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7/24/2019 Judah's Covenant With Death (Isaiah XXVIII 14-22)
1/13
Judah's Covenant with Death (Isaiah XXVIII 14-22)
Author(s): Joseph BlenkinsoppSource: Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 50, Fasc. 4 (Oct., 2000), pp. 472-483Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1585489
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JUDAH'S
COVENANT
WITH
DEATH
(ISAIAH XXVIII 14-22)
by
JOSEPH
BLENKINSOPP
South
Bend,
Indiana,
USA
Isa. xxviii
14-22
is diatribe
aimed at the
ruling
class
in
Jerusalem
corresponding
to the
denunciation
of
the
political
leadership
in Samaria
which
precedes
(w. 1-6).
The connection
is
apparent
in
the
phrase
these
also
(wegam
elleh,
v.
7)
and the
introductory
therefore
(ldken,
v.
14)
which
in
prophetic
diatribe
usually signals
the transition
from
indictment
to verdict.
Both denunciations
are occasioned
by
sarcasm
directed
at
the
prophet,
and
in
both
instances the
prophet
responds
with the
familiar
tactic
of
condemning
them
out of their
own mouths
(w.
9-10,
15).
The
strange speech
of
v.
11
corresponds
to
the
strange
operations
of Yahweh
in
v.
21,
and
in
both sections
the
coming
dis-
aster is
presented
under the
metaphor
of inundation
(w.
2,
17)
miti-
gated
by
a
positive
outlook for
the survivors
in
a more distant future
(w.
5-6,
16-17).
Then, too,
the real and doomful
import
of
the
prophetic
communication
(semui'),
eferred
to
slightingly
by
the
opponents
in
the
first
part,
is announced
in
the second
(w.
9,
19).
Isa.
xxviii
1-22
may
therefore be read
as a
fairly
well
integrated
literary
unit;'
consequently,
the invective of w.
14-22
could still
have the inebriated
priests
and
prophets
of the first section
in
view
(v. 7),
even
though
the
political
leadership
is now the
principal
target.2
This
reading
is shared
by
most
commentators; see,
for
example,
0.
Procksch,
Jesaja
I
(Leipzig,
1930),
pp.
352-63;
H.
Donner,
Israel unterden
Volkern
(Leiden,
1964),
pp.
146-53;
J. Vermeylen,
Du
Prophete
saie
a
l'ApocalyptiqueParis,
1977),
vol. I
pp.
389-99;
H.
Wildberger,
Jesaja
3.
Jesaja
28-39
(Neukirchen-Vluyn,
1982), pp.
1068-69. M.A.
Sweeney,
Isaiah
1-39 with an Introduction
o
Prophetic
iterature
Grand Rapids, 1996), pp.
361-4 reads
xxviii
5-29
as
a
single
unit.
2
mosfelm
s understood
by
Rashi
in
the sense of
makers of
proverbs,
aphorisms,
alle-
gories
with reference
to the
covenant
with death understood
metaphorically.
A similar
meaning
is taken
by
G.
Fohrer,
Das
Buch
Jesaja
II
(Zurich,
1962),
p.
54
( Spriichemacher )
and
by
O.
Kaiser,
Der
Prophet
esaja
Kapitel Gottingen,
1973), p.
199;
Eng.
trans. Isaiah
?
Koninklijke
Brill
NV,
Leiden,
2000
Vetus
Testamentum
,
4
7/24/2019 Judah's Covenant With Death (Isaiah XXVIII 14-22)
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ISAIAH
XXVIII
I4-22
After the usual
prophetic
call for
attention,
addressed to the
moselim
(rulers),
also characterized as
'anse ldson
(mockers),
the diatribe
begins
with
the familiar rhetorical device of
putting
words into the mouth
of
the
opposition
followed
by
a
crushing rejoinder.3
Since it is common
practice
to
strengthen
the
weight
of the rebuttal
by
using
the
language
of
the
citation,
it makes
sense to read
w.
17b-18,
which refer to
the
claims of the
prophet's opponents
in
inverse
order,
as the core of the
response.
The rest
is
uncertain. Allusion to
an
eventual new founda-
tion
in
Jerusalem
(w.
16-17a)
would be
rhetorically
ineffective
at
this
point
and
does not
fit
the
pattern
of
prophetic
diatribe.
Bringing up
salvific interventions of Yahweh in the
past
(v.
21)
would be
equally
out
of
place
in a
sentence of doom. The reference
to
inadequate
bed-
ding
(v. 20)
is
generally
taken to be
an
interpolated proverb,
but
I
think
Halpern correctly
identified the
mortuary
associations
in
the allu-
sion
to
a
bed
(massd')
and
covering
(massekd)
n this
verse.4 The
pas-
sage
is
rounded
off with
an
inclusion
warning against mocking
prophetic
preaching
(v.
22a,
cf.
v.
14),
which admonition
appears
to have esca-
lated into
an
adumbration
of
apocalyptic
doom at
the
hands of
a
much
later editor
(v. 22b).5
It will not be
necessary
to insist that the
words attributed to the
scornful
Jerusalemite
politicians represent
an
interested
interpretation
of
their
attitude and
policies
by
an
Isaian
author,
possibly
by
Isaiah
himself.
The
prophet's opponents
would
hardly
have admitted
taking
13-39.
A
Commentary
Philadelphia,
1975),
p.
248.
While a double
ntendre
ould
not be sur-
prising,
the context favours reference to
political
leaders
(cf.
Isa.
xiv
5;
xvi
1).
3
This tactic is much in evidence in Isaiah; see Isa. v 19; ix 9; x 8-11, 13b-14; xiv
13-14;
xxiii
4;
xxviii
9-10;
xxix
15;
xxx
10-11,
15. The standard
study
of
this rhetor-
ical
device
is
still
H.W.
Wolff,
Das Zitat im
Prophetenspruch.
Eine
Studie zur
propheti-
schen
Verkundigungsweise,
Gesammeltetudien
um
Alten
Testament
(Munich, 1964),
pp.
36-129.
4
B.
Halper,
'The
Excremental Vision':
The
Doomed Priests of Doom
in
Isaiah
28,
HAR
10
(1986),
pp.
109-21.
The verb
corresponding
to the substantive
massda
i.e.,
ys'
occurs at Isa. xiv 11
(Hophal)
in
a
mortuary
context:
tahtekd
yussa'
rimmd
uimelkassikd
dole',
beneath
you
maggots
form a
bed,
worms are
your
shroud ;
also,
masseka
nd mekasseh re similar
consonantly
and identical in
meaning.
The same
verb
(Hiphil)
is used of
making
a bed
in
Sheol at Ps.
cxxxix
8,
and
occurs
in
context
dealing with mourning (Isa. lviii 5; Esth. iv 3). Note also misckdbt Isa. lvii 2 and
lvii
7-8,
the latter
playing
on
the sexual and
mortuary
connotations of the term:
bed,
intercourse
(skb),
grave
or
mortuary
slab.
5
There
are,
needless
to
say,
differences of
opinion
in
the
commentaries,
but this
reading
of the
passage
would be
widely
accepted
with minor
modifications;
see,
for
example,
Kaiser,
Isaiah
13-39,
pp.
248-57;
Vermeylen,
Du
Prophite
sae a
l'Apocalyptique
I,
pp.
391-6;
R.E.
Clements,
Isaiah
1-39
(Grand
Rapids,
1980),
pp.
229-32;
J.
Barthel,
Prophetenwort
nd Geschichte
(Tiibingen,
1997),
pp.
306-28.
473
7/24/2019 Judah's Covenant With Death (Isaiah XXVIII 14-22)
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JOSEPH
BLENKINSOPP
refuge
in
lies
and
falsehood,
and
would
certainly
have
explained
their
agenda differently
if
they
had been
given
the
opportunity
to do so.
We are
dealing
with a
literary
creation and
only very indirectly
with
social and
political
realities
in
eighth
century
B.C.
Jerusalem.
What
at
least is clear is that
they
are
represented
as
claiming
to have
put
them-
selves
beyond
the reach
of an
imminent
disaster
as a
result of enter-
ing
into an
agreement
of some kind.
A
specific
historical context
is
not
stated,
though
the
language
of
raging
floodwater
(sot
sotep)
and
hail
(bardd)
occurring
elsewhere
in
the
book connotes an
Assyrian
Blitzkrieg.6
n
the context
of
chapters
xxviii-xxxiii as
a
whole,
this
is
generally
and I think
correctly
taken to refer to the
predictable
out-
come of
negotiations
between Hezekiah and
Merodach-baladan
II in
Babylonia
and between the
courts
ofJerusalem
and
Napata during
the
early years
of
Sennacherib's
reign,
the latter aimed at
bringing
Egypt
of the
twenty-fifth
(Nubian)
dynasty,
and
more
specifically
the
pharaoh
Shebitku,
into an
anti-Assyrian
coalition.7
While
cutting
a
deal with
Death
and
making
a
pact
with Sheol
could
be
understood
as
simply
metaphors
used to
disparage
the
prospects
of such
alliances,8
the lan-
guage
is
suggestive,
sinister and
foreboding enough,
and contains
enough
peculiar
features,
to hint that the
allegation
goes
further than that.
First, then,
the covenant and
pact.
The
term beit
occurs
only
twice
in Isaiah i-xxxix
outside of this
passage
(xxiv
5
and
xxxiii
8).9
The
context
in
which Isa.
xxiv
5
speaks
of an
everlasting
covenant
(ber^t
6
Cf. Isa. viii 7-8
in
which
the
verbs
stp
and
'br
occur with reference
to an
antici-
pated Assyrian invasion of Immanuel's land, probably Sennacherib's Palestinian cam-
paign
of 701 B.C. See also Isa. xxviii
2:
the
anticipated Assyrian conquest
of Samaria
is
compared
to
mayim
..
sotepim,
overflowing
waters,
and
zerem
bardd,
a hailstorm.
7
E.g.
K.
Marti,
Das Buch
Jesaja
(Tiibingen,
1900),
p.
207;
J.
Fischer,
Das Buch
Isaias
(Bonn, 1937),
p.
188;
Donner,
Israel unter den
Volkern,
.
153;
Kaiser,
Isaiah
13-39,
p.
252.
J.
Day,
Molech:
a
god of
human
acrifice
n the Old
Testament
Cambridge,
1989),
pp.
58-64,
rejects
any
allusion to the
Egyptian
connection and dates the
passage
to the
reign
of
Ahaz
rather
than
Hezekiah. It
is
true that the covenant does
not
refer
directly
to an alliance
with
Egypt,
but the
context of
chapters
xxviii-xxxiii
strongly
favours ref-
erence to the
political
situation under Hezekiah between the
years
704 and 701 when
the
Egyptian
connection was
politically
crucial.
8
This minimalist view has often been taken in the modern period. Robert Lowth,
for
example,
commented
that
to
be in
covenant
with,
is
a
kind
of
proverbial expres-
sion
to denote
perfect
security
from
evil and mischief of
any
sort and
goes
on
to
quote Job
v
23
and
Hos. ii 18.
See his Isaiah.
A
New
Translationwith a
Preliminary
Dissertation nd
Notes
(London,
1833;
10th
ed.), p.
276.
Similarly
Barthel,
Prophetenwort
und
Geschichte,
p.
318-9.
9
E.
Kutsch,
Verheissung
nd
Gesetz.
Untersuchungen
um
sogenannten
Bund' m
Alten
Testament
(Berlin,
1973),
pp.
34-38.
474
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ISAIAH XXVIII
14-22
'olam)
the
dispersal
of
humanity,
pollution,
a curse on the
ground,
chaos
(tohu)
-
suggests
that intertextual links
with the
berit
'olam
of
Gen.
ix
8-17 would
be
worth
following up.
Isa.
xxxiii
7-9 describes
a
desperate
situation
in the
country,
presumably
Judah.
While the lan-
guage
is
unspecific,
it
seems to be
referring
to a combination
of
mil-
itary
disaster and
drought resulting
from the violation of the terms of
a
treaty:
he has violated the covenant
(treaty),
he
has
despised
the
witnesses
(xxxiii 8).'?
Drought
is listed
in
the
catalogues
of curses set
out
in
often
gruesome
detail
in
Assyrian
vassal treaties.
If
the situa-
tion described
in
this
passage
is the result of the
devastating campaign
of
Sennacherib
in 701
(natural
resources
depleted, highways destroyed,
depopulation, general lamentation),
it would be
difficult to avoid the
conclusion
that the
individual
responsible
for the violation of
the
(vas-
sal)
treaty,
in
which
we must assume Yahweh
would be invoked
as
a
witness,
was none other than Hezekiah.
The term
parallel
with
bret,
i.e., hozeh,
s
elsewhere unattested with
a
meaning compatible
with
the
present
context.
K6hler's
proposal
to
emend
to hesed'2 s
still
occasionally
adopted,
but is rendered
unac-
ceptable
by
the
occurrence of
hdazt
at
v. 18 and
by
the absence of
support
either
in
1QIsaa
and
1QIsab
or
in
the
ancient versions.'3We
might
therefore
consider the
possibility
that
these
terms,
hozeh,
hazu't,
which elsewhere
connote
a
visionary
experience,
have been chosen
advisably,
to make
a
point.
If
a double
ntendres
intended,
we
may
sus-
pect
a
mocking
allusion to the tradition
about the Sinaitic
covenant
behind Exod.
xxiv
9-11.
According
to this
tradition,
the
participants
included
community
leaders
('asile
bene
yis'rda')
cf.
moelzm,
Isa. xxviii
10
Reading
'edim
with
lQIsaa
for MT
'arim.
1
S.
Parpola
and K.
Watanabe,
Neo-Assyrian
reaties nd
Loyalty
Oaths
(Helsinki,
1988),
pp.
5,
11,
46-47. See also the
threat of
being
consumed
by
a
fiery
wind
and
being
burnt to lime
(xxxiii 10-12)
compared
with curses in
the
treaty
of Ashur-nerari V
with
Mati'ilu of
Arpad
lines
8-9;
Parpola
and
Watanabe,
p.
8.
12
L.
Kohler,
Zu
Jes
28,
15a
und
18b,
ZAW
n.F.
48
(1930),
pp.
227-8.
13
LXX
has sunthekas
parallel
with
diatheken;
ulgate: percussimusfoedus
um
morte,
um
infernoecimus
pactum.
The
verse
does not occur
in
any
of the
4Q
Isaiah
fragments.
Of
possible relevance is the term hzt in the Marseilles Tariff line 11
(CIS
I 165; G.A.
Cook,
A
Text-Book
f
North-Semitic
nscriptionsOxford,
1903],
pp.
112,
120).
In
the
con-
text it seems to
refer to
a
species
of
sacrifice,
perhaps,
as
Cook
suggests,
in
connec-
tion with
auspices
or,
possibly,
a
type
of
divination connected
with
sacrifice,
which
would
bring
it
closer
to
our
text;
see
J.
Hoftijzer
and K.
Jongeling, Dictionagy
f
the
North-West
Semitic
Inscriptions
Leiden,
1995),
vol.
I,
p.
357.
Occurrence of the
corre-
sponding
verb
(zhh)
at
Exod.
xviii
21
with the
meaning appoint
to an
office does
not
help
to
clarify
the
substantive
occurring
here.
475
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JOSEPH
BLENKINSOPP
14)
and
priests,
as
here,
and
the
finalizing
of the
covenant involved a
visionary
experience (wayyehezuet-ha'elohim)
nd
sharing
in
a cultic meal.
That the
participants
avoided
death
( He
did
not
lay
his
hand on the
Israelite
nobility )
is
also reminiscent of the
prophet's
opponents par-
ticipating
in a
ritual act
which
they
anticipate
will
enable them to
avoid death.
Since the attitude of these
opponents
is
described
through-
out
the
passage
as one of
mockery
and derision
(xxviii
9-10, 14,
22),
it
may
be that
they
are
represented
as involved
in
a kind of
parody
of
the
Sinai
covenant,
something
like a Black
Mass,
involving
deities
other than Yahweh.
This last
point
remains to be demonstrated. Death
(mdwet)
nd Sheol
(se'ol),
with
whom
theJudaean
leaders entered into an
agreement,
are
routinely
linked
in
biblical
texts.'4
Certain
figures
are
associated with
death: Abaddon
(Job
xxviii
22;
Prov.
xxvii
20),
the
King
of Terrors
(Job
xviii
14),
the shades
(repda'im,
rov.
ii
18;
v
5;
vii
27)
but,
in
addi-
tion,
some
degree
of
personification
is
inevitably present
in
the meta-
phoric language
used
about death: Death addresses the
living (Job
xxviii
22), shepherds
them
(Ps.
xlix
15),
and fathers
children,
Disease
being
the firstborn of Death
(Job
xxxviii
13-14).
While there is room
for
disagreement
as to
the
extent
to
which
death is
personified
in the
biblical
texts,
death as covenant
partner
certainly
qualifies
as a
person-
ification.
Many
commentators
accept
this line
of
interpretation,
some
interpreting
it
as
a mere
figure
of
speech,
others
linking
Death and
Sheol
with Mot and
Osiris,
deities
of
the Phoenician cities and
Egypt,
Judah's
anti-Assyrian
treaty
partners,
respectively.'5
t
was,
in
any
event,
inevitable that
personified
Death would
be identified
with
the
deity
Mot
(motu),
amiliar from the
Ugaritic
texts and Philo of
Byblos.'6
Mot was
a
chthonic
deity,
lord of the
Underworld,
son
of
El,
bringer
of
drought
and
infertility,
and
opponent
of the
young god
Baal.
This
deity
would
14
2
Sam.
xxii
5;
Isa. xxxviii
18;
Hos. xiii
14;
Hab.
ii
5;
Ps.
vi
6;
xviii
5;
xlix
15;
lv
16;
cxvi
3;
Prov. v
5;
vii
27.
15
B.
Duhm,
Das
Buch
Jesaja
(Gottingen,
19224),
pp.
199-200,
suggests
that those
pacting
with Death and
the
Underworld
were
perhaps
hedging
their bets
by
covert
negotiations
with
Egypt
and
Assyria simultaneously,
and that
their
relations with
Egypt
were expressed by necromantic practices involving Osiris. See also P. Auvray, Isaie
1-39
(Paris,
1972),
pp.
250-1;
Vermeylen,
Du
Prophete
saie a
l'Apocalyptique,.
393n.
J.
Skinner,
The Book
of
the
Prophet
saiah
Chapters
-XXXIX
(Cambridge,
1915
2nd
ed.),
p.
225,
suggested
Osiris
and
Isis,
gods
of the
dead,
as
sanctioning
the alliance from
the
Egyptian
side.
16
See
TJ.
Lewis,
Mot
(deity),
ABD,
pp.
922-24;
J.F.
Healey,
Mot,
in K.
van
der Toorn
et
al.
(eds.),
Dictionary
f
Deities and Demons
n
the Bible
2nd
ed.
(Leiden
&
Grand
Rapids,
1999),
pp.
598-603;
H.-J.
Fabry,
na,
in
TDOT
VIII,
pp.
205-9.
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ISAIAH
XXVIII
14-22
certainly
have been well
known in
eighth
century Judah,
even
though
we know
of no
cult associated
with Mot from either the
Ugaritic
or
the biblical texts. One indication of
familiarity
with Mot is the fre-
quent
allusion
to
the
voracious
appetite
of
Death and the
Underworld
(Sheol).'7
To be considered
at this
point
is
the
hypothesis,
proposed
by John
Day,
that the
covenanting
referred
to at Isa.
xxviii
15 was with
Molech,
a
chthonic
deity
to
whom,
unlike
Mot,
cult was offered
in
Jerusalem
under the
monarchy.'8
The
suggestion
is not
difficult to
entertain
since
death
and Sheol
are often
linked
in a
fairly
perfunctory way (see
n.
14).
In biblical
texts,
moreover,
the Molech cult is often mentioned
in
the context of
mortuary practices
and
necromancy
(Lev.
xviii
21;
Deut.
xviii
10-11;
2
Kings
xvii
17;
xxi
6),
and
in
Isa. lvii
9
the
sor-
ceress
('onend)
enounced
by
the
seer
is
accused
of
pacting
with
Molech
and Sheol. Both
deities
preside
over
the
Underworld,
and
deities
with
similar attributes
and functions are
often
assimilated,
e.g.,
Malik
(Molech)
with
Nergal,
both
monarchs of the
nether
regions.
But
if
the cult
of
Molech was
practised
in
eighth
century
B.C.
Jerusalem
we must
won-
der
why
mdwet,
suggestive
of the
god
Mot,
and not
Molech,
is men-
tioned at Isa. xxviii
15.
Telling
against Day's
hypothesis
is
also the
fact
that
all
biblical
references
to
Molech
mention
child
sacrifice,
of
which there is no
hint
in
the
passage
under
discussion. On
the
whole,
then,
it seems more
likely
that the
Judaean
leadership
is
being
repre-
sented as
entering
into
an
agreement
with the realm
of
the dead
and
its
ruler
in the
person
of
Mot
rather than
Molech.
The
question
now arises how
the
Judaean
ruling
class
expected
to
survive death
by
entering
into an
agreement
with Death. The answer
will
depend
on
how we
interpret
their
understanding
of the
antici-
pated
outcome of
the
pact.
What
they
foresee
happening
is that
when
the
raging
flood
(sot sotep)'9
asses
through
it will
not touch us
which,
as
we have
seen,
refers
to
an
anticipated
Assyrian
attack.
If
Mot,
god
of
the
underworld,
is
represented
as
being
their
covenant
partner,
per-
haps
a
mythological
topos
also
underlies the
raging
flood which
they
anticipate.
If
so,
we would
suspect
an
allusion to
the
northwest
Semitic
7
Isa. v
14;
Hab. ii
5;
Prov. i
12;
xxvii
20;
Job
xviii
13-14;
cf.
CTA
5.2.2.-4.
18
J. Day,
Molech,
pp.
62-64.
On
this
deity
see
G.C.
Heider,
The
Cult
of
Molek. A
Reassessment
(Sheffield, 1985)
and
Molech,
in
van
der
Toorn,
Dictionary
f
Deities
and
Demons
n
the
Bible,
pp.
581-5.
19
Reading
s.t
with
Qere
and
lQIsaa
for Ketib
sit.
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JOSEPH
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storm
god
Hadad
(Haddu,
Adad),
assimilated to
Baal and
therefore
enemy
of
Mot.
Hadad
bestows the
fertilizing
rain,
but is feared
as the
bringer
of destructive storms. He is also known as the Thunderer
(rammanu,
Rimmon),
and
is
represented
wearing
a
horned
headdress
and
bearing
a
stylized
lightning
bolt and
either
a
mace or
whip.20
Significantly
for
the issue under
discussion,
he was
venerated
by
the
Assyrians
as a war
deity
and as
sponsoring
their western
campaigns.
Hadad is also
named as
a
guarantor
of
treaties,
and
played
an
impor-
tant role
in
divination
and
mortuary
rites.21The
meaning
would then
be that the
ruling
class
in
Jerusalem,
aware of
the mortal
danger
in
which
they
stood on the eve of the
Assyrian
punitive
campaign,
are
represented
as
entering
into a
pact
with the
god
Mot with
the idea
of
surviving
the
danger
posed by
the
Assyrians,
represented by
and
acting
in
the name
of the storm
god
Hadad,
enemy
of Mot. To
repeat,
this is an
imaginative literary
construct
in
the
service of
polemics.
While the
charge
could
hardly
have been made
if
entirely lacking
in
plausibility,
we
obviously
have no
assurance that
the
writer's
oppo-
nents
actually
did what
they
are
alleged
to have done.
The
quote
continues with the assertion that the covenanters with
Mot have
set
up
a lie as their
refuge
and
have
sought
shelter
in
false-
hood
(v. 15b).
While
they
would
hardly
have stated their
position
in
these
terms,
the words
attributed
to
them have
in
fact a certain con-
sistency
with
the situation as described.
In
prophetic
texts the lie
(kdzab)
can
denote communications from a
(false) deity, including
visionary
experiences
and divination
(Ezek.
xiii
6-9;
xxi
34;
xxii
28),
and the
parallel
term falsehood
(seqer)
s used
routinely
inJeremiah
to describe
20
The
secondary meaning
of
sot
=
a flood of water seems to have been intro-
duced
by J.
Barth
,Ptl
Dt,
Z
WAW3
(1913),
pp.
306-7 and
Zu
tClW
Flut',
ZAW
34
(1914),
p.
69,
as
more
consonant
with the
context
at Isa. xxviii
15,
18 and
Job
ix
23
('im
sit
ydmit
pitom).
Elsewhere
the word
means
whip
or
scourge
(1
Kings
xii
11,
14
=
2 Chron.
x
11, 14;
Isa.
x
26;
Nah.
iii
2;Job
v
21;
Prov.
xxvi
3).
The
neces-
sity
of
s^t
II
-
flood
of
water
is
disputed by
H.
Gese,
die
stromende Geissel
des
Hadad und
Jesaja
28,
15 and
18,
in
A. Kuschke &
E.
Kutsch
(eds.)
Archaologie
nd
Altes
Testament.
Festschrift
ur
Kurt
Galling (Tubingen, 1970),
pp.
127-34
based on the
iconography of the storm god Hadad who whips up the storm with his scourge or
flail. It seems to
me,
however,
that
the
present
context
is not
favourable to
sot
I
whip ,
and
that it makes better sense to
speak
of a storm
passing through
a
coun-
try
('br)
and
people being trampled
down
by
it. The semantic ambivalence could be
due to
representing
a
violent storm
as a
scourge,
or even to the
mythological repre-
sentation
to which Gese
appeals.
21
J.C.
Greenfield,
Hadad ,
in
van der
Toorn,
Dictionary
f
Deities and Demons n the
Bible,
pp.
377-82
with
bibliography.
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ISAIAH XXVIII
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unacceptable
kinds
of
prophesying, including
divination
and
visions
(Jer.
xiv
14;
cf.
Zech.
x
2).
We
come
even closer to the
covenanting
moselimwith
Hos.
xii
2
which
appears
to
categorize treaty-making
with
Assyria
and
Egypt
as
a form
of
lying:
They (Ephraim)multiply
ying
(kazab)
nd
destruction:
making
a
treaty
with
Assyria,carrying
oil to
Egypt.
From the
point
of view of the
prophetic
author
of
Isa.
xxviii
15 the
lie and the falsehood
refer,
in
the last
analysis,
to
foreign
deities,
the cult offered to
them,
and
accomodations with them
which,
on the
prophetic
view,
were endemic
in
foreign
alliances sealed
by treaty.
This
is the
point
of
the rulers
identifying
their
refuge
(mahseh)
n
these
terms,
since it is
abundantly
clear
from
liturgical
piety
that for Israel
Yahweh
is the
only refuge.22
In
the context of that
place
and
time,
making
a
covenant of
any
kind involved ritual
acts,
generally including
participation
in a
meal
and
sacrifices.
The
first
part
of the
passage
under consideration
(xxviii
7-13)
may provide
a
clue to the nature of the act in this
instance
as
described,
perhaps
imagined, by
the
prophet.
It
presents
the
spectacle
of
priests
and
prophets engaged
in a
drunken
orgy, staggering
around
covered
in
vomit and excrement.
In
this condition
they
were
naturally
in
no
position
to
discharge
their
professional
duties:
for the
priests,
the
handing
down of
judicial
decisions and
teaching
in
general;
for
the
prophets,
guidance
by
means
of
divination
and
the
giving
of
oracles.23
Making
all due allowance
for
prophetic hyperbole,
the
description
sug-
gests
a
ceremonial meal of a rather
special
kind,
perhaps
in
the tem-
ple precincts
since
priests
and their
prophetic
associates are
involved,
one
in
which the
political
leaders also
participated.
22
Pss.
xiv
6;
xlvi
2;
lxi
4;
lxii
8-9;
lxxi
7;
lxxiii
28;
xci
2, 9;
xciv
22;
cxlii
6. Also
Isa.
xxv
4;
Jer.
xvii
17;
Joel
iv
16.
23
The term
pfelflyy
(7b)
is
hapax
but
cf.
pelfld
(xvi
3)
meaning,
in
the
context,
a
judicial
act,
and
pelilm (Exod.
xxi
22),
judges,
assessors. This function
of the
priest-
hood is
matched
by
that of
teaching,
cf.
yoreh
de'd,
(Isa.
xxviii
9a);
likewise the
prophet's
function is
described
in
terms of visions
(baro'ah,
emended
text,
7b)
and
communica-
tions from a
deity (snmu'a,
a).
NEB
[priest
and
prophet]
lose their
way
through tip-
pling,
and
stumble in
judgement
is based on G.R.
Driver's
emendation of
baro'eh
o
baroweh,
with the
meaning
intoxication ,
tippling drawing
on the Hebrew
verbal
stem
rwh,
drink
one's
fill ,
supported by
Theodotion and the
Peshitta.
See
G.R.
Driver,
'Another Little Drink'
-
Isaiah
28:1-22,
in
P.R.
Ackroyd
and B.
Lindars
(eds.),
Words
and
Meanings.Essays
Presentedo David Winton
Thomas
(Cambridge, 1968),
p.
52.
However,
parallelism
with
peldlyyd
and
what
appears
to be
allusion to the functions
specific
to
priest
and
prophet
at v.
9a counsel
retaining
MT.
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JOSEPH
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Several scholars
have noted that the
Ugaritic
text which
describes
El's
banquet
and
its aftermath
(KTU 1.114)
is
strongly
reminiscent of
Isa. xxviii
7-22.
After
inviting
the
gods
to drink wine
to
satiety,
new
wine to inebriation
(tstny
'd sb'
/
trt 'd
skr),
he feast
got underway:
il.
ytb.
bmrzhh
yst.
y]
n. 'd sb'
trt. 'd
sckr
il.
hlk. Ibth
ystql.
Ihzrh.
y'msn.nn.
kmn
wsnm.
wnginn. by.
b'l.
qrm.
wdnb.
ylsn
bhrih.wtnth.
ql.
il. km
mt
il.
kyrdm.
rs.
El
took his seat
in
his
marzihu-house;
e drankwine
to
satiety,
new wine
to inebriation.
El
went
to his
house,
stumbling
owardshis
courtyard;
tkmn nd
snm
propped
him
up.
A
demon
(?)
approached
him
equipped
with horns and tail. He wallowed24n his excrementand urine.El col-
lapsed
ike one
dead,
El
was
like those who descend nto the underworld.25
The
mention
of
El's
mrzh
(Hebrew
equivalent
marzeah)
n
the
same text
has contributed to the
hypothesis
that Isa.
xxviii
7-13
is
describing
a
marzeah
festival held
during
the
period
immediately
preceding
the
Assyrian onslaught
in
701
B.C.26 The
conjecture
is
certainly possible.
The one constant feature of the marzeah eems to
have
been
drinking
to
excess,
often
in the
context of
a
funerary
feast,
and
generally
in the
24
The
meaning
of
ylsn,
from a verbal stem
/s1
or
lws,
is
uncertain.
C.
Gordon,
Ugaritic
Textbook
Rome, 1965),
p.
427
has
knead
based on the
corresponding
Hebrew
verb
lus;
the
meaning
assigned
here seems to be better
supported;
see
the
note
of
N.
Wyatt,
Religious
Texts
rom
Ugarit
Sheffield,
1998),
p.
411.
25
For
different
angles
on this text
see
M.
Pope,
A Divine
Banquet
at
Ugarit,
in
J.M.
Efird
(ed.),
The Use
of
the Old Testament
n the
New
and Other
Essays.
Studies n Honor
of
William
Franklin
Stinespring
Durham,
N.C.,
1972),
pp.
170-203;
JJ.
Jackson,
Style
in
Isaiah
28
and a
Drinking
Bout of the Gods
(RS 24.258),
in
JJ. Jackson
and
M. Kessler (eds.), RhetoricalCriticism. ssaysin Honorof James MuilenburgPittsburg, 1974),
pp.
85-98;
B.
Margalit,
The
Ugaritic
Feast of the Drunken Gods: Another Look at
RS
24.258
(KTU 1.114),
Maarav
2
(1979),
pp.
65-120.
26
Jackson,
Style
in
Isaiah
28
and a
Drinking
Bout of the Gods
(RS
24.258),
pp.
85-98;
B.
Halper,
'The
Excremental
Vision': The Doomed Priests of Doom
in
Isaiah
28,
pp.
109-21;
K. van
der
Toom,
Echoes
of
Judaean
Necromancy
in Isaiah
28,
7-22,
ZAW
100
(1988),
pp.
199-217.
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ISAIAH XXVIII
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presence
of a
patron deity
and deceased
members of the
lineage.28
Its
social function
of
emotional
unburdening
in
a time of stress and of
bonding
within
a
specific
affinity group
would be
compatible
with the
situation which
our
text
describes. But the
parallelism
with KTU
I.
114
should
not be
pressed.
There is no
suggestion
of alcohol
intake as a
deliberate
means
of
attaining
a
state of
sacra
ebrietas,
.e.,
a
condition
of mental dissociation conducive to visions
or
making
contact with the
dead. It
is not at all clear what
happened
after
El's encounter with
the
fearsome
hby,
and the
immediate
cause of
loss of
sphincter
con-
trol,
if
that is what
happened,
and
if it
happened
to
El,
was not
alco-
holic
ecstasy
but fright
(cf.
Ezek. vii
17).29
These reservations
having
been
expressed,
it
seems
that some
form
of necromantic
practice
is not
only compatible
with the
making
of a
covenant with Death but
a
necessary part
of
it. This
reading
of
the
text
is
occasionally rejected,
but
the
arguments
do not seem to
be deci-
sive.
It
certainly
cannot be
excluded on the
grounds
that
Hezekiah's
religious
reforms would have outlawed such
practices.30
Consultation
is
not the same as
making
a
covenant,
as
Day
points
out,
but
covenanting requirescommunicating,
and
communicating
with
Death and
Sheol for whatever
purpose
is
by
definition
necromancy.31
Such
practices
tend to flourish
in
times
of
political
and social
stress
and
anomie,
and there
are indications
that the
Judaean
leadership
had
recourse to communication with
the
dead,
meaning
the
ancestors,
on
more
than one occasion
(Isa.
viii
19-23;
xxix
4,
cf.
xix
3).
Of interest in this
respect
is the
extremely vituperative
attack on
the
sorceress
('jnend)
and her
children
in
Isa.
lvii
3-13. This
symbolic
28
Much has been written on the
subject
of the
marzeah.
t will
suffice for
our
pur-
poses
to refer to
the
cautious assessments
of
TJ.
Lewis,
Cults
of
the Dead in Ancient
srael
and
Ugarit (Atlanta,
1989),
pp.
80-94;
B.B.
Schmidt,
Israel's
Benqficent
ead
(Tubingen,
1994),
pp.
62-66.
29
B.
Halpern,
'The
Excremental Vision': The
Doomed
Priests
of Doom in
Isaiah
28,
pp.
109-21.
Intoxication as
a
means of
enabling
or
facilitating
commerce
with the
dead
is
also defended
by
K.
van der
Toorn,
Echoes
ofJudaean
Necromancy
in
Isaiah
28,
7-22,
pp.
199-217.
However,
it is
difficult to find
convincing
evidence
for this
practice, quite apart
from the fact that the ancients were
probably
no less aware of
alcohol
as a
depressant
than
we are.
30
G.
Fohrer,
Das
Buch
Jesaja
II
(Zurich
&
Stuttgart,
1962),
p.
57.
31
J. Day, pp.
61-62.
Similar
objections
in
B.B.
Schmidt,
Israel's
Beneficent
ead,
pp.
160-161. It
is of
interest
to note those
occasions where
condemnation of the
Molech
cult in the
Hebrew
Bible
is associated with
reprobation
of
necromancy (Lev.
xx
2-6;
Deut.
xviii
9-11;
2
Kings
xxi
6;
Isa.
lvii
3-13).
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JOSEPH
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personification,
somewhat similar
to Gomer and her children
in
Hosea
and the outsider woman
('issd zdra)
of Proverbs
i-ix,
is
accused
of
engaging
in
rites of
a
sexual and
mortuary
nature
including
cult offered
to ancestors.32
The
Masoretic text bristles
with
obscurities,
in
part
due
to scribal
attempts
to soften the
sexually explicit
content of
the
pas-
sage.
At several
points
we
are reminded of the covenant with Death
and Sheol at
xxviii
14-22.
One of
the accusations directed
at the trans-
gressive
woman
(w.
8b-9)
reads:
wattikrot-ldkMhemdhabt
miskdbdm
dd
hazit
wattasuriammelekasfemenattarbiiqquihdyik
wattesalle7hi
irayikad-merahoqattaspili
ad-sf1l
You
made a
pact
for
yourself
with
them;
you
loved their
beds ;
you
gazed
on the
phallus.
You
journeyed
to the
King
with
oil,
you put
on
lots of
perfume;
you
despatched
your
envoys
afar,
you
sent down
into
the Underworld.33
The
understanding
of
v. 8b
in
terms
of
a
pact
with the dead
of the
lineage
is
textually
uncertain,
but
appears
to be confirmed
by
the mes-
sengers
(.szrfm,
f.
Isa.
xviii
2)
sent
on a mission to
Sheol. The
king
who,
on this
reading,
the sorceress
visits and for whom she makes
her-
self attractive
may
well be
Molech,
especially
in
view of
the
charge
of
cultic infanticide
levelled
against
her
(v. 5).34
The
main
point
is that
a covenant is
being
made which involves the
deity presiding
over
the
realm
of death. The
parallelism
with Isa.
xxviii
14-22
adds
plausibil-
ity
to
the
argument
that
the civil and
religious
leaders
ofJudah
in
the
last decade
of the
eighth century
B.C.
are
represented
as
following
the
same
course
of
action.35
32
Referred to as
'elfm,
divine
beings,
at 5a and
perhaps
also
qibbusim,
13a.
33
Textual notes: wattikrdt: ead
wtkrwy
second
person
fem.
sing.
with
lQIsaa;
mehem:
read
'immahem;
attadsui:
rom
sur
cf. Ezek.
xxvii
26,
possibly
Cant.
iv
8;
merdhoq:
ead
merhaq.
34
J.
Day,
pp.
50-52.
35
Other
parallels
may
be mentioned:
the term
miskcab,
w. 7-8),
bed,
with sexual
overtones
(cf.
Ezek.
xxiii
17,
miskab
dodim),
s also used of
the
grave,
or
mortuary
slab
(v.
2
cf.
hammassda
xviii
20);
YHWH
as the
only
true
refuge
v. 13b
cf.
mahsena,
xviii
15b;
in
both situations
YHWH is mocked either
directly
or
through
his
prophet
(lvii
4;
xxviii
14,
22);
both
the
sorceress
and the
Judean
leaders
are accused of
lying
and
falsehood
(seqer,
4b,
te7kazzebi,
1a,
cf.
xxviii
15b).
482
7/24/2019 Judah's Covenant With Death (Isaiah XXVIII 14-22)
13/13
ISAIAH XXVIII
I4-22
483
Abstract
The prophetic diatribe in Isa. xxviii 7-22 is directed against the Judean political and
religious
leadership anxiously seeking
an alliance with
Egypt
of
the
twenty-fifth (Nubian)
dynasty shortly
before the
Assyrian punitive
campaign
of 701 B.C.
The
opponents
are
accused of
entering
into
a
covenant
with Death and Sheol.
It
is
suggested
that
the
covenant
is
represented
as made with the Canaanite
deity
Mot
(motu),
ather than with
Molech,
in
the
expectation
that Mot would take
up
their cause
against
his
adversary
Hadad,
personification
of the
sot
so.tep
of
xxviii
15, 18,
thus
enabling
them to
survive
the
anticipated
Assyrian
attack. Isa. xxviii 7-8
suggests
the
possibility
that the cere-
mony
by
which the
pact
was
sealed,
reminiscent of the
Ugaritic
texts
KTU
I.114,
is
represented
as
a
parody
of
the tradition about covenant
making
at Sinai
represented
by
Exod.
xxiv 9-11.