"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Today’s chapter of Isaiah is echoed by the opening line of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, one of the most famous sentences in literature.
Whoever this Isaiah is, and scholars debate which one/s, in what century, may have authored this chapter, they are well aware of local mythologies, complete with complex and often unhappy family structures. The Babylonian pantheon, like all others at the time, included the parents - main god & goddess, along with their children and siblings, all competing for power, Succession style.
The human familial structures were superimposed by ancient scribes and sages onto the celestial domains, mirroring and moulding the human journey from birth to death and all the dramas in between.
When the exiled Judeans ended up in Babylon they were exposed to these elaborate and tangible mythological structure and much of it is echoed in Isaiah’s text - in which the surprising conversation of a dysfunctional family is depicted. Although in most Judaic mythic contexts YHWH is often depicted as singular, and single, in this drama there is reference to his spouse and children, all dealing with the trauma of exile and expulsion - with eyes towards redemption and a happy family reunion.
It begins as Isaiah describes himself as God’s son, the loyal servant, born to YHWH. This is one of the origins of the narrative of Jesus, the Jewish prophet who will be known as the Son of God. In our chapter it is not clear if Isaiah is referring to himself as YHWH’s son - or to the nation, but either way, this family session begins with clear allusions to the dynamics between parents and their children.
Enter Zion, centerstage, as the angry and rejected wife and mother. As in other chapters previously, the nation is depicted in the feminine - the counterpart to the masculine godhead. But in this case, Zion is a mad and sad woman, abandoned by her husband, longing for her children who’ve been taken from her:
וַתֹּ֥אמֶר צִיּ֖וֹן עֲזָבַ֣נִי יְהֹוָ֑ה וַאדֹנָ֖י שְׁכֵחָֽנִי׃
“Zion says, “ YHWH has forsaken me, My Sovereign has forgotten me.”
Through the prophet’s mouth, YHWH responds with something between comfort and an accusation - how could I ever forget you?
הֲתִשְׁכַּ֤ח אִשָּׁה֙ עוּלָ֔הּ מֵרַחֵ֖ם בֶּן־בִּטְנָ֑הּ גַּם־אֵ֣לֶּה תִשְׁכַּ֔חְנָה וְאָנֹכִ֖י לֹ֥א אֶשְׁכָּחֵֽךְ׃
“Can a woman forget her baby, or disown the child of her womb?
Though she might forget, I never could forget you.”
The next line delivered by YHWH would become quite famous, though often misinterpreted as a reference for internal conflict - very different than the original context of this familial debate, which seems to offer hope and consolation:
מִהֲר֖וּ בָּנָ֑יִךְ מְהָֽרְסַ֥יִךְ וּמַחֲרִיבַ֖יִךְ מִמֵּ֥ךְ יֵצֵֽאוּ׃
“Swiftly your children are coming;
Those who ravaged and ruined you shall leave you.”
Isaiah 49:15-17
In this original dialogue, God seems to be saying to Zion - the kids will soon be coming back, and those who settled within you (the foreigners exiled to Jerusalem by Babylon after the Judeans had to flee) will evacuate. This prophecy is followed up by many verses of hopeful future in which indeed the children of Israel will populate Zion once again, as jewels radiant about their mother’s body.
So what is this mythic drama about? A family crisis:
The prophet is the son of the father -but the rest of the people are the children of the mother, and the parents are split. This is a broken family, with unclear ties and tender tensions.
Is this an echo of how families were broken up because of the exile? Is this an echo of the pagan myths superimposed on the Judean story at this uncertain historical moment? Is this a theological allusion to the evolving story of divine reality - in which God was once depicted as mother and caretaker, but increasingly secondary to Patriarchal masculine models of divine rule?
The one line that stands out for me today is the one that’s either aspirational or a warning - “Those who ravaged and ruined you shall leave you.”
It depends on how you read it - and it can go two very different ways. In the original context Isaiah seems to be saying that as Zion’s children will return home - and the foreigners who occupied it in their absence - will leave. But it can also be read to indicate - the source of trouble will emerge from within you - not depart from you. In this way - the meaning of this verse became reversed over the centuries and the idiom has been used, too often, and still, by competing factions, to say - troubles comes from inside, discord comes from within. Troublemakers - or protesters for good — depends who you ask and who’s telling the story. It’s often the insiders who become the vital ones to impact change.
If we turn our eye form the political and focus on what happens in our internal realities - hearts and homes - this is a way to focus on more local healing -- the inner and domestic arenas, the familiar and familial, where we must pay attention to first before we turn to societal issues that require repair.
The ongoing family drama between god and the people, in Zion and all over the world, calls to mind the ways in which we learn from psychology, and literature, and from the prophets how to listen to the voices of those closest to us, hear the hurt, pay attention to the pain - and that’s perhaps that’s where our collective healing can begin, and how it can endure.
Isaiah’s family psychodrama narratives continues in the next chapter, with more metaphors that try to make sense of suffering and offer visions for happier families and happier times.
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