Redaction: At this verse, the speaker changes from Yahweh to Israel. This particular change of speakers is confusing since the imperative “awake, awake” certainly sounds as though the speaker is continuing. However, the address to the “arm of the Lord” makes the change of speaker clear.
The text contrasts Yahweh’s position with Israel’s. In verses 1–8 Yahweh has emphasized the eternal continuity of his promises and the eventual certainty of his victory. In verses 9–11, Israel exhorts Yahweh to active participation in the present, calling on him to “awake.”
Israel contrasts God’s vast vision with its immediate need, reminding Yahweh of his involvement with Israel in the past and the need to do so again. The nation demands political and military intervention (the “arm of the Lord”), not spiritual.
Literature: Victor Ludlow notes that Rahab is a sea monster and “probably represents Satan (see… Isa. 17:1), but might also represent Egypt. Perhaps Isaiah is reminding the people of Yahweh’s victory over Satan as well as his miracles in Egypt.”
Isaiah is alluding to a large body of poetic and mythic material that was part of the preexilic understanding Yahweh’s actions in the heavens. Part of this preexilic conception of Yahweh was as a warrior who fought cosmic battles (perhaps a memory/image of the war in heaven). One battle was against a personified and deified Sea. The sea monsters, such as Rahab, are poetic representations of this adversary; defeating the sea monster is an allusion to Yahweh’s cosmic defeat of the Sea. In the parallel literature of Ugarit (where Baal is the equivalent of Yahweh), the Sea is the enemy and opponent of Baal. (See1 Nephi, Part 1: Context, Chapter 1, “The Historical Setting of 1 Nephi,” for more information on the Ugaritic literature.) Therefore, Isaiah’s poetic image awakens echoes of those tales, making Rahab the structural equivalent of Satan the adversary.