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The Four: A Survey of the Gospels
Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John
Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture
1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary
The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter
A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons
Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature
Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen
The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism
A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel
From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution
Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy
Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper
A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament
Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature
Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays
Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life
The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church
INTRODUCTION
Isaiah “sees” a “vision” (1:1), but what he sees is a call to “hear” (1:2; cf. 2:1: “the word that Isaiah . . . saw”). Like John, Isaiah turns to the Lord to “see” the voice speaking to him (Revelation 1:12). It’s a voice of warning; it’s a vision of desolation.
THE TEXT
“The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. ‘Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth!’ For the LORD has spoken. . . .” (Isaiah 1:1-9).
HEAR
Isaiah’s prophecy proper begins with the command to “Hear,” which is doubled with the verb form of the word “ear” (as in “lend your ears”; 1:2). Yahweh calls on heaven and earth to stand as witnesses as He makes His case against Judah (cf. Deuteronomy 31:28; 32:1!). The phrasing reminds us of Israel’s great confession, the Shema: “Hear, O Israel, Yahweh your God, Yahweh is one. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). With this echo, Yahweh is reminding Judah that He is the one and only God of heaven and earth (cf. Isaiah 37:16; 40:22; 42:5), and that they are called to love Him. There is a tragic contrast with the rest of verse 2: Judah has not heard; Judah does not love.
SONS, OXEN, ASSES
Israel is Yahweh’s son (Exodus 4:23), but Yahweh charges that the people of Judah are disrespectful sons. He has “made them great,” but instead of responding with grateful obedience they started an insurrection against their Father and King (the verb “rebel” is used in 1 Kings 12:19; 2 Kings 1:1; 3:5, 7; 8:20; cf. Isaiah 66:24!). In verse 3, he shifts from familial to agricultural imagery. Judah is a herd of oxen, or an ox, but doesn’t know enough to seek out her master. Donkeys are unclean animals, but even unclean animals (representing Gentiles) seek out the manger of a master. Judah lacks knowledge, and particularly the discernment to distinguish and judge between right and wrong.
SINFUL NATION, STRICKEN BODY
Judah has become “glorious” (“heavy,” v. 4) with sin and iniquity. The seed of Abraham has become a “seed of evildoers”; Yahweh’s children have become destroyers, and destroyers are destroyed (cf. Genesis 6:11-13). Judah is an unfaithful bride who “forsakes” her Husband (v. 4; cf. Genesis 3:24). Husband and Bride are “estranged,” and so strangers will devour them (the verb “gone away” in v. 4 has the same root as “stranger” in v. 7). Yahweh declares that He is the Holy One of Israel (v. 4), Judah’s true sanctuary and protection. As the Holy One, He should be treated with reverence and fear, but Judah provokes Him instead. Verses 5-6 present a sickening portrait of rebellious Judah. The once-beautiful bride of Yahweh is filled with festering sores, and there is no physician to bandage her wounds.
DESOLATE LAND
Verse 7 describes Judah’s situation more literally: Strangers have invaded the land, burned cities, and eaten its produce. Isaiah is probably describing the devastating Assyrian invasion around 701 (cf. 2 Kings 18:13). As a result, Daughter Zion, Jerusalem or the temple itself, is no longer a glorious place within a fruitful land, but reduced to a small cottage in a field (v. 8). The destruction is nearly total. Only the sliver of a remnant separates Judah from Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 9).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, August 30, 2010 at 3:30 am
From what I can see, Isaiah uses the root yasha, “save,” 48 times in his prophecy. ”Salvation” (yeshua) appears 19 times, while the verb, used both in the perfect/imperfect (“save”) and as a substantive participle (“Savior”) appears 29 times. Isaiah’s name which contains the same root, appears 16 times.
48 is an interesting number, of course. 4 x 12 is the obvious breakdown, Israel saved to the four corners of the land, Israel saved/rescued from the four corners of the earth.
Interestingly, go’el, “Redeemer” or “Kinsman-Redeemer,” apears 24 times.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, August 29, 2010 at 5:25 am
Because of an invasion (probably of Assyrians), Daughter Zion is left like a hut in a “cucumber field” (Isaiah 1:8). It’s clearly an image of diminished glory: Jerusalem or the temple was once a glory of the earth, now it’s no more than a hut.
But Isaiah probably chose the word because it forms a pun. Cucumber field is miqshah while “sanctuary” is miqdash (built from qadash, “holy”). Daughter Zion has been reduced from Yahweh’s holy dwelling place, His miqdash, to a lowly bungalow.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 8:57 am
Borrowing from the Song of Songs, Isaiah describes Judah the Bride from head to foot. He moves from head to heart to foot and back to head (1:5-6). Four body parts are mentioned (3 different, with “head” used twice). He is inspecting Judah to the four corners.
Instead of a beautiful and seductive bride, though, she has become filled with blemishes and oozing sores. The four body parts are matched by the fourfold description of her illness: wounds, bruises, puetrefying, sores (v. 6).
Judah has become completely unsound. The word is metom, and related to the root tamam, “to be complete.” She is imperfect, full of blemishes, and, unlike the Bride of the Song, wholly unsuitable as bridal food for Yahweh.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 8:44 am
Isaiah begins with the charge that Yahweh’s “sons,” the people of Judah, have “rebelled” against Him. The word is frequently used of political insurrection (1 Kings 12:19; 2 Kings 1:1; 3:5, 7; 8:20). Judah has become a nation of insurrectionists against her divine King.
Isaiah ends on the same note, with a vision of what will happen to the insurrectionists in Judah. The very last verse tells us that all flesh will “go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched.”
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 8:20 am
Isaiah opens his prophecy with a call to heaven and earth to bear witness as Yahweh presents His case against Israel (1:2). Heaven is called to “hear” and earth to “give ear,” a testimony of two witnesses.
The same words in different combinations are found at the beginning of the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32. Moses calls on the heavens to “give ear” and the earth to “hear.”
The parallels at the beginning set up one template for the book of Isaiah: It is, from one angle, a long set of variations on the theme of Moses’ Song.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 8:12 am
INTRODUCTION
Isaiah prophesied in Judah during the reigns of several different kings (1:1). To understand his prophecies, we need to know something about the times in which he was preaching.
THE TEXT
“The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Usziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. . . .” (Isaiah 1:1-20).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, August 23, 2010 at 3:20 am
“I hate your new moon festivals,” the Lord says at the beginning of Isaiah, “Bring your worthless offerings no longer; Incense is an abomination to me.”
He rejects Israel’s offerings and festivals because their hands are filled with blood and because they oppress the weak. Seek justice, Yahweh says, and I will listen to you. “Reprove the ruthless. Defend the orphan. Plead for the widow.”
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, August 22, 2010 at 5:37 am
Paul quotes, alludes to, or echoes Isaiah 40-66 over twenty times in the letter to the Romans. Many of the major moves of the letter are linked with references to Isaiah, argues J. Edward Walters.
The thesis that God reveals His righteousness to the Jew first and also to the Greek is similar to the LXX of Isaiah 51:4-8. He quotes directly from Isaiah 52:5 when he charges Jews with doing the very things they condemn in others, and quotes from Isaiah 59:7-8 in chapter 3 to show that all are under the power of sin. In announcing the single sacrifice of Jesus, he alludes to the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. ”WHo can bring a charge against God’s elect?” is answered with Isaiah 50:8, “It is God who justifies,” and the hardening and mercy of Romans 9 makes use of Isaiah 49:10.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, August 21, 2010 at 5:51 am
Where does Paul get the notion that Abraham is “heir of the world”? Mark Forman argues in a 2009 JSNT article that it arises from Paul’s seeing the story of Abraham through the lends of Isaiah 54. Applying Richard Hays’s criteria for identifying echoes, Forman concludes that “there is good evidence that Paul is intentionally echoing this passage from Isa. 54 in Romans 4: the passage explicitly occurs in Galatians; there is a degree of verbal and conceptual correspondence between the two passages, and the use of the passage in this way is plausible in the context of the first-century Graeco-Roman world.”
How how does a quotation from Isaiah 54 fit into Romans 4, which is often understood as a passage about Abraham’s personal faith? Forman shows that the promises of seed and land go together in Genesis, and argues that Paul has not spiritualized away the concern with territory. He thinks Paul applies this promise specifically to the Christians at Rome, consisting mainly of the poor and marginalized, and concludes: “it seems likely that in Rom. 4.19-21 Paul deliberately alludes to Isa. 54.1-3, a passage originally used to provide hope in the midst of exile. The artists, poets and sculptors of first-century Rome were covering their ‘canvas’ with colours they perceived would or should be (or already were) the colours ofthe future. Paul appropriates Isa. 54.1-3 and the interpretive tradition associated with it in order to remind his audience that, although they are currently in the midst of a world fraught with inequality and injustice, and dwelling in the shadows of an empire which claims otherwise, it is the people of God, consisting now of believing Jews and Gentiles, who have been promised the inheritance ofthe earth.”
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, August 21, 2010 at 5:37 am
In a 1962 article, one Leslie Allen connections Paul’s discussion of the work of the Last Adam in Romans 5 with the work of the Servant of Isaiah: ”In Paul’s great formulation of the origin and effect of sin and its redemptive counteraction in Christ (Romans v. 12 ff.) it has been recognized that the concepts of the Son of Man and of the Servant have been united. O. Cullmann has written of v. 19: ‘Verse 19 shows clearly that the apostle had in mind the Servant of Isaiah: …by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous.’ This is a reference to Isaiah liii. 11: My Servant shall make many to be accounted righteous.’ A. M. Hunter agrees: ‘The latter half of the verse [v. 19] surely echoes Isaiah liii. 11.’ It is noticeable that Cullmann omits beda‘t? [by his knowledge] in his quotation from Isaiah liii.11. But is not that too echoed in Romans v. 19, in the words dia tes upakoes tou enos (‘by the obedience of the one’)?”
This has intriguing implications in various directions. First, it indicates that the Servant of Isaiah is, among other things, an Adamic figure. Second, it shows how Paul’s theology of atonement and justification is rooted in Isaiah’s Servant prophecies. Third, Paul’s interpretation of the phrase “by his knowledge” as “by obedience” is arresting. Fourth, the reference to “knowledge” in Isaiah 53 becomes more explicable: Because the Servant is an Adam, his work is about undoing the sin of Adam at the tree of knowledge. Justifying many by his knowledge/obedience might be taken to mean “justifying many by obeying with regard to knowledge,” by a right use of the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, August 21, 2010 at 5:17 am
The title “Holy One of Israel” is used a handful of times outside Isaiah, but regularly in that prophetic book. What does it mean?
Isaiah 8:9-15 helps. While the phrase is not used in the passage, verse 13 exhorts Judah that “it is Yahweh of armies whom you should regard as holy.” The surrounding verses fill in the picture.
Regarding Yahweh as holy means: He is the one who is feared, rather than the nations and their conspiracies (vv. 12-13). It also means that He is a sanctuary (v. 14; miqdash, a holy place). Holy places are inviolable, protected; Yahweh is the holy one because His people inhabit Him as a fortress. Verse 14 modulates from sanctuary to stone. Yahweh is a sanctuary, like the sanctuary of stone in Jerusalem, and thus He is a stone that is a place of stumbling and a trap for the wicked (vv. 14-15). In these ways, Yahweh is the Holy One.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Wednesday, August 18, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Joseph Blenkinsopp (Isaiah 1-39 (The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries)
Perhaps we can modify this scheme a bit: If we take Genesis as guide, the three major figures are not Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph. Isaac has no separate narrative to himself; there is no toledoth of Abraham. Perhaps we could work out correlations along these lines: Isaiah is an “Abrahamic” prophet, Jeremiah a Jacobean one, and Ezekiel a Josephine one. Then perhaps we can say this: As Abraham erected altars throughout the land and worshiped faithfully, so Isaiah is about righteous worship in the garden; Jeremiah struggles with false prophets/brothers in the city, a Jacobean career; Ezekiel is in Babylon, like Daniel (and Joseph before them) preparing a new Goshen for the 12 to settle. Even with Joseph included in the 3, there are still 12 patriarchs, since Joseph splits into Ephraim and Manasseh.
Then it would be interesting to see if we could work from the birth narratives for the patriarchs in Genesis, through the blessings of Jacob (Genesis 49) and Moses (Deuteronomy 33), and the precious stones for each tribe on the high priest’s breastplate, to the book of the 12. Can we correlate the Book of the 12 with the 12 in any detail?
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, August 16, 2010 at 11:43 am
INTRODUCTION
Because it contains so many Messianic passages (e.g., 7:1-14; 9:1-7; 11:1-10; 42:1-4; 53:1-12), Christians have long regarded the book of Isaiah the prophet (so called in Isaiah 37:2; 38:1; 39:3) as a kind of “fifth gospel.” This week, we begin our study in the book by asking the question, What is a prophet? We must answer that question from a variety of different perspectives.
THE TEXT
“The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Usziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. ‘Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken. . . .” (Isaiah 1:1-20).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, August 16, 2010 at 3:59 am
Alec Motyer (The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction & Commentary
In a footnote, Motyer tallies up the stats: Yahweh is called “holy” “thirty-three times in Isaiah compared with twenty-six times in the rest of the Old Testament.” Those numbers look familiar. 33 is the number of years David ruled in Jerusalem. 33 uses of “Holy One of Israel” conjures up the rule of David, appropriate for a prophet so concerned about the death and resurrection of the city.
From the perspective of the Song of Songs, the numbers are even more interesting. 33 is the number of times that “beloved” (dod) is used in the Song of Songs, 26 the number of times “beloved” is used with a first-person suffix (dodi). Dod has the same consonants as the named “David.” And, as I pointed out in a post a few weeks ago, 26 is also the numerical value of the name “Yahweh.” Outside Isaiah, the numerology of “Holy One” points to the name Yahweh, who is the Holy One; within Isaiah, though, the numerology points to a “divine Messiah” motif, a hint of a divine-human David.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, August 6, 2010 at 5:08 am
Isaiah 56:3, 6 promises that the sons of strangers will be joined to Yahweh. Zechariah 2:11 says the same.
In both passages, the verb “join” translates the Hebrew lawah, the verb on which the name “Levi” is a pun. The prophets are not simply talking about Gentiles becoming distant hangers-on among the covenant people, but about Gentiles becoming joined like the Levites who have been brought near. They anticipate the priesthood of the plebs.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 5:53 am
Human beings are clay shaped by the Almighty Potter.
So are events. Isaiah says that long before the events happened the Lord “fashioned-like-a-potter” the Assyrian invasion and devastation of city and country in Israel and Judah (Isaiah 37:26).
If the Lord is a potter fashioning events, those events are presumably His “art.”
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Isaiah 2:12-22 warns of a day when Yahweh will cast down the tall trees and high mountains, the proud men, and the idols. The passage ends with a warning not to esteem man who has breath in his nose. This last is often taken as a reference to the frailty and weakness of man, who should not be feared. The language is more specific.
“Man” is adam, and the references to breath and nose take us back to Genesis 2:7. The man that should not be esteemed (or, reckoned, considered, valued; the verb is the same as in Genesis 15:6) is not mankind in general but Adam, the first man. With the coming of the day, the Lord will wipe away the whole world of the first Adam, who received breath through His nose, and was of the earth, earthy. He will make a way for the last Adam.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Isaiah 34 prophesies about Yahweh’s assault on the nations and their armies. They will be slaughtered, their corpses will rot on the earth, adn the mountains will be drenched with their blood (vv. 1-3). Instead of sacrificial smoke with its pleasing aroma, the stench of corpses will “go up” (v. 3). Even the hosts of heaven will “rot” (v. 4), as the sky rolls up like a scroll.
Isaiah shifts the imagery from rotting corpses to a collapsing sky to the withering of a tree. The hosts that rot are compared to trees withering away – stars are like fruit hanging down from the leafy canopy of the heavens. The hosts of heaven will wither “as a leaf withers from the vine, or as withers from the fig tree (v. 4).
Which of course reminds us of Jesus withering fig trees. Given the context of Isaiah, Jesus’ withering of the tree is a sign of the Lord’s great slaughter of the nations’ armies, a sign that the host of heaven (the starry descendants of Abraham) will wither and rot like dried up grapes or figs, a sign that the Lord will bare His sword and make a great sacrificial slaughter (vv. 5-10). It is a sign that the city will be desolated, a haunt for pelicans and owls and hedgehogs (v. 11).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, November 28, 2009 at 7:07 am
For many throughout church history, fasting is bound up with hostility to matter and the body. We refrain from bodily pleasures of food and drink to train our souls in disembodied life.
That’s not biblical. The biblical fast, as Isaiah 58 puts it, is to share food with the hungry and clothing with the naked. The true fast gives good things away to those who don’t have them.
Biblical fasting, then, assumes the goodness of material things, and the propriety of pleasure. After all, if good and drink and clothing are evil, why would we want to share them? Isaiah’s fast assumes that creation is so good that we want everyone to have a piece of it.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, December 28, 2008 at 8:06 am
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