Texts in Conversation
Isaiah 41:7 echoes Genesis 1:10 by repeating the phrase “it is good,” originally used by God to affirm the created world. In Genesis, this phrase marks divine approval of the natural order, while in Isaiah, it is spoken by idol-makers about their own handiwork, likely intended as an ironic contrast of divine creation and human creation.
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Genesis 1:10
Hebrew Bible
9 God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place and let dry ground appear.” It was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” God saw that it was good. 11 God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: plants yielding seeds and trees on the land bearing fruit with seed in it, according to their kinds.” It was so.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Isaiah 41:7
Hebrew Bible
6 They help one another; one says to the other, ‘Be strong!’ 7 The craftsman encourages the metalsmith, the one who wields the hammer encourages the one who pounds on the anvil. He says of the welding, ‘It is good’18, and nails it down so it won’t fall over. 8 “You, my servant Israel, Jacob, whom I have chosen, offspring of Abraham my friend,
Date: 7th-5th Centuries B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... it can be argued that the very word of YHWH to “comfort, comfort” of Isaiah 40:1 may be considered as a renewed continuation of the word of YHWH in 39:8. Additionally, in this correlation, the motif of identifying something as “good” can make a further interval link between 39:8 and 41:7. In 39:8, Hezekiah says that “the word of YHWH that you [Isaiah] have spoken is good.” In 41:7, ironically, the idol-makers describe their fabrication, “it is good” (Note how it also echoes Genesis 1:10, 31, where God says that “it is good” and “very good” after completing each component of creation, culminating with the making of human beings) ..."
Kim, Hyun Chul Paul
"The Spider-Poet: Signs and Symbols in Isaiah 41" in Everson, A. Joseph, and Hyun Chul Paul Kim (eds.) The Desert will Bloom: Poetic Visions in Isaiah
(pp. 159-180) Society of Biblical Literature, 2009
* 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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