ISAIAH
April 2010
Isaiah (eye-Zay-ah) is one of the three Major Prophets in Jewish scriptures (Christians add the books of Lamentations and Daniel to make Five Major Prophets). It's been called "The Fifth Gospel" because of several so-called Messianic texts now known as The Suffering Servant verses (42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12). These, for Christians, predict Jesus as Messiah. Isaiah is the most quoted Scripture in Handel's oratorio, The Messiah. The poetry and thought of this book rank high. Parallelism is used throughout, as well as the concrete images typical of Hebrew poetry. Scholars tend to divide Isaiah into three parts, with three different writers. These parts are known as First Isaiah (1-39); Second Isaiah (40-55); Third Isaiah (56-66). If you like fancy words, they're also called Proto-Isaiah, Deutero-Isaiah and Trito-Isaiah, with the same meanings of first, second, third. Second Isaiah is easy to identify by the opening lines of Chapter 40 (also the opening verses of Handel's Messiah), "Comfort ye my people." The contrast with First Isaiah is obvious. First Isaiah is in the 8th century BCE period with the defeat of northern Israel in 722 and the threat to Judah still active. Second Isaiah is hundreds of years later during the Exile; hence the word of "comfort." As the Exile ends, the Persian king, Cyrus, who defeated the Babylonians and allowed the Jews back home, is called "Messiah," because Jews saw him as God's "anointed" in order to deliver the Jews. Fundamentalists (people who believe the Bible literally) accept the unity of Isaiah, because the Gospels say so (Matthew 3:3; 12:18), though those verses refer to Second Isaiah. April 2010
1:1 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.
Some scholars see v. 3 as influencing Luke's Nativity scene, with the infant Jesus in a manger (an eating place for animals):
1:3 The ox knows his owner,
and the donkey his master's crib;
but Israel doesn't know,
my people don't consider."
Isaiah has a high idea of God and commonly refers to God as the "Holy One." "Daughter" is a metaphor for "people."
1:4 Ah sinful nation. They have forsaken Yahweh.
They have despised the Holy One of Israel.
1:8 The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard,
like a hut in a field of melons,
like a besieged city.
The idea of a "remnant" is introduced here. This is an important motif in later biblical books. Christians use that idea to represent themselves as the "remnant" (survivors), that is, the remainder of the Jewish people who follow God's laws and are justified. This, for Christians, explains why most Jews rejected Jesus' message:
1:9 Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant,
we would have been as Sodom;
we would have been like Gomorrah.
Isaiah makes his point metaphorically by referring to Israel (Israel and Judah) by the names of the twin evil cities destroyed by God:
1:10 Hear the word of Yahweh, you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
The book prophets have higher ideas of God and sacrifice and often mock older forms of sacrifices compared to a sacrifice of praise and justice. "Prostitution" is always an image of corruption in the prophets:
1:11 "What are your sacrifices to me?," says Yahweh.
1:17 Learn to do well.
Seek justice.
Relieve the oppressed.
Judge the fatherless.
Plead for the widow."
1:18 "Come now, and let us reason together," says Yahweh:
"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."
1:21 How the faithful city has become a prostitute!
1:23
Everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards.
They don't judge the fatherless,
neither does the cause of the widow come to them."
2:1 This is what Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
The theme of universalism begins to take over. If God is God, then God must be God over all the nations:
2:3 Many peoples shall go and say,
"Come, let's go up to the mountain of Yahweh,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
and he will teach us of his ways,
and we will walk in his paths."
For out of Zion the law shall go forth,
and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.
These verses became the basis of the famous Gospel song, "Down by the Riverside":
2:4 He will judge between the nations,
and will decide concerning many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
2:22 Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils;
for of what account is he?
Israel as God's vineyard (wine field) is an important image in the Gospels, especially in Jesus' parable (story lesson) of the vineyard:
3:14 Yahweh will enter into judgment with the elders of his people,
and their leaders:
"It is you who have eaten up the vineyard.
The spoil of the poor is in your houses.
The theme of social justice becomes urgent in the book prophets.
3:15 What do you mean that you crush my people,
and grind the face of the poor?" says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.
3:16 Moreover Yahweh said, "Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,
and walk with outstretched necks and flirting eyes,
walking to trip as they go,
jingling ornaments on their feet;
3:17 therefore the Lord brings sores on the crown of the head of the women of Zion,
and Yahweh will make their scalps bald."
This is a delightful passage, worthy of the Roman satirist (social mocker), Juvenal, who devotes one of his satires to women's fashions. One can reconstruct ancient Jewish social life by these verses:
3:18 In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, headbands, crescent necklaces, 3:19 earrings, bracelets, veils, 3:20 headdresses, ankle chains, sashes, perfume bottles, charms, 3:21 signet rings, nose rings, 3:22 fine robes, capes, cloaks, purses, 3:23 hand mirrors, fine linen garments, tiaras, and shawls.
3:24 It shall happen that instead of sweet spices, there shall be rottenness;
instead of a belt, a rope;
instead of well set hair, baldness;
instead of a robe, a wearing of sackcloth;
and branding instead of beauty.
3:25 Your men shall fall by the sword,
and your mighty in war.
Women will beg men to marry them:
4:1 Seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, "We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothing: only let us be called by your name. Take away our reproach."
5:3 "Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
please judge between me and my vineyard.
5:4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?
Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
5:5 Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up."
Property greed did not begin with us:
5:8 Woe to those who join house to house,
who lay field to field, until there is no room,
and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!
5:22 Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine,
and champions at mixing strong drink;
5:23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
but deny justice for the innocent!
Blossoms in the Dust was a famous Greer Garson movie, probably named from the verse below:
5:24 Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root shall be as rottenness,
and their blossom shall go up as dust;
because they have rejected the law of Yahweh of Armies,
and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
The point is to show that God is in control of history, both when Israel is defeated (Israel's enemies come because God "whistles" for them) and when Israel is saved (so Cyrus is called God's "Messiah"):
5:26 He will lift up a banner to the nations from far,
and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth.
5:28 Their horses' hoofs will be like flint,
and their wheels like a whirlwind.
From these verses is where Christians get the part of the mass known as the Sanctus ("Holy, holy, holy"):
6:1 In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. 6:2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew. 6:3 One called to another, and said,
"Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies!
The whole earth is full of his glory!"
6:8 I heard the Lord's voice, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"
Then I said, "Here I am. Send me!"
Jesus later quotes these verses, which are used by later Christians to explain why God rejected the Jews as his people and why Jesus spoke in parables. John 12:40 quotes v. 10:
6:9 He said, "Go, and tell this people,
'You hear indeed,
but don't understand;
and you see indeed,
but don't perceive.
6:10 He has blinded their eyes
and deadened their hearts,
so they can neither see with their eyes,
nor understand with their hearts,
nor turn--and I would heal them."
These are some of the key verses in Isaiah. God promises King Ahaz that he need not fear the combined military threat from Syria (Damascus) and Northern Israel ("Israel" not Judah), because before Ahaz's child (Hezekiah) grows up, Judah will be spared. The Hebrew word, "Almah," (7:14) means "young woman," but it was translated as "virgin" in the Greek version. When these verses were seen to predict the coming of Jesus, it was required that Jesus be born of a virgin (Mary):
7:3 Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, "Go to Ahaz, on the highway of the fuller's field. 7:4 Tell him, 'Be careful, and keep calm. Don't be afraid for the anger of Rezin (King of Syria) and Syria (Damascus).
Jesus is called Emmanuel ("God be with us") in the Gospels and several famous Christmas songs. In other words, Jesus is literally "with us."
7:14 The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 7:15 He shall eat butter and honey when he knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good. 7:16 For before the child knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken."
9:2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.
Those who lived in the land of the shadow of death, on them the light has shined.
As before, these are also some of the most famous Messianic verses in the Bible, which is why Isaiah is often called The Fifth Gospel:
9:6 For to us a child is born. To us a son is given; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 9:7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end. He will reign on the throne of David, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever.
10:21 A remnant will return, even the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
Jesse was the son of Obed, born of the gentile (non-Jewish) woman, Ruth and her Jewish husband, Boaz. Then follows one of the most famous Messianic prophecies, which Christians read as predicting Jesus:
11:1
A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse,
and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.
Some scholars trace the seven Gifts of the Spirit to these verses (11:2). Note "fear" means something like "respect" or "regard":
11:2 The Spirit of Yahweh will rest on him:
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.
11:3 His delight will be in the fear of Yahweh.
He will not judge by the sight of his eyes,
neither decide by the hearing of his ears;
11:4 but with righteousness he will judge the poor,
The motif of "the Peaceable Kingdom" comes from these verses, the famous painted series by American artist Edward Hicks (left), and the famous Gospel song, "Peace in the Valley":
11:6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
and the leopard will lie down with the young goat;
The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together;
and a little child will lead them.
Message of "universalism" ("the nations" means non-Jews); the Exodus is still a type of Salvation, the founding moment of Jewish identity, reversing the Assyrian Exile:
11:10 It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting place will be glorious. 11:16 There will be a highway for the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, like there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
Refers to the king of Babylon, but some read this to refer to the Devil, or Prince of Light ("Lucifer"). Jesus is later called "the morning star." Note the theme of the "Wheel of Fortune," reversing fates of peoples ("Is this the man. . . .?"):
14:12 How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low! 14:16 Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, "Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms; 14:17 who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities; who didn't release his prisoners to their home?"
Another warning against the worship of idols:
17:7 In that day, people will look to their Maker, and their eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel. 17:8 They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they respect that which their fingers have made, either the Asherim, or the incense altars.
This motif of the Banquet becomes common in the Bible and is probably the source of the worldly idea of Heaven as a place of feasting. 26:19 (italics) is one of the few hints of a belief in an afterlife in the Old Testament:
25:6 In this mountain, Yahweh of Armies will make all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of choice wines, of fat things full of marrow, of well refined choice wines.
26:19 Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast forth the dead.
In Christian readings, Jesus is the cornerstone:
28:16 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily. 28:17 I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place.
35:5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
35:6 Then the lame man will leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute will sing;
for waters will break out in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert.
"Streams in the Desert" (35:6, above) gave a title to a famous devotional book.
Second Isaiah, during the Exile:
40:1 "Comfort, comfort my people," says your God. 40:2 "Speak comfortably to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of Yahweh's hand double for all her sins."
40:3
The voice of one who calls out,
"Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness!
Make a level highway in the desert for our God.
40:4 Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The uneven shall be made level,
and the rough places a plain.
40:5 The glory of Yahweh shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together;
for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it." 40:6 The voice of one saying, "Cry!"
One said, "What shall I cry?"
"All flesh is like grass,
and all its glory is like the flower of the field.
40:7 The grass withers,
the flower fades,
because Yahweh's breath blows on it.
Surely the people are like grass.
40:8 The grass withers,
the flower fades;
but the word of our God stands forever."
Many of these verses (above and below) are famous from Handel's Messiah. 40:11 is also a famous spiritual. The image of Jesus holding a sheep comes from these verses:
40:11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd.
He will gather the lambs in his arm,
and carry them in his bosom.
40:31 But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength.
They will mount up with wings like eagles.
One of the Suffering Servant verses:
42:1 "Behold, my servant, whom I uphold;
my chosen, in whom my soul delights—
I have put my Spirit on him.
42:4 He will not fail nor be discouraged,
until he has set justice in the earth,
and the islands will wait for his law."
42:6 "I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness,
and will hold your hand,
and will keep you,
and make you a covenant for the people,
as a light for the nations;
42:7 to open the blind eyes,
to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon,
and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.
The Christian group, Jehovah's Witnesses, took their name from these verses:
43:10 "You are my witnesses," says Yahweh,
"With my servant whom I have chosen;
that you may know and believe me,
and understand that I am he.
Vv. 446b are repeated in the book of Revelation:
44:6 This is what Yahweh, the King of Israel,
and his Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies, says:
"I am the first, and I am the last;
and besides me there is no God.
Note that the Persian king, Cyrus, is called God's anointed ("messiah"):
45:1 Thus says Yahweh to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him, and strip kings of their armor; to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut:
Another Suffering Servant song (50:4-9):
50:6 I gave my back to the strikers, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair; I didn't hide my face from shame and spitting. 50:7 For the Lord Yahweh will help me; therefore I have not been confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know I shall not be disappointed."
51:12 "I, even I, am he who comforts you: who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who shall be made as grass. . . . ."
A possible source of Jesus' anointing at Bethany (Jesus is the "Prince of Peace" who brings "good news" of Salvation: "Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair" (John 12:3):
52:7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
More Suffering Servant verses. (For Jews, the "Suffering Servant" is Israel.) V. 15 could refer to baptism; v. 15b. to Gentiles (nonJews):
52:13 Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.
52:14 Like as many were astonished at you (his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men),
52:15 so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they understand.
53:3 He was despised,
and rejected by men;
a man of suffering,
and acquainted with disease.
He was despised as one from whom men hide their face;
and we didn't respect him.
53:4 Surely he has borne our sickness,
and carried our suffering;
yet we considered him plagued,
struck by God, and afflicted.
53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought our peace was on him;
and by his wounds we are healed.
53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray.
Everyone has turned to his own way;
and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
53:7 He was oppressed,
yet when he was afflicted he didn't open his mouth.
As a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute,
so he didn't open his mouth.
53:8 He was taken away by oppression and judgment;
and as for his generation,
who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living
and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
53:9 They made his grave with the wicked,
and with a rich man in his death;
although he had done no violence,
neither was any deceit in his mouth.
53:10 Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him.
He has caused him to suffer.
53:11 After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light and be satisfied.
My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself;
and he will bear their iniquities.
53:12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out his soul to death,
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
The Gospel Passion story (that is, the trial and death of Jesus) closely follows the above Suffering Servant verses. Next begins Third Isaiah. Note the mock sales pitch:
55:1 "Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 55:2 Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which doesn't satisfy?
58:6 "Isn't this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? 58:7 Isn't it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh? 58:8 Then your light shall break forth as the morning. . . .
58:9 Then you shall call, and Yahweh will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.'
These are the verses of Jesus' first sermon:
61:1 The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is on me;
because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to those who are bound;
For this reason, Gospel songs refer to Heaven as "Beulah Land":
62:4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall your land any more be termed Desolate: but you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for Yahweh delights in you, and your land shall be married. 62:5 For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons shall marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you.
Quoted in the book of Revelation:
65:17 "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
66:12 For thus says Yahweh, "Behold, I will extend peace to her [Jerusalem] like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and you will nurse. 66:13 As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted in Jerusalem."
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