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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
The commentaries make heavy weather of this section. The reader who comes upon the usual translation with delight, as he recognises a vivid statement of God's forgiveness, is correspondingly mortified by scholarly disagreement about its interpretation.
page 319 note 1 Biblischer Kommentar Altes Testament. X. The first fascicle only has appeared.
page 319 note 2 e.g. Wellhausen and, among the modern scholars, Georg Fohrer, ‘Jesaja I als Zusammenfassung der Verkündigung Jesajas’, Z.A.W., 74 (1962), p. 262f.
page 320 note 1 The literature on this and on the related theme of the oracle of judgment is now considerable. The following are important. Würthwein, E., ‘Der Ursprung der prophetischen Gerichtsrede’, Z.T.K., 49 (1952), pp. 1–16Google Scholar. Hesse, F., ‘Wurzelt die Prophetische Gerichtsrede im israelitischen Kult?’, Z.A.W., 65, (1953), pp. 45–53Google Scholar. George E. Mendenhall, ‘Ancient Oriental and Biblical Law’, B.A., XVII, 2 (1954), pp. 26–46, and ‘Covenant Forms in Israelite Tradition’, B.A., XVII, 3 (1954), pp. 50–76. These two articles which have been very influential were reprinted under the title Law and Covenant in Israel and the Ancient Near East (1955). Gemser, B., ‘The RIB—or Controversy—Pattern in Hebrew Mentality’, in Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient Near East, ed. by Noth, M. and Thomas, D. Winton (V.T. Suppl. III, 1955)Google Scholar. Muilenburg, J., ‘The form and structure of the covenantal formulations’, V.T. IX, 4 (1959), pp. 347–365Google Scholar. Huffmon, H. B., ‘The Covenant Lawsuit in the Prophets’, J.B.L., lxxviii (1959), pp. 285–295Google Scholar. Claus Westermann, Grundformen prophelischer Rede (1960). K. Baltzer, Das Bundesfannular. Sein Ursprung und seine Verwendung im Allen Testament, W.M.A.N.T., 4 (1960). H.-J. Kraus, Die prophetische Verkündigung des Rechts in Israel (1957), J. Hervey, ‘Le “Rib-pattern“, requisitoire prophetique sur la rupture de l'alliance’, Biblica, 43 (1962), pp. 172ff. G. E. Wright, ‘The Lawsuit of God: A Form-Critical Study of Deuteronomy 32’ in Israel's Prophetic Heritage, ed. by B. W. Anderson and W. Harrelson (1962). E. von Waldow, ‘Der traditionsgeschichtliche Hintergrund der prophetischen Gerichtsreden’, Z.A.W. Beih. 85 (1963). H. J. Boecker, Redeformen des Rechtslebens im Alien Testament, W.M.A.N.T., 14 (1964). Dennis J. McCarthy, ‘Treaty and Covenant’, Analecta Biblica, 21 (1963).
page 321 note 1 S.J.T. 17.4 (1964) p. 469, 18.4 (1965) p. 457.
page 321 note 2 George E. Mendenhall, ‘Covenant Forms in Israelite Tradition’, B.A., XVII, 3 (1954) PP. 53–61. For the generally accepted analysis of the Covenant form see V. Korosec, Helhitische Staatsverträge (1931).
page 322 note 1 It is possible, though not certain, that in the second millennium these would be understood as gods (O. R. Gurney, The Hittitts (1952), p. 144). What the expression meant in Israel is discussed by G. E. Wright (op. cit., p. 48f) and more thoroughly by M. Delcor, ‘Les attaches litte'raires, l'origine et la signification de l'expression biblique “Prendre à témoin le ciel et la terre“’. V.T., XVJ, 1 (1966), pp. 8–25. Delcor shows sufficiently that in Israel the expression was demythologised. In Isa. I it bears a rhetorical meaning as we have suggested above. But it has nevertheless proved an invaluable clue in the elucidation of the covenant-law pattern of thought.
page 322 note 2 Weiser, A., The Psalms, E.T. (1962), p. 27Google Scholar. Cf. S. Mowinckel, Psalmenstudien II (1923), The Psalms in Israel's Worship, I (1962) ch. V. Mowinckel thinks the covenant renewal was part of the great annual enthronement festival. But the thesis above does not require a decision on this difficult question.
page 323 note 1 C. Westermann, Grundformen prophetischer Rede (1960), C and D.
page 323 note 2 S.J.T. 18.4 (1965), pp. 459–61.
page 323 note 3 G. E. Wright, op. cit.
page 324 note 1 Cf. Mic. 6.2, Jer. 2.4–13, Deut. 4.26, 30.19, 31.28.
page 324 note 2 Not as judges, as has been maintained by Gunkel in Einleitung in die Psalmen (1933), PP. 364–5. He is followed by H. B. Huffmon, op. cit. This interpretation is refuted by M. Delcor, op. cit., pp. 21–23. See also G. E. Wright, op. cit., pp. 46ff.
page 324 note 3 B. Gemser, op. cit., p. 124. G. E. Mendenhall, B.A., XVII, 2 (1954), p. 32.
page 325 note 1 Black sheep were exceptional.
page 325 note 2 J. Schoneveld, ‘Isaiah 1.18–20’, V.T. XIII, 5 (1963), pp. 342–4.
page 326 note 1 See Mowinckel, The Psalms, I (1962), pp. 210ff. G. von Rad, Old Testament Theology, I (1962), pp. 370ff, and The Problem of the Hexateuch and Other Essays (1966). The article ‘“Righteousness” and “Life” in the Cultic Language of the Psalms’ is dated 1950.
