יובל – JUBILEE

INTRODUCTION

According to Lev 25:10 ff. Israel was to proclaim a Jubilee year every 50^th year after successful completion of the conquest under Joshua.  During this year all debts between Israelites were to be cancelled, and all land that had changed hands for whatever reason was to return to the family to which it had been originally assigned.  In this way no family would lose permanent access to their land inheritance.  The tern in Hebrew for this year-long celebration was יובל and the corresponding term in essentially every modern translation is Jubilee.  The Hebrew term means ram’s horn, which was used as the designation for the entire year, because its commencement was to be announced by a blast on a ram’s horn.  The English term jubilee essentially means a big celebration, particularly one on a significant anniversary.  It is worth examining how the original Hebrew term became rendered by one so completely unrelated to it.

HORNS IN THE HEBREW BIBLE

There are several different terms used in the Hebrew bible for horns of different types, and all of them had specific official/religious uses.

שופר     Shophar – This term occurs 72 times and is attested in other Semitic languages.  Apparently, it might be made from any animal wild or domestic, but according to rabbinic tradition it must not be made from a cow’s horn due to Israel’s sin with the golden calf.  It was used for making public announcement of various sorts.  It appears in some places as a generic term, and a subsequent term identifies a particular type of horn.

חצצרה   Chatsotsrah – This term occurs 29 times and refers to a metal trumpet consisting of a single long tube with a faired bell on its end.  It was used primarily in associated with worship and religious festivals.

יובל      Iovel – This term occurs 27 times and it refers specifically to a ram’s horn.  This particular type of horn was employed by Joshua during the battle against Jericho, and it was to be used to announce the start of each Jubilee year.  Evidently, the Israelites never kept the sabbatical years or the jubilees from 1300 BCE to the Babylonian captivity, and this was the reason for the 70-year exile (Jer 25:12, 29:10, 2 Ch 36:20, 21).

LXX USAGE FOR יובל

The LXX treats יובל, meaning ram’s horn, differently from its usage for the signal for the Jubilee year.  In some instances, it is not represented by any Greek term, and it at least one case the verse is omitted entirely.  In several instances where the Hebrew text is שופר יובל the Greek text has just the appropriate form of σαλπιξ, or horn.  Evidently, the Greeks had no tradition of using an animal horn in this way.  In eight verses יובל is unambiguously used as the designation for the Jubilee year.  In Lev 25:10 and 11 the term is not translated.  In the remaining passages it is translated by the appropriate form of απεσις, return.  This is not a translation of the term but a description of what was to take place at the start of this moed.

VULGATE USAGE FOR יובל

The vulgate exhibits the same divisions in its translation for the term.  In those passages where it is clearly used as a musical instrument the translation is bucinius, trumpet.  In the remaining verses the term is not always translated, but when it is it takes the form of iobilaeus.  This is a transliteration and not a translation.  Because it did not have any origination from within Latin, its meaning was inferred from context.

JUBILEE

This has become a modern term for a big celebration, usually one associated with a special anniversary of some major even.  The English term was first attested in 1350-1400 CE.  The Middle English form was iubile, iubilee.  The Middle French form was jubilee.  This is further connected with the Latin iubilare, to shout for joy.

CONCLUSION

This is an excellent example of how biblical translations have influenced the development of spoken languages.  The term jubilee has neither semantic nor linguistic connection with יובל, but it has become the definition for this moed for those who read the text only in translation.  As such it is one of a fairly large number of “religious terms” whose use in modern languages has net to nothing in common with is original meaning.  Refer to previous blog texts for further examples of this phenomenon.

  

The Servant Song of Isaiah 42

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 42 of Isaiah contains the first of the five servant sons of Isaiah.  According to standard scholarly lists the servant songs are found in Is 42:1-9, 49:1-7, 50:4-9, 52:13-53:12, 61:1-3.  These songs are each addressed to My (faithful) Servant.  Typically, My Servant is depicted as the perfect manifestation of YHWH’s will, as the personification and idealization of Israel who will establish Torah for all nations, and at various points My Servant is identified with YHWH himself.  This image is also contrasted with My (faithless) Servant Israel, who is blind, in rebellion, in exile, and unresponsive to Torah.  The purpose of the faithful Servant is to redeem rebellious, exiled Israel along with all other nations of the earth and to establish justice and YHWH’s Torah throughout the earth.  This will bring about the kingdom of YHWH on earth.

Isaiah was active from approximately 740 to 681 BCE, so he witnessed the growing apostacy of Judah and especially that of Israel.  He predicted the exile of both kingdoms and witnessed the exile of Israel in 722 BCE.  He and essentially all the other major prophets predicted that YHWH would redeem his people and bring them back from exile.  Isaiah, perhaps more than the other prophets, gave detailed descriptions on how YHWH would accomplish this feat.

TEXTUAL ANALSIS

This text has its share of interpretive challenges.  Among these are pronouns with ambiguous antecedents, sudden shifts between 1cs, 2ms, 2mp, 3ms, and 3mp pronouns, and similar shifts in verb forms.  Such shifts always render precise grammatical analysis and interpretation difficult.  It is tempting to claim that such difficulties are the result of textual corruption, but resort to this alternative should always be a last choice and require some convincing textual evidence.  It is notable that Biblia Hebraica (BH) list remarkably few variants for this entire chapter.  (Note: The text that I used did not include the Masoretic accents.  Apparently, a semicolon marks the location of the atnach, and commas were inserted for disjunctive accents, but this usage was not entirely consistent.)

א  הֵן עַבְדִּי אֶתְמָךְ-בּוֹ, בְּחִירִי רָצְתָה נַפְשִׁי; נָתַתִּי רוּחִי עָלָיו, מִשְׁפָּט לַגּוֹיִם יוֹצִיא :

Behold my Servant whom I support.  My chosen one my soul is pleased with.  I have put my spirit upon him.  He will cause justice to go out to the nations.

אֶתְמָךְ-בּוֹ         The verb is a 1cs qal imperfect from the root תמ''כ meaning support, uphold.  The term בּוֹ is a prepositional phrase that serves as the verbal complement connecting the verbal complement (de facto direct object).  The true direct object is עַבְדִּי, which precedes the verb for emphasis.  Such a construction cannot be translated into English without some structural modification.  The use of Behold is somewhat archaic English usage and could be updated to Here is my servant whom I support with some loss of emphasis from that of the Hebrew text.

בְּחִירִי רָצְתָה נַפְשִׁי       נַפְשִׁי – my soul – is the subject of the verb רָצְתָה and is a circumlocution for I.  Because נַפְשִׁי is a feminine noun, the verb is a 3fs perfect form.  Typically, the perfect form expresses an action or state of being that is complete in the mind of the author regardless of temporal relationships.  Here, it expresses a state of being that was complete in eternity, which is outside the scope of sequential time.  בְּחִירִי – my chosen one – is the direct object of the verb.  Its position before the verb is again emphatic.

נָתַתִּי    This verb is a 1cs qal perfect from the root נת''נ that expresses the range of meanings give, put, set, make, constitute, depending on context.  The consequence of YHWH’s putting his spirit on his servant is that Torah, the instruction embodying God’s will and character, will go out to the nations.

מִשְׁפָּט לַגּוֹיִם יוֹצִיא     יוֹצִיא is a 3ms hiphil perfect form.  This is an example of a prophetic perfect, which expresses a future event that is so certain in the prophet’s mind that he views it as already accomplished.

ב  לֹא יִצְעַק, וְלֹא יִשָּׂא; וְלֹא-יַשְׁמִיעַ בַּחוּץ, קוֹלוֹ:

He will not call out or lift up his voice, and he will not cause his voice to be heard on the outside.

וְלֹא יִשָּׂא          This clause is in synonymous parallelism with לֹא יִצְעַק – he will not shout – but this verb (3m qal imperfect from נש''א) is transitive without any object stated.  In this case, the object is implied by parallelism from the second half of the verse – קוֹלוֹ.  Here, the imperfect form indicates that these events may have started but have not reached their completion, at least in the mind of the author.

וְלֹא-יַשְׁמִיעַ בַּחוּץ         בַּחוּץ literally means on the outside, but the outside of what.  Several modern English translations have in the street, which is a possible interpretation if the context is referring to the outside of a building.  However, the present context has no reference to any kind of house or city, so this translation is probably incorrect.  If we accept this passage to be a prophesy concerning Yeshua, then his teaching was not heard (and not acted upon) except by those who had committed themselves to him (those on the inside).  Those on the outside of this group (Pharisees, Sadducees, and others) found his teaching impossible or even blasphemous.  This usage is not common, but it is within the sematic range of the term in classical Hebrew.

ג  קָנֶה רָצוּץ לֹא יִשְׁבּוֹר, וּפִשְׁתָּה כֵהָה לֹא יְכַבֶּנָּה; לֶאֱמֶת, יוֹצִיא מִשְׁפָּט:

A crushed reed he will not break, and a dimly lit wick he will not extinguish; according to truth he will bring forth justice.

קָנֶה רָצוּץ לֹא יִשְׁבּוֹר    רָצוּץis a ms qal passive participle from the root רצ''צ, meaning crush.  יִשְׁבּוֹר is a 3m qal imperfect from the root שב''ר, meaning break.  Since קָנֶה is a masculine noun, its function as subject or object of the verb is ambiguous.  However, the parallel clause has exactly the same structure, so whatever construction is chosen for this clause will surely apply to the first clause as well.

וּפִשְׁתָּה כֵהָה לֹא יְכַבֶּנָּה             ּפִשְׁתָּה is an fs noun meaning flax or the wick for an oil lamp; יְכַבֶּנָּה is a 3ms piel imperfect with 3f suffix verb from the root כב''ה meaning extinguish, quinch.  This clause removes the ambiguity from the construction of the first clause, so the first word in each clause must be understood as the direct object of the verb (fronted for emphasis).  Accordingly, the crushed reed and dimly lit wick are metaphors for spiritually weak or maligned individuals within Israel.  The implication is that My Servant will do nothing to squelch or discourage those having the least amount of remaining spiritual resilience.  The text makes these attributes apply to My Servant himself, implying that this is how he presents himself to the people.  This interpretation is consistent with the kenosis of Yeshua (Phil 2:7) as well as his description of himself in Mat 11:28-30.

לֶאֱמֶת              This construction has a wide variety of possible meanings; however, the one that fits the context best is in accordance with (the standard of) truth.  That is, though My Servant presents himself in weakness and apparent limitation, he will complete his task – bringing forth justice – in accordance with the truth of YHWH, which is embodied in Torah.

ד  לֹא יִכְהֶה וְלֹא יָרוּץ, עַד›יָשִׂים בָּאָרֶץ מִשְׁפָּט; וּלְתוֹרָתוֹ, אִיִּים יְיַחֵלוּ:  {פ}

He will not grow dim, and he will not run until he establishes justice in the land, and the coast lands will wait for his Torah.

Despite the fact that My servant is not depicted as one who seeks to grab attention nor as one presenting royal majesty, he will persist until he has accomplished his task – establishing justice in the land (i.e., Israel), and remoter coastal regions will wait for his instruction (Torah).  The implication of this last clause is that justice will be established in Israel first, and remoter regions (the nations) will await his instruction subsequently.  Torah is a comprehensive term for divine instruction, of which justice and righteousness are component parts.

ה  כֹּה-אָמַר הָאֵל יְהוָה, בּוֹרֵא הַשָּׁמַיִם וְנוֹטֵיהֶם, רֹקַע הָאָרֶץ, וְצֶאֱצָאֶיהָ; נֹתֵן נְשָׁמָה לָעָם עָלֶיהָ, וְרוּחַ לַהֹלְכִים בָּהּ:

Thus said God YHWH, creator of heaven stretching them out, he who spread out the land and its produce, he who gives breath to the people upon it, and wind for traversing it:

כֹּה-אָמַר הָאֵל יְהוָה      This verse introduces an extended speech by YHWH, which appears to be addressed to My Servant.  The rest of this verse consists of a listing of YHWH’s works from the start of creation.  These identify the one speaking but are not part of the message.  In each clause except the last one, the verb form is a participle, indicating occupational activity. 

וְרוּחַ לַהֹלְכִים בָּהּ        Here, לַהֹלְכִים is a mp qal participle, which is the object of the preposition לַ.  This construction is a verbless clause with רוּחַ as subject and the remainder as predicate.  Such a construction is so different from English that some deviations are needed to make it intelligible in translation..

ו  אֲנִי יְהוָה קְרָאתִיךָ בְצֶדֶק, וְאַחְזֵק בְּיָדֶךָ; וְאֶצָּרְךָ, וְאֶתֶּנְךָ לִבְרִית עָם לְאוֹר גּוֹיִם:

“I, YHWH, have appointed you in righteousness, and I will take hold of your hand; I will keep you, and I will make you a covenant for people as a light for nations

אֲנִי יְהוָה קְרָאתִיךָ בְצֶדֶק             This clause begins YHWH’s proclamation to My Servant.  The verb form קְרָאתִיךָ consists of a 1cs qal perfect from the root קר''א with a 2ms pronominal suffix.  This verb has many uses, but the two that seem to fit the present context are summon or appoint.  The perfect form implies that the action of appointing has already taken place, even though the resulting actions are all incomplete.  The adverbial prepositional phrase בְצֶדֶק also has a wide variety of possible meanings, but the one that seems to fit the present context expresses the state or condition in which the appointment had been made.  The implication of this statement is that the one called My Servant already existed at the time the appointment was made.

וְאַחְזֵק בְּיָדֶךָ     The verb form is a 1cs hiphil imperfect from the root חז''ק with vav conjunction (not vav consecutive).  In such a context the verb can express two major ideas – strengthen or grasp, take hold of – depending on the verbal complement.  The latter is the sense when the verbal complement is introduced by the preposition ב.  The single verb וְאֶצָּרְךָ (also not a form with vav consecutive) constitutes a synonymously parallel clause that indicates how this support from YHWH will benefit My Servant.

The last clause of the verse spells out the reason why YHWH had appointed his Servant – he has determined to make this Servant as a covenant for people.  The term עָם is stated without article, and this is intentional.  The intended scope of this covenant is defined by the last phrase – לְאוֹר גּוֹיִם.  That is, this covenant was to extend to many, and perhaps all nations, which is not necessarily the same as all people without exception.

ז  לִפְקֹחַ, עֵינַיִם עִוְרוֹת; לְהוֹצִיא מִמַּסְגֵּר אַסִּיר, מִבֵּית כֶּלֶא יֹשְׁבֵי חֹשֶׁךְ:

“to open eyes of blind ones, to bring out the prisoner from the dungeon, from the place of confinement, those who abide in darkness.

This verse spells out the purpose of the covenant.  It consists of three clauses, the first of which states the purpose as a general principle, and the subsequent two identify the consequence of the first.  לִפְקֹחַ, עֵינַיִם עִוְרוֹת – to open eyes of blind ones – anticipates one aspect of Yeshua’s ministry.  He opened the eyes of those who were physically blind as a metaphor for the religious of his day, who had replaced the original intention of Torah with interpretations of their own.  The subsequent clauses describe the condition of blind ones with two different descriptions.  First, the spiritually blind were prisoners who were to be brought out from a dungeon.  Second, second, they were confined in a place of (spiritual) blindness (darkness).  (C.f. Is 6:9 in which YHWH imposes spiritual blindness and deafness on disobedient Judah and Is 9:1 in which the people of Galilee are living in a state of darkness.)

ח  אֲנִי יְהוָה, הוּא שְׁמִי; וּכְבוֹדִי לְאַחֵר לֹא-אֶתֵּן, וּתְהִלָּתִי לַפְּסִילִים:

“I am YHWH – that is my name – and I will not give my glory to another or my praise to molten images.

ט  הָרִאשֹׁנוֹת, הִנֵּה-בָאוּ; וַחֲדָשׁוֹת אֲנִי מַגִּיד, בְּטֶרֶם תִּצְמַחְנָה אַשְׁמִיעַ אֶתְכֶם:  {פ}

“The former things, behold they have come, but I relate new things; before they spring up I proclaim them to you.” 

These two verses recapitulate major themes from the previous two chapters of Isaiah.  Additionally, verse 8 echoes verses 5 and 6 of this chapter, establishing YHWH’s exclusive right to make such pronouncements.  Verse 9 begins by stating that YHWH’s past works are completed and not to be repeated.  The next two clauses expand this by asserting that he is relating new things, things that are yet to happen.  The verb תִּצְמַחְנָה is an fp qal imperfect from the root צמ''ח, which typically is used to describe the way plants spring up out of the ground.  The implication of this word choice is that these new things will be active unseen before they sprout upwards for all to see.  (Note that צמח – Sprout – is the name that Zechariah chapter 6 gives to the one who will be king-priest.)  Through Isaiah’s oracle, YHWH is relating these new things so people can hear and take action.  Specifically, these new things are the covenant for the nations and the cure for spiritual blindness.  These are not exactly new.  They were hinted at from YHWH’s first call to Abram in Genesis 12 and repeated periodically from that point on, but Is 42:6 places God’s promise to the nations on the same level as God’s promise to Israel, one not dominating the other.  This is a decidedly new emphasis.

י  שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה שִׁיר חָדָשׁ, תְּהִלָּתוֹ מִקְצֵה הָאָרֶץ; יוֹרְדֵי הַיָּם וּמְלֹאוֹ, אִיִּים וְיֹשְׁבֵיהֶם:

Sing to YHWH a new song, his praise from the extremity of the land; the depths of the sea and its fullness, islands and those who dwell on them.

Standard lists end the first servant song with verse 9, which is the end of a stanza according to traditional markings (indicated by פ in the MT, but 1QISA does not include a break until the end of verse 13).  Verses 10 - 13 constitute a song of praise arising from verses 1-9.  As such it is at least debatable whether or not it might constitute the conclusion to the first servant song.  The first clause begins with שִׁירוּ, a qal mp imperative.  The subsequent three clauses begin a tabulation of those being addressed and their response.

תְּהִלָּתוֹ מִקְצֵה הָאָרֶץ   The expression מִקְצֵה הָאָרֶץ literally means from the extremity of the land, but הָאָרֶץ typically is a reference to Israel, the land of promise.  The implication of this is that the people of Israel and the land of Israel are intended to be a principal source of praise offered to YHWH.

יוֹרְדֵי הַיָּם וּמְלֹאוֹ        יוֹרְדֵי is a qal mp participle in the construct form meaning going down.  This construction could be translated those going down to the sea or the depths of the sea.  מְלֹאוֹ – its fullness – is a noun and parallel with יוֹרְדֵי הַיָּם, so one defines the scope of the other.  For the most part, the ancient Israelites were not a sea-faring folk, and they viewed the sea as a place of mystery and danger.  This phrase indicates that the seas and its creatures, and possibly those who go down to the sea (mostly not Israelites), are exhorted to take part in the song of praise to YHWH.

אִיִּים וְיֹשְׁבֵיהֶם            אִיִּים literally means islands or coastal regions, but it might be applied to any region remote or not controlled by Israel.  יֹשְׁבֵיהֶם is a qal mp participle with an mp pronominal suffix, which might be translated their inhabitants.  Thus, this expression encompasses the peoples of the nations, who are also beneficiaries of My Servant’s work.

יא  יִשְׂאוּ מִדְבָּר וְעָרָיו, חֲצֵרִים תֵּשֵׁב קֵדָר; יָרֹנּוּ יֹשְׁבֵי סֶלַע, מֵרֹאשׁ הָרִים יִצְוָחוּ:

The wilderness and its cities lift up; settlements, abode of Kadar ; dwellers of Sela make a ringing cry; from the top of mountains they cry out.

This verse continues the list of those exhorted to sing praises to YHWH.  Note that this list includes some who had raided and subjected the tribes of Israel during the days before the rise of David.

יִשְׂאוּ    The verb form is a qal 3mp imperfect from the root נש''א.  In as much as the verbal root begins with a נ, one would expect a daghesh should be present in the ש.  BH lists no variant for this word here, and this is the only place in the Hebrew bible where the form appears without a daghesh.  Following the context of the previous verse, this verb reflects the giving of habitual songs of praise to YHWH after My Servant has accomplished his task.

מִדְבָּר וְעָרָיו     The cities of the midbar were mostly south of the promised land.  Peoples from this region frequently raided Israel because the area south of Beer Sheva was sparsely populated and was relatively easy to penetrate.

חֲצֵרִים תֵּשֵׁב קֵדָר        The phrase is difficult.  Based on parallel structure תֵּשֵׁב קֵדָר should be roughly equivalent to מִדְבָּר וְעָרָיו.  קֵדָר refers to Bedouin-like raiders from the east, so this connection would fit very well.  However, the form תֵּשֵׁב is either a 2ms imperfect or a 3fs imperfect from the root ישב, neither of which fit the context at all.  The only possible translation using the forms in the text is as follows:  Kedar, you dwell (in) settlements.  Even though BH lists no variants, it is worth checking what the earliest translations did at this point.

·        In the LXX the Greek text renders תֵּשֵׁב by a singular present participle in the accusative case.  As such it is roughly equivalent to יושב, and this appears to have been the source for the common English translations.

·        The Hebrew text includes 12 words, but the targum contains 19, so it clearly expands the content.  Additionally, it changes קֵדָר to Arabs, who generally inhabited much the same region at the time of writing.

·        The Syriac text appear to be a word-for-word rendering of the Hebrew, but the forms more closely follow the LXX text. 

The Targum is clearly a free interpretive reading and cannot be used to establish the underlying Hebrew text.  The LXX and Peshitta are fairly close to one another and represent either a common interpretation or a different Hebrew text.

יָרֹנּוּ יֹשְׁבֵי סֶלַע             יָרֹנּוּ is a 3mp qal imperfect from the root רנ''נ, whose root concept is loud cry or shout.  It occurs in both verbal and nominal forms, and its usage ranges from a shout of exultation to a loud complaint.  Based on the sense of the first clause, the verb must take on its most positive meaning.

סֶלַע     This term literally means a cliff or precipice; however, it was also the name of a site in Edom.  Because the previous verse and the last two clauses refers to locations of human habitation, this unknown site in Edom, possibly Petra, is probably the intended referent.

מֵרֹאשׁ הָרִים יִצְוָחוּ     מֵרֹאשׁ הָרִים literally means from the top of the mountains.  There are two possibilities for understanding the significance of this expression: 1) It represents the highest promontory from which to proclaim praise for YHWH, as in Is 40:9; 2) It is used metaphorically for all sources of governing powers on earth, the greatest of which is the mountain of YHWH as in Is 2:2.

יִצְוָחוּ   This verb form is a qal mp imperfect from the root צו''ח, which is an uncommon synonym of רנ''נ ּ.

יב  יָשִׂימוּ לַיהוָה, כָּבוֹד; וּתְהִלָּתוֹ, בָּאִיִּים יַגִּידוּ:

They ascribe glory to YHWH, and his praise in the coast lands.

This verse summarizes the response of all of the peoples mentioned above.  כָּבוֹד is an ms noun, which refers to that which gives social weight to the one being described.  תְהִלָּתוֹ, his praise, makes specific what form כָּבוֹד will take.  Note also that the sentence structure of the second clause is exactly reverse of that in the first clause, or chiastic structure, which is a fairly common device in Hebrew poetry.  

יג  יְהוָה כַּגִּבּוֹר יֵצֵא, כְּאִישׁ מִלְחָמוֹת יָעִיר קִנְאָה; יָרִיעַ, אַף-יַצְרִיחַ עַל-אֹיְבָיו, יִתְגַּבָּר:  {ס}

YHWH has gone out as a warrior, like a man of wars he rouses his zeal; he makes a war cry, indeed he utters a roar; he shows himself mighty against his enemies.  

This verse concludes the song of praise, and so it is marked with a ס, indicating a closed paragraph.  The imagery is that of a mighty warrior going out to war.

יְהוָה כַּגִּבּוֹר יֵצֵא          גִּבּוֹר is an ms adjective from the root גב''ר, meaning be strong, mighty.  Here it is being used as a predicate complement and takes the place of a noun, mighty one.  The second clause expands the significance of the first.  כְּאִישׁ מִלְחָמוֹת is in apposition to כַּגִּבּוֹר, which was frequently applied to the military heroes of Israel.  The verb יָעִיר is a 3ms hiphil imperfect from the root עו''ר, meaning rouse up.

The second half of the verse contains two clauses that continue to expand the description of YHWH as a warrior.  The first clause contains two verbs whose semantic ranges elaborate one another.  The first is יָרִיעַ, which is a 3ms hiphil imperfect from the root רו''ע, meaning make a war cry.  The second is יַצְרִיחַ, which is a 3ms hiphil imperfect from the root צר''ח, meaning utter a roar.  The verb in the last clause is יִתְגַּבָּר, a 3ms hitpael (reflexive) of the root גב''ר, which is the same root as that for גִּבּוֹר.  This structure is an example of hendiadys (using two or words to express a single idea), which is also a fairly common device in Hebrew poetry.

In my opinion, this stanza (vss 10-13) goes with the song for My faithful Servant.  The implication is My Servant will accomplish what has been determined for him, but the power behind all his deeds will be YHWH, the man of wars.  Verse 14 begins a new section composed of two stanzas.  This section addresses YHWH’s unfaithful servant composed of Israel and Judah.  The immediate juxtaposition is intentional.  My faithful Servant is everything the unfaithful servant is not, but one of the major tasks of My faithful Servant is to restore the recombined people of Israel to their relationship with YHWH.

יד  הֶחֱשֵׁיתִי מֵעוֹלָם ,אַחֲרִישׁ אֶתְאַפָּק; כַּיּוֹלֵדָה אֶפְעֶה, אֶשֹּׁם וְאֶשְׁאַף יָחַד:

I have kept silent, from antiquity I was remaining silent, restraining myself; like one giving birth I was groaning, panting and gasping together.

The verb sequence in this verse is interesting.  The first verb הֶחֱשֵׁיתִי is a perfect form, but all other finite verbs are 1cs imperfect forms.  This first verb, meaning keep silent or remain inactive, indicates that YHWH’s state of inactivity is completed, at an end.  The imperfect forms imply either continual or repeated action or progressive action going forward. 

הֶחֱשֵׁיתִי מֵעוֹלָם          The verb form is a 1cs hiphil perfect, as mentioned above.  מֵעוֹלָם indicates an interval during which YHWH was entirely or mostly silent with respect to his human creatures.  The difficulty with the term עוֹלָם is that it has such a broad range of uses in the bible that determining its intended meaning is difficult without more context.  However, God was mostly silent from the time after Abel’s murder to the call of Abram.

אַחֲרִישׁ אֶתְאַפָּק          The first verb is a 1cs hiphil imperfect from the root חר''ש, meaning keep silent.  The second is a 1cs hitpael imperfect from the root אפ''ק, meaning restrain oneself.  They are stated without any copulative forming a hendiadys.  This combination amounts to a restatement of the first clause.  That is, while God had remained mostly silent prior to the call to Abram, he was restraining himself, and this required significant effort.

The last two clauses provide a graphic description of YHWH’s anguish during the interval of his silence.  The metaphor is based on a woman in the process of giving birth.  The verbs used say it all – groan, pant, gasp.  The imperfect form implies that these actions are incomplete, they were continuing throughout the period of God’s silence, and perhaps beyond.  If the latter is the case, then God’s anguish will continue until His faithful Servant has completed his work.

טו  אַחֲרִיב הָרִים וּגְבָעוֹת, וְכָל-עֶשְׂבָּם אוֹבִישׁ; וְשַׂמְתִּי נְהָרוֹת לָאִיִּים, וַאֲגַמִּים אוֹבִישׁ:

I was making mountains and hills desolate, and causing all of their herbage to dry up; I was making rivers into the coast lands, and I was causing pools to dry up.

All of the verbs in this verse except שַׂמְתִּי are 1cs hiphil imperfect, and this one exception is a 1cs qal perfect with vav consecutive.  Thus, everything mentioned are things YHWH has been causing, and they are not complete.  Residual questions are:

·        Are the natural disasters to be understood literally or metaphorically?

·        If literal, do they refer to judgments against a particular nation(s), and if so which?

·        If metaphorical, what is the referent corresponding to each judgment?

Isaiah lived to witness the literal exile of the northern kingdom; he foresaw the exile of Judah, but he died about 100 years before it actually happened.  Historically, Israel and Judah had been abundantly fruitful agriculturally, but after the expulsion of the Jews the land became desolate and remained so until the Jews started to return a little over 150 years ago.  If we accept this prophetic/metaphorical view of the first half of the verse, the second half should have the same significance.  This is somewhat more difficult to fit into such a framework.  Israel has just one significant river, and it is completely land locked.  BDB offers a suggested meaning of border lands for the usage of אִיִּים in this verse.  Assuming this to be valid, then the Jordan was originally designated as the eastern border for the promised land.  However, when the Israelites actually arrived, they occupied both sides of this river.  In modern times the Jordan rift has become the eastern border for land claimed by Israel.  The last clause is even more difficult.  Jerusalem had several man-made pools 2000 years ago, and every village had one or more cisterns, but אֲגַמִּים refers to muddy pools or marshlands.  This might refer to the malarial swamps that were drained by the early Jewish settlers in order to reclaim the land and eliminate the persistent problem of malaria.

טז  וְהוֹלַכְתִּי עִוְרִים, בְּדֶרֶךְ לֹא יָדָעו, בִּנְתִיבוֹת לֹא יָדְעוּ, אַדְרִיכֵם; אָשִׂים מַחְשָׁךְ לִפְנֵיהֶם לָאוֹר, וּמַעֲקַשִּׁים לְמִישׁוֹר ,אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים, עֲשִׂיתִם וְלֹא עֲזַבְתִּים:

I conducted blind ones in a way they did not know, in paths they did not know I caused them to march; I transformed before them the dark to light and crooked places into level.  These are the things I did for them, and I did not abandon them.

If the previous verses deal in a general way with the history of the land of Israel, this verse indicates various specific aspects of the Exodus from God’s perspective.

עִוְרִים The people of Israel at the time they left Egypt were all blind in the sense that none of them except perhaps Moses had any real perception or understanding of YHWH’s promise, reliability, and power.  All of them had lived their entire lives in Egypt, and their perception of God was skewed by that of the Egyptian gods.

נְתִיבוֹת … ְדֶרֶךְ            These two terms are essentially synonyms.  Only Moses among all the people knew the way to the Mountain of God, and not one of them knew the way from there to the Land of Promise.  Both this repetition and that of יָדְעוּ לֹא – they did not know – are highly emphatic.

וּמַעֲקַשִּׁים לְמִישׁוֹר … לָאוֹר …מַחְשָׁךְ     Dark to light, crooked to level – on a metaphorical level, these refer to difficulties and even impossible barriers to the people on their travels to the land.  On a literal level they refer at least to the pillar of cloud and pillar of light, the opening of the Red Sea, preserving the people from hunger and thirst, and preserving the people despite their acts of unbelief and rebellion.

אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים, עֲשִׂיתִם וְלֹא עֲזַבְתִּים           These two clauses define the character of their God.  He guided them, preserved them, and did not abandon them, even though they did not deserve such a level of preservation.

יז  נָסֹגוּ אָחוֹר יֵבֹשׁוּ בֹשֶׁת, הַבֹּטְחִים בַּפָּסֶל; הָאֹמְרִים לְמַסֵּכָה, אַתֶּם אֱלֹהֵינוּ:  {פ}

They have turned back.  Shame, they will feel shame, those who trust in idols; those who say to molten images, ‘You are our gods.’

יח  הַחֵרְשִׁים, שְׁמָעוּ; וְהַעִוְרִים, הַבִּיטוּ לִרְאוֹת:

Hear, oh deaf ones, and blind ones look to perceive.

יט  מִי עִוֵּר כִּי אִם-עַבְדִּי, וְחֵרֵשׁ כְּמַלְאָכִי אֶשְׁלָח; מִי עִוֵּר כִּמְשֻׁלָּם, וְעִוֵּר כְּעֶבֶד יְהוָה:

Who is blind except my servant, and deaf like my messenger whom I send?  Who is blind like he who is in covenant of peace, or blind like the servant of YHWH?

כ  ראית (רָאוֹת) רַבּוֹת, וְלֹא תִשְׁמֹר; פָּקוֹחַ אָזְנַיִם, וְלֹא יִשְׁמָע:

Seeing many things, but you do not keep (covenant); two ears are opened but do not hear.

Verses 17 – 20 characterize and summarize the people’s response to YHWH’s faithfulness throughout the years of the exodus and beyond.  Despite individual examples and periods of faithful obedience, the overall tenor of the people was a progressive descent into godlessness and idolatry like that of the surrounding nations.  This is the characterization of Israel as My unfaithful Servant.

נָסֹגוּ אָחוֹר יֵבֹשׁוּ בֹשֶׁת, הַבֹּטְחִים בַּפָּסֶל            The phrase הַבֹּטְחִים בַּפָּסֶל actually serves as the subject for the two introductory clauses.  Its position at the end indicates that the actions described are the items of primary importance.  The first verb, נָסֹגוּ, is a 3mp niphal perfect form, indicating that the people’s turning back away from the standards of YHWH had been completed; it is not in progress.  The combination יֵבֹשׁוּ בֹשֶׁת is a truly peculiar expression.  The verb form is a 3mp qal imperfect, and בֹשֶׁת is a singular noun from the same root.   If the second word was an infinitive absolute, the meaning would be they will surely become ashamed; but BH lists no variant reading other than a few manuscripts that omit בֹשֶׁת.

הָאֹמְרִים לְמַסֵּכָה        This represents Israel’s sin, which had begun at Sinai and was repeated periodically throughout their history as an independent nation in antiquity – giving the worship claimed by YHWH to molten images and idols of various types.

Verse 18 is the realization of Is 6:10.  YHWH announces through Isaiah that their ears would become so heavy that they could no longer hear or respond to the prophets’ admonitions, and their eyes would become so dim that they could no longer perceive God’s works in history.  This is underscored by verses 19 and 20.  Israel, who was to be God’s servant, who is in a covenant of peace with God, has become so deaf and blind that they have become incapable of doing the task for which they were created.

כא  יְהוָה חָפֵץ, לְמַעַן צִדְקוֹ; יַגְדִּיל תּוֹרָה, וְיַאְדִּיר:

YHWH was pleased on account of his righteousness; he will magnify and glorify Torah.

חָפֵץ, לְמַעַן צִדְקוֹ         At first glance, this appears to be an oxymoron.  YHWH was pleased on account of his righteousness???  How so?  The people chosen to be his servant was faithless and rebellious.  How does this accord with his righteousness?

יַגְדִּיל תּוֹרָה, וְיַאְדִּיר    God has an absolute standard embodied in his Torah.  His people rebelled and forsook him, so they will become the first object lesson of his righteousness and love.  Righteousness, because all transgressors must be judged, thereby magnifying his Torah; love, because he has promised that he will never forsake his people.  Verses 22 through 25 describe the judgment aspect of YHWH’s actions toward his people Israel.

כב  וְהוּא, עַם›בָּזוּז וְשָׁסוּי, הָפֵחַ בַּחוּרִים כֻּלָּם, וּבְבָתֵּי כְלָאִים הָחְבָּאוּ; הָיוּ לָבַז וְאֵין מַצִּיל, מְשִׁסָּה וְאֵין›אֹמֵר הָשַׁב:

They are a people, plundered and despoiled, ensnaring all of their youth, and in confinement they were hidden; they became spoil and there was no deliverer, booty and no one saying, ‘Return.’

וְהוּא, עַם-בָּזוּז וְשָׁסוּי              This clause summarizes the state of first Israel and subsequently Judah.  If the oracle was enunciated prior to the actual captivity of the Northern Kingdom, it anticipates what would happen to them from that point to the present time: Assyria invaded them, despoiled them, exiled them, sent them to a remote part of their empire.  This all occurred because of their covenant unfaithfulness.

הָפֵחַ בַּחוּרִים כֻּלָּם       הָפֵחַ is a hiphil infinitive absolute from the root פח''ח, meaning ensnare.  This phrase expresses the scope of the calamity that has befallen Israel – all of their youth, male and female.  The finite verb governing the clause is הָחְבָּאוּ, which is a 3mp hophal perfect from the root חב''א.  Substantially the entire population was confined in a remote part of Assyria, and so they became invisible from that time forward.  A little more than 140 years later, Babylon would do the Same thing to Judah and for the same reason.   

The second half of the verse summarizes their state.  They had become booty, spoil, and there was nobody to deliver them or to tell them to return.  The people as a group were confined far away from their homeland, and at least for Israel there was no indication about the duration of their exile.

כג  מִי בָכֶם, יַאֲזִין זֹאת; יַקְשִׁב וְיִשְׁמַע, לְאָחוֹר:

Who among you will hear this?  Pay attention and hear hereafter.

If the prediction of verse 22 had been made and published prior to the exile of Israel, nobody paid attention to it.  The same was true of the rulers in Judah, but the realization of its accuracy did not take place for another 40 years.

כד  מִי-נָתַן למשוסה (לִמְשִׁסָּה) יַעֲקֹב וְיִשְׂרָאֵל לְבֹזְזִים, הֲלוֹא יְהוָה ; זוּ  חָטָאנוּ לוֹ, וְלֹא-אָבוּ בִדְרָכָיו הָלוֹךְ, וְלֹא שָׁמְעוּ בְּתוֹרָתוֹ:

Who gave Jacob for plunder and Israel spoil?  Was it not YHWH?  Against him we sinned; they did not go in his ways, and they did not hear his Torah.

The first half of the verse consists of a rhetorical question posed by Israel to itself; the second half is a response indicating why YHWH has treated his people as described in the previous verse.

לְבֹזְזִים … לִמְשִׁסָּה     These words are near synonyms.

  חָטָאנוּ לוֹ זוּ  זוּ is a fairly uncommon relative pronoun that serves here as the direct object for the verb.

וְלֹא-אָבוּ בִדְרָכָיו הָלוֹךְ             אָבוּ is a 3mp qal perfect from the root אב''ה, meaning be willing, consent.  הָלוֹךְ is a qal infinitive absolute from the root הל''ך, which here serves as the predicate complement for the main verb.  שָׁמְעוּ in the next clause is a 3mp qal perfect.  The shift from 1cp to 3mp seems awkward from any perspective, but the lack of any variant suggests this was the intended text.  As a suggestion, the one clause with the 1cp verb form refers to the people as a collective group, and the 3mp verb forms refer to Israelites as individuals.

כה  וַיִּשְׁפֹּךְ עָלָיו חֵמָה אַפּוֹ, וֶעֱזוּז מִלְחָמָה; וַתְּלַהֲטֵהוּ מִסָּבִיב וְלֹא יָדָע, וַתִּבְעַר-בּוֹ וְלֹא-יָשִׂים עַל-לֵב:

So he poured out upon him his burning wrath and fierceness of war; and it (war) set him ablaze round about; but he did not know, and it (war) consumed him, but he does not take it to heart.

From the perspective of a person who can only read this verse in English translation, the text has several examples of pronouns with indefinite antecedents, and several examples where the he cannot refer to the same noun.

וַיִּשְׁפֹּךְ עָלָיו חֵמָה אַפּוֹ The verb form וַיִּשְׁפֹּךְ is a 3ms qal imperfect with vav consecutive, so it has the semantic force of a perfect.  Even though YHWH is not the nearest antecedent, he is clearly the intended referent.  עָלָיו has a 3mp suffix as its object that can only refer to the one who has experienced the judgment of YHWH – Israel viewed as a collective for persons as a corporate group.  אַפּוֹ again has a 3ms suffix can only refer to the same individual as the subject of the verb, YHWH.

חֵמָה אַפּוֹ         This is a construct chain – his burning wrath – but חֵמָה is not in the normal construct form for the word.  Again, the pronominal suffix can only refer to YHWH.

וֶעֱזוּז מִלְחָמָה This is also a construct chain, but the thing important to recognize for understanding the remainder of the verse is that מִלְחָמָה is a feminine singular noun.

וַתְּלַהֲטֵהוּ מִסָּבִיב וְלֹא יָדָע             וַתְּלַהֲטֵהוּ is a 3fs piel imperfect form with vav consecutive.  The ordinary way of translating the verb is it blaized up, but the only possible antecedent is מִלְחָמָה.

וְלֹא יָדָע           The verb is a 3ms qal perfect.  As before, the only possible subject is the collectivized Israel viewed as a single entity.  The difficulty with the verbal root יד''ע is that no single English verb really captures its semantic content.  It describes acquisition of intimate detailed knowledge, including skill and perception.  The point is that Israel and Judah experienced the horrors of war and of total defeat without realizing why.

וְלֹא-יָשִׂים עַל-לֵב         יָשִׂים is a 3ms qal imperfect form, and it is the only one in this verse without a vav consecutive.  The expression שימו לב is an idiom in both modern and ancient Hebrew, meaning remember this, it is important.  The change in form indicates repetitive or habitual action – that is, they did not and still do not perceive the significance of what YHWH has done with them.

SUMMARY

SCOLARLY APPROACH

In the Hebrew bible the book of Isaiah is presented as a single book of collected oracles produced by Isaiah son of Amoz.  According to historical records in the bible, Isaiah was active from c. 740 to 681 BCE, or about 60 years.  However, modern scholars have created a different decomposition of the book:

·        Proto-Isaiah – This section consists of chapters 1 – 39 and consists of the oracles of Isaiah in the 8^th century BCE.

·        Deutero-Isaiah – Chapters 40 – 55 contain material by an unknown prophet written from exile in the 6 century BCE.

·        Trito-Isaiah – Chapters 56 – 66 that contain material written by another unknown prophet following the return from exile in the 5^th century BCE.

The justifications for these divisions arise from several lines of reasoning:

·        Internal evidence in chapters 40 - 66 suggests a time period during the Babylonian exile or later.

·        Stylistic changes – images, syntactic constructions, phraseology, and vocabulary suggest that chapters 40 - 66 are later than the first 39 chapters.

·        Theological concepts in chapter 40 -66 are significantly more developed than those of the first 39 chapters.

The generally unstated objection that modern scholars have for rejecting the essential unity of authorship for this book is the presupposition that minutely detailed prediction of events hundreds of years after the prophet’s time is not possible.  This is a presupposition that can neither be proved or disproved.  However, the bible is filled with such prophecies, which are typically dismissed as later scribal additions.  Additionally, Young and Rezetco (Linguistic Dating of Biblical Texts, volume 1) demonstrated that essentially every “late” syntactical construction occurs in “early” books, and “early” syntactical constructions occur in “late” books.  Although every language changes over time, too little documentary evidence exists outside the bible to establish any kind of mapping for such changes in classical Hebrew from 1400 to 400 BCE.  All such argumentation is based on circular reasoning from unsubstantiated (and unstated) presuppositions.

MY APPROACH

The evidence available from the texts of the later prophets indicates that they typically delivered their oracles orally.  Using the example of Jeremiah and his friend Baruch, an oracle may have been transcribed at the time of original composition or some later time.  At any rate, the prophets produced individual oracles, not books, throughout their interval of activity.  In the case of Isaiah, he was active of over a period of around 60 years, so one should expect development in concepts and style.  Organizing individual oracles into a compilation may have been progressive, or it may not have occurred until after the prophet’s death.  The organization of such a compilation might be sequential in order of composition, thematic, or a combination of the two.  In the case of Isaiah, the organization mostly appears to have been thematic, and few of the oracles indicate when or why they were composed.

At the time of composition, oracles were created in response to a specific historical situation.  With few exceptions little information about that situation was recorded apart to references within the oracle itself.  When the oracles were assembled into a collection of the prophet’s oracles, the only context remaining are those supplied within the preceding and succeeding oracles.  This results in several interpretive difficulties:

·        The actual historical context is almost always lost apart from references within the oracle itself.

·        The beginning and end of the oracle can be determined only by literary context, which is subject to the considered opinion of a translator, editor, or commentator.

·        Detailed understanding of any particular line of the text apart from the original historical context depends on its syntactical arrangement and the semantic content of the words in context.  The Masoretic vocalization and accents provide one interpretation of the syntax and vocabulary but not the only one possible.  Alternate vocalizations and verse divisions can change the meaning expressed significantly.

One or more of these factors constitute the basis for differing interpretations of the same oracle.

ISAIAH 42

The historical contexts for the oracles (two or three) in this chapter are not recorded and therefore cannot be established with any accuracy.  Judah and Israel are clearly viewed as in exile, guilty of apostacy, and in need of redemption.  The only literary context is supplied by the oracles in chapters 40 and 41, and these oracles introduce various themes elaborated in chapter 42.  Major themes introduced in these two chapters are as follows:

·        Is 40:1-11 -- Proclamation of comfort to Jerusalem, which is a state of destruction and depopulation.  This is a proclamation of good news to a dispirited people based on God’s power and goodness toward his chosen people.

·        Is 40:12 – 26 – God’s wisdom, majesty and power are proclaimed by the material creation.  These attributes are compared to a molten idol assembled by the hands of human craftsmen.

·        Is 40:27 – 31 – Dispirited Israel think that YHWH may have forgotten them, but YHWH is eternal and does not grow weary.  He will give new strength to those who wait on him.

·        Is 41:1 - 7 -- The response of the nations to the majesty and power of YHWH is fear.  Rather than give reverence and honor to YHWH, they make molten idols.

·        Is 41:8 – 16 – This passage is addressed to Israel, whom YHWH addressed as my servant, descendant of Abraham, my friend.  They are addressed as people gathered from the ends of the earth, and they are given the task of threshing and winnowing the nations.

·        Is 41:17 – 20 --YHWH promises to supply the needs of his people in the presence of privation and to make waste places abundantly fruitful.

·         Is 41:21 – 24 --YHWH issues a challenge to the gods of the peoples to declare the former things and announce the things to come.  This they fail to do, exhibiting the fact they are no gods.

·        Is 25 – 29 – This passage is somewhat enigmatic, but it appears to talk about unfaithful Israel, YHWH’s disobedient servant.  The passage begins with the statement that YHWH had summoned someone from the north and that he has come.  Either the same one or another would come from the east.  There is no context to identify what is being identified, but the rest of the passage describes judgment because of disobedience, faithlessness, and idolatry.  As a result, I conclude the one from the north is Assyria, the one from the east is Babylon, and the context is the destruction of Israel first and Judah next.

The text of Is 42 addresses nearly all of these topics, expanding and elaborating on those covered.  The most notable expansion is on my servant Israel.  Instead of one servant there are two: My faithful Servant and My unfaithful Servant, which are contrasted with one another.  The unfaithful servant is identified specifically with Israel as she was – blind, disobedient, and idolatrous.  The faithful servant is everything that the unfaithful servant was not.  The tasks assigned to the faithful servant are to first restore the people of Israel to covenant faithfulness and then to establish justice among the nation.  The song of praise to YHWH is based on the fact that the faithful servant has accomplished his tasks and that this state will persist among the peoples.

The faithlessness of Israel is contrasted with the faithfulness of YHWH, who led, sustained, and preserved them.  Despite their blindness and disobedience, YHWH promised that he would never forsake them.  God’s judgment on the people resulted in the desolation of the entire land of promise.  Historically, this desolation has lasted some 2500 years, but the restoration seems to have begun a the Jews started to return some 150 years ago.  However, modern Israel is hardly the Torah observant people that My faithful Servant is to produce.  If this chapter does address some aspects of Israel’s history from Isaiah time into the future, then its fullness has yet to be realized.