Open AccessIsaiah 40:1–2: Reading Royal Commission as a Call for Return Migration in the Early Persian Period
Author(s) -
Marshall A. Cunningham
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of hebrew scriptures
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1203-1542
DOI - 10.5508/jhs29444
Subject(s) - diaspora , interpretation (philosophy) , reading (process) , procession , period (music) , persian , identity (music) , rhetorical question , history , literature , ancient history , art , theology , linguistics , philosophy , aesthetics
This paper offers a new interpretation of Isa 40:1–2 that takes into account the greater rhetorical project of Isa 40–48 as well as evidence of Judean diaspora life from Āl–Yāḫūdu. Rather than a charge to the divine council, the call to comfort Jerusalem is meant to inspire an embedded community of Judeo-Babylonians to return migrate by hailing them as members of Yahweh's royal procession. This new reading gestures towards broader questions of Judean diaspora identity in the 6th century.