Commentary on Isaiah 61:1-11

Isaiah 61 is part of the postexilic portion of the book, chapters 40–66. This part of Isaiah begins with words of comfort after the Babylonian Exile as some of the people reflected back on Jerusalem’s violent destruction (61:4; 64:11) and faced the hardships of returning to Judah (Isaiah 40). As these chapters go on, themes of judgment return, yet Isaiah 61 is largely meant as comfort.

The passage follows from the promises of Jerusalem’s restoration in Isaiah 60, where the Lord promises to bestow his glory on Jerusalem (60:19–21). Chapter 61 continues this theme, saying that the city will be restored (61:4, 10), that foreigners will serve the people (61:5), that the nations will bring their wealth in service of the temple (61:6), and that wrongdoing is excluded (61:8). However, the implied speaking voice marks this chapter as more literarily complex.

The preceding chapters also develop an episodic series of texts about a servant of the Lord, called the “Servant Songs” (42:1–4; 49:1–6; 50:4–11; and 52:13–53:12). The opening verses of chapter 61 (verses 1–3b) sound very much like another servant text, and have many intertextual and terminological connections with other parts of Isaiah 40–66. The speaker is sent with the spirit of the Lord (see also 48:16) and anointed for the task (45:1). 

He is to bring good news (40:5, 6, 9; 41:27; 52:7, et cetera) to the oppressed (58:10; 53:4, 7) and proclaim liberty to the prisoners (49:9). He is to proclaim (40:3, 6, 26, et cetera) the Lord’s favor (49:8; 60:10; the same word is rendered “acceptance” in 56:7; 58:5; 60:7). He will exact vengeance (47:3; 59:17; 63:4) on the people’s enemies, but will comfort (40:1; 49:13; 51:3, et cetera) those who mourn (61:2–3; 57:18; 60:20; 66:10). 

Yet, far from coming across as derivative, a mere mélange of citations, Isaiah 61 is a moving work of poetry. The inspiring opening in verses 1–2a is used in Luke, when Jesus announces his messianic mission in the Nazareth synagogue (Luke 4:17–19). Interestingly, these two verses are precisely in the middle of Isaiah 60–62. They have sometimes been thought to represent a kernel around which the rest of the text was arranged or composed. 

The claim that “the spirit of the Lord is upon me” invokes a long tradition in the Bible of the spirit coming upon prominent leaders, such as judges (Othniel in Judges 3:10; Jephthah in 11:29), kings (Saul in 1 Samuel 11:6; David in 16:13), and prophets (for example, Ezekiel 11:5; Joel 2:28). The present passage, interestingly, combines aspects of more than one role: The speaker here is called to proclaim like a prophet but also muster the people and rebuild Jerusalem like a king. 

Blessings for the people follow in Isaiah 61:3c–7. They are invited to be priests and ministers, by contrast with foreigners who are to perform brute labor for them. In light of the common vocabulary of ministry, this reads like a pointed reaction against the inclusiveness of 56:6–7. 

The address alternates from the third person to the second person and back; 60:21 also alternated, but that was a singular address to Jerusalem, whereas the second-person forms in 61:5–6 are plural. Textual problems with pronouns in 61:7 suggest that the redactor and/or copyists sometimes struggled to follow the shifting rhetoric. In the context, these verses might appear to be the words of the servant/prophet, but 61:8–9 returns explicitly to the voice of the Lord, and if this is indeed a continuation of 60:21, then it seems best to regard all of 61:3c–9 as divine speech. 

At one level, the promise that “you shall be called priests of the LORD” recalls the ancient promise of Exodus 19:6 (“you shall be for me a priestly kingdom”). In the wider context of Isaiah, the identification of the oppressed “you” (61:1) also seems to prefigure the stark sectarian divisions in 65:8–16 between the blessed servants of the Lord (also addressed as “you”) and “those who forsake” and are accursed (65:11).

The tone of Isaiah 61 remains largely positive, but it offers a summons to the faithful along with its comforting promises. It seems that the “suffering servant” of the Servant Songs gathered around him a community of those who identified themselves as servants of the Lord and were opposed to other Jewish groups during the Persian Period.

The Lord’s offer in 61:8 of “recompense” (see also 40:10) and an “everlasting covenant” (55:3) combines phrases from the first and last chapters of Second Isaiah, which some interpreters have taken as an indication that 40–55 was already fully formed when 60–62 was written. But in any case, it is clear that significant time is passing as we progress from the beginning of Isaiah 40 to the end of Isaiah 66.  

The final verses here (61:10–11) speak of the everlasting covenant as a marriage. This theme has ancient roots in the prophets (for example, Hosea 1–3), and the theme is developed further in the next chapter. But whereas in 62:4–5, Jerusalem is more traditionally portrayed as the bride, in this passage the city is imagined as a bridegroom as well (61:10). These verses extend the imagery of riches and sprouting plants from the preceding as signs of the city’s flourishing. The very natural order was often said to flourish under a just and righteous ruler, and here, despite the somewhat messianic language of the chapter’s opening, it appears that the Lord himself is the ruler by the end of the passage, and the land returns to a state akin to the original garden, Eden.

PRAYER OF THE DAY

Spirit of the Lord God,
You bring good news to the oppressed, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, and release the prisoners. You comfort all who mourn, and shower your people with the oil of gladness instead of mourning; a mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. We will greatly rejoice in the Lord, our whole being shall exult in God, for the sake of the one who brought righteousness to life, Jesus Christ our salvation. Amen.

HYMNS

Hark, the glad sound! ELW 239
Let streams of living justice ELW 710
Praise the One who breaks the darkness ELW 843

CHORAL

Choose something like a star, Randall Thompson