Encyclopedia entry · the book of Isaiah
Isaiah is the longest of the major prophets and arguably the most influential. Composed across decades of upheaval in eighth-century Judah — the rise of Assyria, the fall of the Northern Kingdom, the threatened siege of Jerusalem — the book ranges across more than two centuries of prophetic vision, anticipating not only the Babylonian exile but the return, and not only the return but the coming of the Servant of the LORD.
The New Testament quotes Isaiah more than any other Old Testament book except the Psalms. Unto us a child is born. Behold, a virgin shall conceive. He was wounded for our transgressions. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Every valley shall be exalted. Generations of Christians have read Isaiah as a near-second Gospel.
Movements
4 arcs through the bookMovement 01
1–39
chapters
Judgment on Judah and the Nations
The first thirty-nine chapters belong to Isaiah's eighth-century context — oracles addressed to a Judah growing complacent under Uzziah and Ahaz. The vision of chapter six — holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts — is the prophet's call. Chapter seven gives the sign of Immanuel. Chapter nine: Unto us a child is born. Chapter eleven: a shoot from the stump of Jesse. Then a tour of judgments against Babylon, Moab, Damascus, Egypt, and back to Jerusalem. Chapters 36–39 narrate the Assyrian siege under Hezekiah and its miraculous lifting.
Movement 02
40–48
chapters
The Book of Comfort
Chapter forty turns. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. The voice in the wilderness. Every valley exalted. The next nine chapters preach to a people already in exile — the LORD as Creator who measured the heavens, the only God among lifeless idols, the Redeemer who calls his people back. Cyrus the Persian is named two centuries in advance as the LORD's anointed instrument. The argument throughout: the God who scattered Israel will gather them again.
Key passages
Movement 03
49–55
chapters
The Servant Songs
Four songs of the LORD's Servant unfold across the middle chapters. He is called from the womb. He is given as a light to the nations. He sets his face like flint against rejection. And in chapter fifty-three — the New Testament's most-quoted Old Testament chapter — the Servant is despised and rejected and wounded for our transgressions and led as a lamb to the slaughter. Chapter fifty-five closes the section with an open invitation: Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. The Servant is the offer.
Movement 04
56–66
chapters
The New Creation
The final eleven chapters address the community returning from exile, but reach far beyond them. Foreigners and eunuchs are welcomed into the LORD's house. The fasts the people prefer are weighed against the fast the LORD chooses — to loose the chains of injustice. Chapter sixty-one — the passage Jesus reads in Nazareth — announces the year of the LORD's favor. And the book ends with new heavens and a new earth: the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
