Abstract
Abstract
Ch. 33 is central to the book of Isaiah. Some scholars see it as a mirror-text, a mise-en-abyme of the entire book, others that it is a prophetic liturgy. The author sees the two interpretations as related; each contributes to the tension, manifest in two beginnings, between violence and hope. The chapter oscillates between hope and despair, its perfect symmetry concealing abrupt changes of mood and imagery. At its centre there is a beautiful king who is impervious to the world’s evils. Corresponding to the king there is the celebration of Jerusalem as the world city, through a dazzling series of metaphors, with the divine king in its midst. All poetry is apotropaic, warding off death and meaninglessness; in the mirror, the chapter argues, one sees an inverted world, the chasm between Proto- and Deutero-Isaiah.
Publisher
Oxford University PressOxford