Abstract
Abstract
In chs 7–11 there is a succession of marvellous children, all of whom are signs of the new age. These chapters also present the apogee of Davidic ideology in the Hebrew Bible. The new king will rule preternaturally in justice and righteousness over a non-violent earth, and contrasts with the imperial folly of Assyria. The figures of the child and king are intertwined; in 9.5–6 the newborn baby is divine. The chapter analyses the vision of the peaceable kingdom in 11.1–9 in the context of the reassertion of Davidic sovereignty in 11.11–16. This is followed by a reading of ch. 32, in which a just king presides over a realm characterized by linguistic clarity and a transformed nature. I argue that this chapter contributes to the trajectory from the idealized image of kingship in chs 7–11 to its metaphorical displacement in Deutero-Isaiah.
Publisher
Oxford University PressOxford