Isaiah Commentary

Can God rescue us from the problems we face? Can he save us from oppressive world powers? Can he break the power of our sin and help us deal with its consequences? Isaiah answers these questions with a resounding yes! The prophet’s words sometimes overwhelm us with their beauty. At other times, his piercing words reveal our sin and drive us to our knees. Isaiah’s own ministry began with a vision of the love, greatness, and holiness of God. This vision—along with the entire book of Isaiah—convicts the human heart, motivating us to trust in our Creator alone for forgiveness, restoration, and purpose in life.

Setting

By the time of King Uzziah’s death (740 BC), the southern kingdom of Judah faced a major crisis. The empire of Assyria, dormant for nearly fifty years, was now on the move again. The Assyrian army progressed southwestward from their homeland in what is now northern Iraq toward their ultimate destination, Egypt. The small nations of the Mediterranean coast, including Israel and Judah, stood in Assyria’s path. Assyria had taken Galilee and much of Israel’s territory east of the Jordan River. But they would be satisfied only with total control of Israel, Judah, and all the other smaller nations in the area.

While Judah’s King Uzziah was still alive, Judah was able to ignore the crisis. Overall, Uzziah was a good and effective king, he had a strong army (2 Chr 26:11-15), and his people hoped that he could somehow save the nation from the Assyrians. When Uzziah died, however, ungodly rulers succeeded him. During this crisis of leadership, God gave Isaiah the vision that launched his ministry and guided him for the next forty years (Isa 6).

Assyria, meanwhile, pushed steadily southward along the coast of the Mediterranean, conquering one small nation after another. During this time, Judah’s policy on Assyria oscillated between appeasement and confrontation. The prophet Isaiah brought a much-needed message: God is absolutely dependable, and it is utter folly to trust in anything or anyone other than God.

Unfortunately, Isaiah’s central message was not always heeded. Around 734 BC, Israel formed a coalition with Syria to stand against Assyria. When King Ahaz of Judah refused to join this alliance, Israel and Syria attacked Judah in order to force Ahaz to join them. Faced with this crisis, Ahaz foolishly called the Assyrians to rescue him (2 Chr 28:16-21) rather than trusting God (Isa 7:1-12). Although the king of Assyria did defeat Syria and Israel, he also subjugated Judah and laid on it a heavy burden of taxation. Just a few years later (722 BC), Assyria defeated the kingdom of Israel again and sent most of its people into exile (2 Kgs 17:5-18).

In 701 BC, during King Hezekiah’s reign, Assyria again invaded Judah. This time, Judah relied on God’s faithfulness, and as promised, God rescued the nation from the Assyrian army (37:21-36).

Regrettably, God’s people did not remain faithful to him. As a result, God eventually allowed Judah to be overcome by Assyria’s successor, Babylon (605–586 BC). What would Judah’s destruction and exile to Babylon mean in terms of God’s absolute reliability, which Isaiah had proclaimed? Isaiah answered this as well: God would indeed punish Judah’s wickedness. But he would also preserve a remnant that one day would return to the holy land. This return would not be due to any faithfulness on their part; it would be an act of God’s grace.

Upon returning from exile (538 BC; see Ezra 1:1-4), the people were again tempted to wickedness, this time by the paganism that had taken root in their homeland during their absence. Isaiah showed that the gracious God who rescued them is also the holy God who demanded their obedience, righteousness, and exclusive devotion.

Summary

Isaiah 1–39 covers the period from the death of Uzziah (740 BC) to 701 BC. The introduction (chs 1–5) contrasts Judah’s present state of sin and injustice with the blessed existence in God’s presence that they had originally been called to. This comparison raises a question: How can the present corruption ever be transformed into glory, purity, and fruitfulness? The prophet answers in chapter 6, as he recounts his own renewal and calling as an example of how a change could take place nationwide. If Judah wanted to experience such renewal, however, it needed to turn from its sinful ways and learn to trust God. Throughout chapters 13–35 the prophet uses a variety of literary forms and life situations to confirm that God is the only truly trustworthy one; relying on any of the surrounding nations in place of God represents extreme foolishness. Isaiah brackets this message with two historical accounts of experiences with Assyria: King Ahaz’s experience in chapters 7–12, and King Hezekiah’s in chapters 36–39. When Ahaz failed to trust God, disaster resulted. By contrast, his son Hezekiah trusted God, and a great rescue occurred. Hezekiah, however, also had times of weakness (ch 39), setting the stage for Judah’s later defeat and exile by Babylon.

Isaiah 40–55 addresses the questions that would arise during Judah’s exile to Babylon in 586 BC. Does the Exile mean that God was defeated, either by the Babylonians or by Judah’s sin? Has God’s purpose for Judah been frustrated, and is he helpless to do anything about it? In chapters 40–48, Isaiah shows that God is infinitely superior to any idol-god, and his people will be the proof of this when God rescues them out of Babylon’s ultimately helpless hands. In chapters 49–55, the prophet addresses the deeper question of Judah’s sin. Just as God rescued Judah from Babylon, he also intends to rescue a remnant of the people from the enslaving power of sin; he will accomplish this through the death of his servant.

Isaiah 56–66 addresses Judah’s experience following the end of their exile in 539 BC. God had rescued a remnant from exile as promised; now they needed to be pure, righteous, and holy. God’s servants must not continue to walk in darkness and corruption, for those attitudes and actions had led to exile in the first place. As Isaiah speaks of rescue from sin, the light of God’s own holy and righteous character dawns in his people. As a result, all the nations that Israel once trusted in place of God will now come to Jerusalem to learn God’s ways from Israel.

Authorship

The book of Isaiah addresses three different historical situations, two of them beyond the prophet’s own lifetime. As a result, many scholars have argued that the prophet Isaiah could not have written the entire book; this view has prevailed since the mid-1800s. However, if God’s inspiration is a reality, predictive prophecy is a real possibility, so it presents no problem that parts of the book address what was in the future for Isaiah. Furthermore, the book displays a remarkable literary unity. When Jesus and the New Testament authors quote from the book of Isaiah, they consistently claim that they are referring to what the prophet Isaiah said (see, e.g., Matt 8:17; 12:17-21; Luke 3:4-6; Acts 8:28-35; Rom 10:16).

Date of Writing

It seems likely from the historical references in chapters 6–39 that these materials were recorded at various times throughout the thirty-eight years between Uzziah’s death in 740 BC and Sennacherib’s retreat from Jerusalem in 701 BC. Because of the simpler, meditative, and reflective lyrical style of chapters 40–66, it seems probable that a period of time elapsed between 701 BC and the writing of these chapters. We do not know when Isaiah died, but tradition dates his death during the period of the sole reign of Manasseh (686–642 BC). It is thus possible that more than fifteen years elapsed between the writing of chapters 1–39 and the writing of chapters 40–66.

Literary Genres

Isaiah contains a rich array of sub-genres:

judgment speeches that warn Israel that God will punish them for their sins (9:8-21);

prophecies of woe that lament the approaching death of the nation (5:8-30; 29:1-12; 31:1-9);

parables that teach by analogy (5:1-8; 27:2-6);

trial speeches to prove a case (41:21-29);

salvation prophecies of hope for the future (2:1-5; 32:1-20; 60:1-22);

hymns of praise to God for his faithfulness (12:1-6; 26:1-6);

prophecies against foreign nations (15:1–16:14; 23:1-18);

prophecies of a coming king, the Messiah (9:1-7; 11:1-9);

servant songs about one who would suffer for the sins of others (42:1-9; 52:13–53:12); and

narratives of current events (36:1-22; 39:1-8).

Meaning and Message

The book of Isaiah could be called the Bible in miniature. It has more overtones of the New Testament than any other Old Testament book. Isaiah gives us a picture of God as unique and transcendent (beyond our experience). Yet the holy and exalted God reveals himself and desires to be Immanuel (“God is with us,” 7:14). Therefore, the transcendent God is also immanent (nearby). God’s nearness prepares Isaiah’s readers to receive God incarnate (in the flesh), Jesus Christ, who is truly the Immanuel (see Matt 1:21-23).

Isaiah tackles the foolishness of idolatry head on. He exposes the folly of trying to capture God in any created thing or trying to manipulate God to our own ends. The only way to receive the blessings God wants to pour out upon us is through our surrender and trust. However, the human spirit stubbornly opposes this. We would rather trust anything or anyone other than God, who is beyond our control. Those who stubbornly refuse to submit themselves to the true God and turn instead to false gods become estranged from God and face his judgment.

The prophet tells the story of God’s judgment on his sinful people through exile. However, God graciously returns to his people and declares that he will not cast them away altogether. Instead, he will purify and preserve a remnant that will glorify him among the nations and demonstrate that he alone is the true and living God.

God’s kingdom will be centered in a new Zion (new Jerusalem), populated by a new community of the faithful and ruled by God’s righteous servant, the Messiah. This kingdom will be built on the power of love rather than on the power of oppression and injustice. Only the righteous can belong to this new community. The same grace that rescues God’s people from the consequences of their sin also produces in them obedience to his will. As a result, they will glorify God and transform the world.

An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of The Book of the Prophet Isaiah

Prophet is a title that sounds very great to those that understand it, though, in the eye of the world, many of those that were dignified with it appeared very mean. A prophet is one that has a great intimacy with Heaven and a great interest there, and consequently a commanding authority upon earth. Prophecy is put for all divine revelation (Pe2 1:20, Pe2 1:21), because that was most commonly by dreams, voices, or visions, communicated to prophets first, and by them to the children of men, Num 12:6. Once indeed God himself spoke to all the thousands of Israel from the top of Mount Sinai; but the effect was so intolerably dreadful that they entreated God would for the future speak to them as he had done before, by men like themselves, whose terror should not make them afraid, nor their hands be heavy upon them, Job 33:7. God approved the motion (they have well said, says he, Deu 5:27, Deu 5:28), and the matter was then settled by consent of parties, that we must never expect to hear from God any more in that way, but by prophets, who received their instructions immediately from God, with a charge to deliver them to his church. Before the sacred canon of the Old Testament began to be written there were prophets, who were instead of Bibles to the church. Our Saviour seems to reckon Abel among the prophets, Mat 23:31, Mat 23:35. Enoch was a prophet; and by him that was first in prediction which is to be last in execution - the judgment of the great day. Jde 1:14, Behold, the Lord comes with his holy myriads. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. God said of Abraham, He is a prophet, Gen 20:7. Jacob foretold things to come, Gen 49:1. Nay, all the patriarchs are called prophets. Psa 105:15, Do my prophets no harm. Moses was, beyond all comparison, the most illustrious of all the Old Testament prophets, for with him the Lord spoke face to face, Deu 34:10. He was the first writing prophet, and by his hand the first foundations of holy writ were laid. Even those that were called to be his assistants in the government had the spirit of prophecy, such a plentiful effusion was there of that spirit at that time, Num 11:25. But after the death of Moses, for some ages, the Spirit of the Lord appeared and acted in the church of Israel more as a martial spirit than as a spirit of prophecy, and inspired men more for acting than speaking. I mean in the time of the judges. We find the Spirit of the Lord coming upon Othniel, Gideon, Samson, and others, for the service of their country, with their swords, not with their pens. Messages were then sent from heaven by angels, as to Gideon and Manoah, and to the people, Jdg 2:1. In all the book of judges there is never once mention of a prophet, only Deborah is called a prophetess. Then the word of the Lord was precious; there was no open vision, Sa1 3:1. They had the law of Moses, recently written; let them study that. But in Samuel prophecy revived, and in him a famous epocha, or period of the church began, a time of great light in a constant uninterrupted succession of prophets, till some time after the captivity, when the canon of the Old Testament was completed in Malachi, and then prophecy ceased for nearly 400 years, till the coming of the great prophet and his forerunner. Some prophets were divinely inspired to write the histories of the church. But they did not put their names to their writings; they only referred for proof to the authentic records of those times, which were known to be drawn up by prophets, as Gad, Iddo, etc. David and others were prophets, to write sacred songs for the use of the church. After them we often read of prophets sent on particular errands, and raised up for special public services, among whom the most famous were Elijah and Elisha in the kingdom of Israel. But none of these put their prophecies in writing, nor have we any remains of them but some fragments in the histories of their times; there was nothing of their own writing (that I remember) but one epistle of Elijah's, Ch2 21:12. But towards the latter end of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, it pleased God to direct his servants the prophets to write and publish some of their sermons, or abstracts of them. The dates of many of their prophecies are uncertain, but the earliest of them was in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and Jeroboam the second, his contemporary, king of Israel, about 200 years before the captivity, and not long after Joash had slain Zechariah the son of Jehoiada in the courts of the temple. If they begin to murder the prophets, yet they shall not murder their prophecies; these shall remain as witnesses against them. Hosea was the first of the writing prophets; and Joel, Amos, and Obadiah, published their prophecies about the same time. Isaiah began some time after, and not long; but his prophecy is placed first, because it is the largest of them all, and has most in it of him to whom all the prophets bore witness; and indeed so much of Christ that he is justly styled the Evangelical Prophet, and, by some of the ancients, a fifth Evangelist. We shall have the general title of this book (Isa 1:1) and therefore shall here only observe some things,

I. Concerning the prophet himself. He was (if we may believe the tradition of the Jews) of the royal family, his father being (they say) brother to king Uzziah. He was certainly much at court, especially in Hezekiah's time, as we find in his story, to which many think it is owing that his style is more curious and polite than that of some other of the prophets, and, in some places, exceedingly lofty and soaring. The Spirit of God sometimes served his own purpose by the particular genius of the prophet; for prophets were not speaking trumpets, through which the Spirit spoke, but speaking men, by whom the Spirit spoke, making use of their natural powers, in respect both of light and flame, and advancing them above themselves.

II. Concerning the prophecy. It is transcendently excellent and useful; it was so to the church of God then, serving for conviction of sin, direction in duty, and consolation in trouble. Two great distresses of the church are here referred to, and comfort prescribed in reference to them, that by Sennacherib's invasion, which happened in his own time, and that of the captivity in Babylon, which happened long after; and in the supports and encouragements laid up for each of these times of need we find abundance of the grace of the gospel. There are not so many quotations in the gospels out of any, perhaps not out of all, the prophecies of the Old Testament, as out of this; nor such express testimonies concerning Christ, witness that of his being born of a virgin (ch. 7) and that of his sufferings, Isa 53:1-12. The beginning of this book abounds most with reproofs for sin and threatenings of judgment; the latter end of it is full of wood words and comfortable words. This method the Spirit of Christ took formerly in the prophets and does still, first to convince and then to comfort; and those that would be blessed with the comforts must submit to the convictions. Doubtless Isaiah preached many sermons, and delivered many messages to the people, which are not written in this book, as Christ did; and probably these sermons were delivered more largely and fully than they are here related, but so much is left on record as Infinite Wisdom thought fit to convey to us on whom the ends of the world have come; and these prophecies, as well as the histories of Christ, are written that we might believe on the name of the Son of God, and that, believing, we might have life through his name; for to us is the gospel here preached as well as unto those that lived then, and more clearly. O that it may be mixed with faith!

ISAIAH, son of Amoz (not Amos); contemporary of Jonah, Amos, Hosea, in Israel, but younger than they; and of Micah, in Judah. His call to a higher degree of the prophetic office (Isa 6:1-13) is assigned to the last year of Uzziah, that is, 754 B.C. The first through fifth chapters belong to the closing years of that reign; not, as some think, to Jotham's reign: in the reign of the latter he seems to have exercised his office only orally, and not to have left any record of his prophecies because they were not intended for all ages. The first through fifth and sixth chapters are all that was designed for the Church universal of the prophecies of the first twenty years of his office. New historical epochs, such as occurred in the reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah, when the affairs of Israel became interwoven with those of the Asiatic empires, are marked by prophetic writings. The prophets had now to interpret the judgments of the Lord, so as to make the people conscious of His punitive justice, as also of His mercy. Isa. 7:1-10:4 belong to the reign of Ahaz. The thirty-sixth through thirty-ninth chapters are historical, reaching to the fifteenth year of Hezekiah; probably the tenth through twelfth chapters and all from the thirteenth through twenty-sixth chapters, inclusive, belong to the same reign; the historical section being appended to facilitate the right understanding of these prophecies; thus we have Isaiah's office extending from about 760 to 713 B.C., forty-seven years. Tradition (Talmud) represents him as having been sawn asunder by Manasseh with a wooden saw, for having said that he had seen Jehovah (Exo 33:20; Kg2 21:16; Heb 11:37). Ch2 32:32 seems to imply that Isaiah survived Hezekiah; but "first and last" is not added, as in Ch2 26:22, which makes it possible that his history of Hezekiah was only carried up to a certain point. The second part, the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters, containing complaints of gross idolatry, needs not to be restricted to Manasseh's reign, but is applicable to previous reigns. At the accession of Manasseh, Isaiah would be eighty-four; and if he prophesied for eight years afterwards, he must have endured martyrdom at ninety-two; so Hosea prophesied for sixty years. And Eastern tradition reports that he lived to one hundred and twenty. The conclusive argument against the tradition is that, according to the inscription, all Isaiah's prophecies are included in the time from Uzziah to Hezekiah; and the internal evidence accords with this.

His WIFE is called the prophetess [Isa 8:3], that is, endowed, as Miriam, with a prophetic gift.

His CHILDREN were considered by him as not belonging merely to himself; in their names, Shearjashub, "the remnant shall return" [Isa 7:3, Margin], and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, "speeding to the spoil, he hasteth to the prey" [Isa 8:1, Margin], the two chief points of his prophecies are intimated to the people, the judgments of the Lord on the people and the world, and yet His mercy to the elect.

His GARMENT of sackcloth (Isa 20:2), too, was a silent preaching by fact; he appears as the embodiment of that repentance which he taught.

His HISTORICAL WORKS.—History, as written by the prophets, is retroverted prophecy. As the past and future alike proceed from the essence of God, an inspired insight into the past implies an insight into the future, and vice versa. Hence most of the Old Testament histories are written by prophets and are classed with their writings; the Chronicles being not so classed, cannot have been written by them, but are taken from historical monographs of theirs; for example, Isaiah's life of Uzziah, Ch2 26:22; also of Hezekiah, Ch2 32:32; of these latter all that was important for all ages has been preserved to us, while the rest, which was local and temporary, has been lost.

The INSCRIPTION (Isa 1:1) applies to the whole book and implies that Isaiah is the author of the second part (the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters), as well as of the first. Nor do the words, "concerning Judah and Jerusalem" [Isa 1:1], oppose the idea that the inscription applies to the whole; for whatever he says against other nations, he says on account of their relation to Judah. So the inscription of Amos, "concerning Israel" [Amo 1:1], though several prophecies follow against foreign nations. EWALD maintains that the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters, though spurious, were subjoined to the previous portion, in order to preserve the former. But it is untrue that the first portion is unconnected with those chapters. The former ends with the Babylonian exile (Isa 39:6), the latter begins with the coming redemption from it. The portion, the fortieth through forty-sixth chapters, has no heading of its own, a proof that it is closely connected with what precedes, and falls under the general heading in Isa 1:1. JOSEPHUS (The Antiquities of the Jews, 11. 1, sec. 1, 2) says that Cyrus was induced by the prophecies of Isaiah (Isa 44:28; Isa 45:1, Isa 45:13) to aid the Jews in returning and rebuilding the temple Ezr 1:1-11 confirms this; Cyrus in his edict there plainly refers to the prophecies in the second portion, which assign the kingdoms to him from Jehovah, and the duty of rebuilding the temple. Probably he took from them his historical name Cyrus (Coresh). Moreover, subsequent prophets imitate this second portion, which EWALD assigns to later times; for example, compare Jer. 50:1-51:64 with Isaiah's predictions against Babylon [Isa. 13:1-14:23]. "The Holy One of Israel," occurring but three times elsewhere in the Old Testament [Kg2 19:22; Psa 78:41; Psa 89:18; Jer 50:29; Jer 51:5], is a favorite expression in the second, as in the first portion of Isaiah: it expresses God's covenant faithfulness in fulfilling the promises therein: Jeremiah borrows the expression from him. Also Ecclesiasticus 48:22-25 ("comforted"), quotes Isa 40:1 as Isaiah's. Luk 4:17 quotes Isa 61:1-2 as Isaiah's, and as read as such by Jesus Christ in the synagogue.

The DEFINITENESS of the prophecies is striking: As in the second portion of isaiah, so in Mic 4:8-10, the Babylonian exile, and the deliverance from it, are foretold a hundred fifty years before any hostilities had arisen between Babylon and Judah. On the other hand, all the prophets who foretell the Assyrian invasion coincide in stating, that Judah should be delivered from it, not by Egyptian aid, but directly by the Lord. Again Jeremiah, in the height of the Chaldean prosperity, foretold its conquest by the Medes, who should enter Babylon through the dry bed of the Euphrates on a night of general revelry. No human calculation could have discovered these facts. EICHORN terms these prophecies "veiled historical descriptions," recognizing in spite of himself that they are more than general poetical fancies. The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah was certainly written ages before the Messiah, yet it minutely portrays His sufferings: these cannot be Jewish inventions, for the Jews looked for a reigning, not a suffering, Messiah.

Rationalists are so far right that THE PROPHECIES ARE ON A GENERAL BASIS whereby they are distinguished from soothsaying. They rest on the essential idea of God. The prophets, penetrated by this inner knowledge of His character, became conscious of the eternal laws by which the world is governed: that sin is man's ruin, and must be followed by judgment, but that God's covenant mercy to His elect is unchangeable. Without prophetism, the elect remnant would have decreased, and even God's judgments would have missed their end, by not being recognized as such: they would have been unmeaning, isolated facts. Babylon was in Isaiah's days under Assyria; it had tried a revolt unsuccessfully: but the elements of its subsequent success and greatness were then existing. The Holy Ghost enlightened his natural powers to discern this its rise; and his spiritual faculties, to foresee its fall, the sure consequence, in God's eternal law, of the pride which pagan success generates—and also Judah's restoration, as the covenant-people, with whom God, according to His essential character, would not be wroth for ever. True conversion is the prophet's grand remedy against all evils: in this alone consists his politics. Rebuke, threatening, and promise, regularly succeed one another. The idea at the basis of all is in Isa 26:7-9; Lev 10:3; Amo 3:2.

The USE OF THE PRESENT AND PRETERITE in prophecy is no proof that the author is later than Isaiah. For seers view the future as present, and indicate what is ideally past, not really past; seeing things in the light of God, who "calls the things that are not as though they were." Moreover, as in looking from a height on a landscape, hills seem close together which are really wide apart, so, in events foretold, the order, succession, and grouping are presented, but the intervals of time are overlooked. The time, however, is sometimes marked (Jer 25:12; Dan 9:26). Thus the deliverance from Babylon, and that effected by Messiah, are in rapid transition grouped together by THE LAW OF PROPHETIC SUGGESTION; yet no prophet so confounds the two as to make Messiah the leader of Israel from Babylon. To the prophet there was probably no double sense; but to his spiritual eye the two events, though distinct, lay so near, and were so analogous, that he could not separate them in description without unfaithfulness to the picture presented before him. The more remote and antitypical event, however, namely, Messiah's coming, is that to which he always hastens, and which he describes with far more minuteness than he does the nearer type; for example, Cyrus (compare Isa 45:1 with Isa 53:1-12). In some cases he takes his stand in the midst of events between, for example, the humiliation of Jesus Christ, which he views as past, and His glorification, as yet to come, using the future tense as to the latter (compare Isa 53:4-9 with Isa 53:10-12). Marks of the time of events are given sparingly in the prophets: yet, as to Messiah, definitely enough to create the general expectation of Him at the time that He was in fact born.

The CHALDÆISMS alleged against the genuineness of the second portion of Isaiah, are found more in the first and undoubted portion. They occur in all the Old Testament, especially in the poetical parts, which prefer unusual expressions, and are due to the fact that the patriarchs were surrounded by Chaldee-speaking people; and in Isaiah's time a few Chaldee words had crept in from abroad.

His SYMBOLS are few and simple, and his poetical images correct; in the prophets, during and after the exile, the reverse holds good; Haggai and Malachi are not exceptions; for, though void of bold images, their style, unlike Isaiah's, rises little above prose: a clear proof that our Isaiah was long before the exile.

Of VISIONS, strictly so called, he has but one, that in the sixth chapter; even it is more simple than those in later prophets. But he often gives SIGNS, that is, a present fact as pledge of the more distant future; God condescending to the feebleness of man (Isa 7:14; Isa 37:30; Isa 38:7).

The VARIETIES IN HIS STYLE do not prove spuriousness, but that he varied his style with his subject. The second portion is not so much addressed to his contemporaries, as to the future people of the Lord, the elect remnant, purified by the previous judgments. Hence its tenderness of style, and frequent repetitions (Isa 40:1): for comforting exhortation uses many words; so also the many epithets added to the name of God, intended as stays whereon faith may rest for comfort, so as not to despair. In both portions alike there are peculiarities characteristic of Isaiah; for example, "to be called" equivalent to to be: the repetition of the same words, instead of synonyms, in the parallel members of verses; the interspersing of his prophecies with hymns: "the remnant of olive trees," &c., for the remnant of people who have escaped God's judgments. Also compare Isa 65:25 with Isa 11:6.

The CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT favors the opinion that Isaiah himself collected his prophecies into the volume; not Hezekiah's men, as the Talmud guesses from Pro 25:1. All the portions, the dates of which can be ascertained, stand in the right place, except a few instances, where prophecies of similar contents are placed together: with the termination of the Assyrian invasion (the thirty-sixth through thirty-ninth chapters) terminated the public life of Isaiah. The second part is his prophetic legacy to the small band of the faithful, analogous to the last speeches of Moses and of Jesus Christ to His chosen disciples.

The EXPECTATION OF MESSIAH is so strong in Isaiah, that JEROME To Paulinus calls his book not a prophecy, but the gospel: "He is not so much a prophet as an evangelist." Messiah was already shadowed forth in Gen 49:10, as the Shiloh, or tranquillizer; also in Psalms 2, 45, 72, 110. Isaiah brings it out more definitely; and, whereas they dwelt on His kingly office, Isaiah develops most His priestly and prophetic office; the hundred tenth Psalm also had set forth His priesthood, but His kingly rather than, as Isaiah, His suffering, priesthood. The latter is especially dwelt on in the second part, addressed to the faithful elect; whereas the first part, addressed to the whole people, dwells on Messiah's glory, the antidote to the fears which then filled the people, and the assurance that the kingdom of God, then represented by Judah, would not be overwhelmed by the surrounding nations.

His STYLE (HENGSTENBERG, Christology of the Old Testament,) is simple and sublime; in imagery, intermediate between the poverty of Jeremiah and the exuberance of Ezekiel. He shows his command of it in varying it to suit his subject.

The FORM is mostly that of Hebrew poetical parallelism, with, however, a freedom unshackled by undue restrictions.

JUDAH, the less apostate people, rather than Israel, was the subject of his prophecies: his residence was mostly at Jerusalem. On his praises, see Ecclesiasticus 48:22-25. Christ and the apostles quote no prophet so frequently.

Next: Isaiah Chapter 1