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The Glory of Kings: A Festschrift for James B. Jordan
Fyodor Dostoevsky
(Christian Encounters Series)
Athanasius
(Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality)
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
Throughout the series of six woes (Isaiah 28-33), Isaiah’s attention has been on the doom that is coming to Judah and Israel – the drunkards of Egypt, Ariel, the rebellious sons who seek help from Egypt. The last woe is is against the “destroyer” and “treacherous” (Isaiah 33:1), that is, the Assyrians who will be punished for their pride and cruelty (Isaiah 10:15-27).
THE TEXT
“Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered; and you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you! When you cease plundering, you will be plundered; when you make an end of dealing treacherously, they will deal treacherously with you. . . .” (Isaiah 33:1-24).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, January 30, 2012 at 6:39 am
Isaiah 31-32 constitute a single passage, a single “woe” pronounced against those in Judah who rely on Egypt for help. The passage is structured in a simple chiasm:
A. Weak flesh of Egypt v. strength of Spirit, 31:1-3
B. Yahweh defends Zion and turns away Assyrians, 31:4-9
C. Yahweh establishes a just king and princes in Zion, 32:1-8
B’. Women of the city are captured and stripped as slaves, 32:9-14
A’. The Spirit poured out to renew the land, 32:15-20
A couple of additional notes.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 10:48 am
Many commentators suggest that Paul borrows his notion of a Christological Rock that follows Israel through the wilderness from intertestamental commentary on the OT. That may be, but the notion of is already evident in the OT itself. Yahweh after all is the Rock of Israel, and both leads and serves as rear guard for the people.
Isaiah 32:2 hints at the connection between Yahweh the Rock and Yahweh the glory-pillar. Describing the princes who will rule Zion in justice, Isaiah implicitly compares the princes to Yahweh. Like Yahweh, the princes will be “like the shade of a rock of glory in an exhausted land.” The reference is clearly to Yahweh the Rock in the wilderness, and that reference to the Rock doubles with a reference to the Lord’s kabed, His glory. Yahweh is Rock and Glory, the Glory-Rock of Israel.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 10:07 am
Zion, like Eden, is a well-watered place: There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God (Psalm 46:4). Yahweh Himself is teh river of delights that refreshes Jerusalem’s inhabitants and nourishes its life.
In Isaiah 32:4, the prophet foresees a new Davidic king surrounded by princes who, like Yahweh, are “streams of water” to their subjects. The parallel between Yahweh and the princes is strengthen by Isaiah’s word play on “Zion.” The princes are rivers “in a dry country,” and the word for dry country is tzayon, identical to “Zion” (tziyon) apart from the initial vowel. Zion itself means a “parched place” or perhaps a “sunny mountain.” To survive as a site for a city, Zion needs a supply of fresh water. Zion is a desert place that only becomes fruitful because of the presence of the Rock of Israel, the Rock that springs with water and drips with honey.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 9:58 am
INTRODUCTION
Isaiah pronounces a double woe against those in Judah who rely on Egypt (30:1; 31:1; cf. Isaiah 13:1-14:27). When Judah repents and casts away her idols (31:6-9), Yahweh will set up a just king (32:1) and pour out His Spirit to renew the land (32:15-20).
THE TEXT
“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD! . . .” (Isaiah 31:1-32:20).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, January 23, 2012 at 7:47 am
In the midst of a swirling, fiery description of Yahweh’s appearance as a flame-snorting Warrior, Isaiah refers a few times to Israel’s liturgical institutions (30:27-33). While Yahweh’s Name is taking care of Israel’s enemies, Israel will be singing in their homes as they do on Passover night or as they do in processions toward the temple (v. 29). Yahweh will make war with tabrets and harps (v. 32).
The last phrase of verse 32 might also point to another aspect of liturgical warfare. It can be translated as: ”and in battles of tenuphah he will fight with it.” Tenuphah is typically “wave offering” (eg, Ex 29:24, 26-27). Yahweh carries on His war against Assyria through “lifting up” of a wave offering, a Eucharistic sacrifice. Plus, the verb “fight” is lacham, so the last phrase is tenuphah nilcham, which might strike a Hebrew reader as being very close to tenuphah lechem, “wave offering of bread.”
More generally: Would ancient Hebrews have missed the pun on lacham and lechem, David’s hometown a “house of bread” and a “house of battle”?
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 9:07 am
Isaiah 30:18 is arranged as a neat chiasm:
A. Therefore waits Yahweh to be gracious
B. and therefore He will be exalted with compassion
B’. for a God of judgment is Yahweh
A’. Blessed all who wait for Him.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 8:19 am
Yahweh makes up an insulting nickname for Egypt, which the NASB translates as “Rahab who has been exterminated” (Isaiah 30:7). The Hebrew is rahab hem shavet, and each of the main terms of the phase is significant.
Rahab means “fierce” but it is used mainly in contexts where Yahweh speaks of His victory over Egypt at the Red Sea, when he cut fierce Egypt in pieces (Psalm 87:4; 89:10; Isaiah 51:9). shavet puns on shavat, “to cease” or, more technically, “to keep Sabbath.” It is a multilayered pun: Egypt offers a false rest, a false Sabbath; Israel should know, since the Egyptians offered them no Sabbath at all during Israel’s Egyptian sojourn. But fierce Rahab will come to a sabbath, an end, a ceasing, and so will not be able to protect Judah from Assyrian attack. Rahab’s fierceness will cease, and leave Judah ashamed.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 7:25 am
In a dense phrase, Isaiah captures the idolatry at the heart of Judah’s attempt at a political alliance with Egypt. He pronounces a woe against the rebellious sons who “make counsel but not of me” and who “pour a pouring but not My Spirit” (30:1). The last phrase is an intricate knot of allusions. The verb nasak, pour, is the standard term for pouring libations (Genesis 35:14; Exodus 30:9; Numbers 28:7; etc.). ”To pour” to Pharaoh is shorthand for entering into a covenant sealed with sacrificial rites.
But in Isaiah, the thing being poured is not a libation. The typical word for libation is nesek (Exodue 29:40-41; Leviticus 23:13). In Genesis 35:14 and Exodus 30:9, someone nasaks a nesek. The object of nasak in Isaiah 30:1 is massekah, also derived from nasak; this term refers to something molten, not a drink poured out but liquid metal poured into a mold, usually to make idolatrous images. The word is often translated as “molten image” though the term means, more woodenly, simply “molten thing” or “poureed thing” (e.g., Exodus 32:4, 8, 17; Leviticus 19:4; Deuteronomy 9:14). The Bible’s first uses of the word are found in Exodus 32, the story of the golden calf. When a delegation from Judah travels back to Egypt to form an alliance, it is as if they are repeating the sin of the golden calf, “pouring out” libations to make a covenant with Pharaoh and effectively making a “poured image” that will be an alternative God.
The second part of the phrase is also important: “to pour a pouring but not My Spirit” is an awkward but literal translation of the clause. There is perhaps an implied continuation of the same verb: “to pour out a pouring but not [to pour out] My Spirit.” Alliances, it seems, are always forged by pouring, whether of molten images or of the Spirit of Yahweh.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 7:04 am
The Hebrew word massa’ introduces a number of oracles in Isaiah’s prophecy (13:1; 14:28; 15:1; 17:1; 19:1; etc.). It is often translated “oracle,” but it comes from a root (nasa’) that means “carry” or “bear,” and is thus sometimes rendered as “burden.”
Isaiah 30:6-8 is a brief massa’ concerning the beasts of the Negev, and it confirms that Isaiah was aware of the etymological weight of the term. The oracle describes a wilderness wandering in reverse, as Israelites laden with treasures go through the beast-infested wilderness back to Egypt to form an alliance with their former masters. Instead of plundering Egypt and taking Egypt’s treasures to the land, they have plundered Israel and are taking Israel’s treasures to Egypt.
In the massa’, the prophet sees donkeys and camels that nasa’ riches and treasures on their backs (v. 8). It is a burden about burdens, an oracle shouldered by the prophet, who bears God’s treasures on his shoulders, about animals that bear Israel’s treasures on their shoulders.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 5:55 am
INTRODUCTION
As soon as Israel left Egypt, many wanted to return. Centuries later, they still want to go back because they hope Egypt can protect them from Assyria. It won’t work. Repentance, including repentance for trusting Egypt, is the only hope (Isaiah 30:15).
THE TEXT
“Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who walk to go down to Egypt, and have not asked My advice, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh. . . .” (Isaiah 30:1-33).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, January 16, 2012 at 4:56 am
When the Pharisees criticize Jesus’ disciples for not washing their hands before eating, Jesus responds by quoting from Isaiah 29:13: “this people draws near with their words and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” He immediately goes on to teach His disciples that defilement does not come from consuming food but from the words that come through the mouth from the heart: “what proceeds from the mouth, this defiles a man” (Matthew 15:11).
In context, the words that are coming from the mouth are the words of hypocritical worship, the mouth-service and lip-worship that the Pharisees offer. They have everything backwards: They are not defiled by eating food with unwashed hands; they are defiled by the very thing that they think sanctifies them – their worship.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 7:37 am
“They draw near with their mouths, and honor Me with their lips, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their fear for me is commandment of rulers” (Isaiah 29:13; cf. Matthew 15:8). This well-known prophetic condemnation of hypocrisy implies a neat theory of language.
First, it indicates that at least the intended purpose of speech, of the words of the mouth, is access. We speak in order to “draw near” to our hearers. The goal is personal access and personal presence. It is presence from a distance, presence across the space that separate persons, presence in the particular case across the space that separates heaven and earth. Speech has a limited range of access. It can draw near only to those who are within the range of hearing. Audio reproduction extends the range of speech, so media allows people to “draw near” with the mouth at a much greater distance, but the aim is still access to personal presence. Before the development of audio reproduction, we of course had books. Though the phenomenology of the printed word and reading is different, we can perhaps extend the point: Writing too is a bid for proximity, for intimacy, for access.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, January 9, 2012 at 7:29 am
INTRODUCTION
In the opening section of this chapter, Isaiah prophesies the coming Assyrian siege of Jerusalem (Isaiah 36-37). David’s city is under siege (Isaiah 29:1), yet Yahweh intervenes at the last moment to disperse Jerusalem’s enemies like chaff (v. 5).
THE TEXT
“Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! Add year to year; let feasts come around. Yet I will distress Ariel; there shall be heaviness and sorrow, and it shall be to Me as Ariel. I will encamp against you all around, I will lay siege against you. . . .” (Isaiah 29:1-24).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, January 9, 2012 at 6:55 am
Isaiah 28:28: Grain for bread is crushed.
You are God’s field, God’s vineyard. You are His planting, yield from the seed of His Word planted in the ground of your heart. You are the grain and the grapes of His harvest.
The Lord is a wise farmer. He knows His land, knows just how much plowing it needs to give the best yield. He knows His dill and cummin and wheat and barley. He knows when to thresh with a rod, and when to thresh with a wheel, and when more threshing would damage the grain.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 8:05 am
INTRODUCTION
Throughout the first half of his prophecy, Isaiah addresses the Assyrian threat and its geopolitical consequences (Isaiah 1-12). In a series of six woes in chapters 28-35, he deals the temptation for Judah’s kings to rely on Egypt for protection (e.g., 30:1-5). Then, Yahweh personally delivers Jerusalem from an Assyrian siege, proving His reliability (chs. 36-37). He proves that He is able to make good on His promises to gather even Egypt and Assyria to Himself (cf. 19:24-25; 27:13).
THE TEXT
“Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower which is at the head of the verdant valleys, to those who are overcome with wine! Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one, like a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, like a flood of mighty waters overflowing. . . .” (Isaiah 28:1-29).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, January 2, 2012 at 8:30 am
World, tebel, is used four times in Isaiah’s little apocalypse. The four uses tell the story of this section of the prophecy. In 24:4, the world is fading and languishes. Isaiah hopes that through the Lord’s judgment the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness (26:9), but at the end of chapter 28 the world is still writhing to give birth to its inhabitants, to the shades buried in the earth (26:18).
But Yahweh promises to make the barren world fruitful. He will make those who come to the land from Jacob take root, blossom, bud, and cover the face of the world with fruit (27:6). Lamentation is thus turned to joy. Withered vines now produce abundant wine.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 10:18 am
In the dream of Pharaoh’s cup-bearer, he sees branches of a vine bud, blossom, and bring forth their clusters (Genesis 40:10). The budding vine was a sign of the cup-bearer’s restoration to his position in Pharaoh’s court. It signified his resurrection from prison and his ascension into the throne room of his king.
That is the same message Aaron receives when his rod buds (Numbers 17). The budding rod is a sign that he will be a fruitful tree in the house of God.
Putting these two passages together, we can see that the cupbearer’s budding vine has a priestly connotation. The bud is a sign that he is restored as a servant of the king’s house. And this makes one wonder if buds generally have a priestly connotation in the Bible.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 10:11 am
Isaiah 27:2-6 promises that the Lord will restore the vineyard that he had earlier abandoned (Isaiah 5:1-7). He raises the vines up, restores the hedge that had protected it, turns it into a vineyard of wine. A song of praise and love replaces the lament of chapter 5.
The section is a chiasm of chiasms. Overall the verses are chiastic:
A. Song of the vineyard, v 2
B. Yahweh guards and waters vineyard, v 3
C. Yahweh stamps down briers and thorns, v 4
B’. Yahweh offers protection and peace
A’. Jacob takes root, blossom, sprouts, produces fruit
On top of this general chiasm are other chiasms.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 9:32 am
So. The word “visit” (paqad) is also used seven times in the “little apocalypse” of Isaiah (24:21, 22; 26:14, 16, 21; 27:1, 3). Again, if nothing else, we have a numerical link with the days of creation, appropriate to a passage concerning the destruction and reconstruction of a world.
The correlation with specific days is even less clear than with the phrase “in that day,” but there are some general links. The first use (24:21) speaks of the Lord’s visitation on the kings of the earth, imagined as heavenly lights. The sixth usage refers to the visitation of Leviathan, the serpent who enticed Adam to fall, and the last describes Yahweh’s diligence in guarding His vineyard from those who would “visit” (27:3).
However this shakes out, the fact that we have at least two key words/phrases that occur seven times in this section is suggestive. Not only does it confirm that Isaiah 24-27 functions as a unit, but it hints at the kind of unit it is. (By my count, “Yahweh” or “Yah” occurs 28x, 4 x 7).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 4:50 am
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