ISAIAH ישעיהו

The book of Isaiah is one of the major prophetical writings of the Bible. It identifies Isaiah as the son of Amoz and the book as “the vision of Isaiah . . . concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.”

According to 6:1, Isaiah received his call “in the year that King Uzziah died.” Chapters 40–66 are known as Deutero-Isaiah (Second Isaiah). Sometimes a further distinction is made between Deutero-Isaiah (chapters 40–55) and Trito-Isaiah (chapters 56–66).

Chapters 1–39 consist of numerous sayings and reports of Isaiah along with several narratives about the prophet that are attributed to his disciples. Isaiah’s message is clearly discernible. He was convinced that only an unshakable trust in Yahweh, rather than in political or military alliances, could protect Judah and Jerusalem from the advances of their enemies—specifically, in this period, the Assyrians.

He called for a recognition of the sovereignty of Yahweh and passionately denounced anything that worked against or obscured Yahweh’s purposes—from social injustices to meaningless cultic observances. Although Isaiah pronounced Yahweh’s judgment upon Judah and Jerusalem for their unfaithfulness, he also announced a new future for those who relied on Yahweh.

Deutero-Isaiah (40–55), consisting of a collection of oracles, songs, and discourses, dates from the Babylonian Exile. The anonymous prophet is in exile and looks forward to the deliverance of his people. The destruction of Babylon is prophesied and the return of the exiles to their homeland is promised.

Trito-Isaiah (56–66) reflects a Palestinian point of view, with the latter chapters, in particular, addressed to the cultic concerns of the restored community.

Isaiah is the prophet after whom the biblical Book of Isaiah is named (only some of the first 39 chapters are attributed to him), a significant contributor to Jewish and Christian traditions. His call to prophecy coincided with the beginnings of the westward expansion of the Assyrian empire, which threatened Israel and which Isaiah proclaimed to be a warning from God to a godless people.

The earliest recorded event in his life is his call to prophecy as now found in the sixth chapter of the Book of Isaiah. The vision (probably in the Jerusalem Temple) that made him a prophet is described in a first-person narrative.

According to the book, he “saw” God and was overwhelmed by his contact with the divine glory and holiness. He became agonizingly aware of God’s need for a messenger to the people of Israel, and, despite his sense of inadequacy, he offered himself for God’s service: “Here am I! Send me.” He was thus commissioned to give voice to the divine word.

It was no light undertaking; he was to condemn his people and watch the nation crumble and perish. As he tells it, he was only too aware that, coming with such a message, he would experience bitter opposition, willful disbelief, and ridicule, to withstand which he would have to be inwardly fortified. All this came to him in the form of a vision and ended as a sudden, firm, and lifelong resolve.

At times the prophet’s private life shows through the record as an aspect of his public message. Once when he went to confront a king, he took with him, to reinforce his prophetic word, a son with the symbolic name Shear-yashuv (“A Remnant Shall Return”).

Again, to memorialize a message, he sired a son of the “prophetess” (his wife) and saddled the child with his message as a name: Maher-shalal-hash-baz, referring to the imminent spoliations by the Assyrians. If the sons had not been wanted as walking witnesses to the prophet’s forebodings, posterity would not know of this wife or these sons.

Of Isaiah’s parental home it is known only that his father’s name was Amoz. Since he often spoke with kings, it is sometimes suggested that Isaiah was an aristocrat, possibly even of royal stock. The same reasoning, however, might apply to any number of prophets; from Nathan in David’s time onward, prophets had dealings with kings and were, like Isaiah, well-informed about public affairs.

Moreover, Isaiah’s sympathies were emphatic with the tormented poor, not with the courtiers and well-to-do. Also, it is occasion argued that he was of a priestly family, but his knowledge of cultic matters and the fact that his commissioning seemingly occurred in the Temple in Jerusalem are slender evidence for his priestly descent as against his unreserved condemnation of the priests and their domain: “I am fed up with roasting rams and the grease of fattened beasts,” he has God proclaim in a well-known passage in the first chapter.

Surprisingly, a prophet can be both raised and born, and Isaiah had both advantages. One could argue with equal force that Isaiah is descended from a family of prophets (though his father, the otherwise unknown Amoz, is not to be confused with the prophet Amos). He is thoroughly schooled in the traditional forms and language of prophetic speech. It is an educated speech—intense, vivid, and the finest of classical language.

Isaiah is particularly well acquainted with the prophetic tradition known to his slightly older contemporary, Amos. Four eminent prophets addressed themselves to the people of Israel and Judah: Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah. Strangely, no evidence suggests that any of these prophets knew in person any of the others.

Seemingly, they were apart and alone, yet Isaiah and Amos follow essentially the same lines of thought and differ significantly only in that Amos addressed the northern kingdom (Israel) while Isaiah would emphatically include Judah and Jerusalem. The basic similarities in style and substance strongly suggest the influence, direct or indirect, of one on the other.

Isaiah’s experience bridges the classes and occupations. Whatever his family circumstances, still in his youth he came to know the face of poverty—and the debauchery of the rich. He was at home with the unprotected, the widowed, and orphaned; with the dispossessed, homeless, landless; and with the resourceless victims of the moneyed man’s court.

He was also acquainted with the rapacious authors of the prevailing misery: promulgators of discriminatory laws, venal judges, greedy landgrabbers, fancy women, thieving and carousing men of means, and irresponsible leaders, both civil and religious. In other words, he was intimately aware of the inequities and evils of human society.

It is Isaiah’s theology that leans most heavily on Israelite tradition and shows an acquaintance with the thoughts of Amos. Isaiah shared with him and with the people the long-standing tradition that a special bond united Israel and its God. Since patriarchal times there had been an agreement, a solemn “Covenant” between them: Israel was to be God’s people.

He had chosen them and cared for them. His solicitude for their welfare had been established. Such was the traditional message. Isaiah knew and honored this ancient tradition, but, more significantly, he also shared the conviction of Amos that this arrangement was wholly conditional, contingent on the people’s conduct.

Behavior such as Amos saw about him in Samaria and Isaiah saw about him in Jerusalem could cancel that Covenant—had done so; that is the meaning of the vineyard parable in the fifth chapter of Isaiah. There God is compared to the careful and industrious cultivator of a vineyard—Israel—who, angry at the “wild grapes” of injustice and violence that is his crop, threatens to take away his care and protection.

Isaiah’s theology included the sometimes comforting view that God shapes history, traditionally entering the human scene to rescue his people from national peril. But, according to Isaiah’s discomfiting surmise, God could intervene quite as properly to chastise his aberrant nation, and he could employ a human agent (e.g., a conquering foe) to that end.

Holiness, righteousness, and God’s plan. God’s plan for the world is based on his choice of Jerusalem as the place where he will manifest himself, and of the line of David as his earthly representative – a theme that may have been created through Jerusalem’s reprieve from the Assyrian attack.

God is “the holy one of Israel”; justice and righteousness are the qualities that mark the essence of God, and Israel has offended God through unrighteousness. Isaiah speaks out for the poor and the oppressed and against corrupt princes and judges, but unlike the prophets Amos and Micah he roots righteousness not in Israel’s covenant with God but in God’s holiness.

Monotheism. Isaiah 44:6 contains the first clear statement of monotheism: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me, there is no God”. In Isaiah 44:09–20, this is developed into a satire on the making and worship of idols, mocking the foolishness of the carpenter who worships the idol that he has carved.

While Yahweh had shown his superiority to other gods before, in Second Isaiah, he became the sole God of the world.

The book of Isaiah opens by setting out the themes of judgment and subsequent restoration for the righteous. God has a plan which will be realized on the “Day of Yahweh” when Jerusalem will become the center of his worldwide rule. On that day all the nations of the world will come to Zion (Jerusalem) for instruction, but first, the city must be punished and cleansed of evil. Israel is invited to join in this plan.

Chapters 5–12 explain the significance of the Assyrian judgment against Israel: righteous rule by the Davidic king will follow after the arrogant Assyrian monarch is brought down. Chapters 13–27 announce the preparation of the nations for Yahweh’s world rule; chapters 28–33 announce that a royal savior (a Messiah) will emerge in the aftermath of Jerusalem’s punishment and the destruction of her oppressor.

The oppressor (now identified as Babylon rather than Assyria) is about to fall. Chapters 34–35 tell how Yahweh will return the redeemed exiles to Jerusalem. Chapters 36–39 tell of the faithfulness of king Hezekiah to Yahweh during the Assyrian siege as a model for the restored community.

Chapters 40–54 state that the restoration of Zion is taking place because Yahweh, the creator of the universe, has designated the Persian king Cyrus the Great as the promised Messiah and temple-builder. Chapters 55–66 are an exhortation to Israel to keep the covenant. God’s eternal promise to David is now made to the people of Israel/Judah at large. The book ends by enjoining righteousness as the final stages of God’s plan come to pass, including the pilgrimage of the nations to Zion and the realization of Yahweh’s kingship.