Texts in Conversation
Isaiah recalls the Genesis promise that a flood would never again overwhelm the earth and uses it to support the hope of renewed stability. The connection indicates that judgment will not return in that form even as Isaiah also pictures cosmic upheaval.
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Genesis 9:11
Hebrew Bible
9 “Look. I now confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that is with you, including the birds, the domestic animals, and every living creature of the earth with you, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature of the earth. 11 I confirm my covenant with you: Never again will all living things be wiped out by the waters of a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the guarantee of the covenant I am making with you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all subsequent generations: 13 I will place my bow35 in the clouds, and it will become a guarantee of the covenant between me and the earth.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Isaiah 54:9
Hebrew Bible
7 “For a short time I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will gather you. 8 In a burst of anger I rejected you momentarily, but with lasting devotion I will have compassion on you,”says your Protector, the Lord. 9 “As far as I am concerned, this is like in Noah’s time, when I vowed that the waters of Noah’s flood would never again cover the earth. In the same way I have vowed that I will not be angry at you or shout at you. 10 Even if the mountains are removed and the hills displaced, my devotion will not be removed from you, nor will my covenant of friendship be displaced,”says the Lord, the one who has compassion on you. 11 “O afflicted one, driven away, and unconsoled! Look, I am about to set your stones in antimony and lay your foundation with lapis lazuli.
Date: 7th-5th Centuries B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Isaiah 54:9 recalls God’s promise that “the waters of Noah will not again go over the earth” (compare Genesis 9:9–17). Possibly because of this tradition concerning God’s promise that he will not again destroy the earth by means of a flood, the author of the Isaiah Apocalypse does not explicitly mention the Noahide flood. However, an argument can be made that the Noahide flood plays an implicit role in the eschatological prophet’s conceptualization of the worldwide judgment pictured in Isaiah 24–27 as a cosmic return of the primordial waters of chaos, thus necessitating an act of re-creation. The need for re-creation, as might be expected, reactivates the sea myth whose mythos the events described in Isaiah 24–27 reenact ..."
Cho, Paul K. K.
Myth, History, and Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible
(p. 174) Cambridge University Press, 2018
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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