“Your land is desolate,” Isaiah says to Judah, “your cities are burned with fire” (1:7). That means they are under the curses of the covenant, such as those detailed in Leviticus 26:33, which warns about the “desolation” of the land and the wasting of . . . . Continue Reading »
Isaiah promises that Yahweh will replant Israel with cedar, shittah, myrtle, and “oil trees” (41:19). It is a promise that the land will again be fertile and be turned from a desert to a grove and a garden. But “oil tree” is rare, and is used several times in . . . . Continue Reading »
Isaiah says that Judah’s body politic has been beaten from head to foot (1:5-6). There is no health in it, only a fourfold wounding - wounds, stripes, fresh/putrefying, sores; there is also a fourfold lack - the wounds are not closed, not bandaged, not softened, no oil. Two of these . . . . Continue Reading »
With a couple of slight modifications, I find Eddy Lanz’s structural analysis of Isaiah 1:1-2:2 ( http://www.lanz.li/engot/isaengstructure.pdf ) compelling: A. Vision of Isaiah re Judah and Jerusalem, 1:1 B. People rebel against and forsake Yahweh; therefore, they are beaten up, 1:2-6 C. Zion . . . . Continue Reading »
Sawyer also notes that Christian interpreters often used the gruesome description of the beaten body in Isaiah 1:6 as background and justification for describing the wounds of Christ in detail. In traditional readings, Isaiah shows that “no part of his precious body was spared,” . . . . Continue Reading »
John Sawyer ( The Fifth Gospel: Isaiah in the History of Christianity ) summarizes the uses that Christians have made of the “ox and ass” of Isaiah 1:3: “Some commentators like Gregory of Nazianzus . . . interpret the ox as a symbol of the Jews and the ass as the gentiles loaded . . . . Continue Reading »
Many if not most commentators on Isaiah suggest that Isaiah 1 is set around the time of the Assyrian invasion of Judah in 701, a story detailed in Isaiah 36-39. I took that position in my sermon notes earlier this week. Then my colleague, Toby Sumpter, and a ministerial student, CJ . . . . Continue Reading »
INTRODUCTION Isaiah “sees” a “vision” (1:1), but what he sees is a call to “hear” (1:2; cf. 2:1: “the word that Isaiah . . . saw”). Like John, Isaiah turns to the Lord to “see” the voice speaking to him (Revelation 1:12). It’s a . . . . Continue Reading »
From what I can see, Isaiah uses the root yasha , “save,” 48 times in his prophecy. ”Salvation” ( yeshua ) appears 19 times, while the verb, used both in the perfect/imperfect (“save”) and as a substantive participle (“Savior”) appears 29 times. . . . . Continue Reading »
Because of an invasion (probably of Assyrians), Daughter Zion is left like a hut in a “cucumber field” (Isaiah 1:8). It’s clearly an image of diminished glory: Jerusalem or the temple was once a glory of the earth, now it’s no more than a hut. But Isaiah probably . . . . Continue Reading »
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