Covenant With Death

Death is one of the major themes in First Isaiah, although it has not generally been recognized as such. In this study Christopher Hays offers fresh interpretations of more than a dozen passages in Isaiah 5-38 in light of ancient beliefs about death.Hays first summarizes what is known about death in the ancient Near East during the Second Iron Age, covering beliefs and practices in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria-Palestine, and Judah/Israel. He then shows how select passages in the first part of Isaiah employ the rhetorical imagery of death that was part of their cultural context, and he also identifies ways in which those texts break new creative ground.

This book’s holistic approach to questions that have attracted much scholarly attention in recent decades produces new insights not only for the interpretation of specific biblical passages but also for the formation of the book of Isaiah and for the history of ancient Near Eastern religions.