Zion as Woman as God's Dwelling Place in the Book of Isaiah

Zion as Gd's dwelling place

Zion is very much the physical city of houses and walls, but Zion is also a person who dwells within this physical city. Yosebet is a feminine singular participle. It is not a term for Gd, who also ‘lives’ (yoseb) in Zion or who ‘dwells’ [8:18] (soken, always with the masculine singular) on Mount Zion… Yoshevet Zion is the essence of the city seen as a female, the immanent presence that lives within the walls. (Frymer-Kensky, 173)

Zion as Woman

Zion as Harlot

In the very first chapter of the book, Zion, the once 'faithful city,' is said to have turned into a 'prostitute' (1:21). In the metaphor, the city itself is said to be a woman, and what her turning into a prostitute means is clarified in vv. 21b-23. (Stromberg, 62)

Zion as Daughter

...the parabolic “Song of the Vineyard” in Isa 5:1-7 falls within this tradition of Jerusalem’s female personification and constitutes part of Daughter Zion’s larger story in Isaiah.... the vineyard-woman of the parable is Daughter Zion herself. (Hays, 763)

Zion as Wife

Zion as Mother

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Thematic Unity or Disunity?

1. Jacob Stromberg, An Introduction to the Study of Isaiah

“Zion’s destiny is arguably the most pervasive theme in the book, and a key metaphor depicting it is ‘Zion as woman… this metaphor appears in a variety of forms: e.g. Zion as prostitute, as mother, as barren woman, as God’s wife.” (62)

“It is clear from these few examples, to which more could easily be added, that the metaphor of ‘Zion as woman’ appears in a variety of forms in the book, each form being uniquely suited to the rhetorical situation to which the poem was originally addressed -- the first to a pre-exilic city loaded with sin, the second to a pre-exilic city faced with annihilation by an invading army, and the third to a city alone with its population in exile.” (63)

"While each of these metaphors has its own unique shape, there is evidence in the book itself that they were being combined in the latest layers of Isaiah, giving birth to new composite images whose metaphorical force depended as much on being conscious allusion to the earlier passages as it did on its own originality.” (64)

2. Maggie Low, Mother Zion in Deutero-Isaiah: A Metaphor for Zion Theology

“If Zion represents the divinely chosen city rather than the sinful people in DI, then I suggest that mother Zion is correlated with Zion theology in three ways: (1) Zion is innocent of the sin that caused the exile because she is YHWH’s holy city, not YHWH’s rebellious people; (2) although Zion is the personified mother of the people, YHWH is the one who gives birth to her children because Zion theology is rooted in YHWH as the creator; and (3) it is mother Zion as YHWH’s royal city, not Israel, that is exalted over all the nations as a demonstration of YHWH’s sovereignty. Thus, DI uses the female metaphor of Zion not just as a rhetorical device to evoke sympathy from the hearers but also to convey theological convictions that shape the exilic audience’s thoughts and experience.” (2)

3. Rebecca W. Poe Hays, “Sing Me a Parable of Zion: Isaiah’s Vineyard (5:1-7) and Its Relation to the ‘Daughter Zion’ Tradition”

“...the vineyard in Isa 5:1-7 is another layer of the metaphorical representation of Jerusalem... In Isaiah, the story of Daughter Zion weaves throughout the book and progresses from a picture of abandonment and desolation to one of glorious restoration and divine presence.” (760)

4. Tikva Frymer-Kensky, In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture, and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth

“Isaiah’s vision of Jerusalem as the eternal mother of Israel does not supplant the prophetic vision of the remarriage of Gd and Israel… Gd and Zion will be reunited. But the vision of this espousal goes farther, for the children of Israel also marry Zion… Zion goes beyond human family patterns. She is a mystical figure of love for the people of Israel. During the time of exile, she lamented their loss… during their time of glory, she becomes another kind of mediator between Israel and Gd. Through their mutual devotion to the city, Gd and Israel fully join in love together. Through Zion, her children are Gd’s disciples and Gd can say ‘you, my people.’ [Isaiah 54:11, 51:16] The love of Zion is the mutual concern of Gd and Israel. She is the sacred bridge that unites them." (177)

“Zion expresses the belief in the special position of Israel. Zion herself is not ‘divine.’... She is the representative of the people, part of the people, and -- at the same time -- focus of its hopes. The image of Zion is also the image of connectedness… The fluidity of this image of the woman-city, with all the emotions that it generates, embraces the complex passionate interwoven relationship between the people of Israel, its Gd, and Jerusalem…” (178)

Bibliography

• Frymer-Kensky, Tikva. In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture, and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth, (New York: The Free Press, 1992), pp. 168-178.

• Hays, Rebecca W. Poe, “Sing Me a Parable of Zion: Isaiah’s Vineyard (5:1-7) and Its Relation to the ‘Daughter Zion’ Tradition,” Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 135, No. 4 (Winter 2016), pp. 743-761.

• Low, Maggie. Mother Zion in Deutero-Isaiah : A Metaphor for Zion Theology, Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/wftbl-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1632465.

• Stromberg, Jacob. An Introduction to the Study of Isaiah, (T&T Clark International: 2011).

Further Reading

• Blessing, Kamila, “Desolate Jerusalem and Barren Matriarch: Two Distinct Figures in the Pseudepigrapha,” Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, Vol 9, Issue 18, pp. 47 - 69, October 1, 1998. Religion and Philosophy Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed November 12, 2017). https://doi.org/10.1177/095182079800001804

• Maier, Christl. “Daughter Zion as a gendered space in the Book of Isaiah,” Constructions of Space (New York, London: T & T Clark, 2008), pp. 102-118.

• Schmitt, John. “The City as Woman in Isaiah 1-39,” Writing and Reading the Scroll of Isaiah, Volume 1, (1997), pp. 95-119.