ISAIAH THE SON OF AMOZ AND KING HEZEKIAH’S REFORMS
Isaiah the son of Amoz was the first prophet to describe a utopian “messianic” future. However, his vision is time related and could be an encouragement to King Hezekiah to continue with his religious reforms. The prophet Micha living in the same period would use the same words to describe a future redemption from an Assyrian exile. This exile never took place (although there was a Babylonian exile many years later).
The Book of Isaiah contains the writings of at least two Isaiah’s. This is not the commonly accepted Jewish tradition, but is very obvious just by reading the text.1
The first author, Isaiah the son of Amoz, prophesized for just over 40 years during the reigns of the four Judean kings Uzziah, Jothem, Ahaz and Hezekiah between about 783 to 742 BCE (Isaiah 1:1).4 However, there is mention in chapter 66 that “Your holy cities have become a desert, Zion has become a desert, Jerusalem a desolation. Our sanctuary and our glory wherein our forefathers praised You is burnt with fire, and all our coveted places have become a waste” (Isaiah 66:9-10). This is describing the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians which was in 586 BCE. Later chapters mention that the Jews of Babylon are about to be redeemed by the Persian monarch Cyrus, who is termed “the messiah” of the Jewish people (Isaiah 45:1-3), which dates these chapters to 539 BCE, just over two hundred years after the death of Isaiah the son of Amoz. For this reason, most academics consider the prophecies from the beginning of the book until the end of chapter 38 to be those of Isaiah the son of Amoz, and from chapters 39 until the end of the book, chapter 66, to have been the prophecies of another prophet who is usually called the Second Isaiah or Deutero-Isaiah. The works of the two Isaiah’s were grouped together by the collators of the Bible probably because of their similar style of writing, similarity of content, sometimes even similar words, and particularly because of the messianic implications of their prophecies.
According to Rabbinic tradition, Isaiah the son of Amoz’s father was a brother of King Amatziah, so that Isaiah was distantly related to the kings of Judea.2 He had political influence and was often consulted by royalty about important internal and foreign policy decisions of the state, although his advice was not always heeded. According to the Talmud, he was assassinated half-way through Hezekiah’s reign by Hezekiah’s son Manasseh and his work had not been collated. His prophecies were therefore put together by King Hezekiah and his assistants.3 This would explain the widely-recognized absence of chronological order in the first part of the book.4
This chapter will concern itself only with Isaiah the son of Amoz. His influence has been considerable because of the eschatological nature of what he said and wrote. In just two short paragraphs, he postulated that the future will not just be a repeat of the past, but there will soon come about a utopian existence under the sovereignty of God. Future generations of Jews and Christians will be inspired by this vision and what they thought Isaiah said.
The historical context of Isaiah’s prophecies
The prophecies of Isaiah the son of Amoz cannot be fully appreciated without some knowledge of the history of this time.
The Jewish kingdom split into two during the reign of Rehoboam, son of King Solomon, in around 930 BCE. The tribe of Benjamin allied with the tribe of Judah at the time of the separation. Hence, the southern kingdom of Judea comprised the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and the remaining tribes lived in the Northern Kingdom.
Isaiah began prophesying at the end of the reign of King Uzzia, the 9th king of Judea, at about the time of his death in approximately 742 BCE. The next king of Judea, his son Jotham, reigned for 16 years, and he was followed by his son Ahaz who reigned for 16years (see Table 1).
Uzzia and Jotham are both considered good kings by the Book of Kings, but Ahaz garners no such complement from the Book of Kings:
“And he did not do what was proper in the eyes of the Lord His God like David his father. He went in the ways of the kings of Israel, and also he passed his son through fire in the abominable matter of the nations whom God had driven out from before the children of Israel. And he slaughtered sacrifices and burnt incense on the high places and on the hill and every green tree.” (II Kings 16:2-4)
Passing a son through fire is, of course, an explicit prohibition in the Torah, and sacrificing one’s offspring (or perhaps just making them pass through fire as an ordeal) is regarded as the depth of despicable pagan practice.
Why the sudden change in religious policy at the time of Ahaz? At least part of the reason may have been political (as it would be with subsequent kings). Judea was a vassal of the powerful Assyrian Empire that dominated the Near East. This was centered in Nineveh in Upper Mesopotamia (close to the present-day city of Mosul in what is now northern Iraq) and at the height of its power stretched through the fertile crescent to as far as Egypt. It had the most formidable and technologically advanced army of its time. Each vassal country provided tribute and the assumption has to be that this was onerous. There was no requirement on the part of the Assyrian empire for vassal states to adopt Assyrian gods. Nevertheless, worshiping the gods they favored would have been regarded as a strong gesture of political fealty.
The history of Judea is very much inter-linked with that of the Northern Kingdom, in that both were subject to the same political forces, and probably social forces too. The last but one king of the Northern Kingdom was Pekach who came to power during the last year of Uzzia’s reign and reigned for 20 years. Thus, Jotham began his reign in Judea during the second year of Pekach’s rule and his son Ahaz during the 17th year of Pekach’s reign (see Table 1).
A major issue for Israel’s northern and southern kingdoms was whether to remain a compliant vassal state of the Assyrian Empire or to build alliances and rebel. The risks of rebellion were high. Assyria’s policy was to place rebellious populations in exile and to replace them with people from other countries, both as a punishment and as an effective means of preventing further rebellion. Pekach decided to rebel.
Pekach now allied with Rezin, the king of Aram, and invaded Judea with the intention of deposing Ahaz and installing a king who would join an alliance against the Assyrians. It appears to have been a devastating attack. 12,000 people in Judea were killed and numerous women and children enslaved. Towns in the Northern Kingdom were so embarrassed about this that they refused to accept these people as slaves (II Chronicles 28:13).In the meantime, Jerusalem was besieged by these two kings.
Isaiah advised Ahaz that Israel’s alliance with Rezin would not succeed and that the Northern Kingdom would be destroyed(Isaiah 7 and 8). Nevertheless, Ahaz called on the help of the Assyrians to save him from this attack and the Assyrian monarch Tiglath-Pileser was happy to oblige. The Assyrians were paid off with money from the Temple treasury. It is unclear if this was part of the deal, but Ahaz also visited Tiglath-Pileser and brought pagan worship from Aram into his kingdom while discontinuing the burning of incense and sacrifices in God’s Temple:
“And he sacrificed to the gods of the kings of Aram – they are helping them. ‘To them I shall sacrifice and they will help me,’ but they caused him to stumble, as well as all Israel. And Ahaz gathered the vessels of the House of the Lord, and he cut the vessels of the House of God, and he closed the doors of the House of God, and he made himself altars in every corner in Jerusalem. And in every city of Judea he made high places to burn incense to strange gods; and he angered God, the God of his fathers” (II Chronicles 23-26).
Tiglath-Pileser now turned his attention to the Northern Kingdom. He captured the territory of Naphtali, including the Galilee, as well as Israel’s territory in northern Transjordan belonging to the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, and exiled their people to Assyria and other places (II Kings 15:29 and I Chronicles 5:26). This would be the first of the two exiles of the Northern kingdom.
Pekach was eventually assassinated and his now diminished northern kingdom was taken over by Hoshea, a captain in Pekach’s army and self-appointed head of the Assyrian party in his country. He became a vassal of Assyria and paid him tribute. However, Shalmaneser, then king of Assyria, suspected him of insurrection, and in 722 BCE he successfully besieged Samaria, the capital of Israel. He exiled its population, and other nations were brought into the country in their place (II Kings 17:6 and 17:24). This was effectively the end of Jewish rule in the territory of the Northern Kingdom.
This exile occurred in the 6th year of the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah. An important consequence of this for his kingdom was that many people were able to escape and make their way to Judea. As a result, Jerusalem experienced a big increase in population.
Back to the kingdom of Judea. Hezekiah became king on the death of his father Ahaz and ruled for the next 25 to 29 years, from about 715 to 686 BCE. The Book of Kings enthuses about him, as does Isaiah, since his ascension to the throne resulted in a significant change in the religious orientation of the kingdom. The Book of Kings explains:
“And he did right in the eyes of God, like all that his father David had done. He abolished the high places and smashed the monuments, and cut down the Asherah, and crushed the copper serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the children of Israel were burning incense to it, and he called it Nehushtan” (II Kings 18:3-5).
The book of Chronicles elaborates further on his activities against pagan worship in both Judea and the Northern Kingdom:5
“And when they completed all this, all the Israelites who were present went out to the cities of Judea and they smashed the monuments and cut down the asherim, and they demolished the high places and the altars from all Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh until they had completely destroyed [them], and all the Children of Israel returned, each man to his inheritance, to their cities” (II Chronicles 31:1).
The book of Chronicles describes Hezekiah’s sanctification of the Temple during the first year of his reign and the removal of the menstruant introduced by his father Ahaz. Hezekiah purified the Temple during an 8-day ceremony and everything unclean was dumped in the nearby Kidron Valley. During this ceremony a large number of sin offerings were slaughtered as an atonement for the people. A musical ceremony was held, followed by peace offerings and thanksgiving offerings in the hundreds. Notices were also sent throughout the Jewish kingdoms, north and south, to gather in the House of the Lord for the Festival of Passover.6
“And they issued a statement to announce throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan to come to perform a Passover sacrifice to the Lord, the God of Israel, in Jerusalem, because for many years they had not performed it as it is written. …. Now the couriers passed from city to city in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun, and they laughed at them and mocked them. But people from Asher and Manasseh and from Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. The hand of God was also upon Judea to give them one accord, to perform the command of the king and the officers concerning the world of God. And a huge crowd assembled in Jerusalem to observe the Festival of Matzot in the second month, an exceedingly large assembly …. ……. And there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, [there had] not [been] the like in Jerusalem” (II Chronicles 30:5-11).7
Hezekiah eventually felt strong enough to gather together an alliance to rebel against Assyria. However, his ally Egypt was defeated and other allies decided that this was not an opportune time to go against Assyria. This left Hezekiah alone to face the might of the Assyrian Empire in the 14th year of his reign.
Sennacherib now advanced against the fortified cities of Judea and destroyed them. Hezekiah sent him silver and gold by stripping his palace and the Temple but this did not halt the Assyrian advance against Jerusalem. An influential peace party in the city advised surrender. In this perilous situation, Hezekiah consulted Isaiah who prophesied that Jerusalem would not be captured, that Assyria would hear a rumor and retreat, and that Sennacherib would die (II Kings 19:2):
“And King Hezekiah’s servants came to Isaiah. And Isaiah said to them, “So shall you say to your master. So has the Lord said: ‘Have no fear of the words that you have heard, that the servants of the king Assyria blasphemed Me. Behold I will imbue him with a desire; and he will hear a rumor and return to his land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his land” (II Kings 19:5-7).
This is exactly what happened. That night there was a great slaughter in the Assyrian camp from a cause not defined in the Bible (nor in the Assyrian records that are otherwise in agreement with Sennacherib’s withdrawal), and the Assyrians withdrew from their siege of Jerusalem leaving much spoil behind them.At home Sennacherib was assassinated by his two sons, exactly as Isaiah had prophesied:
“Therefore, so has God said concerning the king of Assyria: ‘He shall not enter this city, neither shall he shoot there an arrow, nor shall he advance upon it with a shield, nor shall he pile up a siege mound against it. By the way he comes he shall return, and this city he shall not enter,’ says God. ‘And I will protect this city to save it, for My sake and for the sake of My servant David.’ And it came to pass on that night that an angel of God went out and slew 85,000 of the camp of Assyria. And they arose in the morning and behold they were all dead corpses. And Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, left and went away, and he returned and dwelt in Nineveh. And he was prostrating himself in the temple of Nisroch his god and Adramelech and Sharezer his sons slew him with a sword, and they fled to the land of Ararat, and his son Esarhaddon reigned in his stead (II Kings 19:32-37).
King Hezekiah passed away in 687 BCE with a much diminished kingdom. The throne now passed to his 12-year old son Manasseh.
Isaiah the son of Amoz the prophet
Isaiah the son of Amoz is the first prophet other than Moses that we will be talking about, and it is worthwhile therefore discussing first some general aspects of prophecy.
The ancient world believed in the existence of a spiritual realm and that it is was possible to tap into this realm by means of astrologers, witchcraft, magic, and superstitious practices such as the use of talismans, and thereby to extract, and even influence, the future. Judaism did not deny the existence of this realm (since it was also the realm of God) but was vehemently against the use of superstitious practices and talismans. How then could the Jewish people reach into this realm once the prophet Moses had passed away? The book of Deuteronomy explains:
"For these nations that you are possessing – they listen to astrologers and diviners; but as for you – not so has the Lord your God given for you. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brethren, like myself [i.e. Moses]; to him you shall heed” (Deuteronomy 18:14-15).
This could, of course, encourage charlatans who would falsely direct the people. To guard against this the Torah warns:
“When you will say in your heart, ‘How can we know the word that YHVH has not spoken?’ What the prophet will speak in the name of YHVH and that thing will not occur and not come about- that is the word that HVH has not spoken; with willfulness has the prophet spoken it, you shall have no fear of him” (Deuteronomy 18:21-22).
The prophecies of Isaiah the son of Amoz were somewhat different from those of his predecessors Elijah and Elisha. Their focus had been almost exclusively on idolatry. But times were different. Isaiah was also much concerned, as were his fellow prophets, not only about paganism, but on the social injustice they saw around them. During the time of Isaiah, Amos and Hosea were prophesying in the Northern Kingdom, and Micha, who lived in the Shefela, in the hill country between the coastal plain and the highlands, was prophesying in Judea (Micha 1:1).
These prophets were well aware that life in the Land of Israel was based on a contract. Allegiance to God would bring blessing. The Torah also warns in vivid terms of destruction and exile if the Jewish people fail to live up to this Covenant:
“God will scatter you among all the peoples, from the end of the earth to the end of the earth, and there you will work for gods of others, whom you did not know- you or your forefathers – of wood and of stone” (Deuteronomy 28:64).
This had now become a very real possibility. The Assyrians exiled populations that rebelled against their hegemony. The Judeans, during the reign of Ahaz, saw the first exile of the Northern Kingdom and much of its population sent into exile, and the kingdom was completely dismembered during the reign of Hezekiah. Judea, like the Northern Kingdom, was steeped in idolatry during the reign of Ahaz, and even the Temple was no longer functioning as a Temple to God. Places of pagan worship were destroyed under the leadership of King Hezekiah but social injustice was still rife throughout the land. Their prophecies were therefore a heartfelt plea to the people to take action before the forces of history took their inevitable course.
The inroads of paganism described by the prophets is corroborated by the archeological digs in First Temple Jerusalem. Throughout the then city, including in the City of David, literally thousands of small idols and talismans have been found. The pagan ceremony of burning one’s child to Molech took place in the Valley of Hinnom outside and just adjacent to the city walls and only a short distance from the Temple Mount. In the ancient village of Motza, only a fewkilometers from Jerusalem, archeologists have found a complete pagan temple.8 What is called syncretism was also common in that people kept to the cultural aspects of Judaism but also engaged in pagan worship. Culturally they were Jewish, but belief-wise they were open to the cultures around them.
Isaiah was also a mystic and towards the end of Uzziah’s reign, he has a vision of God. During this vision, he accepts the mission that God has designated for him. The vision is described in chapter 6 of the book, although by rights it should be at the beginning. As mentioned, however, there is almost no chronological order in the first part of the book. This vision will establish his prophetic credentials for all his future prophecies:
“In the year of the death of King Uzziah, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and exalted throne, and His lower extremity filled the Temple. Seraphim stood above for Him, six wings, six wings to each one; with two he would cover His face, and with two He would cover his feet, and with two He would fly. And one called to the other and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the God of Hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory …….. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And I said: “Here I am, send me.” …… . And I said: “Until when, O Lord. And He said: “Until cities be desolate without inhabitant and houses without people, and the ground lies waste and desolate. And God removes the people far away, and the deserted places be many in the midst of the land” (I Isaiah 6:1-12).9
A major concern of Isaiah was the social injustice in the southern kingdom, and a social critique is found in the very first chapter of the Book of Isaiah:
“Your land is desolate, your cities burnt with fire. Your land – in your presence, strangers devour it; and it is desolate as that turned over to strangers. And the daughter of Zion shall be left like a hut in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city. “Had not the Lord of Hosts left us remnant, we would soon be like Sodom, we would resemble Gomorrah. Hear the word of the Lord, give ear to the law of our God, O people of Gomorrah. Of what use are your many sacrifices to Me?” says the Lord. I am sated with the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened cattle; and the blood of bulls and sheep and he-goats I do not want. When you come to appear before Me, who requested this of you, to trample My courts. You shall no longer bring vain meal-offerings, it is a smoke of abomination to Me; New Moons and Sabbaths, calling convocations, I cannot [bear] iniquity with assembly. Your New Moons and your appointed seasons My soul hates, they are a burden to Me, I am weary of bearing [them]. And when you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you, even when you pray at length I do not hear; your hands are full of blood. Wash, cleanse yourselves, remove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes, cease to do evil. Learn to do good, seek justice, strengthen the robbed, perform justice for the orphan, plead the case of the widow. …. Your silver has become dross; your wine is diluted with water. Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes and runs after payments; the orphan they do not judge, and the quarrel of the widow does not come to them” (Isaiah 1:7-23).
Many questions spring out from this passage.
Firstly, when did Isaiah make this prophecy?
Rashi’s opinion is that this is a prophecy about a future Judean exile. However, this took place well after Isaiah had passed away and seems unlikely. Ibn Ezra and the Radak, on the other hand, suggest that this prophecy is from the time of Hezekiah and the desolation described is from the Assyrian invasion of Judea. This seems very plausible. Everything described is in the present tense. Not what will be, but what is. The land has become ravaged because of the forces of Sennacharib and they are now about to besiege Jerusalem. Another possibility, although less likely, is that this prophecy is from the time of Ahaz and the attack of Pekach and his ally Rezin against Judea.
In accord with the time of Hezekiah, is Isaiah’s focus on social injustice rather than paganism
Following a long period of monotheism during the reigns of Uzzia and Jotham during which the Holy Temple service was active, Ahaz adopted many pagan practices and the Temple no longer functioned. However, during the time of Hezekiah there had been a religious revival and pagan worship in the public sphere ceased. This could account for why Isaiah focuses on the social injustices within society rather than its paganism.
Many modern religious reformers have attempted to read into Isaiah, as well as the other prophets of his time who also strongly criticize social injustice in the Northern and southern kingdoms, their own views about the primacy of social justice versus ritual. This was the case for Christianity and also the Reform movement in Judaism in the last century. However, it is highly unlikely that Isaiah would have advocated abandoning the sacrificial cult, and especially religious holidays. Later prophets never considered this possibility (Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 17:26). Also, the major project of the returnees to Zion from Babylon was the rebuilding of the Temple and resuming the sacrificial cult. Rather, what Isaiah is saying is that the cult, and religious ritual in general, are meaningless if accompanied by social injustice.10
Isaiah’s “messianic” visions
The first description of Isaiah’s utopian vision is found in the second chapter of the Book of Isaiah. It has to be read together, though, with a second description in chapter 11:
“The word that Isaiah son of Amoz prophesied concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall be eventually (literally: at the end of the days), that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be firmly established at the top of the mountains, and it shall be raised above the hills, and all the nations shall stream to it. And many peoples shall go, and they shall say, “Come, let us go up to the Lord’s house, to the house of the God of Jacob, and let Him teach us of His ways, and we will go in His paths,” for out of Zion shall the Torah come forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge between the nations and reprove many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nations shall not lift the sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come and let us go in the light of God ……. The haughty eyes of man will be humbled, and the height of man shall be bowed down, and God alone shall be exalted on that day ……. For the God of Hosts has a day over everyone proud and high, and over everyone exalted, and he shall become humble …… And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and God alone shall be exalted on that day. …. On that day, man will cast away his silver idols and his gold idols, which they made for him [before which] to prostrate himself to moles and to bats.” (2:1-20)
“And a shoot shall spring forth from the stem of Jesse, and a twig shall sprout from his roots. And the spirit of God shall rest upon him, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and heroism, a spirit of knowledge and fear of God. And he shall be animated by the fear of God, and neither with the sight of his eyes shall he judge, nor with the hearing of his ears shall he chastise. And he shall judge the poor justly, and he shall chastise with equity the humble of the earth, and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he shall put the wicked to death. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and faith the girdle of his loins. And a wolf shall live with a lamb, and a leopard shall lie with a kid; and a calf and a lion cub and a fatling [shall lie] together, and a small child shall lead them. And a cow and a bear shall graze together, their children shall lie; and a lion like cattle shall eat straw. And an infant shall play over the hole of an old snake and over the eyeball of an adder, a weaned child shall stretch for his hand. They shall neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mount, for the land shall be full of God as water covers the sea bed. And it shall come to pass on that day, that the root of Jesse which stands as a banner for peoples, to him shall the nations inquire, and his peace shall be [with] honor. And it shall come to pass on that day, the Lord shall continue to apply His hand a second time to acquire the rest of His people that will remain from Assyria and from Egypt and Pathros and from Cush and from Elam and from Sumeria and from Hath and from the islands of the sea. And He shall raise a banner to the nations, and He shall father the lost of Israel and the scattered ones of Judah He shall gather from the four corners of the earth. …. And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people who remain from Syria, as there was for Israel on the day they went up from the land of Egypt” (11:1-16).
Summarizing the two passages together - the spirit of God will animate a descendent of David and he will judge the people with absolute righteousness, Jewish exiles will be gathered by God from the four corners of the earth, The Temple of God will be established in Jerusalem and people from all over the world will flock to it to learn of God’s ways, idol worship will be abandoned, the nations of the world will be reproved, and there will be global peace as they put down their swords. The animal kingdom will also give up its carnivorous instincts.
When was Isaiah’s vision of global peace supposed to take place? It is unlikely that he envisaged it occurring after a Judean exile, since he did not foresee such an exile happening (although he did envisage an eventual exile in his heavenly vision in chapter six). His message was that Jerusalem would not be destroyed. More likely, therefore, is that these prophecies were made during, or more likely at the beginning of Hezekiah’s reign as an encouragement for him to continue with his religious reforms. In the second quotation from chapter 11, his discussion of the ingathering of exiles relates to places to where Jews had already been exiled during the Assyrian dismemberment of the Northern Kingdom, and possibly during Sennacherib’s attack on Judea. Consistent with this is an opinion in the Talmud that Hezekiah was initially destined to become the Messiah, but in the end was not deemed sufficiently worthy.11
Nevertheless, there is no such debate in traditional Jewish sources regarding Isaiah’s vision in chapter 2. Despite a logical link between them, including similar wording regarding herbivores lying together with carnivores, they are in agreement that Isaiah is talking here about an eschatological future.
It is noteworthy that this prophecy from chapter 2 is repeated by the prophet Micha with only minor differences. Micha prophesized in Judea in the same period as Isaiah during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah (Micha 1:1). This prophecy is as follows:
“And it shall be finally (lit: at the end of the days), that the mountain of God’s house shall be firmly established at the top of the mountains, and it shall be raised above the hills, and peoples shall stream upon it. And many nations shall go, and they shall say, “Come, let us go to God’s mount and to the house of the God of Jacob, and let Him teach us of His ways, and we will go in His paths,” for out of Zion shall the Torah come forth and the word of God from Jerusalem. And he shall judge between many peoples and reprove mighty nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift the sword against nation; neither shall they learn war anymore. And they shall dwell each man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them over, for the mouth of the God of Hosts has spoken. For all peoples shall go, each one in the name of his god, but we will go in the name of God, our God, forever and ever. On that day, says God, I will heal the limping one and the lost one I will gather, and those whom I harmed. And I will make the limping one into a remnant, and the scattered one into a mighty nation, and God shall reign over them on Mount Zion from now and forever.” (Micah 4:1-7)
This prophecy can be put in context by looking at the previous chapter 3 of his book which ends with the words:
“Therefore, because of you, Zion shall be plowed as a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the Temple Mount like the high places of a forest” (Micha 3:12).
In other words, Micha’s vision in chapter 4 is his consolation for the destruction he is prophesying regarding Judea and Jerusalem.
But when were these words of Micha spoken, since it will be many years before Judea and Jerusalem will be destroyed and the people of Judea exiled?
A sentence in the Book of Jeremiah can help us here. When Jeremiah is threatened with the death sentence for prophesying the end of Judea and the exile of its inhabitants, the people mention that the prophet Micha also prophesied about the end of Judea and he was not threatened with death. Ergo, Jeremiah should not be put to death for prophesying the same:
“Then certain of the elders of the land rose and said to all the congregation of the people, saying: Micha the Morashtite was prophesying in the days of Hezekiah the king of Judah, saying: So said the Lord of Hosts: ‘Zion shall be plowed for a field, and Jerusalem shall be heaps, and the Temple Mount as the high places of a forest.’ Did Hezekiah and all Judea put him to death? Did he not fear God? And he entreated God and God renounced the evil that He had spoken concerning them. But we are doing great harm to ourselves” (Jeremiah 26:17-19).
These verses place the time of Micha’s prophecy to the reign of Hezekiah. There is no indication in the Book of Jeremiah when during his reign Micha made this prophecy, but the text of Micha’s book can help us. It will be recalled that Micha lived in the Lowlands, some distance from Jerusalem. When Sennacherib attacked Judea, he devastated the country and Micha may well be describing this devastation in chapter 1 of his book. The Lachish he mentions in the following passage was the second most important city in Judea that crumbled before Sennacherib’s attack:
“For the one dwelling in disobedience hoped for good, but evil descended from God to the gate of Jerusalem. Hitch the chariot to the swift steeds, you inhabitants of Lachish; it is the beginning of sin for the daughter of Zion, for in you were found the transgressions of Israel. …. I will yet bring the possessor to you, O inhabitant of Mareshah, up to Adullam shall the glory of Israel come” (Micha 1:12-15).
There is discussion among academics as to who first enunciated a messianic vision of a world totally at peace. Was it Micha or Isaiah? Based on the passages I have quoted it is possible to make the following speculation. Isaiah first made this prophecy early in the reign of Hezekiah as an encouragement to Hezekiah to continue with his religious reforms. Micha, who was present in the countryside during the attack of Sennacharib, saw the devastation of this attack and prophesied the end of the Judean kingdom. Like Isaiah, he had witnessed the destruction of the Northern Kingdom and the exile of its population. It was now the turn of Judea. He may have reasoned that Isaiah had been premature with his prophecy of a utopian world during the reign of Hezekiah but his vision should not be discarded. Micha may even have been a student of Isaiah. Hezekiah’s reforms had not led to the perfect world that Isaiah had prophesied but this did not mean that the vision was invalid. It would come about after the Jewish people had repented and returned to Zion after their exile.
This prophesy of a glorious future following redemption as foretold by Micha as a re-interpretation of the words of Isaiah will be taken up by the Second Isaiah and Ezekiel and will become part of a new prophetic tradition.
Conclusions
The “messianic” statements of the two prophets Isaiah the son of Amoz and Micha were all time related. Taken literally, they imply an End of Days scenario although it is unlikely they were intended this way. The concept of an End of Days was not yet developed in Judaism, and there are no prior sources on which it could be based. The phrase “at the end of the days” (acharit hayomim in Hebrew) at the beginning of chapter 2 does not mean end of days as in End of the World, but sometime in the future. Jacob uses these same words when talking about the future of his children and he is not pointing to the End of Time for them to fulfilled (Genesis 49:1).12
More likely is that Isaiah believed that Hezekiah’s reforms, together with attention to the social strains existing in society, would bring about a more perfect world. His vision of animals chumming it together is probably allegorical. It could represent, for example, the enemies of Israel coexisting together. Many centuries later, Maimonides will also regard this description as being allegorical.13 Whatever the case, Isaiah’s vision of utopia during the reign of Hezekiah did not ensue and Hezekiah’s kingdom would be left a wreck from his misplaced rebellion against Assyria. The prophet Micha, who may even have been a student of Isaiah, suggested that Isaiah’s utopian notion should not be discarded and that it could still come about following the Jewish people’s redemption from an Assyrian exile, an exile which he considered to be imminent. However, an Assyrian exile also did not occur as Jerusalem was miraculously saved.
Nevertheless, Isaiah the son of Amoz has begun a prophetic tradition that will be taken up by later prophets such as the Second Isaiah, Ezekiel and Zacharia.
There is still much to discuss.
References
1. Even traditional Jewish commentators prepared to take the historical evidence into consideration, such as Ibn Ezra, regard the matter as being of no great consequence. However, from a historical perspective and for understanding the full implications of the prophecies in the Book of Isaiah, I would suggest it makes a considerable difference. For this reason, this chapter will relate only to its first 39 chapters. The remainder of the book will be discussed in the next chapter
2. TB Megilla 10b.
3. TB Baba Basra 15a.
4. Rashi to Isaiah 1:1.
5. There is archeological evidence supporting Hezekiah’s campaign attempting to centralize monotheistic worship in Jerusalem. In Tel Arad in the Negev, for example, not far from the modern city of Arad, a small Temple to God has been unearthed in this Judean fortress. It had an inner sanctum, or Holy of Holies, containing a smooth standing stone that was probably a massebah and two altars for incense. Hezekiah would not have wished to destroy a Temple of God. Instead he buried the entire building.
6. Rashi explains that the priests were not sufficiently pure in the first month of the year, when Passover is usually celebrated and the festival was therefore delayed a month.
7. The cooperation of the Northern Kingdom in this religious revival suggests to the Malbim that Hosea, the king of Israel at that time, had abolished the calves set up in Beth El and Dan.
8. Another temple in Judah! The tale of Tel Moza in Biblical Archeological Review January/February 2020, volume 46, number 1
9. This vision is unlike anything previously experienced by man and only Ezekiel will have anything similar. Moses was able to experience God face to face, while all other prophets had visions of God in dreams. Even Moses was only privileged to see the “back” of God” and not His “face” (Exodus 33:23).
10. It may be that by the time of Isaiah, Torah law, which was primarily directed to an agricultural society, was no longer adequately protecting the disadvantaged in a mixed urban and agricultural society. The prophets were the religious authorities, but they probably did not have the authority to change the economic system or to institute ethical decrees that would be adhered to. This would have to wait until the time of Rabbinic Judaism. The result would have been selective poverty and discontent in both kingdoms.
11. TB Sanhedrin 94a. 11 The Talmud states: “In the name of Bar Kappara from Tzipori it is related that “the Holy One, Blessed is He, sought to make King Hezekiah the Messiah, and he sought to make Senaccherib Gog and Magog. However, the [Divine] Attribute of Justice exclaimed before the Holy One, Blessed is He, Master of the Universe, if David, King of Israel, who recited multitudes of songs and praises before You, You did not make the Messiah, then Hezekiah, for whom you performed all these miracles, and yet he did not sing songs of [gratitude] before you, Will You really make him the Messiah?”11
12. Rashi suggests that Jacob did indeed wish to reveal to his sons the final end, but the immanent presence of God departed from him. In this he shows consistency in explaining all utopian-type messages in the primary sources in a Messianic way.
13. Maimonides. Mishna Torah, Hichot Melachim U’Milchaomoteihem 12:1.
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