Isaiah

Who Was Isaiah?

Isaiah son of Amoz was a prophet in Jerusalem during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah — roughly 740 to 700 BC — a period of acute political crisis for the southern kingdom of Judah. The Assyrian empire was at the height of its power, the northern kingdom of Israel had fallen, and Judah existed under the constant shadow of imperial domination. Into this crisis Isaiah spoke, with a literary and theological range unmatched among the Hebrew prophets.

The Book of Isaiah is the longest prophetic book in the Hebrew Bible and one of the most theologically dense texts in all of Scripture. Its sixty-six chapters move from oracles of judgment against Judah and the nations (chapters 1–39) to the great poems of consolation, redemption, and the Suffering Servant (chapters 40–66). The opening verse of chapter 40 — “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God” — is one of the most beautiful sentences in any literature.

Isaiah is the Old Testament book most frequently quoted in the New Testament. The Servant Songs of chapters 42–53, culminating in the account of the Suffering Servant who bears the sins of the many, are read by the New Testament as fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. No prophetic text has done more to shape Christian understanding of the atonement, the mission of Israel, and the shape of God’s redemptive purposes in history. It is, among other things, one of the greatest works of Hebrew poetry ever written.

The Voice of Isaiah

The Book of Isaiah

• Isaiah 1–12 — Oracles of judgment and the remnant
• Isaiah 13–27 — Oracles against the nations; the Isaiah Apocalypse
• Isaiah 28–39 — Woes, the Assyrian crisis, Hezekiah narratives
• Isaiah 40–55 — The Book of Consolation; the Servant Songs
• Isaiah 56–66 — The new creation; the universal scope of salvation