The Book Around Immanuel: Style and Structure in Isaiah 2-12 (review)

Hebrew Studies 41 (2000) 288 Reviews expecting that it would be a human being he would have to sacrifice is likely to raise more than an occasional eyebrow. Nonetheless, this book offers an interesting and valuable way of looking at Judges. To be sure, its exhaustive approach to the text's individual components sometime~ seems to atomize the contents, losing sight of the forest for the trees-an ironic occurrence in a book committed to understanding Judges as a whole. But it is still rich in insight, as when Amit fmds an allusion to Gideon's rejection of kingship in Jotham's parable, with obvious consequences for the book's presentation of God's relationship to the monarchy . She is also sensitive to changes within individual accounts, while noting how the underlying themes of individual stories often overlap in ways one might not expect. An example is the story of Gideon, where the first section is focused on "signs" and the second on human leadership. Notwithstanding the debatable character of some of its conclusions, this is a thorough and provocative study that breaks with earlier generations' tendency to look only for the historical utility of books such as Judges. Its emphasis on the religious dimension iIi Israelite historiography is a valuable antidote to other, anachronistic approaches, and its interest in determining the purpose of the book as a whole offers an important perspective that has been ignored for far too long. Frederick E. Greenspahn University of Denver Denver, CO 80208 fgreensp@du.edu THE BOOK AROUND IMMANUEL: STYLE AND STRUCTURE IN ISAIAH 2-12. By Andrew H. Bartelt, Biblical and Judaic Studies 4. pp. xi + 287. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1996. Cloth, $32.50. Is the study of the Bible in general, and of Hebrew verse in particular, an art or a science? Obviously it always has to be both. Yet the weight assigned to the differing elements will differ from scholar to scholar. Bartelt in this book is firmly on the side of science, for although he sees his work as a contribution to rhetorical criticism, the counting of syllables and stresses and the computation of line and section length are central to his interpretation of Isaianic verse. Hebrew Studies 41 (2000) 289 Reviews Bartelt begins with a useful overview of recent study of Hebrew verse. in which he ultimately reaffirms the enduring value of Lowth·s 1753 seminal work. and he also overviews recent study of Isaiah. These overviews still retain something of the feel of the competent doctoral dissertation where this book originated. In the next two chapters he offers in-depth analyses ofIsa 5:8-25 and 9:7-10:4. This reveals. among other things. that these two poems are exactly the same length. with also close equivalency in the total number Qf words. It follows that "the two poems so clearly complement each other that we must conclude that each has been composed with specific reference to the other and that they must be understood with this interrelationship in mind"; and "this phenomenon is most easily-if not also most logically-explained as the result of original craftsmanship rather than as the result of redactional reworking" (p. 104). Why then are these poems placed thus within the book of Isaiah? Bartelt accepts as a given the Denkschrift hypothesis with regard to Isa 6:1-8:18. and he sees the Denkschrift as the original core around which the rest of Isaiah 2-12 was composed in concentric circles. Thus he next discusses the transitional texts 5:26-30 and 8:19-23a. which are roughly equivalent in length and form the first circle around the Denkschrift. and then 5:1-7 and 8:23b-9:6. which are related by a common concern for mispat and s'daqa (and also a possible word play on dwd). Overall there is a coherent thought progression from 5:1-10:4. Two further chapters then apply a similar treatment to 10:5-12:6 and chapters 2-4. all of which together reveals a "unifying macrostructure" in Isaiah 2-12. In general. Bartelt is strongly retentive of the MT and resists emendations. The prime interpretive insight . apart...