Comfort for Jerusalem: the second Isaiah as counselor to refugees

Second, there is evidence that the transmission of a traumatic story to the children of survivors can affect their sense of identity. Imparting a collective identity to the next generation as heirs of a story of trauma may convey secondary victimization and stigmatization. Documented cases appear in families of survivors of the Holocaust, the nuclear attacks on Japan, combat veterans and victims of terrorists. In these cases, it is not the experience of the traumatic event, but the narrative constructed around it that influences adaptive processes (Meichenbaum: 19).

The second-generation exiles in Babylon possessed a narrative that allowed for secondary victimization and stigmatization in terms of their collective identity. This was their shared story as defeated Israel, rejected by God. How was this collective trauma story transmitted? Memories of the first two phases of their ancestors' traumatization were continually reinforced by liturgies of lament (complaint psalms) in the exilic community.

Community liturgies appealing for help in the face of national distress appear in poems such as Psalms 44, 74, 79, 80, 83 and in the book of Lamentations. Quotations or allusions to this liturgical tradition can be found in passages such as Isa 40:27; 49:14; 50:1 and 51:9-11 (Schoors: 124). A particularly full engagement with the poems of Lamentations occurs in Isa 51:17-23. There are allusions to Lamentations 2:13-19 (Sommer: 128-30) and also Lamentations 4:1 (Schoors: 129).

We may infer that exiled Israel's trauma story loomed large in its religious consciousness because the engagement of the Second Isaiah with the literature and liturgies of lament is extensive. This function is discernible in all the major genres of the prophet's poetry. Poetic genres promising deliverance include "oracles of salvation" (41:8-13, 14-16; 43:1-7; 44:1-5 and 54:4-6) and "proclamations of salvation" (41:17-20; 42:14-17; 43:16-21; 49:7-13, 14-26; 51:9-16, 17-23; 54:7-10, 11-17 and 55:1-5). The oracles of salvation are addressed to Israel as a personified singular and presuppose an individual complaint psalm; the proclamations of salvation are formulated as responses to collective laments voiced by the people (Gottwald: 493). The interaction between these poems and Israel's liturgies of complaint is evident from the large amount of shared vocabulary and imagery (Schoors: 45-46).

The Second Isaiah's poetry also includes argumentative genres meant to defend the validity of the prophet's message. They comprise "trial speeches" (41:1-5, 21-19; 42:18-25; 43:8-13, 22-28; 44:6-8; 45:18-25 and 50:1-3) and "disputations" (40:12-31; 44:24-28; 45:9-13; 46:5-11; 48:1-11, 12-15 and 55:8-13). The prophet's need to reject accusations against God (a traditional motif of the lament tradition) is prominent in both (Gottwald: 494). The preoccupation with Israel's complaints throughout the poetry of the Second Isaiah suggests the presence of a powerful trauma story that stigmatized the exiles and brought them considerable despair about their future as YHWH's people.