See how you stack up against the Cougars and Utes – take the 1 Minute Isaiah Challenge
What is Chiasmus Anyway?
Chiasmus is a literary style in which words or concepts are repeated to the reader or hearer, then presented again in reverse order, in order to make a larger point. “The chiasm of scriptural poetry is like the refreshing reflection of the mountain in the lake. The reflection and the mountain converge at the base. The summit of the mountain and the summit of the reflection are parallel ideas. The lake is never perfectly still, so the real image and the reflected image are always a little different; but on a still day, we have difficulty telling which image is which. The dual view offers depth.”1
Ann Madsen explains that Isaiah and other Hebrew scholars used a poetic form known as parallelism where two lines resemble each other. “Parallelism compares a keyword or idea in a first line that repeats in the second line, ” writes Roger G Baker, a retired English professor, who states: “At least a third of the Old Testament comes to us in poetic form, and the other standard works are sprinkled with poetry as lavishly as mountain flowers on a green meadow.”
“Sometimes.” he continues, “the idea repeats over several lines. Learning to read in two-line sequences is a great help in understanding Isaiah’s writings. …After getting used to some of the principles of parallel lines, we can easily notice a common and elegant pattern in scriptural poetry: chiasmus The form is named for the Greek letter chi (ttt), which originally represented the back-and-forth motion of plowing a field. Like parallelism, it is intimately related to the way we see.”2
Madsen used an example to help us understand parallelism from Isaiah 1:3
The ox knoweth his owner,
and the ass his master’s crib
She said to notice “how the ox and ass are both domesticated animals. They match,” she says. Then she points out, “how the master and the owner’s crib match, as well.” However, she explains these are “only metaphors to explain a second parallel:
Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.
This is what Isaiah’s really getting at when he gives us that first metaphor. These dumb animals really understand who their master is, they know who feeds them, but Israel does not. Israel does not know where they should go to be nurtured.”
Isaiah introduces this form of Hebrew poetic parallelism in his chapter 3. That example, however, is a bit complicated, so using Isaiah 6:1, David Ridges explains chiasmus this way, “the author says certain things and then intentionally repeats them in reverse order for emphasis.” 3 Ridges explains how chiasmus can be outlined something like this example from Isaiah 6:10:
|
A heart B ears C eyes C’ eyes B’ ears A’ heart |
10 Make the heart A of this people fat, and make their ears B heavy, and shut their eyes C; lest they see with their eyes C’, and hear with their ears B‘, and understand with their heart A’… |
“…Often, but not necessarily always, the pivot point or midpoint of the chiasmus is the main message.” 4 In the example, the main message is found in their blindness.
“Chiasmus, like parallelism, appears in all scripture. This form holds in translation and should not be thought of as just a biblical form. It is scriptural. It is found in all the standard works, as noted by John W. Welch, editor of Chiasmus in Antiquity.
” …Though parallelism is its basic form, the poetry is not only in the parallels. The poetry is in the symbols—in the shepherd, the bread, the water. The poetry is in the meanings, the implications of psalm and parable. Most of all, the poetry is in the feelings, ultimately the spiritual feelings scriptural poetry evokes. The poetry makes us experience, makes us remember, or makes us feel. At the heart of those feelings we experience what we need most—comfort, divine comfort:
Comfort ye,
comfort ye my people. (Isaiah 40:1)4
Feature image: Afternoon Reflection, by John Fowler from Placitas, NM, USA
1 Roger G. Baker, “Teaching the Poetry of Latter-day Saint Scripture,” Religious Educator 3, no. 2 (2002): 201–214.
2 Baker, ibid.
3 Ridges, David J.. The Old Testament Made Easier Part 3
4 Baker, ibid
David Ridges – Aha Isaiah Moment
Kelsey Wilding: So, in your classes, what was ‘aha’ moments for students?
David Ridges: There were many of them which made it very, very pleasing. One of them was one that most members of the Church are very familiar with, and that was the Isaiah, Chapter 1, verse 18, where it’s, ‘Come now, let us reason together, though your sins be scarlet.’ Scarlet was a color fast dye, one of the very few color fast dyes in Isaiah’s world. Do you know what color fast is? It’s something that when you dye, say a towel, for instance, you dye it, and it’s green, and then you throw it in the laundry. If it’s color fast, it won’t bleed the dye into other clothes. By the way, I found that out, what color fast is myself, on my mission in Austria. I was saving money, really scrimping in fact and I needed a new towel, and I bought a very cheap green towel. And to save money, I’d been throwing all my clothes into the same batch, meaning my white stuff, shirts, garments and so forth, and everything else. And so, I threw that green towel in, that new green towel, and I found out that it was not color fast, and it bled into my whites. And so, I was a ‘greenie’ for many, many, many months, so to speak. That’s what color fast is. It does not bleed, and so when Isaiah says, ‘for the Lord, come now let us reason together, though your sins be a scarlet, they shall be white as snow.’ One of the ‘aha’ moments in class was when I explained what color fast is, and then said what Isaiah is saying is, that even though you may think your sins are color fast and cannot be eliminated and made clean, and pure, and white, so to speak, that’s what that Scripture has by way of additional meaning. Even though you think your sins are color fast, the Savior’s atonement can cleanse your sins also. That was an ‘aha’ moment. There were several others, all the way along in Isaiah, and then one of them comes in Isaiah, Chapter 6, which is a very short chapter, only 13 verses. It’s one of the finest chapters for me personally, to teach on Isaiah, to give people the hang of things. But in Chapter 6, it talks about Isaiah’s call to be a prophet, and then he’s given the call and then he’s shown by the Lord that the people he’s going to be talking to are really going to be hardened, and thick headed, so to speak. And spiritually deaf, and spiritually blind intentionally, and so he is shown to brace himself for that kind of people, but one of the ‘aha’ moments comes with the last verse of that chapter. It’s just saying that even though Israel will be destroyed substantially, there will be a remnant left and then it says that remnant of Israel, the Lord’s covenant people, in verse 13, it says, ‘they shall return and then be eaten’. Well that’s a sad end to…there’s nothing like a pretty happy story, isn’t it? So, they were a remnant well returned and they’ll be eaten. And my students go, ‘aha’ and I handed up a little bit and said, well that’s a downer isn’t it. Yeah. And then let’s look and see what that really means. And so, you look at…in your mind, you picture an orchard in Israel, and you look at all the trees, the olive trees, or whatever, and on the bottom, they’re all pruned, they’re all trimmed, quite evenly. That’s because there they let animals in the orchards in the Amazon forest to reach up the size they get and eat the limbs. And so, when he is saying they will return, and they will be eaten, that means they will be pruned. And when you understand what pruned is, where you clip the dead branches out, and the branches that are growing in the wrong direction. I used to prune peach trees for a farmer, in fact, but we shaped them nicely, cut out the dead wood, cut out the old stuff that’s growing the wrong way, cleaned it up so that it can really flourish. So, what Isaiah 6, verse 13, is saying, is, they will be…they will return a remnant of Israel, Israel will return, and they will be pruned by the Lord, their false ideas, their false notions, their false offerings, their bad behaviors. He will prune Israel so that it flourishes and then that was an ‘aha’ moment.
Kelsey Wilding: I know.
David Ridges: Ok, and we’re in that day, when the Lord has pruned, and He’s pruning and He’s gathering Israel, and Israel is flourishing. So, there’s a couple of moments.
Breaking Israel News Thinks Trump May Fulfill Prophecy in 2018
Trump announced US embassy in Tel-Aviv (above) will be moved to Jerusalem
“This will materialize fully when US President Trump will fulfill his promise to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv (pictured above) to Jerusalem,” predicted Eliana Rudee in Breaking Israel News yesterday. Rudee cited Isaiah 42:6
“’I am the Lord, who called you with righteousness, I will strengthen your hand; I will protect you; I will set you for a covenant to the people, to be a light unto the nations; to open blind eyes; to remove a prisoner from confinement, dwellers in darkness from a dungeon’ (Isaiah 42:6).”
Rudee cited this verse from Isaiah along with four other Biblical verses to make her predictions (read all five predictions here, but you will have to scroll past the ones she listed for 2017 first). She also said:
“In the new age of Jewish-Christian relations, Israel is finally taking its prophesied role as a light unto the nations.
“A major platform in his presidential campaign, this promise came about as a result of strong Evangelical Christian pressure on Trump to fulfill his campaign promises. This growing link between the Jewish People and the Christians is an unexpected development, flying in the face of a millennium of difficult relations, and unmistakably moving towards the post-Messiah age of peace and brotherhood. Given this new age of relations, unprecedented developments are surely in store.”
About the Author
Eliana Rudee is a reporter for Breaking Israel News and a freelance writer based in Jerusalem. Eliana studied politics, International Relations, and Jewish Studies and has since focused her interests on topics related to global Jewish life, American Jewry, counter-terrorism Israeli entrepreneurship and innovation, Israeli culture, and minority rights in Israel. Among many other news outlets and blogs, her bylines have been featured in Forbes, USA Today, New York Daily News, the Culture Trip, and The Hill.Book of Mormon Made Easier, Part 1, by David J Ridges
Book of Mormon Made Easier, Part 1
by David Ridges
In our busy world we sometimes find our scripture study isn’t always productive. The solution is here with The Book of Mormon Made Easier Part 1! Along with the complete text of the Book of Mormon, this valuable study guide includes in -the-verse notes and additional insights and commentary. A perfect study companion!
The Old Testament Made Easier, Part 3, by David J Ridges
The Old Testament Made Easier, Part 3
In part 3 of this study guide, David J. Ridges, brings selections from Ecclesiastes through Malachi in Old Testament to life. However, at SearchIsaiah.org it is the treatment of Isaiah that we’ll review here.
Ridges uses a conversational verse-by-verse dialogue that is both easy to understand but enlightening. The Isaiah section, of course, matches his treatment in the Book of Mormon Made Easier, Part 1. But, in a recent conversation with him, Ridges said not to be fooled, because each time he “reads from these verses he add new insights and ideas.”
Using this volume, you can study of Isaiah and Jeremiah. He also provides helps for Ecclesiastes and Ezekiel through Malachi. Personally, I find the in-verse notes a very effective to read these scriptures. Here is an example from Isaiah 7:2 with his notes in green:
And it was told the house of David [Judah, Jerusalem], saying, Syria is confederate [joining forces] with Ephraim [Israel, the northern ten tribes]. And his [King Ahaz’s] heart was moved [shaken], and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind [they were “shaking in their boots”; scared].
This technique is his personal trademark which was born out of an honors Institue classes, where students, “micro scrunched” their notes, as he calls it, into their own scriptures. Those students “took great pride in those notes,” he said. But when one of them missed a class there was a gap in their notes most did not like. So class members and Bro. Ridges pooled notes and posted them online so anyone could “make-up” notes in their personal scriptures. This was the birth of his in-verse notes and is common in most of his 33 publications and all of his Gospel Studies Series.
This study guide will be a great companion to your Old Testament Study this year. You can purchase your copy from Cedar Fort Publishing & Media’s outlet Books & Things.
Trump’s Announcement Tops the Five Biblical Prophecies Fulfilled in 2017
Today Eliana Rudee posted this on Breaking Israel News:
“The year 2017 was packed with what many describe as ‘remarkable’ or ‘unprecedented’ events. Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration and his latest announcement that he sees Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Jewish people are considered by believers to be prophetic signs that the world is coming ever closer to the Messianic era.”
Breaking Israel News looked back at 2017 listing five Biblical prophecies they saw fulfilled during the year. Two of these prophecies come from the book of Isaiah. One of these The was related to the solar eclipse, signifying “storms and trouble for the ‘King of the East.'”
This composite image of eleven pictures shows the progression of a total solar eclipse at Madras High School in Madras, Oregon on Monday, August 21, 2017. A total solar eclipse swept across a narrow portion of the contiguous United States from Lincoln Beach, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina. A partial solar eclipse was visible across the entire North American continent along with parts of South America, Africa, and Europe. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
Isaiah 53:12 For ye shall go out with ajoy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the btrees of the field shall clap their hands.
Rudee explained that the “August’s solar eclipse came precisely at the beginning of the Hebrew month of Elul. Rabbi Yosef Berger, the rabbi of King David’s Tomb on Mount Zion, connected this to a prophecy written in a century-old mystic text of an eclipse occurring precisely at this time that will be followed by storms and trouble for the King of the East, who the rabbi identified as North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un.”
Isaiah 45:1 Thus saith the Lord to his aanointed, to bCyrus, whose right hand I have cholden, to dsubdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the etwo leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;
Another prophecy centered on Trump’s visit to the Western Wall According to Breaking Israel News,“The world went into a turmoil when US 
President Donald Trump became the first sitting American president to visit the Kotel (Western Wall), raising the hopes of the Jewish people that a Second Temple reenactment may yet be seen in this generation. President Trump’s unwavering support for Jewish national aspirations linked him to Persian King Cyrus, whose connection to the Messiah is found in the Book of Isaiah. Much like Cyrus, Trump rules the greatest nation of the era and Cyrus, like Trump, was powerful and rich, but secular.”
Read more about Trumps’s embassy announcement and the other four fulfilled prophecies.
About the Author
Eliana Rudee is a reporter for Breaking Israel News and a freelance writer based in Jerusalem. Eliana studied politics, International Relations, and Jewish Studies and has since focused her interests on topics related to global Jewish life, American Jewry, counter-terrorism Israeli entrepreneurship and innovation, Israeli culture, and minority rights in Israel. Among many other news outlets and blogs, her bylines have been featured in Forbes, USA Today, New York Daily News, the Culture Trip, and The Hill.
Get to Know Isaiah Scholar, Ann N. Madsen
Finding Isaiah
Ann N. Madsen has always loved to learn. After living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while her husband Truman pursued his doctorate at Harvard, they returned to Utah for a teaching position at Brigham Young University. This position opened doors for her to expand her personal studies.
“I always wanted to study Hebrew. I loved the Old Testament and wanted to read it in its original language,” she said.
“I took the Bible as Literature from Robert Thomas as a night class, and I came home from that class, needing to learn more—he was such a great teacher, mentor, and wonderful man. He helped the Bible come alive for me; real people, real places, a real creator-God who interacted with them.” At the time, she realized that she truly wanted to learn all about the Old Testament.
After five years at BYU, her husband, Truman, was called to be the President of the New England Mission (which included the entire eastern seaboard and eastern Canada). They happily returned to Cambridge, but this time with their three young children, ages 3 1/2, 5, and 7 years old.
She explained that “after returning from a three-year assignment as President of the New England mission, her husband, Truman, resumed his teaching. With her three children now in school, Ann applied for graduate school to earn a masters degree in Ancient Studies. Five years later, after taking classes during the hours her children were in school, she finished her thesis “Melchizedek the Man, and the Tradition” and graduated from BYU in 1975.
Dean Ellis Rasmussen invited her to join the Ancient Scripture faculty, which she did in 1976, and as she says, “the rest is history.”
Searching Isaiah
After “teaching the Old Testament for several years, my department chair called me in one day and invited me to teach an entire class on Isaiah. In those days, there was only one other Isaiah class being taught,” she explained. Ann got to work creating a full semester course focused on Isaiah, which became her specialty. She has now taught at BYU for more than 40 years and is beloved by her many students. She likes to call herself a “proselyter for Isaiah.”
“I can’t quit yet; I haven’t taught everyone about Isaiah!”
Ann’s goal with each student is for them to develop confidence in studying Isaiah for themselves and believes that “anyone can come to understand and enjoy his teachings if they put forth the effort.”
“My whole theory of teaching Isaiah is that you won’t understand it fully at first reading. Each student has his own set of unique experiences, which inform us each individually. When we pool our individual insights, we teach one another.”
“My view of Isaiah is, that a student needs to engage the metaphors through his own experiences and through the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Anyone who has taken my class will remember my saying, ‘Let the metaphors speak to you.’”
She jokes that some students approach her at the beginning of a semester to say they aren’t sure they know enough to understand Isaiah. She answers: “If you were starting a French class, would you say, ‘I don’t know one word of French’?”
Ann discovered that there were amazing truths in Isaiah being missed because members of the Church skip the Old Testament and the Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon.
Ann’s excitement about the project she recently completed with her colleague and friend, Shon Hopkin is palpable. Its title, Opening Isaiah: A Harmony, is meant to be an invitation for the words that are so often skipped. This volume, compares the Book of Isaiah in the King James version of the Bible with the Joseph Smith Translation, Book of Mormon, Dead Sea Scrolls, and New Revised Standard Version, printed in poetry to enable a reader to see the parallel expressions; see sample of Isaiah 48:5 below:
She also released a DVD by the same title,“Opening Isaiah” in 2011. This DVD takes viewers to the Holy Land for a “personal class on Isaiah metaphors and all,” she said.
Isaiah Scholar Skim
Education
- Undergraduate from the University of Utah in Elementary Education with a minor in English
- Masters from Brigham Young University in Ancient Studies with a minor in Hebrew
Sparked focus on Isaiah
- Expanding her Old Testament syllabus one lecture at a time to include additional days focused on Isaiah until it was a full semester’s study.
Isaiah in one sentence
- “There’s no question in my mind that Isaiah was written for our time.”
Memorable Teaching Experiences
- Teaching Isaiah at the BYU Jerusalem Center from a classroom overlooking the city on the Mount of Olives. “I felt that I could be standing precisely where Isaiah spoke overlooking Jerusalem.”
Peers she admires
- Hugh Nibley
- Abraham Joshua Heschel
- Shon Hopkin
- Victor Ludlow
- Ellis Rasmussen
- and many others
Books/DVDs/Articles/Chapter by Ann N.Madsen
- “Making Their Own Peace: 12 Women of Jerusalem” (2003)
- “Opening Isaiah” DVD (2011)
- “Opening Isaiah: A Harmony” (2017)
- 14. Melchizedek at Qumran and Nag Hammadi from Apocryphal Writings and the Latter-day Saints
- Solomon’s Temple Compared to the Salt Lake Temple from An Eye of Faith
The Writings of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon
To get started with Isaiah first read all 66 chapter headings, no more no less. Note which ones interest you most, but don’t give in to reading them until you have read all 66 headings first. Then and only then go back and read an interesting chapter, then read it again. Next, if its in the Book of Mormon read it a third time, then read an alternate translation. Then study it in more detail as you go back to check the footnotes. Repetition is key to understanding Isaiah—Victor Ludlow
Of all the prophetic writings available on the Brass Plates of Laban, Isaiah is the major resource used throughout the Book of Mormon. About one-third of Isaiah’s sixty-six chapters are found in the Book of Mormon.
Two large blocks of Isaiah chapters (2-14 and 48-54) are scattered among four books (1 Nephi, 2 Nephi, Mosiah, and 3 Nephi). In addition, Isaiah 29 is quoted in 2 Nephi.
The following chart shows where these twenty-one Isaiah chapters are found in the Book of Mormon:
| Isaiah 2-14 Isaiah 29 Isaiah 48-49 Isaiah 50-51 Isaiah 52 Isaiah 53 Isaiah 54 |
in 2 Nephi 12-24 in 2 Nephi 27 in 1 Nephi 20-21 in 2 Nephi 7-8 in 3 Nephi 20 in Mosiah 14 in 3 Nephi 22 |
for 13 chapters for 1 chapter for 2 chapters for 2 chapters for 1 chapter for 1 chapter for 1 chapter |
additional Isaiah verses, mostly from the same chapters cited in the chart above (see asterisk below), are scattered throughout the Book of Mormon:
Other Isaiah passages quoted in the Book of Mormon. |
Isaiah passages paraphrased in the Book of Mormon. |
||
| Isa 11:5-9 in 2 Ne 30:11-15 Isa 11:4 in 2 Ne 30:9 Isa 49:23 in 2 Ne 6:7 Isa 52:8-10 in Mosiah 15:29-31; 3 Ne 16:18-20 Isa 55:1-2 in 2 Ne 9:50-51 Isa 49:24-26 in 2 Ne 6:16-18 Isa 52:1-2 in 2 Ne 8:24-25 Isa 52:7-10 in Mosiah 12:21-24 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x |
Isa 5:26 in 2 Ne 29:2 Isa 22:13 in 2 Ne 28:7-8 Isa 28:10,13 in 2 Ne 28:30 Isa 29:5 in 2 Ne 26:18 Isa 29:15a in 2 Ne 28:9b Isa 40:3 in 1 Ne 10:8 Isa 49:22 in 1 Ne 22:8; 2 Ne 6:6 Isa 52:1a in Moroni 10:31a Isa 52:7 in 1 Ne 13:37; Mosiah 15:14-18 Isa 11:11a in 2 Ne 25:17a; 29:1b; cf 25:11 Isa 25:12 in 2 Ne 26:15 Isa 29:3-4 in 2 Ne 26:15-16 Isa 29:14a in 1 Ne 14:7a; 22:8a; 2 Ne 25:17b; 29:1a Isa 29:21b in 2 Ne 28:16a Isa 45:18 in 1 Ne 17:36 Isa 49:23a in 1 Ne 22:8b; 2 Ne 10:9a Isa 52:10 in 1 Ne 22:10-11 Isa 52:13-15 in 3 Ne 21:8-10 Isa 54:2b in Moroni 10:31a Isa 52:12 in 3 Ne 21:29 Isa 53:8,10 in Mosiah 15:10-11 Isa 55:1 in 2 Ne 26:25 |
About one-third of the verses have major differences when compared to the King James Version of the Bible—that is, wording changes or additions which significantly change or enlarge the meaning of the verse. Another one-third of the Isaiah verses in the Book of Mormon have minor wording or punctuation changes which do not alter the verse’s meaning, and one-third are exactly the same as the corresponding Biblical passages.
Presented by Victor L. Ludlow at BYU Education Week 2006
Read the rest if this series
God Singing: Reflections on God as a Hebrew Psalmist
Most people that I know do not like to read the Book of Isaiah. His writing is cryptic, couched in strange symbols, and a mix of centuries-old cultural references and millennial prophecies. Those wishing to read Isaiah often seek out textual helps like Reg Christensen’sChristensen, Reg. Unlocking Isaiah or the Ball and Winn text Making Sense of Isaiah. Latter-Day Saints who take the time to read Isaiah probably do so for several reasons. First, they engage because Nephi and Jacob, both Book of Mormon prophets, expressed intense appreciation for the writings of Isaiah and because Christ on visiting the American remnant of the House of Israel first declared “…great are the writings of Isaiah” (3 Nephi 23:1) and then directed Nephite attention to the prophet’s writing. Additional encouragement to study Isaiah has come from the moving and unforgettable music from Handel’s Messiah.
Like many Latter-Day Saints, I find myself drawn to Isaiah, in spite of the difficulties, for the reasons stated above and because of my study of the Book of Mormon. Lately, I have been focusing on Nephi’s psalm (2 Ne. 4) and Alma’s psalm in Alma, Chapter 29. I have become convinced that the use of Hebraic chiastic structures and parallel phrasings grew out of the Nephite familiarity with Isaiah’s poetic strategies as they would have found them on the Brass Plates of Laban.
While the reading/studying of Isaiah has been a struggle for me, I came upon Isaiah 40 with surprise and amazement. The struggles I had experienced with so many Isaiah chapters gave way to a clarity of vision and a measure of pure joy for which I was not prepared. Part of it may have been from recalling, as I read in Isaiah passages from Handel’s Messiah—actually hearing in my mind measures sung by The Mormon Tabernacle choir—and part of it may have come from discovering lines I had heard hundreds or thousands of times before “and they shall mount up with wings as eagles” (Isaiah 40:31), not knowing that these words came from Isaiah.
In any case, reading Isiah Chapter 40 brought an exciting affirmation that the words of Isaiah are, truly, “great,” and deserve our thoughtful study. In the paragraphs which follow I would like to share some of the insights I have come to as I have tried to study this impressive chapter from the Old Testament. In particular, I would like to share insights from two approaches that may provide food for thought: three chiastic strategies clearly apparent in Chapter 40 and five traditional elements of psalmist structure. One critical measure of the value of a work is when serious, up-close study increases our awareness and appreciation for the work studied.
First, a look at three powerful aspects of chiastic strategy in Isaiah’s, or rather, God’s song as we find them in Chapter 40:
The first chiastic strategy we find in Isaiah 40 is the use of Bookends. Bookends are phrases, sentences or thematic units that both begin and end a literary structure. In the chiastic structure ABCDDCBA, the bookends would be the units A and B which begin the passage and the parallel (though often reversed) units B and A which close the passage. These parallel units can be parallel, similar or exact, in language or in theme, the similarity both echoing and reinforcing the message found in the body of the passage.
In Isaiah 40, the Lord through his prophet, begins his song with the imperative command, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people (40:1). In the closing verses (26-31) he declares the how and the why of the comfort: “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things . . . . the creator of the earth fainteth not, neither is weary . . . .He giveth power to the faint . . . .they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength (shall be comforted). They shall mount up with wings as eagles; (with the comfort given as commanded) they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.”
The message from the beginning to the end is that the God of Israel loves his people and wishes to comfort and bless those who wait on (or serve) him.
Exactly how God wishes to comfort his people becomes clear as the text proceeds from the opening verses towards the close of the chapter, and this brings us to the second chiastic strategy I would like to focus on: The thematic or dramatic Center. The Center is not always the exact center by verse count, but is interior to the homily. In this song, the dramatic center comes with verses 9 through 11:
“Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold the Lord God will come with a strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. Behold his reward is with him and his work before him.” All of this followed by these next lines, “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.”
The heart, the emotional center for the text tells us that God will comfort his people by feeding them, gathering them with his strong arm to his bosom and gently leading them. This psalm, then, this song of God is a song of redemption: as the opening bookend declares, “Cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished; that her iniquity is pardoned” and the pardon comes from the creator of heaven and earth who wishes to gather his people to his bosom.
While the chiastic structure often results in a balanced passage—ABCDDCBA, a variation that itself is almost a tradition is to weight the closing of the structure by relying on what some refer to as a Climax, so that the structure as a whole builds in intensity right up to the closing phrases. This is not to diminish the dramatic Center but to carry the reader to an emotional close that will confirm all that has preceded the close. In many instances, this movement to a climax is not a feverish move to a closing high note, but clearly that is what we have here in Chapter 40. The song begins with a soulful “comfort ye my people,” moves to its central theme of redemption through God’s great love and his power to save, and rises in the end to a vision of the comforted and saved rising up like eagles.
Bookends, a dramatic Center, and a rousing Climax: not surprising that agnostics and atheists join with believers to teach and celebrate much of the Bible as literature.
Read part two of this post God Singing: Reflections on God as a Hebrew Psalmist—part 2
Sources
Ball, Terry and Nathan Winn. Making Sense of Isaiah: Insights and Modern Applications. Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, UT.
Christensen, Reg. Unlocking Isaiah: Lessons and Insights that Draw Us To The Savior. Covenant Communications, Inc., 2013. American Fork, UT.
Podcast. Feb. 10, 2016. KnowWhy #30. Book of Mormon Central. http://knowwhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/is-nephis-psalm-really-a-psalm.
According to the Israel Bible™ “This famous phrase captures the mission statement of the people of Israel. For most of Jewish history, the role of ‘light unto the nations’ has been understood primarily as a private call to live an ethical life and to set a personal example of righteous behavior, to have a positive influence on the world. Rarely was anyone on the outside ever interested in what the Jews as a nation had to say, and so the concept of ‘ohr goyim’ was an ideal that individual Jews strived for However, Isaiah is calling for so much more. The ‘light’ in his stirring description is capable of opening the eyes of the blind and leading the imprisoned out of darkness. The establishment of the State of Israel and its role on the international stage calls for a transformation of the ‘light unto the nations’ metaphor from a passive, individual candle to a powerful blaze firing up the nations and igniting the world with righteousness. The State of Israel represents the historic opportunity for the people of Israel to fulfil their religious destiny as a nation.”