13th November 2022,Proper 28 (33)

Isaiah 65. 17-25

17 ἔσται γὰρ ὁ οὐρανὸς καινὸς καὶ ἡ γῆ καινή, καὶ οὐ μὴ μνησθῶσι τῶν προτέρων, οὐδ᾿ οὐ μὴ ἐπέλθῃ αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τὴν καρδίαν, 18 ἀλλ᾿ εὐφροσύνην καὶ ἀγαλλίαμα εὑρήσουσιν ἐν αὐτῇ· ὅτι ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ποιῶ ἀγαλλίαμα ῾Ιερουσαλὴμ καὶ τὸν λαόν μου εὐφροσύνην. 19 ἀγαλλιάσομαι ἐπὶ ῾Ιερουσαλὴμ καὶ εὐφρανθήσομαι ἐπὶ τῷ λαῷ μου καὶ οὐκέτι μὴ ἀκουσθῇ ἐν αὐτῇ φωνὴ κλαυθμοῦ οὐδὲ φωνὴ κραυγῆς. 20 καὶ οὐ μὴ γένηται ἔτι ἐκεῖ ἄωρος καὶ πρεσβύτης, ὃς οὐκ ἐμπλήσει τὸν χρόνον αὐτοῦ·  ἔσται γὰρ ὁ νέος ἑκατὸν ἐτῶν, ὁ δὲ ἀποθνήσκων ἁμαρτωλὸς ἑκατὸν ἐτῶν καὶ ἐπικατάρατος ἔσται. 21 καὶ οἰκοδομήσουσιν οἰκίας καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐνοικήσουσι, καὶ καταφυτεύσουσι ἀμπελῶνας καὶ αὐτοὶ φάγονται τὰ γεννήματα αὐτῶν· 22 καὶ οὐ μὴ οἰκοδομήσουσι καὶ ἄλλοι ἐνοικήσουσι, καὶ οὐ μὴ φυτεύσουσι καὶ ἄλλοι φάγονται· κατὰ γὰρ τὰς ἡμέρας τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς ἔσονται αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ λαοῦ μου· τὰ γὰρ ἔργα τῶν πόνων αὐτῶν παλαιώσουσιν. 23 οἱ δὲ ἐκλεκτοί μου οὐ κοπιάσουσιν εἰς κενὸν οὐδὲ τεκνοποιήσουσιν εἰς κατάραν, ὅτι σπέρμα εὐλογημένον ὑπὸ Θεοῦ ἐστι, καὶ τὰ ἔκγονα αὐτῶν μετ᾿ αὐτῶν ἔσονται. 24 καὶ ἔσται πρὶν ἢ κεκράξαι αὐτούς, ἐγὼ ὑπακούσομαι αὐτῶν, ἔτι λαλούντων αὐτῶν ἐρῶ· τί ἐστι; 25 τότε λύκοι καὶ ἄρνες βοσκηθήσονται ἅμα, καὶ λέων ὡς βοῦς φάγεται ἄχυρα, ὄφις δὲ γῆν ὡς ἄρτον˙

 οὐκ ἀδικήσουσιν οὐδὲ μὴ λυμανοῦνται ἐπὶ τῷ ὄρει τῷ ἁγίῳ μου, λέγει Κύριος.

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Isaiah 65:17-25

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Glorious New Creation

¹⁷ For I am about to create new heavens
    and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
    or come to mind.
¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice forever
    in what I am creating,
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy
    and its people as a delight.
¹⁹ I will rejoice in Jerusalem
    and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it
    or the cry of distress.
²⁰ No more shall there be in it
    an infant who lives but a few days
    or an old person who does not live out a lifetime,
for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
    and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
²¹ They shall build houses and inhabit them;
    they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
²² They shall not build and another inhabit;
    they shall not plant and another eat,
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
    and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
²³ They shall not labor in vain
    or bear children for calamity,^[a]
for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—
    and their descendants as well.
²⁴ Before they call I will answer,
    while they are yet speaking I will hear.
²⁵ The wolf and the lamb shall feed together;
    the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
    but the serpent—its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
            says the Lord.

Footnotes

1. 65.23 Or sudden terror

Comments

The use of the future throughout this pericope, esp. in emphatic negative statements, is noteworthy. Theologians are best qualified to tell us if the futures are strictly prophetic predictions or ‘performative’. If the latter, the Lord reveals His intention to do something: to bring about a new state of affairs. (For ‘performative utterances’, see J. L. Austin, How to do things with words, 2nd edn, Harvard Univ. Press, 1962, 1975. See my note on v. 18, ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ποιῶ ἀγαλλίαμα ῾Ιερουσαλὴμ, etc.)

17 ἔσται γὰρ ὁ οὐρανὸς καινὸς καὶ ἡ γῆ καινή:  thebinary pair‘heavens’ and ‘earth’ generalise, implying ‘the whole world’. The parallel members ‘heavens’ and ‘earth’ are each qualified by the adj. ‘new’. Newness is paramount in this passage.

οὐ μὴ μνησθῶσι τῶν προτέρων, οὐδ᾿ οὐ μὴ ἐπέλθῃ αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τὴν καρδίαν: the combined negatives οὐ and μὴ + aor. subj. (or fut. indic.) are used in classical Greek to express an emphatic negative statement to the effect ‘By no means shall I…’

αὐτῶν: ‘of them’ (possessive use of the personal pronoun) refers to καρδίαν (‘their heart’).

καρδία: see Muraoka, Dict. of LXX Greek, s.v. καρδία: ‘seat where human thoughts, intentions and attitudes are generated and take shape.’ ‘Heart’ here is almost synonymous with νοῦς.

ἐπέλθῃ: the understood subject is τὰ πρότερα, ‘previous things’. ἐπέλθῃ, aor. subj., 3^rd pers. sg. < ἐπέρχομαι, ‘I proceed, arrive, approach’ (M.). ἐπέρχομαι + ἐπί + acc. is attested late.

Tr: ‘By no means shall they recall previous things nor by any means shall previous things come to their mind.’

18 ἀλλ᾿ εὐφροσύνην καὶ ἀγαλλίαμα εὑρήσουσιν ἐν αὐτῇ·: εὐφροσύνη = ‘joy, happiness’ (usually poetic) (M.); ἀγαλλίαμα = ‘transport of joy, exultation, happiness’ (M.), an LXX term.

ἐν αὐτῇ·: sc. καρδίᾳ.

ὅτι ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ποιῶ ἀγαλλίαμα ῾Ιερουσαλὴμ καὶ τὸν λαόν μου εὐφροσύνην:  For the exclamation ἰδοὺ (‘behold!’), see my comments for Proper 26 (31),30^th Oct. 2022. ποιῶ is a volitive present (i.e. with a future meaning). Arguably it is also a ‘performative utterance’, as in J. L. Austin’s famous example, ‘I name this ship the “Queen Elizabeth”.’

ἀγαλλίαμα and εὐφροσύνην reverse εὐφροσύνην καὶ ἀγαλλίαμα in the same verse, producing a chiaston (an X-pattern of repeated words).

Tr.: ‘I will make Jerusalem into a joy and my people into jubilation.’

19 οὐκέτι μὴ ἀκουσθῇ ἐν αὐτῇ φωνὴ κλαυθμοῦ οὐδὲ φωνὴ κραυγῆς: a very emphatic negative assertion as in v. 17 and in other verses below.

ἐν αὐτῇ now refers to (the New) Jerusalem (which like most cities is feminine in Greek).

φωνὴ κλαυθμοῦ οὐδὲ φωνὴ κραυγῆς: parallel pairs.

20 καὶ οὐ μὴ γένηται ἔτι ἐκεῖ ἄωρος καὶ πρεσβύτης, ὃς οὐκ ἐμπλήσει τὸν χρόνον αὐτοῦ·:  οὐ μὴ γένηται introduces  another strong negation projected in the future.

ἄωρος καὶ πρεσβύτης: the connective καὶ is disjunctive (‘or’).

ἄωρος: a substantive here; ἄωρος is used ‘abs. of a person dead before his time, prematurely dead’ (M.). This part of v. 20 rather recalls the phrasing of a funeral epitaph.

πρεσβύτης: ‘old man’, or generally ‘old person’ (a classical prose word).

ὃς οὐκ ἐμπλήσει τὸν χρόνον αὐτοῦ· : the relative clause (‘who will not complete his lifetime’) refers to both the prematurely dead and the very old.

ἔσται γὰρ ὁ νέος ἑκατὸν ἐτῶν, ὁ δὲ ἀποθνήσκων ἁμαρτωλὸς ἑκατὸν ἐτῶν καὶ ἐπικατάρατος ἔσται:  a vexed passage in Greek.  ἁμαρτωλὸς (‘sinner’) and ἐπικατάρατος (‘accursed’) are interconnected; ἐπικατάρατος (Gen. 3-4, Deut. 28) refers to someone who has violated God’s law and commandments.

I cite the translation by Moisés Silva (NETS): ‘for the young person will be a hundred years old,/ but the one who dies a sinner will be a hundred years old and accursed.’ (Or ‘the sinner who dies a hundred years old will also be accursed.’)

*The NRSV translation of v. 20 is quite different.

 22 καὶ οὐ μὴ οἰκοδομήσουσι καὶ ἄλλοι ἐνοικήσουσι, καὶ οὐ μὴ φυτεύσουσι:  further firm negations, this time construed with οὐ μὴ + future indicative.

κατὰ γὰρ τὰς ἡμέρας τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς ἔσονται αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ λαοῦ μου·: ‘for like the days of the tree of life shall the days of my people be.’  *The NRSV translation of this verse omits ‘ of life’.

τὰ γὰρ ἔργα τῶν πόνων αὐτῶν παλαιώσουσιν: ‘for they (i.e. my people) shall make old (i.e. long enjoy) the works (fruits) of their toil’. The people will enjoy an abundance of crops for a long time.  παλαιόω/ παλαιῶ, ‘I make old’.

23 οἱ δὲ ἐκλεκτοί μου οὐ κοπιάσουσιν εἰς κενὸν οὐδὲ τεκνοποιήσουσιν εἰς κατάραν, ὅτι σπέρμα εὐλογημένον ὑπὸ Θεοῦ ἐστι, καὶ τὰ ἔκγονα αὐτῶν μετ᾿ αὐτῶν ἔσονται: κοπιάω/κοπιῶ, ‘Ι grow weary’ (LSJ), a classical Greek verb.

εἰς κενὸν: the adverbial phrase, lit., ‘in a void’, is postclassical.

οὐδὲ τεκνοποιήσουσιν εἰς κατάραν: the adverbial phrase εἰς κατάραν implies being the object of a curse; cf. Jerem. 5.12, etc. (cited by M.). τεκνοποιέω/ τεκνοποιῶ, ‘to give birth, beget’, can be used of a man or woman. Lit., ‘they shall not beget children unto damnation.’

ὅτι σπέρμα εὐλογημένον ὑπὸ Θεοῦ ἐστι, καὶ τὰ ἔκγονα αὐτῶν μετ᾿ αὐτῶν ἔσονται: lit., ‘ because their seed  (σπέρμα) is blessed by God, and their offspring (τὰ ἔκγονα) along with them will be (sc. blessed).’

24 καὶ ἔσται πρὶν ἢ κεκράξαι αὐτούς: κεκράξαι, infinitive < Hellenistic reduplicated aor. of κράζω (‘I cry out’; ‘call to’), freq. in LXX.

25 τότε λύκοι καὶ ἄρνες βοσκηθήσονται ἅμα: ἄρνες (pl.) < ἀρήν, masc. & fem., ‘lamb’, ‘baby lamb’. Cf. modern Greek αρνί. βοσκηθήσονται < βόσκομαι, middle/ passive, ‘to feed’, of animals.

καὶ λέων ὡς βοῦς φάγεται ἄχυρα, ὄφις δὲ γῆν ὡς ἄρτον: φάγεται (Hellenistic future < 2^nd aor. ἔφαγον) is understood in the second sentence.  γῆν,acc. of γῆ, which in class. & LXX Greek can mean ‘earth, dust’ (M.).

Thus: ‘but (δὲ) the serpent shall eat dust as bread.’ This caps the list of three impossibilities (adynata) in animal life that will occur. These amount to reversals.