Chapter One

Isaiah has been called "the evangelical prophet." More insights into the person and work of Christ are found in this book than in any other book of the Old Testament. Even Isaiah's name reflects his message: "the salvation of the Lord." The book of Isaiah is the first of what is called the Major Prophets, so called because of the size of the book, not because of its importance. The Jews classified the Old Testament prophets as the former prophets and the latter prophets. Isaiah belonged to the latter prophets. Another way of classifying the prophets is: preexilic, exilic, and postexilic. Isaiah would belong to the preexilic group.

Isaiah was also prophet par excellence of the classical era of prophecy. Along with Amos, Hosea and Micah, he was a bright star in the prophetic constellation of the eighth century B.C., soaring like an eagle in his literary and theological distinction. No prophet of his time more fully comprehended the gravity of the Assyrian threat and its implications for the immediate present and remote future.

The book of Isaiah has always been regarded as an especially beautiful literary production. Of course, it is much more than that because it is part of the written Word of God.

One should not compare one part of Scripture with another part to the detriment of either, for it is all the pure, holy, life-giving message from the infinite God, the gracious heavenly Father of all those who put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Nevertheless, it is desirable to note some of the major features that make Isaiah an outstanding book. Each person who reads and studies Isaiah doubtless will have impressions of his own. These are some of the impressions that are common to many readers, including:

One such impression is the sheer magnitude of the prophecy. There is so much here in range of time, space, and ideas that even one who is familiar with the book will frequently be overwhelmed. Led by the Spirit of God, the prophet gave a comprehensive view of his own time: a period of turmoil, war, misery, and fear for many of his contemporaries, and yet a time of witness to, service for, and confidence in the sovereign Lord who is the disposer of all events.

Carried along by the Holy Spirit, Isaiah looked ahead to his own country's destruction by the Babylonians, and then beyond that to the return. That return from the Babylonian captivity, however, is not the ultimate in deliverance. It furnishes the prophet with the analogy for looking toward a much greater deliverance in the more distant future - deliverance through the Messiah, who is so prominent in this book.

One cannot stress too much the necessity of reading and meditating on the book of Isaiah itself. Commentaries can be helpful, but they must not get in the way of the inspired text. The way to know Isaiah is to read Isaiah - a self-evident truth often overlooked even by some earnest Bible students.

The Word of God is both like and unlike other books. It must be studied, for its contents cannot be acquired in some magical way without effort. Yet there is a spiritual as well as an intellectual element in its apprehension. One could know the various sections of the book perfectly and even think through it chapter by chapter without comprehending its spiritual teaching.

Therefore, the careful student will avoid mere knowledge for the sake of knowledge, but he will acquire knowledge as a means to a greater understanding and appreciation of what God has given. One should always allow the Spirit of God to make personal application of Scripture to one's own life.

It is useless to trace the judgment of God in Isaiah and to note God's comfort for His people, and to see how these two elements - judgment and comfort - make a unified whole, if one sees it all only as an abstraction, as a lovely but theoretical essay or story. The Bible is intensely practical, and if one cannot learn from both its precepts and its examples, something must be lacking in the experience of the reader. One must not be come so absorbed in the beauties of style and the symmetrical arrangement of Isaiah that one loses sight of his own need of repentance and trust in the Redeemer depicted there.

Nor should one become discouraged if he cannot see immediately all the relationships of the parts to the whole. The book is admittedly overwhelming, but familiarity will help. In contemplating the things of God, familiarity does not breed contempt, but rather the opposite. The saint who has made the Scriptures his lifetime study seems to be awed more and more by them.

A second impression from Isaiah is the realization of the majesty and greatness of God. The God who is described in this book in His omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, eternality, immutability, holiness, love, mercy, and grace cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be brought down to the level of destructive critics. To speak of the God of the Old Testament as a "tribal" or "national" God is sheer nonsense, and it is equally nonsensical to suppose that the godly people of Old Testament times thought of God in any such way. As will be sufficiently demonstrated, Isaiah portrays God as the one and only living and true God who deserves and demands universal acceptance and worship. Isaiah's message is a universal message, reaching to the "ends of the earth."

In the course of this study some of the outstanding names of God in Isaiah will be examined, including His covenant name, YHWH (generally spelled Yahweh, or in the older tradition Jehovah), as well as Isaiah's distinctive title for God, the "Holy One of Israel." The majesty of God is related to His moral character. As the Holy One, He is not the God of mere naked power, but the God of holiness. His nature is always in perfect harmony with His moral character. All that He is and all that He does is absolutely right, pure, and free from all defilement of sin. Because He is the Holy One, He can redeem those who put their trust in Him and must judge and punish those who reject and disobey Him.

Along with his descriptions of God's glory and majesty and his characterization of God as the Holy One, Isaiah does not neglect the aspect of God's character comprehended in the term "the love of God." His goodness, longsuffering, mercy, grace, gentleness, and lovingkindness are all seen in abundant measure in the pages of this great prophetic book.

Another impression gained from the reading of Isaiah is the reality of the promised kingdom for the nation of Israel. In the face of so large a body of prophecy concerning future blessings for the despised and scattered nation, it is hard to see how so many readers and interpreters blithely assume that the church is everywhere in view; that the church is Israel, that the church is the kingdom, and that there is no objective standard in the fulfillment of prophecy. Because of that prevalent misconception, this study places a great amount of stress on the literal fulfillment of prophecy.

Still another impression is the messianic character of the book of Isaiah. It will be developed in a number of places in this study, but at this point it is sufficient to say that the faithful reading of Isaiah will reveal why he is so often called the "prophet of the gospel" or the "evangelical prophet." One could construct a fairly detailed account of the earthly life and ministry and the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the pages of Isaiah alone. The messianic references are not confined to one section of the book, but are scattered throughout.

Yet one must not make the mistake made by the religious leaders of Christ's day. They looked for eternal life in the bare pages of Scripture and rejected the Person whom those pages described (see John 5:39-40).

It is not enough to marvel at the prophetic pictures of Christ in Isaiah, pictures so sharply drawn that they could not be accidental. One must have a personal relationship to the Christ described there. The gospel is here in its pure essence, given prophetically by the Holy Spirit long before the Lord Jesus actually came into the world. Isaiah saw His glory (John 12:41), and the student of Isaiah can also see His glory.

The tragedy of Israel's unbelief, in spite of all the evidence in Isaiah and elsewhere, is set forth in all its stark reality at the close of the book of Acts, and, as might be expected, it is set forth by a quotation from Isaiah.

The apostle Paul, following his customary procedure of giving the Jews an opportunity to accept Christ whenever he came to a new locality, spoke at length with the Jewish men of influence who would come to his home in Rome (where he was a prisoner in his own rented house). "From morning until evening" (Acts 28:23) he discussed with them the Old Testament Scriptures concerning Christ. The record states that he expounded the Law of Moses and the Prophets, and it is certain that Isaiah was referred to a great many times in the course of that momentous discussion. The results, from a human point of view, were disappointing:

"The salvation of God" (or "the Lord") is the theme of this prophecy, of which the prophet's name (as will be shown) is the symbolic testimony. In accordance with the prophecy, the message has gone out to the Gentiles; the message of Christ is being proclaimed to "the ends of the earth."

When people today speak of prophecy they customarily mean prediction of the future. But that is not the basic concept of prophecy in the Old Testament. The prophet was primarily a spokesman for God to the people of his generation - instructing, exhorting, and admonishing. Like the priest in Israel, he was an intermediary between God and men. But whereas the priest was man's representative to God - offering sacrifice and making intercession - the prophet was God's representative to men, delivering a message from God. Sometimes the same man held both offices, as in the case of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:1) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:3). It is unlikely that Isaiah was a priest as some have thought (because of his presence in the Temple when he had his great vision of God in Isaiah 6), for he says nothing about holding that office.

The New Testament declares that in former times God had spoken "to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways" (Hebrews 1:1), and that prophecy did not originate with men, but "men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God" (2 Peter 1:21). Isaiah was such a spokesman as described in those passages.

It would be a mistake, however, to exclude prediction from prophecy altogether. Though the prophet spoke to his own time, he also spoke to future times. Foretelling the future, it is clearly shown in Isaiah, is the prerogative of God alone (Isaiah 46:9-10). The knowledge of the future that God revealed through the prophet was incontrovertible evidence that his entire message came from God and that he was not a mere preacher who launched out on his own.

The certainty of the future that God foretells is based not merely on the fact that God knows ahead of time what will take place, but on the fact that He is the sovereign Creator of history, just as He is the Creator of matter and of all things. The future is certain because it is within the all-compassing decree of the sovereign God (see Isaiah 44:6-45:25).

Consequently, in Isaiah we can expect to find both the near view and the far view. God had messages that He gave through His servant to the kings and other people of Isaiah's time to meet the exigencies of life in their day, but He also gave words about coming events and even far distant prospects. The judgments of the turbulent Assyrian period in which Isaiah lived and ministered also foreshadowed greater judgments to come: the Babylonian captivity a century after Isaiah's lifetime; and the far distant judgments of the end time, that terrible "Day of the Lord" mentioned by a number of the prophets, still future after twenty-six centuries.

Those near and far views, however, are not restricted to judgment, for Isaiah is emphatically a prophet of consolation. He is permitted by God to see not only the return from the Babylonian captivity, to be brought about by the Persian king Cyrus in the sixth century B.C., but also the future millennial reign of the Messiah, a time of glorious righteousness and peace on this earth. No book of the Bible has more to say about that in more breathtaking language than Isaiah.

The historical background of Isaiah is found in 2 Kings 15-20 and 2 Chronicles 26-32. Isaiah 37 and 2 Kings 19 are identical. Isaiah's ministry spanned the latter half of the eighth century before Christ.

For two hundred years the kingdom of Judah had been ruled by descendants of David, a lineage of both evil and good men. The divine assessment brands Ahaz as one who "did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God" (2 Kings 16:2); but the other three kings mentioned in Isaiah's prophecy were among the eight good kings of Judah (2 Kings 15:3, 34; 18:3). Even Uzziah (called Azariah in 2 Kings 15:1) is characterized in that way, in spite of his sin in later life of intruding into the priestly office contrary to the command of God. Scripture describes him as "so proud that he acted corruptly," and as "unfaithful to the Lord his God," explaining that he "entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense" (2 Chronicles 26:16). During the closing years of his life he bore the disease of leprosy in his body as God's judgment on his effrontery, and his son Jotham reigned in his stead.

Uzziah's long reign of fifty-two years was a time of domestic prosperity and greatness in foreign relations. It overlapped for some years with the lengthy reign of Jeroboam II of the house of Jehu in Israel, during which time the Northern Kingdom also was very prosperous. One great difficulty was that the outward prosperity caused many to forget God. The warning that God had given through Moses was disregarded and consequently took effect: "Then watch yourself, lest you forget the Lord" (Deuteronomy 6:12; see the context in vv. 10-25). In both kingdoms the spiritual decline led to apostasy. Conditions in Israel were especially grave, as portrayed in Amos and Hosea, but Judah was not exempt, as Isaiah clearly shows.

The death of King Uzziah, which took place in the same year that Isaiah had his remarkable vision of the Lord (6:1), was probably in 740 B.C. That date gives a chronological reference point by which to date some of the other events in the book. The Assyrian invasion under Sennacherib, described in Isaiah 36, probably occurred in 701 B.C., although it must be admitted that there are chronological difficulties (see the study guide regarding chapter 36). Those two events give a span of approximately forty years, not quite enough to encompass the prophecies of the entire book.

Hezekiah's death probably came in 686 B.C. Although Hezekiah's son, Manasseh, is not mentioned in the superscription of Isaiah's prophecy, ancient tradition asserts that Isaiah's ministry continued into the early years of that wicked ruler's reign, and that the prophet was put to death by Manasseh, who allegedly used a most cruel and unusual form of execution by having the prophet sawn in two. Many believe that the reference to that terrible method of torture in Hebrews 11:37 alludes to Isaiah. That is possible but uncertain.

From the dates given in Isaiah it can be surmised that the prophecies are arranged in chronological order (see Isaiah 6:1; 7:1; 14:28; 20:1; 36:1).

Although many nations are in view in Isaiah's prophecy and his vision extends to the whole world, the focus is on his own country of Judah and his own city, Jerusalem (Isaiah 1:1). He was aware of events in the Northern Kingdom (Israel) but dealt with them primarily as they affected Judah. The superscriptions of prophetical books of that period show that Amos and Hosea were some what older contemporaries. Amos, although from the town of Tekoa in Judah, prophesied primarily to Israel, as did Hosea (Amos 1:1; Hosea 1:1; 7:1).

The notation about the reigns at the beginning of Micah indicates that he, like Isaiah, was a prophet to Judah, beginning his ministry somewhat later than Isaiah (Micah 1:1).

According to the supersciption (1:1), Isaiah's ministry took place during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. If, as is generally thought, chapter 6 records his call, then he began prophesying in the last year of Uzziab's life (740 B.C.) and continued into Hezekiab's reign (which ended in 686 B.C.). His ministry very likely extended beyond that date, because the last definite historical incident mentioned is the death of Sennacherib in 681 B.C. (37:38).

In addition to the year that Uzziah died, there are other date markers in the book. The "days of Ahaz" (7:1) refers generally to that king's reign and specifically to the early period when the Syrian/Israelite alliance (734-732 B.C.) threatened his security. A second date in Ahaz's reign marks the year of his death (716 B.C., 14:28), dating the oracle against the Philistines, who might have been tempted to renew hostilities now that Ahaz was dead.

His successor, Hezekiah, had much interaction with Isaiah, some initiated by him and some by the prophet. In that regard, the first time marker was the offensive launched by Sargon's commander against the rebellious city of Ashdod (711 B.C., 20:1). Chronologically next in line was Hezekiah's illness. Although undated, it obviously preceded the visit of Babylon's diplomatic core, which can be dated from Babylonian records as 703 B.C. Thus Hezekiab's illness occurred in about 704 B.C., and Isaiah and the king's interaction regarding the latter's divulgence of classified information in the same year of the diplomatic visit. A very specific date is given to fix Sennacherib's invasion and siege of Jerusalem (the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, 701 B.C., 36:1).

Assuming that Isaiah authored the record of Sennacherib's defeat and assassination (37:36-38), we are brought down to the year 681 B.C., even though we cannot confidently assign any material other than the historical record to that last year. Thus the configuration of Isaiah's ministry would look like the following:

(Source: An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophetic Books, Chapter 6, p. 129, Moody Press: Chicago, 1986 Edition, by C. Hassell Bullock)

These dates, however, are only significant dates, and perhaps indicate the most active periods of the prophet's ministry. Characteristically they were very critical times in Judah's history. Thus these time concentrations give us a skeleton plan for discussing Isaiah's prophetic activity.

Undoubtedly the prophet was active between crises, but the extent of the intermediate periods of ministry is difficult to ascertain. We ought not think of a prophet's ministry in terms of a modern clergyman who works all year long for a succession of years to complete his professional career. Rather the prophets, Isaiah not excluded, were pressed into service at critical junctures and in some instances followed other professions to sustain themselves and their families (for example, Amos). They sometimes had long careers, as did Isaiah, and sometimes short ones, as did Haggai (the dates in that book allow for three months) and Zechariah (about two years).

The ancient Hebrews classified as prophetical books some that we consider historical, as well as those we call prophetical. The rationale for including a book among the prophets seems to have been that the writer held the office of prophet as well as possessing the prophetic gift.

That explains why Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and I and 2 Kings were called the "Former Prophets." The five books of Moses, of course, stood in a class by themselves and were called the "Law" (Torah). The writers of the books of the Former Prophets were official spokesmen for God in their day, even though the contents of their books were historical, not prophetic in the restricted sense of prediction.

The "Latter Prophets" were Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and "The Twelve." The twelve are those books often called the Minor Prophets because of their relative brevity.

While it is true that Isaiah came chronologically before Jeremiah and Ezekiel, he did not come before every one of the twelve. Perhaps his book is placed at the head of that division of the Old Testament Scriptures because of its importance - its unprecedented portrayal of the coming Messiah, the one known in the New Testament as the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

(Source: Ryrie Study Bible, Expanded Edition, New International Version, Chicago: Moody Press, 1994 Edition, by Charles C. Ryrie)

The writer is Isaiah the son of Amoz. More is known about him than about most Old Testament prophets. Who Amoz was is not known, although there have been some conjectures linking him with the royal family of Judah. Obviously, he is not to be confused with the prophet Amos, who ministered to the kingdom of Israel slightly before Isaiah's time. The Hebrew names Amos and Amoz are quite distinct in spelling.

Certain rabbinic commentators noted the tradition that Isaiah's father, Amoz, and King Amaziah of Judah (796-767 B.C.) were brothers, thereby making Isaiah of royal descent (See the commentaries (Hebrew) of Rashi and David Kimchi on Isaiah 1:1). Perhaps this tradition owes its origin in part to the accessibility that our prophet had to the kings of Judah, but otherwise it is not well attested. However, there is no proof of the validity of the ancient Hebrew tradition of Isaiah's relationship to the Davidic dynasty. He seems to have had considerable contact with the kings of his time, but that was more likely because he had to approach them as God's messenger rather than because of a family relationship.

Having ready access to kings may imply that Isaiah was an official in the royal court. The proposal that he was a priesthas little hard evidence to back it up. An interesting suggestion is that he was a scribe, implied by 2 Chronicles 26:22, where the writing of Uzziah's court history is attributed to the prophet Isaiah, a practice the Chronicler knew about in the case of other prophets (Rehoboam - Shemaiah the prophet, 2 Chronicles 12:16; Abijah - Iddo the prophet, 13:22; Jehoshaphat - Jehu, 20:34). As a scribe he would also be responsible for educating the children of the royal court, perhaps explaining what is meant by his "disciples" (8:16).

Isaiah was married, but, unlike Hosea, we do not know his wife's name or anything about her personality. She is referred to as "the prophetess" in 8:3. Whether that implies that she too engaged in prophetic functions is not clear. More than likely, however, it was a term that simply referred to his wife rather than a profession.

Isaiah had at least two sons, for two names are given: Shearjashub (7:3) and Maher-shalalhash-baz (8:3). Both of whom had symbolic names:

Their names symbolized respectively the hope that Isaiah held for Judah and the judgment he anticipated for Israel. The information is added that those two, as well as the prophet himself, were "for signs and wonders in Israel" (8:18); that is, they had symbolic names that indicated God's dealings not only with them but with the nation.

The record clearly indicates that he lived in the city of Jerusalem. At the time of his commissioning he was in the Temple, but that does not necessarily mean that he was a priest, as has already been noted.

The death of Uzziah (740 B.C.), marking the end of an era of prosperity and relative peace in Judah, coincided with the momentous year of Isaiah's inaugural vision (6:1). The exact date of his call could have been either prior to or after the king's inauspicious passing, but it is clear that Isaiah saw his call providentially linked with that event and the ensuing era, which was imprinted with the Neo-Assyrian threat. It was more than a date.

Two of the four Judean kings in whose reigns Isaiah prophesied (1:1) had significant involvements with him:

Ahaz (732-716 B.C.), having fallen ungrateful heir to the political implications of the Syro-Ephraimite alliance, was the object of Isaiah's challenge and rebuke (chapter 7). Against the background of invasion by the allied armies of Syria and Israel, Isaiah brought at least two oracles to Ahaz, first assuring him that the plans of the allies would not succeed (7:3-9), and then challenging him to ask a sign of the Lord that would portend the failure of this ill-conceived scheme (7:10-25). As the narrative reveals, Ahaz rejected the challenge, but the Lord gave him a sign nevertheless, and a far more wonderful one than he might have asked for - the sign of Immanuel.

The second king in whose affairs Isaiah became intricately involved was Hezekiah (716/15-686 B.C.), who was more religiously devout than Ahaz. In point of fact, the religious reform that he instigated (2 Kings 18:l-7a; 2 Chronicles 29-31) was probably inspired by the tragic events in the Northern Kingdom that culminated with the fall of Samaria in 722 B.C.. Based upon the moral and spiritual indictments Isaiah delivered against Judah, Hezekiah's religious zeal and reformation staved off disaster on Judah for more than a century longer. When Sennacherib, vaunting himself to be Yahweh's agent of destruction (Isaiah 36:10), dispatched his arrogant messenger to Jerusalem, Hezekiah sent an embassy of inquiry to the prophet Isaiah seeking a word from the Lord (701 B.C.). The exchange of messages between king and prophet confirmed the sovereign power of the Lord, and Judah was miraculously delivered (chapter 37-38). The communication channel between Hezekiah and Isaiah was called into service on two other occasions that we know about, first when the king was facing a personal physical crisis, and then upon the subsequent diplomatic visit of Merodach-baladan's envoys from Babylon (chapters 38-39, 704-703 B.C.).

It is difficult on the surface to find a central theme in Isaiah from which all the material flows. Since there are two clearly defined parts, it almost appears that there should be two central themes, one for chapters 1-39 and another for chapters 40-66. It is obvious that part one speaks primarily of judgment, whereas part two emphasizes comfort. But are those mutually exclusive? Is there not a unifying thought that blends those two great themes together?

The problem can be stated as follows: What principle governs both judgment and comfort? A full answer can come only from a complete induction of the book. Careful study shows that the judgment is not unrelieved judgment, but that it is more than retribution for sin. It also includes restoration - blessing after the judgment. The term restoration describes the change in the whole structure of the cosmos, which is evident throughout the book. Reference is made repeatedly to the Lord's standard, which has been broken time and again not only by Israel but also by the other nations of the world. The sections dealing with the blessings of the kingdom show a restoration of the Lord's created order. He did not create the world "a waste" (45:18). The role of the Servant of the Lord will be to deliver justice or order to the world. The Lord promises Israel that it will be restored and smelted, and then Zion will be called a city of righteousness (1:24-26).

So the central or dominant theme of the whole book can be expressed as the Lord's restoration of His created order. That is the meaning of the expression so gloriously evident in the prophecy - the Lord's salvation through the Messiah (the Servant) "to the ends of the earth." (See Chapter Two for an inductive validation of the central theme.)

Actually, the prophet's name discloses the theme of his message. The name means "The Salvation of the Lord," or "The Salvation of Yahweh."

The older, traditional spelling, Jehovah, is one of a series of accommodations to the ancient Hebrew reverential feeling, which amounted almost to superstition. The pious Israelite would not even pronounce that special name for God, considering it too sacred to be placed on his lips. It is regarded in the Old Testament as the special, personal, individual, covenant-making, and covenant-keeping name of the one true and living God and is made up of four letters (the tetragrammaton, naturally all consonants, for the Hebrew alphabet contains no vowels, and based on the root of the Hebrew verb "to be"). This name was explained by God to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14) and is paraphrased in the Greek New Testament as the One "who is and who was and who is to come" (Revelation 1:4).

The ancient Hebrews substituted the name Adonai (Lord) for the ineffable name, and that tradition was continued in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, where the word Kurios (Lord) is used. The Latin Vulgate (Dominus) and various English versions follow the same principle.

The vowel points of Adonai superimposed on the four consonants led to the traditional English pronunciation of Jehovah, a name that has become established in English hymnody. The American Standard Version (1901) attempted to popularize the form, but without success. Many modern scholars prefer the form "Yahweh," but because the word was not pronounced in ancient times, there is no way of knowing its exact pronunciation with certainty. Modern English translations for the most part have followed the traditional practice of substituting the word LORD to distinguish it from other words for "Lord"). The New American Standard Bible, the New International Version, the King James Version, and the New King James Version follow that practice.

The theme of Isaiah in broad, general terms is "The Lord's salvation to the ends of the earth" (49:6), reflecting the prophet's name. That salvation, prefigured in a sense by the deliverance from Babylon under Cyrus, is a worldwide deliverance through the Messiah, the One pictured so graphically in the book as the Servant of the Lord (Yahweh). Isaiah's vision is indeed worldwide, taking in a great multitude of Gentiles in addition to God's chosen people, Israel. That worldwide characteristic will appear often in the course of the investigation of this wonderful book.

The prophet Isaiah and King Hezekiah in the eighth century before Christ had a clearer idea of ethical monotheism than many people today. Careful observation of that truth in the book will help one avoid being deceived by the application of evolutionary ideas to the history of religion, a concept that has misled so many.

The book of Isaiah is one of those portions of the Word of God often maligned and rejected. Its unity has been denied, its authorship questioned, and its authenticity impugned. For at least two hundred years unbelievers and destructive critics have tried to tear Isaiah to shreds.

It has long been considered fashionable and scholarly to refer to Deutero-Isaiah and, in a somewhat lesser degree, to Trito-Isaiah. Some scholars have tried to divide the book into many more than three documents, postulating a variety of writers and redactors, or critical editors, over a period of several centuries.

In the nineteenth century a great many interpreters believed that the eighth-century B.C. Isaiah wrote only chapters 1-39 (or less), and that the second part of the book (chapters 40-66) was written by an unknown prophet (seer, or poet) in Babylon in the sixth century B.C., just before or at the time of the return from exile.

Later, it became commonplace to limit the Deutero-lsaiah to chapters 40-55 and to attribute the last chapters to a third author (Trito-lsaiah) in Palestine after the return from the captivity, perhaps in the fifth century B.C.

A number of helpful and scholarly works have been produced to prove the unity of Isaiah (e.g. Oswald T Allis, The Unity of Isaiah). This study will touch on the subject only briefly, but the present authors are convinced that it is an essential matter. In the face of the evidence, and the relationship of this book to the rest of the Bible, a denial of the unity is tantamount to a rejection of its message. A firm adherence to the unity of the book is demanded by a number of considerations in the areas of both external and internal evidence:

There is the uniform testimony of the ancient Hebrew scholars who never doubted that Isaiah was one book by one author. Each of the books of the Latter Prophets begins with the author's name. Isaiah has only one name and only one beginning in all known manuscripts and versions. The magnificent Isaiah scroll discovered at Qumran and dated in the middle of the second century B.C., like all other manuscripts, is a unified book.

Add to that the testimony of the Septuagint and other ancient versions, and the witness of the Jewish historian Josephus in the first century A.D.

To the uniform Hebrew tradition may be added the complete agreement of the writers of the early church; and not only the early writers, but apparently all such writers up until the eighteenth century. So far as can be determined, no one questioned the unity of Isaiah for approximately twenty-five hundred years. In the latter half of the eighteenth century, men who were given over to humanism, naturalism, and skepticism began to question Isaiah's unity, along with destructive views about the authorship of the Pentateuch, the date of Daniel, the historicity of Jonah, and other similar attacks on the integrity and authority of the Word of God.

In addition to the external evidence of the uniform Hebrew and Christian traditions, an even more significant evidence is the consistent testimony of the New Testament writers, who quote from all parts of the book of Isaiah and attribute each quotation to the same author - Isaiah. Those quotations will be noted later.

Above all the other lines of evidence is the personal testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, who refers to different parts of Isaiah as originating from the same book. For example, when He read from the Scriptures in the synagogue at Nazareth, He turned to the book of the prophet Isaiah. But the portion He read (as recorded in Luke 4:18-19) was the beginning of Isaiah 61, which according to the critical theories could not have been written by Isaiah the son of Amoz. In fact, that part, according to the theory, was not even written by the Deutero-Isaiah, but by the Trito-lsaiah, or possibly even by some later redactor. The Lord Jesus Himself said it was Isaiah. That ought to be enough for any Christian.

The internal evidence of unity is very strong. In addition to the obvious unity in all the manuscripts of Isaiah, there is a uniform style throughout the book in spite of allegations to the contrary. That uniform style is observed most clearly in Isaiah's particularly apt use of distinctive leading ideas or motifs.

That expression is a characterization of the Lord and occurs twenty-five times in Isaiah. It occurs only six times elsewhere in the Old Testament, including 2 Kings 19, a section identical to Isaiah 37. No doubt that title for God came from Isaiah's crucial experience de scribed in Isaiah 6:1-13. The continual worship by the seraphim made such a deep impression on Isaiah that he forever after thought of the Lord as preeminently the "Holy One of Israel." Occurrences of the title are found in Isaiah 1:4; 5:19; 5:24; 10:20; 12:6; 17:7; 29:19; 30:11-12, 15; 31:1; 37:23; 41:14, 16, 20; 43:3, 14; 45:11; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7; 54:5; 55:5; 60:9; 60:14.

The twenty-five occurrences of the title are divided between chapters 1-39 (12 times) and chapters 40-66 (13 times), the supposed Deutero-Isaiah.

Here is an expression that is found only in Isaiah (1:20; 40:5; and 58:14). Those three places come respectively from what the critics call Isaiah, Deutero-Isaiah, and Trito-lsaiah. Can that be accidental? Along with the other cumulative evidences, is it not conceivable that the divine author, the Holy Spirit of God, prompted Isaiah to include that assertion in the three places where it was needed to support the unity of the book?

There are other repeated expressions in addition to these which George L. Robinson calls the "circle of ideas" (George L. Robinson, "Isaiah," in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 3:1505). The "circle of ideas" are as follows:

In summing up arguments from literary style Robinson comments, "Isaiah's style differs widely from that of every other Old Testament prophet, and is as far removed as possible from that of Ezekiel and the post-exilic prophets" (George L. Robinson, "Isaiah," in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 3:15065).

The constant references to the Messiah, particularly as the "Servant of the Lord," bind the book together into a unity. The messianic character of Isaiah is well known, but even to one who is familiar with the book there are always new and almost startling evidences of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A life of Christ could almost be written from the allusions in Isaiah, including:

The Lord Jesus' use of Isaiah 61 in the synagogue at Nazareth is instructive. He read only a portion of the particular prophecy (Luke 4:18-19; Isaiah 61:1-2a) and announced, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21). That is an illustration of the intertwining of the two advents of Christ in one prophecy, a reality of which Peter informed us (1 Peter 1:10-12). In several other places we observe the same phenomenon.

These chapters center on the deliverance from Babylon. This portion, which will be discussed in some detail later, mentions Cyrus by name, compares the all-powerful God with the powerless idols of the nations, and views the deliverance from Babylon as foreshadowing a greater deliverance through the Messiah, when He will change the entire world. The Lord's Servant is on a mission of salvation to the Gentiles during which He will effect justice and restore order to the earth. The Lord promises to regather His unworthy servant Israel to the land, using a Gentile power to do that and to restore Temple worship. He promises that the Gentile world will bow down eventually to a redeemed Israel, for Israel is His chosen people.

The argument of these chapters, especially that of chapter 43, depends on authorship before the Babylonian captivity or all integrity is lost. Furthermore, the description of the land is obviously written by someone living in it, not someone living in Babylon.

One of the major starting points of the doubts about the unity and integrity of the book of Isaiah seems to have been the plain and direct mention of Cyrus in chapters 44 and 45. Of course, anyone who did not know God would find it hard to believe that a prophet writing in the eighth century before Christ could know about the Persian Cyrus, who lived in the sixth century before Christ, some two hundred years later.

If Isaiah were merely a human book, one might well understand the questions and even the denials of the investigators. But it is not merely a human book. It is part of Holy Scripture, and Isaiah was one of those men who "spoke from God" as they were "moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21). This line of thought will be pursued in later sections of the commentary.

There are numerous places in the New Testament where Isaiah is quoted or alluded to. In fact, Isaiah is referred to in the New Testament more often than any other Old Testament book except the Psalms. Examples are as follows:

References to Isaiah in the New Testament are not limited to those passages in which the prophet's name is used. Sometimes he is quoted simply as one of the prophets. See below table for quotations of Isaiah in the New Testament.

New Testament Reference	Explanatory Introduction	Isaiah Reference
Matthew 1:23	"the prophet"	7:14
Matthew 3:3	"the prophet Isaiah"	40:3
Matthew 4:15-16	"Isaiah the prophet"	9:1-2
Matthew 8:17	"Isaiah the prophet"	53:4
Matthew 12:18-21	"Isaiah the prophet"	42:1-4
Matthew 13:14-15	"the prophecy of Isaiah"	6:9-10
Matthew 15:8-9	"Isaiah"	29:13
Matthew 21:13	"it is written"	56:7
Mark 1:3	"in the Prophets"	40:3
Mark 4:12	"in order that"	6:9-10
Mark 7:6-7	"Isaiah"	29:13
Mark 9:44, 46, 48	"into the unquenchable fire"	66:24
Mark 11:17	"Is it not written?"	56:7
Mark 15:28	"the Scripture"	53:12
Luke 3:4-6	"Isaiah the prophet"	40:3-5
Luke 4:18-19	"the prophet Isaiah"	61:1-2
Luke 8:10	"in order that"	6:9
Luke 19:46	"it is written"	56:7
Luke 22:37	"this which is written"	53:12
John 1:23	"the prophet Isaiah"	40:3
John 6:45	"it is written in the prophets"	54:13
John 12:38	"Isaiah the prophet"	53:1
John 12:40	"Isaiah"	6:10
Acts 7:49-50	"the prophet"	66:1-2
Acts 8:32-33	"Isaiah the prophet"	53:7-8
Acts 13:34	"He has spoken thus"	55:3
Acts 13:47	"for thus the Lord has commanded us"	49:6
Acts 8:26-27	"Isaiah the prophet"	6:9-10
Romans 2:24	"just as it is written"	52:5
Romans 3:15-17	"it is written"	59:7-8
Romans 9:27-28	"Isaiah"	10:22-23
Romans 9:29	"Isaiah"	1:9
Romans 9:33	"it is written"	8:14; 28:16
Romans 10:11	"the Scripture says"	28:16
Romans 10:15	"it is written"	52:7
Romans 10:16	"Isaiah"	53:1
Romans 10:20	"Isaiah"	65:1
Romans 10:21	"he" (Isaiah)	65:2
Romans 11:8	"it is written"	29:10
Romans 11:26-27	"it is written"	59:20-21
Romans 11:34	"for"	40:13
Romans 14:11	"it is written"	45:23
Romans 15:12	"Isaiah"	11:10
Romans 15:21	"it is written"	52:15
1 Corinthians 1:19	"it is written"	29:14
1 Corinthians 2:9	"it is written"	64:4
1 Corinthians 2:16	"for"	40:13
1 Corinthians 14:21	"in the law it is written"	28:11-12
1 Corinthians 15:32	"if the dead are not raised"	22:13
1 Corinthians 15:54	"the saying that is written"	25:8
2 Corinthians 6:2	''for He says''	49:8
2 Corinthians 6:17	"therefore"	52:11
Galatians 4:27	"it is written"	54:1
Hebrews 2:13	"and again"	8:17-18
1 Peter 1:24-25	"for"	40:6-8
1 Peter 2:6	''contained in Scripture''	28:16
1 Peter 2:8	"and"	8:14
1 Peter 2:22		53:9
1 Peter 3:14		8:12
Revelation 3:7		22:22

Mention was made earlier of the unifying theme of Isaiah that weaves together the two main parts of the book. Isaiah has been compared to a great symphony in which two dominant themes and many lesser themes are harmonized. The two major themes are judgment and comfort, announced respectively in chapters 1 and 40. As previously noted, Isaiah looks toward the Babylonian captivity and beyond that to the return - deliverance through Cyrus. But the deliverance goes far beyond that deliverance from exile - there is salvation from sin and from death through Immanuel, the Messiah, to Israel and the Gentiles; and that salvation extends to the "ends of the earth" (52:10).

The two themes keep recurring in new and interesting forms and variations, but the order is never reversed: judgment is followed by comfort.

The style of Isaiah is rich and varied. His vocabulary is very extensive. Figures of speech abound, for the language is frequently poetic, even though Isaiah is not classified among the poetical books. The poetic form can be seen by observing the printed pages in the New American Standard Bible, the New International Version, or the New King James Version.

Although one could not strictly speak of the whole book as one magnificent song, it does contain a number of recognizable songs, such as the song of the vineyard (chapter 5), the song of the coming salvation (chapter 12), the song of the rejoicing desert (chapter 35), the song of the restored wife (chapter 54), and others. Even some of the prophecies of judgment, in "woes" and the "burdens" are poetic dirges, lamenting the sin that must bring retribution from God.

Personification, metaphor, simile, and other figures of speech are numerous in the book. There are instances of paronomasia, or play on words, which are not usually evident in translation. Such examples are found in the song of the vineyard in chapter 5:

Alliteration (which, like paronomasia, does not lend itself well to translation) is also prominent. The use of a refrain is a frequent literary device that can be carried over into translation.

Another characteristic of Isaiah's style is his use of satire. Where can one find a more scathing denunciation of idolatry - so prevalent even among the people of Judah - than in Isaiah's mocking comment about the man who cuts down a tree, uses part of it to make a fire to warm himself and to cook his food, and then makes another part of it into a "god" (Isaiah 44:13-20)?

As indicated before, the simplest and most logical outline of Isaiah is that which recognizes two main parts. The difference between those parts is considered by some to be so marked that they are conceived of as being two distinct literary productions. Those who hold that view tend to overstress the differences and minimize the similarities and recurring themes, and to overlook the essential harmony of the two parts into the one grand theme of redemption.

At any rate, there is a recognizable change of tone at the beginning of chapter 40. It requires no great knowledge of the book to label the first part "Judgment" and the second part "Comfort." In each case the dominant note is struck at the very beginning: God's severe but just indictment of Judah in chapter 1, and God's call to speak comforting words to Jerusalem after her long trials in chapter 40. Hence, the basic outline is apparent even to the casual reader:

In seeking to analyze those main parts, one needs to discover subdivisions in the book itself and not foist them onto the book. It is impossible at this late date to devise a completely original outline (indeed, if it were original, it probably would be untrue or at least inaccurate). What should be done is to recognize the divisions that are intrinsic to the text itself.

Almost all commentators seem to see a unity and continuity in the first six chapters leading up to the call of the prophet of God after his encounter with the "Holy One of Israel," as described in chapter 6.

Similarly, the prophecies in the troubled times of Ahaz (chapters 7-12), when Assyria was threatening with such menace, are seen to center around the One called Immanuel. In fact, some of the interpreters call those chapters "The Book of Immanuel."

Chapters 13-23 form a distinct division, with the unifying word being burden (KJV). The New American Standard Bible uses the word oracle, but indicates in a note that the Hebrew text is literally "burden." The meaning is that those prophecies are heavy or grievous in the sense of predicting doom. They tell of unrelieved judgment on various Gentile nations.

Chapters 24-27, sometimes called "Isaiah's little apocalypse," form a unity as they describe events of the end time, the familiar order of judgment followed by comfort.

The unifying term in chapters 28-33 is the word woe, again introducing God's certain judgment for sin.

Two chapters follow with a repetition of the theme, setting forth God's indignation followed by the glory of the future, pictured by the desert blossoming like a rose (chapters 34-35).

Chapters 36-39 are usually called a "historical interlude." Some prefer to call this a separate division and to view the book in three main parts:

However, it seems more convenient and more accurate to view chapters 36-39 as a part of the total picture of judgment. They give the outcome of the Assyrian invasion of Judah (thus connecting with the first part) and provide the explanation of the coming Babylonian captivity so much in view, either directly or indirectly, throughout the book. In whatever way one takes this historical interlude, it furnishes the logical bridge from the prophet's day to the exile in the next century. That in Isaiah's day Babylon was not a world power that could counter the might of Assyria adds to the amazing nature of Isaiah's prophecy. Babylon became such a power very rapidly in the century between Isaiah's and Jeremiah's times.

In the second part of the book the Holy Spirit shows Isaiah the return from the Babylonian exile and uses that return as a foreshadowing of the greater deliverance to come through the Messiah. From that ideal point of view Isaiah can see the captivity as past (although it did not begin until about a century after his lifetime) and can rejoice in the glories of Israel's restoration.

The German commentator Ruth Eckert in 1831 was evidently one of the earliest to observe that the second part of Isaiah is made up of twenty-seven brief sections corresponding roughly to the chapter divisions as they now exist(Translation of the Hebrew Prophets, cited by Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah, 2:128). They are clearly grouped into three sections of nine chapters each. That threefold division is embedded in the book by the use of the refrain "There is no peace for the wicked" (Isaiah 48:22; 57:21).

It seems most unlikely that the symmetrical arrangement of the second part of Isaiah could be accidental or coincidental. The inner structure of each of the three sections is intricate and calls for more detailed investigation (in connection with those chapters in the commentary).

The section containing chapters 40-48 tells of the coming deliverance from Babylon through the Persian ruler Cyrus, who is named in chapters 44 and 45. As God's "anointed" (the only Gentile ruler so designated in Scripture) he becomes a type, or prophetic symbol, of "the anointed one" (Hebrew, Messiah; Greek, Christ) through whom greater deliverance comes. In this section God draws a contrast between Himself and the false "gods" of the pagan nations.

Chapters 49-57, forming the central section of the second part, have as their main theme the two great lines of messianic prophecy mentioned in the New Testament: "the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow" (1 Peter 1:11). The central thought is on the suffering Servant of the Lord as the Redeemer.

The last section, chapters 58-66, climaxes the teaching of God's purpose for Israel and describes the coming glory for that chosen nation.

Year (B.C.)	Isaiah's Activity
740	His call
734-732	Encouraged Ahaz against the Syrian/Israelite crisis
716	Ahaz's death and Isaiah's warning to the Philistines
711	Sargon's expedition against Ashdod and Isaiah's oracle against Egypt and Ethiopia
704	Hezekiah's illness
703	Embassy of Merodach-baladan to Hezekiah
701	Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem
681	Death of Sennacherib