Sunday, December 17, 2023

Mark J. Boda on the Divine Council Setting to Isaiah 40

  

Evidence that Isa 40:1-11 is a reflection of the Divine Court Protocol motif may be discerned in the modulation of voices and audiences throughout the text. The first speaker is “your God”—or, better, a proxy speaking on behalf of “your God”—who calls a masculine plural audience to comfort, speak, and proclaim to a group called “my people” and Jerusalem (40:1-2). The act of proclaiming (ק-ר-א, q-r-‘) is one associated with the messenger tradition of the Old Testament, which is commonly associated with human figures called prophets but which could also be associated with the heavenly figures that we often refer to as angels. Thus in verses 1-2 YHWH or his proxy calls out to a masculine plural group that could be a group of prophets but that is most likely the divine council, in which one finds both heavenly and human messenger figures. The ‎כִּי () that follows the verb ‎וְקִרְאוּ (wěqir’û) does not introduce the content of the speech to be proclaimed, but rather the reason for the proclamation, namely, the completion of the exilic discipline.

 

Verse 3 introduces another speaker, described as a “voice” (‎קוֹל, qôl). Since this voice is described as “proclaiming” (HEB, qôrē’), a participle that echoes the imperative ‎וְקִרְאוּ (wěqir’û) addressed to the masculine plural audience of verses 12, one may assume that the text is now providing the content that a voice should proclaim to the people/Jerusalem, calling them to “prepare” (פ-ן-ה, p-n-h, Piel masc. pl.) and “make straight” (י-שׁ-ר, y-š-r, Piel. Masc. pl.) the way/highway for YHWH their God. However, a “voice” (‎קוֹל, qôl), also linked to a participle of a speaking verb (א-ם-ר, ‘-m-r), will emerge in verse 6 and address the prophetic figure directly, and so function as part of the series of verbal exchanges that began in verse 1. In light of this, the voice in verse 3 may be better understood as a participant in the divine council who most likely is not YHWH, but rather one who speaks with YHWH’s authority—since this voice speaks of YHWH in the third person, refers to “our God,” and ends its speech with “the mouth of YHWH has spoken” (v. 5). The masculine plural audience, indicated by the imperatives “prepare” (פ-נ-ה, p-n-h, Piel masc. pl.) and “make straight” (י-שׁ-ר, y-š-r, Piel masc. pl.) may be “my people” from verses 1-2, in light of the appearance of a “voice” in verse 6 who addresses (speaking verb participle) a prophetic figure with a command (imperative). However, it is more likely that this audience is the divine council addressed in verses 1-2. A call to transform the cosmos in preparation for the arrival of YHWH is something appropriate for discussion within the divine council, where heavenly beings would have the necessary resources. (Mark J. Boda, “Authors and Readers (Real or Implicit) and the Unity/Disunity of Isaiah,” in Bind Up the Testimony: Explorations in the Genesis of the Book of Isaiah, ed. Daniel I. Block and Richard L. Schultz [Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2015], 263-64)