Texts in Conversation
Deuteronomy curses the disobedient with a house someone else lives in and a vineyard someone else eats from. Isaiah 65 reverses this curse point by point, promising that no one will lose a house or vineyard again.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Deuteronomy 28:30
Hebrew Bible
29 You will feel your way along at noon like the blind person does in darkness and you will not succeed in anything you do; you will be constantly oppressed and continually robbed, with no one to save you. 30 You will be engaged to a woman, and another man will rape her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not even begin to use it. 31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your very eyes, but you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be stolen from you as you watch and will not be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be given to your enemies, and there will be no one to save you.
Isaiah 65:22
Hebrew Bible
21 They will build houses and live in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 No longer will they build a house only to have another live in it, or plant a vineyard only to have another eat its fruit, for my people will live as long as trees, and my chosen ones will enjoy to the fullest what they have produced. 23 They will not work in vain or give birth to children that will experience disaster. For the Lord will bless their children and their descendants.
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Notes and References
"... In reality, a number of expansionary texts in the prophetic books that originate from the Babylonian, Persian, and Hellenistic periods show conspicuous proximity to the Torah texts. However, these overlaps can be either concordant or of a critical-distancing kind. So, for example, the promise of a new heaven and a new earth in Isaiah 65:17–25 is formed markedly by the reception of Genesis 1–3. The new creation of heaven and earth is meant to replace the current order of the old creation. Isaiah 65:17–25 appears to have found a model for this juxtaposition in Isaiah 43:16–21, where the old and new exodus are contrasted. The replacement of the old by the new exodus is surpassed in Isaiah 65:17–25 in terms of a universally reaching antithesis of old and new creation. Furthermore, it can even be recognized that Isaiah 65:17–25 borrows not only from Genesis 1–3. It also makes reference to the end of the Torah—namely Deuteronomy 28:30—and thereby substitutes a functionally equivalent perspective of salvation in place of the ordering of life of the old creation. ..."
* 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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