Isaiah

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

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INTRODUCTION.

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

(Ex 33:20;

2Ki 21:16;

Heb 11:37).

2Ch 32:32

seems to imply that Isaiah survived Hezekiah; but "first and last" is

not added, as in

2Ch 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,

2Ch 26:22;

also of Hezekiah,

2Ch 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"

[Am 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; 45:1, 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

[Is 13:1-14:23].

"The Holy One of Israel," occurring but three times elsewhere in the

Old Testament

[2Ki 19:22;

Ps 78:41; 89:18;

Jer 50:29; 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.

Lu 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;

Le 10:3;

Am 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;

Da 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 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; 37:30; 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

Pr 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

Ge 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.