Isaiah 61 closes with a brief song, apparently sung by the anointed Servant of verse 1. He is dressed up as a glorified Adam in a new garden that teems with righteousness and praise. The servant is vested and robed, an appropriate sequel to the anointing. That is enough to establish that he is a priestly figure, but verse 10 makes it even clearer: The verb for “deck” is kahan, the root of kohen, which means “priest.” The verb almost... Read more

The anointed Servant proclaims Jubilee – liberty to captives (Isaiah 61:1; cf. Leviticus 25:20). Jubilee gives not only freedom from debt-slavery but a return to ancestral property. Liberty takes physical form in possession of land. So Isaiah is still talking about Jubilee when he promises “double” in the land (v. 7). He describes Israel’s loss of land as a “humiliation” and “shame,” like the shame of Adam as he was driven from Eden. If dispossession is shame and humiliation, Jubilee... Read more

Isaiah’s promise that strangers and foreigners will tend flocks, farm, and maintain vineyards for Israel (61:5) makes it sound like the nations will do the menial work while Israel lives in cultured leisure. I suspect something else is in view. Flocks, grain, and wine are liturgical materials in the Hebrew Bible. That strangers serve as shepherds, farmers and vinedressers is to say they provide the sacrificial animals, grain offerings, and libations for Israel. Verse 6 confirms this: Israel will be... Read more

Isaiah’s promise that strangers and foreigners will tend flocks, farm, and maintain vineyards for Israel (61:5) makes it sound like the nations will do the menial work while Israel lives in cultured leisure. I suspect something else is in view. Flocks, grain, and wine are liturgical materials in the Hebrew Bible. That strangers serve as shepherds, farmers and vinedressers is to say they provide the sacrificial animals, grain offerings, and libations for Israel. Verse 6 confirms this: Israel will be... Read more