Why Does Imagery of Disability Include Healing in Isaiah? *

Abstract

The restoration of the exilic community ranks among the most dominant themes in prophetic literature. Imagery of physical disability serves as a standard element within prophetic oracles concerning exilic restoration throughout the Hebrew Bible. Yet, outside of Isaiah, oracles concerning exilic restoration that involve disability imagery do not usually include physical healings. This article argues that the handful of healings of disability in oracles involving restoration in Isaiah does not invalidate this general rule, even though they are often depicted as representative of the use of disability imagery in prophetic literature. Instead, these seemingly anomalous Isaianic healings may be explained as an element within a larger rhetorical agenda that grows out of Isaianic depictions of the divine protection and restoration of Zion and its inhabitants with physical idealization.