The Woes of Isaiah

After the oracles against the nations, the book of Isaiah gathers a series of oracles turned this time toward Judah and Jerusalem, in chapters 28 to 33. Each one, or almost, opens with the same cry: “Woe!” This word, which renders the Hebrew hoï (הוֹי), is first the sorrowful lament the prophet utters over a people rushing to its ruin, more than a mere threat. Six times this cry resounds, and each time it denounces a false security in which Judah places its trust instead of God: the drunkenness of pride, worship without the heart, hidden schemes, the alliance with Egypt. The context is the advance of Assyria, and Judah’s temptation to save itself by a political alliance rather than by faith. But between the woes, promises break forth, announcing the true salvation and the King to come.

Ephraim: the faded crown

The first woe aims at Ephraim, that is, the northern kingdom, whose capital Samaria crowns a hill above a fertile valley. The prophet Isaiah compares it to a crown of flowers on the head of drunken men: “Woe to the proud diadem of the drunkards of Ephraim, to the fading flower that makes the splendour of their adornment.” Isaiah 28:1 Drunkenness here is more than wine: it is the blindness of a people intoxicated by its own prosperity, even to the priests and prophets who stagger in their visions. This glory is a flower that withers, and judgment comes to mow it down.

To this fragile diadem, God opposes a foundation that holds. In place of a crown set on wavering heads, he lays a stone, sure and precious, on which one can build without fear: “Behold, I have laid for a foundation in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a cornerstone, of great price, firmly set: whoever leans on it with faith will not flee.” Isaiah 28:16 This cornerstone, the one that holds the angle of a building and bears all the rest, is one of the great messianic promises of Isaiah. The New Testament recognizes in it Christ, foundation of the Church, on whom rests the one who believes: “Behold, I lay in Zion a cornerstone, chosen, precious, and the one who puts his trust in it will not be confounded.” 1 Peter 2:6 To the false assurance that collapses, God substitutes the only one that endures.

Ariel: the besieged city

The second woe addresses Jerusalem, under a mysterious name: Ariel. “Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, to the city where David pitched his tent.” Isaiah 29:1 The word bears a double meaning, and the prophet plays on both. Ariel signifies the lion of God, the city strong and proud as a lion; but it also designates the hearth of the altar, the brazier where the sacrifices are burned. Jerusalem, proud as a lion, will become a brazier: God himself will besiege it, lower it until its voice rises from the dust like a murmur.

Then, at the height of anguish, the reversal. The throng of nations come against Zion suddenly vanishes like a dream upon waking: “As one who is hungry dreams that he eats, and, on waking, his soul is empty, so will it be with the multitude of nations that march against the mountain of Zion.” Isaiah 29:8 The judgment that strikes the city becomes the occasion of a deliverance that comes not from it, but from God alone. At the heart of this chapter is the true reproach, which Christ will take up word for word against religious hypocrisy: “This people draws near in words and honours me with its lips, while it holds its heart far from me.” Isaiah 29:13 The evil of Jerusalem is a worship reduced to gestures, emptied of the heart. And so the promise announces a healing of the closed senses, an image of the opening to come: “In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the blind will see.” Isaiah 29:18 These are the very signs that Christ will accomplish.

The alliance with Egypt

Three woes aim together at one same fault: to resist Assyria, Judah seeks the help of Egypt instead of leaning on God. The prophet Isaiah sees in it a rebellion, plans formed without God: “Woe to the rebellious children, who make plans, but without me; who contract pacts, but without my spirit.” Isaiah 30:1 To go down to Egypt to seek horses and chariots is to put one’s faith in the force of arms rather than in the Holy One of Israel: “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who lean on horses, but do not look toward the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 31:1 And the prophet Isaiah then opposes the flesh to the spirit: “The Egyptian is a man, and not a God; his horses are flesh, and not spirit.” Isaiah 31:3 To lean on Egypt is to lean on what passes away.

To this agitation, God opposes the way of salvation, which holds in few words: to turn toward him and rest in trust. “By conversion and a peaceful waiting you would be saved; in repose and trust would be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15 Salvation is found in the return toward God and the abandon to his keeping, rather than in the race for alliances. And to the one who consents to let himself be led, a voice makes itself heard, that of a master who walks behind his disciple to guide him: “Your ears will hear behind you the voice that says: This is the way, follow it.” Isaiah 30:21

The King of justice

The woes are not the last word. They end on the vision of a new reign, by which God answers all the false securities denounced. In place of the drunken chiefs and the kings who scheme, a just king rises: “Behold, a king will reign according to justice, and the princes will govern with uprightness.” Isaiah 32:1 This reign will be the work of the Spirit of God, poured out from on high to transform the world like a desert that becomes a garden: “Until a spirit from on high is poured out upon us, and the desert becomes an orchard.” Isaiah 32:15 And this reign will bear its most longed-for fruit, which is peace: “The produce of justice will be peace, and the fruit of justice repose and security forever.” Isaiah 32:17

At the end, the prophet Isaiah lifts his eyes toward this King, whose beauty will reward those who will have held firm in faith: “Your eyes will contemplate the king in his beauty; they will see a land open afar.” Isaiah 33:17 And he names at last the one in whom all salvation resides, the only support Judah sought afar while it had him in its midst: “The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us.” Isaiah 33:22 Thus the woes find their answer: the security Judah sought in drunkenness, in rites, or in Egypt, God gives in himself, and he will give it fully in Christ, the King of justice and the cornerstone.