A Double Concentration in Isaiah 14:32

Description

Isaiah 14:32 contains a word about Zion: “The Lord has established Zion, and in her his afflicted people will find refuge.” In scholarly literature, this text raises several question marks, mainly because the connection with the preceding prophecy about Philistia (14:28-31) is unclear. Many exegetes explain this connection by interpreting the word about Zion as a call to the king of Judah not to trust in political alliances but in the Lord alone. Such a call occurs several times in the book of Isaiah. The question, however, is why then Zion is specifically mentioned here. Zion is the holy mountain, the dwelling place of the Lord. From Sinai, also called the mountain of God, the focus in the Hebrew Bible shifts to Zion. The relationship between Sinai and Zion is multifaceted, Jon D. Levenson wrote back in 1985. One way to describe this relationship, though not mentioned by Levenson, is that the shift from Sinai to Zion represents a concentration, a movement of narrowing and focusing. In Isaiah 14:32, Sinai is not in view at all, but the work of God is heavily concentrated in Zion. In addition, there is another concentration in this verse: it is not the entire nation of Israel/Judah that is mentioned, but rather the afflicted among God’s people. Therefore, one could say that Isaiah 14:32 shows a double concentration. According to the Dutch biblical scholar Henk de Jong, who works from a canonical perspective, this movement of concentration is essential in the Old Testament. For him, Isaiah 14:32 is an important building block. As part of a PhD project, this paper explores how attention to this movement of concentration helps to understand Isaiah 14:32, both in its immediate literary context and in the context of the Old Testament as a whole.

Period	1 Aug 2024
Event title	SBL International Meeting 2024
Event type	Conference
Location	Amsterdam, NetherlandsShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International