The starting place for this section of the study is to define what I mean by ‘the Exile’ forming a basic reference point, a task that is trickier than first impressions may indicate. I will also seek to make some initial assessments as to DI’s particular references to exile. There are biblical and theological interpretations of exile, as well as contemporary definitions of exile, some which seek to expand, some which seek to confine who is an exile and what situation constitutes exile. We need to depart from the myths surrounding the term ‘exile’, and correct use of terminology can help clarify what this thesis is and is not talking about. Reading biblical texts regarding exile requires a hermeneutic of suspicion, including interrogating passages or studies that idealise the experience.4
There is available to us a body of terms relating to exile that will be used in various ways during this thesis, depending on the context of the discussion. They include: the Exile (implying the Babylonian exile of Judah in the 6th century BCE), deportation, diaspora, forced displacement and forced migration. Further to these expressions I will also refer to related concepts of liminality and marginality. Each of these words contain specific nuances and domains.
(Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002). For an overview of the different perspectives in scholarship over time see Brad E. Kelle, “An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Exile,” inInterpreting Exile: Displacement and Deportation in Biblical and Modern Contexts, ed. Brad E. Kelle, Frank Ritchel Ames, and Jacob L. Wright, AIL 10 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011), 5-38. I will discuss these contrasting positions later in the chapter.
4. Davies notes “a certain romanticism should perhaps not be excluded as a factor in the scholarly reconstruction of ‘the Exile’. The idea that in the punishment of exile a chastened ‘Israel’ reflected on its own past sins and prepared itself for restoration is an example of one of the powerful mythical topoi of Western Christian culture.” Philip R. Davies, “Exile? What Exile? Whose Exile?,” inLeading Captivity Captive, 132. I note Daniel Smith-Christopher’s direction that “Part of the way forward, I would argue, is to reread texts associated with the Babylonian exile with thepresumption of resistancebut not necessarily a resistance based on
In the realm of biblical studies, references to ‘exile’ contain theological implications. Jill Middlemas has elected to use the term (and title of her book) The Templeless Age to describe the biblical historical period generally known as the Exile.5 Her rationale is that exilic termi- nology can be confusing in terms of dates (i.e., there was not just one ‘exile’) and not all peo- ple in Judah were exiled as such but some elected to leave.6 There were those who also re- mained within the land as internally displaced yet were part of the overall disaster so the term exile may not be suitable to include their experience. There is a concept of loss regardless, particularly loss of the traditional space of worship, the temple.7
In relation to the biblical story, Carroll prefers the term deportation to emphasise the severity and seriousness of the experience.8 John Ahn’s work on exile has further sharpened the dis- cussion around the terminology.9 His argument against using the term ‘templeless’ over and above other terms such as ‘forced displacement’ to describe the situation for the exiles in- cludes the reasoning that there is too great a conflation of the deportations of 597, 586, and 582 BCE, and that “templeless” denotes a situation around worship, not the entirety of the life of those in exile. He expresses a deliberate hesitation to use the term “deportation” for the displacement of the Judeans in 598/586 BCE as in contemporary usage deportation implies il- legal immigration, an intensely politically loaded term used for the expulsion of people seeking refuge in countries such as the USA or Australia today.10 This is a reminder of the sensitive nature of the issue of exile and the classification of displaced people even today.
The historical period of the forced displacement of portions of Judah’s population to Babylon (post 586 but with reference to the earlier forced migrations) is my focus in terms of the
5. Jill Anne Middlemas,The Templeless Age: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the “exile” (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 2007).
6. Middlemas, The Templeless Age, 4. She refers to this as “forced relocation.” 7. Middlemas, The Templeless Age, 5-6.
8. Robert P. Carroll, “Deportation and Diasporic Discourse in the Prophetic Literature,” in Exile: Old Testament, Jewish and Christian Conceptions, ed. James M. Scott, JSJS 56 (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 64.
9. John J. Ahn, Exile as Forced Migrations: A Sociological, Literary, and Theological Approach on the Displacement and Resettlement of the Southern Kingdom of Judah BZAW 417 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2010), 28-29.
10. Ahn explains his sensitivity to terminology suggesting an inappropriate term may “generate unwanted hermeneutics.” Ahn, Exile as Forced Migrations, fn 3, p. 2
community and situation that inspired the words of DI. This does not necessarily mean that DI was composed in Babylon, but with an awareness of the issues raised in exile.11 However, for the purposes of this thesis I will not be limited to this historical era. After the Babylonian exile into the Second Temple era, the term “exile” expanded to include notions of
dispossession and loss beyond geographical or political categories to theological understandings.12 This developing concept of exile may open parallels to contemporary situations, (possibly) contributing to my contextualisation of DI’s theology of exile in the light of post-church communities. The large scope in which scholars are now variously defining and exploring the issue of exile provides new doorways to investigate. As Segovia notes “Diasporas are not all the same: they are highly complex and multidimensional realities.”13
(a) Hebrew definitions of terms for “exile”
The main Hebrew verb הלג has two main meanings: “to depart, go into exile, go into
captivity” and “to uncover, reveal.”14 It is not clear which usage came first, and there may be some relationship between these meanings in that “emigration or exile can be understood as an uncovering of the land.”15 Landy notes ironically (in relation to Isaiah) that the
“Revelation would be the opposite of exile; what is revealed in 40:5, for instance, is the ‘glory of YHWH’ … manifested in the return to Zion.”16 The feminine noun form is תולג and can refer to an exile(s) or to the event of exile (see Isa 45:13) and the הלוגcame to represent
11. The question of DI’s composition location will be discussed later in this chapter and in ch. 4. In short, the views range from considering the message and composition to be located in: Babylon; to 40-48 located in Babylon and 49-55 in Judah; to the entirety located in Judah. For the various rationales for each argument see Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 40-55, AB 19A (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007), 102-104. He ends by noting that the case for a Babylonian location is ‘marginally preferable’. More recently Tiemeyer has argued for a Judahite location. Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, “Geography and Textual Allusions: Interpreting Isaiah Xl- LV and Lamentations as Judahite Texts,”VT57, no. 3 (2007): 367-385; Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer,For the Comfort of Zion: The Geographical and Theological Location of Isaiah 40-55, VTSup (Leiden: Brill, 2011).
12. Martien A. Halvorson-Taylor,Enduring Exile: The Metaphorization of Exile in the Hebrew Bible, VTSup (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 1.
13. Fernando F. Segovia, “Toward a Hermeneutics of the Diaspora: A Hermeneutics of Otherness and Engagement,” inReading From This Place: Social Location and Biblical Interpretation in the United States,ed. Fernando F. Segovia and Mary Ann Tolbert (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995), 60. Segovia discusses various types of diaspora, focussing on a geographic or political situation. His own personal experience as an Hispanic American informs his work.
14. Hans-Jürgen Zobel, “הָלָגgālāh;הָלוֹגּgôlāh;תוּלָגּgālûth,” inTDOT,ed. G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), 478.
15. Zobel, “ הָלָגgālāh,” 478.
16. Francis Landy, “Exile in the Book of Isaiah,” inThe Concept of Exile in Ancient Israel and Its Historical Contexts, ed. Ehud Ben Zvi and Christoph Levin, BZAW (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2010), 252.
the community of exiles (eg: Isa 49:21, Ezek 1:1).17 Gray argues that conceptually הלג “intersects with several domains, including ‘divine punishment’ and ‘covenant’”18 and that it came to have theological meaning despite initially being a secular term. Gray takes
Brueggemann’s suggestion that for the exiles from Judah “…their change in life situation necessitated a new vocabulary, as well as a new theology.”19 In DI the main usage of הלג is in the sense of “reveal” or being uncovered (e.g., Babylon in 47:3), in contrast to Jeremiah and Ezekiel where both concepts are used.20 In relation to the use of the “uncover” concept there may be important links made with the use of uncovering imagery used extensively in Ezekiel in particular in relation to the shame of Israel and her uncovering (as in her sexual
humiliation or assault) as well as in relation to Babylon in DI.21 Also note הלג in Isa 5:13 translates as “go into exile.” Landy notes that in DI the use of the Hebrew for “return” or “repent” בושׁ is more frequently used than הלג to refer to exile.22 It is the ambiguity in these terms that Landy highlights and this may have proven useful in reframing identity, and theological interpretations of exile, as well as encouraging the people to embrace a return. Its use may also be indicative of perspective as the exile is being framed as over in DI.
There are other terms or images that are used to depict exile such as: יבש “captivity” (used in DI in 46:2 in reference to the gods of Babylon, 49:24-25, a rhetorical question where the exiles are the probable subject, and 52:2 captive Daughter Zion); ץופ “to scatter” (used in the Torah and particularly in Deuteronomy in reference to exile but in DI used only in 41:16 in reference to the mountains scattering); and, רוס “to remove”. DI captures the concept of exile by also referring frequently to its antonyms: gathering, return, home, as well as extending concepts such as being taken or carried away, leaving, departing, and removal.23 Carroll
17. See Zobel, “הָלָגgālāh,” 488. Zobel links the use ofthe gôlâhwith the use of the term forremnantin Ezra 9-10.
18. David K. H. Gray, “A New Analysis of a Key Hebrew Term: The Semantics of Galah (‘to Go Into Exile’),”
TynBul 58, no. 1 (2007): 55.
19. Gray, “Galah,” 55. See Walter Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1997), 435-47.
20. The following references are all translated to refer directly to exile or captivity: Jer 1:3; 13:19; 20:4; 24:1; Ezek 12:3; 39:23.
21. Gray makes a direct paradigmatic connection withשובshame and exile, noting Isa 49:21-23 as one example among others Gray, “Galah,” 58.
22. Landy, “Exile,” 242.
23. Gray looks beyond DI, establishing that a concept of exile extends beyond the use of the specific termהלג, with many synonyms. Gray also explains related terms such as the land, covenant and shame. Gray, “Galah,” 55, 52-58.
refers to Jeremiah’s use of the word “hurling” (
לוּט
) as a synonym for exile which has quite a violent connotation.24 This term encapsulates the image of God hurling the people into an alien land and Carroll recounts the significant influence of diasporic identity on the biblical text.25 This raises questions about the nature of a God who abandons the people, and adiscussion in the light of the exilic theology may enable us to find a way through this difficult terrain.
What is clearfrom this exploration is that the HB uses many terms to describe exile, from which DI chooses to take some but not necessarily the ones we would expect. Exile seems somewhat obfuscated in DI, perhaps becoming the unmentionable elephant in the room.26 Sometimes it is by what is missing that we can see the pointers to exile.27 Rather than
historical descriptions of exile, or explicit lamentation, DI depicts exile mainly in metaphor.28 (b) Exile in the Bible
Biblical perspectives on exile are diverse, complex and compromised. Exile looms large in the biblical text, such as the warnings in Deuteronomy 28:36-37 of exile as the ultimate punishment for law breaking (a possible exilic redaction) and is theologically understood as YHWH driving the people out as a curse. Exile is part and parcel of a wider disaster that includes invasion, siege, rape, war, famine, illness, drought, slavery, and destruction of property. Recovery from exile is also a significant theme of the HB. However, the events of the Babylonian exile, despite being formative to the faith practice of the Israelites, are
somewhat repressed in the biblical text. We do not read reams of descriptive outlines of exilic life. It is particularly notable that in the Deuteronomistic history, the exile (and associated traumatic events) is only briefly mentioned. It is increasingly understood that this “gap” or downplaying in the text is a classic sign of trauma.29
24. Carroll, “Deportation and Diasporic Discourse,” 65. Also found in Isa 22:17 in reference to exiling the head of the palace, Shebna.
25. Carroll, “Deportation and Diasporic Discourse,” 65. 26. Landy, “Exile,” 248.
27. On a comparison of Isaiah 6 and 40 where the latter omits the temple vision, see Landy, “Exile,” 249 28. See Martien A. Halvorson-Taylor, Enduring Exile: The Metaphorization of Exile in the Hebrew Bible, VTSup (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 107. Landy also comments on the poetic nature of DI that will use wordplay, puns and attempt to work through disaster via language. Landy, “Exile,” 247-248.
29. David Janzen,The Violent Gift: Trauma’s Subversion of the Deuteronomistic History’s Narrative, LHBOTS 561 (New York: T & T Clark International, 2012); David M. Carr, “Reading Into the Gap: Refractions of
In contrast to the silence we find in the HB on describing the trauma of exile, it is clear that the study of exile is a pivotal part of understanding the biblical narrative and Jewish history.30 Gertz suggests that the concept of exile actually came later than the Assyrian invasions (even though part of their process was to deport), developing more in the Babylonian era.31 This possibly explains why “the Exile” is understood, by implication, to mean the Babylonian exile. The story of exile shapes the narrative of the HB.32