Isaiah
Major Prophets · Old Testament · Book 23 of 66- Author
- Isaiah son of Amoz
- Written
- c. 700–680 BC
- Time covered
- c. 740–680 BC, under Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah
- Where
- Jerusalem, with access to the king
- Written to
- Judah under Assyrian threat, and the exiles who would come after
- Genre
- Prophecy
- Chapters
- 66
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”Isaiah 53:5 KJV
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Overview
Isaiah is the largest of the prophets and the most quoted in the New Testament. It opens with a nation whose worship God cannot stand because their hands are full of blood, and ends with new heavens and a new earth.
The first thirty-nine chapters are mostly judgment, with Assyria at the door; the last twenty-seven are comfort, addressed to people in exile who needed to know God had not finished with them. In the middle of that comfort stands the servant who was wounded for our transgressions.
Background
Isaiah was called in the year king Uzziah died and served through four reigns. He counseled Ahaz, who would not listen, and Hezekiah, who did — and saw Jerusalem spared when the Assyrian army camped outside it.
The northern kingdom fell during his ministry. Judah survived another century, and Isaiah spoke past that to a Babylonian exile still a hundred years away, naming Cyrus long before he was born.
Key themes
- The Holy One of Israel — the title Isaiah uses more than anyone.
- Trust in God rather than in alliances, armies or idols.
- Judgment is real and is not God’s last word.
- A remnant will return; a shoot will grow from a cut stump.
- The suffering servant bears the sins of many.
Outline
- Judah on trialChapters 1–12
Wash you, make you clean; the vineyard song; Isaiah’s call; and a child born, a son given.
- The nationsChapters 13–23
Burdens against Babylon, Moab, Egypt, Tyre and the rest.
- The earth judged and restoredChapters 24–27
A city broken down, death swallowed up in victory, and a song of trust.
- Woes and historyChapters 28–39
Warnings against Egyptian alliances, then Sennacherib’s siege and Hezekiah’s illness.
- Comfort yeChapters 40–48
The greatness of God against the nothingness of idols, and Cyrus named.
- The servantChapters 49–57
The servant’s mission and suffering — despised, wounded, and satisfied.
- The glory to comeChapters 58–66
True fasting, the year of the LORD, and new heavens and a new earth.
Key passages
- Isaiah 1:18 Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
- Isaiah 6:1-8 I saw also the Lord — here am I; send me.
- Isaiah 7:14 A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
- Isaiah 9:6 Unto us a child is born — Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God.
- Isaiah 40:31 They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength.
- Isaiah 53:5-6 He was wounded for our transgressions — the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
- Isaiah 55:8-9 My thoughts are not your thoughts.
- Isaiah 66:22 The new heavens and the new earth which I will make.
Christ in Isaiah
No Old Testament book shows Him more plainly: the virgin’s son, the child born who is the mighty God, the shoot from the stump of Jesse, the light for the Gentiles, and above all the servant of chapter 53 — led as a lamb to the slaughter, numbered with the transgressors, making intercession. Philip began at that chapter to preach Jesus to the Ethiopian.
Reading it
- Read chapter 6 for the call, then 53 for the heart of the book.
- Chapter 40 is where the tone changes; read 39 and 40 back to back.
- Look up the New Testament quotations — there are dozens, and they are the earliest commentary.