The first portion of Isaiah was originally a separate work, written during Israelite trouble with the kingdom of Assyria. Here is an outline of First Isaiah, with the most important passages quoted.
· 1.1: "The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah."
· 1.10-20: "10. Hear the word of YHWH, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the law of our Elohim, you people of Gomorrah! 11. “The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?” says YHWH. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. 12. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? 13. Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—I cannot bear your evil assemblies. 14. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; 16. wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, 17. learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. 18. “Come now, let us reason together,” says YHWH. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. 19. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; 20. but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of YHWH has spoken.
· Mountain of YHWH's Temple in Jerusalem will be Exalted (2.1-4): "2.1. This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: 2. In the last days the mountain of YHWH's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. 3. Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of YHWH, to the house of the Elohim of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law (torah) will go out from Zion, the word of YHWH from Jerusalem. 4. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore."[1]
· 2.20, Iconoclastic: "men will throw away ... their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship."
· Judgement on Jerusalem and Judah (3)
· 4.2-3: "2. In that day the Branch of YHWH will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel. 3. Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem."
o During the invasion of Sennacherib, 46 towns of Judah were captured, and 200,000 Judaeans were exiled.
· Isaiah's Commission (6): 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord (Adonai) seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is YHWH of armies; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4. At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, YHWH of the armies.” 6. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” 8. Then I heard the voice of the Lord (Adonai) saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” 9. He said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ 10. Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” 11. Then I said, “For how long, O Lord?” And he answered: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, 12. until YHWH has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. 13. And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But ... the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”
· The Sign of Immanu-El and the Coming of the Assyria (7): 1. When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it. 2. Now the house of David was told, “Aram has allied itself witha Ephraim”; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind. 3. Then YHWH said to Isaiah[2], “Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub (Remnant-will-return), to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field. 4. Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. 5. Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, 6. “Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.” 7. Yet this is what Adonai YHWH says: “‘It will not take place, it will not happen, 8. for the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is only Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people. 9. The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son. If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.’” 10. Again YHWH spoke to Ahaz, 11. “Ask YHWH your Elohim for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.” 12. But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put YHWH to the test.” 13. Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14. Therefore the Lord himself will give you all a sign: The young
woman (ha'almah)[3] will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanu-El (El is with us). 15. He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right. 16. But before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. 17. YHWH will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria.” 18. In that day YHWH will whistle for flies from the distant streams of Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria. 19. They will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the crevices in the rocks, on all the thornbushes and at all the water holes. 20. In that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the River (Euphrates)—the king of Assyria—to shave your head and the hair of your legs, and to take off your beards also. 21. In that day, a man will keep alive a young cow and two goats. 22. And because of the abundance of the milk they give, he will have curds to eat. All who remain in the land will eat curds and honey. 23. In that day, in every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels, there will be only briers and thorns. 24. Men will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briers and thorns. 25. As for all the hills once cultivated by the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of the briers and thorns; they will become places where cattle are turned loose and where sheep run.
· Immanu-El/Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, Isaiah's Symbolic Children: 8.1. YHWH said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz ("quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil"). 2. And I will call in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me.” 3. Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And YHWH said to me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. 4. Before the boy knows how to say ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.” 5. YHWH spoke to me again: 6. “... the Lord is about to bring against them ... the king of Assyria with all his pomp. ... will cover the breadth of your land, O Immanu-El!” ... Listen, all you distant lands. Prepare for battle, and be shattered! ... 10. Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God/El is with us (Immanu-El)." ... 18. Here am I, and the children YHWH has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from YHWH of the armies, who dwells on Mount Zion."
· 8.20: "To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn."
· A Child is Born who will be a great king (9): 9.1. For [there is or will be] no dimness/gloom such as was in the anguish when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali and afterward did more heavily afflict it by the way of the sea beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations.[4] 2. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. 3. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder. 4. For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens him, the bar across his shoulders, the rod of his oppressor. 5. Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. 6. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government is on his shoulders. And he is called Pele-Joez-El-gibbor-Abi-ad-Sar-Shalom (Wonderful-Counselor-God/El-is-Mighty-Father-Everlasting-Ruler-of-Peace)[5]. 7. [There will be] increase of government and of peace without end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it through justice and through righteousness from henceforth even forever. The zeal of YHWH of the armies will accomplish this." ... 11. YHWH shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together; 12.The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. ... 14. YHWH will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day. 19. Through the wrath of YHWH of armies is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire ... 21. Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah.
o text note [Harper Collins, Meeks, ed.]: "This passage served originally as an oracle for the coronation of a Judean king, probably Hezekiah. It celebrates the accession of the new king with the traditional ideals of Davidic kingship."
o As with other passages in Isaiah, early Christians would see verse 6 as referring to Jesus, not to the political situation in Isaiah's time.
· YHWH will judge Assyria after using them to punish Israel (10), and a remnant of Israel will return.
· The Branch From Jesse, a king who will soon gather the returning exiles from Israel, survivors from Assyrian captivity, and he will conquer all the enemies of Judah -- Philistia, Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites – and will bring peace and stability to the land (11): 11.1. A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 2. The Spirit of YHWH will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of YHWH—3. and he will delight in the fear of YHWH. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; 4. but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. 5. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. 6. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. 7. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. 9. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the land will be full of the knowledge of YHWH as the waters cover the sea. 10. In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his rest will be glorious. 11. In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea. 12. He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth. 13. Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish, and Judah’s enemies will be cut off; Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, nor Judah hostile toward Ephraim. 14. They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west; together they will plunder the people to the east. They will lay hands on Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be subject to them. ... 16. There will be a highway for the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from Egypt.
o Again, although the historic and literary context refers to a king who was to gather Israelite survivors from the Assyrian exile and conquer Edom, Moab, Philistia, and Ammon, later Christian interpreters would see certain lines and phrases from this passage as referring to Jesus.
· Even Egypt and Assyria will stop fighting and will worship YHWH with sacrifices and grain offerings along with Judah (19.17-25): 19.17. And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what YHWH of armies is planning against them. 18. In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to YHWH of armies. One of them will be called [Heliopolis or the City of Destruction?[6]]. 19. In that day there will be an altar to YHWH in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to YHWH at its border. 20. It will be a sign and witness to YHWH of armies in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to YHWH because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them. 21. So YHWH will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge YHWH. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to YHWH and keep them. 22. YHWH will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to YHWH, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them. 23. In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. 24. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the land (ha eretz). 25. YHWH of armies will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”
[1] Outside the United Nations building in New York there is a wall bearing the inscription, "They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they learn war anymore. Isaiah."
[2] n.b. switch to the 3rd person when referring to Isaiah.
[3] The Hebrew word used here is almah, which refers to a young woman or maiden. The book of Isaiah uses a different word specifically meaning virgin (betulah) five times elsewhere (23:4; 23:12; 37:22; 47:1; 62:5). The word in chapter 7 has become controversial to some, because rabbis, Jewish scholars, main-line Christian scholars, and others will point out that there is no indication that the woman in the passage will be a virgin when she conceives or gives birth (in fact, she conceives after Isaiah goes to her in 8.3), yet the NT writer of the gospel of Matthew overtly interpreted this passage as a prophecy of a virgin birth of Jesus. The writer of Matthew appears to disregard the historical and literary context of the passage in Isaiah altogether: the child who is to be born in the story is intended to be a sign to king Ahaz that Jerusalem will not be destroyed by the kings of Samaria and Damascus in the 700's bce, as is clear in verses 15-17 and afterward (see 8.3-4, 8, 10, 18). It is actually essential to the meaning of the passage that the child be born in the 730's bce and be forced to eat curds and honey during the Assyrian invasion. Despite the clarity of meaning in historical and literary context, because of the assertion of the writer of Matthew, together with traditional Christian reliance on Matthew as 'authoritative', some in various Christian communities developed a concept of "dual prophecy," or dual fulfillment, suggesting that Isaiah's words meant one thing for the 700's bc, but that they also spiritually predicted Jesus' birth 730 years later. The facts that Isaiah 7.16 states, "before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste," and that this refers to the events of the 730's bce, are considered irrelevant in dual fulfillment theory.
[4] Compare the difference between the KJV, "Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations." and the NIV, "Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan." Note that the KJV sounds more like a Jewish reading and goes with the heavy political/historical context of the passage, and the NIV sounds more like a Christian reading, viewing the passage as referring to the distant future and to the NT Jesus. Here is a brief explanation. There is actually no phrase "in the future" in the Hebrew where the NIV puts it, nor is there a "will honor." acharon means "afterward/next," as the KJV reads (even the NIV never translates it as 'future' in any other passage), and kabad is "to be heavy, weighty, burdensome." The Jewish Publication Society Bible of 1917 reads much like the KJV, "For is there no gloom to her that was steadfast? Now the former hath lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but the latter hath dealt a more grievous blow by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in the district of the nations."
[5] The coronation names are "like those given Egyptian kings at their accession;" "The divine birth or adoption of the king was announced on his coronation day" [text note, Harper Collins, Meeks, ed.]. See also Ps 2.7; 2 Samuel 7:14; 1 Chronicles 28:6 – where Solomon and the kings of Judah are considered the son of YHWH. For other interesting textual issues, compare texts: NIV: "he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." The NAS and KJV are similar. Several versions of the Septuaguint read "and his name is called the messenger of great counsel," whereas the Codex Alexandrinus of the Septuagint (400's ce) has, "Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty One, Potentate, Prince of Peace, Father of the age to come." The Jewish Publication Society, 1917, Bible has, "and his name is called Pele-joez-el-gibbor-Abi-ad-sar-shalom," based on the Masoretic Text. The DSS also have "Pele-Joez-Elgibor-Abi-Ad-Sar-Shalom."
[6] "City of destruction" in most mss. of M. Some mss of M, DSS, and Vulgate, "City of the Sun" (that is, Heliopolis).