Isa 55:1-5
From Feast upon the Word (http://feastupontheword.org). Copyright, Feast upon the Word.
The Old Testament > Isaiah > Chapter 55
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[edit] Questions
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[edit] Lexical notes
[edit] Verse 1
- "Buy." Webster's 1828 dictionary defines the word "buy" as follows "buy - verb intransitive - To negotiate, or treat about a purchase."
- NET note on oxymoron. The NET suggests that this statement is oxymoronic for rhetorical impact, meaning something like “Come and take freely what you normally have to pay for.”
- Cross-references. The term keceph ("money") is also used in 2nd Isaiah in the following passages:
Isa 40:19; Isa 43:24; Isa 46:6 Isa 48:10; Isa 52:3; [[Isa 55:2]. A related idea of being sold (opposite "buy" in these verses) is expressed in Isa 50:1, where God asks to whom did God sell Israel (which is more directly related to Isa 52:3, "Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money"). In another contrasting passage, Deut 2:6, Israel is commanded to buy meat and water "for money" from "the children of Esau" near mount Seir. In the Book of Mormon, the phrase "without money" is used in four different passages. In 2 Ne 9:50, Jacob gives the most complete quotation of this passage (verses 1 and 2, with some insertions), after quoting 2nd Isaiah. In 2 Ne 26:25, Nephi quotes part of verse 1. In Alma 1:20, only the phrase "without money and without price is quoted" though it's also related to God's there (as it is here in verse 3). In 3 Ne 20:38, Jesus uses the phrase "without money," but he is quoting Isa 52:3 (see this blog post by Joe Spencer for more regarding Jesus' use of Isa 52 in that speech; see also this blog post by Kirk C. for related discussion of God selling Israel in other Old Testament passages).
[edit] Exegesis
[edit] On this chapter as a whole
Scholars generally lump this chapter in with the fifteen previous as "Second Isaiah," a sixteen-chapter single prophecy connected in some way with the Day of Atonement (some have even suggested that this was a text used in some Day of Atonement celebrations). Chapter 55 would be, on such a model, the conclusion to the poetic/ritual text. Its place, as such, is quite interesting: after the announcement of chapter 52, the atonement experience of chapter 53, and the resultant marriage of chapter 54, there are some final words of exhortation offered to those listening.
The role this chapter plays in the Book of Mormon is quite interesting. The Book of Mormon relies on the poetic text of "Second Isaiah" in a rather fascinating manner. It is quoted in order, from Isaiah 48 through Isaiah 54, though the quotations are spread out over the course of the Book of Mormon (48-49 are in 1 Nephi 20-21; 50-51 are in 2 Nephi 7-8; 52-53 are in Mosiah 13-14; and 54 is in 3 Nephi 22). The excerpt of the poetic text ends with chapter 54 of Isaiah, and chapter 55 is not quoted at any length. That is, the invitation that so profoundly marks the conclusion of the poem is not taken up into the Isaianic substructure of the Book of Mormon. But it might be noticed that the first two verses of this chapter do show up in the Book of Mormon, but out of place in the Isaianic substructure: they appear at the conclusion of 2 Nephi 9. Jacob, closing up his discourse (at the temple?) concerning atonement (on the Day of Atonement?), quotes these first two verses as a final invitation after everything that had been said.
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