Introduction to the Old Testament Part 6

Strangely enough, this eloquent threat of judgment ends in a vision of comfort and peace, iv. 2-6. The land is one day to be wondrously fruitful, her people to be cleansed and holy, and the glory of Jehovah will be over Zion as a shelter and shade. The theological implications of this last pa.s.sage seem late, and it was probably appended by another hand than Isaiah's as a contrast and consolation.

Then follows a lament, in the form of a vineyard song, which skilfully ends in a denunciation of Judah, the vineyard of Jehovah, v. 1-7, merging thereafter into a sixfold woe, p.r.o.nounced upon her rapacious land-holders, drunkards, sceptics, enemies of the moral order, worldly wise men, besotted and unjust judges, v. 8-24. This is fittingly followed by the announcement that Jehovah will summon against Judah the swift, unwearied and invincible hosts of a.s.syria, v. 25-30.

In the n.o.ble vision (740 B.C.) which inaugurated his prophetic ministry (vi.), Isaiah saw the glorious Jehovah attended by seraphim and received from Him the call to go forth and deliver his message to an unbelieving people. This vision appropriately introduces the prophecies proper in vii.-xii.; but it is practically certain that though the vision itself was early, the account of it is later. The hopelessness of his prospective ministry looks rather like the retrospect of a disappointing experience. Though Isaiah elsewhere expresses his faith in the salvation of a remnant, this chapter a.s.serts the utter annihilation of the people, _vv_. 11-13_ab_.

An attempt has been made to relieve the gloom in the last clause of the chapter, _v_. 13 _c_, by a comparison of the stump of the tree that remained, after felling, to the holy seed; but this clause, which is wanting in the Septuagint, and utterly blunts the keen edge of the prophecy, is no part of the original chapter.

The next section, vii. i-ix. 6, plunges us into the war which the allied arms of Aram and Israel waged against Judah in 735, doubtless in the desire to force her to join a coalition against a.s.syria.

Isaiah, vii. 1-17, seeks to rea.s.sure the faith of the trembling king Ahaz; and when Ahaz refuses to put the prophetic word to the test, Isaiah boldly declares that the land will be delivered from the menace before two or three years are over; and many a child--or it may be some particular child--soon to be born, will be given the name Immanuel, and will thereby bear witness to the faith that, despite the stress of invasion, G.o.d will not forget His people, but that He "is with us."[1] To the same period, but probably not the same occasion, belongs the prophecy of the devastation of Judah by a.s.syria, vii. 18-25. But the blow is to fall first, and within two or three years, on Aram and Israel, with their respective capitals.

It did not fall so quickly as Isaiah had expected: Damascus was indeed taken in 732, but Samaria not till 721: in spirit, however, if not in the letter, the prophecy was fulfilled, viii. 1-4. The unbelief of Judah will also be punished by the hosts of a.s.syria, but the ultimate purpose of Jehovah will not be frustrated, viii. 5-10.

He alone is to be feared, and no combination of confederate kings need alarm, viii. 11-15. The prophet commits his message to his disciples, and with patience and confidence looks for vindication to the future, viii. 16-18. Desperate days would come, viii. 19-91, but they would be followed by a brilliant day of redemption when Jehovah would remove the yoke from the shoulder of His burdened people by sending them a glorious prince with the fourfold name.

[Footnote 1: vii. 8_b_]

This latter prophecy, ix. 2-7, has been denied to Isaiah, but apparently with insufficient reason. The pa.s.sage falls very naturally into its context. The northern districts of Israel (ix. 1) had been ravaged by a.s.syria in 734 B.C. (2 Kings xv. 29), and upon this darkness it is fitting that the great light should s.h.i.+ne; and the yoke to be broken might well be the heavy tribute Judah was now obliged to pay. There are undoubted difficulties, e.g. the mention of a Davidic king, ix. 7, after a specific reference to the fortunes of Israel over which the Davidic king had no jurisdiction; and it is probable that we do not possess the oracle in its original form or completeness. But, in any case, the vision of the righteous and prosperous king ruling over a delivered people fittingly closes this series of somewhat loosely connected oracles.

The next section, ix. 8-x. 4, forms a very artistic whole, consisting of four strophes, each of four verses,[1] concluding with the refrain--

For all this His wrath is not turned, And His hand is stretched out still.

The poem, which falls about 734, lashes the pride and ambition of _Israel_ (not Judah) and threatens her people with loss of territory and population, anarchy and civil war. The pa.s.sage was probably originally followed by v. 26-29, which has a similar refrain, and which, with its vivid description of the terrible a.s.syrian army, would form an admirable climax to this poem.

[Footnote 1: Ch. ix. 8 is an introduction and _v_. 13 an interpolation.]

Chs. x. 5-xii. 6. a.s.syria, then, is the instrument with which Jehovah chastises Israel. But because she executes her task in a spirit of presumption and pride, she in her turn is doomed to destruction; but the remnant of Jehovah's people will be saved, x.

5-27. The gradual approach of the a.s.syrians to Jerusalem is then described in language full of word-play, _vv_, 28-32, which forcibly reminds us of a very similar pa.s.sage in Isaiah's contemporary Micah, i. 10-15. This chapter is probably about twenty years later than those that immediately precede it. There is an obvious advance in the prophet's att.i.tude to a.s.syria, and the boast in _vv_. 9-11 carries the chapter later than the fall of Samaria (721) and Carchemish (717). It is even possible that the description of the a.s.syrian advance in vv. 28-32 implies Sennacherib's campaign in Judah in 701.

After the destruction of the enemy before Jerusalem in x. 33, 34 follows an enthusiastic description of the Messianic king--of his wisdom and justice, and of the universal peace which will extend even to the animal world, xi. 1-9. It is the counterpart of ix. 2-7, though here again, and perhaps with more reason, the Isaianic authors.h.i.+p has been doubted. The peculiar emphasis upon the equipment with the spirit is hardly, in these ethical relations.h.i.+ps, demonstrably pre-exilic, and the "stem" out of which the shoot is to grow suggests that the monarchy had fallen, but the word may possibly be used to indicate its decadent condition. In any case, there seems very little doubt that the rest of the section, xi. 10-xii. 6, strikingly appropriate as it is in this place, is post-exilic. It describes how in the Messianic days just pictured, theexiles of Israel and Judah will be gathered from the ends of the earth to their own land, where their near neighbours will all be vanquished, xi. 10-16. Then follows a simple song of grat.i.tude for the redemption Jehovah has wrought, xii. The presuppositions of the dispersion here described are not such as fit into Isaiah's time; they would not even apply to the conditions after the fall of Jerusalem and the exile of Judah in 586, still less to the fall of Samaria and the exile of Israel in 72l--the pa.s.sage must be post-exilic. But though much later than Isaiah's time it forms a very skilful conclusion to the first division of his book, and is an admirable counterpart to the gloomy scenes of ch. i.

Chs. xiii.-xxiii. _Prophecies concerning foreign nations_

Chs. xiii. 1-xiv. 23. The Downfall of Babylon. The oracle concerning Babylon, the first of the series of oracles concerning foreign nations, is one of the most magnificent odes in literature. A day of destruction to be executed by the Medes is coming upon Babylon the proud (xiii.) and the exiles will return to their own land, xiv. 1-3. The triumph song that follows discloses a weird scene in the underworld, where the fallen king of Babylon receives an ironical welcome from the shadow-kings of the other nations. There can be no doubt that this prophecy is not by Isaiah. It glows with a pa.s.sionate hatred of Babylon; but the Babylon which figured in the days of Isaiah (x.x.xix.) was only a province of a.s.syria, not an independent and oppressive world-power; nor would its destruction have meant the return of the exiles of northern Israel. The situation is plainly that of the period during the later exile of Judah _before_ the capture of Babylon by Cyrus in 538, as the horrors which the poet antic.i.p.ated (xiii. 15f.) did not take place.

In the spirit of ch. x., xiv. 24-27 proclaims the invincible triumph of Jehovah's purpose and the destruction of the a.s.syrians in the land of Judah. The a.s.sa.s.sination of Sargon in 705 B.C. was the cause of wild rejoicing throughout the western va.s.sal states: the joy of Philistia is rebuked by the prophet in _vv_. 28-32 with the warning that worse is yet in store--an allusion, no doubt, to an expected a.s.syrian invasion. If this be the theme of the pa.s.sage, _v_. 28 can hardly be correct, as Ahaz had died ten or twenty years before.

Chs. xv., xvi. Oracle concerning Moab. The subscription to this prophecy, xvi. 13, indicates that we have here an older prophetic oracle, given "heretofore." Strictly speaking, it is not so much a prophecy as an elegy over the fate of Moab whose land had been devastated by an invader from the north. The fugitives, arriving in Edom, send in vain for help to the people of Judah. Who the invader was it is hard to say--possibly Jeroboam II of Israel, whose conquests were extensive (2 Kings xiv. 25; Amos vi. 14). The oracle, besides being diffuse, is altogether dest.i.tute of higher prophetic thought, and is certainly not Isaiah's, though he adapted it to the existing situation and foretold a similar and speedy devastation of Moab, no doubt at the hands of the a.s.syrians, xvi. 14.

Ch. xvii. I-II. This prophecy concerning Aram and Israel falls, no doubt, within the period when these two countries were leagued against Judah, about 735. The doom of Aram is to be utter destruction; that of Israel, all but utter destruction.

In the next two pa.s.sages, xvii. 12-14, xviii., Isaiah appears to return to his favourite theme of the sure destruction of the a.s.syrians, though they are not mentioned by name. In xvii. 12-14 their hosts are compared to the noise of many waters, while in xviii. their doom is announced by the prophet in answer to an emba.s.sy sent by the Ethiopians, who were alarmed at the prospect of an invasion by the a.s.syrians, doubtless under Sennacherib.

Ch. xix. Oracle concerning Egypt. For Egypt the prophet announces a doom of civil war, oppression at the hands of a hard master, and public and private distress which will issue in despair, _vv_.

1-17. In their terror, however, the Egyptians will cry to Jehovah, who will reveal Himself to them and be in consequence honoured and wors.h.i.+pped on Egyptian soil. Then a triple alliance will be formed between Egypt, a.s.syria and Israel, and they shall all be Jehovah's people, _vv_. 18-25.

The dream of such an alliance is very attractive and not too bold for so original a thinker as Isaiah. But the pa.s.sage is beset by difficulties.

The att.i.tude to Egypt appears to be much friendlier in _vv_. 18-25 than in _vv_. 1-17; and it seems quite impossible to find within Isaiah's age a place for five (=several?) Hebrew-speaking cities in Egypt, _v_. 18, whereas such a reference would excellently fit the later post-exilic time when there were extensive Jewish colonies in Egypt. If the city specially mentioned at the end of the verse be, as it seems to be, either Sun-city (Heliopolis) or Lion-city (Leontopolis) then it would not be unnatural to find, in the next verse, with its wors.h.i.+p of Jehovah upon Egyptian soil, a reference to the founding of a temple at Leontopolis by Onias in 160 B.C. In that case, a.s.syria in _v_. 23 stands, as occasionally elsewhere, for Syria, from which Israel had suffered more severely during the second century B.C. than the earlier Israel from a.s.syria; and the dream of Palestine, Syria, and Egypt, united in the wors.h.i.+p of the true G.o.d, would be just as striking and generous in the second century as in the eighth. At first, _v_. 19 seems to tell powerfully in favour of the Isaianic authors.h.i.+p, as the ma.s.sebah (pillar) here regarded as innocent was proscribed a century after Isaiah by the Deuteronomic law (Deut. xii. 3). But the Egyptian Jews may not have been so stringent as the Palestinian, or we may even suppose that the "pillar" has here nothing to do with wors.h.i.+p, but stands, for some other purpose, on the boundary line. There is no adequate reason, however, why _vv_. 1-17, or at least _vv_. 1-15, should not be a.s.signed to Isaiah.

In ch. xx. (711 B.C., cf. _v_. 1, capture of Ashdod) Isaiah indicates in symbolic prophecy--which, however, was not fulfilled--that the people of Egypt and Ethiopia would be deported by the a.s.syrians. The prophet's object was to dissuade the people of Judah from the Egyptian alliance which they were contemplating.

The theme of xxi. 1-10 is the same as that of xiii., xiv.--the impending fate of Babylon--and the pa.s.sages may be almost contemporary. Warriors of Elam and Media are sent against Babylon, and the issue is awaited with tremulous excitement, till at last the watchman proclaims the welcome news, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen."

The importance here aligned to Babylon and her fall, the express mention of Elam and Media, _v_. 2, as her a.s.sailants, and the description of Jehovah's people as "threshed" point unmistakably to the last years of the exile, after the rise of Cyrus in 549, and before the fall of Babylon in 538, so that the pa.s.sage cannot be from Isaiah. With this seems to go the next little enigmatic oracle concerning Edom, xxi. 11, 12, whose fate, as affected by the fall of Babylon, is as yet uncertain. The desert tribes, xxi. 13-17, will also be affected by the general upheaval and be driven from the regular caravan routes.

Ch. xxii. is the only chapter in this division (xiii.-xxiii.) which is not concerned with foreign nations. It probably owes its place here to its peculiar superscription which conforms to the other superscription in xiii.-xxiii. In this chapter the prophet laments and very sternly rebukes the frivolity of the people of Jerusalem--whether shortly before the invasion of Sennacherib or after his retreat, it is hard to say.

Trusting in their armour and fortifications they give the rein to their appet.i.tes, but he solemnly declares that their sin will be punished with death.

Unique among the oracles of Isaiah are the two pieces, xxii. 15-18 and 19-25, which deal with persons. Shebna, one of the court officials and probably a foreigner, is threatened with exile and the consequent loss of his office: probably he championed the policy of an Egyptian alliance. His place will be taken, according to Isaiah, by Eliakim, who, curiously enough, is threatened in his turn.

Probably _vv_. 19-23 are an adaptation of 2 Kings xviii. 18, where Eliakim is holding an office here held by Shebna, while Shebna is only a scribe.

A prophetic lament over Tyre (xxiii.) concludes the oracles dealing with the foreign peoples. The glad ancient merchant city will be brought to silence, _vv_. 1-14, though after seventy years she is to be revived, and the proceeds of her traffic are to be enjoyed by the people of Jerusalem, _vv_. 15-18. There was a siege of Tyre during Isaiah's time, but it is probably not that which is celebrated here, as the poem lacks the n.o.bility and grandeur of the prophet's style. If the oracle is held to imply the conquest of Tyre, it would require to be brought down to the time of Alexander the Great; but it may well be only an antic.i.p.atory lament and therefore earlier, contemporary perhaps with a similar oracle of Ezekiel concerning the siege of Tyre (Ez. xxvi.-xxviii.) Verses 15-18 are clearly dependent on Jeremiah's view of the duration of the Chaldean oppression (Jer. xxv. 11, xxix. 10); and the whole chapter may be exilic.

Chs. xxiv.-xxvii. _Late prophecy concerning the glorious issue of some world-catastrophe_.

This section is very peculiar, obscure, and in the Old Testament altogether unique. Contemporary historical facts are seen now in the lurid light of fear, more often in the more brilliant light of eschatological hopes. In ch. xxiv. a great catastrophe is impending.

The world is weary, and joy has vanished. The city (Jerusalem?) is desolate. Something has happened to revive Jewish hopes and kindle high expectations as to the issue of the coming calamity, but in the immediate future new woes are impending--the earth will reel; on that day, however, Jehovah will suddenly punish the powers supernatural and terrestrial, and come down to reign in glory on Mount Zion. Then (xxv.) follows an enthusiastic song of praise, because a certain strong city (unnamed) has been laid low. A great banquet is prepared on Zion for all the sorrow-ridden nations of the world--emblem of their reception into the Kingdom of G.o.d--tears are wiped from every eye, and, with their reproach removed, the Jews praise their G.o.d for the victory. Another song of praise follows in xxvi. 1-xxvii. 1 for the power with which Jehovah has defended His own city, and laid her proud rival low. The wicked will not learn from the divine judgments; but, while they are destroyed, not only do Jehovah's own people increase, but their dead are restored to life, to partic.i.p.ate in His glorious kingdom; and the dragon is smitten. Then follows xxvii. 2-6, a song of the vineyard-counterpart to v. l-7--which praises Jehovah's care for Judah, with whom He is angry no more. Her rival shall become a desolation, but she herself shall be forgiven and re-established, if only she remove all signs of heathen wors.h.i.+p, and from the ends of the earth her exiled sons shall gather to wors.h.i.+p at Jerusalem.

The origin of this piece is wrapped in obscurity; and it would seem that the author, for some reason, deliberately concealed the historical situation. It is not even certain that the piece is a unity: the song, e.g., in xxv. 1-5 interrupts the description of judgment, and the connection is occasionally loose. There is no clue to what is meant by the strong city which is to be overthrown. It is plain, however, that the writer lived in Palestine, doubtless in or near Jerusalem, xxv. 6, 7, at a time when the Jews were scattered throughout many lands, xxiv. 14-16, xxvii. 12, 13, and when there were at least three great world powers, xxvii. 1. This could hardly have been earlier than the end of the Persian period, and probably the tidings that rang from the isles of the sea, xxiv. 14, 15, were those of the victorious advance of Alexander the Great. No earlier date would suit the theological implications of the pa.s.sage: e.g.

the judgment upon the hosts of heaven, xxiv. 21, 22 (cf. Dan. xi.), the resurrection from the dead, xxvi. 19, the banquet of the nations on Zion, xxv. 6. The style of the pa.s.sage is nearly as peculiar as its thought, it abounds in a.s.sonance and alliteration. It is a.s.signed by some to the close of the second century B.C.; but, in any case, it can hardly be earlier than the later half of the fourth century B.C., and may well express the wild expectations to which disappointed Jewish hearts were lifted by the conquests of Alexander.

Chs. xxviii.-x.x.xiii. _Prophecies concerning Judah and Jerusalem _

We now return to the undoubted prophecies of Isaiah. This group begins with a woe, xxviii. 1-4, p.r.o.nounced not long before the fall of Samaria in 721 B.C., ending in two verses, 5, 6, presenting another outlook, apparently by a later hand. In _vv_. 7-22, probably about the time of the Egyptian alliance, Judah is also threatened for the drunkenness of her leaders, and for the false confidence which leads the people scornfully to close their ears to prophetic instruction. The interesting little section which follows, _vv_. 23-29, shows how the farmer adapts his methods to the particular work he has to do. The connection, however, is anything but obvious: it may be intended as a reminder to the sceptics of Judah that the divine penalties, though slow, v. 19, are sure; or it may be meant to suggest that G.o.d's judgments are tempered with mercy. To the same period belongs the prophecy of the distress that is to be inflicted on Ariel, i.e. Jerusalem, by "a great mult.i.tude of all the nations," clearly Sennacherib's army, xxix. 1-15; but in a prophecy, probably much later, which is dramatically appended to it, a promise of redemption and restoration is held out, xxix. 16-24.

In x.x.x., x.x.xi., also before the invasion of Sennacherib, the prophet denounces the folly of trusting the impotent aid of Egypt, when their real strength lay in quietly trusting their G.o.d: for Jehovah will smite the a.s.syrian with a mysterious blow and defend his dear Jerusalem. Though such promises undoubtedly fall within the range of Isaiah's message, the ideas and the general tone of x.x.x. 18-26 are sufficient to place that pa.s.sage almost certainly in the post-exilic period. Against the background of calamity in the two preceding chapters, x.x.xii. 1-8 throws up a picture--whether from Isaiah's or a later hand--of the Messianic age, when rulers would be just and character transformed. The imminent desolation of Jerusalem, with which the women are threatened, is again immediately contrasted with the fruitfulness and security of the land, when the spirit will be poured out from on high, x.x.xii. 9-20.

This group is closed by a song of triumph (x.x.xiii.) over the prospective annihilation of the foreign foes who have crushed Israel, by the glorious G.o.d who defends Jerusalem. There is much in the pa.s.sage, especially towards the end, _vv_. 19-21, which looks as if the a.s.syrians were the enemy, and the prophecy, like most of those in this group, fell shortly before Sennacherib's invasion. But, besides lacking the vigour of Isaiah's acknowledged prophecies, the pa.s.sage contains ideas which are hardly his: e.g.

the sinners in Zion, _v._ 14, are not to be destroyed but forgiven, _v_. 24. The allusion to the king in _v_. 17, if the text is correct, helps us little, as the king may be Jehovah.

There is a growing conviction that the pa.s.sage is post-exilic, some scholars even bringing it down to the Maccabean times, about 163 B.C.

Chs. x.x.xiv., x.x.xv. _Prophecy concerning the redemption and return of Israel._

A fitting conclusion to the whole book--ignoring x.x.xvi.-x.x.xix., which is an historical appendix--is afforded by the picture of the world-judgment, the redemption of Israel, and the destruction of her enemies in x.x.xiv., x.x.xv. Edom is singled out as the special object of Jehovah's vengeance, x.x.xiv. 5-17; and, in contrast to her desolation, is the blessedness of Israel, returning to her own land across the blossoming wilderness with exceeding joy. Ch. x.x.xv., at any rate, seems to point to the return of the exiles from Babylon, and ch. x.x.xiv. may also without violence be fitted into this time.

The Jews never forgot or forgave the Edomites for their cruelty on the occasion of the destruction of Jerusalem (Lam. iv. 21ff., Ps.

cx.x.xvii. 7) and the joy of their own redemption would be heightened by the ruin of Edom (Mal. i. 2-5). If, however, x.x.xiv. 16 implies, as we are not bound to believe, a fixed prophetic canon, the chapters would be very late, falling somewhere within the second century B.C. More probably they were written, like xiii., xiv., towards the end of the exile.

x.x.xvi.-x.x.xix. _Historical Appendix_

Separating the earlier from the later of the two great divisions of the book of Isaiah (i.-x.x.xv., xl.-lxvi.) stands a purely historical section, practically identical with and probably borrowed from 2 Kings xviii. l3-xx. 19, which finds its place here, no doubt simply because of its connection with the prophet Isaiah. It tells the story of Sennacherib's invasion of Judah, his insulting demands, whether transmitted through the Rabshakeh (x.x.xvi.) or by letter (x.x.xvii.), of Hezekiah's terror and Isaiah's divine word of rea.s.surance, and of the ultimate departure of the a.s.syrian army. Ch.

x.x.xviii. contains Isaiah's prophecy to Hezekiah of his recovery from sickness, with the king's song of grat.i.tude. This is followed by another prophecy of the Babylonian exile, occasioned by an emba.s.sy sent to Hezekiah by Merodach Baladan, king of Babylon (x.x.xix.).

This account omits the very important statement in 2 Kings xviii.

14-16 of the heavy tribute paid by Hezekiah to the King of a.s.syria, and inserts the psalm of Hezekiah, x.x.xviii. 9-20, which is no doubt later than the redaction of the book of Kings as it is not found there, and is, in all probability, a post-exilic psalm. It is not certain whether the accounts in x.x.xvi. 1-x.x.xvii. 9_a_ and x.x.xvii. 9_b_-37 are simply parallel versions of the same incident, or refer to two different campaigns. In the distinctly prophetical portion, x.x.xvii. 22ff, though there is much that recalls Isaiah, the pa.s.sage in its present form can hardly be his. Ch.

x.x.xvii. 26, e.g. would be a pertinent appeal to Israel, but hardly to Sennacherib; it rests, no doubt, on the later Isaiah (xl. 28, xlvi. 11). The prophecy of exile to _Babylon_, x.x.xix. 6, 7, is not natural at a time when a.s.syria, not Babylon, was the enemy.

Again, x.x.xvii. 33, which denies that even an arrow would be shot, is hardly reconcilable with Isaiah's prophecy of an arduous siege for the city, xxix. 1-4. Further, the minute prediction that Hezekiah's life would be prolonged for fifteen years is not in the manner of Isaiah, nor indeed of any of the great prophets, whose precise numbers, where they occur, are to be interpreted as round numbers (e.g. seventy years in Jer. xxv. 11, xxix. 10); and the story of the reversal of the shadow on the sun-dial reflects the later conception of the prophet as a miracle-worker (cf. I Kings xiii. 3-6). The section, in its present form, must be post-exilic.

CHAPTERS XL.-LV.