Isaiah 50:4-11 - Servant Song #3

YHWH's Prophetic Suffering Royal Servant
Isaiah 50:4-11

4 The Lord GOD has given me a trained tongue, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning, he wakens ... wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.

5 The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I did not turn backward. 6 I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.

7 The Lord GOD helps me; therefore, I have not been disgraced; therefore, I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. 8 He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand in court together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. 9 It is the Lord GOD who helps me; who will declare me guilty? All of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.

10 Who among you fears the LORD? And obeys the voice of his servant? Who walks in darkness? And has no light? Yet trusts in the name of the LORD and relies upon his God? 11 But all of you are kindlers of fire, lighters of firebrands. Walk in the flame of your fire and among the brands that you have kindled! This is what you shall have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment.

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DIVINE NAME UNUSUAL COMBINATION

The first thing to notice about the Third Servant Song is the way the prophet opens the song with an unusual construction of words around the name of God. The use of YHWH in four instances stands out.

Note the following: verse four (the opening of this poem), which is repeated in verse five, verse seven, and verse nine. In English translations, it looks like this: (v4), The Lord GOD has given me a trained tongue….” (Lord with a capital at the beginning, followed by All Caps GOD).

In Hebrew, it looks like this: <אֲדֹנָי יְהֹוִה >. It is Adonai YHWH. Adonai is the “ordinary” word for Lord. It can be used as a title for a human lord, or it can also be used for the divine (capitalized L when it’s used of the divine). See Psalm 130:1-2, where these two words are back to back in another context.

“Out of the depths I call to you, LORD. Lord, hear my prayer…”
“Out of the depths I call to you, YHWH. Adonai, hear my prayer ….”

Here, however, this Third Servant Song begins:

“The Lord GOD has given me a trained tongue ….”
“Adonai YHWH has given me a trained tongue….”

This construction in the Third Servant Song using — Adonai YHWH — is very unusual. It is not exclusive here, but it only occurs about 310 times in the entire Old Testament (exact numbers are difficult because there are just a few textual variants that affect this count). Adonai YHWH only occurs in the prophetic tradition. Most frequently in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel (by far the most frequent), and Amos, as well as fewer appearances in Obadiah, Zephaniah, Zechariah, and Malachi.

The divine name, YHWH, occurs almost slightly more than 6,800 times in the Old Testament. Almost always it is translated as LORD (the ALL CAPS type indicates the Divine Name and distinguishes it from the ordinary word for lord, Adonai < אֲדֹנָי > which is never translated in all caps but may or may not be capitalized [initial letter] depending upon usage). The ALL CAPS practice to notate the Divine Name is well established; it became “the accepted standard” that nearly every translation follows to this day, ever since the King James (1611). This translation practice began even earlier than the KJV. It began with the Tyndale Bible (1530), and was used in the Coverdale Bible (1535), Matthew Bible (1537), and Geneva Bible (1560). It’s been well established for almost 500 years! It gives English Bible readers a chance to see the use of the Divine Name in the original, which is an important interpretive clue in Old Testament studies. At the same time, it is unfortunate that what is actually a NAME (YHWH) is translated as a TITLE (LORD).

SIGNIFICANCE IF THE DIVINE NAME

Using YHWH is significant, and noting when the Biblical writers call God by his covenant name yields interpretive clarity. There is an interesting twist, however. Rabbinic Jews do not pronounce the Divine Name. Instead, when they see the Divine Name when reading aloud, they use a “replacement.” Most often, Adonai is said in place of Yahweh when reading YHWH < יהוה >. The rest of the words are pronounced as normal. Thus, the Shema —

‎ שׁמע ישׂראל יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחד׃

(Deuteronomy 6:4 — pasted above without vowels, and which was/is said multiple times daily) is said as follows (my own attempt to do English transliteration):

Shema Yish-ra-el Adonai Elo-he-nu Adonai Ech-ad.

Both instances of “Adonai,” in my transliteration/pronunciation above, are actually “replacements” for the word YHWH (Yahweh). The word YHWH < יהוה > is simply not voiced. “Adonai” (the word for ‘Lord’) is pronounced instead of saying out loud the Divine Name. Adonai is the most frequent replacement for YHWH, but there are some others. For instance, they may say "Ha-Shem," which means "The Name." In Psalm 136, for instance, the opening refrain is repeated three times exactly the same except for one change. In the first line, the Psalmist says, "O give thanks to YHWH, for he is good." In the second line, "O give thanks to the God of Gods...." In the third line, "O give thanks to the Lord of Lords..." where Adonai is used. Since the first and third line (v1,v3) are so close, the first line is pronounced as, "O give thanks to 'Ha-Shem'...." replacing YHWH with "The Name" instead of replacing it with Adonai twice in three verses.

No one knows exactly when Jews began replacing YHWH with Adonai and ceasing to pronounce YHWH when reading aloud. It is thought to have begun during exile (it may have begun earlier than this). The exile is when the scribal class rose up, the Masoretic Text (Hebrew text of the Tanakh or Old Testament) was systematized, the vowels (we call them vowel pointing), which were added to preserve the language, and the Tanakh (Old Testament) was put together as it came to be (save for post-exilic literature). The exile was a huge change for the religious practice of God's people, as the Temple was gone and the synagogue became the central feature of religious practice. The synagogue continued to be important even after the Second Temple was built.

The point of this little diversion into the replacement words for voicing the Divine Name was to make it clear that the opening line of the Third Servant Song would have definitely been noticed. It would have stood out. It would have caught the ear of the listener. Probably it was said as, "Adonai [The Lord] Ha-Shem ["The Name"] has given me a trained tongue...." As soon as that was said out loud, the listener would have noticed and listened more attentively.

Because of the unusual construction of Isaiah 50:4 (repeated in verses 5, 7, and 9 of this Song), the translators of the English Bible translated Adonai as Lord (with only the initial L capitalized) and then followed the all caps convention for GOD when translating the Divine Name (YHWH). As stated above, there are only 310 instances of this use; all of them in the prophetic writings. It's almost as if the English translators didn't know what to do with this unusual construction, but they did translate it consistently into English as "The Lord GOD" (using all caps on GOD for YHWH).

By way of contrast, the translators did not follow this convention in Psalm 130; another instance of YHWH and Adonai written contiguously, though there are clear differences. One, Adonai is second in the Psalm instead of preceding YHWH as it does in Isaiah 50:4. In addition, in the Psalm Adonai is in the next sentence; it is the next word, but it is the beginning of a next logical thought.

MEANING BEHIND ‘ADONAI YHWH’

This question to ask about is about the intended meaning of this unusual construction. Why does this song begin and repeat “The Lord GOD .…” (“Adonai YHWH .…”)?

Isaiah uses this structure only here in the Servant Songs (Isaiah uses the same structure approximately 11 other times outside of the Servant Songs). When we come to the Fourth (and most quoted) Servant Song this use of Adonai YHWH is no longer used.

At the very least, the prophet has caught the attention of the hearer of the prophecy (something easily lost upon us from a different culture: reading instead of hearing, reading a translation instead of the original language, and reading a translation that allows us to not necessarily notice the double way the word “lord” is used. All of this is in addition to the large time and cultural separation between us and that of the exiles.

SUFFERING

Prophets spoke in ways that gained the attention of the hearers. The use of Adonai YHWH was likely a way to turn the volume up further. As the prophet gains the attention of the listener to his prophecy, he introduces the Suffering Servant.

This Third Servant Song — especially the ending — seems very dark. Verse 11: “ But all of you are kindlers of fire, lighters of firebrands. Walk in the flame of your fire and among the brands that you have kindled! This is what you shall have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment.”

The contrast to the other three songs and the opening of this section of Isaiah (chapter 40) is great. This song, however, is about the suffering of the servant. One might expect the dark theme.

INTERPRETATION -- COMPARISON TO GOSPEL ACCOUNTS

This poem is striking if one reads it alongside the Gospel accounts of the humiliation of Jesus. If I were teaching this to a small group, I would divide them up into four groups (one for each Gospel), and I would have each group read this song again in their small group and then read their assigned Gospel's account of Jesus' suffering and record how it's similar/different (perhaps a Venn Diagram) to the Suffering Servant of the Third Song. I expect a sharing time of all the groups coming together would be a powerful learning experience.

Here I will list the accounts by Gospel writing, and a list of summaries/comparisons leading up to the crucifixion itself. One could add the crucifixion accounts also, but I chose to stop here just before then.

IN THE GARDEN AND BEFFORE HIGH PRIESTS -- Matthew 26:36-74 // Mark 14:32-72 // Luke 22:39-71 // John 18:1-40

They were looking for false testimony against him to put him to death, and it's recorded that they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. Here we have the council spitting on him, striking him with fists, slapping him, and insulting him. Guards beat him, blindfold him, and then they mock him to "prophesy" saying who hit him. An official slaps him during questioning due to his response to a question taken as insolent. To one response that he gave, they tore their clothes and claimed blasphemy.

BEFORE PILATE -- Matthew 27:1-2, 11-30 .... Mark 15:1-20 .... Luke 23:1-25 .... John 18:28-40

Soldiers ridicule him by dressing him in an elegant robe and mocking him. Luke includes a detail about him also facing Herod, but before Herod, he was silent, though it records that Herod had wanted to see him. Before Herod, the chief priests and scribes accused him (while he was silent). Herod's soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him, and put an elegant robe on him, but he was sent back to Pilate.

Despite finding no guilt, Pilate yielded to the crowd that demanded crucifixion (over Barabbas' release). Pilate washes his hands (only in the Matthew account). Jesus is flogged (Matthew/Mark) and/or punished (Luke).

He is stripped, dressed in a scarlet/purple robe, a crown of thorns put on his head, and a staff in his hand, while they mockingly bow to him as "king of the Jews." Again, spitting and striking him repeatedly on the head with the staff.

Before Pilate, there is a dialogue about his kingship, but John gives no details about a Sanhedrin trial. John adds the detail that they said mockingly, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and slapped him repeatedly. After these beatings, Pilate presents him to the crowd, but crucifixion is demanded, and Pilate yields to the demands, though he protests the unjustness.

CONCLUSION

In this Third Servant Song, one can still see the exiles in the years after 586 BCE interpreting Isaiah's words as applying to themselves. In the fuller picture, however, this is where a Jewish interpretation of the nation of Israel as the fulfillment begins to be ill-fitting. It applies to the Nation of Israel in exile, but there is something uncomfortable about the way this fits. Is there more? One longs for a fuller/deeper way to understand the meaning of this passage about the Suffering Servant. And one must look beyond the initial interpretation of Israel the Nation. Israel is the fulfillment of this passage -- and yet this passage screams for more. Only in looking beyond does one see Jesus the Messiah, who is the ultimate fulfillment of Israel the Nation. In seeing exiles and the nation, and then looking beyond .... there stands The Suffering Servant in Messiah Jesus. Now, in Jesus, the Song -- though terribly dark -- makes sense, as we find ourselves at the foot of the cross.

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All Related Posts:
Servant Songs Intro/Background - https://listed.to/@Qoheleth/67223/isaiah-servant-songs-intro

Isaiah 42:1-4 -- Introducing YHWH's Royal Servant - https://listed.to/@Qoheleth/67224/isaiah-42-1-4-servant-song-1
Isaiah 49:1-6 -- The Prophetic Royal Servant - https://listed.to/@Qoheleth/67225/isaiah-49-1-6-servant-song-2
Isaiah 50:4-11 -- The Suffering Prophetic Royal Servant - https://listed.to/@Qoheleth/67226/isaiah-50-4-11-servant-song-3
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 -- The Suffering Prophetic Royal Servant is Redemptive (our redemption) - https://listed.to/@Qoheleth/67227/isaiah-52-13-53-12-servant-song-4