The
opening passage of Isaiah chapters 40-66, 40:1-11, is best understood as a
prologue to all that follows. The assumed
historical context of Isaiah 40-66 is entirely different from that of Isaiah
1-39, as is clear from references it contains: Jerusalem and the townships of
Judah are in ruins (44:26), and a new world-conqueror, Cyrus, is expected to allow the Judean
exiles to return and the temple to be rebuilt (44:28). Babylon the Mistress of Kingdoms - not Assyria - has become helpless, and will soon suffer disaster (47:1-15).
Isaiah
40:1-11 begins with a summons to console Jerusalem.
Her debt has been paid, and a new day is dawning. Yahweh is coming in all
his glory. It’s time to prepare a way for him (40:1-3). As elsewhere in Isaiah
40-48, the addressees where not specified are the exiles in Babylon.
A
summons comes again, this time to an individual: “cry out!” An individual
answers, “What will I cry?” (40:6a). To judge by the words that follow (40:6b-7), the individual
is despondent. But the respondent is tasked to be a messenger all the same, and
is addressed as a heraldess to Jerusalem.
The people, to be sure, were as grass, but now Yahweh is about to arrive. "Do not be
afraid," says the summoner to the summoned (40:9). And she is not afraid. “My Lord Yahweh
is near,” she says. He comes like a shepherd with a flock in train (40:10-11).
The one who replies, “What will I cry?” (40:6a) is addressed as a heraldess
(40:9). The summons is initially made generically: a masculine verb is used: “Cry
out!” (40:6a). But when the one who replies is spoken to in the following, feminine verbs are employed
“Get up . . . lift . . . lift . . . say” (40:9). The person who responds is a woman. She may also be the author of Isaiah 40 and following.
To
the author or authors of Isaiah 40-66, we owe some of the
most sublime poetry ever written. “Give comfort,
give comfort, my people, your God says” is a parade example thereof.
Isaiah_40_111.pdf
Isaiah_40_verses_111_scansion.pdf
Isaiah_40_111_translation.pdf
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