SSSSSllloooowwwwwllllllyyyyy......

Just so that you know that I'm continuing to work on Isaiah ... but don't have much blog-worthy yet. Here's what I'm doing ... I'm re-reading the first chapter and making lists of the things mentioned in the figurative language used by Isaiah. I have looked online to find a list of the types of figurative language (like I learned in High School and then promptly forgot), and they are:

* simile: a comparison of two dissimilar things using "like" or "as", e.g., "my love is like a red, red rose" (Robert Burns).

* metaphor: a comparison of two dissimilar things which does not use "like" or "as," e.g., "my love is a red, red rose" (Lilia Melani).

* personification: treating abstractions or inanimate objects as human, that is, giving them human attributes, powers, or feelings, e.g., "nature wept" or "the wind whispered many truths to me."

* hyperbole: exaggeration, often extravagant; it may be used for serious or for comic effect.

* apostrophe: a direct address to a person, thing, or abstraction, such as "O Western Wind," or "Ah, Sorrow, you consume us." Apostrophes are generally capitalized.

* oxymoron: a statement with two parts which seem contradictory; examples: sad joy, a wise fool, the sound of silence, or Hamlet's saying, "I must be cruel only to be kind"

(I left out onomatopoeia: a word whose sounds seem to duplicate the sounds they describe--hiss, buzz, bang, murmur, meow, growl; because I don't know enough about the language in which Isaiah wrote (Hebrew?) to know if he used this.) These terms and explanations were taken from the web pages of an English professor at the Brooklyn College.

I am also using several different commentaries ... just for an introduction to the book. You see, I read very slowly, and Isaiah has 66 chapters. It's difficult for me to pick up a theme in a long book, and the introductions written by different commentary authors will help me to create a mental structure for use during my study. Once I get myself pretty much in a "structure" and with some themes in mind, I will begin to comment on my own reading/study of the different chapters and verses.

I also am working slowly so as to be careful NOT to get into "application" too quickly, as I firmly believe that the application portion of study needs to be only a small proportion of the study, after LOTS of observation and some interpretation. Thus ... my first observation from Isaiah, chapter 1, is that there is LOTS of figurative language and I need to decide how to look at that.

I'll be back!! :-)