Sin and Punishment in the Book of Isaiah

This chapter explores the themes of sin and punishment through the lens of a theodicy that the authors and redactors of Isaiah offer to justifyYHWH’s actions and to instruct the Israelites to stay loyal to him. The three parts of Isaiah agree that the exile wasYH­WH’s punishment for the Israelites’ rebellion demonstrated through social injustice and idolatry. However, because of the different historical realities that they address, they present varied understandings of the identity of the sinners and of the rationale for their punishment. The chapter also surveys the changes in recent scholarship in the study of sin and of the correspondence between sin and punishment in the Hebrew Bible. It draws attention to the fact that amid all the declarations of the Israelites’ sins, Isaiah gives voice to the human experience of unjust punishment