Open Study of Chapter 1 of Isaiah

[David]

(1:1) “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.” – Reveals whose vision, where it took place, whom it was concerning, and what time period.

(1:2-3) “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: ‘I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me; the ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not consider.” – Isaiah calls out for not only all of earth to hear but for all of those in heaven. He calls for everyone to listen to God; including those that disobey him and are likely not to hear. Isaiah quotes God, “I have nourished and brought up children.” This single phrase reveals many things. Not only does God view himself as the father of Israel, His children (as revealed further and before), but that He has taken good care of His children.

Even after God’s care of His people, Israel rebels against Him; in such a manner that is inconceivable to Isaiah and God. According to God, Israel has less sense than animals; losing all human sense. So lost are His people that they are not even aware that they are lost. Yet, God still calls them His people. This shows that God still cares and loves us even when we have lost sight of him and rebelled against His will.

(1:4) “Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward.” – Pointed out first is the sinfulness of Israel, a people choosing to be separated from God. Then, Isaiah emphasizes the evil and sinful point that Israel is at. He even goes to show that they are, in a manner, caught within their own whirlpool of corruption as pointed out with the use of “children” which insinuates a lineage. However, they are the ones who have turned, not God; “they have forsaken the LORD.” Isaiah continues to reveal the nature of Israel by showing the contrast of their sin against “the Holy One.” Again, they have turned away from God and yet God remains.

[Jen]

At this point, I feel like we're just establishing a baseline of information, so I just want to expand and we'll sort of shape where we're going from here.

(1:1) “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.” – Reveals whose vision, where it took place, whom it was concerning, and what time period.

Judah was the southern kingdom of Israel, and Jerusalem, specifically was the place where the Temple was built and all worship and sacrifices would have taken place. This is an important thing to note because of strong themes throughout the Bible (particularly in passages attributed by JEP&D scholars to the Deuteronomist) of proper worship. One of the qualities of proper worship at this time is that all sacrifices are to be made at the Temple in Jerusalem.

Information about the kings mentioned:
Uzziah (meaning "Strength of God" in Hebrew) ruled during the 8th Century BCE. He was also known by the name Azariah. He was the ninth king of Judah and ruled the southern kingdom of Judah for 52 years.

Jotham (meaning "God is perfect" in Hebrew) was the son of Uzziah. He co-ruled with his father (who suffered from leprosy in his old age). He was the 10th king of Judah and ascended to the throne at the age of 25, when his father died. During his reign, he built the high gate of the Temple, fortified Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, built fortresses, and subjugated the Ammonites, forcing them to pay tribute. His reign lasted 16 years.

Ahaz (meaning "Possessor" in Hebrew) was the son of Jotham, and was the 11th king of Judah. He ascended to the throne at the age of 20. Unlike his father and grandfather, who were faithful to God, Ahaz practiced idolatry and even sacrificed one of his sons to pagan gods.

(It should be noted here that the term "pagan" likely did not mean the same thing that it means today. During rabbinic times--which were, admittedly, several centuries later--the word "pagan" was a pejorative which had the connotation of the word "redneck" in modern day America. These were a sort of low class, country people who would have had their own gods. And really, considering that the Israelite religion at the time (let's not call it Judaism, because that would not be historically accurate) had to be more city-based because of the need to sacrifice at a "proper place of worship", it makes sense that those who lived farther out in the country would have their own gods and worship rituals because they would not have to deal with the difficulty of attending to regular sacrifices at the Temple as the Israelites at the time would have. But I digress....)

Ahaz's reign was a series of military defeats. Rezin, the king of Aram, and Pekah, the kind of Israel (Israel being the northern kingdom of what we today think of as Israel), invaded Judah and besieged Jerusalem. Their objective was to depose Ahaz, and install a certain son of Tabeal in his place (Isaiah 7:6). The prophet Isaiah met with King Ahaz and told him not to fear, reassuring him that the invaders would not succeed. The kingdom was next raided by the Edomites (2 Chronicles 28:17) and the Philistines captured several cities and settled there permanently. Ahaz appealed to the king of Assyria (Tiglath-Pileser) to help him against Aram and Israel. As a tribute, he sent the Assyrian king the treasuries of the Temple and the palace. Tiglath-Pileser attacked Damascus, captured it, and killed King Rezin. Ahaz then went to Damascus to pay homage to Tiglath-Pileser. While there, he saw an altar that he liked and sent instructions back to Uriah (the High Priest) to introduce the Aramean cults into the Temple in Jerusalem. He also sent plans to build an exact copy of the Damascus altar. When Ahaz returned to Jerusalem, the new altar had been built; he sacrificed on it to the gods of Damascus (2 Chronicles 28:23), installed a sundial in the Temple, made changes in the Temple ritual, and set up pagan altars in many cities.

Hezekiah (meaning "Strength of God" in Hebrew) was the son of Ahaz. He succeeded Jotham to the throne at the age of 25 and reigned for 29 years. His mother was the daughter of Zechariah. His wife was Hephzibah. At this time, the Judah was no longer an independent kingdom, but was a vassal state to Assyria. His first act as king as to have the Temple purified and to assemble the leaders of the people, having them bring animals so that they could be properly sacrificed by the priests to God. He reformed the cult of the Temple, reorganized the priests and the Levites, and eradicated idolatry in Judah. In 722 BCE, during Hezekiah's reign, Assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and many of the people who lived in the northern kingdom were deported. In order to gain independence from Assyria, Hezekiah closed off the outlet of the Gihon spring and diverted the waters to the pool of Siloam, inside this city walls. This assured a water source for Jerusalem. The Assyrians then attacked Judah and besieged Jerusalem. During the siege, Hezekiah was backed by a prophet-statesman known as Isaiah. Jerusalem was saved when a plague devastated the Assyrian camp, but because of the war, Judah reverted to being a vassal and continued to pay tribute. Not long after, Hezekiah became seriously ill. Isaiah told Hezekiah that he would die, so Hezekiah prayed to God and was granted fifteen more years of life. During his illness, Hezekiah received letters and gifts from the king of Babylon to wish him a speedy recovery. Hezekiah then gave the Babylonian king a tour of the palace and the treasury. When Isaiah heard about it, he predicted that the Babylonians would one day destroy Judah. The rest of Hezekiah's reign was uneventful and he was succeeded by his son Manasseh.

This time and setting are important to note because we will see the dates shift radically in the second half of the book (chapters 40-66). While this first part attests to the prophesies of Isaiah between 740 and 700 BCE, the second half will shift to circa 540 BCE and the setting will change from Jerusalem to Babylonia. There is also a dramatic shift in the tone of the book between the first and second half. While chapters 1-39 focus on rebuke, we will see that the major theme of chapters 40-66 is consolation for a people in exile.

[David]

(1:5-6) “Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment.” – “Why should you be stricken again?” Isaiah asks, probably in a tone of ‘why do you keep doing this to yourself’. He goes on to describe how the people of Israel are not in their right minds; too long they have let corruptive desires blur their consciousness. Their minds have been twisted with retribution, revenge, envy and those things that fester if left alone like a sore. Even their hearts, the center of faith, is weak. Isaiah continues his visual description of Israel by saying that they have done nothing to let themselves be healed naturally, actively/physically, or spiritually (in reference to ointment which is often used as a religious symbol).

There is a piece of wisdom here: do not let emotional pain, revenge, a grudge, or anything wicked linger in your mind for it deteriorates your thinking and health and makes your faith weak but take steps to heal the cause.

[Jen]

Alright, this won't be as long as the last, I promise. And sorry I've taken so long to post again... it's been quite a week.

(1:2-3) “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken:

This is a standard rhythm for prophetic literature, meant to call upon the attention of every living thing. A more literal translation of this verse would be skies and earth. In fact, I would translate the verse literally, Hear! Skies, and the ears of the earth! So we're calling on everything from the ground to the sky and in between to listen up. I think this really speaks to the fact that , from a biblical point of view, the actions of the members of the community of Israel affect not only themselves, but also the world as a whole. Putting this in a contemporary perspective, we can think of how actions and reactions are so intertwined. The things we do affect not only ourselves, but our community and--indirectly and eventually-possibly the world at large. No person lives in a box; we interact with other people, we consume goods and services produced and provided by other people, we work with and for other people, the effects we have on the world, on the world shared by everyone in it, affect us all. (If my roommate is reading this, I'm hinting for you to start turning of the lights then you leave the room! )

‘I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me;

Once again, standard prophetic prose. This points to what we know as the Deuteronomic Cycle. In this cycle, Israel sins and falls from God's grace; they are warned; they continue to sin; they are punished; they repent and cry out for God to save them; God has mercy on God's people; for a time all is well; and then the cycle begins again as Israel begins to fall away from God. Given the information that we know about the time period this is written (see my last, very lengthy post), one could likely surmise at this point that the rebellion in question is idolatry. This seems to be the sin Israel is historically most prone to. The interesting thing about having "brought up" children is that this can refer to many things. For instance, it could refer simply to the fact that the Israelites are alive at all, brought up from infancy and allowed to live. It could also refer back to the exodus from Egypt, considering that the same term "to go up" is the very used when going to Israel. For instance, one "goes up" to Israel, while one would "go down" to Egypt.

the ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not consider.”

The interesting thing about the choice of animals here is that both are considered service animals, and are typically considered slow of wit. So even these creatures who cannot reason or think for themselves have been able to figure out what and whom they serve, though Israel has not. The purpose of Israel, ever since they accepted the covenant from God, is supposed to have been to serve God by following God's commandments. This also further points to idolatry as the transgression in question, as the reference is to the people of Israel not knowing is juxtaposed with the analogy of the ox knowing its owner and the donkey knowing its master.

(1:4) “Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward.”

Once again, Israel has turned away from God. And they haven't just turned away, but the insertion of the word backward indicates something quite severe. It is not just turning away, but it is the pursuit of something else. And we notice here confirmation of the second verse. This is the whole nation. Knowing that King Ahaz had a foreign altar built within the Temple informs this. The sins of the king transferred to the entire nation... whether that was because the nation did not rebel against the institution of the altars of foreign gods or simply because the king himself is representative of the people, we cannot be sure. The method of worship has been changed to something other than the method of proper worship described in the Bible. Obviously, God is displeased.

(1:5-6) “Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment.”

God here is justifying the punishment about to be laid out. "Why should you be stricken again?" It is as though God is anticipating the cries of the Israelites. This could indicate that the prophecy is taking place between military struggles. Or, it could simply be an acknowledgment of the other struggles which have come during previous Deuteronomic Cycles, likely in the times of the Judges.

The statement "The whole head is sick" is particularly interesting because the word "head" or "rosh" in Hebrew is used to mean not only the physical head of a human body, but is also the term used for a leader or a king. This indicates that the "sickness" began with the king and has spread throughout the body of the people of Israel. "...the whole heart faints" likely indicates the people's inaction against the foreign gods being brought back from Damascus. Given that the Temple was the central place of worship for the entire nation of Israel, one would expect a loud outcry regardin such an outrageous action. But the people, the heart of the land, have grown so weak in their love for God that they say nothing. The metaphor of sickness is played out thoroughly in these verses, showing that the entire body of the people has been infected with this. Of course, it would be impossible for the people to remain unaffected by this. Even those who still wished to serve God (and remember, properly serving God at this point in history means ritual sacrifice in the Temple), would have been unable to carry out their sacrifices. And those who carried on sacrificing would have been doing so improperly. We know that proper sacrifice is one of the utmost concerns of this time. Recall the account where Aaron's son's offered "strange fire" before God (Lev 10:1). They were destroyed in return by fire from "God's presence" as punishment for this transgression.