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In this paper we take up two overlapping aspects of the way in which the toughness of the Psalms can fulfill a constructive function. The first part (chiefly the work of Kathleen Scott Goldingay), published in the previous issue of Theology, looked at the way their poetic nature can have an ethical effect on the person who uses them. This second part (chiefly the work of John Goldingay) considers the significance of using the imprecatory psalms.1

Genesis, Exodus, Ruth, Samuel-Kings and Chronicles include a number of stories about epidemic and famine that may resource us as we wonder how to think about the Covid-19 pandemic, about how God might be involved in it, about the past and the future, and about what our response to it might be.

The chapter first reviews the background of renewed interest in the Isaiah scroll in the form in which it appears in the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings. Second, it considers canonical readings within the Isaiah Scroll itself, which involve later parts of the scroll taking up earlier prophecies that appear within the scroll such as Isa 6, and also prophecies from elsewhere such as Hos 1–2. Third, it reflects on the canonical reading of the scroll, the view that the scroll itself has a canonical form, and sets alongside that view the understanding that the scroll is purposefully organized but that a canonical reading of it takes up this form rather than underlying it. Fourth, it considers canonical readings of and from the scroll, notably, within the New Testament, and the implications of the idea that the scroll became a canonical text.