Abstract
In this article I build on my previous research in which I read the book of Isaiah and the book of the Twelve intertextually. Messengers of Yahweh in both books appear in sections concerned with Persian times (Isa. 40–66 and Haggai-Zechariah-Malachi) and are associated with laying the foundations of the Temple. However, while in Isaiah laying the foundations at the time of Cyrus is viewed as a future prospect, in the Twelve it is portrayed at the time of Darius as something already accomplished. Accompanying this difference is the portrayal of messengers in Isaiah as deaf and blind, while in the Twelve they are associated with seeing and hearing. This article also strengthens an earlier thesis by Naomi Cohen that messengers in these passages in Isaiah and the Twelve blur the distinction between ‘heavenly’ and ‘mortal’ beings.
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