Saturday, September 30, 2023

Hans Wildberger on Isaiah 8:19

  

[8:19] The expander of the text in vv. 19f. did not interpret v. 16 in the metaphorical sense [but] thought in terms of an actual written תורה (instruction, torah), though he did not use this term to refer to the Pentateuch but to the legacy of the prophetic movement. He had in mind that someone who was barely surviving in the era of disintegration and instability in which he lived would be sustained by holding on to this inheritance. And, in fact, he saw himself at odds with a movement of his day which sought help from the spirits of the dead. (Hans Wildberger, Isaiah 1-12 [trans. Thomas H. Trapp; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991], 371)