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Chapter 11[a]

The Ideal Davidic King[b]

But a shoot shall sprout from the stump[c] of Jesse,
    and from his roots a bud shall blossom.(A)
[d]The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him:(B)
    a spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
A spirit of counsel and of strength,
    a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord,
    and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord.
Not by appearance shall he judge,
    nor by hearsay shall he decide,
But he shall judge the poor with justice,
    and decide fairly for the land’s afflicted.(C)
He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth,
    and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.(D)
Justice shall be the band around his waist,
    and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.(E)
[e]Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,
    and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat;
The calf and the young lion shall browse together,
    with a little child to guide them.(F)
The cow and the bear shall graze,
    together their young shall lie down;
    the lion shall eat hay like the ox.(G)
The baby shall play by the viper’s den,
    and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.
They shall not harm or destroy on all my holy mountain;
    for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord,
    as water covers the sea.

Restoration[f]

10     On that day,
The root of Jesse,
    set up as a signal for the peoples—
Him the nations will seek out;
    his dwelling shall be glorious.(H)
11     On that day,
The Lord shall again take it in hand
    to reclaim the remnant of his people
    that is left from Assyria and Egypt,
Pathros, Ethiopia, and Elam,
    Shinar, Hamath, and the isles of the sea.(I)
12 He shall raise a signal to the nations(J)
    and gather the outcasts of Israel;
The dispersed of Judah he shall assemble
    from the four corners of the earth.
13 The envy of Ephraim shall pass away,
    and those hostile to Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
    and Judah shall not be hostile to Ephraim;
14 But they shall swoop down on the foothills
    of the Philistines to the west,
    together they shall plunder the people of the east;[g]
Edom and Moab shall be their possessions,
    and the Ammonites their subjects.
15 The Lord shall dry up the tongue[h] of the Sea of Egypt,
    and wave his hand over the Euphrates with his fierce wind,
And divide it into seven streamlets,
    so that it can be crossed in sandals.(K)
16 There shall be a highway for the remnant of his people
    that is left from Assyria,
As there was for Israel
    when it came up from the land of Egypt.(L)

Chapter 12

Song of Thanksgiving[i]

    On that day, you will say:
I give you thanks, O Lord;
    though you have been angry with me,
    your anger has abated, and you have consoled me.
God indeed is my salvation;
    I am confident and unafraid.
For the Lord is my strength and my might,
    and he has been my salvation.(M)
With joy you will draw water
    from the fountains of salvation,(N)
And you will say on that day:
    give thanks to the Lord, acclaim his name;
Among the nations make known his deeds,
    proclaim how exalted is his name.(O)
Sing praise to the Lord for he has done glorious things;
    let this be known throughout all the earth.(P)
Shout with exultation, City of Zion,
    for great in your midst
    is the Holy One of Israel!(Q)

C. Oracles Against the Foreign Nations[j]

Chapter 13

Babylon.[k] An oracle[l] concerning Babylon; a vision of Isaiah, son of Amoz.

Upon the bare mountains set up a signal;
    cry out to them,[m]
Beckon for them to enter
    the gates of the nobles.(R)
I have commanded my consecrated ones,[n]
    I have summoned my warriors,
    eager and bold to carry out my anger.(S)
Listen! the rumble on the mountains:
    that of an immense throng!
Listen! the noise of kingdoms, nations assembled!
The Lord of hosts is mustering
    an army for battle.(T)
They come from a far-off country,
    and from the end of the heavens,
The Lord and the instruments of his wrath,
    to destroy all the land.
Howl, for the day of the Lord[o] is near;
    as destruction from the Almighty it comes.(U)
Therefore all hands fall helpless,(V)
    every human heart melts,
    and they are terrified,
Pangs and sorrows take hold of them,
    like a woman in labor they writhe;
They look aghast at each other,
    their faces aflame.(W)
Indeed, the day of the Lord comes,
    cruel, with wrath and burning anger;
To lay waste the land
    and destroy the sinners within it!(X)
10 The stars of the heavens and their constellations
    will send forth no light;
The sun will be dark at its rising,
    and the moon will not give its light.(Y)
11 Thus I will punish the world for its evil
    and the wicked for their guilt.
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant,
    the insolence of tyrants I will humble.(Z)
12 I will make mortals more rare than pure gold,
    human beings, than the gold of Ophir.[p](AA)
13 For this I will make the heavens tremble
    and the earth shall be shaken from its place,
At the wrath of the Lord of hosts
    on the day of his burning anger.(AB)
14 Like a hunted gazelle,
    or a flock that no one gathers,
They shall turn each to their own people
    and flee each to their own land.(AC)
15 Everyone who is taken shall be run through;
    and everyone who is caught shall fall by the sword.
16 Their infants shall be dashed to pieces in their sight;
    their houses shall be plundered
    and their wives ravished.(AD)
17 I am stirring up against them the Medes,
    who think nothing of silver
    and take no delight in gold.(AE)
18 With their bows they shall shatter the young men,
And the fruit of the womb they shall not spare,
    nor shall their eye take pity on children.
19 And Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms,
    the glory and pride of the Chaldeans,
Shall become like Sodom and Gomorrah,
    overthrown by God.(AF)
20 It shall never be inhabited,
    nor dwelt in, from age to age;
Arabians shall not pitch their tents there,
    nor shepherds rest their flocks there.(AG)
21 But desert demons shall rest there
    and owls shall fill the houses;
There ostriches shall dwell,
    and satyrs[q] shall dance.(AH)
22 Wild dogs shall dwell in its castles,
    and jackals in its luxurious palaces.
Its time is near at hand
    and its days shall not be prolonged.(AI)

Footnotes

  1. 11:1–16 Isaiah 11 contains a prophecy of the rise of a new Davidic king who will embody the ancient ideal of Davidic kingship (vv. 1–9), an elaboration of that prophecy in a further description of that king’s rule (v. 10), and a prophecy of God’s deliverance of the chosen people from exile and cessation of enmities (vv. 11–16).
  2. 11:1–9 (10) Here Isaiah looks forward to a new Davidide who will realize the ancient ideals (see Ps 72). The oracle does not seem to have a particular historical person in mind.
  3. 11:1 Shoot…stump: the imagery suggests the bankruptcy of the monarchy as embodied in the historical kings, along with the need for a new beginning, to spring from the very origin from which David and his dynasty arose. Jesse: David’s father (cf. 1 Sm 16:1–13).
  4. 11:2–3 The source of the traditional names of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Septuagint and the Vulgate read “piety” for “fear of the Lord” in its first occurrence, thus listing seven gifts.
  5. 11:6–9 This picture of the idyllic harmony of paradise is a dramatic symbol of universal peace and justice under the rule of the new Davidic king. The peace and harmony even among carnivores and their natural prey in this description suggest a paradisiac aspect of the reign of the new king.
  6. 11:10–16 This passage, with its reference to God’s people in widely scattered lands, is probably from a much later period. God will restore them to their own land. The reconciliation of Ephraim (i.e., the Northern Kingdom) and Judah reverses what Isaiah saw as a disastrous event of the past (cf. 7:17). God’s action is likened to a new exodus, analogous to the time God first acquired Israel in bringing them out of the land of Egypt. Pathros: upper Egypt. Elam: east of Babylonia. Shinar: Babylonia. Hamath: on the Orontes River in Syria. Isles: or coastlands, in the Mediterranean.
  7. 11:14 People of the east: tribes in the Arabian Desert (cf. Jgs 6:3, 33; 7:12).
  8. 11:15 Tongue: perhaps to be identified with the Gulf of Suez.
  9. 12:1–6 Israel’s thanksgiving to the Lord, expressed in language like that of the Psalms.
  10. 13:1–23:18 These chapters, which probably existed at one time as an independent collection, consist primarily of oracles from various sources against foreign nations. While some of the material is Isaianic, in many cases it has been reworked by later editors or writers.
  11. 13:1–22 Although attributed to Isaiah (v. 1), this oracle does not reflect conditions of Isaiah’s time. Babylon did not achieve imperial status until a century later, after its victory over Assyria in 609 B.C. The mention of the Medes (v. 17) rather than Persia suggests a date prior to 550 B.C., when the Median empire of Astyages fell to Cyrus the Persian. Tension is created in that the attackers are not named until v. 17 and the foe to be attacked until v. 19.
  12. 13:1 Oracle: Heb. massa’; used eight more times in this collection.
  13. 13:2 To them: the Medes (v. 17), who are being summoned to destroy Babylon. Gates of the nobles: the reference is apparently to the gates of Babylon and involves a wordplay on the city name (Babylon = bab ilani, “gate of the gods”).
  14. 13:3 Consecrated ones: in the sense that they will wage a “holy war” and carry out God’s plan.
  15. 13:6–8 Day of the Lord: described often in prophetic writings, it generally signified the coming of the Lord in power and majesty to destroy his enemies. The figures used convey the idea of horror and destruction (Am 5:18–20). The Almighty: Heb. shaddai; there is a play on words between destruction (shod) and Shaddai, a title for God traditionally rendered as “the Almighty” (cf. Gn 17:1; Ex 6:3).
  16. 13:12 Ophir: cf. note on Ps 45:10.
  17. 13:21 Satyrs: in the popular mind, demons of goatlike form dwelling in ruins, symbols of immorality; cf. Lv 17:7; Is 34:14.

Chapter 15

[a]But you, our God, are good and true,
    slow to anger, and governing all with mercy.(A)
For even if we sin, we are yours, and know your might;
    but we will not sin, knowing that we belong to you.(B)
For to know you well is complete righteousness,
    and to know your might is the root of immortality.(C)
For the evil creation of human fancy did not deceive us,
    nor the fruitless labor of painters,(D)
A form smeared with varied colors,
    the sight of which arouses yearning in a fool,
    till he longs for the inanimate form of a dead image.
Lovers of evil things, and worthy of such hopes
    are they who make them and long for them and worship them.(E)

The Potter’s Clay Idols

For the potter, laboriously working the soft earth,
    molds for our service each single article:
He fashions out of the same clay
    both the vessels that serve for clean purposes
    and their opposites, all alike;
As to what shall be the use of each vessel of either class
    the worker in clay is the judge.(F)
[b]With misspent toil he molds a meaningless god from the selfsame clay,
    though he himself shortly before was made from the earth,
And is soon to go whence he was taken,
    when the life that was lent him is demanded back.(G)
But his concern is not that he is to die
    nor that his span of life is brief;
Rather, he vies with goldsmiths and silversmiths
    and emulates molders of bronze,
    and takes pride in fashioning counterfeits.(H)
10 Ashes his heart is![c] more worthless than earth is his hope,(I)
    more ignoble than clay his life;
11 Because he knew not the one who fashioned him,
    and breathed into him a quickening soul,
    and infused a vital spirit.(J)
12 Instead, he esteemed our life a mere game,
    and our span of life a holiday for gain;
“For one must,” says he, “make a profit in every way, be it even from evil.”(K)
13 For more than anyone else he knows that he is sinning,
    when out of earthen stuff he creates fragile vessels and idols alike.

14 But most stupid of all and worse than senseless in mind,
    are the enemies of your people who enslaved them.(L)
15 For they esteemed all the idols of the nations as gods,
    which cannot use their eyes to see,
    nor nostrils to breathe the air,
Nor ears to hear,
    nor fingers on their hands for feeling;
    even their feet are useless to walk with.(M)
16 For it was a mere human being who made them;(N)
    one living on borrowed breath who fashioned them.
For no one is able to fashion a god like himself;
17     he is mortal, and what he makes with lawless hands is dead.
For he is better than the things he worships;
    he at least lives, but never his idols.

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Footnotes

  1. 15:1–3 As often before (11:26; 12:2; 14:3–6), the author addresses God directly, so that chaps. 11–19 can be conceived as a more or less continuous prayer (cf. 11:7 and 19:22). This is the living God who is in stark contrast to the deadness of the idols that have been discussed. The merciful God (cf. Ex 34:6) is the source of immortality (1:15) for the community.
  2. 15:8–9 The author matches the irony of his words about the carpenter in 13:15–19 with this description of the potter’s vain work.
  3. 15:10 Ashes his heart is!: the words of this cry are taken from Is 44:20 (the Septuagint).

IV. Duties Toward Others

Chapter 5

[a]Do not rebuke an older man, but appeal to him as a father. Treat younger men as brothers,(A) older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters with complete purity.

Rules for Widows. Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let these first learn to perform their religious duty to their own family and to make recompense to their parents, for this is pleasing to God. The real widow, who is all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.(B) But the one who is self-indulgent is dead while she lives. Command this, so that they may be irreproachable. And whoever does not provide for relatives and especially family members has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years old, married only once, 10 with a reputation for good works, namely, that she has raised children, practiced hospitality, washed the feet of the holy ones, helped those in distress, involved herself in every good work.(C) 11 But exclude younger widows, for when their sensuality estranges them from Christ, they want to marry 12 and will incur condemnation for breaking their first pledge. 13 And furthermore, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers but gossips and busybodies as well, talking about things that ought not to be mentioned.(D) 14 So I would like younger widows to marry, have children, and manage a home, so as to give the adversary no pretext for maligning us.(E) 15 For some have already turned away to follow Satan. 16 If any woman believer[b] has widowed relatives, she must assist them; the church is not to be burdened, so that it will be able to help those who are truly widows.

Rules for Presbyters.[c] 17 Presbyters who preside well deserve double honor, especially those who toil in preaching and teaching.(F) 18 For the scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it is threshing,” and, “A worker deserves his pay.”(G) 19 Do not accept an accusation against a presbyter unless it is supported by two or three witnesses.(H) 20 Reprimand publicly those who do sin, so that the rest also will be afraid.(I) 21 I charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to keep these rules without prejudice, doing nothing out of favoritism. 22 Do not lay hands too readily on anyone, and do not share in another’s sins. Keep yourself pure.(J) 23 Stop drinking only water, but have a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.

24 Some people’s sins are public, preceding them to judgment; but other people are followed by their sins. 25 Similarly, good works are also public; and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.

Footnotes

  1. 5:1–16 After a few words of general advice based on common sense (1 Tm 5:1–2), the letter takes up, in its several aspects, the subject of widows. The first responsibility for their care belongs to the family circle, not to the Christian community as such (1 Tm 5:3–4, 16). The widow left without the aid of relatives may benefit the community by her prayer, and the community should consider her material sustenance its responsibility (1 Tm 5:5–8). Widows who wish to work directly for the Christian community should not be accepted unless they are well beyond the probability of marriage, i.e., sixty years of age, married only once, and with a reputation for good works (1 Tm 5:9–10). Younger widows are apt to be troublesome and should be encouraged to remarry (1 Tm 5:11–15).
  2. 5:16 Woman believer: some early Latin manuscripts and Fathers have a masculine here, while most later manuscripts and patristic quotations conflate the two readings, perhaps to avoid unfair restriction to women.
  3. 5:17–25 The function of presbyters is not exactly the same as that of the episkopos, “bishop” (1 Tm 3:1); in fact, the relation of the two at the time of this letter is obscure (but cf. note on Ti 1:5–9). The Pastorals seem to reflect a transitional stage that developed in many regions of the church into the monarchical episcopate of the second and third centuries. The presbyters possess the responsibility of preaching and teaching, for which functions they are supported by the community (1 Tm 5:17–18). The realization that their position subjects them to adverse criticism is implied in the direction to Timothy (1 Tm 5:19–20) to make sure of the truth of any accusation against them before public reproof is given. He must be as objective as possible in weighing charges against presbyters (1 Tm 5:21), learning from his experience to take care in selecting them (1 Tm 5:22). Some scholars take 1 Tm 5:22 as a reference not to ordination of presbyters but to reconciliation of public sinners. The letter now sounds an informal note of personal concern in its advice to Timothy not to be so ascetic that he even avoids wine (1 Tm 5:23). Judgment concerning the fitness of candidates to serve as presbyters is easy with persons of open conduct, more difficult and prolonged with those of greater reserve (1 Tm 5:24–25).