“In my own lifetime, I have seen Jewish children thrown into the fire. And now I have seen Muslim children used as human shields, in both cases, by worshippers of death cults indistinguishable from that of the Molochites.”
Elie Wiesel
Repent! Again! Stop killing kids! Stop destroying your future!! Wiesel’s words echo those of previous furious prophets.
It’s unclear who exactly this Isaiah is, and when exactly in history this prophetic voice speaks, and what specific social disgrace he’s railing at but after the chapters of consolation this harsh tone of rebuke is startling. At some point in our history this chapter and the next one were chosen by the rabbis as the Haftara - liturgical reading for Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement. It’s likely the choice was made because the overall tone of this text is that religious behavior can sometimes become the problem and not the solution. What really matters is morality and ethical behavior, finding faith where it matters and not in the fashionable follies or religious dogmas of the day.
Scholars suggest that this last section of the Book of Isaiah includes a third voice of Isaiah, perhaps students of the original prophet, speaking to and in Jerusalem circa late 6th century BCE, some time after the resettlement project has begun, and as the harsh conditions continue to challenge the builders of Zion. But this chapter poses a challenge and may be a much older text rebuking older forms of faithlessness. What angers the prophet here is the people’s religious depravity, as they are lured towards the local worship, as their ancestors have done before them, practicing all sorts of pagan rituals that discard YHWH and his temple, priests and path. The specific details mentioned here may belong more to the days of the original Isaiah - before Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, then in the Persian period, a century later. The incriminating detail has to do with one of the worse way religious practice was conducted and how to some degree it’s still condoned today by so-called god fearing people.
Isaiah fumes: Justice is overlooked, righteous people die and none pay attention, and prophet throws a spotlight on one of the horrific religious abuses the people are guilty of. They sacrifice children:
הַנֵּֽחָמִים֙ בָּאֵלִ֔ים תַּ֖חַת כׇּל־עֵ֣ץ רַֽעֲנָ֑ן שֹׁחֲטֵ֤י הַיְלָדִים֙ בַּנְּחָלִ֔ים תַּ֖חַת סְעִפֵ֥י הַסְּלָעִֽים׃
“You who find comfort for yourselves among the terebinths and under every verdant tree;
Who slaughter children in the riverbeds,
Among the clefts of the rocks.”
Isaiah 57:5
The translation of the Hebrew word ‘Nechamim’ rendered here as ‘find comfort’ is tricky and it’s often translated as ‘blazing hot with passion’ or some sort of indication of zeal. But the rest is terribly familiar. This is not the first mention of the local people’s taking on the rite of offering children to the deity, as a plea bargain for security and peace: I give you the best of mine so that you will give me yours. Even the kings of Judah took this on, among them Menashe, one of the last kings of Jerusalem, who offered his own son to the sacred fire, as mentioned in II Kings 21:6.
The original Isaiah lived just before the time of this king - he knew his father King Hezekiah, and therefore it’s not unlikely that the religious reality described here conforms to that period and not to the reality a century later, under Persian rule. Most scholars agree that such practices no longer were favorable at this time, and eventually, officially, disappeared.
But whatever time in history this is - Isaiah’s words still echo, and the metaphor is equally disturbing. Who are the ones who look away from children’s suffering, who offer the future up in the flames of religious dogma, in the name of a god of violence whose worship lives in fear? What gun laws or abortion laws, avoidance of climate activism and tough truth, racist and supremacist dogma exercised by pious people is responsible today for the lives of children and adults - our lives - who are sacrificed by these cults of ignorance and pious hate?
There is time to repent - says the prophet, whose words will echo each year on Yom Kippur.
And there is a special phrase to promise such redemption cited in this chapter: שָׁל֨וֹם ׀ שָׁל֜וֹם לָרָח֧וֹק וְלַקָּר֛וֹב
“Peace, Peace, to the one far and to the one near - and healing is possible. Isaiah 57:19.
But this provisional peace is not for everybody -- it’s not for those who persist in practicing cruel dogma even when realizing how evil this is. For these, says Isaiah, as he concludes this chapter, there will be no peace.
Two months from now, on the Day of Atonement, many will hear these words and few will remember the context, original intent or meaning. What will it take for each of us to take the truth to heart and walk this talk, for the sake of our future that won’t be given up in selfish flames?
Image: Detail from Caravaggio’s The Binding of Isaac
OUR NEXT BELOW THE BIBLE BELT ZOOM TALK:
Goodbye Isaiah, Hello Jeremiah
Please join me on Zoom for our next Monthly Conversation, as we wrap up the Book of Isaiah, venture into Jeremiah’s world and explore what these ancient prophets have to offer our inner and political lives - just in time for a new Jewish year and continued political challenges - everywhere.
Join us on Thursday, August 17th 2023, at 1pm ET.
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