READING THE BOOK OF ISAIAH

READING THE BOOK OF ISAIAH

Reading the Book of Isaiah Destruction and Lament in the Holy Cities Randall Heskett

READING THE BOOK OF ISAIAH Copyright Randall Heskett, 2011. All rights reserved. BWHEBB, BWHEBL, BWTRANSH [Hebrew]; BWGRKL, BWGRKN, and BWGRKI [Greek] Postscript Type 1 and TrueTypeT fonts Copyright 1994 2009 BibleWorks, LLC. All rights reserved. These Biblical Greek and Hebrew fonts are used with permission and are from BibleWorks, software for Biblical exegesis and research. First published in 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-29750-4 ISBN 978-0-230-33769-5 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230337695 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Heskett, Randall. Reading the Book of Isaiah : destruction and lament in the holy cities / Randall Heskett. p. cm. 1. Bible. O.T. Isaiah Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Laments in the Bible. I. Title. BS1515.52.H47 2011 224.1906 dc22 2011008870 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: September 2011 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To the Victims and Families of the tragic event of 9/11.

Contents Acknowledgments ix Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 A Study of City Laments: Their Form and Function 7 Chapter 3 The City, Destruction, and Native Israelite Genres 31 Chapter 4 Cities and Nations and City of God 49 Chapter 5 The Divine Council 65 Chapter 6 Babylon the Great 79 Chapter 7 Cyrus: Messiah, Restorer, and Temple Builder 109 Chapter 8 City-Lament Motifs in Isaiah 49 55 127 Chapter 9 Concluding Remarks, a Lament for Today, and Theological Reflection 147 Notes 157 Biblical References 205 Index 211

Acknowledgments This undertaking began during my graduate-school days in the early 1990s when I immersed myself in the Babylonian Collection at Yale and was also trying to make sense of the various texts about destruction and lament in my courses on Second and Third Isaiah. Some 20 years later, I realized what I had lacked understanding in those days when studying laments over destroyed cities in the Bible. So I resurrected this dead project and I decided to write this book, Reading the Book of Isaiah: Destruction and Lament in the Holy Cities. I would like to acknowledge Ben Foster who taught me Akkadian and who encouraged my efforts to read some of the cuneiform City Laments for my extra curricular activities. I am thankful to Chris Seitz, who patiently encouraged me to pursue this project even when I did not fully understand this subject, and after turning in a paper on the subject he assured me that all was not lost. In a sense, this book is what I really would have wanted to turn in to Professor Seitz. I am also grateful to the late Brevard Childs, Bob Wilson, and the late Gerald Sheppard who instilled in me the methodological skills so that some 20 years later, I was able to approach this subject in a way that helped me make an original contribution to the field. Since I was so obsessed with City Laments at the beginning of my doctoral program, Gerry Sheppard constantly teased me and told me that he hoped that I would let the City Laments die. Sheppard so immersed me in the various levels of traditions history in the book of Isaiah, form-critical and redaction-critical methods that I was poised to return to this subject. I am thankful to my colleagues, Frank Ritchell Ames and David Meade, who encouraged me to finish this project. Thanks is also due to Burke Gerstenschlager and Heather Faulls my editors at Palgrave Macmillan and Rohini Krishnan from Newgen Publishing and Data Services for their patience, support, and responses to questions during the editorial process. Believe me, I am not the easiest writer with whom to work! My heart goes out to the families of all the diseased during the events and aftermath of 9/11 to and a nation which really did not

x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS know how to sing a City Lament, when destruction had happened on our own soil. Finally, I am most grateful to my wife Kim Beckman-Heskett, who deserves thanks for her support and encouragement throughout the course of this undertaking.