An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 139: I’m Naked as a Metaphor, Officer (Isaiah 16-20)

Isaiah 16-20
I’m Naked as a Metaphor, Officer.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Isaiah 16

“For it shall be, that, as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon.”

Having cast destruction upon Moab in the previous chapter, there now seems to be some mercy. Moab isn’t destroyed completely, even though “the fields of Heshbon languish” and no wine is produced (“the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses”). This is punishment for pride, but once Moab has been humbled (made a “washpot” as in previous chapters) the remnants seem to join with the remnants of the Israelites – in the earlier verses in this chapter Moab is called upon to protect the outcasts (“be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler”) but later on the text seems to imply servitude (“Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned”), although whether to the Israelites or to the Babylonians is unclear, or even if this isn’t just a fanciful way of saying “three years”.

Isaiah 17

“The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.”

Having had a go at the Moabites, now Isaiah turns to the Syrians and prophesies the downfall of their cities and fortresses. Poor harvest seems to be the root cause of this, with a few grapes on each vine likened to the remnant of the people that will be left (and here I get a bit confused with my geo-politics because Isaiah also seems to be talking of the “glory of Jacob”, i.e. Israelites, and I can’t recall if Damascus was a colony of theirs or not, so can’t tell if Isaiah is talking of punishment to an enemy kingdom or to apostates (“Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation”). It kind of seems like both, first Damascus and then as a warning to back-sliding worshippers of Yahweh.

Isaiah 18

“All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.”

This is a short chapter, and a pretty vague one that talks in couched terms of a people that were once terrible and are now downtrodden. This people will be gathered again by God on Mount Zion, so I must assume that Isaiah is talking of the Israelites once more. Verse 5 gives a good agricultural metaphor for a nation struck down just before their prime, like a harvest of grapes before they are ripe and left as nesting material for birds.

Isaiah 19

“The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.”

Isaiah turns his attention to the fate of Egypt, which will involve civil war and drought, and the rule of a tyrant until the Egyptians become worshippers of God (possibly following conquest by Judah, although this is unclear – “And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt”). The chapter ends with a highway that runs from Egypt to Assyria, via Israel, with all three nations equal partners. It seems strange for Egypt and Assyria to be seen as blessed by God, but as with the Moabites the intent seems to be a punishment followed by salvation – Isaiah writes here of a saviour being sent by God for the people of Egypt, although there’s nothing here to indicate if this is or is not the same one as previously mentioned.

What’s most interesting in this chapter is the insight into daily Egyptian life that it gives, in more detail than other nations mentioned so far which makes it seem as if the writer is quite well acquainted with Egypt. Paper reeds, and flax farming and fishermen all get a mention, as do fish weirs and some other water plants.

Isaiah 20

“At the same time spake the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.”

A very short chapter, in which Isaiah walks around naked for three years as a metaphor for the Egyptians and Ethiopians being taken captive by the Assyrians (as naked slaves). I think if you walked around naked today and told people it was because God told you to do it as a message, you probably wouldn’t get much shrift. I wonder at the reference to the people of “this isle” at the end, when we are talking about desert nations. Other translations have “coastland” or variants of, so I guess it means the lands along the southern coast of the Red Sea. I also checked on the reference to “Ethiopia” to see if it tallied with modern Ethiopia, and it could, but it seems to generally refer to the “land of sunburned faces” and could be the area of Sudan as well. Modern Ethiopia doesn’t have a coastline along that stretch anyway.

But anyway, the gist of this is that the reach of the Assyrian empire for slaves is quite large.