Violence, Otherness and Identity in Isaiah 63:1-6

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.