The Significance of the Rhetorical Ambiguity in Isaiah 54:16

Abstract

The ambiguity in Isa 54:16a concerning the identity of the subject (YHWH or the smith) of the two verbs relating a metallurgical action (to blow and to cast) is identified here as a rhetorical device intending to conceal the essential relation of YHWH with metallurgy. Integrated in the whole Isa 54 chapter, this device becomes a plea for the definitive replacement of Edom with Israel as YHWH’S people, exactly as in Isa 34-35 and Isa 61-63.

Keywords

• primeval Yahwism
• kbd-YHWH
• copper metallurgy
• anti-Edomite ideology
• book of Isaiah