PAUL AND THE RHETORIC OF REVERSAL: KERYGMATIC ...

condemnation, while the righteous sufferer, being dependent on the Lord, looks forward to
vindication, sometimes from the grip of death itself.
The Condemned Boaster and the Vindicated Sufferer: Literary Figures
Deutero-Isaiah
In my reading of Isaiah, the servant is the one who represents Israel in opening the eyes of
the blind, yet becomes rejected, eventually being vindicated by God in the sight of his
enemies.
The servant is introduced in Isaiah 42:1-9 as the one in relation to whom Yhwh’s
prophetic ability is especially displayed. In contrast to the noisy (41:1: םיִיּ֔ א ִ י֙ ַלא ֵ וּשׁיר֤ ִחֲ
ה) ַ
caretakers of blind idols (41:22), the servant of Yhwh is seen as the calm (42:2) locus of
divine illumination (42:6-7). The mention of calling and taking the hand in these verses
can reasonably be said to conjure the image of installation; but importantly reminds the
reader strongly of 41:8-10, in which Israel was pictured as ידִּ֔ ְב ַע, called and upheld by God
himself. Given this obvious connection, there is no reason to understand the identity of
the servant in 42:1-9 as anything other than Israel. Thus, in the face of the blindness and
silence and inability of the idols/nations, who can do nothing but “wait” (וּליחַיְי, ֽ ֵ 42:4) for
the Torah, the servant Israel embodies and displays the illumination of the only living
God. The servant is a “covenant for the people and a light for the nations”, in the sense
arguably envisaged in Exodus 19:5-6, where the Israelite covenant bears witness to the
nations that the God of the whole earth is committed to Israel. 15
However, for the hearer already steeped in the tradition of Isaiah, this raises the
uncomfortable recollection that Israel itself has been pictured as being just as blind and
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It is in a parallel, but more obviously positive, sense that, in Genesis 12, Abraham is
promised to be a blessing (הכֽ ָ רָ ְבּ), in whom the nations themselves will be blessed.
Similarly, Servant Israel is a covenant to be witnessed by the nations.
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