Comfort for Jerusalem: the second Isaiah as counselor to refugees

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Summer, 2004 by William S. Morrow

There are several images of the community in the poetry of the Second Isaiah that may be interpreted as metaphors of the chronic injuries experienced by survivors of severe trauma. Violence typically alters a sense of both self and world (van der Veer: 57). Self-esteem is reduced and the world is perceived as less safe and less meaningful (McCann & Pearlman: 61). The loss of meaning can result in a syndrome called "abandonment despair" in which the victim feels chronically alone and spiritually bereft (McBride & Armstrong: 8). The perception of divine abandonment is strongly conveyed in citations from the complaints of the community (e.g., 40:27 and 49:14).

Violence also leads to chronic shame and doubt symptomatic of damaged self-concept (Herman: 52-56). Israel's self-image was evidently that of a "worm" (41:14), a people plundered and despoiled, trapped and imprisoned (42:22) and far from victory (46:12). Yehezkel Kaufmann points out with respect to 53:2-3: "[The servant] is without form or comeliness, ill and in pain, and remote from the society of men ... these are metaphors for contrition and heartbreak and permanent melancholy" (158).

This last citation must be justified by a collective interpretation of the Second Isaiah's servant imagery. Interpretation of the so-called "servant songs" (42:1-6; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13 53:12) is fraught with difficulties. In fact, the servant has often received individual and collective interpretations of various permutations (Kaufmann: 130-49). My opinion follows suggestions that even if the servant songs are about an individual, they point to a prophetic personage who was recapitulating or representing Israel's collective experience (Gottwald: 497; Kraemer: 24). Evidence for such a point of view includes the fact that outside the servant songs, it is the community named Jacob/Israel that is often called "servant" (e.g., 41:8; 44:1; 45:4 and 48:21). Although the collective identity of the servant is emphasized here, I do not dispute the probability that the Second Isaiah's servant motif also devolved onto a single person. Demanding simple choices regarding collective or individual interpretation betrays ambiguities inherent in the symbolism of the servant songs.

Another indicator of poor self-esteem in the faith community can be derived from the observation that the Second Isaiah's poetry often alludes to material found in the book of Jeremiah (Sommer: 32-72). Of particular relevance are passages in which Jeremiah's oracles of doom against Judah and Jerusalem are reversed, including 42:10-16 (cf. Jer 14:2-9) and 54:1-5 (cf. Jer 10:17-25). Both are allusions to community complaints that YHWH, through Jeremiah, declined to answer (Sommer: 38-40, 43-45). These allusions would make little sense unless the community also knew of Jeremiah's prophecies and was thereby conscious of itself as the object of YHWH's wrath because positive intervention was refused.

It was necessary for the prophet to challenge syndromes of self-contempt and self-loathing that had become connected with the collective identity of Israel. It appears that the exilic community was in risk of losing a positive identification with Israel because it was overwhelmed with its self-knowledge as the rejected and disobedient one. As an antidote for this kind of internal pessimism, the Second Isaiah repeatedly addressed Israel as YHWH's servant. This is an epithet of honor and special status (Schoors: 49). In fact, a goal of the prophet's poetry throughout is to get Jacob/Israel to appreciate its destiny as God's servant (42:1-12): one whom God has the power to forgive, redeem (44:21-22) and reward (53:11-12).