THE PROPHETS, THE PRIESTHOOD, AND THE IMAGE Of GOD 331 The divine similes affirm that the deity of ancient Israel is active in comparison to the idols, which have been shown in the polemic pas- sages to be impotent and immovable statues, unable to influence or ef- fect change. The comparison of the deity with a shepherd is linked to the first PAI passage (40,18-25), where one of the incomparability rhetorical questions, which we have already discussed, appears. The passage insists on yHWH’s incomparability while at the same time pointing to the construction of idols that have a distinct form and are composed of mundane and precious materials. The second compara- tive statement of yHWH as a soldier and a birthing mother is framed by attacks on idols (42,8.17), and these framing passages underscore how yHWH is an active deity in comparison to lifeless carved images 46. Through the use of these different similes, the prophet resists representing or promoting a particular and stabilized divine image. Moreover, divine comparisons stem from examples of humans in the male and female genders. In Second Isaiah, when the divine comparison is used to positively compare the deity to something else, all the examples suggest that the divine image is most like human be- ings in form with an anthropoid body of some sort that is not restricted to a particular gender. The use of images in conjunction with the deity in Second Isaiah reveals similarity and dissimilarity with what we find in the Book of Ezekiel. It is generally recognized that the most graphic visual depiction of the deity appears in the Book of Ezekiel in the visions of the ynda dwbk, “the Glory of the Lord”, in chaps. 1–3 and 8–11. Com- parative depictions of the divine form appear three times in the first two prophetic visions attributed to the prophet Ezekiel: at his call and commissioning, as well as when he is transported to Jerusalem to see the rampant idolatry taking place at the temple complex 47. In the first prophetic vision, the divine morphè is said to have “the form like the general appearance of a human being” (~da harmk twmd) (Ezek 1,26), 46 DILLE, Mixing Metaphors, 44-45, has also drawn attention to the function of the imagery in Isa 42,13-14 within idol polemic. 47 The graphic depiction of the deity occurs only in the first two divine visions that the prophet is said to see and experience. The final vision differs remarkably in that the visual elements of the theophany are downplayed; there is no reference to twmd as in the prior two visions, which would reinforce the visual experience, and instead the stress is placed on what is heard and thus conveyed by the deity, rather than on the divine image. In this way, the final prophetic vision that concludes the Book of Ezekiel is aniconic and in my view promotes anti-iconism by prioritizing the divine word over the divine image.