The Study Podcast
September 26, 2022

Woes on Israel – Isaiah 5 & 10-12

This week on The Study Podcast, Dr. Paul Wegner and host Tyler Sanders jump from the beginning to the end of a major palistrophe to talk about the Song of the Vineyard, the Song of Thanksgiving and the woe oracles.

This week on The Study Podcast, Dr. Paul Wegner and host Tyler Sanders get into the Song of the Vineyard, the Song of Thanksgiving and the woe oracles - that means they are jumping back-and-forth through the text!

Why are they talking about Isaiah 5 and 12 and skipping 6-11 this week? Because 5-12 is a palistrophe—a big one! In case you have forgotten, a palistrophe is a literary structure that relates parallel lines, phrases or thoughts in reverse order to highlight a central idea. So, the Song of the Vineyard in chapter 5 and the Song of Thanksgiving in chapter 12 are related, parallel ideas and they are located on opposite sides of the structure—the beginning and end. In between these two songs is the central thought of this passage—we'll get to that idea in a later episode—as well as a series of oracles that fit inside the palistrophe.

Palistrophe Structure of Isaiah 5-12
A. Song of the Vineyard (Is 5:1-7)
B. Six Woe Oracles (Is 5:8-23)
C. Uplifted Hands Oracle (Is 5:24-30)
Isaianic Memoir (Is 6:1-9:7)
C1. Four Uplifted Hand Oracles (Is 9:8-10:4)
B1. Woe Oracle (Is 10:5-11:16)
A1. Song of Thanksgiving (Is 12:1-6)