The book of Isaiah

Main theme

The Holy One of Israel judges the sin of his people and of the nations, but he saves: through a faithful remnant, through Cyrus who brings the exiles home, and above all through the Messiah, King and suffering Servant, who leads to a new creation.

Outline

1. Isaiah 1-12 — Judgment on Judah and the book of Immanuel

   The people on trial, the vision of the throne, the sign of Immanuel and the reign of the Messiah.

2. Isaiah 13-23 — Oracles against the nations

   Babylon, Assyria, Moab, Damascus, Egypt, Tyre: the Holy One of Israel is judge of the whole earth.

3. Isaiah 24-35 — Universal judgment and Zion’s hope

   The “little apocalypse” (24–27), six woes against false supports, and the desert in bloom.

4. Isaiah 36-39 — The account of Hezekiah

   Deliverance from Sennacherib, the king’s healing and the announcement of the exile in Babylon.

5. Isaiah 40-55 — Consolation and the Servant of the LORD

   The incomparable God, Cyrus the liberator, and the Servant who bears the sins of many.

6. Isaiah 56-66 — The future glory

   True worship, Zion glorified, the Anointed One who proclaims grace, and the new creation.

Key points

• Isaiah’s calling has four moments: a vision of God’s holiness, confession (“Woe is me!”), purification by the live coal, and commissioning (6:1-8).
• Before the unbelieving Ahaz, God gives the sign of Immanuel, “God with us” (7:14), fulfilled in Jesus born of the virgin Mary (Matt 1:22-23).
• The promised child bears divine names — “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” — and will reign without end on the throne of David (9:6-7).
• Assyria is the “rod” of God’s anger, but it will be punished for its pride (10:5-12): God strikes down 185,000 of its soldiers before Jerusalem (37:36).
• About 150 years ahead of time, God calls Cyrus by name and announces that he will have Jerusalem and the temple rebuilt (44:28–45:1; cf. Ezra 1:1-3).
• Four “Servant songs” (42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13–53:12) reveal a gentle Servant, a light to the nations, who is abused and then dies in the place of the guilty (53:5-6).
• Grace is free: “come ye, buy… without money and without price” (55:1); and true piety is lived out in concrete justice (58:6-7).
• The final hope: death swallowed up (25:8) and new heavens and a new earth (65:17; 66:22; Rev 21:1).

Jesus in Isaiah

Isaiah is the most clearly messianic of the prophets: he announces the virgin birth (7:14; Matt 1:23), the divinity and eternal reign of the Son (9:6-7), his anointing by the Spirit (11:2; 61:1, read by Jesus in Luke 4:18-21) and his forerunner (40:3; Matt 3:3). In chapter 53, he describes the Passion with striking precision: silence before his accusers, substitutionary death, a tomb among the rich (53:7-9; Matt 27:57-60), then life after death (53:10). John declares that Isaiah “saw his glory” — the glory of Jesus — and spoke of him (John 12:41).

Did you know?

• The great Isaiah scroll, discovered at Qumran in 1947, contains all 66 chapters; copied in the 2nd century BC, it is about a thousand years older than the Hebrew manuscripts known until then, and confirms the faithfulness of the transmission of the text.
• A curious coincidence: Isaiah has 66 chapters just as the Bible has 66 books, and its second part (40–66) has 27 chapters just as the New Testament has 27 books; it opens with the voice crying in the wilderness, applied to John the Baptist (Matt 3:3).
• The title “the Holy One of Israel,” Isaiah’s signature, appears about 25 times in his book, against only a few uses in the whole rest of the Old Testament.