The Council of Yahweh in Second IsaiahAuthor(s): Frank M. Cross, Jr.Reviewed work(s):Source: Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Oct., 1953), pp. 274-277Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/542950 .Accessed: 03/01/2012 15:21

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THE COUNCIL OF YAHWEH IN SECOND ISAIAH

FRANK M. CROSS, JR.

THANKS to striking parallels between the symbolism of the council of Yahweh and the council of the gods

in ancient Near Eastern mythology, in- creasing attention has been given of late to the role of Yahweh's entourage in the imagery of Hebrew poetry. Our purpose here is not to deal with the ancient psalmody of Israel where the terminology of the "Court of El," the assembly of the bene lim, or the "holy ones" is taken over more or less directly from mytho- logical sources and applied to Yahweh's heavenly court.' We are concerned,

rather, with the utilization of the con- ceptual imagery of the council of Yahweh in certain literary types of prophetic oracle.

The late H. Wheeler Robinson has stressed in a recent important article on the council of Yahweh2 that often in visions or auditions the prophet was en- abled to view the proceedings in Yahweh's heavenly court3 or to hear the directives

' Particularly noteworthy are the parallels be- tween the divine council in old Canaanite mythology and the council of Yahweh in Israel's ancient or later "Canaanizing" hymns. Such terms as pbr 'ilm (cf. Acc. pubur ildni), mpbr bn eilm, dr bn 'il (cf. dr bn 'im, Azitawadd Stela, Base 1. 1), and mcd are used regularly in Ugaritic texts to designate the heaven- ly assembly. These are paralleled in Hebrew poetry by cadat '~l (Ps. 82:1), qehal and s6d qed6fm (Ps. 89:6-8), s6d Yahweh or Iel6ah (Jer. 23:18; Job 15:8), and in mythological contexts m6b'd (Isa. 14:13), and d6r (Amos 8:14); see F. J. Neuberg, "An Un- recognized Meaning of Hebrew D6r," JNES, IX 11950], 215-17). The term m6cid in the meaning "assembly," "council," also appears in mundane contexts in Phoenicia (see J. A. Wilson, "The Assem- bly of a Phoenician City," JNES, IV [1945], 245) and Israel (preserved in the name '6hel m6c'd). The same correspondence between the political assembly and the heavenly assembly is found in the use of C'dd, "(amphictyonic) assembly" or "(divine) assembly"; Acc. pubru similarly could apply to a city council or the divine assembly in Mesopotamia.

The members of the heavenly assembly in Israelite thought are the benp 'lMm, beng (hd) el6h(m, benI cely6n, qed6sm (in addition to the usual readings, read also in Exod. 15:11; Deut. 33:2; cf. Ugar. bn qdA,) etc., etc. Divine messengers are usually called mlkm both in Ugaritic and in the Old Testament. Cf. Ugar. tcdt, "council envoy," and Hebrew cadat :'l, "divine council."

Some special word should be said of the role of the "heavenly host" or "heavens" in the company of Yahweh. The heavenly bodies, given "personality' in protological fashion, were conceived as part of the worshiping host of beings about the throne of Yahweh. Thus in Job 38:7 k6kebg bbqer, "morning stars," may be used in parallelism with beng el6him (cf. Isa. 14:12; Ps. 148:2, 3); and the terms qdbd' or qebda6t

apply at once to heavenly bodies and the angelic host (see especially I Kings 22:19; Deut. 4:19). The name Yahweh ebdl6t, originally "He brings the hosts into existence" (see W. F. Albright, JBL, LXVII 11948], 377-81), later "Yahweh (God) of the (heav- enly) hosts," seems to reflect the same conceptual pattern. The shift between council and host (military assembly) in descriptions of the retinue of Yahweh occasion no surprise. Compare, e.g., Acc. puhru (= Sum. ukkin), "council" and "army."

While some of the imagery and poetic language featuring biblical allusions to the council of Yahweh find their ultimate origin in the assembly of the gods common to the mythological Weltbild of Mesopotamia and Canaan, the conception of the heavenly assembly was radically transformed on being incorporated into the faith of Israel. Even in the early literature Yahweh's council consisted of colorless, secondary supernatural creatures who served him (see G. E. Wright, The Old Testament against Its Environment [Chicago, 19501, pp. 30-41; T. H. Gaster, "Psalm 29," JQR, XXXVII [1946-471, 55-65). Yahweh is typically described in Old Testament literature as enthroned amid the worshiping host (stars) of heaven; curious mixed creatures, cheru- bim and seraphim, wait upon him; at his feet are the corps of angelic heralds to mediate his pronouncements or to carry out his decisions.

For pertinent discussions, in addition to the litera- ture cited above, see J. H. Patton, Canaanite Parallels to the Book of Psalms (Baltimore, 1944). p. 24; T. Jacobsen, "Primitive Democracy in Ancient Meso- potamia," JNES, II (1943), 159-72; and Cross and Freedman, "'The Blessing of Moses," JBL, LXVII (1948), 201, n. 19.

2 "The Council of Yahweh," JTS, XLV (1944), 151-57; cf. Robinson, Inspiration and Revelation in the Old Testament (Oxford, 1946), pp. 167 ff.

3 The judicial function of Yahweh's council is well known from such passages as Psalm 82 (see Wright, op. cit., pp. 30 ff.), the Prologue of Job, and Zech. 3:1 ff. Cf. the discussion of the function of the divine assembly as a court of law in Mesopotamia in Jacob- sen, op. cit., p. 169 (cf. pp. 162 ff.). It is of interest that the technical term, "to stand" (i.e., participate

274

THE COUNCIL OF YAHWEH IN SECOND ISAIAH 275

which Yahweh addressed to his angelic heralds. The classical passages for the use of this imagery are the Micaiah pericope in I Kings, chapter 22; Jeremiah's oracle concerning false prophets who did not "stand in the council of Yahweh" (Jer. 23:18, 22); and the call of Isaiah (Isa. 6:1-12). In the latter passage, Isaiah hears Yahweh's address to his council, "Who will go for us?"4 and replies him-

self, "Send me," subsequently receiving the oracle of God which he is to transmit to his people. Thus on occasion the

prophet is permitted to become, in ef-

fect, a malPak or herald of Yahweh's council and, like the supernatural herald, to mediate the divine pronouncement.

The symbolism of the council of Yahweh forms the background also of several oracles of Second Isaiah (and re- lated material). These belong to an oracle

type (Gattmng) which may be described as divine directives to angelic heralds, or the

closely related category, the divine procla- mation delivered by a herald.

Isa. 40:1-8 is a parade example of this

literary form in Second Isaiah. The pas- sage opens with an unusual series of active

imperatives, plural: nahamz2, dabber 2, qir>i, "comfort ye," "speak ye," "pro- claim ye." The problem of the identity of the subject of these imperatives has baffled commentators. Traditionally it has been held that Yahweh here directs

"prophets in general," Israel's priests,5 or the remnant of the faithful to proclaim the message of consolation. That such

interpretations are forced has been recog- nized by most moderns. C. C. Torrey has suggested that the plural is "rhetorical and indefinite" ;6 similarly Paul Volz con- tends that the plural imperatives are not

logical but for poetic mood, to intensify the emotional force of the passage.' But each of these interpretations is ad hoc. Rather the setting is the heavenly council in which Yahweh addresses his heralds, naham~, nah am camm ", "comfort ye, comfort ye my people."' That such is the

as a member), in the court is used both in Accadian (uzuzzu; see Jacobsen, p. 164, n. 24) and in Hebrew (h4C6medim, Zech 3:3; cf. C6mgd, I Kings 22:19).

The prophetic "lawsuit" (rib), a familiar oracle type, undoubtedly has its origins in the conceptions of the role of Yahweh's heavenly assembly as a court. It is true, however, that the imagery of the heavenly council has receded far into the background, and the lawsuit oracle has been so modified as to preserve reminiscences of its origin only in its literary frame- work and in stereotyped introductory phrases. Com- pare, e.g., the linguistic and conceptual points of contact between the rib of Isa. 3:13-15 and that of Psalm 82. The classical introductory formulas of the prophetic rib ("Hear, O Mountains, the lawsuit of Yahweh, and <give ear >, O Foundations of the earth"; Mic. 6:2a; "Listen, O Heavens, give ear, O Earth"; Isa. 1:2a; '"Be astonished, O Heavens, on this account; be appalled greatly, <O Mountains >"; Jer. 3:12; cf. Jer. 3:9, 10) yet contain direct reminis- cences of Yahweh's address to the powers of heaven and earth which formed his court.

The lawsuit theme woven through chaps. 41-46 and 48 of Second Isaiah has especial relevance to our discussion. Here Yahweh addresses the pagan na- tions calling upon them (and Israel) to hear his case. The real lawsuit, however, is between Yahweh, lord of history, and the idol-gods. There is, of course, no question of a literal debate between the God of Israel and the gods of the nations. Nevertheless, the ancient literary pattern is used as the artistic device through which the prophet presents the case of Yahweh over against the case of the pagan divinities. Note espe- cially the introductory formulas, couched in im- peratives, in Isa. 41:1; 41:21 (on this verse see C. C. Torrey, The Second Isaiah [New York, 1928], pp. 317f.); 45:20; 48:14-16.

4 Both in Ugaritic literature and also in biblical literature, the use of the first person plural is char- acteristic of address in the heavenly council. The familiar "we" of Gen. 1:26, "Let us make man in our image ... ," Gen. 3:22, "Behold, the man is become as one of us ...," and Gen. 11:7, "Come, let us go down and let us confound their language ...," has long been recognized as the plural address used by Yahweh in his council. Compare in Asherah's speech to the assembly of El in Ugaritic Text 49:I, nmlk (20, 26), "Let us make (N.) king," and El's decree to the assembly in Text 51:IV:43, 44 (cf. CAnat V:39- 41): mlkn 'a-Viy(n) bCl tptn w'in dclnh, "Our king is 'APiyan Baal; our judge without peer." The usage is quite rare, however, in prophetic materials.

5 Cf. LXX Oe&s. lipe-C, vs. 1, 2. The rendering arose, perhaps, from a text reading ~j I (cf. DS Isaiah A).

6 Torrey, op. cit., p. 304. 7 Jesaia II, KzAT (Leipzig, 1932), p. 2. 8 The proclamation of Yahweh to his council

frequently appears in early poetic or epic sources couched in a series of plural imperatives. This style is familiar from Psalm 82, where Yahweh holds court

276 JOURNAL OF•NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

dramatic background of the passage is im- mediately confirmed by the following verses in which herald voices (introduced q61l q6rP or q6l a6m&r)9 are heard proclaim- ing the divine message quite as directed in verses 1 and 2. Their proclamation an- nounces the imminence of Yahweh's ap- pearance in acts of redemption and, more specifically, directs preparations for the construction of a "superhighway" on which Yahweh will march through a transformed desert at the head of his peo- ple. This herald proclamation in verses 3 and 4, to level hills and raise valleys, is directed to supernatural beings, to the council of Yahweh. This is indicated in the cosmic scale of the preparations for the divine theophany and is substantiated by Malachi's comment (3:1): "Behold I send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me."o1

In verses 6-8 an anonymous herald addresses the prophet, announcing to him his inaugural oracle, "All flesh is grass . . . but the word of our God shall stand for-

ever." Verse 6a is to be read with the versions and the new Dead Sea Isaiah (A), "A (herald) voice said, 'Proclaim'; and I said,"1 'What shall I proclaim?' " The parallel to Isa. 6:1-8 is remarkable.12

It is strange that the full force of the symbolism of Yahweh's council in the opening verses of chapter 40 has not been recognized."3 Various modern commenta- tors, notably Cheyne, Duhm, Gressmann, Volz, and Robinson, have recognized that a "colloquy of angelic voices" is heard in verses 3 ff. but have failed to recognize in verses 1 and 2 the typical formal open- ing of an oracle in which Yahweh directs his heralds in the heavenly assembly. Part of the difficulty has been the tend- ency, since Gressmann's important analy- sis of the oracle types in Second Isaiah, to split verses 1-8 of chapter 40 into three isolated auditions.14 Mowinckel, while fol- lowing Gressman in part, correctly grasps the programmatic character of the three parts and is moved to call the whole a "Berufungsaudition."15 The unity and orderly development of the three-part oracle becomes quite clear, however, when verses 1 and 2 as well as the herald voices following are understood as composed in the dramatic imagery of a scene in Yah- weh's heavenly assembly.1"

Other passages in materials of Deutero- Isaianic type must be similarly analyzed.

("judges") in the heavenly assembly and directs the bene Cely6n, "Judge ye the weak and fatherless; deal justly with the oppressed and poor... ." One may also compare the early Canaanite poem, Psalm 29 (for recent literature on this poem see Cross, "Notes on a Canaanite Psalm in the Old Testament," BASOR, No. 117 [Feb. 1950], 19-20) where the council of the beng 'il~m is directed to do obeisance to Yahweh when he makes his holy appearance before them. Similarly we find in the Canaanite mythological texts the directives of gods to messengers, the speeches of messengers in El's assembly, and the decrees of gods before the divine council. These are character- istically reiterated literary types, frequently intro- duced in a series of plural imperatives. All the above- named categories can be found, for example, in Text 137:11 ff.

The repetition of identical imperative forms (nabamg, nahamg, etc.) also is frequently a mark of the style of these council directives and, indeed, is found together with other characteristic types of repetition as a stylistic feature of a variety of archaic Hebrew and Canaanite verse-forms. Cf. the discus- sion of W. F. Albright, "The Psalm of Habakkuk," in Studies in Old Testament Prophecy, ed. H. H. Rowley (Edinburgh, 1950), pp. 3-8.

SSee H. Gressmann, "Die literarische Analyse Deuterojesajas," ZA W, XXXIV (1914), 262.

10 Cf. the excellent discussion of Volz, op. cit., p. 3.

11 Cf. also Zech. 1: 14. 12 DS Isa. A reads l'JITI1. 13 The writer was pleased to learn in a recent

conversation with Professor James Muilenburg that he had arrived independently at a similar interpreta- tion of Isa. 40:1 ft. It will appear in his forthcoming commentary on Second Isaiah in the Interpreter's Bible.

14 Gressmann, op. cit., pp. 264 f.

is S. Mowinckel, "Die Komposition des deutero- jesajanischen Buches," ZA W, NF, VIII (1931), 88 f.

16 Vs. 9-11 may belong with vs. 1-8; in any case, an interesting variation in form and imagery appears. Now Jerusalem-Zion, personified in the role of a herald (note mebabiret is feminine in agreement with Jerusa- lem-Zion), is called upon to proclaim to her daughter- cities the return of the Royal Shepherd into their midst.

THE COUNCIL OF YAHWEH IN SECOND ISAIAH 277

However, the two categories distinguished above, Yahweh's proclamation to his

heavenly retainers and the proclamation of the heralds in Yahweh's name, may not always be distinguished easily in a brief or fragmentary oracle.

In Isa. 48:20-21 there is a brief oracle, isolated in the context and without intro- duction. Verse 20 aP-b reads, "Publish ye, announce ye this (message); proclaim it to the ends of the earth; say ye, 'Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob!' " The verbs here are the telltale plural impera- tives which characteristically introduce Yahweh's commands to his heralds. The content of the proclamation is quoted in this case at the beginning of the oracle (vs. 20 aa), "Go forth from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans. ... ."

Similarly in 57:14b there is a fragmen- tary oracle, couched in plural imperatives, introduced by we~amar: "'And one speaks, 'Cast up, cast up (a highway), prepare the way; lift away the barrier from the way of my people.' " Evidently we have to do with an angelic proclamation ad- dressed to Yahweh's council," or, less probably, Yahweh's address to his at- tendants.

Another passage of the same genre is found in Isa. 35:3-4. The writer would assign this chapter following Torrey, R. B. Y. Scott,"8 and Olmstead,'9 among

others, to Second Isaiah. The problem of authorship is of no real concern, however, in the present discussion. This passage precisely parallels chapter 40 in content, as has been recognized generally. It opens with the announcement of the transfor- mation of nature to accompany Yahweh's redemption of his creation. Then directives to encourage and console Israel and to proclaim the day of Yahweh's rescue are given to the messengers of the heavenly host: hazzeq? . . . Dammes. . .imrz.

A number of other passages of like liter- ary type may be discovered in the late materials in Isaiah (Isa. 52:7-10; 62:10- 12; cf. 44:26;20 40:2621), as well as in both earlier and later prophetic literature.22 But these will serve to illustrate the role which oracle types reflecting the imagery of the council of Yahweh play in the prophetic poetry of Second Isaiah.

MCCORMICK THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY CHICAGO 14, ILLINOIS

17 Cf. Vol, op. cit., pp. 216 f., who correctly con- nects this verse with the herald voices of Isa. 40:3, 6.

18 "The Relation of Isaiah, Chapter 35, to Deutero- Isaiah," (AJSL, LII (1936), 178-91.

19 "II Isaiah and Isaiah, Chapter 35," AJSL, LIII (1937), 251 ff.

20Here cabdddw (MT J'jYt) is paralleled by mal'dkdw. This has frequently been interpreted as referring to the prophets (cf. 42:19); but see Job 4:18, where the same terms certainly apply to the heavenly attendants of Yahweh.

21 Here Yahweh is pictured as marshaling and mustering his heavenly army. Cf. Isa. 45:12.

22 Zech. 3:1 ff. is an especially striking passage. Note the address in imperatives plural to the assembly in vs. 4. On the interpretation and reconstruction of the corrupt text here see N. Johansson, Parakletoi (Lund, 1940), pp. 34 ff. This work was called to the writer's attention by Professor C. U. Wolf.