6 - The Language of Isaiah 24–27 in Light of Hebrew Diachrony

Summary

One does not find in Isa 24–27 the frequency of typologically LBH forms found in other texts that seem to date from the late sixth century. There is no similarly dated text that shows a comparably successful avoidance of late features. Still less can a Hellenistic date be seriously entertained; that would take us into the period of the Qumran psalms and the Great Isaiah Scroll, and there is no sign that SBH was being effectively emulated any longer. William R. Millar observed some time ago that the prosody of Isa 24–27 is generally classical, and the same can now be said for its Hebrew. Not only is there is not a single one of the sort of obvious neologisms that characterize the works of the middle to late Persian period; the overall percentage of late features in Isa 24–27 is also low. However one counts, the rate of late features per word in Isa 24–27 is less than that of Isa 40–66, Haggai, and Malachi. The comparison at least suggests that Isa 24–27 is typologically prior to those compositions. Its percentage is in line with the number of late features in Isa 3–6 and Amos.