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The Bible Year

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 29, 1916

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 32.

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The Bible Year

Assignment for July 2 to 8

Isaiah—the Man

Isaiah, whose name in Hebrew means “Jehovah’s salvation,” was one of the most distinguished of the Hebrew prophets. He prophesied during the reigns of four kings, beginning his work “in the year that King Uzziah died,” and continuing it during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. The time covered by his active work is variously estimated. One authority places it from 750 B. C. to 695 B. C.—about fifty-five years. He was married and had two sons.
The prophet “seems to have lived and prophesied wholly at Jerusalem, and disappears from history after the accounts contained in chapter 39. A tradition among the Talmudists and Fathers relates that he was sawn asunder during the reign of Manasseh; and this tradition is embodied in an apocryphal book called ‘The Ascension of Isaiah;’ but it seems to rest on no certain grounds.” Reference to the prophet’s martyrdom is supposed to be made in Heb. 11:37.
“Isaiah is appropriately named ‘the evangelical prophet,’ and the Fathers called his book ‘The Gospel According to St. Isaiah.’ In it the wonderful person of Immanuel,—‘God with us,’—his beneficent life, his atoning death, and his triumphant and everlasting kingdom are minutely foretold. The simplicity, purity, sweetness, and sublimity of Isaiah, and the fulness of his predictions respecting the Messiah, give him the pre-eminence among the Hebrew prophets and poets.”
The vision of this prophet “is not restricted to his own nation and his own times, but he regards all nations and all times. ‘Nowhere can we find the promise of the Messiah more clearly announced; nowhere is the kingdom of the Messiah depicted in colors more lifelike and abiding. His prophecies form, as it were, a bridge between the old covenant and the new.’”

Isaiah—the Book

This, the first of the prophetical books, is one of the most wonderful books ever given to mankind. The style is exalted and majestic, and certain passages are noted for their dignity and beauty. The ode of triumph in chapter 14 (verses 3-23) is said to be “one of the most poetical in all literature.”
Bible commentators have made many outlines for the study of this book. The following, by Amos R. Wells, may be found helpful:—“Chapters 1 to 6, Israel’s sins; 7 to 12, ‘the book of Immanuel;’ 13 to 23, prophecies against the nations; 24 to 35, the coming overthrow of evil; 36 to 39, Hezekiah’s triumph; 40 to 48, God and idols; 49 to 58, the coming Messiah; 59 to 66, a new heaven and a new earth.”
Another commentator names the following divisions of the book:—
“The first twelve chapters refer to the kingdom of Judah; then follow chapters 13 to 23, directed against foreign nations, except chapter 22 against Jerusalem. In chapters 24 to 35 the prophet appears to look forward in prophetic vision to the times of the exile and of the Messiah. Chapters 36 to 39 give a historical account of Sennacherib’s invasion, and of the advice given by Isaiah to Hezekiah. The remainder of the book, chapters 40 to 66, contains a series of oracles referring to future times of temporal exile and deliverance, and expanding into glorious views of the spiritual deliverance to be wrought by the Messiah.”