Isaiah was One of the major prophets of ancient Israel, whose prophecies are to be found in the biblical book of Isaiah. Modern scholarship maintains that only the first thirty-nine chapters of the book are to be attributed to Isaiah, son of Amoz, who lived in Judah in the reign of four kings: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. The rest of the book, it is held, was written by another prophet during the Babylonian exile in the 6th century BCE.
Background
Various theories have been propounded concerning Isaiah’s origin. It has been suggested that his background was aristocratic, priestly, or prophetic. His wife was also a prophet and they had two children who were given symbolic names: Shear-Jashub (“a remnant shall return,” implying that part of Judah would survive the expected on-slaught of Syria and the northern kingdom) and Mahcr-Shalal-Hash-Baz (“the spoil speeds, the prey hastens,” perhaps foretelling the defeat of Syria and the northern kingdom by the Assyrians).
Career
A crucial event in his life was his first vision and call to prophecy. Here Isaiah “saw” God and accepted the mission to bring the divine message to the people of Israel, despite his own sense of inadequacy and realization of the opposition he was bound to encounter. He was appalled at the social and moral situation in the country, with its underprivileged being oppressed by a strong establishment and corrupt rulers, and the general decadence of the rich for whom he foretold a grisly fate when the Day of the Lord would arrive.
Indeed, in the reign of Ahaz, Isaiah confronted the king and demanded that he oppose the invading Assyrians as the danger to the country lay not in the external threat but in the internal wickedness and absence of trust in God.
In 701 BCE, when Jerusalem was under siege from the Assyrian king, Sennacherib, Isaiah stood out in his opposition to the generals who wished to seek help from Egypt. Calling Egypt a broken reed. Isaiah proclaimed that effective support can only come from God and that only a return to morality could save the people and the country. It was only God, not humans, who could rout the proud Assyrians.
Isaiah was not, however, a prophet solely of gloom and despair. He preached that the country would be saved by a return to a rightful way of lde. Even in the event of a calamity, a remnant would survive and form the basis for a new beginning. His great vision of the ultimate reign of God, when the lion shall lie down with the lamb and the sword be beaten into a plowshare, became a universal expression of the dream for a world of perfect peace under the reign of God.
According to a late Jewish tradition, Isaiah was put to death in the reign of King Manasseh (698-642 BCE). In any case, there is no evidence that he continued to be active after Sennacherib raised the siege of Jerusalem in 701 BCE.
The second part of the book of Isaiah presupposes the fall of Jerusalem, which occurred in 586 BCE, and the exile to Babylonia. All indications are that it was written in Babylonia, which, it forecasts, would be conquered by the Persian ruler, Cyrus (mentioned by name), as a result of which the exiles would be redeemed. The traditional interpretation, recognizing the contrast in background and date, held that under the influence of prophecy, Isaiah was able to foresee events that would occur more than a century later.
The mood of the second part of the book contrasts sharply with the first part. Here, the prophet offers consolation, hope and reconciliation. The people have been punished for their sins and God is going to give them a newstart. An important motif is the suffering servant, the servant of God who will proclaim truth and justice to the world. The passage has given rise to much argument: is the servant an individual or a collective? For Jews, the servant referred to Israel as a whole, the prophet, or a messiah; Christians identified the servant with Jesus.
The book ends on a note of triumphant hope. The exiles will be delivered, the Temple rebuilt, and in the glorious future, idolaters will be destroyed, and all nations will worship the one God.
Views
His sympathies were with the poor and deprived, the defenseless, the widows, and the orphans who were at the mercy of depraved overlords. He proclaimed that God demands morality of his people and that it is an essential element in their covenant.
The utterly unjust society in which his countrymen existed could only end in God cancelling the covenant. God would never be satisfied with the perfunctory performance of cult and ritual unless it was accompanied by an upright heart and a moral life. While God would save his people from peril if their behavior was righteous, he would not hesitate to chastise them for their immorality.
At one time, Isaiah saw Assyria as the instrument of God’s wrath, but then he attacked the Assyrian ruler for his pretentiousness in believing that his conquests had been achieved by himself and not by God.
Quotations:
FROM THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
• The ox knows its owner, the ass its master’s crib (1:3).
• They shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not take up sword against nations: They shall never again know war (2:4).
• The wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid (11:6).
• Eat and drink for tomorrow we die (22:13).
• The arid desert shall be glad, the wilderness shall rejoice and blossom like a rose (35:1).
• “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people.” says your God.
• “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and declare to her that her term of service is over” (40:1-2).
• Grass withers, (lowers fade — but the word of our God is always fulfilled (40:8).
• Thus said the Lord: “The heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool” (66:1).
