There used to be a TV quiz programme in the UK called “Catchphrase”; it required contestants to look at cartoon pictures representing well-known catchphrases and proverbs and guess them from the picture. The cartoons were sometimes animated; so, for example, one animation might show someone looking and then leaping and contestants were challenged to guess “Look before you leap”. Saying what you see is a useful method for Bible Study, except perhaps it should be “Saying what you read”.
An example of this would be Isaiah 36-39, a narrative history that is largely repeated in 2 Kings. Scholars have long puzzled over its inclusion in Isaiah at the mid-point. There are prophetic oracles before and after these chapters which, scholars recognise, have features in common. So why is the narrative history of Isaiah 36-39 where it is?
We have said what we have seen: Isaiah is delivering standard prophetic oracles before and after Isaiah 36-39. The oracles immediately before are about recompence upon Edom and the restoration of Judah, whereas those immediately after are what is said as the Babylonian envoys leave Judah;[1] Hezekiah has repented over this matter in Isaiah 39.
This tells us why Isaiah 36-39 is narrative history and why it is where it is in the book of Isaiah. 2 Chronicles 32:31 states,
Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart. 2 Chron 32:31 (KJV)
This says that God left Hezekiah to try him; a standard consequence of this would be the withdrawal of the spirit-guided oracles of Isaiah at Isaiah 35. But with Hezekiah’s repentance, God returned to him. We see this in the resumption of Isaiah’s oracles in Isaiah 40 after the historical interlude of Isaiah 36-39.
There is a further point: 2 Chronicles also implies that Hezekiah was given a commission to render recompence after the defeat of Assyria,
But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the recompence done unto him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem. 2 Chron 32:21 (KJV revised)
This recompence is the subject of Isaiah 34-35, recompence upon Edom and the nations/city states roundabout (Isa 34:8; 35:4). At some point after the defeat of Assyria and after the oracles about vengeance and restoration in Isaiah 34-35, God left Hezekiah, and Isaiah’s oracles do not pick again until after his meeting with Hezekiah in Isaiah 39 and when the Babylonian envoys are leaving. Hence, such oracles begin again in Isaiah 40.
The oracles in Isaiah 40-66 broadly cover two topics and these are set by 2 Chronicles: Isaiah 40-48 have a Babylonian emphasis and they reflect an engagement with the Babylonian envoys (as well as the surrounding city-states); the rest of Isaiah is about the failure to “render not again” the recompence that God required of Hezekiah and Judah after 701. This failure led to the raising up of an Anonymous Conqueror to carry out God’s vengeance upon Edom (he is first noted in Isa 41:25).
Saying what you see is a useful method and the result here opposes the critical scholarly reconstructions of Isaiah which most commonly see Isaiah 36-39 as an editorial bridge dating from the exile or beyond that connects Isaiah of Jerusalem with an exilic Second Isaiah through the device of a mention of the Babylonian Exile in Isa 39:6.[2] What is important about Isaiah 39 is not a prediction of the Babylonian Exile (it actually only predicts a deporting of the Royal House not an Exile), but the catalyst for the return of God to Hezekiah and the resumption of oracular prophecy.
[1] This is developed in A. Perry, Isaiah 40-48 (2nd ed.; Sunderland: Willow Publications, 2011).
[2] J. Stromberg, An Introduction to the Study of Isaiah (London: T & T Clark, 2011), 27.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One