Violence disturbs. And violent depictions, when encountered in the biblical texts, are all the more disconcerting. Isaiah 63:1-6 is an illustrative instance. The prophetic text presents the ‚Arriving One‘ in gory details (“trampling down people“; “pouring out their lifeblood“ v.6). Further, the introductory note that the Arriving One is “coming from Edom” (cf. v.1) may suggest Israel“s unrelenting animosity towards Edom. These two themes: the ‚gory depiction‘ and ‚coming from Edom‘ are addressed in this book.
Irudayaraj uses a social identity reading to show how Edom is consistently pictured as Israel“s proximate and yet “other“-ed entity. Approaching Edom as such thus helps situate the animosity within a larger prophetic vision of identity construction in the postexilic Third Isaian context. By adopting an iconographic reading of Isaiah 63:1-6, Irudayaraj shows how the prophetic portrayal of the “Arriving One“ in descriptions where it is clear that the “Arriving One“ is a marginalised identity correlates with the experiences of the ’stooped‘ exiles (cf 51:14). He also demonstrates that the text leaves behind emphatic affirmations (“mighty“ and “splendidly robed“ cf. v.1; “alone” cf. v.3), by which the relegated voice of the divine reasserts itself. It is in this divine reassertion that the hope of the Isaian community“s reclamation of its own identity rests.
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