Structure in Isaiah 1

In a post some months ago, I suggested that Isaiah 1:2-6 was a unit of the opening chapter. After further examination, it seems that 1:2-4 forms a separate section to itself (David Dorsey makes this same division).

The verses are not perfectly symmetrical, but they are sufficiently so to indicate that they function as a small unit. I’ve bold-faced the relevant connecting words:

A. Hear, Hear

B. Yahweh speaks

C. Sons I reared revolted

D. Ox and donkey know , people don’t know

D’. Alas sinful nation, people of iniquity

C’. Seed, corrupt sons

B’. Abandoned Yahweh

A’. Turned from Him

If this is correct, then a new section begins at verse 5. How far does that go? Dorsey makes the next break at verse 10, the next shema , the next call to hear, which makes 1:5-9 a unit. Does that work? Is there an internal structure to verses 5-9?

In terms of content, there seems to be a break after verse 6. Verses 5-6 describe Israel as a sick body, full of festering wounds, while the poetry becomes more literal in verses 7-9. Verses 7-9, further, are framed by references to “burned cities” (v. 7) and the original burned cities, Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 9).

In addition, verses 7-9 seem to hang together rather well:

a. Land desolate

b. Cities burned

c. Fields devoured by strangers

c’. Like shelter in vineyard and hut in field

b’. Like besieged city

a’. Like Sodom and Gomorrah

Despite the shift form body to city/land, there are a couple of things that bring verses 5-9 together. First is the second-person address that begins in verse 5 and continues through verse 7. Second is the fact that verses 5-9 contain a series of triads:

1. Head, heart, foot (and head again)

2. Bruises, welts, festering wounds

3. Not: pressed, bandaged, softened

4. Land, cities, fields

5. Like: shelter, hut, besieged city

If we connect verses 5-9 as a unit, the passage comes out neatly chiastic:

A. Hear, sons who forsake, vv 2-4 (animals)

B. Body, land, city, field, Zion, vv 7-9

C. Worship, wash, widows and orphans, vv 10-17

D. Reason together: Change clothes and eat, vv 18-20

C’. Harlot city to faithful city, widows and orphants, vv 21-26

B’. Zion restored, v 27

A’. Sinners who forsake are crushed, vv 28-31 (trees and gardens)

If we leave verses 5-6 out, then we have a chiasm, but with the dangling verses 5-6, which have no match in the second part of the passage. That may be deliberate. The “extra” verses are not resolved within the first chapter, but instead point ahead to the resolution of the final section of Isaiah. Note some verbal connections between 1:5-6 and the late prophecies of Isaiah:

1. 1:5-6 describe a battered body, with sick heart ( leb ), with no bandages ( chavash ) or ointment. Isaiah 61:1 promises One anointed by the Spirit who proclaims good news and binds ( chavash ) the broken-hearted ( leb ).

2. The head is “sick” ( choliy ), but one is coming who will bear the griefs ( choliy ) of His people (53:3-4).

3. The body is bruised ( chabburah ) but the Servant will lead with His bruises ( chabburah ; 53:5).

4. At the beginning of the book, there is no oil ( shemen ) for the wounds and griefs of Israel, but Yahweh will bring a servant who will pour out the oil ( shemen ) of joy (61:3).

1:5-6 thus anticipate the Servant of Yahweh, who will assume Israel’s bruised and battered body, the sick head and heart of Yahweh’s people, in order to heal it.