the servant city. a new interpretation of the servant of the lord
TRANSCRIPT
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THE SERVANT-CITY: A NEW INTERPRETATION OF THE
"SERVANT OF THE LORD" IN THE SERVANT
SONGS OF DEUTERO-ISAIAH
LELAND EDWARD WILSHIRE
UNITED COMMUNITY PARISH, CAMPBELL, MN 56522
MODERN scholarship has reached an impasse in regard to the identity of
of the "Servant of the Lord" in the servant songs in Deutero-Isaiah. The
prevalent interpretation at the present time is some sort of "fluid," oscillating or
linear concept that takes in Israel, some political, spiritual or ideal portion of
Israel and/or some individual either in Israel's past, present or future.1 M. D.
Hooker gives a representative voice to this view, "there is . . . a continual
oscillating between one concept and another . . . the servant is at once Israel and
the prophet and the messiah, so that although one concept may be primary, one
cannot deny the presence of another."2
The problem with this widely held interpretation is that it is basically no
solution at all. The text is quite specific in its imagery. It gives no indication
either of the "fluid" nature of this approach nor any indication, with the possi
ble exception of the nation Israel, of the other parts of the interpretation. This
situation has led an ever-growing number of scholars to declare that the problem
is insoluble. J. Lindblom writes, "The reader comes willy nilly to suspect that
1For a review of the long history of the interpretation of the "Suffering Servant," the
following should be consulted: C. R. North, The Suffering Servant in Deutero-Isaiah(rev. ed.; London: Oxford University, 1956); C. Lindhagen, "Important Hypotheses Reconsidered^: The Servant of the Lord," ExpT 61 (1955-56) 279-83, 300-2; H. H. Rowley,The Servant of the Lord and Other Essays in the Old Testament (2d ed.; Oxford: Black-well, 1965 ) ; J. Muilenburg, "Introduction to Isaiah, Chapters 40-66," Interpreter's Bible
(New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1951-57), 5. 406-8. For recent scholarly discussions, one should consult the following: G. Fohrer, "Zehn Jahre Literatur zur alttesta-mentlichen Prophétie (1951-1960), 6: Deutero- und Trito-Jesaja (Jes. 40-66)," ThRuns 27 (1962) 235-49; H. Haag, "Ebed Jahwe-Forschung 1948-1958," BZ ns 3 (1959)174-204; S. Mowinckel, He That Cometh (New York/Nashville: Abingdon, 1954) 187-
257. One should also add a reference to a mythological interpretation which links thesuffering servant to the ritual part played by the Babylonian king in the New Year'sFestival: I Engnell "The Ebed Yahweh Songs and the Suffering Messiah in 'Deutero
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WILSHIRE: THE SERVANT-CITY 357
the problem of 'the servant' is simply unsolvable by the methods hitherto ap
plied."3 After an exhaustive study of the texts involved, C. Westermann com
ments, "In principle, their exegesis must not be controlled by the question 'Whois the servant of God?' Instead, we must do them justice by recognizing that
precisely this is what they neither tell nor intend to tell us."4
Realizing this current state of inquiry, I should like to re-open the question
of the identity of the "Servant of the Lord" in the servant songs of Deutero-
Isaiah.5 In contrast to the writers of apocalyptic literature, the author's or
editor's intention in the collection of futuristically oriented songs or poems,
oracles, and prose pieces comprising Deutero-Isaiah is to reveal not to conceal.
There are no stock phrases that would indicate to the reader that the meaning
of a passage has been intentionally hidden. Although there are ambiguities inthe text, especially in the servant songs, the real problem has been in interpreta
tion.
Those seeking to interpret the servant-figure, even from the start, have been
misled.6 One should not go beyond the text and seek throughout history for a
"Servant of the Lord" any more than one should seek for an historical manifesta
tion of a "virgin daughter" or a "barren wife," other basic images used by
Deutero-Isaiah. The answer lies in the text itself. The cebed Yahweh in the
servant songs is a metaphor symbolizing, like the other two figures mentioned,something specific within the message of the prophet. The text of Isaiah 40-55
essentially deals with the declaration of the glory and power of Yahweh as
shown in a new age by the rise of Cyrus, the overthrow of the Neo-Babylonian
empire, the return of the exiles and the re-establishment of the divine witness of
Zion-Jerusalem. It is the contention of this study that the image of the "Servant
of the Lord" in the servant songs pertains to some part of this basic message.
disciples" (Introduction to the Old Testament [Copenhagen: Gad, 1949], 2. 113).
Bentzen later modified his earlier statement, "The Ebed Yahweh is Deutero-Isaiah andIsrael, the new Moses ('Messias* in radically changed form) and the congregation forwhom he is ready to die, in one single person, the Patriarch of the new race" (King and
Messiah [London: Lutterworth, 1955] 67). H. H. Rowley saw an oscillation between thenation and a "future representative" (The Servant of the Lord, 59). To W. Zimmerli,this type of reasoning served "only to befog the whole problem" (The Servant of the
Lord [SBT 20; London: SCM, 1957] 25).8
The Servant Songs in Deutero-Isaiah: A New Attempt to Solve an Old Problem(Lund: Gleerup, 1951) 10.
^Isaiah 40-66: A Commentary (London: SCM, 1969) 93.5The
boundaries of the servant songs accepted by this study are Isaiah 42:1-7; 49:1-6;50:4-9; 52:13-53:12. These are the same limits set forth by B. Duhm in 1875; in 1892,he limited the first song to Isa 42:1-4. The later change has not been followed here.
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358 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE
The metaphor used, the "Servant of the Lord," is a person; the thing signified by
the metaphor is an object of religious belief. Of the various components of this
prophetic message, the metaphor of the "Servant of the Lord" would best apply
to the cultic center of Zion-Jerusalem. Zion-Jerusalem, the conquered and
humiliated city, is now, through a new act of God, being restored to life again.
To put it simply, in the interpretation presented here the servant is the city.7
The predominant metaphor used of Zion-Jerusalem in the text of Deutero-
Isaiah is that of a woman, a "female messenger" (40:9), a "barren wife"
(49:21-23). This distinctive image does not preclude the possibility that the
writer may want to use a different image in other passages when a different
emphasis is needed. For example, Zion-Jerusalem is pictured briefly as a
"child of the breast" (49:15) and a "child of the womb" (49:15). Insteadof being in conflict, these images of wife, child, servant are close to each other
in symbolic meaning. C. Lindhagen has already commented on what he calls
the "servant (wife) relationship in II Isaiah."8 The writer of Deutero-Isaiah
also uses the term "servant" to refer to other subjects in his prophecy (himself,
Cyrus, Israel, etc.). Metaphors and their objects change with rapidity in the
text
The abruptness with which the term "Zion" alternates between the feminine
and the masculine gender within Deutero-Isaiah could possibly give us insight
into the use of the masculine term "Servant of the Lord" for Zion-Jerusalem.
Although Zion is usually referred to as a female, there are occasions when the
masculine gender is appropriated. In Isa 51:12, 14-16, the masculine forms are
used as Zion is referred to as "the people of God."9 In Isa 52:1 Zion is in
structed, in masculine terms, to put on "strength."10 It is the force of the poetic
image that determines the gender of the symbol. Although Zion-Jerusalem is
predominately referred to as a female, the poetic thrust of the servant image en
tails a masculine image for the city.
Without implying direct literary connections, we find interesting parallels
'Although this interpretation has not been offered before, it draws on recent studieson the image of Zion-Jerusalem in the prophets: H. Schmid, "Jahwe und die Kulttraditionen von Jerusalem," ZAW 61 (1955) 168-197; G. von Rad, "The City on the Hill,**The Problem of the Hexateuch and Other Essays (Edinburgh/London: Oliver and Boyd,1966) 232-42; R. de Vaux, Jerusalem and the Prophets (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1965); N. W. Porteous, "Jerusalem-Zion: The Growth of a Symbol," Verbannungund Heimkehr: Pestschrift W. Rudolph (Tübingen: Mohr, 1961) 235-52; J. H. Hayes,"The Tradition of Zion's Inviolability," JBL 82 (1963) 419-26.
8 The Servant Motif in the Old Testament: A Preliminary Study to the c Ebed Yahweh Problem m Deutero-Isaiah (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1950) 174.
9 J L M K i th ti f D N F d h th li l l
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WILSHIRE: THE SERVANT-CITY 359
between the images used in the servant songs and the images used for other
destroyed cultic-center cities in the literature of the ancient Near East.11 There
are similarities between these passages in Deutero-Isaiah and the far older
Sumerian lamentations over the fall of Ur.12 First, there is the role of the
Deity in the affliction of the city.
Servant Songs:But we regarded him as one stricken,smitten of God, and bowed down. (53:4)
/ Ur 257:Enlil has abandoned . . . Nippur, his sheepfold (has been delivered) to the wind.Verily Anu has cursed my city, my city verily has been destroyed.
II Ur 1:
Oppression (?) and calamity Enlil has made to abide withal in the city.
Second, there is the personification of the affliction.
Servant Songs:
He was without help, wanting in men,a man of pains, and well acquainted with disease;and like one from whom men hide their face;despised and we reckoned him as nothing. (53:3)
I Ur 370-373:Ur, like the child of a street which has been destroyed, seeks a place before thee.The house, like a man who has lost everything, stretches out the hands to thee.The brickwork of the righteous house, like a human being, cries thy "where, pray?"
IIUr52:0 Enlil, thy city, which thine eyes beheld, is a lonely waste.
Third, there is the imagery of innocence and non-resistance.
Servant Songs:
He was ill treated; while he bowed himself down,and opened not his mouth, like a sheep that is ledto the slaughter-bench, and like a ewe that is dumbbefore its shearers, and opened not his mouth. (53:7)
1 Ur 67:O my city, like an innocent ewe, thy lamb has beentorn away from thee; O Ur, like an innocent ewe,thy lamb has been torn away from thee.
II Ur 5:Ur
. . .makes
noresistance.
11 The conclusion of T. F. McDaniel that there is no direct influence of Sumerian
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Finally, there is the ultimate justification.
Servant Songs:
See, my servant will act wisely, he will come forth,and arise, and be very high. (52:13)
I Ur 423-424, 435:
O Nanna, may thy city, which has been returned to its place, step gloriously before thee.O Nanna, thy city, which has been returned to its place, exalts thee.
The biblical Book of Lamentations has a similar pattern of images for
Zion-Jerusalem as the destroyed cultic-center city. There are the female
metaphors in chs. 1-2 that compare Jerusalem with a widow (1 :1-2 ). With
ch. 3, possibly a later addition of a personal lament, the image changes to a"man of affliction" (3:1), a figure close in its imagery to the "Servant of the
Lord" in Deutero-Isaiah. Although this image in Lamentations is not identified,
it would seem logical that it continues the same theme found in the earlier
chapters, the destruction of Zion-Jerusalem. O. Eissfeldt writes about this
change of gender and symbol:
In spite of the fact that the poem is in large measure in the style of the individualsong of lamentation, there ought never to have been any doubt that it was composedfrom the first with reference to the disaster to Jerusalem. Even the fact that itbegins "I am the man" whereas elsewhere Jerusalem is normally referred to in thefeminine as the city, does not provide an argument against this. . . . If the strongpersonification of Jerusalem and most of all its equation with a man is very difficultfor us to appreciate, we must simply remember that the Israelites felt quite differentlyin this respect. . . here Jerusalem says of itself: "I am this sufferer."18
It is interesting to note that although Jerusalem is declared guilty of her sins in
the earlier chapters of Lamentations (1 :8-9), a belief shared with the Book
of Jeremiah, the 'man of affliction" of ch. 3 speaks of being hunted without
cause (3:52) and pleads that the Lord has seen the wrong done (3:59). Theparticular descriptive words used in ch. 3, although found in personal laments,
also describe the destruction of a city: "besieged," 'walled," a "laughing-stock
to all peoples" (3:5, 7, 14).
Of more importance to our study is the close similarity between passages
that specifically deal with the cultic-center city, Zion-Jerusalem, outside the
servant songs in Deutero-Isaiah and the image of the servant within the songs.
In the example below, there is the similar description of being formed in the
divine womb.
33The Old Testament: An Introduction (New York/Evanston: Harper & Row 1965)
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WILSHIRE: THE SERVANT-CITY 361
Outside the songs:
Zion said, Yahweh has forsaken me, and Adonai has forgotten me. Does a womanforget her child at the breast, so as not to have compassion upon the child of her
womb? (49:14-15)
Within the songs:And now, says Yahweh, who formed me from the womb to be his servant... (49:5)
As God will gather the people to Zion, so also God's people will be gathered to
the unnamed servant.
Outside the songs:
[God speaking to Zion] See, they are gathered and come to you. (49:18)
Within the songs:
. . . that Israel may be gathered together to him. (49:5 emended)
Both Zion and the "servant" suffer an identical banishment and desolation.
Outside the songs:
[Zion will say in her heart] I was robbed of children, and barren, banished, andthrust away. (49:21)Within the songs:He was without help, wanting in men . . . (53:3)
The use of graphic terms of bodily punishment in regard to Zion and the nationmay shed light on a possible corporate meaning of the graphic description of
punishment within the songs.
Outside the songs:Jerusalem, you who have drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, whohave drunk to the dregs the bowl of staggering . . . [to the people of Israel] And Iput it into the hands of your tormentors; who said to your soul, "Bow down, that wemay go over; and you made your back like the ground, and like a public way forthose who go over it. (51:17, 23)
Within the songs:I offered my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that pluck the beard. Ihid not my face from insult and spitting. (50:6)
Both Zion and the unnamed servant will be revived by the power of God.
Outside the songs:Awake, awake, clothe yourself in your might, O Zion; clothe yourself in your state-dresses, O Jerusalem, you holy city. (52:1)
Within the songs:
Behold, my servant will act wisely; he will come forth, and arise, and be veryhigh. (52:13)
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Within the songs:. . . he should see posterity, should live long days, and the purpose of Yahwehshould prosper through his hand. (53:10)
The parallel imagery is more than mere coincidence. What is happening to
Zion-Jerusalem outside the songs is the pattern of what is happening to the
"Servant of the Lord" within the songs.14
The servant songs which may have
arisen in the literary genre of personal laments and personal praises are now
used as vehicles of corporate laments and songs of confidence.15
Although the
basic image is unique, thus standing out as "servant songs," they share the same
message with the other literary forms of Deutero-Isaiah.
Let us now analyze the servant songs and their context in Deutero-Isaiah,
using the interpretation of Zion-Jerusalem as the "Servant of the Lord." The
text of Deutero-Isaiah can be roughly divided into two parts. First, there is a
series of songs or poems and prose pieces dealing with a proclamation of God's
glory and power (in contrast to idols) as revealed by the downfall of Babylon
and the use of Cyrus as an instrument of God's will (40:1-48:22). There may
be a dividing line at this point (49:1), as there is no further mention either of
Cyrus or Babylon. The remainder of the text (49:1-55:13) consists of three
of the servant songs grouped in a collection of "Zion songs," poems of praise thatare quite obvious in their reference to Zion-Jerusalem.
The prologue to the prophetic collection known as Deutero-Isaiah quickly
states the prominence of Zion-Jerusalem. Along with the reviving of the people
(40:1), the prophet is to speak to the "heart of Jerusalem" (40:2). The idea
that Jerusalem has served its sentence and received "double for its sins" (40:2)
is unique to this passage and is difficult to interpret. The word for sin (haptPt)
is not used elsewhere in Deutero-Isaiah to refer to Zion-Jerusalem and is found
in this book only in a few references to the sins of the nation Israel (43:24, 25;
44:22). In Isa 48:2, however, a distinction is drawn between the sinful people
and the "holy city." It may be that Israel and Zion-Jerusalem are merged in
uAlthough in search of a different solution, H. H. Rowley reached the same conclu
sion with regard to the relationship of the songs to their context: "Within the songs thingsare predicated of the Servant which outside them are predicated of Israel" (The Servant of the Lord, 52).
15J. Begrich, a pioneer in form criticism, saw Deutero-Isaiah as a collection of
separate units of various types of literary genres (Studien zu Deuterojesaja [ΒWANT
4/25; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1938] 77). See also "Das priesterliche Heilsorakel," ZAW 52 (1934) 81-92. C. Westermann has gone on to show how Deutero-Isaiah adaptedthese genres into the unique units that make up the text ("Das Heilswort bei Deutero
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WILSHIRE: THE SERVANT-CITY 363
the prologue to be separated later in the development of the prophetic message.
The metaphors used for Zion-Jerusalem are identical to those used for the nation
Israel in many places in Deutero-Isaiah. In the servant songs, however, the
images are separated as Zion-Jerusalem is given its unique mission of proclaim
ing the judgment of God and bearing, in its destruction, the punishment due the
nation. The relationship between these two images may help in the continuing
controversy between those who favor an individual interpretation and those who
favor a collective interpretation of the "Servant of the Lord" in the servant
songs in Deutero-Isaiah.
Although the main emphasis of the prophet in these early passages is the
calling of Cyrus in his victorious expedition (41:2-3, 25) and the future, God-
given, "threshing-sledge" ministry of God's servant Israel (41:14-16), the"Servant of the Lord" in the first servant song is given an immediate task. In
contrast to the violent activity of the other two servants, the servant's ministry in
the first song is that of complete pacifism (42:2-4). In this condition, it will
bring forth "judgment" (mispat) and "instruction" (toräh) (42:1,4).1β
The
first servant song may be interpreted as follows. The restoration of the city
brought about by the militaristic activity of the "servant" Cyrus will declare the
judgment that Yahweh alone is God. Even though Zion-Jerusalem is nothing
but a "dim wick," the Gentiles will see this vindication of Yahweh and hear the
prophetic revelation. The city will be a "people's covenant," a "light to the
nations" (42:6). The restoration of Zion-Jerusalem will accomplish these tasks.
This interpretation may help explain a similar passage outside the servant songs
where, after a description of the restoration of Zion (51:3), similar descriptions
are used (51:4-5).
The hymn of triumph that follows the first servant song sets the mighty
aaivity of God in a geographic setting; the "coastlands (islands)," "the desert
and the cities," "the villages that Kedar does inhabit," and the "inhabitants of
Sela" (42:10-12) give praise to God. This would seem to be a further elaboration of the first servant song. Although the image of the deaf and blind mes
senger (42:18-19) could refer to Israel, it could also continue the reference to
Zion-Jerusalem. In a passage that foreshadows the fourth servant song, (42:24-
25), there is a distinction between the sin of Jacob-Israel and that which took
Israel's punishment: "Then he poured upon it his wrath in burning heat, and
in the strength of the fury of war; and this set it enveloped in flames, and it did
not come to be recognized; he set it on fire, and he did not lay it to heart"
(42:25). These words of destruction would most logically refer to a destroyed
city. Later on, the dual ministries of Cyrus and Zion-Jerusalem are put side by
side with Cyrus given permission to rebuild the city (44:28; 45:13). The
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center city. As Babylon falls, Zion-Jerusalem will be restored in the prophetic
message of Deutero-Isaiah.
The text from this point on ceases to mention either Babylon or Cyrus. The
next three servant songs are intermingled with a group of Zion songs dealing
with the role of Zion-Jerusalem. The relationship of the concluding servant
songs to this specific contextual theme cannot be overlooked in the study of the
songs themselves. The second servant song begins with an announcement to the
"coastlands (islands)" and the "nations afar off" (49:1), words that are similar
to the epilogue to the first song.17 Although Israel, in a disputed verse, is men
tioned as the servant within the song (49:3), the task of the servant is to con
tinue its justification of Yahweh to the nations along with an additional task of
ministering to Israel (49:5-6) . The use of "Israel" in the third verse is possiblyan early gloss brought about by the close relationship of Zion-Jerusalem in the
role of the servant to the nation Israel.18 Because of its restoration, Zion-
Jerusalem can be given the new task of restoring the tribes of Jacob and bring
ing back the "preserved of Israel" (49:6). Its role as a "light to the nations"
(49:6; cf. 42:1) should not be considered in the modern context of universalism
but as a description of the particular task of bringing back the dispersed Israelites
(cf. 42:6-7; 49:22-23; and the later addition 60:3-5, 11). Zion-Jerusalem,
"the abhorrence of the people" and "the servant of tyrants," shall be a "people's
covenant" (49:7-8; cf. 42:6). The renewal of Zion-Jerusalem will "raise up
the land," apportion again "desolate inheritances," and say to the prisoners,
"Come forth" (49:8-9a).
This proclamation contained in the second servant song not only leads to an
additional passage dealing with the exiles (49:9b-13) but also to another Zion
song (49:14-26). The restoration of Zion in the hymn (49:16-21) is parallel
to the earlier restoration of the "Servant of the Lord" (49:6), and the phrase
"a standard to peoples" (49:22) is similar in meaning to the phrase "light to the
nations" within the second servant song (49:6).The third servant song (50:4-9) continues, under the image of one given a
new role, the theme of the prefatory Zion song (50:1-3). It was because of
Israel's sins that the "mother" in the Zion song (Zion-Jerusalem) was put away
( 50:1 ). It is now, in the servant song, under the image of one given a disciple's
tongue, that Zion-Jerusalem can be interpreted as hearing the meaning of its
abandonment and its new assignment (50:4-5). Westermann has confused
the issue here with his use of the word "disciple" (limmüd) in the singular to
describe the "Servant of the Lord" and his remark that elsewhere in the OT
17For a review of the controversy over the term "nations" in Deutero-Isaiah, see D. E.
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WILSHIRE: THE SERVANT-CITY 365
"Ummud only designates the disciple of a human master or teacher (e.g., Isa
8:16)."19 The word is used in the third servant song only in the plural
(limmûdîm) and is not used directly to refer to the servant. The word limmüd
is used in its various forms only six times in the OT and only once more in
Deutero-Isaiah (54:13). The latter passage is found in a Zion song referring
to Zion-Jerusalem but it gives no indication of how its sons will be "the ones
taught by Yahweh." The role given to the servant in the third servant song is
not primarily one of speaking but one who bears up silently under unjust suf-
fering (50:5b-7a). It is Yahweh who will speak in the legal defense (50:8-9).
As a disciple or a student, the servant is respectful and does not answer back
to his teacher. In an epilogue to the song, the word of the servant is one of
comfort to others without hope (50:10). In the third servant song itself, theservant offers himself to his oppressors as a man may offer his back to the
smiters (50:6), a phrase used elsewhere for the destruction of a city (51:23).
The stress on the justification of God (50:7-9) is made more specific in the
nearby verses: "For Yahweh has comforted Zion, comforted all her ruins, and
turned her desert into Eden" (51:3). Although the description of the "Servant
of the Lord" in the third servant song is unique, looking forward to the fourth
servant song, there is nothing that would hinder the interpretation that God
has given this role to the cultic-center city y Zion-Jerusalem.
The series of Zion songs in chs. 51-52 sets the stage for the fourth and last
servant song. Jerusalem has seen "devastation, ruin, famine, and sword" (51:19).
In the midst of this affliction, however, God has come to its aid (52:7-8).
Because of the return of Yahweh, Zion-Jerusalem will rejoice (52:9-10). The
rejoicing of Zion-Jerusalem is picked up again after the fourth servant song
(54:1-17). This servant song, as with the others, must be interpreted in its
context. Zion-Jerusalem, in this interpretation, has seen humiliation and ruin,
has been "disfigured" and "despised" (52:14; 53:3). God will raise it up.
Nations and kings will be startled or astonished by its appearance (52:15).20
God will give it & "portion among the great, and with strong ones he will divide
the spoil" (53:12), terms that would easily be applied to a restored city and a
rebuilt nation. The term "appalled" (sâmëm) used in this passage (52:14a) is
also used in other passages with regard to physical destruction (Lev 26:32;
Ezek 26:16; 27:35; Jer 18:16; 19:8; 49:17; 50:13). In 1 Kgs 9:8 it expresses
the horror over divine judgment pronounced upon the temple.21 In Jer 19:8
it says of Zion-Jerusalem, "And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be
hissed at; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of
all its disasters."
Although the third servant song hints at the innocence of the "Servant of
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the Lord," it is now made explicit in this final song: "He has done no violence;
there was no deceit in his mouth" (53:9). The proclaimed innocence of a
cultic-center city can be found, as we have seen, in other corporate lamentations.
In the lamentations over Ur there are such statements as: "My city like an
innocent ewe has not been [ . . . ]ed; gone is the shepherd boy" (I Ur 265) .
Ό my city which exists no longer; my (city) attacked without cause" (I Ur
324-25).22
In Deutero-Isaiah, however, this innocent sufferer is made to be a
representative sufferer: "Truly, he has borne our diseases and our pain . . . ;
he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our transgressions . . . ; our 'peace-
chastisement' was laid upon him . . . ; for the rebellion of his people there was
a stroke upon him" (53:4-5, 8). The concept of a cultic place or object stand
ing as a representative of the people is found in other places in the post-exilic writings of the OT. The idea that the sanctuary or cult-center is defiled by the
sins of the people is found in the later Priestly code (Lev 15:31; 20:3; Num
19:13, 20). Although the Targum of Isaiah shifts the victorious images of the
"Servant of the Lord" to the Messiah, the bearing of sins is kept by the cult-
center: "But he [the Messiah] shall build the sanctuary that was polluted because
of our transgressions (and) given up because of our iniquities."23
The inter
pretation could be sustained that in its original context, the innocent, representa
tive sufferer in the fourth servant song is the cultic-center city of Zion-Jerusalem.
Zion-Jerusalem, in its destruction and fall, is made to bear the sins of the
people.
The argument in recent scholarly writing over vicarious suffering in the
fourth servant song has missed the point here.24
Although there is an isolated
couplet that speaks of the effect upon those represented — "our peace-chastise
ment was laid on him; and through his stripes we were healed" (53:5) —the
real effect is upon the sufferer and representative. The main argument of the
fourth servant song is not about what will happen to those represented but about
what will ultimately happen to the representative: "so shall he startle many nations . . . he shall, if he pays a guilt offering, see posterity, live long days, and
prosper the purpose of Yahweh" (52:15; 53:10).2 5
This could be interpreted
quite naturally of a restored Zion-Jerusalem, which is the theme of the Zion
song that follows the fourth servant song and the theme of the other concluding
passages of Deutero-Isaiah.
88 ANET (2ded.),460-61.
88See J. F. Stenning, The Targum of Isaiah (Oxford: Clarendon, 1949) 180. See also
W. H. Brownlee, "The Servant of the Lord in the Qumran Scrolls," BASOR 132 (1953)8-15.
24S Η M O li k "Th S ll d 'S f h L d' d 'S ff i S ' i
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WILSHIRE: THE SERVANT-CITY 367
Although the theme of Zion-Jerusalem as the despised and abandoned figure,
restored by God's power, was later taken up in a series of hymns in Trito-Isaiah
(chs. 60-62), the image of Zion-Jerusalem as the "Servant of the Lord," asuniquely set forth by Deutero-Isaiah, was not developed further. This lack of
further development can either be laid to the unintentional failure of Deutero-
Isaiah to make clear his visualization or possibly to the decline of Zion-Jerusalem
as a symbolic object of prophetic concern. The need to justify God's action
in the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. had faded into the background. With
regard to its restoration, postexilic Jerusalem was never a satisfactory realization
of its prophetic idealization, and the "New Jerusalem" of emerging apocalyptic
literature was couched in glory rather than in suffering. Interpreters sought the
"Servant of the Lord" image in concerns that still held further fulfillment. Manyyears later, the early Christian church began to use various parts of the image
to describe the ministry of Jesus Christ.
In sum, the "Servant of the Lord" in the servant songs of Deutero-Isaiah
refers to the cultic-center city of Zion-Jerusalem. Although female metaphors
are used of it outside these songs, there is nothing to hinder the use of the male
servant image for it within the songs. Zion-Jerusalem is closely identified with
the nation Israel. Because of this identification, the individualistic interpreta
tion and the corporate interpretation merge. There is little conflict betweenthem. There are parallels between the images used in the servant songs and
statements found in other literature uttering lamentations over the fall of a
cultic-center city. Moreover, there are close similarities between the descriptions
in the servant songs and specific references to Zion-Jerusalem outside the songs
in Deutero-Isaiah. Within the servant songs themselves, the tasks of proclaim
ing God's judgment (first song), of bringing the exiles home (second song), of
offering itself in silence to its oppressors (third song), and of bearing the sins
of the people (fourth song) are fulfilled in the destruction and restoration of
Zion-Jerusalem. This interpretation may lead to a fruitful re-opening of thequestion of the identity of the "Servant of the Lord" in Deutero-Isaiah and, as
is to be hoped, to a revival of theological interest in this metaphor by both
modern-day Judaism and Christianity.
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^ s
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