-
17. “They Shall Beat Their Swords into Plowshares”: Reading (First) Isaiah
- Jewish Publication Society
- Chapter
- Additional Information
17 “They Shall Beat Their Swords into Plowshares” Reading (First) Isaiah Primary Reading: Isaiah 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 20, 31. The Challenge of Reading Isaiah Isaiah is the longest of the prophetic books, comprised of 66 chapters.1 In some respects it is the most difficult to read of all the biblical books. This section will touch on each of the factors that make Isaiah such a challenge. Out of Many, One The book’s history is complex: it embodies the work not of a single prophet, but of at least two prophets and more likely three—or more. The earliest of these poets, prophesying during the eighth century, is Isaiah son of Amoz (not to be confused with the earlier Amos). Scholars sometimes refer to him as First Isaiah; his work comprises much of chapters 1–39. The second prophet, whom scholars call Deutero-Isaiah (Second Isaiah), prophesied in Babylonia hundreds of years later, during the Babylonian exile. That work has become chapters 40–55 in the book as we now have it. The third figure, whom some scholars call Trito-Isaiah (Third Isaiah), prophesied in Israel shortly after the return from exile. That prophet’s work comprises chapters 56–66. However, distinguishing between their oracles is not simply a matter of dividing up the chapters. Just as not all of the book of Amos came from the prophet Amos (see “The Formation of the Book of Amos” in chapter 16), so not all of Isaiah 1–39 is by Isaiah son of Amoz. Deutero-Isaiah and other later, anon161 ymous figures apparently inserted some of their own work there.2 Many scholars also believe that someone copied chapters 36–39 from the Book of Kings.3 Words Without Peer Another factor that makes the first Isaiah hard to understand is its use of many rare words. A large number of those words appear only once in the whole Bible. (Scholars call such words hapax legomena, a Greek expression meaning “unique words.” We often use the term hapax for short, as I will below.) Recall that context is one of our major guides for what words mean (see “The Act of Reading” in chapter 3). Therefore, when words appear only once—so that we have only one example of how they are used—their meaning often remains unclear. This is why the JPS translation has so many footnotes in Isaiah saying “meaning of Hebrew uncertain.” Ambiguous References and Unclear Boundaries Beyond the problems of understanding hapax words, the poetry of Isaiah is unusually sophisticated, and its figures are often obscure. In addition, the book has run together many separate oracles. (Some other prophets, such as Amos, use formulas—such as “Thus said the Lord”—to indicate the beginning of an oracle, or a messenger formula—such as “declares the Lord”—to indicate its end. These formulas—which scholars call “form-critical markers”—are largely absent in Isaiah.) Due to the lack of a clear break between many of the units, scholars debate where those units begin and end. This debate manifests in the many different layouts that various translations have employed for this book. Uncertain Historical Context As in Amos, this book opens with a superscription that states when the prophet was active. From what we are told, Isaiah’s prophecies covered a long period, from “the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah” (1:1), namely from the mid- to late-eighth century. Many major events took place during this time: the Syro-Ephraimite war in the 730s (when Damascus and Northern Israel invaded Judah); the end of the Northern Kingdom and the exile 162 How to Read the Bible [44.200.249.42] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 13:23 GMT) of much of its populace in 722–720; the devastation of the Judean countryside and the siege of Jerusalem in 701 (see “Israel’s History as Seen from the Inside” in chapter 4; “Jerusalem in 701” in chapter 13); and more. However, Isaiah tends to present its individual oracles without giving dates or other unambiguous clues to the situations that they refer to. As it happens, the same oracle may read very differently depending on which historical context that we imagine for it. If the book’s editors had placed Isaiah’s oracles in chronological order, we might have an easier time inferring their contexts. However, the book is not arranged that way. Indeed, what most consider to be Isaiah...