Isaiah Bible Commentary

Contents Foreword

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Preface

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Part I: Introduction 1. Why read Isaiah?

2. Writing and reading Isaiah 3. The historical worlds of Isaiah

1 3 5 14

Part II: Trust and Zion (Isaiah 36–39) 4. Orientation to Isaiah 36–39 5. Trusting Assyria (Isaiah 36) 6. Salvation for Jerusalem (Isaiah 37) 7. Salvation for Hezekiah (Isaiah 38) 8. Trusting Babylon (Isaiah 39)

17 19 22 28 41 50

Part III: Transforming Zion (Isaiah 1–12) 9. Orientation to Isaiah 1–12 10. From outrageousness to peace (Isaiah 1:1–2:4) 11. From haughtiness to holiness (Isaiah 2:5–4:6) 12. From scandal to service (Isaiah 5:1–6:13) 13. From fear to dominion (Isaiah 7:1–9:7) 14. From sin to singing (Isaiah 9:8–12:6)

57 59 61 75 84 95 110

Part IV: Transforming the nations (Isaiah 13–27) 15. Orientation to Isaiah 13–27 16. The nations’ defeat and Zion-centred hopes Part 1 (Isaiah 13:1–14:27) 17. The nations’ defeat and Zion-centred hopes Part 2 (Isaiah 14:28–20:6) 18. The nations’ terror and the hope of serving in Zion (Isaiah 21:1–23:18) 19 The earth’s devastation and the hope of worshipping in Zion (Isaiah 24:1–27:13)

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Part V: Should we trust Egypt? (Isaiah 28–35) 20. Orientation to Isaiah 28–35 21. Woe or wisdom? (Isaiah 28:1–33:1) 22. A whole new world (Isaiah 33:2–35:10)

169 171 174 185

Part VI: The trusting, servant nation?

(Isaiah 40–48) 23. Orientation to Isaiah 40–48 24. Comforting voices (Isaiah 40:1–11) 25. The servant nation (Isaiah 40:12–42:17) 26. The blind and deaf servant (Isaiah 42:18–44:23) 27. Should we trust Cyrus? (Isaiah 44:24–45:25) 28. Fallen Babylon, fallen servant nation?

(Isaiah 46:1–48:22)

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Part VII: Serving Zion and the nations (Isaiah 49:1–56:8) 29. Orientation to Isaiah 49:1–56:8 30. A new servant nation (Isaiah 49:1–13) 31. Awakenings (Isaiah 49:14–52:12) 32. A surprising salvation (Isaiah 52:13–53:12) 33. A celebration of salvation (Isaiah 54:1–56:8)

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Part VIII: Transforming the world (Isaiah 56:9–66:24) 34. Orientation to Isaiah 56:9–66:24 35. Untransformed (Isaiah 56:9–59:20) 36. The transforming servant (Isaiah 59:21–64:12) 37. The transformed world (Isaiah 65:1–66:24)

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197 200 207 223 234 241

253 255 261 271 282

293 296 306 318

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Introduction

Chapter 1

Why read Isaiah?

There is something majestic about the book of Isaiah.

It is the opening work in that section of the canon that confronts us with the world-shaking words of the prophets.

It works as a magnificent introduction to the themes that the prophets will explore.

The book has a grandeur of scope. It asks us to imagine the creation and then the re-creation of the entire world.

It evokes the historical periods of the eighth century BC and then into the exile and maybe beyond. It asks us to imagine that the very heavens and earth are taking part in the drama of Israel’s history. It insists that God is doing something for which even the ends of the earth wait. The grand themes of Old Testament theology are all here: creation, sin, judgment, redemption. It has been compared to the book of Romans, a theological encyclopedia and even to the whole Bible. The fact that the book has 66 chapters, the same number of books as the Protestant Christian canon, has invited some playful musings.

But the grandeur can easily stump and bewilder us. As a Bible College lecturer I have too often watched the book of Isaiah leave a class disoriented and discouraged —a tragic event given the book’s profoundly re-orienting and encouraging message.

Over the years of reading Isaiah I’ve come to see that its grandeur can mask its simplicity. It’s the kind of book that keeps saying the same thing over and over again. In whatever period of history, in whatever military crisis, in whatever spiritual confusion, the book of Isaiah tells us all to trust in the Lord. Its message is that in hidden, surprising 3

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Surprising salvation ways the Lord is always at work to save people. The Lord is always at work to save people from Jerusalem or Zion. And Zion is really just a special showpiece for what he can do because the Lord is keen to be at work to save people from every place on his earth. In the end, he is saving Zion as the first step in a plan to save the planet and the cosmos, to remake it into a place of beauty and joy. And the more we can know and love what he is doing, the easier it will be to trust him.

It’s a simple message with grand implications. That’s why the book of Isaiah is grand and simple at the same time.

As you read it, pray that you will come to love what God is doing and come to trust him more and more.

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Introduction

Chapter 2

Writing and reading Isaiah

The questions of who finally wrote the book of Isaiah and when are not simple ones to answer. There are many commentaries that rehearse the arguments that have happened over the centuries (and are still happening today) so I will keep my comments brief.

Isaiah 1:1 tells us that we are reading the vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of kings who ruled between 783 BC (the beginning of Uzziah’s reign) and 687 BC (the probable date of Hezekiah’s death). The simplest thing to say, then, is that we have a work written

by Isaiah some time in the late 700s or early 600s BC. People have challenged this simple view, however, because of various pieces of evidence. One is that the word ‘Isaiah’ does not appear after Isaiah 39. Up until then, we have a combination of narratives about Isaiah and words that we assume come from Isaiah, but then he disappears from the book. Some say that’s because Isaiah 40–66 is a piece of writing from Isaiah, rather than a record of his preaching. Others say it’s because chapters 40–66 are a record of preaching, not from Isaiah, but by someone highly influenced by the book of Isaiah. This anonymous preacher, from a later period, was applying the vision of Isaiah to a new situation, perhaps like the book of Acts continuing the work of Jesus begun in the book of Luke.

Another piece of evidence is the appearance of the name ‘Cyrus’ in 44:28 and 45:1. Cyrus was the founder of the Medo-Persian Empire and lived from 559 to 530 BC —significantly later than the man Isaiah. Some interpret this as evidence of the prophet’s power to predict the 5

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Surprising salvation future. And, indeed, the book of Isaiah argues that the Lord is superior to other gods because he can predict the future.

A belief in predictive prophecy is vital if we are to read this book properly. Others argue that while God can predict the future, it is not usual for biblical prophets to predict the future in such a sharp way. One writer comments that biblical prophecy is not clairvoyancy.1 Of course, there is one other incident in the Old Testament where someone is named before their time (Josiah in 1 Kings 13:2), but it is not usual. Prophets like Samuel, Nathan and Elijah speak words that are immediately relevant to their hearers. Why would Isaiah speak about a sixth-century BC person in the eighth century BC?2 In my assessment, there are careful arguments from well-considered scholars on both sides of this debate.

It seems hard to be dogmatic. In this commentary I will assume that the major ideas and dominant vision of the book come from the man Isaiah, but the book as we have it was put together some time after his death. Some verses in the book seem to apply Isaiah’s teachings to the needs of future generations.

In many ways, the more important questions are not who wrote Isaiah and when, but who read Isaiah and when. This may help us to know how to read Isaiah today.

READING ISAIAH Irrespective of when they were spoken or written, the words of Isaiah have relevance to people who lived through various major events in God’s dealings with his people. The book of Isaiah has helped people in different eras to make sense of what God is doing.

At the centre of the book of Isaiah (in chapters 36 to 37) there is an historical narrative about an attack on Judah and

1 Childs, B 2001, Isaiah, Westminster John Knox, Louisville, p362.

2 Goldingay, J 2005, The message of Isaiah 40–55: A literary-theological commentary, T&T Clark, London/NewYork, p3.

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Introduction Jerusalem by the Assyrian army under King Sennacherib around 701 BC. This event forms the basis of a lot of the poetry in Isaiah 1–35 and also helps the arguments of Isaiah 40–66 to make sense. So as we read, I want us to imagine that we have lived through this attack and are turning to the book of Isaiah to hear God’s word on what has happened.

In Isaiah 40–48 the man Cyrus becomes important and there are commands to leave Babylon. These words seem to have special relevance to people who were living at the end of the Babylonian exile when Cyrus decreed that they should go home to Jerusalem and rebuild their city and temple. So as we read, I want us to imagine that we are living in the late sixth century BC, after Cyrus, and that we are turning to the book of Isaiah to hear God’s word on what has happened.

The book of Isaiah, along with the Psalms, is a major source of images, phrases and ideas for the New Testament writers who had experienced the coming of Jesus and were trying to make sense of all that they had seen and heard.

So as we read, I want us to also imagine that we live in the late first century AD, and that we are turning to the book of Isaiah to hear God’s word on what has happened in Jesus.

For centuries the book of Isaiah has held a special place in the hearts and minds of Christian people. In this commentary, I want us to look at the eighth century BC, sixth century BC and first century AD layers, and then see how reading Isaiah today can make sense of what God is doing and wants to do in our lives. For each section of the book of Isaiah, then, we will pause and consider how the section works if we are reading it after Sennacherib, after Cyrus, after Jesus, and today. I hope this will help us to treat the book of Isaiah as God’s word to us, without getting lost in debates about date and authorship.

Reading the Bible well involves sensitivity to historical periods and the different epochs in God’s dealings with people, but it also involves awareness of how literature works. The book of Isaiah has impressive literary qualities. It borrows devices from poetry, narrative and maybe even drama. We 7

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Surprising salvation will need to notice these and understand what they are doing if we are to read Isaiah well. Let’s consider some of them.

POETRY Most of the book is poetry. That means it is carefully selected language which engages our feelings and imaginations as well as our rational minds. It does this largely through imagery. Isaiah compares his city and nation to a cut-down tree, a vineyard, a prostitute, a farm animal, a hut in a field of melons. He writes of a world in which blind people see and trees clap their hands. If we want to be good readers of Isaiah, we won’t always take his words literally.

Through imagery, the writer of the book of Isaiah has created a sense of cohesion across a very long book. The book keeps on returning to word pictures again and again.

The book is full of pictures of plants—from tender shoots, to tragic stumps, to forests of many trees. The book is full of pictures of women giving birth. It keeps presenting things that ascend and rise in contrast with things that descend and are humiliated. The book often describes messengers and words and people who are unable to understand things because they are deaf and blind. It often speaks of roads and paths and highways. One of the joys of reading right through Isaiah is getting used to these images and seeing how they all connect together. Indeed, a deep interconnectedness of images and ideas is a striking characteristic of the book in ways that work beyond the level of individual words. The whole book seems to be deliberately structured to prompt us to look for repetitions.

PARALLEL STORYTELLING As well as repeating words and images, the book parallels larger units of meaning. I first met the expression ‘parallel storytelling’ to describe this in a newspaper interview with one of the writers of SeaChange, a very popular Australian TV show. It was about a city lawyer getting used to life as a magistrate in a small coastal village following the collapse of her marriage and financial ruin. It’s similar to Northern Exposure.

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Introduction In one episode her work in court involves a squabble between two cranky neighbours. They are fighting about who owns a sick cat. In exasperation, the magistrate orders that the cat be put down. Meanwhile in her home life the magistrate and her estranged husband are wrangling about who should have gone to their son’s sports carnival.

As he goes to bed one evening, the son complains, ‘It’s not the cat’s fault the neighbours are arguing. The cat shouldn’t be put down’. On face value he is speaking about the cat, but the parallel storytelling means he is really talking about himself. His comment about the cat has a poignant resonance. Each story-line gets richer through its interaction with the other story.

This clever device is strongly present in Isaiah. For example, the Assyrian characters are very like later Babylonian characters. The experience of King Ahaz is written in a very similar way to the experience of his son, King Hezekiah. The things that happen to the king of Jerusalem also happen to the entire city. Such a way of writing adds immense richness to a text and means that we can spend many hours thinking about how different people and events in the book are like and unlike each other. As we do this thinking, the meaning of the book grows in our minds.

One way that the parallel storytelling works itself out in the book is through the over-arching literary structure.

PARALLEL STRUCTURING The fact that the book of Isaiah uses lots of repetition means that there are many ways of dividing its structure.

My view is that the sections of the book come to a close once we have seen how Zion can be changed and how even the nations can come to belong to God’s special city3.

3 I have been influenced by Webb, BG 1996, The message of Isaiah: On eagles’ wings, IVP, Leicester; Dorsey, DA 1999, The literary structure of the Old Testament: A Commentary on Genesis−Malachi, Baker, Grand Rapids; and Harman, A 2005, Isaiah: A covenant to be kept for the sake of the church, Christian Focus, Fearn. However I follow none of these exactly.

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Surprising salvation In this commentary I will work with the following seven part structure: 1. Isaiah 1–12: Transforming Zion The city of Jerusalem has been ruined through incompetent leadership, hypocrisy and injustice, and will face God’s anger in the form of the Assyrian army. However, the city of Jerusalem has a glorious future which will be achieved by a God-like king.

2. Isaiah 13–27: Transforming the nations The nations, including Israel and Judah, defy God through pride and self-reliance and will face God’s anger. However, a day is coming when even the nations can be included in the city of God. 3. Isaiah 28–35: Should we trust Egypt?

The city of Jerusalem is tempted to trust Egypt for help in the face of Assyrian attack. But they should trust the Lord.

4. Isaiah 36–39: Trust and Zion The city of Jerusalem is attacked by Assyrians, but the king of Jerusalem trusts the Lord and the city is saved. The king of Jerusalem is attacked by illness, but he calls out to God and is saved. When Babylonians visit him, he trusts in them and in his own riches, not in the Lord.

5. Isaiah 40–48: The trusting, servant nation?

The people of Jerusalem are going to be saved from the Babylonians and the Lord urges them to trust that he is working for them, through Cyrus. They seem to find it easier to trust in Babylon and its gods. Babylon will face God’s anger in the form of the Medo-Persian army. The self-reliant people of Jerusalem will miss out on the peace God is offering.

6. Isaiah 49:1–56:8: Serving Zion and the nations The people of Jerusalem are going to be saved from sin and they are urged to trust a suffering servant. The people are surprisedthat it is a weak one, not a self-reliant one, who saves. The house of the Lord becomes available to all the nations.

7. Isaiah 56:9–66:24: Transforming the world Even after the exile the city of Jerusalem suffers under incompetent leadership, hypocrisy and injustice. However, the city of Jerusalem has a glorious future which will be achieved by a God-like warrior.

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Introduction It seems there is a level of symmetry across the book, giving the narratives of Isaiah 36–39 a unique place in the book’s structure. I will reflect this in this commentary, by starting with Isaiah 36–39, viewing them as core narratives that provide a way into the book as a whole.

The symmetry does not mean that there is no development across the book. There does seem to be a general chronological movement from the mid-700s BC to the late-500s BC. In a way, the book explains how Zion and the world can be changed, while giving evidence that nothing really changes. This means that the book overall has a forward-looking perspective. It makes us wonder, ‘When will God work?’ so that his people and his creation finally do change.

DRAMATIC VOICES Everyone who tries to study this prophecy ends up asking at some point: ‘Who is saying this to whom?’ Consider the opening few verses: Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: ‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.

The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’

Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption!

They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him. (1:2–4)

In these verses alone the heavens and the earth are identified as the hearer of the prophecy. The Lord is mentioned in the third person and then speaks in the first person. Israel is described in the third person in verses 3b and 4b, but seems to be addressed directly (in the second person) in 4a. This rapid shifting of perspective occurs across the entire book and has, in recent times, led to 11

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Surprising salvation theories that the book of Isaiah is a play to perform4 or a liturgy to read aloud.5 When the book of Isaiah was put together, a voice belonging to a narrator or chorus was included, recognisable because it speaks as ‘we/us/our’.

Dotted throughout the book, often in unexpected places, are verses such as: 1:9 ‘Unless the Lord Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.’

16:6 ‘We have heard of Moab’s pride—her overweening pride and conceit, her pride and her insolence—but her boasts are empty.’

53:6 ‘We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’

64:7 ‘No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins.’

We’re not told exactly who the ‘we’ is. From Isaiah 1:9 we can think of the ‘we’ as a group of survivors.

It may be the voice of Isaiah and his followers as in ‘Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel …’ (8:18).

These may be the voices of people who have seen God act in judgment in the eighth or sixth century BC and who wonder if sin will ever be dealt with decisively: ‘We look for justice, but find none; for deliverance, but it is far away.’ (59:11)

This may be the voice of the person(s) who finally put the book of Isaiah together. What is really important to notice is that by speaking in plural pronouns, the ‘we’ were inviting the original readers to join them in 4 Watts, JDW 1985, Isaiah 1–33, Word, Waco; Watts, JDW 1987, Isaiah 34–66, Word, Waco. These volumes make for some intriguing reading as Watts makes suggestions about who is speaking in every line of the book.

5 Goulder, MD 2004, Isaiah as liturgy, Ashgate, Aldershot/Burlington.

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Introduction the journey that the book of Isaiah creates. When we let ourselves speak the words of the ‘we’ character, we read the text as survivors: God has judged us as a people, but has amazingly preserved a few. We’ll explore how this can be a good way for Christians to connect this ancient text to their lives today.

CONCLUSION The date and authorship of the book of Isaiah are contested and vexing. In this commentary I will approach the book as the faithful record of the prophet Isaiah’s words—or better, his vision—regarding Jerusalem that God gave him in the eighth century BC. This vision includes prediction. From time to time, the eighth century BC material seems to be commented on from a late sixthcentury BC perspective. Isaiah’s grand vision has been crafted together into a whole by someone who speaks as ‘we’ in the book. This striking device means that the book addresses its readers with an engaging directness.

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Surprising salvation

Chapter 3

The historical worlds of Isaiah

It can be a bit naïve to summarise periods of history into a sentence or two. But, as readers of a book as long as Isaiah, sometimes we need simple summaries to help us feel oriented. If these summaries seem a bit confusing, just refer back to them when the countries turn up in your reading of Isaiah.

ISRAEL AND JUDAH IN THE TIME OF ISAIAH Isaiah lived in the period when the people of God were divided into ten northern tribes (Israel) and two southern tribes (Judah). The word ‘Israel’ does not always refer exactly to the northern kingdom. It can sometimes be a theological term for the people of God, such as in the often-used expression, ‘The Holy One of Israel’. During Isaiah’s lifetime, the northern kingdom of Israel ceased to exist and the focus of Isaiah’s work is on the south.

It seems that people from the south who were eventually taken to Babylon (100–150 years after Isaiah) can be referred to as Jacob-Israel or Zion.

ASSYRIA In the lifetime of Isaiah, the dominant power in the ancient Near East was Assyria. The so-called Neo-Assyrian empire had begun under the rule of Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727 BC). The book of Isaiah makes mention of the Assyrian kings Sargon, Sennacherib and Esarhaddon.

Isaiah 1–12 features Assyria as a dangerous invading force that comes into Israel and Judah as an expression of God’s judgment. Isaiah 7 especially focuses on Judah’s 14

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Introduction response to an anti-Assyrian plan hatched by Israel and Syria. In the eighth century BC, small states oscillated between pro- and anti-Assyrian policies. Isaiah 13–23 gives us glimpses of how the Assyrian presence was impacting on small states like Israel and Judah and their neighbours such as Syria in the north, Moab and Edom in the south-east and Philistia in the west. The threat of Assyrian invasion seems to be the background to the message of Isaiah 28–35.

In Isaiah 36–37 Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah and assault on Jerusalem is narrated. An important message in all of this is that even Assyrian power is no match for the power of the Lord.

Assyria largely falls from view in Isaiah 40–66.

EGYPT Despite its impressive history and culture, Egypt was not a strong power in the days of Isaiah. There was internal instability. In the late 700s BC a Nubian or Cushite king briefly ruled Egypt, and in the book of Isaiah Egypt and Cush are treated as though they are the same nation: Isaiah is a sign and portent ‘against Egypt and Cush’ (20:3) and Assyria will lead away ‘the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles’ (20:4). Cush seems to be the Hebrew term for Nubia, the area of the upper Nile to the south of Egypt.

Egypt was no match for the superpowers of the periods in the book of Isaiah. The Assyrians invaded in the early 600s BC. The Babylonians threatened but did not invade. The Persians defeated the Egyptians in 525 BC and more or less ruled Egypt for the next 200 years.

In Isaiah, Egypt also functions as a reference back to Israel’s years of slavery and God’s glorious rescue of them as narrated in the book of Exodus.

BABYLON Although beyond his lifetime, Isaiah could see that it would be Babylon who would plunder Jerusalem and deport its people (39:6–7). But he also saw Babylon’s demise at the hand of the Medes (13:17–19; 47). Babylon took the 15

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Surprising salvation Assyrian capital in 612 BC. They deported Judeans in 605 BC and 597 BC and took Jerusalem in 586 BC. In some ways Babylon takes over the role of Assyria in the second half of the book of Isaiah. Like Assyria, it is the nation that God uses to judge his people. Then God judges it for its pride. But, unlike Assyria, Babylon is featured in both halves of the book. There is a major presentation of the humiliation of Babylon in Isaiah 13–14 and Isaiah 46–48.

The importance of these chapters means that Babylon functions as something more than a historical reality.

Babylon is the archetype of human arrogance and defiant opposition to God. PERSIA The Persian king, Cyrus, brought the Babylonian empire to an end and famously decreed that the exiled Israelites (and others) could return home (539 BC). This event is on view in Isaiah 40–48.

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