A most decisive
objection to a post-Exilic date for the composition of Isaiah Ii is to be found
in the numerous passages which refer to idolatry in Israel as a wide and
prevalent evil. Isaiah 44:9-20 contains a long diatribe against the folly of
making graven images for worship, as if this were a major problem in
contemporary Judah. This passage cannot be dismissed as a mere challenge to
contemporary pagan nations, for there are too many other passages which speak
of idolatry having being practiced by the author’s own countrymen at that time
(cf. 57:4, 5: “Against whom do ye sport yourselves? . . . Enflaming yourselves
with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under
the clifts of the rocks?”).
Not only is ritual
prostitution here referred to, but also the sacrificing of babies to Molech and
Adrammelech, an infamous practice carried on during the reign of Manasseh in
the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom (II Kings 21:6; II Chron. 33:6). And again,
Isaiah 57:7: “Upon a lofty and high mountain thou set thy bed; even thither
wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.” This is an obvious allusion to worship in
the high places (bāmōt), a type of worship which flourished in the pre-Exilic
period, but never thereafter. Again, 65:2-4: “I have spread out by hands all
the day unto a rebellious people . . . a
people that provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and
burning incense upon bricks; that sit among the graves and lodge in the secret
places, that eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their
vessels” (ASV). In the very last chapter we find that idolatry is still being
practice. In 66:17: “They that sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go
unto the gardens, behind one in the midst [or: one asherah], eating
swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, they shall come to an end
together, saith Jehovah” (ASV). Plainly these things represent vicious evils
which were going on at the time the prophet composed these words. (Gleason L.
Archer, Jr., A Survey of Old Testament Introduction [Chicago: Moody
Press, 1964], 329-30)
