8. THE H

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8. THE HÔY ORACLES Isa 28-33, 34-35

• BOT634 Exegesis of Isaiah

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General Introduction

• 1. "In chaps. 28-33 Isaiah continues his
  treatment, begun in chap. 7, of the foolishness
  of trusting the nations instead of the Lord. He
  returns to a particularizing mode to do so. That
  is, he deals with the specific political
  situation in Judah, rather than with the
  worldwide picture. The same approach was seen
  chaps. 13-27 where particular situations were
  addressed (chaps. 13-23) before a general truth
  was drawn (chaps. 24-27). There the purpose was
  to show Gods lordship over the nations. Here the
  focus is upon Judahs choice to trust him or
  not." Oswalt, NICOTIsa1-39, 504

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General Introduction

• 2. "They trust wrongly in military alliances with
  Egypt (30.1-14 31.1-5), in covenant with death
  (28.15), and in perversions of Zion theology
  whereby God blindly protects Jerusalem regardless
  of the faith of her people. To counter this false
  trust, the prophet speaks of a Zion theology in
  which God fights against his own people (29.1-8)
  and engages in strange action against
  Judah/Jerusalem (28.21). In the fighting of the
  nations against Zion, God is himself active
  (29.3). But paradoxically, God will also fight
  upon Mt. Zion to protect and deliver it, spare
  and rescue it' (31.5)." Seitz, "Isaiah, Book of
  First Isaiah," ABD, III, 484

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Historical Setting

• 1. "Chapters 28-33 of Isaiah reflect the period
  of Ephraims last years as a state and thus
  chronologically belong after Isaiah 18. The
  rebellion that broke out in the west in the last
  year of Tiglath-pileser (728-727) was not
  thoroughly suppressed until Sargons campaign in
  720. In the intervening years, Shalmaneser was
  almost continuously occupied with the revolt in
  the west, but was not able to deal it a death
  blow. He continued the campaign begun by his
  father. As we have noted, this was probably the
  occasion for Hosheas initial submission to
  Shalmaneser (II Kings 173)." Hayes Irvine,
  ibid., 321

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Disaster From Expansion 28.1-29

• 28.1-13 Woe, Ephraim's Drunkards
• "The prophecy of vv. 1-4 is addressed to the
  drunkards of Ephraim, by which must be meant the
  citizens, and primarily the political leaders, of
  the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Ephraim must here
  indicate the rump state left by the Assyrians
  after the ending of the Syro-Ephraimite war in
  732, so that this prophecy is to be dated between
  this event and the eventual siege and fall of
  Samaria to Shalmaneser V of Assyria in 722.... "
  Clements, 224
• 28.7-13 The Godless Priests and Prophets

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Disaster From Expansion 28.1-29

• wq'l' wq wq'l' wq wc'l' wc wc'l' wc yKi
• "One scoffs at what such teachers could possibly
  teach, even to the youngest children. Like a
  bumbling schoolmaster, they repeat letters of the
  alphabet, c and q, using their earlier names
  tsaw' and qaw,' for the children to learn.
  Interpreters have understood this to mean
  everything from speaking in tongues to being
  code-words for great thoughts. But the picture of
  the drunken teacher is most simple and
  appropriate." Watts, Ibid., 363

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Disaster From Expansion 28.1-29

• 28.14-22 Scoffers in Jerusalem
• The segment 28.14-22 is directed to those
  foolish leaders of Jerusalem whose plans are
  based upon the cynical and faithless projections
  of the future. But Isaiah tells them that
  cynicism cannot provide a secure foundation
  against the shocks of life (v. 19). Only faith
  can do that (v. 16). So all their carefully laid
  plans, just like those of Samaria, will come to
  nothing. To their probable remarks that God does
  not act in history (cf. 5.18-23), he answers that
  God does work either for us as in the past, or
  against us, as he will in their case (vv. 21,
  22). Oswalt, Ibid., 516

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Disaster From Expansion 28.1-29

• 28.23-29 Yahweh's Strategy A Parable
• (1) The segment offers a note of hope (as chs. 5,
  6). Despite their sin, God will not continue to
  plow his people under forever, nor will he drive
  his threshing sledge over them until they are
  crushed.
• (2) God is not locked into merely one mode of
  activity. Those foolish leaders who said that the
  old God was inadequate for a new age did not
  even understand nature.

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Disaster in Jerusalem's Political Involvement
29.1-24

• 29.1-7 Woe, Ariel
• Mourns Jerusalem, or its founding deity which
  will not be attached by Yahweh
• 29.8-14 Like a Dream
• 29.15-24 Woe, You Schemers
• How foolish for the pot to think it knows more
  than the potter

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Disaster from Self-Help in Rebellion 30.1-33

• Chapters 30-31 move from the more general
  denunciation of chps. 28-29 to specific ones
  aimed at the alliance with Egypt.
• Woe, Rebellious Children 30.1-18
• N.B. 30.15!
• Hope for the Teachers 30.19-26
• A Cultic Theophany 30.27-33

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Disaster from False Faith in Egypt 31.1-32.20

• N. B. Oswalt sees 32.1-33.24 as a unit and
  entitles it Behold the King Chapters 32 and
  33 represent an alternative to the situation
  described in chs. 30-31. There false counsel
  depicted reliance upon Egypt as Judahs hope.
  Crooked and venial rulers made their plans in
  secret and sought ways to foist those plans on a
  public which would not have acquiesced in them if
  they had known their true import. Here God, the
  god who will have delivered them from Assyria, is
  depicted as the true source of righteous rule.
  Although human kings may rule on his behalf
  (32.1-4), it is his Spirit which must energized
  them if they are to rule rightly (34.14, 15), and
  ultimately he alone is king (33.5-6, 22). Thus, .
  . . the larger segment (chs. 28-33) continues the
  contrast begun in ch. 7, which is a contrast
  between the results of trusting human resources
  and those of trusting in God."

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Disaster from False Faith in Egypt 31.1-32.20

• WOE TO THOSE WHO DEPEND ON EGYPT 31.1-9
• SUPPOSE A KING... 32.1-8
• UNTIL SPIRIT IS POURED OUT 32.9-20
• 32.9-14 FRIVOLOUS WOMEN WARNED OF DISASTER
• 32.15-20 THE TRANSFORMING GIFT OF THE SPIRIT IN
  THE AGE TO COME

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God's Promise to Judge the Tyrant 33.1-24

• WOE, YOU DESTROYER 33.1-6
• SEE! THEIR VALIANT ONE 33.7-12
• WHO CAN SURVIVE THE FIRE? 33.13-24

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The Coming Judgment Salvation 34.1-35.10

• 1. "The section comprised of 34.1-35.10 is
  recognized by almost all critical scholars to be
  a unity, and to derive from some time after the
  Babylonian exile. It is therefore certainly not
  from Isaiah, but rather shows very close
  similarities with the Apocalypse of chaps.
  24-27." Clements, NCBC Isaiah 1-39, 271

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The Coming Judgment Salvation 34.1-35.10

• 2. "...it appears that the function of these two
  chapters is to describe a future world judgment
  over nations and nature, and then report the
  transformation of creation and the return of the
  dispersed..., they amplify and extend the message
  of the preceding chapters (32-33) regarding the
  future judgment and the ensuing reign of peace
  and forgiveness, at the same time reminding the
  reader of 36-39 that the deliverance of 701 is
  temporary and that the cleansing judgment will
  continue beyond Hezekiahs day. In so doing, they
  ease the transition (temporal and literary)
  between the former and the later things - or
  between the judgments of the Assyrian period and
  of the Babylonian period and the dawn of a new
  day in Gods dealings with Israel, such as this
  takes from in Isaiah 40-66." Seitz, Isaiah,
  Book of (First Isaiah), ABD, III, 485

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34.1-17 The Structure

• "After the exordium addressed to the whole world
  (vs. 1), the composition is in two movements in
  striking contrast vss. 2-8, the violent
  outpouring of the wrath of God, and vss. 9-17,
  the aftermath of ruin in the wake of the storm.
  In the first the fury of Yahweh rages through
  earth and heaven (vss. 2-4) then his reeking
  sword is turned on "Edom" to exterminate man and
  beast in a frightful sacrifice of appeasement
  (vss. 5-7) this is "the day" when accounts are
  settled (vs. 8). In the second movement a
  dreadful hush has fallen on a scene of
  desolation the smoke rolls upward from the whole
  land as from an unquenchable fire (vss. 9-10),
  and amid the overgrown ruins of the city there is
  no sound or movement but that of the wild
  creatures who dwell where no man is found (vss.
  11-17). The feeling of perpetual desolation is
  forcibly conveyed by the long-drawn-out
  description in the last named verses." Scott, R.
  B. Y., Exegesis of Isaiah 1-39 Interpreter's
  Bible, CD-Rom Edition

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The Great Judgment 34.1-17

• 34.1-4 Yahweh's Judgment over all nations
• 34.5-17 Threat of Judgment over Edom

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34.14b Lilith

• 1. Isa 34.14 has the only mention of tylyl
  Lilith in the OT, unless suggested emendations
  of Job 18.15 and Isa 2.18 are accepted. The name
  is very similar to the Hebrew word for night
  (hlyl). However, the demoness was well known in
  Mesopotamia. The Sumerian word lil wind was
  related to the name and she was known as a
  storm-demon. But the syllable lil was associated
  with the night in Semitic languages (Wildberger,
  1347). Lilith entered Jewish literature at a late
  date, but her influence continued a long time.
  Using Isa 34.15 for justification, Lilith became
  part of the labyrinthine structures of Jewish and
  then Christian demonology.

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34.14b Lilith

• Targum Pseudo-Jonathan adds a prayer to Aarons
  blessing (Num 6.24-26) May the Lord bless you
  in all your deeds and protect you from the demons
  of the night (Aram ylyl) and from anything that
  frightens and from demons of evening and morning,
  from evil spirits and phantoms... Midrash
  bammidbar rabba 119A teaches that Lilith devours
  her own children if she cannot find other newborn
  babies to ear. Rabbi Hanina is quoted in the
  Talmud as teaching that Lilith lives in abandoned
  houses.... Watts, ibid., 13

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The Blessing of the Land of Judah 35.1-10

• 1. The language parallels with Second Isaiah,
  which scholars have pointed out, have urged some
  to regard the author of chapters 34-35 and the
  author of chapters 40-55 as one and the same. In
  point of fact, any true resemblance really only
  exists in chapter 35, where the predominant
  images of blossoming wilderness (35.1-2, 6b-7),
  restored health (35.3-6a), and the return of the
  ransomed dispersed (35.8-10) are familiar from
  Second Isaiah. It is notoriously difficult to
  determine the direction of influence when
  language parallels are tallied up and thus to
  conjecture about authorship and redactional
  development (is chap. 35 based on Second Isaiah?
  Vice versa? both by the same author?). Seitz,
  Interpretation Isaiah 1-39, 239

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35.1-10 Structure

• 1. "Like ch. 34, this one falls into two parts
  vss. 1-6a, the manifestation of God in his power
  and glory as the deliverer of his helpless
  people vss. 6b-10, the joyful return of his
  people to Zion over an open highway, prepared by
  God through what has been an arid and trackless
  desert." Scott, R. B. Y., Exegesis of Isaiah
  1-39 Interpreter's Bible, CD-Rom Edition

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35.1-10 Outline

• The Desert Shall Rejoice 35.1-2
• Comfort For The Wearied And Hopeless 35.3-4
• The Joy of the New Life 35.5-7
• The Holy Way 35.8-10