\JSOT 45 (1989) 91-98]

THE UNFAILING KINDNESSES PROMISED TO DAVID:

ISAIAH 55.3
Walter C. Kaiser, Jr
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
2065 Half Day Road, Deerfeld, IL 60015, USA
The expression hasd dawid ('mercies [or kindnesses] of David'),
which appears only twice, at Isa. 55.3 and 2 Chron. 6.42, has
continued to attract a good deal of scholarly curiosity. Part of the
reason for this interest must be attributed to the continuing
discussion of the role that David played in later texts as witnessed by
such arguments as Acts 13.34 which reasons, 'The fact that God
raised [Jesus] from the dead, never to decay, is stated in these words:
"I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David" '. The
other reason must be the article published by A. Caquot in 1965
challenging the almost unanimous opinion that the construct form of
Isa. 55.3 (usually translated as 'my steadfast, sure love for David'
RSV) was an objective genitive.
In 1974 and again in 1978 W.A.M. Beuken and Hugh G.M.
Williamson both responded to this issue and advanced our
understanding of this problem. Beuken followed Caquot's line of
reasoning favoring a subjective genitive, while Williamson argued
that a strong case could still be mounted for an objective genitive.
More recently in 1981 Pierre Bordreuil has pointed to 1 Mace. 2.57
for further evidence to support the subjective genitive interpretation:
daveid en t eleei autou, "David in his piety'. Bordreuil suggests that
the Hebrew Vorlage would have written the word hesed with the
pronominal determination, thereby confirming the subjective sense
hesed.
Before we reexamine the context of Isaiah 55 and the arguments
for taking the mention of David in v. 3 as a subjective genitive, we
92 Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 45 (1989)
propose to investigate the part that an 'informing theology' (Bright:
143) or 'antecedent theology' (Kaiser, 1981: 134ff.) might have
played in forming the background to this text. In particular, we are
interested in the roles that the deuteronomic theology (Brueggemann)
and certain Psalms (Eissfeldt) played in so many of the prophecies in
the poems of Isaiah 40ff.
The construction of the poem in Isaiah 55 exhibits both the unity
and the clear sense of movement that Walter Brueggemann (pp. 193-
94) pointed to in his 1968 article. The four parts of this chapter
provided the following development of a fairly clear invitation for
Israel:
1. w. 1-5, A Divine Invitation to Spiritual Vitality
2. w. 6-9, The Response of the People to Return to the
LORD
3. w. 10-11, The Reliability of the Divine Word
4. w. 12-13, The Transformation of Nature from that Same
life-giving, Dependable Word
What is even more astonishing is the fact, also noticed by
Brueggemann (pp. 195-98), that the same four major motifs of Isaiah
55 outlined above are probably related and theologically informed by
themes from the Deuteronomic theology. Furthermore, D.J. McCarthy
(pp. 131ff.) found that 2 Samuel 7 occupied a prominent place in the
structure of the Deuteronomic history.
The four central themes of Isaiah 55 and some of their
Deuteronomist linkages are as follows:
1. Life comes through Yahweh's loyalty to David. The phrase hasd
dwid hanne'emnfm in Isa. 55.3 echoes 2 Sam. 7.15-16: 'My faesed I
will not remove from him... Sure (ne'man) are your house and your
kingdom before me forever. Your throne will be established forever'.
The promises made to David were 'sure' (Niphal of 'mn% not only in
Isa. 55.3 and 2 Sam. 7.16, but also in 1 Kgs 8.26 and later in 1 Chron.
17.23 and 2 Chron. 1.9.
2. The human response to this invitation must be to repent. Hans
Walter Wolff (pp. 83-100) has effectively argued that one of the
watchwords of the Deuteronomist was 'to return' (Swb). For
example, in Deut. 30.2, 8,10, the injunction to return (or repent) is
repeated three times. This theme is also to be found in such texts as
1 Sam. 7.3; 1 Kgs 8.33, 35, 47; and 2 Kgs 17.13. Add to this such
shared words as 'seek', and 'find' and the argument for some type of
KAISER The Unfailing Kindnesses Promised to David 93
affinity between Isa. 55.6-9 and the Deuteronomic materials begins
to be impressive.
3. The reliability of the divine word in history. The concept of the
centrality of the word of God for the major events and key turning
points in the life of the nation was forcefully argued by Gerhard von
Rad (1948: 74-91). The series of'good' words uttered by the prophets
formed a whole theology of history; thus we are not surprised to find
Isa. 55.3 connecting the good word of Yahweh with 'the unfailing
kindnesses [offered] to David'. As von Rad put it, 'the gears of
history [changed] with a word of God' (1962:1, p. 342). No wonder
the word and its dependability are connected in Isa. 55.10-11.
4. Blessing replaces the curse on nature. Two of the chapters most
echoed in the prophets are Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.
Literally hundreds of times the alternative prospects of blessings or
curses are invoked in the prophets, depending on whether the people
responded or failed to act on the basis of the message of the prophet.
Isa. 55.12-13 makes this same connection.
What has been claimed for the affinities between Isaiah 55 and the
Deuteronomic theology can also be posited for Psalm 89. If Psalm 89
has its origins prior to the composition of Isaiah 55 (Eissfeldt: 196),
and if its central part (w. 2-38) consists of a hymn to Yahweh who
has promised to bless David and his line of offspring, then the
remarkable similarities between this Psalm and Isaiah 55 are of more
significance than mere curiosity.
Repeatedly Psalm 89 affirms the promise of grace to David with
such words as: fiasd YHWH, 'Yahweh's promises of grace' (v. 2);
*mnteka
y
'your faithfulness (v. 3); berit> 'covenant' (v. 4); nba't
y
have sworn' (v. 4); ^mntt wehasd, 'my faithfulness and my
grace' (v. 25); hasdi bert, 'my grace and my covenant' (v. 29);
hasdi, 'my grace' (v. 34); 'emuntt, 'my faithfulness' (v. 34); berty 'my
covenant' (v. 35); mos'ifptay, 'my promise' (v. 35); niSba'ti, have
sworn' (v. 36); berit, 'covenant' (v. 40); hasadek hri'sOnim, 'your
former promises of grace' (v. 50); and nba't ledwid b
e
>
e
muntek>
'which you have sworn to David in your faithfulness' (v. 50)
(Eissfeldt: 197-98).
It is clear that Psalm 89 and Isaiah 55 employ many of the same
words and expressions. Interestingly enough, however, there is no
direct reference to what the author of Psalm 89 made the distinctive
substance of the promise of God to David: that one of his sons would
always sit on the throne to rule over the nations. That the centrality
94 Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 45 (1989)
of David and the promise given to him are the keys to understanding
what God is doing in the complex arena of the times and for uniting
the themes of Isa. 55.3 is not 'wrongly interpreted' from its
connection with the Deuteronomic theology or with Psalm 89, as
W.A.M. Beuken suggested (p. 63). While Beuken concedes the
parallel occurrences in these texts with Isaiah 55, he feels that the
context of Isa. 55.3-5 'has too little been taken into account. Isa. 55,
3-5 rather shows real affinity with Ps. 18' (p. 63).
Beuken's major emphasis on the context is to show that there is an
intrinsic contrast between bertt 'lam, 'the everlasting covenant [of
Yahweh]' and hasd dwid, 'the manifestations of David's loyalty, (p.
56). 'The manifestations of David's loyalty' are worked out in v. 4a,
i.e. in David's being a witness to the nations, 'd Vmrrnm. 'The
everlasting covenant' is worked out in v. 5'Surely, you will
summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you
will hasten to you because of Yahweh, your God, the Holy One of
Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor'.
But does this text exhibit the polarity that Beuken points to? Is
David as a 'witness' ['d\
9
a 'leader' [ngid], and a 'commander of the
peoples' [rrfsawwh le'ummtm] a contrasting figure with Israel who is
to come into contact with nations which neither know her nor does
she know them? Is David the active witness to the nations while
Israel is passive as God's action of investing her with splendor sets
out a different course for her destiny?
The chiastic structure that Beuken advocates for w. 3-5 is as
follows:
Manifestations of David's Loyalty Everlasting Covenant
v. 3b v. 3ba
v. 5 v. 4a
Such a structure faces the clear objections pointed out by Williamson
(p. 46). The verb notan does not necessarily imply that David has a
task 'set' before him which he must do rather than God. On the
contrary, whenever God is the subject of this verb, especially in this
section of Isaiah, there the gracious act of God is exhibited (e.g. with
the servant of the LORD, Isa. 42.6; 49.6, 8). Instead of the emphasis
being on human volition, the act ends up being a new work of
God.
Beuken finds his strongest background for Isa. 55.3 in Psalm 18.
David's special role did not consist in some declaration of God or a
grace conferred on him; on the contrary, it consisted of David's
KAISER The Unfailing Kindnesses Promised to David 95
outspoken praise of Yahweh's name (Ps. 18.50). That is how he
became a 'witness'.
Psalm 18 is indeed germane to the argument, but why did Beuken
delete v. 51 from his discussion, asks Williamson (p. 48)? Yahweh
'shows grace to his anointed, to David, and to his seed forever',
(we'oeh hesed UmeSiho ledwid lezar'

ad
(
lm). Indeed, the very
Psalm that Beuken had used to interpret Isa. 55.3-5 contains the
same kind of clear connection between God's hesed and David's role
that formed such a major role in texts such as 2 Samuel and Psalm
89.
Isaiah 55 does focus on David, contrary to Beuken's strong
argument to the contrary. The real intent of the passage does not
appear to focus solely on the everlasting or new covenant or the
splendor that Yahweh would grant to Israel. Rather, the 'unfailing
kindnesses [promised] to David' were given pride of place since
David and his offspring were to be channels through whom these
blessings would flow to all mankind. These were the promises that
were 'forever', 'sure', and 'established'.
How, then, did David function in this discussion of the invitation
for life offered in Isa. 55.1-3a as a gift to all? Is the text speaking of
some second David or the Messiah who was to come? We think not,
for as Franz Delitzsch noticed: 'The directly Messianic application of
the name "David" is to be objected to, on the ground that the
Messiah is never so called without further remark' (1954, , p. 355).
David, in this text, is still the son of Jesse.
The promise that Yahweh had given to David in 2 Samuel 7 was
an exercise of divine hesed. In v. 15 God promised: 'my grace (hasdi)
shall not depart from [David and his seed], as I took it away from
Saul,... but your house and your kingdom will be made sure
{ne
9
man\ forever {'ad 'lam), before you'. This theme is echoed in
numerous passages.
Thus the double 'behold' in w. 4 and 5 links, rather than
contrasts, the two missions of David and Israel. The fact that v. 4 has
the Perfect (past) tense and v. 5 has the imperfect (future) tense does
not mitigate this bonding. In fact, it builds on the previous promise to
David and links that word with what God will do for Israel.
Accordingly, v. 4 serves as the type and v. 5 as the antitype. David
was such a good witness to the nations that he was able to say in Ps.
18.43, 'people that I did not know served me'. But God will glorify
Israel as well, and in consequence, nations that never knew her will
run to her because of the Lord her God.
96 Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 45 (1989)
The case for understanding 'the kindnesses of David' as a
subjective genitive fails not only the tests of the ancient versions and
the grammatical examination of construct relationships where
'kindness' is governed by a pronominal suffix or a noun, but it also
fails to meet the text of contextual considerations and the parallels
found in the Deuteronomic theology and the Psalms.
But is the promise made to David transferred to the nation Israel,
as so many have claimed on the basis of Isa. 55.5? Since the text
admittedly does not interpret Yahweh's promises concerning a
throne to David exactly as did 2 Samuel 7 or Psalm 89, von Rad
(1965: , p. 240) argues that it makes these same promises over to
the nation Israel. The theological significance of such a move for von
Rad was that 'Israel is to become the sovereign ruler (ngd ) of the
peoples (Is LV. 4). In thus "democratizing" the tradition Deutero-
Isaiah actually robs it of its specific content. Indeed, the Messianic
hope had no place in his ideas. This bold reshaping of the old David
tradition is an example, though admittedly an extreme one, of the
freedom with which the old traditions are interpreted'.
Will this assessment of the relationship of w. 4 and 5 of Isaiah 55
stand up to a vigorous scrutiny of the text as we have it? We do not
think it will. To detach the unfailing or inviolable kindnesses or
mercies from David and to transfer them over to the nation of Israel,
as many interpreters understand these words, would run contrary to
the emphatic claim that these promises were hamte'emamm, 'certain',
or 'unfailing'. That had also been the point of 2 Sam. 7.15, 'my mercy
shall not depart from [David]', as it had also been in Ps. 89.37,
'[David's] seed shall endure forever'. Beuken realized the problem
that Isaiah's hanne'emnm created, but he countered by noting that
the Niphal of 'mn could also be used for the attitude of the people
towards God (e.g. Num. 12.7 of Moses; 1 Sam. 3.20 of a priest; 1
Sam. 2.35 of Samuel, etc.) (p. 53). While Beuken's examples certainly
function as he claims, they are not associated with the words and
ideas that are found in Isa. 55.3 such as kindness, covenant or David.
Furthermore, in spite of Beuken's denial, the relationship between
the two terms ('the everlasting covenant' and 'the unfailing kindnesses
to David') is that of an apposition, in which the apposition is a part of
the whole, rather than a qualification to the everlasting covenant.
The problem with the 'democratization' view is that it fails to
appreciate that already in 2 Sam. 7.19 Yahweh had startled David by
promising him that his throne, dynasty and kingdom would be 'a
KAISER The Unfailing Kindnesses Promised to David 97
charter for [all] humanity' (wezo't tart h'dm) (Kaiser, 1974). In
other words, included in the divine pledge to David is the idea of a
collective or corporate solidarity with all who would believe from all
the nations and thereby participate in that same word of promise. In
fact, for that matter, the principle of the inclusion of the nations in
the promise is echoed in the promise of the 'seed' in Gen. 3.15 and in
frequent promises to the patriarchs. The 'seed' was the individual
representative of the whole group, but the seed was simultaneously
in its collective singular nature the whole group as well, for the term
took on technical status in the life of the community of Scripture
writers (Kaiser, 1989: 121-24).
Accordingly, the promise assigned to David, both in the prophetic
materials and in the Psalms and the Deuteronomic theology,
includes blessing for all the peoples and nations. Of course the
promises given to David were to be realized in the whole nation of
Israel for the benefit of all the peoples of the earth. But that is
precisely the witness of other promise texts referring to the
patriarchs as well as to David. The promise given to David is not
transferred to Israel in Isa. 55.3-6; it is shared with Israel in the
inception of the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Beuken, WJVJVl.
1974 'Isa. 55, 3-5: The Reinterpretation of David', Bijdragen 35: 49-64.
Bordreuil, Pierre
1981 'Les "grces de David" et I Maccabees 57, VT 31: 73-76.
Bright, John
1975 The Authority of the Old Testament, Grand Rapids: Baker Book
House.
Brueggemann, Walter
1968 'Isaiah 55 and Deuteronomic Theology', ZAW 80: 191-203.
Caquot, A.
1965 'Les "Grces de David". A propos d'Isae 55/3b', Semitica 15: 45-
59.
Delitzsch, Franz
1954 Biblical Commentary of the Prophecies of Isaiah, trans. James Martin;
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Eissfeldt, Otto
1962 'The Promises of Grace to David in Isaiah 55.1-5', in Israel's Prophetic
Heritage, ed. . Anderson; New York: Harper & Brothers.
Kaiser, Walter, Jr. C.
1974 'The Blessing of David: The Charter for Humanity', in The Law and
the Prophets, ed. John Skilton; Nutley, New Jersey: Presbyterian and
Reformed.
1978 Toward an Old Testament Theology, Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
98 Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 45 (1989)
1981 Toward an Exegetical Theology, Grand Rapids: Baker.
1989 Back toward the Future: Hints for Interpreting Biblical Prophecy,
Grand Rapids: Baker.
McCarthy, D.J.
1965 Samuel 7 and the Structure of the Deuteronomic History', 84:
131ff.
Rad, Gerhard von
1948 Studies in Deuteronomy, Chicago: Henry Regnery.
1962 Old Testament Theology, I, trans. D.M.G. Stalker, New York: Harper
&Row.
1965 Old Testament Theology, II, New York: Harper & Row.
Westermann, Claus
1969 Isaiah 40-66: A Commentary, Philadelphia: Westminster.
Williamson, Hugh G.M.
1978 "'The Sure Mercies of David": Subjective or Objective Genitive?'
JSS 23: 31-49.
Wolff, Hans Walter
1975 'The Kerygma of the Deuteronomic Historical Work', in The Vitality
of Old Testament Traditions, by Walter Brueggemann and H.W. Wolff,
Atlanta: Knox.
^ s
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