Yesha’yahu 6:1-13
Notes for Targum
CHAPTER 6
6.1 In the year that King Uzziah was struck with it, the prophet said, I saw the glory of the LORD resting upon a throne, high and lifted up in the heavens of the height; and the temple (Palace — Hekiel) was filled by the brilliance of his glory. 6.2 Holy attendants were in the height before him; each had six wings; with two he covered his face, that he might not see, and with two he covered his body, that he might not be seen, and with two he ministered. 6.3 And one was crying to another and saying: “Holy in the heavens of the height, his sanctuary, holy upon the earth, the work of his might, holy in eternity is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is filled with the brilliance of his glory. 6.4 And the posts of the temple thresholds quaked from the sound of the speech, and the sanctuary was filled with the dense cloud. 6.5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I have sinned; for I am a man liable to chastisement, and I dwell in the midst of people that are defiled with sins; for my eyes have seen the glory of the Shekhinah of the eternal king, the LORD of hosts! 6.6 Then there was given to me one of the attendants, and in his mouth there was a speech which he took before him whose Shekhinah is upon the throne of glory in the heavens of the height, above the altar.
2 Chron 26:16-21
6.7 And he arranged [it in] my mouth and said: “Behold, I have placed the words of my prophecy in your mouth; and your sins will be taken away and your guilt atoned for. ” 6.8 And I heard the voice of the Memra of the LORD which said: “Whom shall I send to prophesy, and who will go to teach?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” 6.9 And he said, “Go, and speak to this people that hear indeed, but do not understand, and see indeed, but do not perceive. 6.10 Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and repent and it be forgiven them.” 6.11 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until the cities are devastated, without inhabitant, and the houses without men, and the land lies desolate and devastated, 6.12 and the LORD removes the sons of men and devastation increases in the midst of the land. 6.13 And one in ten they will be left in it and they will again be for scorching like the terebinth or the oak, which when their leaves drop off appear dried up, and even then they are green enough to retain from them the seed. So the exiles of Israel will be gathered and they will return to their land.” For the holy seed is their stump.
Notes
6:1—6:6 The vision is dated from the time Uzziah was struck with leprosy (v. I, cf. 2 Chronicles 26:19-21, and Levy Il [p. 91]; Jastrow II [p. 875]). The meturgeman may wish to distinguish this vision from that of chapter I, which is associated with an earthquake near the end of Uzziah’s reign (cf. Amos 1:1). From the outset, it is made clear that God’s “glory” is seen, which is consistent with orthodox rabbinic thinking (cf. also John 12:41). In a passage associated with the Babylonian Talmud (Kiddushin 49a), R. Judah ben Ilai is portrayed as warning against translations which speak of seeing God directly (cf. Exodus 33:20), and against those which speak of seeing some angelic substitute. Rather, the use of the term “glory” is recommended: such a usage avoids the Charybdis of thinking of God as visible and the Scylla of replacing him with an angel. This discussion, which is worked out in respect of Exodus 24: 10, accords with the practice of the Isaiah Targum. Far from running any risk of multitheism by referring to angels instead of God (cf. Segal (1977]), the meturgeman pictures the seraphim as mere “attendants” whose entire purpose is to serve modestly (v. 2; cf. the similar interpretation of this verse in the Pesigta de Rab Kahana 9.43-45). The cry of the angels refers to Gocft sanctity in three respects: (I) “the heavens of the height, his sanctuary,” (2) the earth, and (3) eternity (v. 3). The locus of the last two spheres of sanctity is evident, but the meaning of the first phrase is not immediately clear. The idea seems to be that the sanctuary itself is “in the heavens of the height a phrase which already appears in v. I. The phrase appears again in v. 6, this time in association with the Shekhinah. At this point, the meturgeman’s heavenly geography becomes clearer: the threat to remove the Shekhinah (cf. 5:5) has become a reality, and the prophet sees the Shekhinah in heaven, whence it will one day return (cf. 4:5, cf. Goldberg [1969]). The angelic cry occupied an important place in Jewish liturgy (cf. Flusser [1963]; [1973-4], and Werner [1945-6]).
6:1—6:13 “Prophecy” is what cleanses the prophet, and his commission is to prophesy and teach (vv. 7, 8). He is sent to say words which seem to have been cited by Jesus (vv. 9, 10, cf. Mark 4: 12 and Chilton [1984]90-98). Comparison with 19:22 demonstrates that there was no necessity to decipher the healing phrase with a reference to forgiveness, so that this feature of the agreement of this passage with Jesus’ teaching is all the more striking. The picture of devastation which follows does not add substantively to what we can read in the MT (vv. 11-12) but there is an innovative reference to the return of “exiles” at the close (v. 13). This surprising development of the tree imagery balances the preceding threat, and confirms the post-70 perspective Of the passage.
Targumic Vocabulary from Yesha’yahu 6:1-6: A Deep Aramaic So’odic Lexicon (Prophets Stu – S1-000)
The Targum Yonatan on Yesha’yahu 6:1-6, detailing the prophet’s profound vision of the Divine Throne, is exceptionally rich in Aramaic lexical choices that unveil the So’odic dimensions of the text. The meturgeman here meticulously mediates anthropomorphic expressions and amplifies the transcendental aspects of prophecy and divine encounter, presenting a sophisticated cosmological and theological framework.
