Summary of Haftarat Shemot
Isaiah 27:6-28:13, 29:22-23
(Messianic addition by FFOZ to 28:16)
Isaiah 27:6-28:13 spans several different poetic units. Each is a self-contained oracle. The first verse of the haftarah is actually the last verse of an oracle we can call “The Vinedresser’s Song.” The haftarah concludes part way through a fourth oracle, a “Woe to Ephraim and Judah.” The haftarah includes all or parts of these oracles.
The Vinedresser’s Song (27:2-6)
Measure for Measure (27:7-11)
In That Day (27:12-13)
Woe to Ephraim and Judah (28:1-29)
Isaiah 27:6-28:13 contains difficult and sometimes ambiguous poetry, but it is ripe with agricultural and botanical imagery. Israel is a plant that strikes root in the ground, sprouts, blossoms, and fills the earth (27:6). Abandoned Samaria is overgrown with briars and becomes grazing grounds for cattle (27:10). The children of Israel are like olives during the harvest (27:12). Ephraim is a fading flower in a fertile valley (28:1) and like an early ripe fig, plucked and eaten (28:4).
Isaiah pronounces doom and woe upon Israel and Judah, but his fearful prophecies are punctuated with glimpses of the redemption. The LORD punishes Israel for their sin measure for measure, but He will also punish the nations that strike Israel. Isaiah predicates that Samaria and the cities of Israel will fall to invaders, but in the future, the LORD will sound a great shofar and bring the exiles back from Assyria and Egypt. He pronounces a woe upon Samaria and depicts the leadership of Israel as spiritually inebriated. He levels the same charge against the leaders of Judah. He warns them that because they will not listen to the word of the LORD from him, they will hear it in the form of invaders speaking a foreign language.
From FFOZ Voice of the Prophets
Ffoz.org