Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 144:574 (Apr 1987)
Article: The Literary Character of Isaiah 40-55 Part 2: Literary Genres in Isaiah 40-55
Author: Eugene H. Merrill

The Literary Character of Isaiah 40-55
Part 2:
Literary Genres in Isaiah 40-55

Eugene H. Merrill

Professor of Semitics and Old Testament Studies
Dallas Theological Seminary

As the survey in the first article in this two-part series1 showed, contemporary scholarly consensus recognizes four major genres (disputations, lawsuits, salvation oracles, and proclamations of salvation) and one minor genre (hymns/hymnic) in Isaiah 40–55. Each of these must now be considered in detail, but for convenience they will be grouped under the categories of hymns, polemic genres, and salvation speeches.

The Hymns and Hymnic Sections

It is virtually impossible to find any two scholars who agree on any list of hymns or hymnic passages in Isaiah 40–55, but the following will satisfy most: 40:12–26, 27–31; 42:10–13; 44:23; 45:8; 48:20–21; 49:13; 51:3; 52:9–10 .

Only a brief review of the hymn/psalm genre can be presented here. Gressmann defined the hymn as fundamentally a praise of the deity.2 He said that the hymns in Isaiah 40–55 enumerate Yahweh’s great deeds through predications in the form of epithets. Any texts that use that characteristically participial

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construction should be considered hymnic. Gressmann saw four basic categories: (a) hymnic expansions of the introduction and conclusion formulae; (b) hymnic expansions of self-predication expressions (which he considered to be due to the Babylonian environment);3 (c) concluding hymns;4 and (d) larger hymns.5 He has often been accused of finding too many examples of hymns, but in fact he sees no hymns at all independent of their contexts. That is, the prophet did not use the hymn as a separate genre but only to introduce, conclude, or tie together nonhymnic sections.

Mowinckel, in his monumental work The Psalms in Israel’s Worship, divided Israelite hymns into two main types—general and specific.6 The general hymn praises the deeds and/or attributes of Yahweh and is appropriate for any cultic occasion. The specific hymn, on the other hand, concentrates on a single deed or quality and has its origin in a particular cultic festival.

Structurally the hymn usually opens with an exhortation to sing, praise, thank, and exalt the Lord, usually in the imperative plural. Next follows the person or persons who are so exhorted; this may even include inanimate objects such as heaven and earth, woods, and rocks, or the sea. Yahweh is always mentioned by name (in the Psalter, at least), frequently with a series of laudatory attributes or epithets.

The body of the hymn generally begins with the basis for exhortation introduced by כִּי or something similar. Then follow recitations of Yahweh’s deeds and qualities sometimes augmented by appositional nouns or participles. In expanded form this body may consist of a series of sentences each mentioning somethin...