 8: “Isaiah’s Voice and the Aftermath of the Event.”

            One of the curious things about the beginning of the Isaiah scroll, is that the actual voice of the prophet is not heard until Chapter 8, sometime after the event at the Gihon Spring. With that observation, however, I raise the question of whose voice appears in chapter 6, “The Throne Room Vision.  Scholarly debate about its role in the mission of Isaiah is extensive, and while its authorship is generally granted to Isaiah, I would say not of fast. The answer to that question of whose voice is best deferred until looking at Chapter 8 where the voice of Isaiah is heard loud and clear.  Chapter 8 consists of three units,1-11, 12-16 and 16-23, tied to 3 separate moments in the life of the young prophet.  It is clear from the internal evidence that each of these occurred after the event at the spring, which dates shortly after the ascension of Ahaz, 736.  But on the other hand before Tiglath Pileser’s campaign in 733 which overran Damascus, ending the reign of Rezin and shortly afterward, the northern kingdom ending the reign of Pekah, fulfilling the prophesy at the spring. The voice in these three units is intensely personal, defensive and filled with emotion, which come through so clearly from reading the text in the original Hebrew.

            As time passed, days, weeks, the public became involved and as the public is prone to do, they lost their patience.  If they were to be rid of Pekah and Rizen, why were they still in power and why were their machinations still troubling them.  Isaiah answers them with a new word of God: “Speed the spoils, hasten the prey.”  מהר שלל חש בז. The point is not to be taken as an ill omen, but as an encouragement.  “It is on its way, the sooner the better.” It is possible that the words are derived from a slogan of an invading army, but in apprising them the prophet makes them an omen of the good news.  Good because the coming loss and pain is God’s means of moving Israel into a new future. 

            Isaiah is directed to write these words on a tablet, a large posture, in large common letters, the kind that the people can read. Isaiah claims God has arranged for two trustworthy individuals to notarize the text: no less than Uriah the Priest and Zechariah a member of the council, likely a member of the royal household.  To own these words in a dramatic and personal way, Isaiah conceives a child with the prophetess and names the child מהר שלל חש בז , “Speed the Spoil, hasten the prey.” In this way the words are indelibly written in his own life as a child from whom his life would be inseparable. This followed his earlier naming of his first child, אשר ישוב. These two boys and what they represent are explicitly tied to the eighth century Isaiah, as he waits out the period of suspense that followed his delivery of the message to Ahaz. As he put it in rebuttal to a doubting public: “Behold I and the children whom the Lord gave me as signs and wonders” would wait in patient hope. This is further evidence that these words belong to the eighth century Isaiah!

            Of the latter child, it is said that before this child distinguishes between mother and father these things that have been prophesied will come about. The wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria would be carried off.  Rezin and Pekah would be no more. Thus, a timetable is set for the fulfilment of the prophesy: months.

            The prophetic unit is followed by a poem of remarkable craftmanship, verse 6-10. Its language is richly metaphorical using the contrasting waters of the Gihon Spring that flow into the pool called Shiloah in the lower city, and the waters of the Euphrates River that carves and floods the Syrian plain. The first stanza introduces the alternative waters, the one representing the gentle governance of Davidic throne and the other the rapacious rule of the Assyrians.  Having rejected the one, the northern kingdom, along with all the other distant lands will be subject to Assyria.  Two succeeding stanzas carry out this picture.  Nouns and modifiers give way to verbs. The rhythm changes from flowing to staccato and new metaphors emerge bringing the action home to Jerusalem.  The flood comes up to its neck and to the tips of its wings. Each of these latter stanzas ends with a refrain: Emmanuel.  Emmanuel is a prayer, but, of course, is also the name of child whose birth was promised in chapter 7. With the earlier mention of the waters of Shiloah, we are again connected to the prophetic event in chapter 7. It would appear that this poem is also the voice of Isaiah and if it is, we have evidence that that the young Isaiah is an accomplished poet as well as a seasoned prophet.

            In the aftermath of this first defense, the waiting continued.  Public doubt continued to grow as Rezin and Pekah remained in power until the second campaign of Tiglath Pileser, yet months off.   Schemes to replace Ahaz would have continued to be in play, giving rise to rumors about conspiracies. These would have been mirrored by claims of conspiracies that Ahaz was in league with the Assyrians, or he was making a deal with Rezin and Pekah.  The public would have been awash with conspiracy theories.

            Isaiah’s second defense opens, verse 11, in response to a divine oracle:

 אמר יהוה אלי כי כח   “Thus say the Lord  to me.”

This new oracle is intended to stiffen Isaiah’s conviction in the prophecy which he so recently been called to deliver. It is delivered not just with words, but also ,בחזקת היד  (ba cheqat hayad) with a  forceful hand.  He is not to call conspiracy what that people call conspiracy; to fear what they fear.  His fear is to be in the Lord, not in the petty fears of the people. The fear of God is said to be sanctifying,   תקידשו the process of making one holy.    He will be your fear and terror and it will be for your sanctification, למקדש , verse 14, The occurrence of the word holy, קדש, links the voice of Isaiah with the vision in Chapter 6 which resounds with the “Holy, Holy, Holy, קדש קדש קדש. This may not answer the question of whether the voice of Chapter 6 is the voice of Isaiah or not, but it does link them in a way that makes clear that Isaiah has internalized the vision.

            The final lines of this second defense raise further difficulties. Verse 14 appears to begin a series of consequences for those who fear the Lord.  It will be for sanctification, but also it will be for a stone over which one will stumble, a rock which causes one to fall; for both houses of Israel, and for a snare and trap for those who dwell in Jerusalem.  The puzzle is solved when one credits the idea held by Isaiah, that being broken, stumbling or falling, being trapped or snared is, yes, bad news, but it becomes good news because it is inherent to the process of transformation.

            As the statis quo continued to drag on it gave rise to yet a third defense, 16-23.  The public is increasingly weary and desperate for answers.  The prophets don’t know when things will change. The time has come, they argue, to take things in their own hands.  The prophets have been given their chance, it is time to seek elsewhere, the necromancers, who use bones to consult the dead or the soothsayer who chirp mysterious answer.  To this Isaiah responds with a harsh command: “Bind the testimony, seal the torah.” Is this directed to the public or to his fellows in the prophetic school?  Testimony in this case stands for the witness that the prophet made at the spring in the presence of Ahaz.   Torah means not law as it comes to mean in later post exilic Judaism, but light.  The original meaning of the word, אור, the root of  torah, is light, hence in this case it indicates illumination or a noumenal sense that results from the testimony.  Binding and sealing are what one does with a scroll. This indicates the testimony is or should be written as text and preserved.  He asks rhetorical “Does not a people ask their God? Does the living ask the dead for torah or testimony?  Not asking God, is certain to lead to darkness and weariness. If the people weary, tired of waiting, the Assyrian are not. They have, in fact, overrun the land of Naphtali, and Zebulon. This dates this third defense as late in 734, after the Assyria campaign of that year.  Naphtali and Zebulon have been lost by the Northern Kingdom and incorporated into the new Assyrian province of Dor.  This loss, however, is viewed as light, but the heavy loss was bound to follow soon.   In fact, the campaign that comes in the following year would move down interior route of the Levant, capturing Damascus and ending of reign of king Rezin. It would continue south reducing Samaria to a puppet kingdom.  Pekah would be executed and replaced by a puppet king. And still, the Assyrian assault would continue southward to Moad and Edom.  The campaign of 734 had taken control of the costal route and the campaign of 733, the interior route.  This left Jerusalem, whose good fortune was to be in the high land, the Shephlah. off the trade routes, isolated between the two prongs of the Assyrian advance.

            Our next talk will be on Chapter 10 in which I will argue that it found its place in the proto=Isaiah unit, 3-12, as the overarching theological reflection looking back on the events that followed in the wake of the prophesy at the Gihon Spring.  At its heart is the conviction that Assyria is the agent of God’s wrath, which is working a transformation of their life.  Here we will find ourselves faced with this difficult concept, so out of favor in contemporary thought, curiously so, however, since it seems that nature and humanity in our times are engulfed in much violence.

 

Part II

The Event Narrative

Isaiah 7:1- 25

 

            In our prior presentation we looked at the poetic elements of the Isaiah scroll that allowed us to identify a major literary unit, Chapter 3-13, “proto-Isaiah,” as it might be dubbed, which served as the original impulse for the Isaiah text as we know it.   We will now direct our attention to the center of this unit around which its content has been arranged.  At the center of this text is a prose unit which undertakes the historical narration of an event that took place in the year 736 B. C. E., shortly after Ahaz ascended the throne Judah. Another historical narrative in First Isaiah does not occur until Chapter 20, briefly, and them more extensively at the conclusion First Isaiah, Chapter 36-39.  This extended narrative is shared with the Historian of Deuteronomic School, II Kings 16-20. When we arrive there, we will encounter the question of who is dependent upon whom.  We will leave that discussion for later, except to register here the opinion that Isaiah 7 is the work of the Prophetic School of Jerusalem. Unlike that later historical narrative by the Deuteronomy School, where prior source is named, “The Annual of the Kings of Judah,” the Isaiah Historian of chapter 7 is not dependent on sources but is working with a firsthand relationship with the event.

            The account in Chapter 7 begins with a phrase, “It came to pass in the days of Ahaz, ןיהי בימי אחז” which is at home in prophesy as opposed to history, whose practice is to date events with reference to years of a reign.  When Ahaz ascended the throne of Judah, the northern kingdom was led by King Pekah who had set aside the long-standing enmity with Syria. He joined in an alliance against Assyria which was led by king Rezin.  The league between Samaria and Damascus was dictated by real politique as the ascending Empire of Assyria, the first empire was threat to both. They pressed Ahaz to join them, threating war and conspiring to replace him with a king who would do their bidding. What actually happened is unclear as the Isaiah text say enigmatically “they marched on Jerusalem to wage war against it but could not.”  We might imagine skirmishes and conspiracies with factions within Judah and Jerusalem taking place. The opening years of any regime are shaky so as to make such testing doubly disconcerting.

            We have pointed out in our previous section that Ahaz had followed the long reign of Uzziah, which had continued through his son Jotham first as coregent and then after his father’s death, king but still under the control of his father’s counselors.  Ahaz, on the other hand, was surrounded with youthful councilors anxious for their turn. The elders of the prophetic school would have found themselves without the previous channels through which they could communicate their growing concerns about the changing geopolitical situation.  That made the school turn to a youthful member, Isaiah, as their messenger to the youthful king and to seek out a public occasion upon which he could deliver their message.

            According to the narrative, the king went out to examine the spring of Gihon, the crucial source of Jerusalem’s water. This resonates with the issue of a sufficient supply of water raised in opening of Chapter 3, and anticipates the tunnel dug in the reign of the king’s son, Hezekiah, which connected the Gihon Spring with the reservoir in the lower city, known as the Pool of Siloam.  When Ahaz visited it, its water flowed down a channel, “conduit,” that ran along the wall of the city. The prophetic school used this public outing connected with the security of the city to deliver its message to the king, which, of course, they were convinced was God’s message.

            The message they send begins with the charge to listen השמר and to be calmובשקט . Then the substance the message begins with words of assurance, “Do not fear, and do not let your heart be troubled,”  אל-תירא לבבך אל-ירך. These are words that resonate throughout the Isaiah text and with those who have made this text central to their own mission, not least of which are those whose mission comes the Gospel. These are words that were given to Isaiah to speak as he greeted the young king Ahaz. The message continues with the assertion that the two principles who are pressing the king to join them, Resin, the king of Aram, and Pekah, the king of Israel, would soon be soldering stumps, burnt out has-beens. They were not the problem, for in a brief time, they would be no more. 

            The verbal message is reinforced by the presence of the prophet’s young son, a toddler. He bears a name which is the embodiment of the message.  The boy’s name is shar yashuv  “those remaining shall turn,”   שאר ישוב.  This is like the children of the prophet Hosea, whose children bore names that are messages, but in that case the names are laments, “no mercy” and “not my people.” The name of Isaiah’s son is a message of hope. The “turn” is not turning back but turning around into a new future. The prophetic school profoundly loyal the house of David, thinks of the whole as all Israel and the anticipated loss of the north, and possible losses for Jerusalem and Judah would reduce it perhaps to a tenth.  What in any case would remain would be a remnant, made up of those remaining (Judah) and those surviving (of the northern tribes) who would be the future that God willed for Israel.

            The Ahaz is warned: “If you will not believe, then you will not be faithful

                                                              לא תאמינו כי לא תאמנו אם.

The problem in the eye of the prophetic school is not what Jerusalem and Judah would do in the short run, but what they would become in the long run in a transformed world. Not-to-change is not-to-exist. Israel/Judah’s role as a kingdom would be seriously limited, eventually done away with. Its future was as an amen, a faith community.  

            Ahaz’s disbelieve is expected for the prophet school holds the doctrine as it indicates in chapter 6:9-13 that “hearing they will not understand and seeing they will comprehend.” For this reason, Isaiah is prepared a sign, in spite of Ahaz protestation that he would not test God by asking for a sign.  The sign is yet another child in this case who will soon be born of a young woman and his name will be Immanuel.  (God with us).  This child is reflection of an altered state of Israel’s existence, and it indicates that the prophesy will be fulfilled in a short time, before the child knows how to reject evil and choose good, in a matter of months not years.

            It will come as no surprise that this text has resulted in a heated dispute between Christians who take this to be a messianic prophesy and that the mother is to be a virgin and Jews who take this as historic event which would be fulfil in the near future and for the mother to be a young wife in the current court. In fact, this announcement is an announcement of a birth that is to happen in the near present near at hand.  How else could it a sigh for Ahaz? This is confirmed in a special way, for Isaiah, outside of the narrative, in a text composed shortly after the confrontation at the spring, refers to the land, Judah and Jerusalem, as belonging to Immanuel, either because the child has been or will be born in it. In chapter 9, composed not long after the event, the child’s birth is announced: 9:3 “For a child has been born, a son given. . .” The birth of Ahaz’s son Hezikiah seem the best if not the only way to understand this.

            This is the first of a number of uses of a birth and a naming of child as a prophet symbol of hope.  It attests to a passionate belief in the capacity of the Davidic family to produce heirs to the throne and thus to renew the life of Israel.  In time this theme will take on a messianic sense, well before the Christian appropriation, which like other appropriations errors only in claiming to own it.  What is common to this symbol is the orientation of history to an open future.

            The narrative is suspended with verse 17 to make way for a theological reflection, a characteristic of the prophetic school. It comes first as a judgment: “The Lord will bring upon you, upon your people, upon the house of your fathers, days which are unlike any since the when Ephriam turn treacherously form Judah.” The use of a literary unit as ground for a theological relation is a signature of the prophetic school. 

            Ending a text is, however, always difficult, as a later day readers, even the author himself, are tempted to amendment it.  So, in a clumsy way someone clarifies the fly and the bee who God is summoning.  The fly is in from the canals of Egypt and the bee is “in the land of the Assyrians.”  The way is opened for him or others to add a series cameos, as Blenkinsopp calls them, four in all, on the disasters of war.  All of which likely came from within the prophet school as it appears that the Isaiah school did not publish their texts but held them in house for their own use and only sometime in the fifth century actual published the text we know as the Isaiah scroll.  The final cameo will prove to be a hallmark of the school, the disaster of a depopulated land, the bad news, on which “the ox roam freely and sheep and goats wander about” the good news.

            Having such a vivid and detailed record of an event of this order is unusual if not unique.  The reason that this happened is that the prophetic school of Jerusalem identified it a significant, if not the essential source, for the theological reflection that could allow them to find their path through what they had discerned as unstoppable force the Assyrian Empire that confronted them.  By identifying this force as God’s will, they transformed the experience of it from a meaningless wave violence to be endured into a meaning punishment which would transform them into future Israel with a world mission.  Their challenge was the theological discern of how they need to be changed.

            As the Isaiah editor was creating this narrative, other elements of the Isaiah school were creating additional textual material which was to be archived in the Prophetic school.  They continue with theological reflections, which yielded the content of Chapter 9 and 10. And recorded reactions of the part of the youthful Isaiah as lived in the aftermath of the prophesy.  These will find a place alongside of the historical narrative when the school pulled them together into the literary unit which we know as Chapter 3-12, proto-Isaiah. 

            In the next  we turn to the reactions of Isaiah which occurred in the aftermath of the prophetic event.

 This is the publication of the second talk in the Isaiah Project.  The first can be found on the Elder's You Tube channel and the second one will be published there as well.  Comments would be most welcome as this project is seeking deepen the level in which capable of carryout its exploration of the Isaiah Scroll, which we regard as a central mystery of the Word becoming text. 

We have begun a series of talks on the Isaiah Scroll, this being the second.  

What makes a close reading of the Isaiah scroll so fascinating is that through it, one is able to experience the spiritual effort of a Biblical community responding to their history as it is unfolding.  This is a contrast to other readings of the Biblical text, say of Exodus, in which the spiritual effort is responding to a remote history that is finished, and is being used as a surrogate for their own historical moment.  The latter case is haunted by a vagueness about the past being remembered and about a present seeking answers through remembering.  The events of the 12^th century BCE migration out of Egypt are obscure and the persons doing so in the 8^th century, or the 7th century, or even later, are equal obscure. But in the Isaiah scroll we are dealing with clear verifiable historical events and with individuals whose presence can be clearly felt by us as they struggle to make theological sense of what is happening to them.  This is both exciting and useful for us who are engaged in our own attempt to come to a theological understanding of what we are going through and with our own need for a theological vision of our future. 

In this second talk we will begin by taking on the early part of the Isaiah scroll which begins with chapter 3 and ends with chapter 12.   In our last talk we looked at the splendid Hebrew poem which constitutes Chapter 12, a poem likely familiar to us because we sing it as a hymn or canticle, “Surely is God who saves us.”   Well one might ask, what sort of writer makes use of a poem for closure! This writer has, I will attempt to demonstrate, also opens his text with a poem, namely, verses 1 through 7 of Chapter 3.  We also noted in our past talk that this section of the text references particular dates, 641 BCE, the year king Uzziah died, and again 634 the year in which Isaiah confronted King Ahaz on the road that passes by the Gihon spring on the east side of the city of David.  It also provides enough specific information that we can imagine the date in which this text was finalized, which is sometime after 722, when Samaria, the capital of the Northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians, and some time before the death of King Ahaz, 615, referenced in Chapter 13, and, therefore, well before Assyria lay siege to Jerusalem 701.  The composition of text must happen around 720.

 The core of this text, which one might consider the first installment of the Isaiah scroll, is this encounter king and prophet.  Uriah was king for fifty years, his last years as co-regent with his son Jotham.  His advisors no doubt continued not only during the coregency but also to the end of Jotham reign.  One can imagine the impatience of a new generation to assume power with the young king. 

 Just as one can imagine the anxiety of the school of Jerusalem prophets, to which the equally young Isaiah had been called, had about the capacity of the new leadership to deal with impending crisis that the kingdom faced. 

 With this in mind let us look at the open unit of Chapter 3, which is a poem or at least, poetic prose.

                  האדון הנה כי

              מסיר צבאןת יהוה

              ומיהודה מירושלם

                   ומשענה משען

        מים-וכל לחם-משען כל

 

Isn’t a fact that the Lord,

            Yahweh of the Hosts is removing

            from Jerusalem and from Judah

            the supply, the essential supply;

            all the supply of bread,

            and all the supply of water.

 Note first that adonai is not in its common form, but is modified by the definite article, ה and ends with ון- on, a suffix which intensifying a noun and which is common in Hebrew poetry.  In this case this special treatment seems dictated by a desire for a kind of cadence, 6 beats, then repeated once, and then ending in line of 8.  There is also a consonance which is made possible by the use of the Hebrew participles that are made with the performative מ, m, along with the m ending on the words Jerusalem, bread and water. ירושלם לחם מים.  This brief text rings with the m sound.   

             The text begins in an unusual manner, not in the way one would expect a prophetic statement, but in the manner of a declaration of a present fact.  There are a number of ways to indicate a prophetic oracle, for example, common in Isaiah is the term משאת “harsh prophesy” as at the beginning of Chapter 13 and following.  Another form makes use of the verb נאם  נאם-אדני, “says the Lord,” as can be seen in the editorial insertion in this text, verse 15. Here however we read הנה כי which has been a puzzle for translators.  The first word is the very common word for “because” or the demonstrative “that”.  The second word is the equally common command, “behold.”  I would suggest that this unusual conjunction in this case should be read as a declarative, “Isn’t it a fact.”  Isn’t it a fact that God has taken away the sufficient support of bread and water?  More important than material failure is the failure in governance. Key individuals are missing: hero and warrior, judge and prophet, soothsayer and elder, captain of fifty and the man of esteem, the counselor and skilled crafts man and one who discerns the secrets, literally, what is whispered, rumored about. The new people, on the other hand, disrespect their elders.  “They behave haughtily, the youth against the elder and the base against the honorable.”  In summation, verse 8, beginning with the same כי: key, “In fact Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah is fallen.”

            The attempt to understand these alleged circumstances is colored by the later sieges of Jerusalem’s history, 701 by Sennacherib and 587 by Nebuchadnezzar.  That causes the text to be read as “a judgement oracles (Childes p. 33) forecasting these later traumatic events. An example is translation of Rosenberg, and others, who translate the verb forms, that are clearly past or presently on-going action, as futures: The plain reading of v.4 שרים נערים ונתתי, is “I have (or am setting) youth as princes, and v. 5 העם ונגש, the people are, or are being oppressed.  In the end it is not what someone will do to Jerusalem and Judah, but what they have done to themselves. Their timing could not be worse, for the prophetic school is acutely aware of the rise of the Assyrian empire and the way it was about to transform life in the Levent.  Already they see that Damascus, a long-time enemy, will be overrun and not long afterward the Northern Kingdom bring Assyria to the borders of Judah.

            Having identified this unit as a poem, the question becomes, how did the prophetic school employ such a poetic unit and why did they choose it to begin what is in effect the first installment of the Isaiah scroll? 

            I would suggest that such poetic units were seen as a basis for theological refection.  The reflective process would take place in a gathering of elders/disciples of the prophetic community. It would unfold in a series of distinctive steps.  The first step was to identify a judgment that would be passed, second, the nature of judgment and resulting loss, and third, the element of hope for a future in the context of the loss. The process is substantially theologizing. This being the first instant we will have to wait for confirmation that this pattern as a substantial feature of the Isaiah scroll.  We will not, however, wait long for a second poetic unit which undergoes this process is “the song of the beloved vineyard” the very next chapter, Chapter 5.  For now, in verse 11 of this chapter, let note the “woe,” which states the judgment to come: “Your men shall fall by the sword and your warriors in war. . . (the city’s) gates shall lament, and morn and she shall be emptied out and she shall sit on the ground.”   

             The result is that on that day of judgment there will be seven women for every man and each women will plead to be called by that one’ name in order that their reproach be may be removed.  In the future exercise of this process the result of judgment is the reduction of the population in which the land is emptied, re-wilded.  For example, in 7:21 we read “On that day one will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, and eat curds because of the abundance of milk that they give; for everyone who is left in the land shall eat curd and honey.”  There appears in such a formula a bad news, good news dynamic.  In this case life will go on, marriage and children will happen, and seconding that, “on that day “the sprout of the Lord shall be for beauty and for honor and the fruiting of the land, for greatness and for glory for the survivors of Israel.” Early on commentators identify this as a messianic text, Christian, but also Rabbinic Judaism and even by the late member of the prophetic school itself before it final publication.        

               Thus, it anticipates the “messianic” text which will be found later as in Chapter 7, verse 14 and Chapter 11, verse 1, ויצא חטר מגזע ישי משרשיו. It is significant that while the birth of child is at stake in these examples, the terminology is not the same.  This, I take it, indicates that this is not so much an actual form of messianic expectation as it is a profound faith in capacity of the Davidic dynasty to renew itself.  This translates into a faith in the future which in time becomes faith in the messiah. The future orientation of the Isaiah scroll from beginning to end is a theological revolution, to which we are all heirs.

            The future, in the Isaiah orientation is also accompanied by forgiveness, in this case a washing from “filth” and “blood.” What is interesting with chapter 3-4 is, that these themes that will be found throughout the Isaiah scroll, occur here, one might say, survive here, in a manner that suggest that are an early, if not the original occurrence of these themes.

            We began this section with two questions: How did the school use such a poetic unit and why was it chosen to begin what in effect is the first installment of the Isaiah scroll.  The answer to the first question is that the school used the poetic units as the beginning of their theological reflection. The poetic text held truth in a way that needed to be unpacked, theologically.

            Second it sets out the coming transformation of Levent life by the rise of the Assyrian Empire.  With Chapter 5 and 6 the lay the background for the message that Isaiah would carry to King Ahaz.  It is the foundation story of the Isaiah scroll.

In our next talk we will turn to Chapter 7 and see in what way the event of the meeting prophet and king set the agenda of the Isaiah scroll.