330 JILL MIDDLEMAS The parts of a metaphor work together, and they act on each other. This is referred to as interanimation by Janet Soskice. By so doing, they compel new possibilities of vision 40. They help us structure the features of the world around us, affect the answers at which we arrive, and even influence the questions we ask. The use of the comparative metaphor for God in the prophetic literature raises the possibility that new con- ceptions of the divine image are generated in the prophetic literature. Its appearance almost exclusively in aniconic contexts suggests further that it is a rhetorical strategy that counters idol creation by resisting the stabilization of the divine image. A brief consideration of the prophetic use of modelling similes for the divine contributes to a better under- standing of the concept of the imago Dei in prophetic and priestly usage. Divine comparative use is found only rarely in Isaiah 40–55 (40,10-11; 42,14; 44,7; 46,9; 54,6 41; 42,13[2x])42. When we restrict our examination to uses embedded in anti-idolatry contexts (thereby excluding 54,6) that do not express incomparability (as in 44,7; 46,9), we are left with four occasions in which the comparison functions as a modelling simile that portrays what the deity appears like: “a shepherd” (h[rk 40,11) 43, “a soldier” (rwbgk 42,13) and similarly “a man of war” (twmxlm vyak 42,13) 44, and “a woman in labor” (hdlwyk 42,14) 45. In Second Isaiah, the deity is likened by the use of the comparative particle, when likened at all, positively to human beings, in human roles. Force and Linguistic Structure (Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy; Oxford 1987); P.W. MACKy, The Centrality of Metaphor to Biblical Thought. A Method for Interpreting the Bible (Studies in the Bible and Early Christianity 19; Lewiston, Ny 1990). 40 SOSKICE, Metaphor, 58-61. 41 The simile can be taken to refer either to the deity or to Jerusalem: “for yHWH has called you like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, like the wife of a man’s youth when she is cast off, says your God” (Isa 54,6). When understood as a reference to yHWH, the comparison with female imagery reinforces the point that for Second Isaiah the deity can be compared to human beings in both genders. 42 Other studies of the divine metaphors (not restricted to similes) in Second Isaiah appear in M.Z. BRETTLER, “Incompatible Metaphors for yHWH in Isaiah 40–66”, JSOT 78 (1998) 97-120; DILLE, Mixing Metaphors, 44-45, 107-114. A more general study of metaphor use and Second Isaiah is found in DEL BRASSEy, Metaphor and the Incomparable God. 43 “Here comes the Lord yHWH [...] Like a shepherd [...]” (Isa 40,10-11, selected). 44 “yHWH goes forth like a soldier, like a warrior [...]”. 45 “[...] now I will cry out like a woman in labour, I will gasp and pant”.