Fat Jokes in Isaiah 17:1-4

Cutbacks in God’s economy are always sacrificial.

For the introduction to this section (Damascus Judged – Isaiah 17), see Isaiah’s Kill List – Part 2.

The judgment of Damascus is the Ascension step in the sequence of Isaiah 13-20. This theme relates to the firstborn and firstfruits offered in faith before the court of heaven to secure a greater dominion on earth. The beautiful Syrian city of Damascus sat upon a fertile plateau in an otherwise arid region, so Isaiah presents it in irony as a perfect sacrifice, without spot or blemish, lifted up to God. This offering was a human sacrifice that ended the bloodshed required by the baals.

CYCLE 2E1
Damascus & Ephraim Made Barren

(Isaiah 17:1-4)

TRANSCENDENCE
Damascus will be taken away as refuse (17:1)
(Ark taken)

HIERARCHY
The cities will be laid bare, with no inhabitants
to frighten the sheep or cattle (17:2)
(Veil removed)

ETHICS
A threefold removal of:
the fortress for Ephraim (priest – Garden);
the kingdom of Damascus (king – Land);
and the remnant of Syria (prophet – World)
(17:3a)
(Offices removed)

OATH/SANCTIONS
They will suffer the same fate as the
“weighty” sons of Israel (17:3b)
(Laver as the bowl of a set of scales)

SUCCESSION
The fat flesh of Jacob will become emaciated (17:4)
(An offering unfit for the Altar)

The Transcendence Cycle works through the fivefold covenant pattern as a series of covenant curses. But with its threefold Ethics, it is also the deconstruction of a tabernacle. The announcement of the burden is a legal decree of judgment (Ark); the cities are laid bare (Veil); Ephraim (Table), Damascus (Lampstand), and Syria (Incense) are a desecrated Holy Place; the Syrians would stand with Ephraim under judgment in God’s court (Laver); and suffer the same curse upon their God-given abundance (Altar).

Since the Tabernacle was humaniform, this judgment is also Adamic, presenting the cursed Man as a tent from whom the Spirit is departing. Solomon uses a similar device but in a positive way to describe Jerusalem as the blessed Woman (Song of Solomon 4:1-8). The Cycle works from the head (a verbal decree) via the neck (the towers of the city) to the torso (those invested with authority rendered naked), then via the groin (a curse upon the womb) to the feet (a Cainite curse upon the Land in a removal of dominion).

As we shall see, the basic themes of the five Books of Moses are also implicit in the sequence, a reminder that 2E (Damascus) is the Levitical step of the Jachin pillar.

• (17:1) Genesis: Damascus, rather than Ephraim, is the focus at Transcendence because Isaiah 13-20 concerns the gods of the Gentiles. The word used for “city” (meir) was chosen because it sounds like “ruin” (mei). “Removed” can mean “depart” or “turn aside.” It first appears in regard to Noah removing the covering of the ark. Here, it likely alludes to its use in Leviticus for the removal of the glorious covering of fat from the organs of a sacrifice. Damascus was the fat, and all the fat was the Lord’s.
• (17:2) Exodus: The city of Aroer here is likely that mentioned in 15:1. Although far from Damascus, its fertility and desirability made it Ephraim’s equivalent city, and thus an equal “sacrifice.” The point of its mention is its meaning, “laid bare,” from “juniper,” an evergreen bush that often stood isolated and exposed in the wilderness (Jeremiah 17:6; 48:6). The “human sacrifice” of the people under judgment meant that the blameless livestock were left in peace. There is also an allusion here to the priestly Abels being safe from the city-dwelling Cains.
• (17:3a) Leviticus: The Ethics section is not expanded into three Stanzas, but it is internally threefold. The fall of Damascus follows the Triune Office in its effects, and the use of the three domains in this Leviticus Stanza might allude to the spread of sin’s corruption from the Garden, to the Land, to the World.
  – Ascension: the loss of protection for its allies (fruitful Ephraim in this case) under Sargon (no keeper for Adam’s Garden);
  – Testing: no known king after Rezin, who was slain by Tiglath-Pileser (no protection for Cain in the Land);
  – Maturity: and the city’s final, ignominious end—absorption into Assyria under Sennacherib (the dissolution of the Sethite line by intermarriage).
• (17:3b) Numbers: The case for an allusion to fat in 17:1 gains weight with an ironic reference to the “glory” of the sons of Israel, a word related to that for “heaviness,” such as the glory of gold. Because Ephraim allied itself with Damascus in the hope of an increase, they would decrease together under God’s Sanctions. The link to Numbers is the cutting off of the old generation. But the concept of “heavy” glory turning to “weightless” dust is also found in the earlier, related judgment upon Aaron’s gold calf, which was ground to powder.
• (17:4) Deuteronomy: Jacob (as Israel, the Northern kingdom) is referred to as the glorious son of the herd (an allusion to Abel offering the fattest of his flock, not “fat portions” is it is usually rendered). The word “wane” is rendered “impoverished” in Judges 6:6-10, where the Lord refers to Israel’s rescue from Egypt. The diet of Canaan’s milk and honey would be no more. The Deuteronomic blessing would become the Deuteronomic curse.

Stanza analysis

• (17:1; 17:4) The first and final Stanzas are both comprised of nine words, which means that, in Tabernacle terms, the Bronze Altar and the Golden Altar both have something significant upon them. In 17:1, “Behold” is the Bronze Altar (Presentation) and Damascus is the flesh upon it. “From being a city” is the Golden Altar, and this then goes up in smoke. In 17:4, the specified day is the Bronze Altar, and the emaciation makes Jacob unfit for sacrifice. Jacob is the Golden Altar (the man inside the tent) but the fatness is the natural glory of the promise given to Esau (the man outside the tent), the fatness of the earth (Genesis 27:39). The idea is that the spiritual Edomites of the Northern kingdom (as distinct from the faithful remnant) were now disinherited, and would be indistinguishable from Gentiles once they were assimilated through intermarriage.

2E1

Details of Book 1 of The Shape of Isaiah are here.