Book Intro › Major Prophets

Isaiah

יְשַׁעְיָהוּ Yeshayahu, “Yahweh is salvation”. Prophecy. 66 chapters, 1,292 verses.

The Holy One of Israel judges his people and the nations, then comforts Jerusalem and promises a servant, a restored Zion and a new creation.

Read Isaiah 1 →

Overview

Isaiah is “the vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz” concerning Judah and Jerusalem under four kings (1:1), roughly 740 to 700 BC. In the year King Uzziah died, Isaiah sees the Lord enthroned in the temple and hears the seraphim cry, “Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies!” (6:3). He accuses Judah of injustice and empty worship, urges King Ahaz to trust God instead of Assyria, speaks against the surrounding nations and stands with King Hezekiah when the Assyrian king Sennacherib besieges Jerusalem.

From chapter 40 the tone and setting change. “Comfort, comfort my people” (40:1) addresses a people in exile in Babylon, and Cyrus of Persia is named as the one who will let them go home (44:28). These chapters speak of a servant of Yahweh who will be “a light to the nations” (49:6) and who suffers for others (52:13–53:12). The book ends with the returned community and a promise of “new heavens and a new earth” (65:17).

Author and date

The book names Isaiah son of Amoz, an 8th-century prophet in Jerusalem. Whether he wrote all of it is one of the best-known debates in biblical studies.

Traditional view

Isaiah son of Amoz · 8th–7th century BC

Jewish and Christian tradition hold that Isaiah wrote the whole book, foreseeing the exile and the return and naming Cyrus some 150 years in advance. The New Testament quotes passages from both halves under Isaiah’s name, for example in John 12:38–41. Holders of this view also point to language and themes shared across the book, such as the title “the Holy One of Israel.”

Academic view

Three main parts · 8th–5th century BC

Most academic scholars assign much of chapters 1–39 to the 8th-century prophet. They assign chapters 40–55 to an unnamed prophet of the exile around 540 BC (often called Second Isaiah) and chapters 56–66 to the period after the return (Third Isaiah). They point to the change of setting: from chapter 40, Jerusalem already lies in ruins and Cyrus is on the rise. Recent work often stresses how deliberately the parts were shaped into one book.

Both views read the book as a whole in its final form. The Great Isaiah Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran, was copied in the 2nd century BC and contains all 66 chapters.

Audience and setting

The first part of the book addresses Jerusalem and its kings in the Assyrian period, when the northern kingdom fell (722 BC) and Sennacherib invaded Judah (701 BC). Chapters 36–39, a stretch of narrative, closely parallel 2 Kings 18–20.

The later chapters speak to exiles in Babylon and to the community rebuilding Jerusalem, whether read as prophecy of those days or as written during them.

Genre, and how to read it

Isaiah is mostly poetry: oracles, or prophetic messages, of judgement and promise that often sit side by side without transition. It helps to notice the shifts in audience and time, and to follow repeated images through the book: Zion, the vineyard, the highway through the desert, light and darkness, the remnant.

Several passages are read differently in Jewish and Christian tradition. The sign of Immanuel (7:14) uses a Hebrew word for a young woman. The ancient Greek translation rendered it “virgin,” and Matthew 1:23 follows that reading. Jewish interpretation mainly identifies the suffering servant of 52:13–53:12 with Israel, whom the book also calls God’s servant (49:3). Christian interpretation identifies him with Jesus, as in Acts 8:32–35.

The Holy One of Israel

The mountain of Yahweh, twice

Outline

Judgement and hope (1–39)

• 1:1–5:30 Judah on trial — A rebellious people, the mountain of Yahweh, the song of the vineyard
• 6:1–12:6 The call, and Immanuel — The throne vision, King Ahaz, and the promised child
• 13:1–23:18 Oracles against the nations — Babylon, Assyria, Moab, Egypt, Tyre and others
• 24:1–27:13 The whole earth judged — Visions of the end, often called the Isaiah Apocalypse
• 28:1–35:10 Woes and promises — Reliance on Egypt condemned, and the desert in bloom
• 36:1–39:8 Hezekiah — Sennacherib’s siege, Hezekiah’s illness, envoys from Babylon

Comfort (40–55)

• 40:1–48:22 Comfort for the exiles — The incomparable God, idols mocked, Cyrus named
• 49:1–55:13 The servant and Zion — The servant who suffers, and Jerusalem restored

The restored community (56–66)

• 56:1–66:24 New heavens and a new earth — True fasting, Zion’s glory, the new creation

Key themes

The Holy One of Israel

Isaiah’s favourite title for God comes from his call, where the seraphim cry “Holy, holy, holy” (6:3) and the prophet answers, “Here I am. Send me!” (6:8).

Justice

God looked for justice in his vineyard, “but behold, oppression” (5:7). Worship without justice is rejected, and the invitation stands: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (1:18).

The coming king

A child is promised who will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (9:6), and a shoot will come “out of the stock of Jesse” (11:1).

The servant

Four passages, often called the Servant Songs (42:1–4, 49:1–6, 50:4–9, 52:13–53:12), describe a servant who brings justice to the nations and bears the sins of many: “by his wounds we are healed” (53:5).

Zion and the nations

The nations will stream to Jerusalem to learn God’s ways, and “beat their swords into plowshares” (2:4).

At a glance

60 people and 118 places named.

Most mentioned: Jacob (Israel), Hezekiah, Isaiah, Moab, Ephraim

Main places: Jerusalem, Assyria, Egypt, Moab, Babylon

In the Almanac: Homer, Seraphim, Leviathan, Rahab (the sea monster)