ISAIAH

The son of Amoz, (not Amos,) one of the most distinguished of the Hebrew prophets. He began to prophesy at Jerusalem towards the close of the reign of Uzziah, about the year 759 B. C., and exercised the prophetical office some sixty years, under the three following monarchs, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, Isa 1:1. Compare 2Ki 15:1-20:21 2Ch 26:1-32:33. The first twelve chapters of his prophecies refer to the kingdom of Judah; then Isa 13:1-23:18, directed against foreign nations, except Isa 22:1-23, against Jerusalem. In Isa 24:1-35:10, which would seem to belong to the time of Hezekiah, the prophet appears to look forward in prophetic vision to the times of the exile and of the Messiah. Isa 36:1-39:8 gives a historical account to Sennacherib’s invasion, and of the advice given by Isaiah to Hezekiah. This account is parallel to that in 2Ki 18:13-20:19; and indeed Isa 37:1-38 is almost word for word with 2Ki 19:1-37. The remainder of the book of Isaiah, Isa 40:1-66:24, contains a series of oracles referring to the future times of temporal exile and deliverance, and expanding into glorious views of the spiritual deliverance to be wrought by the Messiah. Isaiah seems to have lived and prophesied wholly at Jerusalem; and disappears from history after the accounts contained in Isa 39:1-8. A tradition among the Talmudist and fathers relates that he was sawn asunder during the reign of Manasseh, Heb 11:37; and this tradition is embodied in an apocrtphal book, called the "ascension of Isaiah;" but it seems to rest on no certain grounds. Some commentators have proposed to divide the book of Isaiah chronologically into three parts, as if composed under the three kings, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. But this is of very doubtful propriety; since several of the chapters are evidently transposed and inserted out of their chronological order. But a very obvious and striking division of the book into two parts exists; the first part, including Isa 1:1-39:8, and the second, the remainder of the book, Isa 40:1-66:24. The first part is made up of those prophecies and historical accounts which Isaiah wrote during the period of his active exertions, when he mingled in the public concerns of the rulers and the people, and acted as the messenger of God to the nation in reference to their internal and external existing relations. These are single prophecies, published at different times, and on different occasions; afterwards, indeed, brought together into one collection, but still marked as distinct and single, either by the superscriptions, or in some other obvious and known method. The second part, on the contrary, is occupied wholly with the future. It was apparently written in the later years of the prophet, when, having left all active exertions in the theocracy to his younger associates in the prophetical office, he transferred his contemplations for the present to that which was to come. In this part therefore, which was not, like the first, occasioned by external circumstance, it is not so easy to distinguish in like manner between the different single prophecies. The whole is more like a single gush of prophecy. The prophet first consoles his people by announcing their deliverance from the approaching Babylonish exile, which he had himself predicted, Isa 39:6,7; he names the monarch whom Jehovah will send to punish the insolence of their oppressors, and lead back the people to their home. But he does not stop at this inferior deliverance. With the prospect of freedom from the Babylonish exile, he connects the prospect of deliverance from sin and error through the Messiah. Sometimes both objects seem closely interwoven with each other; sometimes one of them appears alone with particular clearness and prominency. Especially is the view of the prophet sometimes so exclusively directed upon the latter object, that, filled with the contemplation of the glory of the spiritual kingdom of God and of its exalted Founder, he loses sight for a time of the less distant future. In the description of this spiritual deliverance also, the relations of time are not observed. Sometimes the prophet beholds the Author of this deliverance in his humiliation and sorrows; and again, the remotest ages of the Messiah’s kingdom present themselves to his enraptured vision-when man, so long estranged from God, will have again returned to him; when every thing opposed to God shall have been destroyed, and internal and external peace universally prevail; and when all the evil introduced by sin into the world, will be for ever done away. Elevated above all space and time, the prophet contemplates from the height on which the Holy Spirit has thus placed him, the whole development of the Messiah’s kingdom, from its smallest beginnings to its glorious completion. Isaiah is appropriately named "the evangelical prophet," and the fathers called his book "the Gospel according to St. Isaiah." In it the wonderful person and birth of "Emmanuel-God with us," his beneficent life, his atoning death, and his triumphant and everlasting kingdom, are minutely foretold, Isa 7:14-16 9:6-7 11:1-10 32:1-20 42:1-25 49:1-26 52:13-15 53:1-12 60:1-21 61:1-3. The simplicity, purity, sweetness, and sublimity of Isaiah, and the fullness of his predictions respecting the Messiah, give him the preeminence among the Hebrew prophets and poets.

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Isaiah. Isaiah
(Heb. Yesh’yahu, i.e., “the salvation of Jehovah”). (1.) The son of Amoz (Isa. 1:1; 2:1), who was apparently a man of humble rank. His wife was called “the prophetess” (8:3), either because she was endowed with the prophetic gift, like Deborah (Judg. 4:4) and Huldah (2 Kings 22:14-20), or simply because she was the wife of “the prophet” (Isa. 38:1). He had two sons, who bore symbolical names.

He exercised the functions of his office during the reigns of Uzziah (or Azariah), Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (1:1). Uzziah reigned fifty-two years (B.C. 810-759), and Isaiah must have begun his career a few years before Uzziah’s death, probably B.C. 762. He lived till the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, and in all likelihood outlived that monarch (who died B.C. 698), and may have been contemporary for some years with Manasseh. Thus Isaiah may have prophesied for the long period of at least sixty-four years.

His first call to the prophetical office is not recorded. A second call came to him “in the year that King Uzziah died” (Isa. 6:1). He exercised his ministry in a spirit of uncompromising firmness and boldness in regard to all that bore on the interests of religion. He conceals nothing and keeps nothing back from fear of man. He was also noted for his spirituality and for his deep-toned reverence toward “the holy One of Israel.”

In early youth Isaiah must have been moved by the invasion of Israel by the Assyrian monarch Pul (q.v.), 2 Kings 15:19; and again, twenty years later, when he had already entered on his office, by the invasion of Tiglath-pileser and his career of conquest. Ahaz, king of Judah, at this crisis refused to co-operate with the kings of Israel and Syria in opposition to the Assyrians, and was on that account attacked and defeated by Rezin of Damascus and Pekah of Samaria (2 Kings 16:5; 2 Chr. 28:5, 6). Ahaz, thus humbled, sided with Assyria, and sought the aid of Tiglath-pileser against Israel and Syria. The consequence was that Rezin and Pekah were conquered and many of the people carried captive to Assyria (2 Kings 15:29; 16:9; 1 Chr. 5:26). Soon after this Shalmaneser determined wholly to subdue the kingdom of Israel. Samaria was taken and destroyed (B.C. 722). So long as Ahaz reigned, the kingdom of Judah was unmolested by the Assyrian power; but on his accession to the throne, Hezekiah (B.C. 726), who “rebelled against the king of Assyria” (2 Kings 18:7), in which he was encouraged by Isaiah, who exhorted the people to place all their dependence on Jehovah (Isa. 10:24; 37:6), entered into an alliance with the king of Egypt (Isa. 30:2-4). This led the king of Assyria to threaten the king of Judah, and at length to invade the land. Sennacherib (B.C. 701) led a powerful army into Palestine. Hezekiah was reduced to despair, and submitted to the Assyrians (2 Kings 18:14-16). But after a brief interval war broke out again, and again Sennacherib (q.v.) led an army into Palestine, one detachment of which threatened Jerusalem (Isa. 36:2-22; 37:8). Isaiah on that occasion encouraged Hezekiah to resist the Assyrians (37:1-7), whereupon Sennacherib sent a threatening letter to Hezekiah, which he “spread before the Lord” (37:14). The judgement of God now fell on the Assyrian host. “Like Xerxes in Greece, Sennacherib never recovered from the shock of the disaster in Judah. He made no more expeditions against either Southern Palestine or Egypt.” The remaining years of Hezekiah’s reign were peaceful (2 Chr. 32:23, 27-29). Isaiah probably lived to its close, and possibly into the reign of Manasseh, but the time and manner of his death are unknown. There is a tradition that he suffered martyrdom in the heathen reaction in the time of Manasseh (q.v.).

(2.) One of the heads of the singers in the time of David (1 Chr. 25:3,15, “Jeshaiah”).

(3.) A Levite (1 Chr. 26:25). (4.) Ezra 8:7. (5.) Neh. 11:7.

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Isaiah. the salvation of the Lord

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ISAIAH. → Also called ESAIAS → Son of Amos Isa 1:1 → Prophesies in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah Isa 1:1; 6:1; 7:1,3; 14:27; 20:1; 36:1; 38:1; 39:1 → Prophecy at the time of the invasion by Tartan, of Assyria Isa 20:1 → Symbolically wears sackcloth, and walks barefoot as a sign to Israel Isa 20:2,3 → Comforts and encourages Hezekiah and the people during the siege of Jerusalem by Rab-shakeh 2Ki 18; 19; Isa 37:6,7 → Comforts Hezekiah in his affliction 2Ki 20:1-11; Isa 38 → Performs the miracle of the returning shadow to confirm Hezekiah's faith 2Ki 20:8-11 → Reproves Hezekiah's folly in exhibiting his resources to the commissioners from Babylon 2Ki 20:12-19; Isa 39 → Is the chronicler of the times of Uzziah and Hezekiah 2Ch 26:22; 32:32 → PROPHECIES, REPROOFS, AND EXHORTATIONS OF
* Foretells punishment of the Jews for idolatry, and reproves self-confidence and distrust of God Isa 2:6-20
* Foretells the destruction of the Jews Isa 3
* Promises to the remnant restoration of divine favour Isa 4:2-6; 6
* Delineates the ingratitude of the Jews in the parable of the vineyard, and reproves it Isa 5:1-10
* Denounces existing corruptions Isa 5:8-30
* Foretells the failure of the plot of the Israelites and Syrians against Judah Isa 7:1-16
* Denounces calamities against Israel and Judah Isa 7:16-25; 9:2-6
* Foretells prosperity under Hezekiah, and the manifestation of the Messiah Isa 9:1-7
* Denounces vengeance upon the enemies of Israel Isa 9:8-12
* Denounces the wickedness of Israel, and foretells the judgments of God Isa 9:13-21
* Denounces judgments against false prophets Isa 10:1-4
* Foretells the destruction of Sennacherib's armies Isa 10:5-34
* The restoration of Israel and the triumph of the Messiah's kingdom Isa 11
* The burden of Babylon Isa 13; 14:1-28
* Denunciation against the Philistines Isa 14:9-32
* Burden of Moab Isa 15; 16
* Burden of Damascus Isa 17
* An obscure prophecy, supposed by some authorities to be directed against the Assyrians, by others against the Egyptians, and by others against the Ethiopians Isa 18
* The burden of Egypt Isa 19; 20
* Denunciations against Babylon Isa 21:1-10
* Prophecy concerning Seir Isa 21:11,12
* Arabia Isa 21:13-17
* Concerning the conquest of Jerusalem, the captivity of Shebna, and the promotion of Eliakim Isa 22:1-22
* The overthrow of Tyre Isa 23
* The judgments upon the land, but that a remnant of the Jews would be saved Isa 25; 26; 27
* Reproves Ephraim for his wickedness, and fortells the destruction by Shalmaneser Isa 28:1-5
* Declares the glory of God upon the remnant who are saved Isa 28:5,6
* Exposes the corruptions in Jerusalem and exhorts to repentance Isa 28:7-29
* Foretells the invasion of Sennacherib, the distress of the Jews, and the destruction of the Assyrian army Isa 29:1-8
* Denounces the hypocrisy of the Jews Isa 29:9-17
* Promises a reformation Isa 29:18-24
* Reproves the people for their confidence in Egypt, and their contempt of God Isa 30:1-17; 31:1-6
* Declares the goodness and longsuffering of God toward them Isa 30:18-26; 32; 33; 34; 35
* Reproves the Jews for their spiritual blindness and infidelity Isa 42:18-25
* Promises ultimate restoration of the Jews Isa 43:1-13
* Foretells the ultimate destruction of Babylon Isa 43:14-17; 47
* Exhorts the people to repent Isa 43:22-28
* Comforts the Jewish community with promises, exposes the folly of idolatry, and their future deliverance from captivity by Cyrus Isa 44; 45:1-5; 48:20
* Fortells the conversion of the Gentiles and the triumph of the gospel Isa 45:5-25
* Denounces the evils of idolatry Isa 46
* Reproves the Jews for their idolatries and other wickedness Isa 48
* Exhorts to sanctification Isa 56:1-8
* Foretells calamities to Judah Isa 59:9-12; with 57; 58; 59
* Foreshadows the person and the kingdom of the Messiah Isa 32