The leper king

Tonight's reading of the Old Testament was from the Prophet Isaiah. This reading was from chapter 6, introduced that it all happened during the year King 'Uzzyahw died. Our man, perhaps not a nabi just yet, is suddenly transported to the altar of his Lord and our Lord.

He's terrified. Why's he so scared? I propose: because of Isaiah 6:1.

The Deuteronomic History in its four-volume Books Of Reigns, probably first assembled under King Josiah some generations later, has that 'Uzzyahw had leprosy. That sometimes happens to kings in Jerusalem, as we Frangi witnessed with Baldwin IV. There's some moralism, because Deuteronomic, that the king had busted in upon the Sanctum Sanctorum. Graham Hancock in his first and likely best book thought that the Ark of the Covenant was still in there; of course Raiders of the Lost Ark operates on the assumption that since the Deuteronomist did not say so outright, it wasn't.

Isaiah 1-39 might actually precede the Deuteronomist. Intuitively we guessed that its oracles, at least, claim to precede the Deuteronomist, because drrrrp Isaiah preaches to events prior to King Josiah's discovery of the Deuteronomic Book. Thus Aubin's Rescue of Jerusalem. But Dan'el Kahn 10.1017/9781108856416.012 has been arguing that the narrative parts of Isaiah preceded the Deuteronomist too.

Since we know that the Deuteronomist massaged his sources, among which sources was Isaiah 36-9, I must wonder if a post-Deuteronomist - like Baruch - had possibly also massaged what we now have of Isaiah. I mean, beyond attaching a whole second Isaiah to it...

I do not think that the Deuteronomist was lying. If nothing else, there was a limit - not so long after 'Uzzyahw's reign - to how much lying any historian could get away with. In this case, I suspect that Isaiah bears witness to the central fact of 'Uzzyahw's final year. That fact: 'Uzzyahw was a leper.

In that light, also of interest is that Isaiah entered upon G-d's Shekina. Any reader both of Chapter Six and of the Book of Reigns must see Isaiah as the anti-'Uzzyahw. G-d, in His mercy and power, allows to his Prophet that which He denied to the late (or moribund) King. Note that in the real Shekina, the Ark is not there, as contrast John of Patmos.

I propose that Isaiah 6:1 used to be longer than it is in our canon. I think the Ark was in that version of 6:1, which proved more-embarrassing for the Deuteronomist who was of a more iconoclastic bent. I think Hancock was right and Spielberg wrong.

Which is not to say that Isaiah *6:1 was much better as history. More likely the truth was that 'Uzzyahw contracted leprosy on his own... but still insisted upon doing his duties as King, including presiding over certain Temple ceremonies. This was obviously unhygenic and nobody wanted him around. So he was murdered - or at least locked away - to let Hezeqyahw rule instead. Hence, also, the various Temple regulations about not letting @#$% lepers touch all the sacred apparatus everyone else had to use.