The oracles against the nations

The oracles against the nations occupy chapters 13 to 23 of the book of Isaiah. They are a series of proclamations in which the judgment of God passes the powers of the world in review: Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Ethiopia, Egypt, Arabia, Edom, Tyre, and even Jerusalem itself. Each opens with the Hebrew word rendered “oracle,” massa (מַשָּׂא), which means the load, the burden: the word the prophet lifts and lays upon a nation. “Oracle concerning Babylon, revealed to Isaiah, son of Amoz.” Isaiah 13:1 Chapters 24 to 27 crown the whole with a vision of the judgment of all the earth, which ends, against all expectation, in a feast and in victory over death.

The God of all the earth

These oracles rest on one affirmation: the Holy One of Israel is the master of all the nations, and his purpose embraces the whole earth. “The Lord of hosts has sworn it: yes, the purpose that is fixed will be accomplished, and what I have decided will come to pass.” Isaiah 14:24 Empires rise and fall under his hand, and none can stay his arm. “This is the purpose fixed against the whole earth, and this is the hand stretched out against all the nations. The Lord of hosts has decided: who would prevent it?” Isaiah 14:26-27 What the judgment aims at, from one oracle to the next, is always the same evil: the pride of the powerful. “I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and I will lay low the pride of tyrants.” Isaiah 13:11 The sentence pronounced against Tyre, the rich merchant city, says it for all: “It is the Lord of hosts who has decided it, to tarnish the pride of all that glitters, to humble all the great of the earth.” Isaiah 23:9

Babylon: the fallen star

The first oracle, the longest, aims at Babylon, and culminates in a song on the fall of its king. “How are you fallen from heaven, shining star, son of the dawn? How are you cast down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations?” Isaiah 14:12 The oracle lends the king the very ambition that ruins him: “You said in your heart: I will ascend into the heavens, above the stars of God I will raise my throne, I will be like the Most High. And here you are, brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the abyss.” Isaiah 14:13-15 The Latin version of the Bible rendered “shining star” by lucifer, “light-bearer,” and tradition recognized, behind the king of Babylon, the pattern of every fall of pride, even that of Satan, of whom Christ says: “I watched Satan falling from heaven like lightning.” Luke 10:18 To wish to make oneself equal to God is the slope of every power, and all fall by it.

Moab: the judgment that weeps

The oracle on Moab bears a unique note: the prophet weeps over the nation he condemns. “My heart groans over Moab.” Isaiah 15:5 And further on: “My inmost being, over Moab, trembles like a harp.” Isaiah 16:11 The judgment of God passes through a mouth that weeps: it is not the hatred of peoples, and the one who announces it bears the sorrow of those he warns. At the heart of this oracle a light even opens: to the fugitives of Moab who seek refuge in Zion, the word shows a throne of another nature than those that collapse. “The throne is established by mercy, and upon this throne will sit, in truth, in the tent of David, a judge pursuing right and zealous for justice.” Isaiah 16:5 While the thrones of the nations fall through pride, one throne stands by mercy: the one the Church recognizes in the son of David.

Egypt: struck and healed

The oracle on Egypt begins like the others and ends like none. There the judgment becomes a remedy: “The Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing; they will turn to the Lord, and he will let himself be moved by them and will heal them.” Isaiah 19:22 The prophet sees an altar raised to the Lord in the very land of Egypt, then he pronounces what surpasses all expectation: the titles of Israel given to its two oppressors. “Blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, my inheritance!” Isaiah 19:24-25 Egypt of the slavery called “my people,” Assyria of the yoke called “the work of my hands”: the judgment of the nations has their salvation for its end, and the Church, gathered from all peoples, is in germ in this blessing.

Jerusalem among the nations

In the midst of the nations judged, one oracle aims at Jerusalem itself. “Oracle on the Valley of vision.” Isaiah 22:1 The city of God is passed in review like Babylon and Tyre: election does not exempt from judgment, it heightens its demand. In this same chapter, the oracle narrows to one man: Shebna, the prefect of the palace, who was proudly carving himself a tomb in the rock, on the heights. God deposes him and calls in his place his servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah. The charge handed on is that of master of the palace: the one who holds its key decides who comes before the king. “I will set upon his shoulder the key of the house of David: he will open, and none will shut; he will shut, and none will open.” Isaiah 22:22 Revelation takes up this word for Christ, “the holy one, the True one, who has the key of David, who opens and none shuts” Revelation 3:7, and it is on it that the power of the keys is modelled which Christ entrusts to Peter: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 16:19 The steward of the house of David announces the steward of the house of God.

The feast on the mountain

Chapters 24 to 27 widen the judgment to the dimensions of the world: “Behold, the Lord will lay waste the whole earth and depopulate it.” Isaiah 24:1 But this great vision does not end on ruins. On the very mountain of judgment, God sets a table for all the peoples he has just judged: “The Lord of hosts will prepare, for all peoples, on this mountain, a feast of rich food, a feast of clarified wines.” Isaiah 25:6 There he destroys death for ever and wipes the tears from every face. And the vision ends on one of the first announcements of the resurrection in all of Scripture: “Your dead will live, my corpses will rise. Awake and sing, you who lie in the dust, for your dew, Lord, is a dew of light, and the earth will give back the departed to the day.” Isaiah 26:19

This vision looks to the end of time, and the last page of Scripture takes it up almost word for word: “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more.” Revelation 21:4 The feast of the mountain becomes the feast of heaven: “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb!” Revelation 19:9

The oracles have passed all the nations in review, and the whole holds two horizons at once. The judgments were accomplished in time: Babylon fell, Tyre was humbled, the empires passed away. But the feast, death destroyed and the dead restored to life look further: the fall of the empires is their pledge in history, and the end of time will be their accomplishment.