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THE PROPHET ISAIAH
I. HIS NAME
Isaiah
The English name Isaiah is an approximate transliteration of the abbreviated form Yesha’yah, which appears as the title of the prophet’s book in the Hebrew canon, and occurs besides as the name of several individuals in post-exilic writings (Ezr_8:7; Ezr_8:19; Neh_11:7; 1Ch_3:21). The full and older form is Yeshaʼyahu (Gr., Çóáéáò ; Lat., Esaias and Isaias), by which the prophet himself is always called in the text of his book, and in the historical writings of the Old Testament (2Ki_19:2, etc.; 2Ch_26:22; 2Ch_32:20; 2Ch_32:32); also other Jews (1Ch_25:3; 1Ch_25:15; 1Ch_26:25). It means “Jehovah is salvation,” and is therefore synonymous with the frequent Joshua or Jeshua (Jesus), and Hosea (cf the Hebrews Elisha, “God is,” or “God of salvation”; Elishua, Ishi, etc.)
(Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
His original name may have been Meshullam
(See Prof. Margoliouth’s view, p. 22.)
II. HIS PERSONAL HISTORY.--The exact limits which we are led to assign to Isaiah’s career depend on the conclusions we reach with regard to several disputed portions of his book. Generally speaking, however, we may say that he prophesied from the year in which King Uzziah died (740 or 736 B.C.) to the year of the sudden deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib (701), and possibly some years after this. Isaiah was, therefore, born about 760, was a child when Amos appeared at Bethel (c. 756 or 750), and a youth when Hosea began to prophesy in N. Israel. Micah was his younger contemporary. The chief political events of his life were the ascent of the great soldier Tiglath-pileser III to the throne of Assyria in 745, with a new policy of conquest; the league of Aram and N. Israel in 735, and their invasion of Judah, which moved Ahaz to call Assyria to his help; Tiglath-pileser’s capture of Damascus, and the captivity of Gilead and Galilee in 734; the invasion of N. Palestine by Salmanassar IV in 725, with the long siege of Samaria which fell to his successor Sargon in or about 721; Sargon’s defeat of Egypt on her border at Raphia in 719; Sargon’s invasion of Palestine in 711, with the reduction of Ashdod, and his defeat of Merodach-baladan and capture of Babylon in 709; Sennacherib’s succession in 705, and invasion of Palestine in 701; his encounter with Egypt at Eltekeh on the borders of Philistia and Judah; his capture of Ekron and siege of Jerusalem, with the pestilence that overtook him between Palestine and Egypt; and his retreat from Palestine, with the consequent relief of Jerusalem--all in 701. About 695 (some say about 690 or even 685) Hezekiah was succeeded by Manasseh. Whether Isaiah lived into the reign of the latter is very doubtful. We have no prophecies from him later than Hezekiah’s reign, perhaps none after 701. The Mishna says that he was slain by Manasseh. The apocryphal work “The Ascension of Isaiah,” which was written in the beginning of the second Christian century, affirms that Isaiah’s martyrdom consisted in being sawn asunder, which Justin Martyr repeats. Whether this be true, and whether it is alluded Heb_11:37, we cannot tell. Isaiah is called the son of Amos Isa_1:1; Isa_2:1), who must not be confounded, as he has been by various Christian fathers, with the prophet Amos. A Jewish tradition makes Isaiah nephew of King Amaziah; and his royal descent has been inferred from his familiarity with successive monarchs of Judah, and his general political influence. A stronger reason than these might be drawn from the presence in his name of Jehovah, which appears to have been confined at the earlier periods of Israel’s history to proper names of the royal houses. But even this is not conclusive, and one really knows nothing of either Isaiah’s forefathers or his upbringing. He was married, his wife is called “the prophetess” (Isa_8:3), and he had two sons to whom he gave names symbolic of those aspects of the nation’s history which he enforced in his prophecies: Sheʼar-yashub, “A remnant shall return,” who was old enough in 736-735 to be taken by his father when he went to face King Isa_7:3), and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, “Spoil-speeds-booty-hastes,” who was born about a year later (Isa_8:1-4). The legend that Isaiah was twice married has been deduced from the false inference that “the young woman of marriageable age” (Isa_7:14) was his wife. By this expression the prophet probably did not mean a definite individual. The most certain and significant fact about Isaiah is that he was a citizen, if not a native, of Jerusalem, and had constant access to the court and presence of the king. Jerusalem is Isaiah’s immediate and ultimate regard, the centre and return of all his thoughts, the hinge of the history of his time, the summit of those brilliant hopes with which he fills the future. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
III. HIS VOCATION
A prophet
The work of a prophet was the vocation of his life, to which every energy was devoted; even his wife is called the prophetess (Isa_8:3); his sons bore prophetic names, not enigmatic like those given by Hosea to Gomer’s children, but expressing in plain language two fundamental themes of his doctrine The truths which he proclaimed he sought to make immediately practical in the circle of disciples whom he gathered round him (Isa_8:16), and through them to prepare the way for national reformation. And in this work he was aided by personal relations within the highest circles of the capital. Uriah, the chief priest of the temple, was his friend, and appears associated with him as witness to a solemn act by which he attested a weighty prophecy at a time when king and people had not yet learned to give credence to his word’s (Isa_8:2). His own life seems to have been constantly spent in the capital; but he was not without support in the provinces. (W. Robertson Smith, LL. D.)
Relation to the unseen and the seen
Never, perhaps, has there been another prophet like Isaiah, who stood with his head in the clouds and his feet on the solid earth, with his heart in the things of eternity and with mouth and hand in the things of time, with his spirit in the eternal counsel of God and his body in a very definite moment of history. (Valeton.)
IV. HIS COMMANDING INFLUENCE
The whole subsequent history of the Hebrew people bears the impress of Isaiah’s activity
It was through him that the word of prophecy, despised and rejected when it was spoken by Amos and Hosea, became a practical power not only in the State, but in the whole life of the nation. We can readily understand that so great a work could not have been affected by an isolated mission like that of Amos, or by a man like Hosea, who stood apart from all the leaders of his nation, and had neither friend nor disciple to espouse his cause. Isaiah won his commanding position, not by a single stroke, but by long-sustained and patient effort . . . The countryman Micah, who prophesied in the low country on the Philistine border near the beginning of Hezekiah’s reign, was unquestionably influenced by his great contemporary, and, though his conceptions are shaped with the individual freedom characteristic of the true prophet, and by no means fit mechanically into the details of Isaiah’s picture of Jehovah’s approaching dealings, the essence of his teaching went all to further Isaiah’s aims. Thus Isaiah ultimately became the acknowledged head of a great religious movement. It is too little to say that in his later years he was the first man in Judah, practically guiding the helm of the State, and encouraging Jerusalem to hold out against the Assyrian when all besides had lost courage. Even to the political historian, Isaiah is the most notable figure after David in the whole history of Israel. He was the man of a supreme crisis, and he proved himself worthy by guiding his nation through the crisis with no other strength than the prophetic word. (W. Robertson Smith, LL. D.)
A comparison with Elisha
His commanding influence on the history of his nation naturally suggests comparison with Elisha, the author of the revolution of Jehu, and the soul of the great struggle with Syria. The comparison illustrates the extraordinary change which little more than a century had wrought in the character and aims of prophecy. Elisha effected his first object--the downfall of the house of Ahab--by entering into the sphere of ordinary political intrigue; Isaiah stood aloof from all political combinations, and his influence was simply that of his commanding character, and of the imperial word of Jehovah preached in season and out of season with unwavering constancy. Elisha in his later years was the inspiring spirit of a heroic conflict, encouraging his people to fight for freedom, and resist the invader by armed force. Isaiah well knew that Judah had no martial strength that could avail for a moment against the power of Assyria. He did not aim at national independence; and, rising above the dreams of vulgar patriotism, he was content to accept the inevitable, and mark out for Judah a course of patient submission to the foreign yoke, in order that the nation might concentrate itself on the task of internal reformation, till Jehovah Himself should remove the scourge appointed for His people’s sin. In this conception he seized and united in one practical aim ideas which had appeared separately in the teaching of his predecessors, Amos and Hosea . . . In the supreme crisis of the Assyrian wars, Isaiah was not less truly the bulwark of his nation than Elisha had been during the Syrian wars. But his heroism was that of patience and faith, and the deliverance came as he had foretold, not by political wisdom or warlike prowess, but by the direct intervention of Jehovah. (W. Robertson Smith, LL. D.)
V. THE PERIOD OF HIS MINISTRY.--The period of Isaiah’s ministry falls into three parts:--
(1) The time previous to the Syro-Ephraitic war, when Judah enjoyed external peace and apparent prosperity.
(2) The troubles under the reign of Ahaz, when the land was invaded by Pekah and Rezin, and the Judaean monarch became a vassal of Assyria to obtain the help of Tiglath-pileser.
(3) The time of Assyrian suzerainty, when Judah’s growing impatience of the yoke at length led the nation to intrigue with Egypt, and exposed it to the vengeance of Sennacherib. The last section of the prophet’s life culminates in the great invasion and marvellous deliverance of the year 701 B.C. (W. Robertson Smith, LL. D.)
VII. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
Foremost book in prophetical literature
The book that bears [Isaiah’s] name, in the variety, beauty, and force of its style, and in the sublimity of its contents, takes the foremost place in the prophetical literature. (Prof. James Robertson, D. D.)
The greatest classic of Israel
With Isaiah sank into the grave the greatest classic of Israel. (Carl Heinrich Cornill.)
Isaiah a poet
If poetry is “the eloquence of excited emotion, whose chief end is to unite beauty with truth,” then there can be no doubt of the justice of Isaiah’s claim to be classed among poets. (F. Sessions.)
Isaiah a psalmist
It has been said of Burke that he would have been a great poet if he had not been a great orator. It might be said of Isaiah that, if he had not been the chief of the prophets of Israel, he would have been the chief of its psalmists. (E. H. Plumptre, D. D.)
Chaps. 28-38 are unexampled for grandeur, music, and the softness of idyllic peace. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
Literary characteristics of the acknowledged prophecies of Isaiah
The thing of chief importance is, that we are wholly unable to name a special peculiarity and favourite manner of style in the case of Isaiah. He is not the specially lyric, or the specially elegiac, or the specially rhetorical and monitory prophet, as, e.g., Joel, Hosea, Micah, in whose writings a special manner is predominant; but every kind of style and every variation of exposition is at his command to meet the requirements of his subject; and this it is which in respect of style constitutes his greatness, as well as generally one of his most prominent excellences. His fundamental peculiarity is only the exalted majestic repose of style, proceeding from the full and sure command of his subject. This response by no means requires that the language should never be more violently agitated, and not blaze up where the subject demands it; but even the most extreme agitation is bridled by this repose in the background, and does not pass beyond Its proper limits, and soon returns with higher self-mastery to it’s regular flow, not again to leave it (Isa_2:9-22; Isa_3:1; Isa_28:11-23; Isa_29:9-14). (H. Ewald, D. D.)
Isaiah’s style
It would hardly be possible to characterise the style of Isaiah better than by the four notes under which Matthew Arnold has summed up the distinctive qualities of Homer’s genius: Plainness of thought, plainness of style, nobleness, and rapidity. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
II. PHASES OF ISAIAH’S MINISTRY
Reformer, statesman, theologian
In the parts [of the book] which are indubitably his, we can watch him, and, as it were, walk by his side, through all the varied and eventful phases of his forty years’ ministry. We can observe him as a reformer, denouncing social abuses, sparing neither high nor low in his fearless and incisive censure. We can follow him u a statesman, devoted patriotically to his country’s interests, and advising her political leaders in times of difficulty and danger. We can see him as a theologian, emphasising old truths, developing new ones, bringing fresh ideas to light Which were destined to exercise an important influence in the generations which followed. Throughout the reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah he is the central figure in Jerusalem, and the position which he there took--his motives, principles, policy, the character of his teaching, the natureand extent of his influence--are all reflected in the collection of his prophecies which we possess. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
The evangelical prophet
Isaiah has received from the Christian Church the title of the evangelical prophet. This was given mainly in the belief that chaps. 40-46, were also by him. But even in the prophecies which criticism has left to him, we find the elements of the doctrines of grace. God forgives sin, the most heinous and defiling (Isa_1:18). Though He has passed sentence of death upon His people (Isa_22:14), their penitence procures for them His pardon and deliverance (Isa_36:1-22; Isa_37:1-38). Necessarily severe as His judgment is, cruelly as His providence bears upon sin and folly, His love and pity towards His own never fail (Isa_14:32). He is their well-beloved, and has constantly cared for them Isa_5:1, etc.). He longs to be gracious, and to have mercy even when His people are mint given to their own destructive courses; and He waits eagerly for their prayers to Him (Isa_30:18, etc.). (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
III. THE PLACE OF THE BOOK AMONGST THE PROPHETIC SCRIPTURES.--The canonicity of Isaiah was never questioned by the Jewish Church in later times. There is, however, a curious divergence of tradition with regard to its place amongst the prophetic Scriptures. The order of the E.V., where the book stands first among the “Later Prophets” (the strictly prophetic writings)
, is that of all printed editions of the Hebrew Bible, as well as of the Masora and the best MSS. in the LXX it stands first amongst the Major Prophets, but is preceded by the so called Minor Prophets. A still more peculiar arrangement is given by the Talmudic treatise Baba bathra (fol. 14 b), where the order is: Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, the Twelve (Minor) Prophets. It has been thought by some that this arrangement betrays a dim consciousness of the late authorship of the second part of the book, which is possible, although the Jewish authorities know nothing of it, and explain the traditional order by reasoning of a somewhat nebulous kind. (See. Ryle, “Canon of the Old Testament,” pp. 273 ff., 281 f.) (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
IV. THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE BOOK
The view of Hengstenberg
That the prophecies of Isaiah are arranged chronologically, though not without justification, fails to satisfy the requirements of historical interpretation. (Prof. T. K. Cheyne, D. D.)
The chronological arrangement in 1-39
Has been disturbed by throwing the prophecies against foreign nations (Isaiah 15-23) together, as in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, with which an oracle against Babylon (Isa_13:1-22; Isa_14:1-32; cf. Isa_21:1-10) and a great prophecy of the general judgment on the world (Isaiah 24-57) have been connected, though probably due to later prophets. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
Suggested explanations of the uncertain chronology
It is plain that the book, as it stands, is in a somewhat disordered state. Presumably Isaiah himself issued no collected edition of all his prophecies, but only put forth from time to time individual oracles or minor collections, which were gathered together at a later date, and on no plan which we can follow. Some of the prophecies bear a date, or even have brief notes of historical explanation; others begin without any such preface, and their date and occasion can only be inferred from the allusions they contain. We cannot even tell when or by whom the collection was made. The collection of all remains of ancient prophecy, digested into the four books named from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve Minor Prophets, was not formed till after the time of Ezra, two hundred and fifty years, at least, after the death of Isaiah. In one of these four books every known fragment of ancient prophecy had to take its place, and no one who knows anything of the collection and transmission of ancient books will think it reasonable to expect that the writings of each separate prophet were carefully gathered out and arranged together in such a way as to preclude all ambiguity as to their authorship. If every prophecy had had a title from the first, the task of the editor would have been simple; or, if he did not aim at an exact arrangement, we could easily have rearranged the series for ourselves. But there are some prophecies, such as those which occupy the last twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah, which have no title at all and in some other cases there is conclusive evidence that the titles are not original, because, in point of fact, they are incorrect. In the absence of precise titles giving names and dates to each separate prophecy, an editor labouring after the time of Ezra would he quite as much at a less as a modern critic, if he made it his task to give what is now called a critical edition of the remains that lay before him. But ancient editors did not feel the need of an edition digested according to the rules of modern literary workmanship. Their main object was to get together everything that they could find, and arrange their material in volumes convenient for private study or use in the synagogue. In those days one could not plan the number of volumes, the number of letters in a page, and the size and form of the pages, with the freedom to which the printing press has accustomed us; the cumbrous and costly materials of ancient books limited all schemes of editorial disposition. In ancient books the moot various treatises are often comprised in one volume; the scribe had a certain number of skins, and he wished to fill them. Thus, even in the minor collections that fell into the hands of the editor of the prophets, a prophecy of Isaiah and one from another source might easily occupy the same roll; copies were not so numerous that it was always possible to tell by comparison of many MSS. what pieces had always stood together, and what had only come together by accident; and so, taking all in all, we need not he surprised that the arrangement is imperfect according to our literary lights, but will rather expect to find much more serious faults of order than the lack of a just chronological disposition. If the present Book of Isaiah has itself been made up from several MSS., a conclusion which the lack of chronological order renders almost inevitable, we must deem it probable that at the end of some of these MSS. prophecies not by Isaiah at all may have been written in to save waste of the costly material; and so, when the several small books came to he joined together, prophecies by other hands would get to be embedded in the text of Isaiah, no longer to he distinguished except by internal evidence. That what thus appears as possible or even probable actually took place is the common opinion of modern critics (W. Robertson Smith, LL. D.)
V. DIVISION OF THE BOOK--The division of the Book of Isaiah into two parts at the end of chap. 39, although indicated by no superscription, is at once suggested by the intervention of the narrative section, chaps. 36-39, and is fully justified by the character of the last twenty-seven chapters. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
VI. WAS ISAIAH THE AUTHOR OF THE ENTIRE BOOK?--
A rule of criticism
The rules of ordinary criticism require us to accept
Isaiah as the author until it be shown that he cannot have been so. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
The critical treatment of Isaiah
The critical treatment of Isaiah began in the following manner. The commencement was made with the second part. Koppe first of all expressed doubt regarding the genuineness of chap. 1; then Doderlein expressed his decided suspicion as to the genuineness of the whole; and Justi, followed by Eichhorn, Paulus, and Bertholdt, raised the suspicion into confident assurance of spuriousness. The result thus attained could not possibly remain without reaction on the first part. Rosenmuller, who was always very dependent upon predecessors, was the first to deny the Isaiah origin of the prophecy against Babylon, in chaps. 13-14:23, though this is attested by the heading; Justi and Paulus undertook to find further reasons for the opinion. Greater advance was now made. Along with the prophecy against Babylon in chaps. 13-14:23, the other, in Isa_21:1-10, was likewise condemned, and Rosenmuller could not but be astonished when Gesenius let the former fall, but left the latter standing. There still remained the prophecy against Tyre, in chap. 23, which, according as the announced destruction of Tyre was regarded as accomplished by the Assyrians or the Chaldeans, might either be left to Isaiah or attributed to a later prophet unknown. Eichhorn, followed by Rosenmuller, decided that it was spurious; but Gesenius understood the Assyrians as the destroyers, and as the prediction consequently did not extend beyond the horizon of Isaiah, he defended its genuineness. Thus was the Babylonian series of prophecies set aside. The keen eyes of the critics, however, made still further discoveries. In chaps. 24-27, Eichhorn found plays on words that were unworthy of Isaiah, and Gesenius an allegorical announcement of the fall of Babylon: both accordingly condemned these three chapters, and Ewald transposed them to the time of Cambyses. With chaps. 34, 35, on account of their relation to the second part, the procedure was shorter. Rosenmuller at once pronounced them to be “a poem composed during the Babylonian Exile, near its close.” Such is the history of the origin of the criticism of Isaiah, Its first attempts were very juvenile. It was Gesenius, but especially Hitzig and Ewald, who first raised it to the eminence of a science. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
Advocates of an exilian date for chaps. 40-66
Doderlein, in 1775, was the first modern scholar who took up this position. Before then the traditional view does not seem to have been questioned, except by the Jewish commentator, Aben Ezra ( 1167 A.D.), who, in very obscure language, appears to hint that the title of the book does not guarantee the authorship of every part of it, any more than in the case of the books of Samuel, of which Samuel himself could only have written the first twenty-four chapters (his death being recorded in 1Sa_25:1). Doderlein has been followed, among others, by Gesenius, Ewald, Hitzig, Knobel, Umbreit, de Wette, Bleek, Bunsen, Cheyne, Kuenen, Reuss, Duhm, Oehler, A.B. Davidson, Orelli, Konig, Driver, G.A. Smith, Kirkpatrick, Delitzsch (in the 4 th edition of his Commentary, 1890), etc. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Defenders of the Isaianic authorship
Amongst these the best-known names are those of Hengstenberg, Havernick, Drechsler, Delitzsch (down to about 1880), Stier, Rutgers, Kay, Nagelsbach, Douglas, etc. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
General view of the question of authorship
Part Second (Isaiah 11-66)
is broadly distinguished from Part First both in literary form and in subject matter. It has the appearance of being one sustained composition, rather than a number of spoken addresses; and whereas the situation in the First Part was the Assyrian period in which Isaiah lived, the stand, point here is the time of the Exile, and the tone is mainly that of consolation in the near prospect of deliverance,--the name of Cyrus, who gave the edict permitting the return (536 B.C.), being expressly mentioned (Isa_44:28; Isa_45:1). We cannot doubt that the deportation of the Ten Tribes, and the ominous threatening of a similar fate for Judah, had accustomed Isaiah to the thought of the Captivity and its ultimate issues. So that, if these chapters are from his hand, we must assume that, in spirit, he placed himself in the Exile, and from that, as a prophetic standpoint, depicted the restoration and the final glory. Moot modem critics, however, think that these chapters are an anonymous production of the Exile, which was united to the prophecies of Isaiah. (Prof. J. Robertson, D. D.)
The doubtful portions
The question relates to Isa_13:2-22; Isa_14:1-23; Isaiah 24-27; Isaiah 34; Isaiah 35; Isaiah 40-66 (Isa_21:1-10 must henceforth be excluded, on objective, historical grounds, from the list of doubtful prophecies). (Prof. T. K. Cheyne, D. D.)
Isaiah of Jerusalem capable of producing the entire book
Such a man as Isaiah of Jerusalem is universally acknowledged to have been, with such an unique call as he claims to have received, was at least capable of seeing in open vision the glories of the coming Messianic kingdom, as clearly, as he saw the impending ruin of nations laden with iniquity. That he should have written both portions of the great series of prophecies bearing his name is prima facie as probable as that John Milton wrote “Paradise Lost” and “Paradise Regained” long after having given to the politicians of the Republic his dry polemic “In Defence of the People”; or that “Sartor Resartus,” pantheistic and expressed in Carlylese, was the offspring of the same genius that penned the chaste and simple English of the “Life of Sterling”; or that Dr. Johnson was both the compiler of a dictionary and the author of such a romance as “Rasselas.” (F. Sessions.)
The language of Isaiah
If Prof. Margoliouth is working on a right line, and if the results which he anticipates are established, the conclusion, so far as language is concerned, will be that the whole of Isaiah being written in classical Hebrew, not in what he calls the Middle-Hebrew of the Prophets of the Exile, still less in the New Hebrew, which was the classical language of Jerusalem in the days of Ben-Sira, 200 B.C., belongs to the age of the historic Isaiah of the days of Hezekiah. (J. Kennedy, D. D.)
If a composite work collected the several parts?
It is becoming more and more certain that the present form, especially of the prophetic Scriptures, is due to a literary class [the Sopherim, Scribes or Scripturists], whom principal function was collecting and supplementing the scattered records of prophetic revelation. (Prof. T. K. Cheyne, D. D.)
Prof. Cheyne’s idea of the work done by the Sopherim editors is utterly baseless. The known writings of respired prophets were guarded as by a wall of fire. And all classes, whatever their practical unfaithfulness, stood in awe of them then, as they do until this day. (J. Kennedy, D. D.)
The later authors Isaian
Isaiah had left his sublime deliverances to fructify in the minds of his disciples. One disciple, separated by three or four generations from the master, but living constantly with his prophecies and nourished upon his spirit, produced at the crisis of Babylon’s fall a prophecy of Israel’s restoration as immortal as Isaiah’s own. This disciple named not himself. Whether he intended the work to become joined with Isaiah’s, and to pass among men with the authority of that great name, we cannot know. But his contemporaries joined the disciple’s work with the master’s, and by Ezra’s time the conjunction was established. (Matthew Arnold.)
These later prophets so closely resemble Isaiah in prophetic vision, that posterity might on that account well identify them with him. They belong, more or less nearly, to those pupils of his to whom he refers (chap. 8:16). We know of no other prophet belonging to the kingdom of Judah like Isaiah, who was surrounded by a band of younger prophets, and, so to speak, formed a school. Viewed in this light, the Book of Isaiah is the work of his creative spirit and the band of followers. These later prophets are Isaian,--they are Isaiah’s disciples; it is his spirit that continues to operate in them, like the spirit of Elijah in Elisha,--nay, we may say, like the spirit of Jesus in the apostles; for the words of Isaiah (8:18), “Behold, I and the children whom God hath given me,” are employed in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb_2:13) as typical of Jesus Christ. In view of this fact, the whole book rightly bears the name of Isaiah, inasmuch as he is, directly and indirectly, the author of all these prophetic discourses; his name is the correct common denominator for this collection of prophecies, which, with all their diversity, yet form a unity; and the second half particularly (chaps. 40-66) is the work of a pupil who surpasses the master, though he owes the master everything. Such may possibly be the ease. It seems to me even probable, and almost certain, that this may be so; but indubitably certain it is not, in my opinion, and I shall die without getting over this hesitancy. For very many difficulties arise. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
Why should important portions of the book be anonymous?
It will always remain a mystery how the name of the great prophet of the Exile, who stood far nearer to the return from Exile than Ezekiel, has fallen into oblivion, and it is a question among how ninny prophets the Deutero-Isaianic passages should be divided. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
Orelli
(“Commentary on Isaiah”) thinks there are reasons for ascribing the book (chaps. 40-66) to an exilian author, but says: “Its incorporation with the Book of Isaiah remains a riddle.” “One thing remains utterly unexplained--the anonymity of so glorious a book carefully arranged by the author himself. It has been said that he could not mention his name from regard to the Chaldeans; but what prevented him from coming forward after the victory of Cyprus over Babylon? In a time when Haggai and Zechariah so carefully dated their prophecies, how could the name be lost of the seer who had unquestionably done most towards the revival of the theocratic spirit and the home coming of the faithful ones? The question might be answered if the author appeared pseudonymously under Isaiah’s name; but no trace of such intention is found anywhere. Whereas in Isaiah I, the person of the prophet comes out in different ways, here in Isaiah II, all name, even all heading, is wanting. Criticism should honestly confess that the special reason of this anonymity remains in utter obscurity.”
Explanation of the supposed plural authorship
How came the works of five unknown prophets in Babylon to be ascribed to Isaiah, or at any rate inserted in the Book of Isaiah?. . .These chapters were evidently added at a later period, and most probably, as Eichhorn suggested, with the object of producing a conveniently large volume, nearly equal in size to those of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve Minor Prophets. In taking this course the editor might invoke a precedent already familiar to his contemporaries, the Twelve Minor Prophets having been combined into a single “volume” at some unknown period previous to the composition of Ecclesiasticus. (See Sir_49:10.) (Prof. T. K. Cheyne, D. D.)
The explanation regarded as inadequate
We can easily see a reason why these minor prophets--minor in bulk--should be engrossed on one roll for convenience sake. But they are still twelve, not one. More than this. To each of them is carefully prefixed the name of its author, even when, as in the ease of Obadiah, his prophecy consists of but a single chapter. Had this “precedent” been followed by the hypothetic editor who added chaps. 40-66, to chaps. 1-39, he would have inscribed on each part the name of its author. (J. Kennedy, D. D.)
Providential guidance in the form and contents of the book
The boldest advocates of even the most “advanced” critical hypothesis will be still obliged to confess that it must have been a wise instinct, to say nothing of Divine inspiration and guidance, that induced the “compilers” of the Book of Isaiah to present it to the world in its existing form. The denunciations of sin by the prophets held to be responsible for the earlier chapters are incomplete and gloomy, with “a darkness that may be felt,” without the addition of the glorious Evangel proclaimed by those who wrote the later ones. The overthrow of the kingdom of Satan is not good enough for the world without the simultaneous establishment of the kingdom of God. A sinner without hope is a sinner lost,--a nation with its golden age behind it, and none before it, is a nation God-forsaken and outcast, given over to despair and reckless of the end. The preaching of the law and its terrors, apart from the proclamation of the Gospel with its regenerative force, never has been, and never can be, accordant with the mind of the All-just and All-merciful Creator. (F. Sessions.)
The Book of Isaiah comes to us from poet-exilic times; on this point there can be no doubt among educated students. It was brought into its present form, not by a committee of lovers of ancient literature, but by men whose great preoccupation was the building up of a righteous, God fearing people. (Prof. T. K. Cheyne, D. D.)
VII. CHAPTERS 40-66. -
Critical difficulties no barrier to an understanding of the prophecy
Many persons who would wish to study the second half of Isaiah are discouraged from making the attempt by a feeling that an insurmountable barrier of critical difficulties lies between them and any comprehension of the prophecy. That is, in great measure, a delusion. In spite of the fact that large critical questions rise in connection with these prophecies, there is, perhaps, no part of Scripture to the understanding of which criticism contributes so little. Like the Book of Job, the piece is almost purely theological, and occupied with ideas. It is a structure based upon and built out of the Monotheistic conception, the idea that Jehovah, God of Israel, is the true and only God. It need not be supposed that the author consciously started from this principle and logically deduced his other conclusions from it. This is not the method of Old Testament writers. Nevertheless, to us who read his work now, the effect is the same as if he had done so; and obviously the question at what time or in what circumstances such a theological structure was reared is only of secondary importance; so far as understanding the work itself is concerned. It may be that many of the details of the structure point to a definite historical period; to many minds, indeed, the theological character of the work will be conclusive evidence that it cannot belong to a time anterior to the Exile; but such methods of reasoning show that the meaning of the passage may he learned from itself independently of external aids, and that this meaning may be found to lead to critical conclusions rather than to receive light from them. (A. B.Davidson, D. D.)
The primary critical question--what is it?
The great critical question agitated in regard to these twenty-seven chapters is, whether the author was a contemporary of the Exile, or was an older prophet, enabled by an extraordinary gift of foresight to transport himself into its circumstances and realise its conditions. The way in which such a question has to be put indicates how far scholars of all opinions are in agreement. It is admitted on all hands that, at whatever time the prophet actually lived and wrote, the Exile is the stage on which his personages move, and on which the great drama which he exhibits is transacted. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
A secondary question
Another critical question of less magnitude is, How far the prophet of these twenty-seven chapters has adopted fragments from other prophecies, or omer writers, into his own work! It is admitted that the bulk of the chapters forms a unity, and is from the hand of one author. But certain passages are thought to betray a different hand; while others, unlike the bulk of the prophecy, seem written from a point of view anterior to the time of the Exile. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
A third question
Another question lees strictly critical, but partly exegetical and of a more internal kind, is the inquiry whether these twenty-seven chapters, admittedly in the main a unity and the work of one hand, have been composed all at one gush, or whether there are not distinct divisions in the composition, points at which the author paused, having rounded off his previous work, and from which he again started in order to give his conceptions a more perfect development. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
A three-fold division
The great prophecy of Israel’s restoration falls naturally into three divisions.
1. Chapters 40-46 deal mainly with the deliverance of the Jews by Cyrus.
2. Chapters 49-57 with the future of Israel, and the work of
Jehovah’s ideal Servant.
3. Chapters 58-66, with the glories of the restored Zion, and the difficulties caused by the nation’s sin. (Edward Grubb, M. A.)
The prophecy may be conveniently divided into three nearly equal sections.
I. Chaps. 40-48. The Restoration of Israel through the instrumentality of Cyrus.
II. Chaps. 49-55. The work of Jehovah’s Servant, and the glorification of Zion.
III. Chaps. 56-66. The future blessedness of the true Israel contrasted with the doom of the apostates. The third section of the book is less homogeneous in its composition than the two others. In passing from chap. 55 to chap. 56, the reader is at once sensible of a change of manner and circumstance, which becomes still more manifest as he proceeds. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
The contents
It begins with a prophecy putting into the mouth of John the Baptist the theme of his preaching; it concludes with the prophecy of the creation of a new heaven and new earth, beyond which even the last page of the New Testament Apocalypse cannot soar; and in the middle Isa_52:13 -chap. 53), the suffering and exaltation of the Servant of
God are announced as plainly as if the prophet had stood beneath the Cross and seen the Risen One. Placing himself at the beginning of New
Testament days, he begins like the New Testament Gospels; he describes further the death and new life of God’s Servant as completed facts with the clearness of Pauline teaching; he cleaves at last to the higher, heavenly world, like the Johannine apocalpyse;--and all this without exceeding the
Old Testament limits; but within these he is evangelist, apostle, and apocalyptist in one person. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
The author’s wide range
The standpoint of the prophet may be the
Exile, but his vision ranges from Abraham to Christ. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
Problem before the writer two fold
In order to effect some general arrangement and division of Isaiah 40-66, it is necessary to keep in view that the immediate problem which the prophet had before him was two fold. It was political, and it was spiritual. There was, first of all, the deliverance of Israel from Babylon, according to the ancient promises of
Jehovah; to this were attached such questions as Jehovah’s omnipotence, faithfulness, and grace; the meaning of Cyrus; the condition of the
Babylonian Empire. But after their political deliverance from Babylon was assured, there remained the really larger problem of Israel’s spiritual readiness for the freedom and the destiny to which God was to lead them, through the opened gates of their prison house: to this were attached such questions as the original calling and mission of Israel; the mixed and paradoxical character of the people; their need of a Servant from the Lord, since they themselves had failed to be His servant; the coming of this Servant, His methods and results. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
Our Lord’s favourite book
If it can be said of any prophetic book that it was certainly the favourite book of our Lord, it is this book of the second Isaiah, in which what God’s Elect One was to be and do was outlined with studied ideality. Here the ideal stood before Him, the realising of which was His life task. When He read in this book, the person of the Coming One and the Manifested One met together, the former found its body and the latter its soul. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
The author’s theological conceptions
He is the first prophet who discerns in the signs of the times a Divine purpose which is from the first a purpose of grace towards Israel. His predecessors had all looked on the world power as the instrument of Jehovah’s chastisement of His people, and had anticipated a happy issue only as a second step, after the earthly instrument had been broken and thrown away. But the writer of these chapters has the word “comfort” constantly on his lips; the whole burden of his message is one of consolation and good tidings; and he views Cyrus as the chosen agent of Jehovah, not merely in crushing obstacles to the execution of His purpose, but as lending active support in the establishment of His kingdom. Like other prophets, too, he sees in the events of the time the immediate precursors of Jehovah’s everlasting kingdom of righteousness. The final consummation of God’s purposes with humanity lies in germ in the appearance of Cyrus; in the writer’s own graphic phrase, it already “sprouts” before men’s eyes (Isa_42:9; Isa_43:19). The prophet is aware, however, that his hearers are not in a mood to be easily cheered. References to their state of mind are numerous, and nowhere do we find any indication of an enthusiastic response to the prophet’s joyful proclamation. The prevalent mood was one of utter weariness and despondency (Isa_40:27; Isa_49:14). To counteract this despairing mood, something more was needed than a bare announcement of deliverance. The first requisite was to revive their consciousness of God, to impress them with a sense of His infinite power and resources, and the immutability of His Word; and also to impart to them a new and inspiring view of their own mission and destiny as a nation.
1. The prophet’s doctrine of God is, accordingly, the fundamental element of his teaching.
2. Remarkable as is the prophet’s contribution to the Biblical doctrine of God, it is surpassed in importance and originality by his teaching with regard to the mission of Israel. The very grandeur and universality of his conception of Jehovah appears to necessitate a profounder interpretation of Israel’s place in history than any previous prophet had explicitly taught. This view of Israel’s position among the nations is expressed in the title “Servant of Jehovah,” which is applied to the People in passages too numerous to quote. In most, there is no room for doubt as to the subject which the writer has in his mind. It is the historic nation of Israel, represented in the present chiefly by the community of the exiles, but conceived throughout as a moral individual whose life and consciousness are those of the nation. But there is another class of passages where this application of the title “Servant of Jehovah” to the actual Israel does not suffice (Isa_42:1-4; Isa_49:1-6; Isa_50:4-9; Isa_52:13-15; Isa_53:1-12). What makes it impossible to suppose that the Servant means Israel simply is not so much the intense personification of the ideal (although that is very remarkable, and weighs with many minds); it is rather the character attributed to the Servant, and the fact that he is distinguished from Israel by having a work to do on behalf of the nation.
(1) A large number of expositors hold that the term “Servant of Jehovah” always, in some sense, denotes Israel.
(2) Other writers think that the Servant of Jehovah must, in some eases, be an individual yet to arise, who shall embody in himself all the characteristics that belong to the Divine idea of Israel. The value of the conception as a prophetic delineation of the character and work of our Lord is in no way affected by the view we may be led to adopt regarding its inception in the mind of the prophet. All Christian interpreters agree that the ideal has been fulfilled but once in history, in the person of Jesus Christ, in whom all the features of the Divine ideal impressed on Israel have received adequate and final expression. Perhaps we may go further, and say that to us it is clear that the ideal could only be realised in a personal life at once human and Divine; only, we have no right to say that this must have been equally evident to the prophet in his day. The significance of his teaching does not lie in any direct statement that in some future age an individual should arise bearing this image,--a statement which he never makes; it consists in the marvellous degree in which he has been enabled to foreshadow the essential truths concerning the life and mission of the Redeemer. This is a fact which nothing can obscure, and which is attested for us, if it needed attestation, by the application of these passages to Christ in the New Testament.
(3) The state of things which follows the redemption of Israel is an age of universal salvation in which all nations share in the blessings that flow from a knowledge of the true God. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
The author as an evangelist
The author has been called the evangelist of the Old Testament. All the prophets are evangelists, in the sense that they teach that salvation belongeth unto the Lord, that by grace are we saved through faith, not of ourselves,--it is the gift of God. And in this the prophet of these chapters agrees with his brethren. But while other prophets content themselves with this general doctrine of grace, moving exclusively in the region of Divine efficiency and operation, and suggesting no solution or principle of this operation beyond this, that God pardons sin of His mercy, having by the severe dispensations of His providence brought the sense of sin home to the people’s heart, and thus fitted them to receive His mercy, this prophet, in his profound doctrine of the suffering Servant of the Lord, makes an extraordinary movement towards a solution, teaching that the sins of the people as a whole were laid by God upon the innocent Servant, and were atoned by His sufferings, and that thus the people were redeemed. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
The Messiah and His kingdom
It is only when chaps. 40-66, are viewed in the light of a great Messianic development--a series of predictions respecting the Person, the work, and the kingdom of Christ--that the earnestness, the protracted length, the fulness, the deep feeling, the holy enthusiasm, the glowing metaphors and similes, and the rich and varied exhibitions of peace and prosperity, can well be accounted for. The writer, in taking such a standpoint, uses the Exile and the return from it as the basis of his comparisons and analogies. It was a rich and deeply interesting source from which to draw them. Any other solution of the whole phenomena is, to my mind, at least, meagre and unsatisfactory; on no other ground can I account for it that Isaiah, so long beforehand, should have dwelt on an Exile and a return from it which were more than a century distant from him and his contemporaries. (Moses Stuart.)
“Two Isaiahs”
That the Isaiah who composed chaps. 40-66, in comparison with the Isaiah of the time of Uzziah till Hezekiah, is one raised far above that time and at a higher stage of insight into God’s work in the future, is certain, whether the two Isaiahs are one person or two persons. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
Were there two Isaiahs?
The author of chaps. 40-66 is in any case a prophet of the Isaianic type, but of an Isaianic type peculiarly developed. It is scarcely conceivable, although not quite inconceivable, that in a final stage of Isaiah’s life reaching into the days of Manasseh, his style of thought and speech may have undergone a modification in breadth and depth which carried it beyond itself. And yet we ask for this ultro citoque the credit of a pure love of truth, conscious of freedom from apologetic prepossession--yet the distinction between an Assyrian and a Babylonian Isaiah involves us in all sorts of difficulties, when we take into view the reciprocal relations of the Isaianic collection of prophecies with the other Old Testament literature known to us. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
The traditional view of the authorship
The existence of a tradition in the last three centuries B.C. as to the authorship of any book is (to those acquainted with the habits of thought of that age)
of but little critical moment;--the Sopherim, or students of Scripture in those times, were simply anxious for the authority of the Scriptures, not for the ascertainment of their precise historical, origin.. It was of the utmost importance to declare that (especially) Isaiah 40-66, was a prophetic work of the highest order; this was reason sufficient (the Sopherim may have had other reasons, such as phraseological affinities in 40-66, but this was sufficient) for ascribing them to the royal prophet Isaiah. When the view had once obtained currency, it would naturally become a tradition The question of the Isaianic or non-Isaianic origin of the disputed prophecies (especially 40-66) must be decided on grounds of exegesis alone. There are indications among critics, bred in different schools, of a growing perception of this truth. (Prof. T. K. Cheyne, D. D.)
VIII. REASONS FOR BELIEVING THAT CHAPS. 40-66 ARE NOT THE WORK OF ISAIAH
The evidence internal
Critical writers generally assign them to an anonymous prophet living in the latter part of the Babylonian Exile. The grounds on which this conclusion rests will be found to be all of the nature of what is called internal evidence, being drawn from indications furnished by the book itself of the circumstances in which it was composed. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
The true method of procedure in investigating the evidence
The proper course obviously is, first of all, to gain as clear an idea as possible of the prophecy itself, and then to consider what light is thereby thrown on its origin. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Summary of evidence
1. The historical background.
2. The phraseology and style.
3. The character of the theology. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
Spoken appeals, not “chamber prophecy”
If any prophet in the Old Testament gives evidence that he speaks in public, and that his desire is to stir and move those whom he addresses, it is the author of these chapters. What meaning have appeals and protestations, each as those in Isa_40:21; Isa_40:26; Isa_40:28; Isa_43:10; Isa_48:8; Isa_50:10 f., Isa_51:6; Isa_51:12 f., Isa_58:3 ff., except as spoken in the very presence of those whose assent the prophet seeks to win! The author’s warm and impassioned rhetoric, the personal appeals with which his prophecies abound, show conclusively that he is not writing a literary essay in the retirement of his chamber, but, like a true prophet of his nation, is exerting himself in all earnestness to produce an impression by the force of own personality upon the hearts of those who hear him. The very first words of the prophecy, “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people,” mark a rhetorical peculiarity of the author. The emphatic duplication of a word, significant of the passion and fervour of the speaker, is a characteristic feature of the entire prophecy; in the prophets generally it is rare; in Isaiah the only examples--and those but partly parallel--are Isa_8:9 b, 21:9, 29:1. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
The historical background
1. The allusions to Cyrus in the prophecy make it perfectly certain that the time to which it refers lies between 549 and 538. Cyrus is mentioned as one already well known as a conqueror, and one whose brilliant victories have sent a thrill of excitement through the world. On the other hand, the capture of Babylon is still in the future. The standpoint of the prophecy, therefore, is certainly intermediate between 549 and 538, and most probably about 540 B.C.
2. In perfect harmony with these references to Cyrus are those to the circumstances of Israel. The nation is in exile, but on the eve of deliverance. The oppressing power is Babylon, the imperial city, still called “the mistress of kingdoms” (Isa_47:5)
. It is from Babylon that the exiles are summoned to make good their escape (Isa_48:20; cf. Isa_52:11, etc.). Meanwhile, Palestine is a waste and ruined land (Isa_49:8; Isa_49:19; Isa_51:3; Isa_52:9). No such calamity as these accumulated allusions imply had ever befallen Israel except in the half-century that followed the destruction of the State by the Chaldeans (586 B.C.).
3. One other fact may be noticed as showing how completely the prophet’s point of view is identified with the age of the Exile. Amongst the arguments most frequently adduced for the deity of Jehovah and against idolatry is the appeal to prophecies fulfilled by the appearance of Cyrus Isa_41:26; Isa_42:9; Isa_43:8-10; Isa_45:21; Isa_46:10). What prophecies are referred to is a question of some difficulty. Whatever they are, the argument has no force except as addressed to persons for whom the fulfilment was a matter of experience. To the men of an earlier age such an appeal could only appear as confusing and fallacious, being an attempt to illustrate ignotum per ignotius; hence, we must conclude that the prophecy was directly intended for the generation of the Exile, and could produce its full effect only on them. It must be observed that neither the appearance of Cyrus nor the captivity of Israel is ever predicted in this prophecy; they are everywhere assumed as facts known to the readers. Predictions do occur of the most definite kind, but they are of events subsequent to those mentioned and lying in advance of the standpoint which the prophet occupies. A distinction is often made by the writer between “former things,” which have already come to pass, and “new things” or “coming things” (Isa_41:22; Isa_42:9; Isa_43:9; Isa_43:18, etc., Isa_44:7; Isa_14:11; Isa_46:9; Isa_48:3-8), and in some cases it seems clear that by “former things” he means the fulfilment of earlier prophecies concerning Cyrus, while the “new things,” now first announced, are such events as the triumph of Cyrus, the salvation of Israel, and the conversion of the world to the worship of Jehovah. Even on the supposition that the chapters were written by Isaiah, 150 years before any of these occurrences, it still remains true that he does not formally predict the rise of Cyrus, but addresses himself to those who have witnessed it and only require to be told what developments will result from it in the unfolding of Jehovah’s purpose. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
The evidence of language and style
When the biblical writings are examined care, fully, individualities of style appear as one of their most prominent features . . . Now, when the prophecies in the Book of Isaiah possessing an evident reference to the events of Isaiah’s lifetime are compared with those relating to the restoration of Israel from Babylon, and especially with chaps. 40-66, many remarkable differences, both of phraseology and conception, disclose themselves The terms and expressions which, in the former series of prophecies Isaiah uses, and uses repeatedly, are absent in chaps. 40-66; conversely, new terms and expressions appear in chaps. 40-66, which are without parallel in the first part of the book. Sometimes the expressions used in one part of the book occur never in the other; in other cases, they occur once or twice only in one part of the book, while in the other part they occur frequently, and often with a peculiar nuance or shade of meaning. No doubt, if the subject matter of the two parts varied greatly, it would be natural that to a certain extent different terms should be employed, even though both were by the same author; but, as will be seen, the variations between the two parts of the Book of Isaiah are not to be explained by the difference of subject matter; they extend, in many instances, to points, such as the form and construction of sentences, which stand in no appreciable relation to the subject treated. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
Theology and thought
Of course, the fundamental principles of the Israelitish religion are common to both parts of the Book of Isaiah, as they are to the prophets generally; when we look for features that are distinctive, we at once find that they are different. Isaiah depicts the majesty of Jehovah; the author of chaps. 40-66, His infinity. This is a real difference. It would be difficult to establish from Isaiah--not the greatness merely, but--the infinitude of the Divine attributes; the author of chaps. 40-66, exhausts the Hebrew language in the endeavour, if possible, to represent it. Jehovah is the Creator, the Sustainer of the universe, the Lifegiver, the Author of history, the First and the Last, the Incomparable One. Where does Isaiah teach such truths as these? Yet it cannot be maintained that opportunities for such assertions of Jehovah’s power and Godhead would not have naturally presented themselves to Isaiah whilst he was engaged in defying the armies of Assyria. But the truth is, the prophet of the Exile moves in a different region of thought from Isaiah. The doctrine of the preservation from judgment of a worthy remnant is characteristic of Isaiah; it appears alike in his first prophecy Isa_6:13) and in his last (Isa_37:31 f.); in chaps. 40-66, if it appears once or twice by implication (Isa_59:20; Isa_65:8 f.), it is not a distinctive element in the author’s teaching; it is not expressed in Isaiah’s phraseology, and is not more prominent than it is in the writings of many other prophets. Where, in Isaiah, is the destiny of Israel, and the purpose of its call, developed--or even noticed allusively--as it is developed in chaps. 40-66? In these chapters, again, the figure of the Messianic king is absent; another figure, intimately connected with the view of Israel’s destiny that has just been mentioned--a figure singularly striking and original in its conception--holds a corresponding position. To say that the figure of Jehovah’s ideal Servant is an advance upon that of the Messianic king is not correct; it starts from a different origin altogether; it is parallel to it, not a continuation of it. The mission of Israel to the nations is developed in new directions; the Divine purposes in relation to them are exhibited upon a wider and more comprehensive scale. The prophet moves along lines of thought different from those followed by Isaiah; he apprehends and dwells upon different aspects of truth . . . Thus, even where there is a point of contact between the two parts of the book, or where the same terms are employed, the ideas attached to them have, in chaps. 40-66, a wider and fuller import. But this is exactly what would be expected from a later writer expanding and developing, in virtue of the fuller measure of inspiration vouchsafed to him, elements due, perhaps, originally to a predecessor. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
The idea of “righteousness” in the two parts of the book
This difference between the two parts of the book is summed up in their respective uses of the word “righteousness.” In Isaiah 1-39, or at least in such of these chapters as refer to Isaiah’s own day, righteousness is man’s moral and religious duty, in its contents of piety, purity, justice, and social service. In Isaiah 40-66, righteousness (except in a few cases)
is something which the people expect from God,--their historical vindication by His restoral and r