Alliance with Egypt

In a dense phrase, Isaiah captures the idolatry at the heart of Judah’s attempt at a political alliance with Egypt. He pronounces a woe against the rebellious sons who “make counsel but not of me” and who “pour a pouring but not My Spirit” (30:1). The last phrase is an intricate knot of allusions. The verb nasak , pour, is the standard term for pouring libations (Genesis 35:14; Exodus 30:9; Numbers 28:7; etc.). “To pour” to Pharaoh is shorthand for entering into a covenant sealed with sacrificial rites.

But in Isaiah, the thing being poured is not a libation. The typical word for libation is nesek (Exodue 29:40-41; Leviticus 23:13). In Genesis 35:14 and Exodus 30:9, someone nasak s a nesek . The object of nasak in Isaiah 30:1 is massekah , also derived from nasak ; this term refers to something molten, not a drink poured out but liquid metal poured into a mold, usually to make idolatrous images. The word is often translated as “molten image” though the term means, more woodenly, simply “molten thing” or “poureed thing” (e.g., Exodus 32:4, 8, 17; Leviticus 19:4; Deuteronomy 9:14). The Bible’s first uses of the word are found in Exodus 32, the story of the golden calf. When a delegation from Judah travels back to Egypt to form an alliance, it is as if they are repeating the sin of the golden calf, “pouring out” libations to make a covenant with Pharaoh and effectively making a “poured image” that will be an alternative God.

The second part of the phrase is also important: “to pour a pouring but not My Spirit” is an awkward but literal translation of the clause. There is perhaps an implied continuation of the same verb: “to pour out a pouring but not [to pour out] My Spirit.” Alliances, it seems, are always forged by pouring, whether of molten images or of the Spirit of Yahweh.