Isaiah

Isaiah (active ca. 740-701 B.C.) was a Hebrew prophet. His Hebrew name, Yeshayhu, means "God is salvation" and alludes to the prophet's major doctrines and teachings.

The son of Amoz, of noble descent, Isaiah lived in Jerusalem. He referred to his wife as the "prophetess" and gave his two sons names symbolic of his prophecies: Shear-Yashub, meaning "a remnant will return," implying a return to the God of Israel, from whom his people were estranged; and Maher-shalal-has-baz, or "quick prey," which may have been intended to serve as a warning to Pekah, the usurper king of Israel, and Rezin, the king of Aram (Syria). They had attacked and besieged Jerusalem (734 B.C.) in an attempt to depose the Judahite king Ahaz, who refused to join them in their alliance against Assyria.

The turning point in Isaiah's life was his call to prophecy in the year of King Uzziah's death (ca. 740 B.C.), which came to Isaiah in a vision in the Temple. To Isaiah the word kadosh, or "holy," meant righteousness. To obey God's will was to be just, and Zion would eventually be redeemed in justice.

Historical Context

Isaiah's prophecies can be understood only in the context of the prevailing social conditions. Uzziah's reign (ca. 780-740 B.C.) was one of great prosperity, but Isaiah denounced the ill-gained riches of his people, who oppressed the poor. The richer classes, as often happens, also tended toward assimilation with their neighbors. In the case of the Judahites this meant the adoption of the idolatrous cults, which were associated with immoral practices.

Judah was situated in a buffer area, surrounded by stronger nations that aspired to overrun its territory or at least to occupy it as a base of operations against neighboring enemies. Judah, moreover, was directly in the path of the rival imperialist giants of that day, Egypt and Assyria. Isaiah opposed alliances with either and urged dependence on the Lord. When Egypt induced Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Aram to join in an alliance against Assyria, Isaiah denounced them as "two tails of smoking firebrands" (Isaiah 7:4). He urged the Judahite king Ahaz (ca. 735-715 B.C.) to rely on God rather than on Tiglathpileser III, to whom Ahaz had given costly gifts to induce him to come to his aid.

Isaiah's prediction that the conspirators would themselves soon be destroyed was realized a few years later, when Damascus, the capital of Aram, was captured in 732 B.C. and Samaria, Israel's capital, in 722 B.C. The involvement of Ahaz with Assyria also had its sinister consequences, for as a result the Assyrian idolatrous cult of the heavenly bodies was introduced into Judea.

King Hezekiah (715-686 B.C.), who succeeded Ahaz, generally heeded the prophet's advice and kept out of political or military entanglements. However, he was swayed by his steward, Shebna, and the court party to join the coalition that revolted against Sennacherib, the Assyrian monarch (705-687 B.C.). Isaiah considered it foolhardy to trust "in the shadow of Egypt" rather than in God. Indeed, the efforts of Egypt to stop Sennacherib proved futile; he conquered the rebellious peoples and invaded Judea.

In his own inscriptions, the Assyrian ruler wrote of having destroyed 46 fortified Judahite towns, deporting their population and capturing Hezekiah. At this crucial juncture the Judean king appealed for counsel to Isaiah, who urged him to have faith in the Lord and not to surrender the city. Before long, Tirhakah, the king of Ethiopia, went to war against Sennacherib, forcing him to move his army from Jerusalem. There a pestilence broke out in his army and destroyed it.

God and the Messiah

Isaiah was fully committed to the idea that God was the author and guide in human history. All nations, moreover, were mere instruments in His hands, and they must serve Him by establishing the rule of justice, righteousness, and peace. This would be achieved only in the "end of days," when all nations would worship the God of Israel, who would teach them His ways.

Isaiah envisioned the glorious future of the world, when the Messiah, God's anointed, a perfect ruler, would bring about an everlasting peace among men. The nations would "beat their swords into plowshares" and would not "learn war any more" (2:4). The Messianic ideal thus gave a spiritual goal to human existence.

Authorship of the Prophecies

The Book of Isaiah is generally believed to include prophecies by several hands. The first part, chapters 1-39, is attributed to Isaiah. Some scholars maintain that the second section encompasses the remainder of the volume, while others claim that it embraces only chapters 40-55, which deal generally with the period of the Babylonian exile. This part of the Book of Isaiah is ascribed to an anonymous prophet, who has been referred to as the Second, or Deutero, Isaiah. Unlike the prophecies of Isaiah ben Amoz, warning of punishment and doom, those of Deutero-Isaiah speak of God's salvation as manifested by Israel's return to Zion and the attainment of universal monotheism (45:22 ff). The reason that scholars believe that the final chapters of the Book of Isaiah (56-66) form a separate division and were composed by another anonymous prophet, designated as Third, or Trito, Isaiah, is that these chapters deal with the problems of the Jewish community after its return to its homeland. This would be around the time of Haggai and Zechariah (ca. 520). The several parts of the Book of Isaiah represent a Hebrew prophecy that attained great heights in human ethics and ideals.

Further Reading

To appreciate Isaiah's message one must read at least portions of the Book of Isaiah in a good standard translation such as the Revised Standard Version (1952) or the Soncino edition (1950). Abraham J. Heschel discusses the mission and the message of the prophet in the chapter "Isaiah, Son of Amoz" in The Prophets (1962). He also discusses various aspects of prophecy as well as the Second Isaiah in other portions of this work.

Additional Sources

Hayes, John Haralson, Isaiah, the eighth century prophet: his times & his preaching, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1987.

Ludlow, Victor L., Isaiah—prophet, seer, and poet, Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Co., 1982. □

Isaiah, book of Although there is no MS—even the oldest, among the Dead Sea scrolls—which in any way suggests that the book can be divided among several authors of different dates, it has been modern critical opinion that the book cannot be a unity. The reasons for this view were: that the historical situation envisaged in Isa. 1–39 is for the most part that of the second half of the 8th cent. BCE whereas in Isa. 40–66 (and also Isa. 13–14) the references to Cyrus and the end of the Exile in Babylon clearly derive from the sixth–fifth centuries. This analysis is confirmed by the difference of themes: the ‘First Isaiah’, the prophet who lived in court circles in Jerusalem during the 8th cent., interprets the assyrian threat to Judah in the light of his belief about God's providence. The ‘Second Isaiah’, or ‘Deutero-Isaiah’, the unknown prophet of the exilic period, who is never named, saw the collapse of Babylon and the triumph of the Persian Cyrus in 539 BCE (Isa. 44: 28; 45: 1). So a prominent theme is that of the restoration of the Temple. It is also shown by computer analysis that the Hebrew of 40–66 has many subtle variations from 1–39—even granted certain features common to both parts, such as the expression ‘the Holy One of Israel’ (Isa. 1: 4; 10: 20 and 41: 14). Indeed the book does possess a theological and literary unity, and therefore modern commentators are at pains both to point out the probable historical circumstances of the book's several parts, and also to show how the whole book, much of it in poetic form, is focused: the nation's failures are followed by punishments, and the hope (40–55) of ultimate restoration implies conditions (56–66) of no further lapses into the old apostasy (1: 21).

But conservative Christian scholars who maintain the unity of authorship of the book do so primarily on dogmatic grounds, that this is pre-supposed by the NT in Matt. 3: 3; 12: 17 ff. and Rom. 10: 20 f. They suggest that Isa. 40–66 contains a core of the historical Isaiah's work, but do concede that later disciples added to it and edited it with contemporary allusions.

Isa. 1–39 contains the prophet's denunciations of the sins of Judah and Jerusalem (1 to 12) and invectives against the leaders (22: 15–25). There are oracles against foreign nations (13–23), and prophecies of hope, denunciation, and salvation (24–35). Finally, 36–9 is a prose appendix, possibly not written by Isaiah, giving an account of his relations with King Hezekiah, and parallel to 2 Kgs. 18: 13–20: 19. Some of Isaiah's ethical judgements are governed by OT codes (e.g. Exod. 23) while others seem to derive from the universal moral sense of what is right and wrong, as in the Wisdom literature (e.g. Proverbs).

First Isaiah is concerned with two major political crises: the Syro-Ephraimite conspiracy (734–733 BCE) when Judah's two northern neighbours in unison tried to force Judah into an alliance against Assyria. The second crisis was that of the Assyrian threat to Jerusalem of 701 BCE. In chs. 1–9 Isaiah tried to persuade King Ahaz that the two conspirators were doomed to fail. God's promise to David (2 Sam. 7) was unbreakable (Isa. 9: 1–6; 11: 1–10). However, Ahaz decided to seek Assyrian help (2 Kgs. 16: 7 f.) against the two allies, and Isaiah prophesied that this act of faithlessness, and the social evils of the country, would deserve God's punishment by war.

Syria and Ephraim were conquered, and the Assyrians made Judah a vassal state. Assyrian cult objects were introduced by Ahaz into the Temple. Cf. 2 Kgs. 16: 11. However, Hezekiah, who succeeded Ahaz in 715 BCE, threw off the yoke of Assyria, with some encouragement from Egypt (Isa. 18: 1–2 and 30: 1–7), and at the same time purged the country of foreign idolatry in a reform which anticipated that of Josiah (629 BCE). Inevitably Sennacherib, king of Assyria, marched against Judah, but Hezekiah paid tribute and escaped his wrath (701 BCE).

The situation for Second Isaiah was the Exile of the people of Judah in Babylon (2 Kgs. 24: 12–16). It was a captivity in which the people enjoyed liberty of worship; synagogues may have been established then, and observance of the sabbath was emphasized. Business prospered. Nevertheless many remembered their homeland with affection (Ps. 137). So the prophet celebrates Cyrus emperor of Persia as God's agent for reversing the exiles' fortunes. In 538 BCE Cyrus issued a proclamation allowing the return to Jerusalem, but the prophecies of 2 Isa. had probably been delivered about 547 BCE when Cyrus was beginning his career of conquest. 2 Isa.'s message is that Yahweh is the only God and he will bring salvation to his people. In chs. 56–66 the style and tone is more critical of the nation, and some scholars regard this section as the work of a third prophet, designated ‘Trito-Isaiah’.

An important section of Deutero-Isaiah is that of the four Servant Songs: 42: 1–4; 49: 1–6; 50: 4–11, and 52: 13–53: 12. Much scholarly discussion has been devoted to the identity of the servant. Was he an individual—e.g. Jeremiah? Or a group? Or the nation as a whole? Or the ideal nation? Because these sections became important for Christian propaganda as seemingly referring to Jesus (Matt. 12: 16–21; 1 Pet. 1: 24–5) they have sometimes been isolated from the rest of the book, although the ‘servant’ is mentioned in 41: 8; 45: 4, outside the Songs. At any rate their meaning is that it is through failure and humiliation that God's promise is revealed and fulfilled. In addition to the Servant Songs, the book contains the Emmanuel prophecy (7) and the house of David motif (9 and 22), which made Isa., together with the Pss., the most quoted OT books in the NT.

Isaiah, Hebrew prophet. He was influential at the court of the kings of Judah, especially over foreign affairs. Called to the prophetic office c.740 BC, he continued his work until the Assyrian invasion of Judah in 701 BC. According to tradition he was martyred. He asserted the supremacy of God, emphasized His moral demands, and stressed the Divine holiness, giving to this conception an ethical content. From NT times the so-called Messianic passages in the prophecies ascribed to Isaiah (especially 9: 2–7 and 11: 1–9) have been referred by Christian writers to the historic Christ, but it is disputed how far these can be attributed to the Prophet himself. See also the following entries.

Isaiah (Isaias) (active c.8th century bc) Old Testament prophet who was active in Jerusalem from the 740s until the end of the century, and gave his name to the Old Testament Book of Isaiah – although only part of it is attributed to Isaiah. The rest is thought to be the work of one or even two authors from a later period. The book contrasts Judah's perilous present-day state with glimpses into the future, when God shall send a king to rule over his people.

Isaiah ♂ Biblical name (meaning ‘God is salvation’ in Hebrew), borne by the most important of the major prophets. Rather surprisingly perhaps, until recently the name was not common in the English-speaking world, although it was occasionally used among the Puritans in the 17th century. Since the 1980s, it has steadily risen in general popularity, especially in the United States, as well as being well established as a Jewish name.

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