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Isaiah

About this book
Chapter 2

1 Here is the message about Judah and Jerusalem that was revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz. 2 In future days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will endure as the most important of mountains and will be the most prominent of hills.⁠ All the nations will stream to it;⁠ 3 many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the temple of the God of Jacob, so he can teach us his requirements, and we can follow his standards.”⁠ For Zion will be the center for moral instruction; the Lord’s message will issue from Jerusalem. 4 He will judge disputes between nations; he will settle cases for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations will not take up the sword against other nations, and they will no longer train for war.⁠ 5 O descendants of Jacob, come, let us walk in the Lord’s guiding light. 6 Indeed, O Lord, you have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob. For diviners from the east are everywhere; they consult omen readers like the Philistines do. Plenty of foreigners are around. 7 Their land is full of gold and silver; there is no end to their wealth. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots.⁠ 8 Their land is full of worthless idols; they worship the product of their own hands, what their own fingers have fashioned.⁠ 9 Men bow down to them in homage, they lie flat on the ground in worship. Don’t spare them! 10 Go up into the rocky cliffs, hide in the ground. Get away from the dreadful judgment of the Lord, from his royal splendor! 11 Proud men will be brought low, arrogant men will be humiliated; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. 12 Indeed, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has planned a day of judgment for all the high and mighty for all who are proud—they will be humiliated; 13 for all the cedars of Lebanon that are so high and mighty, for all the oaks of Bashan,⁠ 14 for all the tall mountains, for all the high hills, 15 for every high tower, for every fortified wall, 16 for all the large ships, for all the impressive ships. 17 Proud men will be humiliated, arrogant men will be brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. 18 The worthless idols will be completely eliminated. 19 They will go into caves in the rocky cliffs and into holes in the ground trying to escape the dreadful judgment of the Lord and his royal splendor, when he rises up to terrify the earth. 20 At that time men will throw their silver and gold idols, which they made for themselves to worship, into the caves where rodents and bats live, 21 so they themselves can go into the crevices of the rocky cliffs and the openings under the rocky overhangs, trying to escape the dreadful judgment of the Lord and his royal splendor, when he rises up to terrify the earth. 22 Stop trusting in human beings, whose life’s breath is in their nostrils. For why should they be given special consideration?

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 2:13 and Zechariah 11:2

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Isaiah uses the image of Lebanon’s cedars and Bashan’s oak trees to symbolize the fall of the proud and powerful. Zechariah echoes this language and natural imagery, portraying the destruction of trees as a lament over leaders and nations about to fall.

Passages

Isaiah 2:13

Hebrew Bible
11 Proud men will be brought low, arrogant men will be humiliated; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. 12 Indeed, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has planned a day of judgment for all the high and mighty for all who are proud—they will be humiliated; 13 for all the cedars of Lebanon that are so high and mighty, for all the oaks of Bashan, 14 for all the tall mountains, for all the high hills, 15 for every high tower, for every fortified wall,
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Zechariah 11:2

Hebrew Bible
1 Open your gates, Lebanon, so that the fire may consume your cedars. 2 Howl, fir tree, because the cedar has fallen; the majestic trees have been destroyed. Howl, oaks of Bashan, because the impenetrable forest has fallen. 3 Listen to the howling of shepherds, because their magnificence has been destroyed. Listen to the roaring of young lions, because the thickets of the Jordan have been devastated. 4 The Lord my God says this: “Shepherd the flock set aside for slaughter.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Zechariah

References

"... Structurally, Zechariah 11 stands at the center of Zechariah 9–14 as a whole, a position I argued in 1989 and one Katrina J. A. Larkin adopted. I further argue here that the chapters grew incrementally: Zechariah 9 (around Zechariah 9:9–10), then Zechariah 10:1 + 3b–12, then Zechariah 11–14, with Zechariah 11 serving as the centerpiece or as the fulcrum on which all six chapters pivot. In addition, as seen in the paragraph above, Zechariah 10:2–3a was written by that same redactor to weld together Zechariah 9–10 and 11–14. This argument employs form criticism in the analysis of the chapters, but treats the chapters as a collection that grew in stages. Some scholars argue that Zechariah 14 was added after Zechariah 9–13 took shape, but it too shows interest in the villains of Zechariah 11:4–16, the “merchants,” and makes one last condemnation of them (Zechariah 14:21b, another redactional addition). Zechariah 11:1–3 and Zechariah 13:7–9 join Zechariah 10:2–3a as the primary redactional seams. The literary nature of Zechariah 11:1–3 can be demonstrated by means of a diagram that shows the intertextual bases of the three verses. (Isaiah 2:13-15; 10:33-34; Jeremiah 25:34-8; Zechariah 11:1-3) ..."
Paul L. Redditt, “Form Criticism in Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi: From Oral Sayings to Literature,” in The Book of the Twelve and the New Form Criticism, ed. Mark J. Boda, Michael H. Floyd, and Colin M. Toffelmire, ANEM 10 (Atlanta: SBL, 2015), 265–284.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Isaiah 2:13 and Zechariah 11:2

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