Isaiah 61:10-62:3

This text is used for the Lectionary Year B on December 28, 2014.

The identity of the speaker in chapter 61 and 62 is fluid. In chapter 61 up through verse 9 it is the Lord who speaks. In 61:10-62:7 the speaker is the prophet. In the verses that follow the speaker is again the Lord.

Notice that in verse 11, as in other parts of Isaiah 55-66, this is a message for “all the nations” (cf. 56:3-8).

If Jerusalem is David’s capital, then Zion is Jerusalem as God’s capital city. Jerusalem is the place where the earth rises up to its highest and the heavens come down to meet it. Forget Everest and K-2! Jerusalem is the place to which you must always “go up” in the Bible not because it is half mile above sea-level but because it is the place where the heavens and earth come together. From his place in exile, Ezekiel includes a brief description of the restored land and city before his exhaustive description of the oversized rebuilt temple. The New Testament writers do not miss this significance either. Along with the new heavens and new earth of Revelation 21, there is also a new Jerusalem which is perfect in every way, “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2), but which does not need a temple because of the presence of the Lord in its midst.

The great rejoicing (emphatically expressed in Hebrew) takes on the imagery of wedding preparations, one of the most elaborate and wonderful of life’s celebrations. While the “garments of salvation” and “robe of righteousness” in verse 10 remind us of Ephesians 6:13-17 and the “whole armor of God,” here these garments bespeak a different shade of the relationship with God. Here they speak to the intimacy of the covenant relationship as a marriage, an image also important to Hosea and Jeremiah. In fact, the enfolding “robe” is reminiscent of Ruth 3:9 where Ruth proposes to Boaz. “Salvation” (ישׁע) is a common root word which can also be translated as rescue and deliverance. It is the basis of the names Joshua and Isaiah. “Righteousness” (צְדָקָה) is, along with justice, a primary value of biblical religion: right relationship with God. As God dresses them in his deliverance and right relationship with himself, they will be able to go forward in faithfulness. A further interesting feature of these sartorial preparations is that the bridegroom, in the Hebrew, “puts on a turban like a priest” rather than simply a “garland” which most English translations have.

In 62:1, the prophet says he will not keep silent or rest until God has acted in his city’s behalf (cf. 42:14; 57:11; 64:12; and 65:6 where the Lord has kept silent, not acted when expected). The prophet’s prayers are unceasing on the city’s behalf (62:6-7 and Luke 18:7-8) and he is certain that its vindication is imminent.

The word that most translations bring into English as “vindication” here is the same Hebrew word (צְדָקָה) usually translated “righteousness” (61:10-11). The word also indicates “justness “or “a just cause.” It is because the community deserves God’s “salvation” that the prophet will not be silent and is certain of God’s response. This kind of argument can make a Christian interpreter uncomfortable because of our conviction that it is only because of God’s mercy, not our worthiness that we can ask for his help. But in the Hebrew Bible God can be called to act because of his mercy to a sinner or because the faithful person’s cause is just. In the case of post-exilic Jerusalem/Zion it is the later rather than the former that is the case (cf. 40:2 and 61:7).

What is more, verse 2, Jerusalem’s vindication will be plain to one and all. Just as Jerusalem was a byword for justly deserved destruction (Deuteronomy 28:37; 1 Kings 9:7; Psalms 44:14), now it will be not exonerated, but recognized as redeemed. Indeed, it will have a “new name” given by the Lord to mark this new day, verses 4 and 12. The prophet Ezekiel agrees: its new name will be “the Lord is there” (Ezekiel 48:35).

Verse 3 connects with 61:10, the clothing and preparation of the bride and groom. In this verse, God’s high regard for the city is distinguished as he bestows a crown with his own hand. While “hand of” often simply indicates agency, here the parallelism and different words used for hand (יַד and כַף) seem to indicate more intimacy, like the language of 61:10.

The “bridegroom” and “bride” imagery of 61:10 continue through the end of chapter 62. Particularly striking is verse 4 with its echoes of Hosea’s covenant as marriage idea, especially in Hosea 1. There Hosea first names his children Lo-ruhamah (“not-pitied”) and Lo-ammi (“not my people”) as a message of judgment and then renames them Ruhamah (“pitied”) and Ammi (“my people”) as a sign of forgiveness. Here the names Azubah (“forsaken”) and Shemamah (“desolate”) are replaced by Hephzibah (‘my delight is in her”) and Beulah (“married”) to mark the Lord’s acceptance and regard.

Dr. Timothy G. Crawford
Dean of the College of Christian Studies
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Belton, Texas
tcrawford@umhb.edu