Isaiah

by A. Cohen (Translator), A.J. Rabbi, ed.

English, Hebrew

350 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1990

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sought to continue Robert Alter's translations of select books of the Hebrew Bible (previous selected books are reviewed earlier on this Goodreads list), but the next selected book, the Book of Isaiah, proved extremely difficult to acquire. After some effort I did find this other Jewish (non-Christian) and scholarly translation that dates to 1949. The text is both Hebrew and English, and the pages are leafed from right-to-left. The commentary is illuminating, and the text itself beautifully poetic, even if also repetitive, narratively disjointed, and surprisingly bloody. Isaiah's oracles prophecy the destruction of Israel, of Jerusalem, of the adversary kingdoms of Egypt and Babylonia, of sinners, and of unbelievers, and they prophecy repeatedly. These dire oracles are interspersed with more positive descriptions of a future redemption, where God shows His compassion and love for His people. Notably this love doesn't really extend to any other people, at least not consistently. Indeed, other peoples (Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians) are viewed as tools of the Hebrew God to execute His will. Another surprise for this naive reader is that the God is unambiguously masculine and patriarchal, with His people Israel consistently described as a sort of metaphorical bride. A third surprise is that the concerns of the prophet Isaiah are entirely collective. Sinning souls are not promised a lifetime in pain. Instead, too many sinners condemns the community to assault or conquest, destruction or exile, by one or another of those above-mentioned executors of divine will. Good behavior is conversely rewarded by renewal and repopulation of Jerusalem. There is a direct link between morality and politics, a link that exists, though in a rather different form, in the contemporaneous Confucian texts (earlier on this Goodreads list). Overall, getting a hold of this Jewish non-Christian translation was difficult, it was worth the effort.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great up-t0-date information relevant to the times we live in today.