The Battle for YHVH | 195a symbol of the peace of the peoples, perhaps even a symbol in which under the
name of wild beasts certain nations were to be recognized.” Buber reads the con-
clusion of the song (“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,
for the earth shall be full of knowledge of YHVH as the waters cover the sea”) as
circling back to the seraphic proclamation that Isaiah heard (“Holy, holy, holy is
YHVH of hosts, the whole world is filled with his glory”); however, this time with
the idea that all human beings, and not the prophet alone, perceive and recognize
the omnipresence of God.
In the end, Isaiah turns to eschatology—though not to apocalypse—with
his prophecy of the yamim acharim, the “lateness of the days,” when all nations
will flow to the mountain of YHVH, and the “teaching shall go forth from Zion,
and the word of YHVH from Jerusalem,” and consequently the nations beat their
swords into plowshares and refuse to learn war any more (2:1–5). Buber denies
that Isaiah describes an end to history here, noting that the figure of the Messiah
is missing from this purportedly apocalyptic prophecy. The prophecy refers to a
late stage in the redemption process, after the anointed one has fulfilled his func-
tion, namely the internal right ordering of the people of Israel. Indeed, it is only
because of this that the nations now hearken. But “the great arbitration and the
great instruction upon the mount are YHVH’s concern and not His agent’s....
There is here no declaration about a world state under the rule of a world king,
but about the reception of a universal revelation, after which... the peoples will
continue to live their life, but they will be united in the ways of God, Whom they
have come to know.”^91 This is the same vision of theopolitical holiness, achieved
through keeping still, that Isaiah has proclaimed from the beginning. The only
“theological” evolution that has occurred in his long life is that successive disap-
pointments have caused him to imagine a delay in the vision’s achievement.
Disappointment and delay give rise to Isaiah’s doctrine of the remnant, and
to his introduction of concealment, if not esotericism, into the prophetic reper-
toire (“Bind up the testimony, seal the instruction among my disciples,” 8:16).
During the vision of his call, Isaiah receives a difficult and complex task. He
has to harden the hearts of the people, and prevent their returning and being
healed—not by deception, but in and through the word of God itself: “He is not to
deceive his hearers with lying promises, as did that wind-spirit [seen by] Micaiah
ben Imlah, but he is to hand on the true sayings of God.... [W]e cannot avoid the
question as to what prophecy is fitted to act so—in other words, what prophecy of
this kind we find in the extant sayings of Isaiah.”^92 The answer arrives when Ahaz
refuses the sign that Isaiah offers him as proof of the prophecy of the destruction
of Judah’s enemies. The offer and refusal have a theopolitical meaning: by allow-
ing Ahaz to choose a sign, any sign, from any realm, YHVH through Isaiah makes
it known that he is willing, this time, not just to offer but also to guarantee secu-
rity. Ahaz’s refusal (“I will not ask, nor will I try YHVH”) seems on its surface