All of this is in prospect for Jerusalem, because city and regime have organized their life against Yahweh, defying Yahweh’s preeminence. Note well, the defiance and resistance to Yahweh are not direct and explicit. Presumably there was still lots of “religion”. Rather, the defiance concerns self-indulgent autonomy in matters economic, military, and political, at the high cost of the viability of the community. The poet imagines a sociopolitical world that is saturated with the severity of Yahweh. [Isaiah 3 also offers] a retrospect on the inversion of society just described. The poet observed the despair and desperation in this Sodom-like environment. Jerusalem is recipient of a woe, a grieving acknowledgment of a complete breakdown. There are some who are innocent (righteous), who still get along. The poet, however, has no interest in them. It is the guilty who are the subject of the woe. They now are victimized by the results of their own choices and policies. The news for them is not good. [] The void of responsible leadership has devolved authority upon women and children who are unable to do good, but who exploit, mislead, and confuse. Everything that made life livable in a patriarchal framework has now been forfeited. Notice how close to social reality the poet remains. This is not some large, floating theological verdict. This is a verdict “on the ground,” in the midst of the daily demands of living together, eating, drinking, and surviving. Judah is paralyzed when Yahweh “takes away.” --Walter Brueggemann, Isaiah 1–39, Westminster Bible Companion
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 06:02:31 +0000
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