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INTRODUCTION
§ 1. CONTEMPORARY HISTORY
The Babylonian king Merodach-Baladan, when Hezekiah recovered from a dangerous illness, had sent an embassy to him to congratulate him and to initiate friendly relations. Hezekiah, flattered by the honor shown him, met the Babylonian ambassador with too little reserve. Thereupon he was obliged to hear from Isaiah’s lips the denunciation that all the treasures of his house, that he had displayed with such pride to those ambassadors, would be carried away as booty, and his children as captives to Babylon. In place of Assyria, therefore, now a thing of the past, Isaiah sees Babylon appear on the horizon as the enemy that was to prepare the end of the outward theocracy. The Babylonian captivity stands clear before his prophetic vision, but also the end of it, and therewith the beginning of the great period of salvation that was to reach to the end of the world, albeit with great alternations. Thus, therefore, it is a threefold conflict in which Isaiah sees the theocracy placed: that with Ephraim-Syria, Assyria and Babylon. One develops out of the other. The conflict with Ephraim-Syria was properly but the handle to the fatal complication with Assyria, and the latter in turn generated the relations with Babylon. For Merodach-Baladan, the great Babylonian patriot (see comment at Isa_39:1-8) and firm defender of the freedom of his country against the oppression of the Assyrians, would certainly not have congratulated Hezekiah on his recovery, had he not seen in him an ally against the common enemy, Assyria. Thus we see the Prophet Isaiah appearing at a period when the way was paving for the immediate relations of the theocracy with the great world-powers by which its ruin was threatened. Beyond doubt, this was an historical crisis of the utmost significance, and we see that only a man of the greatest spiritual power could be equal to the occasion. Isaiah was equal to it. When it was reported in Jerusalem that Ephraim had combined with Syria, hearts trembled like the trees of the forest shake with the wind (Isa_7:2). But Isaiah declared that Rezin and the son of Remaliah were nothing but two smoking stumps of torches (Isa_7:4). But Assyria, in which Ahaz confided, was to be feared (Isa_7:17). However, when Assyria had fulfilled its mission in Israel and Judah, and now in wicked arrogance would possess the city of Jerusalem, and so swallow up Judah as it had done Ephraim, it was said: “I will put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way which thou camest” (Isa_37:29). And so it came to pass. What human wisdom could see danger for the theocracy in that embassy of Merodach-Baladan? The Prophet detects the danger. He gives warning—he announces that Babylon will have the king of Judah and those that belong to him as captives in the midst of it. But much more than with the portrayal of this judgment he occupies himself with the consolation that will be extended to Israel for this visitation. His gaze is chiefly directed to the deliverance out of this exile, and every thing belonging to a glorious salvation for personal and natural life that lies in perspective, even to the remotest distance, is naked and open before his eyes.
Thus Isaiah is the great Central-Prophet who, stationed at a decisive turning-point, detects with a clear eye all the principal points of the perspective that open out from it, and becomes thereby to his people the prophetic mediator both of exhortation and warning, and also of consolation and instruction as occasion demanded. And by this means he becomes, at the same time, the one on whom all later prophets lean as on their greatest exemplar and highest prophetic authority.
Isaiah’s labors fall, according to Isa_1:1, in the time of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. According to Isa_6:1 he was called to the prophetic office in the year that Uzziah died. It need occasion no surprise, therefore, that, with the exception of that information concerning the call of the Prophet, there appears no further piece of writing from Uzziah’s time. But we find none also from Jotham’s time. For there happened nothing under Jotham that could have moved Isaiah to prophetic activity. The period of sixteen years under Jotham may have been a period of inward collection and preparation for the Prophet. First under Ahaz his labors proper began. The first occasion was furnished by the Syro-Ephraimitic war, concerning the particulars of which see the commentary on Isa_7:1 sq. The combination of the military forces of Ephraim-Syria moved Ahaz to call in the aid of the Assyrian king, Tiglath-Pileser. But Isaiah it moved to direct his prophetic gaze on Assyria, and, primarily, in the prophetic cycle, chapters 7–12, to announce both the danger impending from Assyria and the final deliverance out of it. Tiglath-Pileser, in fact, complied with the desire of Ahaz for aid. It was welcome to him in the interests of his policy of conquest. He conquered and made subject the kingdom of Syria (2Ki_16:9; comp. on Isa_17:1). He conquered at the same time the north and east of the kingdom of Ephraim, and led the inhabitants away captive (2Ki_15:29). From that time onwards Palestine and the countries in its neighborhood remained a principal mark for the conquering expeditions of Assyria. Ahaz brought this down on himself by his policy of unbelief. He himself, indeed, was not yet to reap the fruits of his untheocratic conduct. Although by direct encouragement of foreign modes of religious worship (comp. 2Ki_16:10 sqq.) he had added to his guilt, he still remained in possession of his land and throne to the end of his life (728 B. C.). But his successor, Hezekiah, although a prince devoted to the LORD with his whole heart, was obliged to experience all the distresses that sprang forth like mischievous fruit from the dragon seed of his father. When Hosea, king of Israel, sought to rid himself of the oppressive power of Assyria by an alliance with Egypt, Shalmaneser, Tiglath-Pileser’s successor, besieged Samaria for two years. He was prevented by death from completing his undertaking. His successor, Sargon, took the city in the third year of the siege (722 B. C., 2Ki_17:6) and led away the remnant of the ten tribes into captivity. But by that effort of the king of Israel to find protection against Assyria in Egypt, the attention of the Assyrian ruler was drawn to the latter power. From the middle of the eighth century, according to MANETHO, there reigned in Egypt the twenty-fifth Ethiopic dynasty. Three of its kings are mentioned by name: Sabako (Sevech, So) I. and II. and Tirhâka. According to the annals of Sargon (comp. SCHRADER, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., pp. 258, 318), Sevech (II.), in union with Hanno of Gaza, encountered Sargon at Raphia (twenty-two milliaria south-west of Gaza) in the year 720 B. C. Sargon conquered and subdued Philistia. But the Philistine princes revolted. Therefore a new expedition of Sargon against Philistia, that resulted in the subjection of the insurgents in the year 711. This is the expedition conducted by Tartan (i.e., general in chief) to which Isaiah 20 refers. All these conflicts had taken place without the kingdom of Judah becoming involved as a fellow-sufferer. The clouds big with destruction moved thrice along the north, west and south-west borders of Judah before they turned to empty themselves on Judah itself. It is related also, 2Ki_18:7, that Hezekiah revolted from the king of Assyria, i.e., that he sought to relieve himself of the dependence to which Ahaz had submitted. At the same time Hezekiah—and this was the great weakness of which this otherwise admirable prince was guilty—sought protection and help from Egypt against the danger impending from Assyria. On this account he is sharply reproved by Isaiah. Chapters 20, 28–33 are meant to warn against this untheocratic policy. Judah must trust in the LORD who promised by His prophet not to yield it up to the Assyrian, but that he would free it by a mighty act of deliverance. Sargon was murdered in the year 705. He was succeeded by his son Sennacherib. The third expedition of this king that occurred in the year 700 B. C. passed through Phœnicia to the south of Palestine. The land of Judah was traversed and desolated. Only the city of Jerusalem remained to Hezekiah, in which he was shut up “like a bird in its cage.” In order to save at least Jerusalem, Hezekiah paid Sennacherib to retire thirty talents of gold and three hundred talents of silver (2Ki_18:14 sqq.). Sennacherib took the money and then still demanded the surrender of the city. In this great strait Hezekiah cried to the LORD and received through Isaiah a comforting promise. At Eltekeh, a Levitical city in the territory of Dan (Jos_19:44; Jos_21:23) the armies of Sennacherib and Tirhâka encountered. The victory was undecided. But shortly after 185,000 men perished in the camp of the Assyrian in one night, likely of a pest. This compelled Sennacherib to retreat (comp. 2 Kings 18, 19; Isaiah 36, 37). Thus Judah was rescued.
This event forms the conclusion of the history of Isaiah as far as known to us. For not long after this miraculous deliverance Hezekiah died. It is doubtful if Isaiah still lived to see the reign of Manasseh. Isa_1:1 is against it. For there Hezekiah is named as the latest king under whom Isaiah lived. Isaiah knew that after that overthrow (Isa_37:36) Assyria was done away, and was no more to be dreaded by the theocracy. His gaze, as early as the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, since that embassy related in Isaiah 39, had turned in another direction. He knew that the greatest danger threatened the theocracy, not from Assyria, but from Babylon. At this time, toward the end of his life, before or after the Assyrian overthrow, he must have occupied himself with the relation of his nation to Babylon. But he is not especially interested in the victory of Babylon and the captivity of his people there. This point he leaves to others whom the matter more nearly touched. Only the thoughts of salvation and redemption employ him at the end of his life. In this period must have originated the great book of consolation (40–66), along with the smaller pieces that relate to Babylon (13–14:23; Isa_21:1-10; Isaiah 34, 35).
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We know almost nothing concerning the outward relations of the Prophet. His father is called Amoz ( àָîåֹõ ). Who this was is wholly unknown. Only ignorance of the language could identify him with the prophet Amos ( òָîåֹí ); only Rabbinical jugglery could make out of him a brother to the king Amaziah ( àֲîַöְéָä ). The latter is the source of the saying that Isaiah came of a royal race. We are moreover uninformed about the time of Isaiah’s birth and death. The opinion that Isaiah’s prophetic labors extended through the whole, or at least the greater part of the reign of Uzziah, is founded on the false exposition of the date given Isa_1:1, and also of the position that the account of the calling of the Prophet occupies in the book (comp. on this GESENIUS in his Commentary, p. 5 sqq.). That the call of the Prophet is first narrated Isaiah 6 has quite another explanation (comp. our commentary, in loc.). We can only infer from Isa_6:1 that Isaiah was called to the prophetic office in the year of Uzziah’s death, i.e., therefore in the year 759 B. C. How old he was at that time, we know not. If we assume that he could hardly have been younger than Jeremiah, who calls himself a ðַòַø when he was called (Jer_1:6 sq.), and if we further assume that Jeremiah was twenty years old, then Isaiah would have lived from that time 16 + 16 + 29, thus at least sixty-one years, and consequently must have attained an age of at least eighty-one years. Concerning the period and manner of his death we have only rumors. Manasseh, Hezekiah’s successor, is said to have caused the Prophet to be sawn asunder. The Prophet having fled to a hollow cedar from the king’s wrath, and having been “enfolded” by it, the king let him be sawn in this tree (comp. the passages from the Talmud relating to this in GESENIUS, in loc.). In itself it is not at all improbable that Manasseh inflicted a martyr’s death on the faithful prophet of Jehovah. As is well known, he is described to have been the wickedest and cruelest of all the kings of Judah. It is expressly said of him that he shed very much innocent blood (2Ki_21:16). JOSEPHUS (Antiq. x. 3, 1) adds to this that he did not spare the prophets. But opposed to all this is the fact that, Isa_1:1, the reign of Manasseh is not named, which certainly would not have been omitted, especially if the Prophet had been put to death by that king. At the spot where the three valleys, Jehoshaphat, Gihon and Tyropœon, come together, there stands an ancient gnarled trunk (it is, however, the trunk of a mulberry tree) that is called the tree of Isaiah (comp. GRAF VON WARTENSLEBEN, Jerusalem, Gegenw ä rtiges und Vergangenes, 3, Aufl., Berlin, 1875, p. 83) [Dr. ROBINSON’S Researches, etc., Vol. I., p. 232, 336.—TR.] At the same spot the fountain Siloam issues, of which the report says that God sent it to the Prophet to still his thirst when he was near his death (comp. LEYRER in HERZOG’S R. Encycl. XIV. p. 375). We have no hint of Isaiah’s ever having lived any where else than in Jerusalem. That he was married appears from Isa_7:3 (comp. Isa_10:21 sq.), where his son is called Shear-Jashub, and from the account Isa_8:3 that Isaiah, at God’s command, “went unto the prophetess,” who bore him a son, whom, also by divine command, he named Maher-shalal-hash-baz. Moreover, Isa_8:18, Isaiah speaks of the children “that God had given him.” From what is related in the passages just cited, we see that the family of the Prophet was quite drawn into the sphere of his prophetic activity. That Isaiah was the instructor of king Hezekiah, as Nathan had formerly been of Solomon (2Sa_12:25), is mere conjecture that PAULUS sets up in the clavis on Isa_9:5. A double notice in Chronicles has occasioned the conjecture that Isaiah was annalist of the kingdom. Thus we read 2Ch_26:22 that Isaiah wrote ( ëָּúַá ) the ãִּáְøֵé òֻæִּéָäåּ , the first and the last. And 2Ch_32:32 it reads: “Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his goodness, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah, the Prophet, the son of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel” [“(which is received) into the book of the kings,” etc. Dr. N.’s translation.—TR.]. According to this, therefore, Isaiah composed historical works on the lives of the two most distinguished kings that were his contemporaries, and one of these works was incorporated, though perhaps only partially, in the great annalistic historical work of the kings of Judah and Israel, from which the Chronicler drew (comp. ZOECKLER, Chronik., p. 16 sq.). When the Chronicler calls the work on Hezekiah çָæåֹï , it is most natural to explain this designation by saying that that historical work was regarded as a part of our prophetic book, which in fact bears the title çæåï éùòéäå . And this might happen for the reason that chapters 36–39 contain historical sections that are common to our book of prophecy and to the canonical book of Kings, as well as to the annals of the kingdom of Judah that were the source of the latter. The book of prophecy might easily be regarded by the Chronicler (who lived later, and could hardly have had before him the writing of Isaiah about Hezekiah) as the source of Isaiah’s accounts concerning Hezekiah which he found in his annalistic historical work. But the statements of the Chronicler by no means justify the assumption that Isaiah filled the office of a îַæְëִּéø . In the writings that we have from him the person of the Prophet is kept in the background. They speak of him and of what belongs to him only so far as they have to tell of his direct and personal interference in what occurred (comp. Isa_6:1 sqq.; Isa_7:1 sqq.; Isa_8:1 sqq., 16 sqq.; Isa_20:1 sqq.; Isa_22:15 sqq.; Isa_28:9 sqq.; 37–39). The secret foundation of all his prophetic activity was the consciousness that he was an instrument of God, chosen, equipped and called to His service (comp. 6). This consciousness generated in him the most devoted obedience and the most implicit trust in God. Consequently he had no fear of man and no regard for merely human interests. With the greatest freedom he opposes Ahaz (Isa_7:1 sqq.). He does the same to the chamberlain Shebna (Isa_22:15 sqq.), people of rank, priests and prophets, men and women, in fact the whole people in general (2; 3; 5; Isa_28:7 sqq.). Moreover he does not spare Hezekiah and his noble counsellors, nor the women who seem, under him also, to have attained great influence. He keenly reproves the secret ways that their policy followed in regard to Egypt (30–32). When Hezekiah was sick, he says to him that he must die with the same boldness (Isa_38:1), that he afterwards joyfully announces to the believing suppliant his deliverance and the lengthening of his life (Isa_38:5 sqq.). And upon Hezekiah’s having in foolish vanity displayed his treasures to the messengers from Babylon, he tells him plainly that all this shall be carried away in exile to Babylon (Isa_39:5 sqq.).
Though, on the one hand, we see the Prophet dealing thus practically with the emergencies of the present, yet, on the other hand, there exists for him no merely contemporary interest. For him that immeasurable interval does not exist that for common men divides the remote from the immediate future. Both appear to him a continued whole which he commands with his gaze in all its parts. Every thing of like sort, which in its realization in time forms indeed an organic, connected line of development, yet one that is measurelessly extended, he sees before him as one tableau, whose figures, though really belonging to the most different stages of time, appear to him to stand alongside of one another. In one word, the limits of time do not exist for him. Periods of time vanish before his gaze. He contemplates together what is nearest and farthest when they belong together. Thus he comes back from the remotest future into the immediate present with a sudden spring, and vice versa. Thus Isa_1:12 he comprehends Jerusalem’s whole future of salvation in one. The great discourse of the second introduction sets two grand images of the remotest future at its head (Isa_2:1-4; Isa_4:2-6), in order to contemplate the present in their light. Much more frequently it happens that, immediately after an event of the near future, the Prophet sees the far and farthest future. Thus in Isaiah 11, immediately after the deliverance out of the hand of Assyria, he sees the form of the Messiah and of His kingdom of peace, and the latter, in fact, unfolded to its extremest consequences in the generation of a new life of nature. In Isa_16:5, to Moab, in reward for its reception of the fugitives of Judah (whom, according to the whole context, he contemplates as expelled by a present threatening world-power), he promises participation in the blessings of the Messiah’s kingdom. In Isaiah 19, immediately after announcing to Egypt its ruin by means of Assyria, the then representative of the world-power, he announces to it its conversion to Jehovah and its peaceful union with Assyria and Israel. Let these examples suffice. It would lead us too far to enumerate all the cases of this kind that occur in both parts of the book. Though this may not be an exclusive characteristic of Isaiah’s, still one may say that it appears especially strong and frequent in him. This agrees with the elevation of the view-point that he takes. For he that stands highest sees the farthest.
On this account especially he takes so high a rank among the prophets. In Jesus the son of Sirach he is called ὁ ðñïöÞôçò ὁ ìÝãáò (Sir_48:22), who further says of him that he ðíåýìáôé ìåãÜëù ̣ åἶäå ôὰ ἔó÷áôá (ibid. Sir_48:24), and that he ἕùò ôïῦ áἰῶíïò ὑðÝäåéîå ôὰ ἐóüìåíá (ibid. Sir_48:25). EUSEBIUS calls him (dem. ev. II. 4) ôὸí ìÝãáí êáὶ èáõìÜóéïí ðñïöÞôçí —indeed even ðñïöÞôçí ìÝãéóôïí (ibid. V. 4). THEODORET calls him ὁ èåéüôáôïò ‘Çóáἰ ̈ áò . ISIDORUS PELUS: ὁ äéïñáôéêþôáôïò (lib. I. ep. 366), and ôῶí ðñïöÞôῶí óáöÝóôáôïò (ibid. ep. 366). Closely connected with this is the consideration that Isaiah foresees those facts of the fulfilment of salvation on which rests the specific teaching of Christianity. For it is historical facts, not dogmas, that constitute the pith of Christian teaching. Of course it is not like one standing near that Isaiah sees those facts, but like one standing far off, which is as it should be. For this reason he describes them in peculiarly strange words, that are to himself indistinct, and yet are essentially correct. Without himself having any presentiment of the meaning of his words, he must predict the birth of the Saviour from an unmarried woman (Isa_7:14). And then he describes this child by expressions that sound blasphemous, if he to whom they are applied is held to be a man (Isa_9:5). In contrast with this, he sees the servant of God defamed so as to appear no longer human, and then again raised up to superhuman power and glory (53). Moreover he sees an entirely new way of appropriating salvation that must indeed appear strange enough to human thoughts (55), and, what to pious persons of the Old Testament must have appeared downright offensive, he speaks of a worship of God to which the outward temple and ceremonial service will seem an abomination (Isa_66:1 sqq.).
Such are, if I may so express myself, the formal substructures of Isaiah’s prophecy that make it proper to call him, as JEROME is the first to do: “non solum prophetam sed evangelistam el apostolum” (Prolog. in expos. Jes.; comp. the Epist. ad Paulinam, where he says: “non prophetiam mihi videtur texere Esaias sed evangelium”). With reference to this, AUGUSTINE (De civ. Dei. XVIII. 29) says that Isaiah: “de Christo et ecclesia multa plura quam caeteri prophetavit, ita ut a quibusdam evangelista quam propheta potius diceretur.” CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA also, in the preface to his commentary, remarks: “ ἐí ôáὐôῷ ἔóôé ðñïöÞôçò ἅìá êáὶ ἀðüóôïëïò .”
I never could comprehend how any one could regard it as a postulate and promotive of scientific knowledge to explain the world without the personal God. Cancel Him, and then riddles and miracles fairly begin, and impossibilities are exacted of our faith. If one would require us to believe that some work of art came into being, not by an artist, but by abstract art, wisdom, power, we would declare such an one to be fit for the insane asylum. And yet men would have us believe that there is an abstract thinking and willing! They hold personality to be a limiting, and therefore an impersonal God to be something unlimited, therefore something higher! But as soon as the limits of personality are broken away, one comes into the region of merely subjective representations; and the philosophers had better look to their aristocratic abstractions and see whether they possess the property of real, objective existence. If they lack this, then the philosophers have perhaps wrought for the study, but not for real life. It is both insanity and idolatry to wish to put abstract-ideal philosophy in the place of the concrete, vitalizing Christian religion. Moreover personality is not limitation in the negative sense. It is merely concentration, and thereby the condition of orderly and really effective being. Personality is, however, at the same time, the condition of an entire and full existence, i.e., it is not mere thinking and willing, but also sensibility. In other words: only personality can have a heart and love. To be sure, we touch here on the proper pith of the controversy. Not all men wish to be loved by God, still less to love Him in return. Humanity entire divides into two parts, one of which presses toward God, the other away from God. For the former, nothing is more precious than nearness to God; the latter feel easy only at a distance from Him. And now-a-days those are esteemed as the lords of science and as benefactors to mankind who do their best to “free (us) from the Creator,” as DAVID STRAUSS says! But here the criterion is not objective, impartial, scientific interest, but the interest of the heart self-determined in this or that way toward God. For under all circumstances our relation to God is a concern of the heart. One must either love Him or hate Him, be for Him or against Him (Luk_11:23). Neutral no one can be. Consciously or unconsciously every man must feel himself attracted by God or repelled from Him, according as, in his secret heart, that which is kindred to God or that which is inimical to God has the upper hand. For there is no man in which both are not present. Take the hermeneutics that is founded on the assumption that there is no personal God, and that the world is founded on abstractions, in whose real existence one must believe, much as that contradicts all reason and experience; shall such hermeneutics be more entitled to consideration than that which rests on the fundamental view that there is a personal God, to whom we are related, who loves us and guides our fortune with paternal wisdom? This question can never be objectively decided here below, because for each individual the subjective attitude of his own heart is the criterion. But at least let no one despise those who see in the Scriptures the revelation of a personal God. And above all things, one must not explain the writings of the prophets of the Old Testament on the assumption that they did not bona fide regard themselves as organs of the living, personal God that governs the world. One may say: they fancied themselves inspired. Very well—then let such point out the illusions that entangled them, and expose their enthusiasms. Or one may say: they were impostors. Then let such unmask them. But let no one put upon their words a sense that they themselves did not intend, because they just believed in a living personal God, and were convinced that they stood under the direct influence of His Spirit. Let no one empty their words of sense—let no one deny that they meant to prophesy because one does not himself believe in any prophecy. Let no one (as e.g. KNOBEL does) make out of the prophecy a marvellous masked representation of events that had already taken place. I willingly confess that the representatives of the divine origin of prophecy have been faulty in many respects. It has been often overlooked that not every thing can be prophesied at any time; that therefore each prophecy must have its historical reason and ground, and that the form and contents of the prophecy must be in harmony with these. It has been further overlooked that prophesying is a seeing from a distance. From a distance one may very well observe a city, mountain and the like, in general outlines. But particulars one does not see. For this reason genuine prophecy in general will never meddle with special prediction. Where, however, the latter takes place, either the special trait contemplated is no subordinate individual thing, or it justifies the suspicion that it is false. These and like mistakes have been committed. But this does not hinder me from maintaining the divine origin of prophecy in general, and also from claiming a scientific title for my construction of Isaiah’s prophecy.
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2. As regards the book itself, it divides first into two chief parts: Isaiah 1-35 and Isaiah 40-66. Between these two chief parts are the Isaiah 36-39, which, Janus-like, look forwards and backwards, inasmuch as the Isaiah 36, 37 conclude the Assyrian period, and Isaiah 38, 39 prepare the way for the Babylonian period. The first part then ought properly to be reckoned from Isaiah 1-37, the second from Isaiah 38-66. But it is traditional to reckon Isaiah 36-39 together, and that, too, along with the first chief part, because part first, on account of the greater variety of its contents, may easier receive those historical chapters than the second part that has a quite uniform and exclusive character.
3. Taking part first to include 1–39 we follow the traditional way of counting. But properly this first principal part begins with Isaiah 7. For Isaiah 1-6 contain the great threefold introduction relating to the entire book. That is to say, not only is Isaiah 1 introductive, but chapters 2–5 are the second and Isaiah 6 the third introduction. Through three gates we enter into the majestic structure of Isaiah’s prophecy. For the proof of this see the comment in loc. Part first falls into five subdivisions. The first subdivision comprises Isaiah 7-12. In this section the Prophet treats of the relations of Israel to Assyria, contrasting the ruinous beginning of this relation with the blessed termination of it. The second subdivision contains the prophecies against foreign nations (Isaiah 13-23) At the head of these stands a prophecy against Babylon. For first, this begins with a general contemplation of “the day of the Lord,” so that, in a measure, it forms the introduction to all announcements of judgment that follow, and, then, the Prophet sees precisely in Babylon the chief enemy of the theocracy that is appointed to make a preliminary end to its outward continuance (Isa_13:1 to Isa_14:23). This is followed by a short prophecy against Assyria, the enemy, of course, most to be dreaded in the Prophet’s time (Isa_14:24-27). Following this are prophecies relating to other nations threatened by Assyria: Philistia, Moab, Ephraim-Syria, Ethiopia and Egypt (Isa_14:28 to Isa_20:6).
Chapters 21 and 22 constitute a special little ñֵôֶø . They also contain prophecies against heathen nations, viz.: Babylon, Edom, and Arabia. But there is connected with this in an unusual way a prophecy against Jerusalem. The reason is that these four prophecies bear emblematic superscriptions, on which account we have called them libellus emblematicus. The character of the superscription, therefore, which coincides with that of the other three superscriptions, makes the reason why this prophecy against Jerusalem is incorporated with the prophecies against foreign nations. A prophecy against Tyre forms the conclusion of this second subdivision: the siege of this city by Shalmaneser, which took place in the Prophets time, furnished the occasion for it. But the Prophet sees before him the fate of the city down to the remotest future, and in this contemplation of the future is not wanting the factor that the Chaldeans shall be the ones to make an end of the independence of Tyre. Isaiah 24-27 form a kind of finale to the discourses against the nations. They treat of last things, of the end of the world, the world’s judgment, resurrection of the dead, and the fulfilment of the salvation promised to the people Israel. We have called these four chapters libellus apocalypticus. The Third Subdivision has for its subject the relation of Israel to Assyria in the days of king Hezekiah (28–38). It contains five discourses in six chapters. Each discourse begins with äåֹé . They stand in chronological order, and are all of them total surveys, in that each, in a special manner, proceeding from the present distress, and with censure of the false means of deliverance, compresses in one the deliverance out of the distress and the salvation of the (Messianic) end-period that are determined and promised of God. The Fourth Subdivision comprises Isaiah 34, 35. These two chapters we designate the finale of part first. They contain a concluding glance at the end-period in respect to the two aspects of it, viz.: the divine judgments both in respect to punishment and salvation. The first is described as comprehending not only the earth, but also the constellations of heaven, in which, however, the manner of its operation on earth is exhibited by a special portrayal of the judgment against one of Israel’s most bitter enemies, viz.: Edom. That we stand here at an important boundary, viz.: at the close of part first, appears from the invitation, Isa_24:16, to search the “Book of Jehovah,” and thereby verify the fulfilment. This Book of Jehovah can be nothing else than just our part first, to which the Prophet here refers back as to a whole now brought to conclusion. Finally 35 describes the salvation which shall be imparted to the people of God by the final judgment. But the Prophet for the present makes prominent only one principal point, viz.: the return home out of the lands of exile into the Holy Land to everlasting joy. We see in this, at the same time, a transition to part second, that has for its subject the description of the period of salvation in all its aspects.
The Fifth Subdivision finally comprehends chapters 36–39. Their contents is historical and essentially the same that we read in 2Ki_18:13-37. Chapters 36 and 37 relate the deepest distress into which Hezekiah, confined to his capital city, was brought by the Assyrians, and also the unexpected, sudden and complete deliverance out of this distress by the plague that broke out in the camp of the Assyrians. This fact forms the conclusion of all relations of Israel to Assyria, and therefore 36 and 37 stand first, although the events narrated in them belong to a later period. Chapters 38 and 39 inform us of the sickness and recovery of Hezekiah in the fourteenth year of his reign, and of the Babylonian embassy that congratulated him on this account. Hereby was afforded occasion to the Prophet to prophesy the Babylonian exile, and in so far 38 and 39 are, so to speak, the bridge to chapters 40–46, and stand immediately before them, although the events of which they inform us precede by about fourteen years the events narrated in chaps, 36 and 37.
4. Surveying again the collection of prophecies in part first, we see that they are well arranged. The older commentators (even LUTHER) have erroneously held them to be without arrangement, and put together without plan. But the dominating principle is an arrangement according to matter rather than chronological arrangement. The first introduction (Isaiah 1) belongs to the latest pieces. It has much in common with chapters 40–46 (see below). The second introduction (2–5) is, as a whole, also the product of that period when the Prophet put his book together. Still for this introduction the Prophet made use of earlier pieces, especially of the period of Ahaz (comp. 3 comm.). And thereby, of course, he has given at the same time a picture of that period of his labors which preceded the first conflict with the world-power and the prophecies that related to it. For this reason this introduction bears more of a general ethical character. The third introduction belongs to the fact of the last year of Uzziah therein related. When it was written up is not expressly said. But it is in the nature of the thing that this should happen early rather than late after the event itself.
Of chapters 7–12 the first part (Isa_7:1 to Isa_9:6) belongs to the beginning of the three years which Pekah had in common with Ahaz, thus about 743 B. C. The second part, however (Isa_9:7 to Isa_10:4) belongs in the end of this period, thus about 740, 39 (see introd. to the text in loc.). Of the second part (Isa_10:5 to Isa_12:6) the piece Isa_10:5-34 belongs in the time when Hezekiah was put to the greatest distress by the summons related 36 (see introduction to Isa_10:5-19). Isaiah 9, on account of its relationship with Isa_14:28-32, originated in the period when Hezekiah had ascended the throne, thus about 728 B. C. The doxology, Isaiah 12, bears no trace of any particular time; still, as conclusion of this section, it must any way have originated at the time the latter was put together (ibid.) The first prophecy against Babylon (Isa_13:1 to Isa_14:23) presupposes the period in which the Prophet recognized Assyria as a thing of the past, and saw in Babylon the world-power that was called to execute judgment on the theocracy. The prophecy, therefore, falls in the latest stadium of Isaiah’s prophetic activity. The short prophecy against Assyria predicts Sennacherib’s catastrophe as near at hand. It belongs therefore to the period shortly before the event. The short piece Isa_14:28-32 must have originated shortly after Hezekiah took the throne. The prophecy against Moab (15 and 16) must, as to its older part (Isa_15:1 to Isa_16:12), belong to the reign of Ahaz. It may have originated after 741 B. C. and before the incursion of the Edomites into Judah mentioned in 2Ch_28:17. The time of its publication is indeed relatively determined by the later brief prophecy Isa_16:13-14; but so far it has not been made out what event the Prophet means by the blow threatened against Moab Isa_16:14. Any way, however, the Prophet has in mind an act of hostility on the part of Assyria against Moab.
Chapters 17 and 18, which are equally directed against Ephraim-Syria and against Assyria, belong to the beginning of the reign of Ahaz, to the same period to which the prophecies Isa_7:1 to Isa_9:6 owe their origin.
Chapters 19 and 20 relate to Ethiopia-Egypt. They fall in the time of Hezekiah, and indeed they cannot have been written earlier than 708 B. C. (see in Comm. introd. to 17–20). The brief prophecy against Babylon (Isa_21:1-10), which stands here on account of its emblematical superscription, appears to belong to the same period as Isa_13:1-14. Still the character of the piece in respect to language and rhetoric are not quite in harmony with it. The two small prophecies against Edom (Isa_21:11-12) and Arabia (Isa_21:13-17) fall in the time of Hezekiah, more exactly, in the time before the catastrophe of Sennacherib, when the Assyrians threatened the independence of all the nations that lay between Assyria and Egypt. To this same period also belongs Isaiah 22. More exactly, the chapter presupposes, and that in both its parts, the period when the Assyrians threatened Jerusalem directly. The prophecy against Tyre has this in common with the prophecies against the theocracy itself, that it does not designate Assyria, the immediate source of menace, but Babylon as the instrument to whom God has entrusted His judgment, and it must have originated in the time when Shalmaneser besieged Tyre, thus before 722 B. C. (see comm. in loc.). It is hard to determine when the chapters 24–27 originated. Still the Prophet sees the theocracy in conflict with Assyria and Egypt. Babylon stands veiled in the background. This seems to point to the time of Hezekiah, and indeed to the time before Sennacherib’s catastrophe (see comm. in loc.). Of the five discourses (28–33) that represent the relation of Israel to Assyria in the time of Hezekiah, the first must have originated already before the beginning of the siege of Samaria, thus about 725 B. C. (ibid.). Isaiah 29 is of much later origin, belonging to about the year 902 B. C.
Chapters 30–32, according to their contents, belong to the same period as 29. They join directly on to this in chronological order. Isaiah 33 belongs to the period shortly before the summons that Rabsheka sent to Hezekiah. Isaiah 34, 35 originated in the latest period of the Prophet contemporaneously with the grand connected complexity of prophecy in the Isaiah 40-66. A more exact determination of the time is impossible.
Isaiah 36-39 very probably spring from a memorandum of Isaiah’s that had for its subject the great events of the reign of Hezekiah, and to which 2Ch_32:26 seems to point. The insertion of these chapters at this point is so suitable–in fact so necessary–that we must even ascribe them to the Prophet himself. But a later hand has made alterations in the dates of the superscriptions, and also perhaps in the mention of names (Isa_39:1), which has become the occasion of great confusion. The events for instance narrated in 36 and 37 took place fourteen years later than those narrated in 38 and 39 Any way, the narratives stood in the original source in the correct chronological order, i. e., so that 36 and 37 followed 38 and 39 The narratives were transposed to correspond with the aim of the book of prophecy. Now in the original source the introduction of Isaiah 38 must have read: “And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah.” But Isaiah 36 began with the words: “And it came to pass in the fourteenth year.” Thereby was meant the fourteenth year after the events narrated in 38 and 39; therefore the twenty-eighth year of Hezekiah, or the 700 B. C., the year in which actually occurred Sennacherib’s catastrophe. When then those historical sections were adopted into the collection of Isaiah’s prophecies, and that in a reversed order, the dates ought properly to have been altered to correspond. This, however, did not take place. Thus 36 began with the words: “And it came to pass in the fourteenth year,” but 38 with the words: “And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah.” To an uninformed reader this sounded strange. The fourteenth mentioned in the beginning of 36 seemed as if it could be no other than the fourteenth of Hezekiah. And because 38 again bore at its head the fourteenth year of this king, nothing seemed more natural than to let 36 begin with the words: “And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah,” and then join on chapters 38 and 39 simply with the date “in those days, in that time” (see introd. to 36–39 below). Whoever made these alterations doubtless lived at a period when the living tradition about the correct order of these events had long been obliterated. Perhaps, too, the erroneous mention of a name Isa_39:1 is the fault of the same man and of the same time. For Merodach-Baladan does not mean “Merodach, son of Baladan,” as is there intimated. Merodach-Baladan (= Merodach gave a son) is only one name, and is the name of a man whose father was called Jakin (see comm. in loc.). This erroneous meaning given to the name appears also to point to a later time in which the knowledge of the proper relation was lost.
5. Part second consists of chapters 40–66. These chapters form a separate and well arranged total by themselves. As in other collections of Isaiah’s prophecies, so here we notice a fundamental number. For the total consists of three divisions, each containing three times three discourses. It is to be noticed, however, that in the third division only five discourses are to be distinguished, which, however, divide into nine chapters. The subject of these twenty-seven chapters is the time of salvation, and that indeed the whole period beginning with the deliverance from exile and extending to the end of the present world, i. e., to the appearance of a new heaven and a new earth. Although, in accordance with the peculiarity of prophetic seeing, the prophet sees things of the same sort together, no matter what time they belong to, we still distinguish in the total period of salvation three chief stages to which the three chief subdivisions of nine chapters each correspond. In the first Ennead the Prophet sees chiefly and primarily the deliverance out of the Babylonian captivity, and, as the source of it, Cyrus. But this Ennead by no means has this aim merely. The Prophet knows, that along with the redemption out of exile, Israel must be raised to a higher plane of religious moral life: it must be freed from idolatry and led to the sole worship of Jehovah. The outward deliverance without the inward would be only a half work; for it was precisely Israel’s spiritual bondage to idols that had been the cause of its bodily servitude. How could the latter be removed without the former? But this redemption out of exile and the chains of a gross idolatry is only the first stage of the period of salvation. Within this we see forming the outlines of a second and higher stage. The glorious Cyrus, who is not called servant of God, but is called îָùִׁéçַ , and the suffering people Israel, that is yet destined to glory, compose, so to speak, the ground forms in which a new stage of salvation is typically represented. These preparatory elements combine in their higher unity in the person of the servant of God who will be a suffering Israel and a conquering Cyrus at the same time. But first appears the first named aspect of his existence, the suffering servant. This forms the central point of the second Ennead. By suffering the servant of God becomes the redeemer of His people, the founder of a new way of appropriating salvation, and of a new condition of salvation that is both intensively and extensively higher. But this servant of God lifts Himself up out of His humility and becomes—this is the contents of the third Ennead—on the one hand, Judge of the world who will destroy all the wicked, on the other, the Creator of a new creature. The fruit of His redeeming work will be a new humanity, a new name, a new worship of God in spirit and in truth, a new heaven and a new earth.
Therefore the Prophet has by no means in mind merely circumstances of the exile. Of course he sees primarily the redemption out of the exile. But he sees behind this also the time in which the personal servant of God, prefigured in the first stage by Cyrus and Israel, will begin his work of salvation by suffering and dying; and behind this second stage he sees a third, in which the servant of God, raised out of His humble state to the dignity of a highest Prophet, Priest and King, shall renew the creature and lead it upwards to the highest degree of life in the spirit.
6. The scheme of the book is as follows:
b. The Second Introduction, Isaiah 2-5
c. The Third Introduction, Isaiah 6
II. PART FIRST, 7–39
A.—The prophetic perspective of the time of Ahaz, Isa_7:1 to Isa_9:6
1. The prophecy of Immanuel the son of a Virgin, Isa_7:1-17
2. Isaiah giving the whole nation a sign by the birth of his son Maher-shalal-hash-baz, Isa_8:1-4
3. Additions:
a. The despisers of Siloah shall be punished by the waters of Euphrates, Isa_8:5-8
b. Threatening call of those that conspire against Judah, and to those that fear the conspirators, Isa_8:9-13
c. The testament of the Prophet to his disciplines, Isa_8:16 to Isa_9:6
B.—Threatening of judgment to be accomplished by Assyria, directed against the Israel of the Ten Tribes, Isa_9:7 to Isa_10:4
C.—Assyria’s destruction Israel’s salvation, Isa_10:5 to Isa_12:6.
1. Woe against Assyria, Isa_10:5-11.
2. Israel’s redemption from Assyria, Isa_10:20-34.
3. Israel’s redemption in relation to the Messiah, Isa_11:1 to Isa_12:6.
A.—The discourses against individual nations, Isaiah 13-23.
1. The first prophecy against Babylon, Isa_13:1 to Isa_14:23.
2. Prophecy against Assyria, Isa_14:24-27.
3. Against Philistia, Isa_14:28-32.
4. Against Moab, Isaiah 15, 16.
5. Against and for Damascus and Ephraim, Isaiah 17.
6. Ethiopia now and then again, Isaiah 18.
7. Egypt now and then again, Isaiah 19, 20.
8. The libellus emblematicus, containing the second prophecy against Babylon, then prophecies against Edom, Arabia, Jerusalem and the chamberlain Shebna, chaps, 21, 22.
9. Prophecy against and for Tyre, Isaiah 23.
B.—The finale of the prophecies against the nations: the libellus apocalypticus, chapters 24–27.
III. PART SECOND, Isaiah 41-66.
The entire future of salvation, beginning with the redemption from the Babylonian exile, concluding with the creation of a new heaven and a new earth.
A.—CYRUS, Isaiah 40-48
1. First Discourse. The Prologue, the objective and subjective basis of redemption, Isaiah 40.
2. Second Discourse. First appearance of the Redeemer from the East, and of the servant of the Jehovah, and also the first and second use of the prophecy relating to this in proof of the divinity of Jehovah, Isaiah 41.
3. Third Discourse. The third chief figure: The personal servant of Jehovah in the contrasted features of his appearance, Isaiah 42.
4. Fourth Discourse. Redemption or salvation in its entire compass, Isa_43:1 to Isa_44:5.
5. Fifth Discourse. Prophecy as a proof of divinity comes to the front and culminates in the name of Cyrus, Isa_44:6-28.
6. Sixth Discourse. The culminating point of the prophecy: Cyrus, and the effect of his appearance, Isaiah 45.
7. Seventh Discourse. The fall of the Babylonian gods, and the gain to Israel’s knowledge of God that will be derived therefrom, Isaiah 46.
8. Eighth Discourse. The well-deserved and inevitable overthrow of Babylon, Isaiah 47.
9. Ninth Discourse. Recapitulation and conclusion, Isaiah 48.
B.—THE PERSONAL SERVANT OF JEHOVAH. Chaps, 49–57
1. First Discourse. Parallel between the servant of Jehovah and Zion. Both have a small beginning and a great end, Isaiah 49.
2. Second Discourse. The connection between the guilt of Israel and the sufferings of the servant, and the liberation of the former through faith in the latter, Isaiah 50.
3. Third Discourse. The final redemption of Israel. A dialogue between the Servant of Jehovah who enters, as if veiled, Israel, Jehovah Himself, and the Prophet, Isaiah 51
4. Fourth Discourse. The restoration of the city of Jerusalem, Isa_52:1-12.
5. Fifth Discourse. Golgotha and Scheblimini (sit thou on my right hand), Isa_52:13 to Isa_53:12.
6. Sixth Discourse. The new salvation, Isaiah 54.
7. Seventh Discourse. The new way of appropriating salvation, Isaiah 55.
8. Eighth Discourse. The moral, social and physical fruits of the new way of salvation, Isa_56:1-9.
9. Ninth Discourse. A look at the mournful present, which will not, however, hinder the coming of the glorious future, Isa_56:10 to Isa_57:21.
C.—THE NEW CREATURE. Isaiah 58-66.
1. First Discourse. Bridge from the present to the future; from preaching repentance to preaching glory, Isaiah 58, 59.
2. Second Discourse. The rising of the heavenly sun of life upon Jerusalem, and the new personal and natural life conditioned thereby, Isaiah 60.
3. Third Discourse. The personal centre of the revelation of salvation, Isa_59:1 to Isa_63:6.
4. Fourth Discourse. The Prophet in spirit puts himself in the place of the exiled church, and bears its cause in prayer before the LORD, Isa_63:7 to Isa_64:11.
5. Fifth Discourse. The death and life bringing end-period, Isaiah 65, 66.
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