Isaiah 60:1-6 The canonical Book of Isaiah is composed as a crescendo of recurring themes; each time a theme is revisited, the language is a little more extravagant.  In this passage, despite “thick darkness,” which had engulfed the nations, not … Continue reading →

Jeremiah 31:7-14 Jeremiah, with Ezekiel and Isaiah, dared to speak public words of hope in a desperate time of exile with an announcement: “…says the Lord,” “See I am going to bring… gather them [God’s people in diaspora] from the … Continue reading →

Numbers 6: 22-27 Embedded in this amended and expanded account of God’s people wandering in the wilderness for forty years in the book of Numbers is a priestly blessing, which has become iconic in synagogue and church.  Its origin is from the … Continue reading →

Isaiah 61:10-62:3 The canonical Book of Isaiah is a compendium of interpretations.  Chapters 1-39 are generally attributed to the historical prophet, but even within that original text, chapter 28 is regarded as a reinterpretation by Isaiah himself of the rest … Continue reading →

Christmas I Isaiah 9:1-7 Our comments throughout Advent described the  paradoxical perspective of a new, unexpected, liberating  action by God in the midst of human confusion, doubt and despair.  In the history of patriarchal and matriarchal Israel, that hope in … Continue reading →

Micah 5:2-5a Like his contemporary, Isaiah, the prophet Micah sees in current events a reckoning day of God’s judgment fast approaching.  The fall of the Northern Kingdom was a dire warning to the South (Judah/Jerusalem).  Given his harsh judgments, the … Continue reading →

Zephaniah 3:14-20 The boy-King, Josiah, had grown into a great reformer and restorer of Temple worship in Jerusalem. (It was during his reign that the Book of Deuteronomy was ‘discovered’ in a box and read publicly on the King’s orders.)  … Continue reading →

Baruch 5:1-9 This poem included in the collection given the title “Baruch” announces to Jerusalem that now is the time to take off the drab clothing of “sorrow and affliction” and put on “the beauty of the glory from God.”  … Continue reading →

Jeremiah 33:14-16 This excerpt from the prophecy of Jeremiah, (which is not included in the Septuagint), extends God’s ancient covenant with David into an explicit promise: a “righteous Branch to spring up from David….”  This new act of God will … Continue reading →

Joel 2:23-27 Prompted by the destruction caused by a wave of “locusts” that utterly wiped out the crops, this text, attributed to a “Joel,” addresses the “soil” and the “animals” and then the “children of Zion” with assurance that all will … Continue reading →