Talk:Isa 22:1-25

Isa 22:20-25: The question

I have some detailed thoughts on how this chapter ought to be interpreted. It would be a great deal of fun to delve into it. I don't have time to do anything on it today (I think... maybe later today), but I will get back to it. --Joe Spencer 14:11, 20 Oct 2006 (UTC)

Fascinating interpreation Joe. Although I like your interpretation, I can think of two criticisms scholars would likely make: (1) If your reading is correct, why isn't the same Hebrew word for "aul" used in Exodus? (2) Is there any evidence that the rite in Exodus involved actually driving the aul into the doorpost? This seems important in verse 25 here (the nail falling, though I understand that Isaiah may just be playing with the image—or perhaps it is just implied b/c there should be something on the otherside to catch the aul during the piercing and the doorpost would probably do nicely...). The WBC says that the rite was done in a doorpost so that it was witnessed by others in public.

In the several books I looked this up in (WBC, AB, Wildeberger, Young), they all take this as a tent peg/stake metaphor ("I will fasten him firmly in place like a peg" in the Anchor Bible written by Joseph Blenkinsopp). The idea is that it was probably common to make sure the pegs were firm/secure when putting up a tent. Interestingly, Wildeberger notes that in verse 25 there is a different connotation in (horizontal so that the nail will fall, not vertical like a tent stake in the ground). I think this does seem to pose a problem for the tent stake interpretation, though I'm not sure if the Hebrew word translated "fall" can have looser meaning like "give way" or something. --RobertC 22:16, 20 Oct 2006 (UTC)

Don't know enough about all this to really comment, but this gives me plenty to think about while I take a stab at editing! --Rob Fergus 22:36, 20 Oct 2006 (UTC)

Regarding the two points you raise, Robert:

First, you're right to point out the difficulty in terminology. There may be a number of different reasons for the switch. It may be that Isaiah is trying to broaden the meaning by including the language of tenting/traveling (so that this connects up with other scriptures on "pulling up the tent pegs" or "strengthening the stakes," etc.). It may be that over time, the ritual changed somewhat: more was focused on the sure-placedness of the nailing, rather than on the hole produced by the aul. It may be even that Isaiah is the more original text (I don't think this is very likely: even the documentary hypothesists believe the Exodus text to be relatively early in the formation of the Pentateuch. In the end, I don't think the alternation of words amounts to much.

Second, an aul is always used against some sort of wooden brace, a block of wood or a cork at the very least. Certainly, the aul goes through the ear and into something: is it the doorpost? I suppose there is no specific evidence for that in the Exodus text. The phrase that suggests it to me is the "sure place": if Isaiah is referring to this rite, then the wood used to receive the nail/aul seems to be something surer than a cork or something like that. This alone seems, I think, to suggest that the doorpost is somehow involved.

On the vertical interpretation, see Ezek 15. I don't think the passage can be understood any other way, in light of verses 24 and 25 here. The "horizontal" language of tent pegs can only be, I think, a broadening of the vertical meaning, not a cancellation of it. --Joe Spencer 13:25, 21 Oct 2006 (UTC)