Reading the Book of Isaiah: Destruction and Lament in the Holy Cities

219 Pages·2011·2.553 MB·English

by  Randall Heskett (auth.)

READING THE BOOK OF ISAIAH

Reading the Book of Isaiah
Destruction and Lament
in the Holy Cities
Randall Heskett
READING THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
Copyright © Randall Heskett, 2011.
All rights reserved.
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First published in 2011 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
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Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
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ISBN 978-1-349-29750-4 ISBN 978-0-230-33769-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230337695
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Heskett, Randall.
Reading the Book of Isaiah : destruction and lament in the holy cities /
Randall Heskett.
p. cm.
1. Bible. O.T. Isaiah—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Laments in the
Bible. I. Title.
BS1515.52.H47 2011
224.1906—dc22 2011008870
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: September 2011
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the Victims and Families of the tragic event of 9/11.

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Chapter 1
Introduction 1
Chapter 2
A Study of City Laments: Their Form and Function 7
Chapter 3
The City, Destruction, and Native Israelite Genres 31
Chapter 4
Cities and Nations and City of God 49
Chapter 5
The Divine Council 65
Chapter 6
Babylon the Great 79
Chapter 7
Cyrus: Messiah, Restorer, and Temple Builder 109
Chapter 8
City-Lament Motifs in Isaiah 49–55 127
Chapter 9
Concluding Remarks, a Lament for Today, and
Theological Reflection 147
Notes 157
Biblical References 205
Index 211

Acknowledgments
T
his undertaking began during my graduate-school days in the early
1990s when I immersed myself in the Babylonian Collection at Yale
and was also trying to make sense of the various texts about destruc-
tion and lament in my courses on “Second” and “Third Isaiah.” Some
20 years later, I realized what I had lacked understanding in those days
when studying laments over destroyed cities in the Bible. So I resur-
rected this dead project and I decided to write this book, Reading the
Book of Isaiah: Destruction and Lament in the Holy Cities.
I would like to acknowledge Ben Foster who taught me Akkadian
and who encouraged my efforts to read some of the cuneiform City
Laments for my extra curricular activities. I am thankful to Chris
Seitz, who patiently encouraged me to pursue this project even when
I did not fully understand this subject, and after turning in a paper
on the subject he assured me that “all was not lost.” In a sense, this
book is what I really would have wanted to turn in to Professor Seitz.
I am also grateful to the late Brevard Childs, Bob Wilson, and the late
Gerald Sheppard who instilled in me the methodological skills so that
some 20 years later, I was able to approach this subject in a way that
helped me make an original contribution to the field. Since I was so
obsessed with City Laments at the beginning of my doctoral program,
Gerry Sheppard constantly teased me and told me that he hoped that
I would let the City Laments die. Sheppard so immersed me in the
various levels of traditions history in the book of Isaiah, form-critical
and redaction-critical methods that I was poised to return to this sub-
ject. I am thankful to my colleagues, Frank Ritchell Ames and David
Meade, who encouraged me to finish this project.
Thanks is also due to Burke Gerstenschlager and Heather Faulls
my editors at Palgrave Macmillan and Rohini Krishnan from Newgen
Publishing and Data Services for their patience, support, and responses
to questions during the editorial process. Believe me, I am not the
easiest writer with whom to work!
My heart goes out to the families of all the diseased during the
events and aftermath of 9/11 to and a nation which really did not