From Salvation to Doom: Isaiah's Message in the Hezekiah Story

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From Salvation to Doom: Isaiah’s Message in the Hezekiah Story

Thomas Wagner

The Hezekiah story has been investigated in many respects during the last decades by focusing on its original context and its redactional shape in the Book of Kings and the Book of Isaiah. Even if the origins of the story are still controversial it seems that OT research found a common sense due to the redactional shape of the story especially within the Book of Isaiah. Since chapters 36–37 belong to a late 7th-century or early 6th-century edition of the book, chapters 38 and 39 were added in the process of merging First and Second Isaiah in early post-exilic times.1 Finally the psalm of Hezekiah in ch. 38 was integrated in later times displaying the image of a pious king.2 In their redaction-critical analyses most of the investigators focus on the questions of the interrelation of Isa. 36–39 to other texts of First Isaiah and on connections between First and Second Isaiah demonstrating that Isa. 36–39 serve as link between these two parts of the book.3 In this article I will go into that matter by highlighting composition- critical aspects of the Hezekiah story, their interconnections in the so-called

1 Cf. M.A. Sweeney, Isaiah 1–39: With an introduction to prophetic literature (FOTL XVI), Grand Rapids 1996, 457. For the diverse redaction critical investigations of Isa 38 cf. W.A.M. Beuken, Jesaja 28–39 (HThKAT), Freiburg, Basel und Wien 2010, 423–5. 2 Cf. P.R. Ackroyd, ‘An Interpretation of the Babylonian Exile’, JSOT 27 (1974), 328–52, Beuken, Jesaja 28–39, 420, 442. 3 Cf. P.R. Ackroyd, ‘Isaiah 36–39: Structure and Function,’ in: idem, Studies in the Religious Tradition of the Old Testament, London 1987, 116–19; P.R. Ackroyd, ‘An Interpretation of the Babylonian Exile: A Study of II Kings 20 and Isaiah 38–39,’ in: idem, Studies in the Religious Tradition of the Old Testament, London 1987, 160. Further cf. H.G.M. Williamson, The Book Called Isaiah: Deutero-Isaiah’s Role in Composition and Redaction, Oxford 1994, 189–211, who observes that prospective interrelations to Second Isaiah are too weak to assume the chapters were originally written as a link between First and Second Isaiah. But in the final book they serve as link. In favor of a later addition of Isa. 36–39 argue R.E. Clements, ‘The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,’ Int 36 (1982), 117–29 (esp. 122), O. Kaiser, Das Buch des Propheten Jesaja: Kapitel 13–39 (ATD 18), Göttingen 31983, 291, and U. Berges, Das Buch Jesaja: Komposition und Endgestalt (HBS, 16), Freiburg a.o. 1998, 306. For trenchant descriptions of the research history in different phases of modern scholarship cf. C.R. Seitz, Zion’s Final Destiny: The Development of the Book of Isaiah, Minneapolis 1991, 37–46, B.S. Childs, Isaiah (OTL), Louisville 2001, 260– 66, and P. Höffken, Jesaja: Der Stand der theologischen Diskussion, Darmstadt 2004, 134–39.

‘Großjesajabuch’, and the development of the prophet’s image.4 Starting with a brief description of narratological aspects of the redactional unit Isa. 36–39 to outline the authors’ intentions, the article will then show in which texts the structure identified in this unit is included. Finally it will deal with the ques- tion with which consequences this structure was adopted.

1 Isaiah in the Hezekiah Story

The unit Isa 36–39 is subdivided into three passages, which begin with various ויהי בארבע רהשׂע נהשׁ temporal formulas. Chapters 36–37 are introduced with בימים in the fourteenth year of the king Hezekiah’, chapter 38 with‘ ,למלך חזקיהו -at that time’. “These formu‘ ,בעת ההוא in those days’, and chapter 39 with‘ ,ההם las tie the subunits together as three separate episodes that relate to the same event: Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah in 701.”5 In this unit the prophet Isaiah occurs four times with alternating functions. His first entrance takes place during the siege of Jerusalem in Isa 37 in the house of the prophet. Eljakim, the royal housekeeper, and Shebna, the scribe, were sent by Hezekiah to ask the prophet to intercede to save the rest of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Here the prophet is asked to function as an intercessor. Isaiah answers as diviner using by which a word of salvation is introduced. He mainly ,אל־תירא the formula serves as divine messenger. The second time the prophet appears, he delivers a divine response to Hezekiah’s prayer. In this situation he functions again as a herald. Different from his first appearance the prophet takes the action and passes on the

4 Cf. the semantical links mentioned by Williamson, Book Called Isaiah, 210, and Berges, Buch Jesaja, 276: “Hätten diese Kapitel im Jesajabuch nun die Funktion einer Überleitung zum Ende der babylonischen Zeit, dann könnten sie erst nachdeuterojesajanisch ins Buch gelangt sein; gegen die Möglichkeit, die HJE seien zusammen mit dem Anschluß von deu- terojesajanischem Material ins Buch gelangt, spricht die Tatsache, daß die Thematik des als Ortes des gemeinsamen Gotteslobes, die der J-Text in Differenz zum ’תיב‘ Gotteshauses K-Text so stark betont (38,19–20), in 40–55 nicht, wohl aber in 56,5.7 und 66,20 auftaucht; gehört diese Klammer um 56–66 zur letzten Redaktionsschicht, dann müssen 36–39 im Zuge eben dieser Schlußredaktion in die Mitte des Buches plaziert worden sein. Sollten sich die Eunuchen von 56,3 auf die von 39,7 beziehen, ware das ein weiteres Indiz dafür, daß die HJE im Zuge der tritojesajanischen Anfügung in die Jesajarolle integriert worden sind.” Supporting the thesis of Berges this article points to a linking between Isa. 38 and Isa. 57 by which the assignment of Isa. 36–39 to the last redactional layer of the book becomes ambiguous. 5 Sweeney, Isaiah 1–39, 455.