Isa 52:15 – “sprinkling” or “startling” the nations?

Isa 52:15 in the KJV/NASB has ‘sprinkle many nations’ but later versions like the RSV have ‘startle many nations’, choosing to read a homonym:

So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider. Isa 52:15 (KJV)

…so shall he startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they shall see, and that which they have not heard they shall understand. Isa 52:15 (RSV)

The verb translated ‘to sprinkle’ (hzn) is usually used for sprinkling water (Num 19:18) or blood (Lev 16:14) upon a person or object. The choice of ‘startle’ in Isaiah is motivated by (i) the absence of a direct object like blood or water; and (ii) the lack of a preposition like ‘upon’.[1] Consequently, a comparison with an Arabic word leads scholars to suggest a homonym meaning ‘startle’.[2] The question then is whether the text in Isaiah is an exception; can we make sense of the Servant sprinkling many nations?

It could be argued that the verb should not be translated ‘sprinkle’ but ‘spatter’; this option is registered in lexicons and illustrated in 2 Kings:

He said, ‘Throw her down’. So they threw her down; and some of her blood spattered (hzn) on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled on her. 2 Kgs 9:33 (RSV)

Of the 22 occurrences of the verb, this is the only text outside Isaiah where ‘spatter’ is likely. There is one Isaiah text with the verb as ‘spatter’:

I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered (hzn) on my garments, and stained all my apparel. Isa 63:3 (ESV)

However, there is no object such as ‘blood’ in Isa 52:15 and we shouldn’t simply assume an object. The only way to have an object is to treat ‘many nations’ as a metaphorical object, i.e. blood. The Servant would spatter the nations upon the ground.

But if the verb is ‘sprinkle’, what could this mean? One use of the verb is related to disease:

And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field. Lev 14:7 (KJV); cf. vv. 16, 27

We might then say that the reason why we have ‘sprinkle’ in Isaiah is to convey who actually was ‘diseased’. The point is that ‘as Hezekiah was known for sickness by many, so too he would sprinkle many’ which expresses an irony in the knowledge of the many – i.e. they were really the ones who were ‘sick’. On this reading, the use of ‘sprinkling’ would be metaphoric for the teaching of many nations (Mic 4:2, ‘many nations’), which in turn implies a bestowal of the Spirit on the Servant.[3] The problem with this proposal is that the ‘as…so’ syntax changes from the second person to the third person across the two clauses vv. 14a, 15.[4] There is a further difficulty in that it is not clear why the kings of the nations would shut their mouths at the Servant teaching the nations.

It could be argued instead that we should associate the sprinkling with the idea of cleansing priests (Num 8:7), so that the idea in Isaiah is that the Servant will take from the nations a new class of ‘Levites’. There is to be a new class of Levites from Northern Israel (Isa 66:21), but is Isaiah introducing the teaching here that this class will include Gentiles (cf. Zech 2:11, ‘joined’)? The sprinkling would again be a metaphor, but this time for the bestowal of the Spirit upon the nations in making priests (cf. Isa 44:3). Again, the problem with this proposal is that it is too theological and too parochial to Judah to explain why the kings would shut their mouths at this happening.

The kings shall ‘shut their mouths’; this idea is replicated in the sister text of Psalm 107:

But he sets the needy securely on high away from affliction, and makes his families like a flock. The upright see it and are glad; but all unrighteousness shuts its mouth. Ps 107:41-42 (NASB)

This suggests that the kings are regarded as unrighteous and shut their mouth as they look on what God is doing with the righteous in Zion (cf. the irony in Job 5:16 and the related point in Job 29:9). The ‘needy’ of the Psalm are the needy/poor that receive God’s blessing in texts such as Isa 32:7 and 41:17; this is the bestowal of the Spirit and they are set ‘on high’ in Zion (Isa 33:5 reversing Isa 26:5). But the kings also see something else in addition to what they see happening in Zion. This ‘something else’ is the action of ‘sprinkling many nations’.

‘Sprinkle’ is better than ‘spatter’ even though the nations are ‘blood’ for both verb choices. Isaiah is saying that the nations are ‘blood’ which will be sprinkled by the Servant. But the point is not that their blood will be spattered upon the garments of the Arm of the Lord (Isa 63:3) because that loses the metaphor of sacrifice as it is applied in the holy war (cf. Isa 34:6). The point is that the nations will be ‘sprinkled’ as blood upon the ground.[5] This is why the kings shut their mouths; not because they are startled. The RSV and other modern versions that prefer ‘startle’ are failing to see how Isaiah is modulating the metaphor of sacrifice from Isaiah 34. The Servant was a sacrifice and so too would be the nations.