They Will Beat Their Swords into Plowshares
2: 1-4

They will beat their swords into plowshares DIG: The Mountain of the LORD refers to the site upon which the Temple in Jerusalem was built (11:9; 24:23; 27:13; 56:6-7). What picture does Isaiah envision? Why are so many coming to the Temple? What will God do for them? What is meant by the Last Days (see Acts 2:17; Hebrews 1:2)? Why does Isaiah call Judah to come to the Temple at this time?

REFLECT: Which of your swords and spears (A mean streak? Angry outbursts? A cutting tongue?) has God transformed into tools for peace? What does the New Covenant make of Isaiah’s vision? Will Jesus inaugurate this year of peace? If so when will it be consummated? Why do you think so? How might this vision of ADONAI’s Kingdom shape your hope? Prayers? Values?

The mood shifts very quickly from Chapter 1. There, repentance was viewed as a hypothetical possibility, and restoration – the end product of divine discipline. The emphasis there was Judah’s hypocrisy, rebellion and injustice. Without any transition, the emphasis suddenly changes to Isra’el’s glorious future where she will be a light to the Gentiles (Luke 2:32). Micah 4:1-3 mirrors this passage almost word for word.

This is a second introduction and signals the beginning of specific prophecies in Chapters 2 through 4 after the general introduction to the book as a whole in Chapter 1. The message recorded in these verses is what Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem (1:1). The prophets of Isra’el had, at one time, been called seers because of their divinely given power to see or foretell what would happen (First Samuel 9:9). Here Isaiah was foretelling the future of Judah and Jerusalem in the messianic Kingdom. Because of ADONAI’s covenant promises to Abraham, Moses and David, Isaiah knew that Isra’el would once again dwell in the Land and have a superior position among the nations (see the commentary on Revelation, to see link click Fj – My Chosen People Will Inherit My Mountains).

Isaiah looks into the far eschatological future and sees the chief among the mountains. In the last days the mountain of ADONAI’s Temple will be established as preeminent, or chief, among the mountains (2:2a). It is the mountain where the Temple, during the messianic Kingdom, will be built (Ezeki’el 40-43). In the Bible, mountains often picture kings or kingdoms (Dani’el 2:35; Amos 4:1). Here, God’s rule from this mountain and Temple will be preeminent. The theme of the preeminence of the Temple in Jerusalem is repeated many times in the prophet’s book (11:9, 25:6-7, 27:13, 30:29, 56:7, 57:13, 65:11 and 25, 66:20). Isaiah clearly wanted his readers to be aware that ADONAI will protect His covenant nation despite their spiritual insensitivity, and in spite of the fact that they would go into captivity. Other Bible passages make it clear that these would be fulfilled in the Millennium, Messiah’s thousand-year reign on the earth (Revelation 20:4b-5). Because of God’s covenant promises with Abraham, Moses, and David, Isaiah knew that Isra’el will again be in the Land and will again have a superior position among the Gentile nations.

As for timing, this prophecy points to the last days. This phrase is always eschatological, dealing with Messianic times. In the messianic Kingdom, Isaiah sees a mountain that is the highest mountain of all other mountains, and the center of Kingdom worship because it will be raised above the hills (2:2b). Zechariah 14:10 explains how this mountain came into existence, but the one who gives the details of what this very high mountain is all about, is Ezeki’el in Chapters 40 to 48. When the messianic Kingdom is established, the tribes will be divided differently than in the days of Isra’el’s history. When Isra’el possesses all of the Promised Land from the Euphrates in the north to the River Egypt in the south, the first seven tribes will be assembled in sequence from north to south. Between the tribes, the mountain of the ADONAI’s Temple will be established.

A fifty-mile square plateau will be established on the chief among the mountains, or the highest mountain in the world. South of it will be the other five tribes. This fifty-mile plateau will be subdivided into three segments; the northern segment will be twenty miles by fifty miles, the center segment will be twenty miles by fifty miles, and the southern section will be ten miles by fifty miles. In the northern section there will be the millennial Temple, the fourth Jewish Temple and the largest of them all, which will be one mile square. It will be too big to fit in the current Temple mount. The rest of the area will be for the priests of the Sons of Zadok to live in. The tribe of Levi will occupy the central section. The southern section will have the millennial city of Jerusalem in the center of it; at that point Tziyon will be ten miles by ten miles. And the two sides of Yerushalayim will by twenty miles by twenty miles, and will be areas for cultivating food for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. From the Temple, a river will flow southward, come to the City of David and split in two, one going west to the Mediterranean Sea and the other going east to the Dead Sea. This river causes the Dead Sea to be rejuvenated and become a major fishing industry in the millennial Kingdom, which is an impossibility at this time. (see Ge – Your Eyes Will See the King in His Beauty for a map of what is described above).

With the establishment of this world center in Jerusalem, the response of the Gentile nations is that they will be attracted to it like a river. It will be raised above the hills, and all the Gentile nations will stream to it (2:2c). Zion will be the center of religious instruction and the place of the supreme court of the nations. Gentiles from all over the world will come to it for two reasons.

First, Gentiles will come to learn spiritual truth. In the Millennium, people from everywhere will realize that God’s truth is relevant to their lives, and they will want to know it and live according to it. Many Gentile’s will come and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of ADONAI, to the house of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths (2:3a). Isra’el, becoming the attraction of Gentiles, is seen elsewhere in Isaiah 60:1-14, Jeremiah 3:17; and Zechariah 8:20-23. They will come to Jerusalem determined to learn God’s ways and to walk in His path. [His just rulings] will go out from Tziyon. The emphatic position of Tziyon, here stresses the fact that there are not many ways to heaven. And the word of ADONAI will go out from Jerusalem (2:3b). The reason being that during the messianic Kingdom [His just rulings] will go out of Mount Zion and the word of ADONAI will go out from Yerushalayim. So whatever further revelation will be in the Kingdom, it will come out of Jerusalem because Messiah Himself will rule from this City (Jeremiah 3:16-17). This is the ultimate outworking of a point that Yeshua made in John 4:22 when He said that salvation is from the Jews. Since God’s Torah and means of righteousness will continually proceed out of Jerusalem, salvation comes, to its fullest extent, from the Jews. What began for Isra’el at Mount Sinai will ultimately be completed at this millennial Mount Zion.

The second reason why the Gentile nations will be attracted to Jerusalem is to world peace. God will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples (2:4a). Disagreements between nations will no longer be decided by war, but they will come to Jerusalem, where the King of Yerushalayim, Yeshua, will have a worldwide ministry of judging and settling disputes. Because Jerusalem judges in peace, three results will follow. First, all weapons of war are turned into farming equipment. Secondly, there will be no war at all, and thirdly, they will not even learn the art of warfare anymore.

Universal peace, with no military conflict or training, will prevail because the implements of warfare will be turned into farming equipment. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks (Isaiah 2:4b; Joel 3:10; Micah 4:3). In the passage in Joel the expression is reversed: Beat your plowshare into swords. The word plowshares refers to instruments for stirring up the soil in some way, and, so far as concerns the capability of conversion into swords, these may as well have been plowshares as anything else. The plowshare was a small piece of iron, which somewhat resembled a short sword, and might easily have been beaten into one. With equal facility a sword could have been changed into a plowshare.⁸ Nation will not take up the sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore (2:4c).

Peace will not come by human achievement or the United Nations, but because of ADONAI’S presence in Jerusalem. At that time Israel will be filled with God’s Spirit (Ezeki’el 36:24-30), and her sins will be forgiven (Jeremiah 31:31-34). What Isaiah describes here is something that is going to be true of Jerusalem in the future. But then he contrasts that with Jerusalem’s present pathetic position of his day.

Jerusalem Purged by Judgment then Blessed
2:1 to 4:6

The prophecy in Chapters 2 through 4 is in the background during the reigns of the kings Uzziah and Jothan. This section depicts, in the starkest terms, the contrast between what Isra’el was determined to be and what she in fact was. Immediately after the stinging indictment (in the form of a lawsuit) of the nation’s sinful practices (1:2-31), Isaiah introduces a concept that will be central to his prophecy. That is, a time will come when Jerusalem will have the primary position in the world (Micah 4:1-3 is almost identical to Isaiah 2:2-4).

Isaiah described something he saw in a vision. When prophets saw a vision they were either transported to another place at the same time that they lived, or into the future, and describe it as if they were eyewitnesses. The content of this second section is about Judah and Jerusalem. Isaiah starts out with a far eschatological prophecy about the future messianic Kingdom.

This section illustrates a full circle from the ideal to the reality, and back to the ideal again. The importance of this section is that the Isra’el can only fulfill the destiny given to her in 2:2-5 by experiencing the judgment of 2:6 to 4:1, and the purification described in 4:2-6. This reminds us of Chapter 1, and indeed the whole book, where the proud, self-sufficient Isra’el can only witness the greatness of ADONAI when she had been reduced to helplessness by His righteous judgment and then restored to life by His undeserved grace.

I Will Restore Your Judges
1: 24-31

I will restore your judges DIG: What is the purpose of the judgment awaiting those who reject the Lord in these verses? What is the future for those who repent of their sins? How will it be different from their present condition?

REFLECT: Why is Isaiah so hard-hitting here? How do you know when to use shock treatment, as he does, or a gentle word without skirting the main issue, as does Jesus with the Samaritan woman in John 4:1-16?

God’s lawsuit ended with His pronouncement of judgment on the guilty nation of Judah. Here ADONAI is pictured not only as one of the parties in the litigation, but also as the Judge who will decide what will happen to the guilty party. Those who are stubborn and refusing to repent, would be judged, but the repentant would be redeemed. The point of this section is that the condition is so hopeless that God Himself must take the situation in hand. The horror of the perversion that had taken place in Judah is emphasized by the mounting up of the divine titles that occurs like nowhere else in the book of Isaiah. Thus, ADONAI, the LORD of heaven’s armies, the Mighty One of Isra’el, declares: Ah, I will get relief from My foes and avenge Myself on My enemies (1:24a). It is as though a tsunami of consequence loomed higher and higher, with the reader waiting for the inevitable crash. The combined effect of these names point to complete dominance. Who would be so foolish as to defy ADONAI, the LORD of heaven’s angelic armies, the Mighty One of Isra’el? But He who is mighty to save can also destroy, even more so because the enemy was the apple of His eye, Isra’el (Zechariah 2:8). As Peter said: For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God (First Peter 4:17).

The announcement of the prophecy begins with a woe, which is normally more of a criticism than a threat, but here the threat is obvious. Woe, I will get relief from my foes and avenge Myself on My enemies (1:24b). God’s judging will bring Him relief from the displeasure caused by His enemies, the utter un-repentance of Jerusalem and Judah. James said that anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God (James 4:4). Did Judah think that she could do anything she wanted and still remain in favor with the Mighty One of Isra’el?

Both of these verses begin with the Hebrew verb shuwb, meaning to return. The English translation tends to obscure the duplication. In 1:25 ADONAI will cause His hand to return, whereas in 1:26 He will cause their judges to return. God declared that He would turn His hand against them, declaring: I will turn My hand against you. But then a hopeful note begins to materialize: I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities (1:25). As for the nation itself, their impurities will be removed. He uses the example of metal being purged of impurities by fire. This analogy is expanded in Ezeki’el 22:18-22. God lists the results of this purification. First, Isra’el will now gain righteous leadership as in the days of old. I will restore your judges as in the days of old when David and Solomon were kings, your counselors as at the beginning (1:26a). ADONAI uses the term judges, not the kind that sit in the courts of law, but the kind of judges that are described in the book of Judges, like Deborah (Judges 4 and 5) seen here to the left (art by Sarah Beth Baca: see more information on Links and Resources).

Secondly, Zion itself will become the center of righteousness rather than the center of wickedness that it had become. Afterward you will once again be called the City of Righteousness, and the Faithful City (1:26b). Jerusalem will return to the values of King David’s reign, and the early part of Solomon’s. Regardless, Isaiah saw a time when God’s people, having passed through fire of purification, would relate to Him and to one another as they should.

Thirdly, then the prophet details the contrast between the fate of the remnant and the wicked. Zion, or the people of Jerusalem, will be redeemed with justice, and her repentant ones with righteousness (1:27). Zion is a favorite term of Isaiah, occurring 47 times in the book, 29 times in Chapters 1-39 alone. The only other book in which Zion occurs so often is in the Psalms, where it appears 28 times. The word redeemed used here means to be redeemed by the payment of a price. Go’el, the word for redemption (see my commentary on Ruth, to see link click Ax – Ruth and Bo’az on the Threshing Floor), does not appear at all prior to Chapter 43, but occurs 22 times afterwards. Isaiah does not say what that price is here; but in Chapter 53 he will point out that the price is the Messiah’s blood (see the commentary on Exodus Bz – Redemption). So here the LORD is laying down a basic point that will be developed later: Zion’s redemption will only come with the payment of a price.

In contrast to the righteous, however, rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake ADONAI will perish (1:28). Along with the redemption of Isra’el there must also be the destruction of the wicked. The rebels will perish, after being disgraced forever due to their idol worship. They will be ashamed that they were ever involved in idol worship near the sacred oaks in which they delighted; they will be disgraced because of the idols in the gardens that they had chosen. Isaiah prophesied that they would become like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water (1:29-30). The wicked of the earth will one day be exposed. Although once strong like a mighty man, they will become like tinder, and their work of making and worshiping idols, like a spark, will destroy them. They will burn both by destruction of the Babylonian army, as well as eternal judgment, with no one to quench the fire (1:31).

The wicked are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand up to the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous (Psalm 1:4-5). They are merely the chaff from wheat, good for nothing but burning. It is ironic that in making themselves apparently self-sufficient, they cut themselves off from God, the only true source of life. This is also a valuable lesson for you and me today.

Your Rulers are Rebels
1: 21-23

Your rulers are rebels DIG: How had Jerusalem abandoned God? What was the evidence? The wife of the LORD had become a prostitute. How do you think He felt about it?

REFLECT: In what ways is spiritual adultery alive and well today? When was the last time you were tempted to abandon your love for the LORD and live in the world? What is your defense?

Isaiah then turned to the present condition of Judah and what God’s response would be. He seems to be saying, “Yes, in theory, Isra’el could know forgiveness and healing (1:18-20); however, her condition is so far gone that destruction cannot be prevented.” But, as throughout the book, ADONAI’s final purpose is not for the nation’s destruction, but blessing as a result of purification.

The contrast, between the original condition of Jerusalem under King David and the early years of Solomon’s reign with the condition of the people in Isaiah’s day, is detailed. This is a lament on the moral decay of Jerusalem. See how the faithful city of Jerusalem has become a harlot and representative of the nation as a whole! Only here and in 23:15-18 does Isaiah use the metaphor of sexual infidelity. The downfall of the nation started when they failed to act as a faithful wife. In the past she was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her. At one time Jerusalem was considered faithful, like a devoted wife. But now, instead of righteous living, she condoned murderers, or people who took advantage of the needy (1:21). Consequently, the City had become a harlot or prostitute following after other gods. According to the Torah in Exodus 34:15, should Isra’el worship any other god than ADONAI, they would be guilty of spiritual adultery and prostitution.

The cause of Isaiah’s dirge was not surprising. If Hebron, Lachish or Gezer became the center of rebellion, wickedness and idol worship, that would be bad. But the holy city of Jerusalem becoming a harlot revealed that the decay was not merely superficial and unfortunate, but central and catastrophic.

Whenever corrupt leaders usurp the divine prerogative because God has not called them to serve, the voice of authority becomes the voice of opinion, proclamation is replaced by discussion, the Word of God is replaced by the word of people, and sermons become philosophical dissertations at best, or blasphemy at worst.

The LORD pointed out her impurity when He spoke through the prophet, saying: Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water (1:22). Silver and wine, which used to be valuable, had become worthless: dross metal and watered down wine. Dross is the waste left in the smelting pot after the pure silver was poured out. Like waste, the nation would be thrown away. The people would be exiled if they would not repent and return to ADONAI. This theme of spiritual adultery is expanded in detail in the book of Hosea. This was Hosea’s main burden.

Jerusalem had become the center of oppression and greed. The pure had become impure, the precious had become worthless. Her rebellious rulers were leading the people into ruin by theft and injustice to the helpless. God, through His prophet, said: Your rulers (the silver and the fine wine of Jerusalem), are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. The actions of those rulers provided a window to see everything we need to know about their society. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them (1:23). The fatherless and widows could not even get hearings because they had no money for bribing the rulers.

The Torah says that Isra’el is to be called to be pursuer of peace, or shalom (Deuteronomy 20:10); however, Isaiah called them pursuers of bribes, or salmonim. The ones who were to promote order were themselves rebels. Isaiah was a master of the Hebrew language and throughout his book he plays with these words. He changes one letter or one basic vowel pattern, a dot or a dash, and it changes the whole meaning of the word, although it sounds very much like another word.

For the first time Isaiah makes an important connection between idolatry and social justice. He will bring this issue up again (29:17-21; 46:5-13; 48:17-18; 56:9 through 57:12), and other prophets  (Ezeki’el 16:47-52; Hosea 4:1-14; Amos 2:6-8 and Malachi 3:5), especially Jeremiah (see the commentary on Jeremiah, to see link click Ee – False Prophets Condemned) mention it repeatedly. They were saying that social injustice is ultimately the result of a broken relationship with a loving God. Whenever the leaders of society start to believe that there are no eternal consequences to their actions, the poor and the vulnerable begin to be abused. And the more helpless people become, the more devastating their abuse. Although the rest of the ancient Near East generally protected the helpless, they lacked the spiritual understanding as the basis for their actions. The irony of Judah, was although the Torah gave them the spiritual basis for why the helpless needed to be protected, they refused to obey it.

Come Now, Let Us Reason Together
1: 18-20

Come now, let us reason together DIG: What does the LORD promise in accordance with their repentance? What’s happening in Judah, in 1:15, 21-23 that accounts for this call and promise? Given their religious rituals in 1:11-15, how does the secular image of adultery fit their spiritual state? How is He a jealous God? Likewise, how do scarlet and red fit? What is the condition upon which their forgiveness rests?

REFLECT: Have you ever found yourself working so hard for ADONAI that He started getting cut out of the picture? When has the Lord ever said: Come now, let us reason together to you? Did you respond? If not, what were the consequences for you? What did it take to restore your relationship with Him? How do you confess your sin? When do you confess your sins?

So after answering their response to ADONAI and showing them that their faithfulness in the sacrificial system had been to no avail because their sacrifices were not accompanied by faith, God offers them salvation. He then invites the sinful people to come to their senses and admit that they had been wrong in their attitudes and practices. The invitation, Come, literally go (the Hebrew language views the action from the starting point; the English from that of a destination) now, let us reason together, was more than a call for negotiations between the people and God. The word reason is a legal term used for arguing, convincing, or deciding a case in court. The people were to be convinced by their arguments that He was right and they were wrong about their spiritual condition. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow (1:18). If they admitted the depth of their sins, that their sins were like blood-colored scarlet or red stains on their souls, God in His grace would cleanse them, making them spiritually white like snow or wool.⁷

When Yeshua told us to pray for forgiveness of our debts as we forgive our own debtors, He knew who would be the one to pay the debt. As He would hang on the cross He would say: It is finished (John 19:30). Tetelestai, one Greek word meaning paid in full. It is in the perfect tense indicating a past, completed action, with continuing, and in this case, permanent results. There are some facts that will never change. One fact is that you are forgiven. If you are in Christ (Ephesians 1:1, 3-4, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 20), when He sees you, your sins are covered – He doesn’t see them. He sees you better than you see yourself. And that is a glorious fact of your life.

When the nation of Isra’el was still in her childhood, learning from ADONAI at the foot of Mount Sinai, He said to them: I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God. This means He is zealous to protect what rightfully belongs to Him alone. Hence, it is an ethical right in the sense of a husband being zealous to have the affection of his wife alone (see the commentary on Exodus, to see link click Dl – You Shall Not Make For Yourselves an Idol). If they continued to commit spiritual adultery (Hosea 2:2-5), He vowed that there would be consequences, punishing the children for the sin of their fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love Me and keep My commandments (Exodus 20:5b-6; Deuteronomy 5:9b-10). Forgiveness only comes as a result of a changed attitude.

There is a delicate balance between human freedom and divine sovereignty. We should not think that obedience produces forgiveness. If that were true, we would control the divine will. But we cannot play God; He forgives not because He has to, but because He wants to. He is the God of second chances (see the commentary on Jonah At – Jonah’s Prayer). But it is also clear that the LORD does not forgive those who are unwilling to obey.

God offers forgiveness of sin to Isra’el if they come to Him, and He even gives them the motivation for doing so. If you are willing to be obedient, you will eat the best from the Land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of ADONAI has spoken (1:19-20). He seeks to motivate them to accept His salvation by showing the alternatives and consequences of their decision. If they accepted His offer of forgiveness, salvation would follow. But if they rejected His offer, then curses would follow. The Bible teaches that mankind has the ability to choose (Genesis 2:16-17, 4:6-10; Isaiah 1:18-20; Jeremiah 36:3; Ezeki’el 18; John 7:17). Confession of sin always comes before cleansing. It was true in Isaiah’s day and it is still true for us today.

In 1:19-20, the verb tenses in these two conditional sentences point to action. In each case the first verb pair are in the imperfect tense (viewed as an ongoing, but not yet completed action); whereas, the second verb pair is in the perfect tense (viewed as a completed action with continuing results). Thus, the sense means something like, if you are willing to obey . . . then obey; however, if you are disposed to resist . . . then rebel. The Hebrew does not recognize a distinction between hearing and doing. They would say that if you do not obey a command, you did not truly hear it! But only with a changed heart and confession of sin will our actions line up with God’s heart.

Jesus’ closest friend on this earth, the apostle John, said it this way: If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us, or cleanse us, from all unrighteousness. But if we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives (First John 1:9-10).

Wash and Make Yourselves Clean
1: 16-17

Wash and make yourselves clean DIG: What did God want from the nation of Isra’el? What are those things evidence of? Why had Isra’el gotten away from doing those things? Was God asking something simple or complex from the nation? Were they easy to do? Why?

REFLECT: Some define spirituality in personal moral terms, while others see it as a matter of working for social justice. Which better reflects your background? Or where do you presently worship? How are both of these concerns interrelated in this chapter? How is your church or messianic synagogue seeking justice and encouraging the oppressed in your community? What risks would that entail? Someone has said that justice is finding out what belongs to whom and returning it to them. Another said that justice is loving people you don’t know. How do you respond to those statements? How would you define justice?

After declaring what ADONAI does not want, Isaiah announces what He does want. In contrast to their complex ceremonial codes, His demands are really quite simple (Deuteronomy 10: 12-13). Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah, would reduce it to this: act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8b). Therefore, the way back to a relationship with God was the actions Isra’el would take in obedience to Him. Obedience is the key virtue of God’s people, and disobedience is their worst nightmare. There are nine commands that fall into three groups that describe what ADONAI wanted the Israelites to do in the future.

In the first grouping, they were to wash and make themselves clean before God by confessing their sin and asking for forgiveness (1:16a). Dealing with purification of sins is always by means of forgiveness. ADONAI said: Take your evil deeds out of my sight (1:16b), for what good are sacrifices if you do evil?

Secondly, God wanted them to individually stop doing wrong, and learn to do right (1:16c-17a). A negative attitude to evil is not enough; it must be accompanied by positive acts of righteousness. These were three commands to reorder their personal life: stop what they were doing; learn to cultivate a new mindset and set different objectives; and seek justice and do what is right in God’s sight. Later, Isaiah would declare that the Messiah, the LORD’s servant . . . would bring justice to the nations, and in His Torah they would put their hope (42:1, 3-4).

The third triad of commands calls for society to be reformed. While it is true that we are saved by faith and not by works (Romans 2:8-9), it is also true that once saved, good works are the evidence of our salvation. Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit . (see my commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Dx – Watch Out For False Prophets). So here, Isaiah, in accordance with the Torah, said they needed to evidence their trust in and obedience to God by helping needy people. They were to encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless and plead the case of the widow (1:17b). In other words, they needed to replace their evil deeds with right actions. James would later say it this way: Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says (James 1:22).

In light of Isaiah’s many attacks upon the leadership of Judah and Isra’el, it is quite probable that this message was especially relevant to their kings. They had been especially grievous in neglecting justice for the poor and the helpless. In the ancient Near East, protection of the oppressed was the particular responsibility of the king. Among the Gentile kings, it was done as a sense of protocol. But among the Hebrews, it was expected because it was an expression of the very character of ADONAI Himself. He cared for the outcasts, the poor and the helpless; and if the king represented Him, he needed to reflect that concern. This is also seen in the Torah, where many individual commands were similar to those in other countries. But the motive for keeping them was the love of the LORD, not the fear of kings.

This motivation for the religious practices of the Israelites is seen again and again in the book of Isaiah. His question for them is this: Do you worship out of vain repetition or out of relationship? Are you merely going through the motions or do you really love God? These same questions are just as relevant for us today as they were for them then.

Stop Bringing Meaningless Offerings
1: 10-15

Stop bringing meaningless offerings DIG: If the LORD had initiated these offerings, why were they meaningless? How had they become meaningless? What was God looking for that He was not finding? What did it say about the nation that they had the words of the Torah and King David, but paid no attention to them? What were they missing?

REFLECT: Karl Marx said that religion is “the opiate of the masses” to numb them to the evils going on around them. How is Isaiah saying something similar? What should be the end result of worshiping God?

How easy it is to think that when we go to worship regularly, read the Bible, pray, tithe, and don’t engage in substance abuse, God somehow owes us something. Moreover, how easy it is to think that when we have done all these things, the LORD could hardly expect any more from us. Look at all the heathens around us who do not do any of these things. Some people think that God should be grateful to have such faithful servants as us. Then when difficulties come to us, we are angry with God, accusing Him of being unfair after all we have done for Him.⁶ The nation of Isra’el had this attitude, and Isaiah likens them to Sodom and Gomorrah because their hearts were so far away from God. He said to them, “Hear what ADONAI says, you rulers of Sodom; listen to God’s Torah, you people of Gomorrah” (1:10 CJB).

The Jewish people had a tendency to maximize the physical and minimize the spiritual. The physical aspects are observable and, to some extent, measurable. However, the spiritual aspects are very difficult to measure. How can you be sure you love your neighbor? Yet you can count the number of times you have gone to worship, and you can record the amount of money you have given. Similarly, for them the problem became one of familiarity with the outward observable facets of their faith. ADONAI said: The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to Me? 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 (1:11). However, merely offering sacrifices at the bronze altar in the courtyard, or at the golden altar in the Sanctuary, would not cleanse them of their sins. This was the kind of religion that Isaiah and the other prophets objected to. When you come to appear before Me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of My courts (1:12)?

Elaborate rituals and ceremonies, which theoretically are designed to aid the worshiper, usually have the opposite effect. They tend to take the mind away from things that are spiritual and eternal, and center it on that, which is material and temporal. They tend to obscure rather than reveal the simple faith that God desires. Joel captured the essence of this when he wrote: tear your heart, not your garments (Joel 2:13a).

Faith was still needed to draw close to God. Outward sacrifices alone always have been and always will be insufficient. King David said it this way: Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore me to the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me (Psalm 51:10-12).

The act – the ritual, divorced from its source of faith, and the resulting obedient life – was meaningless and abhorrent to the LORD. He demanded: Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to Me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations – I cannot bear your evil assemblies (1:13). This is the first thing that He could endure no longer. Here God calls the leaders and the people to see the real state of their worship. He says that He is disgusted with their plentiful and cheap sacrifices (see the commentary on Jeremiah, to see link click Cc – False Religion is Worthless). The people had the mistaken idea that they could live any way they wanted to as long as they made restitution in the sacrificial system. No repentance, no change of heart was necessary. They fooled themselves into believing the only thing necessary was that the procedure of offering be followed out exactly. However, these sacrifices were not pleasing to God. In fact, they were a disgrace.

Secondly, He also detested their attendance in the annual festivals because all they were doing was violating His courts. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts My soul hates. They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them (1:14). He does not care for their meal offerings, their holy days, or their frantic and many prayers. There is repetition in these verses and we get the impression of an endless round of ritualistic activities, all repeated continually with no effect because their hearts were far from ADONAI. The weariness of God becomes very clear. Hate is a strong word. But here God says He hates this false ineffectual worship.

Thirdly, ADONAI said: 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 (1:15). At this time God is not doing away with the sacrificial system, but the point is that a sacrificial system, in and of itself, is useless without faith and obedience. Isaiah points out that the Jews were very good at keeping the sacrificial commandments, but they ignored many other demands of the Torah; doing justice, loving righteousness and so on. In these verses Isaiah emphasizes the negative aspect that God cannot endure false formal worship. What did He really want? Instead of trusting in religious ritual, the people were to obey God and have the right attitudes toward Him and others.

Arthur Pink, the English evangelical wrote about how some people do not worship, “They bring their bodies to the house of prayer but not their souls. They worship with their mouths, but not in spirit and in truth. They are sticklers for early morning communion with God, but they take no thought about keeping their hearts with all diligence. They boast of their orthodoxy, but disregard the precepts of Christ. Multitudes of professing believers abstain from external acts of violence, yet hesitate not to rob their neighbors of a good name by spreading evil reports against them. They contribute regularly to the church, but shrink not from misrepresenting their goods and cheating their customers persuading themselves that business is business. They have more regard for the laws of man than those of God for the fear of the LORD is not before their eyes.”

The Multitude of Your Sacrifices,
What Are They to Me
1: 10-17

The multitude of your sacrifices, what are they to me DIG: The Jews loved the feasts such as the Passover, ceremonies, and sacrifices that God had provided for them. How, then, could He take no pleasure in their many sacrifices? Why were they meaningless and evil? What does God call the people to do in 1:16-17?

REFLECT: What part of your worship experience do you love the most? Can you see any part of it that is similar to Israel’s worship? How is it different? Ritual was not Israel’s problem. Useless ritual was their problem. What is the difference?

Today there is a movement in the Catholic Church to return to the rituals of the church, and that they be rigidly followed. What sets traditional Catholics apart is that they celebrate the Mass in Latin, believing that no other language should be used during the church service, and that the Catholic Church is the only true church. Traditional Catholicism was born in reaction to the landmark Second Vatican Council of 1962-65 when the Roman Catholic Church attempted to make Catholicism more accessible to the people. As a result, the Mass could be spoken in any language. Women were able to perform limited liturgical duties, and celebrants could receive the Eucharistic sacrament from lay people. Traditionalists objected to all these changes, and the number of traditional Latin Mass churches has grown to 534 in 2003. According to the National Registry of Latin Masses, that is up from only 100 a decade ago.

What are these Catholic rituals? They consist of the worship of images (Exodus 20:4-5), the use of the rosary (Matthew 6:7-8), and flagellation, which is the blind hope that through self-torture, merit will be stored up and their souls will be released sooner from purgatory. The scapular is also used which is a charm that is designed to give the wearer protection against all kinds of perils, such as accidents, disease, lightning, fire and storms, the ability to ward off witchcraft, enchantments and to drive away evil spirits. Prayers for the dead are encouraged, which suggest that the state of the dead has not yet been fixed and can be improved at our request. Even the use of relics is practiced by traditional Catholic doctrine. Relics, or physical objects, are supposed to accomplish physical miracles, or change the physical or spiritual destiny of the Catholic who relies on them. Relics range from pieces of the true cross, the nails, thorns from the crown of thorns, the seamless robe of Christ, the linen of Mary, her wedding ring, locks of her hair, vials of her milk, and her house (miraculously transplanted from Palestine to Italy), to the more common and more abundant bones, arms, legs, garments and other possessions of the saints and martyrs. Every Roman Catholic Church is supposed to have at least one relic.⁴

But the question today is the same as it has always been. Does this kind of ritualistic worship please God? Or do the rituals and ceremonies detract from the purity and simplicity of the Gospel? We should always look to Scripture in these matters and Isaiah answers these questions forcefully in 1:11-14. The Jews were polluting the sacrificial system that ADONAI Himself had put in place. In these verses, God is anticipating Isra’el’s defense. She could say, “But God, we have kept the letter of the law. We have been very careful in our sacrificial system.” So Isra’el’s defense is assumed in this section and the LORD now answers that defense: Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts My soul hates. These statements relate to the past practices that the LORD could endure no longer (to see link click Aj – Stop Bringing Meaningless Offerings). Then God, through His prophet Isaiah, points to the future and the things that He wanted them to do (see Ak – Wash and Make Yourselves Clean). When Isaiah looked around he saw people long on ceremony and short on faith.⁵

ADONAI always hates ritualistic worship (Amos 5:21-27) because it takes away the attention of worshipers, and causes them to forget the truths that genuine worship is meant to convey. It prevents the connection between the worshiper and God. Ritualistic worship hides, rather than reveals the simple truth of salvation set forth by Yeshua: I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you really knew Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him (John 14:6).

The Daughter of Zion
is left like a Shelter in a Vineyard
1: 5-9

The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard DIG: What is their deplorable condition like? What sympathy do they get from God? What is going on in their country (also see Second Kings 16:5-6; 18:9-16)? God compares the people of Isra’el with Sodom and Gomorrah. What is the point of the comparison? The key to national well-being was righteousness (Proverbs 14:34). How had Isra’el failed in that regard?

REFLECT: When have the consequences of the sin in your life caught up with you? Did it take you further than you wanted to go? Did it cost you more than you wanted to pay? Has it turned around? If so, what did it take to shake you out of your rebellion? What can you do to help others with the same problem?

Sin always has consequences. Sometime the consequences are immediate, and sometimes they are delayed. But there are always consequences. Sin always takes you further than you want to go, and costs you more than you want to pay. That was the case with Isra’el. They were suffering the natural consequences of their rebellion against God. One of the recurring themes of Deuteronomy, Chapters 27 through 30 is the destructive results of abandoning ADONAI. For the nation, to live in a covenant relationship with Him was to experience blessing, but to break the covenant was to experience cursing. Our experience today mirrors that of the nation. Blessing or cursing from God is our choice.

Sin blinds you to the truth (Second Corinthians 4:4), and the truth was that Judah didn’t even realize they had become the enemy of God (James 4:4b). Therefore, the LORD starts off by questioning their struggle saying: Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Isaiah described what was happening to them to help them understand that their difficult times were a result of their rebellion. The LORD tells Isra’el that if they continue in their apostasy, the end result will only be more devastation. So why continue in the same direction, seeing that it does you absolutely no good?

ADONAI figuratively describes Isra’el’s sick and injured condition: Your whole body is injured, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness – only wounds and welts and lacerations, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil (1:5a and 6). From the head to the foot, and everything else in between, the whole body is thoroughly beaten up due to Isra’el’s sins. The Land had become desolate or abandoned, rather than a Land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 3:8). Although Isra’el had wounds, lacerations and open sores, the problem was not physical but spiritual: Your whole heart is afflicted (1:5b).

Then Isaiah changes from the picture of a sick and injured body to that of a desolate and conquered Land. This was especially in reference to the Assyrian King Sennacherib and his invasion that destroyed 46 of Judah’s fortified cites. The countryside was not devastated during Isaiah’s lifetime, but that was beside the point. Judah was already a spiritual wasteland. The prophet said: Your country is abandoned, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers (1:7). The Hebrew word overthrown is a technical term referring solely to the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah (see the commentary on Genesis, to see link click  Fa – The LORD Rained Down Burning Sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah). The Land was suffering the kind of desolation intended for strangers; in other words, this is a kind of judgment reserved for Gentile nations. But here, Isra’el was suffering. It was the kind of utter desolation that hit Sodom and Gomorrah.

Here the prophet shifts the picture again. Isaiah uses the image of the harvest shelters to remind us of the kind of desolation and helplessness that he sees resulting in ‘ because of her rebellion. The Daughter of Zion, a personification of Isra’el, had become like a shelter, a little lean-to in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a city under siege (1:8). Instead of becoming the big house of Isra’el, it had become merely a little hut. As the fields were not always fenced it became necessary to have persons to watch them, especially while the fruit was ripening, in order to fend off all predators, whether man, beast, or bird. These keepers of the field are referred to in Jeremiah 4:17 and they are still to be seen in the east today. During the ripening season they watch day and night, and through all sorts of weather. Hence they need some protection from excessive heat, dew, or storm. This protection is found in temporary huts that are made of closely twined branches and leaves, or of pieces of matting thrown over a rough framework of poles. There is an illusion to such a frail structure in Job 25:18 and Isaiah 24:20. When the crop is gathered and the field abandoned, the deserted lodge soon leans and falls and the whole scene is one of utter loneliness. It was such a picture of abandonment to which the prophet compares the Daughter of Zion.³ This was the true condition of God’s people.

Unless ADONAI, the LORD of heaven’s angelic armies, had left some survivors, the nation of Isra’el would have been totally destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. Paul quotes this verse in Romans 9:27-29. In fact, Isra’el was like those two wicked cities. A small remnant had been left. Sennacherib not only destroyed 46 fortified cities; he carried 200,000 Jews away as well. Isra’el survived only because of grace of God and the believing remnant within her (Amos 4:11).

Despite all of this, there is hope for her. She is not completely destroyed, and the only possible explanation for that is the mercy of God. He could have made her like Sodom and Gomorrah, but He chose not to. This was not done in weakness because it was the LORD of heaven’s armies who did it. He is the One who had heaven’s armies ready to do His bidding at any moment (Second Kings 6:15-18). So Isaiah believed that there was hope for his people even if he himself did not live to see it, and he declared that even out of a hut in a field of melons, God is able to do great things.

There was an obvious way for Isra’el to deal with her sin, and that same opportunity is available for us today. It is simple, but not easy. ADONAI says this to us: If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (First John 1:9).

God’s Case Against Isra’el
1: 2-4

God’s case against Isra’el DIG: Chapters 1 through 5 contain sermons that Isaiah preached to the people. Though not arranged chronologically, they introduce major themes to be developed throughout the book. What is the purpose of God calling the heavens and earth to witness His complaint against His covenant people? What is His case against them?

REFLECT: Idolatry was one of the most serious sins that Isaiah addressed. What gods today compete most for your allegiance? What are some signs that these gods have succeeded in drawing you away from God? What can you do about it?

As in a courtroom, the LORD calls His people to the bar of His justice where, of course, they can only be found guilty, saying: Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth (1:2a)! The heavens and the earth are called in to be witnesses against Isra’el because both were present when the covenant was made between God and His people in the book of Deuteronomy. The relationship between Deuteronomy and the other three books of Moses (Genesis, Leviticus and Numbers) is that in Deuteronomy, Moses was speaking to a new generation, the children of the Exodus generation (see the commentary on Deuteronomy, to see link click Aj – The Historical Prologue), and he begins to repeat, sometimes word for word, many of the mitzvot already found in the other three. For that reason Deuteronomy means second law or repetitious law. But the reason Moses is repeating is not to be redundant, but to take the commandments in the other three books and put them in covenant book form. And a covenant needs witnesses. Essentially, Deuteronomy says that if Isra’el will keep the commandments in Genesis, Leviticus and Numbers, they will receive material blessings. If they disobey these commandments God will eventually drive them out of the Land. This was the basis for the covenant (Deuteronomy 4:26,36; 30:19; 31:28; 32:1).

The genesis of every national problem is how the people relate to God. They cannot be right anywhere if they are wrong there. Consequently, Isaiah spells out the problem, which is Isra’el’s rebellion. For ADONAI has spoken: I have reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me (1:2b). The Hebrew word reared as in I reared children (the KJV is translated sons), means more than the English implies. It means to be given a position of dominance. Because of the covenant relationship with God they are called the Sons of God. No individual in the TaNaKh is ever called a son of God singularly. Jews are only called sons of God collectively. The basis for that is Exodus 4:22-23. Deuteronomy 14:1 and 32:20 also brings out this sons of God motif. Isra’el’s infancy was in the Land of Canaan during the time of the patriarchs and their childhood was in Egypt. Their stages of youth were lived out in the desert of Sinai, reaching manhood under Joshua and Judges, and then becoming great and dominant under David and Solomon. The Hebrew word for brought them up is a word that means to be great. He did not simply raise them to be grown up; He put them in a position where they were made great. They were given a position of dominance and made great by the LORD. But in spite of the unique position they had, they rebelled against ADONAI. The word rebelled means to break away with violence. This was not a passive rebellion; sometimes they actively went against God with full knowledge of what they were doing. So although God gave them every possible advantage, they nonetheless violently opposed Him and went against the covenant He made with them.

God then contrasts Israel’s ignorance with that of animals. The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manager, but Isra’el does not know, My people do not understand (Isaiah 1:3). The ox and the donkey were known for their stupidity. In Proverbs 7:22 an ox is identified with human fools, and in Proverbs 26:3 the same thing is said of the donkey. Yet even these animals know who their provider is. They recognize the master from whom they receive their nourishment. But as for Isra’el, they did not know! To make matters worse, they did not even think about it. They did not consider it, meaning they were more stupid than dumb animals. When people are spiritually blind, they are dumber than dumb animals.

Then, as evidence, the LORD lists seven counts of indictment against Isra’el. This verse is a powerful piece of poetry that describes Isra’el’s condition in terse, hard-hitting terms: Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption (Isaiah 1:4a)! Altogether they describe the sinfulness of the nation. The first indictment was that they were a sinful nation. Instead of being a holy nation (see my commentary of Exodus De – You Will be for Me a Kingdom of Priests), which was their calling, they had become a sinful nation. The second indictment was that they were a people loaded with guilt. Isra’el’s guilt is the heavier because (the nation) Jacob was chosen to reveal God’s revelation. The word guilt emphasizes crookedness and perverseness. The third indictment was that they were a brood (seed in the King James) of evildoers. Rather than being a true seed of Abraham, they had become a seed of evildoers. The fourth indictment was that they were children given over to corruption rather than being children of God. The effect was like a series of karate chops – short, sudden and devastating.

They demonstrated the opposite of what the people of God should be all about. The descendants should be better than their parents, but they were worse. The children should be a source of life, but these were a source of death. Consequently, as a people Isra’el had lost her way. What happened?

They had forsaken ADONAI. The fifth indictment was that they were guilty of apostasy of the heart. The sixth indictment was that they had spurned the Holy One of Isra’el. They were guilty of apostasy in the words of their mouths. In this indictment, Isaiah uses one of his favorite terms, the Holy One of Isra’el. This expression is used a total of 31 times in the TaNaKh and 26 of those are used by Isaiah. And the seventh indictment was that they turned their backs on ADONAI (1:4b). This is not a very pretty picture. The language used here is very similar to that of Deuteronomy 28:20, 29:25-26, and 31:16, when it speaks of adultery. I’m sure Isra’el didn’t realize how far they had strayed from God. This is a valuable lesson for us today. If anything gets between you and the LORD, He wants it out of the way.

Who was in control? God or Isra’el? This was their dilemma and it is our dilemma. When we, like Isra’el, try to control our own life it implies a denial of God. But yielding control is so frightening. Typically, Isra’el tried to keep both God and the gods, with miserable results. We are no different. For the most part they did not consciously abandon Him, but their attempt to keep both amounted to abandonment and was, in the eyes of the prophets, rebellion. Whose hands are on the steering wheel of your life?

Isra’el’s Rebellion and Punishment
1: 2-9

Isra’el’s rebellion and punishment DIG: When reading through this section, what were the main problems? How do you think Israel got to that point in her history? Weren’t these God’s children, the apple of His eye (Deuteronomy 32:10; Psalm 17:8; Zechariah 2:8)? How do you think the LORD felt about their spiritual condition? How do you think Isra’el felt?

REFLECT: Is mere sincerity what counts with YHVH (see Romans 2:17-24, 28-29)? If rebellion means not trusting the LORD with every aspect of you life, what does it take for you to rebel against God? How can you guard against that?

This passage is about rebellion and failure; rebellion against the LORD, and the failure to see the consequences of that rebellion. Rebellion has consequences and the consequences for spiritual choices are as certain as consequences for physical choices. Just as a bruised and wounded body will die if left unattended, and just as a lean-to will be blown down if not constantly maintained, so if we rebel against the creator of the universe and reject His ways, spiritual corruption and death will follow. As intelligent human beings, we should be able to understand that equation. Animals seem to know what is best for them, yet humans do not.² Israel had rebelled against God and He would now make His case against her. Isaiah, speaking for ADONAI, invoked the heavens and the earth to hear the following accusation against the people. Moses, when rebuking Isra’el, similarly began: Listen, O heavens, hear, O earth (Deuteronomy 32:1).

There are standards of spiritual behavior that are just as concrete as those in the physical world. They are created by God and never vary. If we live in harmony with His laws of spiritual behavior, our lives go better; however, we live in a society that rebels against The LORD seemingly at every turn. If we are not careful, we can find ourselves flirting with sin before we know it. Pleasing oneself has become the norm. Each of us has a choice. What is yours?

Isaiah’s Great Indictment Against Isra’el
1: 2-31

What we have in this first chapter is a typical message by Isaiah. The prophet brings us into a courtroom scene with Isra’el on trial. God is both the judge and the plaintiff, and the heavens and the earth are the witnesses. In effect, it is a microcosm of Chapters 1 through 39. The procedure is basically as follows; first, in 1:2-9, the LORD brings the charge. Secondly, in 1:10-13, God answers Isra’el’s defense. Then, in 1:16-20, YHVH offers mercy and grace to Isra’el. But in 1:21-23, the offer is rejected, and finally in 1:24-31, The LORD of heaven’s angelic armies concludes with a sentence of judgment.

Introduction to Isaiah Son of Amoz

To Dr. Ronald Youngblood, my Old Covenant professor at Bethel Seminary West, who gave me a love for the TaNaKh (Hebrews 9:18). He used his brilliant mind for good, and like Moses, was a very humble man (Numbers 12:3).

In many respects Isaiah is a miniature Bible. It has sixty-six chapters and the Bible has sixty-six books. The first thirty-nine chapters correspond to the thirty-nine books of the TaNaKh, speaking largely about Isra’el before the coming Messiah. The last twenty-seven chapters parallel the New Covenant, speaking largely about the Messiah and His messianic Kingdom. Isaiah is one of the books in the TaNaKh most often quoted in the B’rit Chadashah. When people read Isaiah it sometimes seems as though they are reading from the pages of the Gospels (Chapters 9, 11, 40 and 53).¹

The name Isaiah (Hebrew: Yesha‘yahu) can be translated any one of three ways because of the Hebrew language: The LORD is salvation, the LORD’s salvation, and the salvation of the LORD. But whichever way it is translated, the point is always the same; the two basic components are God’s personal name and salvation, in that Isaiah’s name is related to both Joshua and Jesus. As far as his family, three times in the book we are told he was the son of Amos (1:1, 2:1, 13:1). According to Jewish tradition, his father was also a prophet, and also according to Jewish tradition, his father was the brother of King Amaziah. If this were true it would mean Isaiah was a member of the royal house. However, there is no proof of the validity of these traditions.

As far as his wife, she is never named. In Isaiah 8:3 she is called a prophetess. The naming of the son communicated the message that God’s word is sure and can be trusted. After the birth of his son Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, Isaiah probably knew that he must call his wife a prophetess, because she had literally been the bearer of the Word of God.

As far as his children, he had two sons whose names are significant as far as his prophecy is concerned. One was named Shear-Jashub, which means, a remnant will return, and the other was named Shalal-Hash-Baz, which means, the spoil speeds (the verb comes before the noun in Hebrew), or the prey hastens. Both names will have significant meanings for the Jewish history of this book, especially in Chapters 6 through 12. This is the extent of our knowledge of his family.

As far as other specific events in his life, either from Isaiah or in other books of Scripture, first, we know that he wrote a biography of King Uzziah, but it did not survive. So Isaiah is not the only book he wrote, but it is the only book we have according to Second Chronicles 26:22. A second event was the contentious encounter with King Ahaz in Chapter 7 of Isaiah. A third event described how God directed Yesha‘yahu to walk around in a loincloth and barefoot for three years as an object lesson to the nation (20:1-6). A fourth event was the invasion of the Assyrians under Sennacherib (Chapters 36 and 37). A fifth event is the sickness of Hezekiah (Chapter 38). A sixth event is the incident regarding the ambassadors from Babylon (Chapter 39).

As far as his death we do not have any specific information, but a Jewish tradition says that he was put in the hollow of a tree trunk by King Manasseh and then sawed in half. Manasseh was capable of doing things like that (Second Kings 21:16). In addition, Hebrews 11:37 makes reference to the righteous of the TaNaKh who were sawed in half. We are never told specifically in Scripture that Yesha‘yahu was one of these, but things like this did happen in Jewish history.

History of the Book

In the early part of Isaiah’s prophecies, the Assyrian Empire was in full power, but in the latter part of Yesha‘yahu’s prophecies, Assyria was beginning to decline and Babylon was on the rise. Isaiah prophesied during the reign of four Assyrian kings, all of whom played a major role in Jewish history. Tiglath Pileser III (745 to 727 AD), Shalmaneser V (726 to 722 AD), Sargon II (721 to 705 AD), and Sennacherib (704 to 681 AD). Shalmaneser V began the final siege against the northern kingdom of Isra’el, but died before he could finish it. Isaiah prophesied to the last seven kings of the northern kingdom of Isra’el. He began in the days of Jeroboam II, at which point Isra’el was at a new height in its power, and witnessed a slow decline all the way to King Hoshea, the last king of Isra’el. Isaiah lived in the time when Sargon II finally brought the northern Kingdom to its end.

In Isaiah’s own book he simply listed the kings of Judah to whom he served as a prophet. First was Uzziah (783 to 742), secondly Jotham (742 to735), thirdly Ahaz (735 to 715), and finally Hezekiah (715 to 687). Uzziah’s reign was recorded in Second Kings 14:21 to 15:7, and Second Chronicles 26:1-23. He was generally characterized as being a good king who started out well, but ended up badly because of a specific sin. When Uzziah was king of Judah, Jeroboam II was king of Isra’el. Between these two kings, they extended the borders of Y’hudah and Yisra’el to the borders during the time when the kingdoms had flourished under David and Solomon. This was a new height of Jewish control in the Middle East. And it was in this atmosphere that Yesha‘yahu began his prophecies. Uzziah was able to conquer Isra’el’s surrounding enemies, the Philistines, the Edomites and others. He was so well known that even the Egyptians, who were reluctant to honor any Semite, honored and respected him (unlike today where both Jews and Arabs are considered Semitic, Egyptians in those days were descendents of Ham or Hamitic). Uzziah built up the country and its fortifications. Judah’s strength was well recognized. But when he tried to perform a religious act in the Temple, which was left only to the Jewish priests, he was stricken with leprosy by YHVH and had to live out his days in a separate house by himself.

When Jotham became king, his reign was somewhat short. We are told that he did right in the sight of ADONAI, as King Uzziah had done (Second Kings 15:32-38; Second Chronicles 27:1-9), but the same criticism was leveled against him that was leveled against his father (Second Kings 15:35). While he generally did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, he failed to remove the high places. His father, Uzziah, did not remove them either. They banished idolatry, but they were reluctant to remove the high places. Why is this reluctance prevalent, even among the good kings of Judah? What was it that separated the high places from normal idolatry? In order to prevent them from having to go all the way to Jerusalem to sacrifice, the Jews in the northern kingdom of Isra’el began to set up smaller temple forms (they would be quite small, yet contained a simulated Holy Place and a Most Holy Place) in various cities around Samaria to sacrifice. They worshiped the right Person, but they did it in the wrong place. ADONAI had commanded that He should be worshiped at Temple in Yerushalayim (Second Kings 18:22; John 4:20).

Then came Ahaz, who was a bad king (Second Kings 16:1-20; Second Chronicles 28:1-27). Of the four kings under which Yesha‘yahu prophesied, he was the worst of the group. Second Chronicles 28:1 clearly says: Unlike his father David, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Because he tried to get along with everybody, he is charged with three types of sins. First, he walked in the ways of the kings of Isra’el, which was a corruption of the true form of worship. He worshiped in the wrong place, on the high places. Second, he also worshiped the gods of the Canaanites and the false god Ba’al. It was in his day that the two kingdoms of Isra’el and Syria aligned themselves for the purpose of doing away with the House of David. It was this conspiracy that led to the virgin birth prophecy in 7:14. When Ahaz took a trip to Damascus and saw the pagan altar in the temple there, he was so impressed that he had the Jewish high priest make one just like it to set up in place of the altar that Solomon had built. He brought idolatry right into the Temple compound itself. Thirdly, he began to worship the Ammonite god, Molech and sacrifice his own children to this god outside the walls of Jerusalem, in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. So, especially in Isaiah’s day, Hinnom became known as a valley of continual burning. In Hebrew, they Valley of Hinnom is Ge Hinnom and that is where we get the word Gehenna, a place of continual burning. One of the worst things that Ahaz did was to align himself with the Assyrians and end up under Assyrian domination. This lead to problems for Hezekiah.

Hezekiah (Second Kings 18:1 to 20:21; 2 Chronicles 29:1 to 32:33) was a good king; in fact we are told he was even better than David. Not only did he restore religious practices that his father Ahaz had done away with, but also he went beyond what Uzziah and Jotham had done, and destroyed the high places. He was not afraid to do this, even though other good kings had been afraid to remove them. Hezekiah totally cleansed the Temple of idolatry and declared the second month as the great national Passover. He even did some evangelistic campaigns into the northern area that had not been destroyed by the Assyrians.

Themes of the Book

There are seven themes in the book of Isaiah. First, some have called this book the Gospel of Yesha‘yahu because he deals quite a bit with first coming prophecies. Secondly, he deals with Messianic times, and Second Coming prophecies. Thirdly, he deals with the Day of ADONAI, and has much to say about the Tribulation Period. Fourthly, the prophet emphasizes the LORD’s sovereignty. Fifthly, he emphasizes God’s holiness. One of Isaiah’s favorite phrases, the Holy One of Isra’el, is mentioned continually. Sixthly, he deals with the remnant and the remnant motif of Isra’el. Although this motif begins with Elijah, Isaiah develops it more than any other prophet in the TaNaKh. Finally, there is a continual call to the southern kingdom of Judah for repentance.

Outline of the Book

There are ten major divisions in the book. In the first three divisions, which comprise Chapters 1 through 5, Isaiah lays down basic themes, which he will detail and develop in the rest of his book saying, in effect, “Here is what I am going to be talking about.” So the first five chapters are key. That is why he does not start out to explain how he became a prophet. He saves that until he gets to Chapter 6. Then he talks about his prophetic office, saying, in effect, “Here is my right to do what I am doing.” As a result, in Chapters 7 through 66 he goes into detail about the themes he laid out in Chapters 1 through 5.

The Use of the Hebrew name ADONAI rather than YHVH

A basic problem in Judaism is that God’s personal name is never actually spoken. When Moses saw a bush that burned without being consumed in the wilderness of Midian, God revealed Himself to Moses and told him His own personal name, which consists of four letters, YHVH (Yud–Hay–Vav–Hay), also known as the Tetragrammaton (four-letter writing). Today, ADONAI is a word used to refer to God by many people of the Jewish faith. Jews simply translate YHVH as meaning, the Name.

The name of God is a serious topic in Judaism, and when the Herod’s Temple was in existence there were many rules and traditions surrounding its use. Only the High Priest was allowed to speak the Name, and then only in the Temple. With the destruction of the Temple (see the commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Mt – The Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple on Tisha B’Av in 70 AD), pronunciation of the Name fell into disuse. Scholars passed down knowledge of the correct pronunciation of YHVH for many generations, but eventually the correct pronunciation was lost, and we no longer know it with any certainty. We do not know what vowels were used, or even whether the Vav in the Name was a vowel or a consonant.

Nevertheless, the relation between a name (shem) and a thing (davar) hold a foundational level of importance in the Holy Scriptures. From the Jewish mindset, naming and being are the same thing. As a result, the names of people in the TaNaKh reflect their personal characteristics. In the same way, the Name of God reflects Him and His attributes.

Some people mistakenly pronounce the name of God as “Jehovah.” Unfortunately, this word comes from the fact that ancient Hebrew Masoretic annotations put the vowels for ADONAI under the consonants of YHVH to remind people not to pronounce YHVH as written. But a sixteenth century German Catholic scribe, while transliterating the Bible into Latin for the Pope, wrote the Name out as it appeared in his texts, with the consonants of YHVH and the vowels of ADONAI together, and came up with the word JeHoVaH (“J” is pronounced “Y” in German), and regrettably, the name suck.

Therefore, God does not have many names, He has only one name – YHVH (Yud Hay Vav Hay). All the other names in the Bible describe His characteristics and attributes. Hear, Isra’el! ADONAI our God, ADONAI is One (Deuteronomy 6:4). The Jewish tradition, then, forbids the pronunciation of the Divine Name, but instead chooses to use ADONAI in its place. As a result, I will be using ADONAI, Ha’Shem, or other characteristics or attributes of His in this devotional commentary instead of YHVH.

The Use of the Hebrew term TaNaKh rather than the phrase, the Old Testament

The Hebrew word TaNaKh is an acronym, based on the letters T (for “Torah“), N (for “Neviim,” or the Prophets), and K (for “Ketuvim,” or the Sacred Writings). It is the collection of the teachings of God to human beings in document form. The term “Old Testament” implies that it is no longer valid, or at the very least outdated. It implies, something old, to be either ignored or discarded. But Yeshua Himself said: Don’t think I have come to abolish the Torah and the Prophets, I have not come to abolish but to complete (Matthew 5:17 CJB). As a result, I will be using the Hebrew acronym TaNaKh throughout this devotional commentary.

Isaiah Son of Amoz
1: 1

DIG: Isaiah’s ministry spanned the reigns of four kings of Judah, almost 50 years. What do you know about Uzziah (see Second Chronicles 26:3-5, 16-20)? Or Jotham (see Second Chronicles 27:1-3)? Or Ahaz (see Second Chronicles 28:1-8, 22-25)? Or Hezekiah (see Second Chronicles 29:1-9; 31:20-21; 32:24-26)? How could you sum up what was going on in Judah during their reigns?

The vision concerning Y’hudah and Yerushalayim that Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw during the reigns of Uzziah (during the last year of his reign), and Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, king of Judah, begins Isaiah. The term vision is the Hebrew word meaning to see as a prophet. It denotes prophetic perception either in vision or in word. When Isaiah uses the term vision itself, (as is the way God often deals with His prophets), he means that in vision form he was projected either into another place in his own time or into another time. He was able to see what was happening and describe it. Many of Isaiah’s prophecies were given to him by vision rather than by direct word; while there are places in the book where he receives a direct word (where he says that God whispers in his ear).

Isaiah’s basic topic is what he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, of which he was a native. God’s prophet sees all of the covenant people of Isra’el as being typified in Y’hudah and Yerushalayim. He deals with Gentile nations only as they come into contact with the kingdom of Judah and the City of David.

He was a real prophet in that he is master of the Hebrew language. When you compare his book with a contemporary of his, such as Micah, there is a big difference. Isaiah’s Hebrew is superb, he writes in Hebrew Technicolor; while Micah writes in black and white, his is rough and coarse. But Micah is a country prophet, while Yesha‘yahu is from the big city of Tziyon. Isaiah uses many words that are called hapax legomena. These are words that are not found anywhere else in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Outline of Isaiah the Prophet

The basis for this commentary and outline is taken from the Isaiah Tape Series from Arnold Fruchtenbaum and Ariel Ministries in San Antonio, Texas.

Introduction to Isaiah Son of Amoz – 1:1 (Ad)

I.     Isaiah’s Great Indictment Against Israel – 1:2-31 (Ae)

A. Isra’el’s Sin and Punishment – 1:2-9 (Af)

1. God’s Case Against Israel – 1:2-4 (Ag)

2. The Daughter of Zion is left like a Shelter in a Vineyard – 1:5-9 (Ah)

B. The Multitude of Your Sacrifices, What Are They to Me – 1:10-17 (Ai)

1. Stop Bringing Meaningless Offerings – 1:10-15 (Aj)

2. Wash and Make Yourselves Clean – 1:16-17 (Ak)

C. Come Now, Let Us Reason Together – 1:18-20 (Al)

D. Your Rulers are Rebels – 1:21-23 (Am)

E. I Will Restore Your Judges – 1:24-31 (An)

II.   Jerusalem Purged by Judgment then Blessed – 2:1 to 4:6 (Ao)

A. They Will Beat Their Swords into Plowshares – 2:1-4 (Ap)

B. Zion’s Pathetic Present Condition and the Judgment to Follow 2:5 to 4:1 (Aq)

1. O House of Jacob, Let Us Walk in the Light – 2:5-8 (Ar)

2. The Eyes of the Arrogant Will Be Humbled – 2:9-11 (As)

3. Gold and Silver Will Be Thrown to Rodents and Bats – 2:12-21 (At)

4. Judgment Against the Leaders of His People – 2:22 to 3:15 (Au)

5. The Women of Zion Are Haughty – 4:2-6 (Av)

C. The Believing Remnant in the Messianic Kingdom – 4:2-6 (Aw)

1. The Branch of the LORD Will Be Beautiful and Glorious – 4:2-4 (Ax)

2. A Cloud of Smoke by Day and a Glow of Fire by Night – 4:5-6 (Ay)

III.  The Vineyard of the LORD is the House of Isra’el – 5:1-30 (Az)

A. The Song of the Vineyard – 5:1-7 (Ba)

B. The Six Woes of Isaiah – 5:8-25 (Bb)

1. Woe To You Who Add House to House – 5:8-10 (Bc)

2. Woe To You Who Run After Their Wine – 5:11-12 (Bd)

3. Therefore My People Will Go into Exile – 5:13 (Be)

4. Therefore The Grave Enlarges Its Appetite – 5:14-17 (Bf)

5. Woe To Those Who Draw Sin With Cords of Deceit – 5:18-19 (Bg)

6. Woe To Those Who Call Evil Good and Good Evil – 5:20 (Bh)

7. Woe To Those Are Wise in Their Own Eyes – 5:21 (Bi)

8. Woe To Those Who Acquit the Guilty for a Bribe – 5:22-23 (Bj)

9. Therefore as Tongues of Fire Lick Up Straw – 5:24 (Bk)

10. Therefore the LORD’s Anger Burns Against His People – 5:25 (Bl)

C. He Lifts Up a Banner for the Distant Nations – 5:26-30 (Bm)

IV. The Call of Isaiah – 6:1-13 (Bn) 

A. In the Year King Uzziah Died – 6:1-4 (Bo)

B. The Cleansing of Isaiah – 6:5-7 (Bp)

1. I Am a Man of Unclean Lips – 6:5 (Bq)

2. Your Guilt is Taken Away and Your Sin Atoned For – 6:6-7 (Br)

C. Who Shall I Send? And Who Will Go For Us? – 6:8-10 (Bs)

D. Until the LORD Has Sent Everyone Far Away – 6:11-13 (Bt)

V.   The Book of Immanuel – 7:1to 12:6 (Bu)

A. The Kings of Assyria and Judah (Bv)

B. The Sign of Immanuel – 7:1-25 (Bw)

1. The Hearts of Ahaz and His People Were Shaken – 7:1-2 (Bx)

2. Take Your Son Sher-Jashub to Meet Ahaz – 7:3-9 (By)

3. The Sign for Ahaz – 7:10-17 (Bz)

a. Ask the LORD Your God for a Sign – 7:10-12 (Ca)

b. The LORD Himself Will Give You a Sign – 7:13-14 (Cb)

c. He Will Eat Curds and Honey – 7:15-17 (Cc)

4. In That Day the LORD Will Whistle – 7:18-25 (Cd)

C. The Birth of Immanuel – 8:1 to 9:7 (Ce)

1. The Sign of Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz – 8:1-4 (Cf)

2. Mighty Floodwaters: The King of Assyria – 8:5-10 (Cg)

3. A Stone that Causes Men to Stumble – 8:11-15 (Ch)

4. Why Consult the Dead on Behalf of the Living – 8:16-22 (Ci)

5. He Will Honor Galilee of the Gentiles – 9:1-3 (Cj)

6. He will Be Called the Prince of Peace – 9:4-7 (Cl)

a. For As in the Day of Midian’s Defeat – 9:4-5 (Cl)

b. For To Us a Child is Born – 9:6-7 (Cm)

1. He Will Be Called Wonderful Counselor – 9:6 (Cn)

2. He Will Reign on David’s Throne – 9:7 (Co)

D. The LORD’s Anger Against Israel – 9:8 to 10:4 (Cp)

1. The LORD Has Sent a Message Against Jacob – 9:8-12 (Cq)

2. The LORD Will Cut Off the Head and the Tail – 9:13-17 (Cr)

3. Manasseh Will Feed on Ephriam – 9:18-21 (Ct)

4. Woe to Those Who Make Unjust Laws – 10:1-4 (Ct)

E. The Judgment of Assyria – 10:5-34 (Cu)

1. Woe to Assyria, the Rod of My Anger – 10:5-11 (Cv)

2. The Light of Isra’el Will Become a Fire – 10:12-19 (Cw)

3. The Remnant Will Rely on the Holy One of Isra’el – 10:20-27 (Cx)

4. Lebanon Will Fall Before the Mighty One – 10:28-34 (Cy)

F. The Reign of Immanuel – 11:1 to 12:6 (Cz)

1. The Dispensation of God (Da)

2. The Nine Missing Articles in Messiah’s Coming Temple – 11:1-10 (Db)

3. A Shoot Will Come Up from the Stump of Jesse – 11:1-5 (Dc)

4. The Wolf Will Live with the Lamb – 11:6-10 (Dd)

5. God is My Salvation, I Will Trust and Not Be Afraid – 11:11 to 12:6 (De)

VI.  The Oracles Against the Nations – 13:1 to 23:18 (Df)

A. An Oracle Concerning Babylon – 13:1 to 14:23 (Dg)

1. The Fall of the City of Babylon – 13:1-22 (Dh)

a. I Have Commanded My Holy Ones – 13:1-5 (Dh)

b. Wail, for the Day of the Lord is Near – 13:6-16 (Dj)

c. Babylon, the Jewel of Kingdoms, will be Overthrown – 13:17-22 (Dk)

2. The LORD will have Compassion on Jacob – 14:1-3 (Dl)

3. The Fall of the King of Babylon – 14:4-23 (Dm)

a. The LORD Has Broken the Rod of the Wicked – 14:4-8 (Dn)

b. All Your Pomp Has Been Brought Down to the Grave – 14:9-11 (Do)

c. How You Have Fallen from Heaven, O Morning Star – 14:12-15 (Dp)

d. Those Who See You Stare and Ponder Your Fate – 14:16-20a (Dq)

e. I Will Cut Off from Babylon Her Name – 14:20b-23 (Dr)

B. The Oracle Concerning Assyria – 14:24-27 (Ds)

C. The Oracle Concerning Philistia – 14:28-32 (Dt)

D. The Oracle Concerning Mo’ab – 15:1 to 16:14 (Du)

1. Mo’ab is Destroyed in a Single Night – 16:1-6 (Dw)

2. The Hope of Mo’ab’s Salvation – 16:1-6 (Dw)

3. My Heart Laments for Mo’ab Like a Harp – 16:7-14 (Dx)

E. The Oracle Concerning Damascus and Samaria – 17:1-14 (Dy)

1. In that Day the Glory of Jacob Will Fade – 17:1-8 (Dz)

2. In that Day Their Strong Cities Will Be Abandoned – 17:9-14 (Ea)

F. The Oracle Concerning Ethiopia – 18:1-7 (Eb)

G. The Oracle Concerning Egypt – 19:1-25 (Ec)

1. I Will Stir Up Egyptian Against Egyptian – 19:1-10 (Ed)

2. The Wise Counselors of Pharaoh Give Senseless Advice – 19:11-15 (Ee)

3. The LORD Will Make Himself Known to the Egyptians – 19:16-22 (Ef)

4. Blessed Be Egypt, Assyria and Israel – 19:23-25 (Eg)

H. The Oracle Concerning Egypt and Ethiopia – 20:1-6 (Eh)

I.  The Oracle Concerning Babylon – 21:1-10 (Ei)

J. The Oracle Concerning Edom (Duma) – 21:11-12 (Ej)

K. The Oracle Concerning Arabia – 21:13-17 (Ek)

L. An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem – 22:1-25 (El)

1. A Day of Terror in the Vally of Vision – 22:1-14 (Em)

2. Shebna: the Unfaithful Steward – 22:15-19 (En)

3. Eliakim: the Faithful Steward – 22:20-25 (Eo)

M. The Oracle Concerning Tyre – 23:1-18 (Ep)

1. Timeline for Tyre (Eq)

2. Wail, You Ships of Tarshish; Your Fortress is Destroyed – 23:1-14 (Er)

3. Her Earnings Will Be Set Apart for the LORD – 23:15-18 (Es)

VII. The Little Apocalypse of Isaiah – 24:1 to 27:13 (Et)

A. The Rapture and the Great Tribulation – 24:1-23 (Eu)

1. A Curse Consumes the Earth – 24:1-13 (Ev)

2. From the Ends of the Earth We Hear Singing – 24:14-16a (Ew)

3. Terror and Pit and Snare Await You, O People – 24:16b-20 (Ex)

4. They Will Be Herded Together Like Prisoners – 24:21-23 (Ey)

B. The Song of Praise – 25:1-12 (Ez)

1. You Have Been a Refuge for the Poor and the Needy – 25:1-5 (Fa)

2. The LORD Will Provide a Feast of Rich Food for All Peoples – 25:6-8 (Fb)

3. Surely This is Our God; We Trusted in Him – 25:9-12 (Fc)

4. Surely This is Our God; We Trust in Him – 25:9-12 (Fc)

C. The Song of Salvation in the Land of Judah – 26:1-19 (Fd)

1. We Have a Strong City; God Makes Salvation It’s Walls – 26:1-6 (Fe)

2. LORD, You Establish Peace for Us – 26:7-18 (Ff)

3. You Who Dwell in the Dust Will Wake Up and Shout for Joy – 26:19 (Fg)

D. The Restoration of Isra’el – 26:20 to 27:13 (Fh)

1. Go, My People, Enter Your Rooms and Shut the Doors – 26:20 to 27:1 (Fi)

2. In Days to Come Jacob Will Take Root – 27:2-13 (Fj)

VIII. The Book of Woes – 28:1 to 35:10 (Fk)

A. The Distress of Ariel – 28:1 to 29:24 (Fl)

1. With Foreign Lips and Strange Tongues God Will Speak – 28:1-13 (Fm)

2. Your Covenant of Death Will Be Annulled – 28:14-29 (Fn)

3. Woe to You, Ariel, the City Where David Settled – 29:1-8 (Fo)

4. Woe to Those Who Go to Great Depths to Hide – 29:9-16 (Fp)

5. In That Day the Deaf Will Hear the Words of the Scroll – 29:17-24 (Fq)

B. Warning Against Alliance with Egypt – 30:1 to 31:9 (Fr)

1. Woe to the Obstinate Children, Declares the LORD – 30:1-7 (Fs)

2. These are Deceitful Children Unwilling to Listen to the LORD – 30:8-17 (Ft)

3. The People of Zion Will Weep No More – 30:18-26 (Fu)

4. The Voice of the LORD Will Shatter Assyria – 30:27-33 (Fv)

5. Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt for Help – 31:1-9 (Fw)

C. The Reign of a Righteous King – 32:1-20 (Fx)

1. See, a King will Reign in Righteousness – 32:1-8 (Fy)

2. You Women Who Are So Complacent – 32:9-14 (Fz)

3. Till the Spirit is Poured upon Us from on High – 32:15-20 (Ga)

D. The Proper Place of Security – 33:1-24 (Gb)

1. Woe to You Who Have Not Been Destroyed – 33:1-6 (Gc)

2. Look, Their Brave Men Cry Aloud in the Streets – 33:7-16 (Gd)

3. Your Eyes Will See the King in His Beauty – 33:17;24 (Ge)

E. The LORD’s Judgment Against All the Nations – 34:1-17 (Gf)

1. The LORD is Angry With All the Nations – 34:1-4 (Gg)

2. The Sword of the LORD is Bathed in Blood – 34:5-8 (Gh)

3. Edom’s Streams Will Be Turned into Pitch – 34:9-17 (Gi)

F. The Restoration of Isra’el – 35:1-10 (Gj)

1. The Desert and the Parched Land Will Be Glad – 35:1-4 (Gk)

2. The Three Messianic Miracles – 35:5-7 (Gl)

3. The Highway of Holiness Will Be There – 35:8-10 (Gm)

IX. The Historical Interlude Concerning the Crisis of the Fourteenth Year of King Hezekiah 36:1 to 39:8 (Gn)

A. Hezekiah and the Assyrians – 36:1 to 37:38 (Go)

1. The Timeline of Sennacherib’s Invasion of Judah (Gp)

2. In the Fourteenth Year of Hezekiah’s Reign – 36:1 (Gq)

3. Please Speak to Your Servants in Aramaic – 36:2-12 (Gr)

4. Do Not Let Hezekiah Deceive You – 36:13-22 (Gs)

5. Hezekiah Sent Eliakim and Shebna to the prophet Isaiah – 37:1-13 (Gt)

6. Hezekiah Spread the Letter Before the LORD – 37:14-20 (Gu)

7. I Will Save This City for My Sake and for the Sake of David My Servant – 37:21-35 (Gv)

8. Then the Angel of the LORD Put to Death a Hundred and Eighty Five Thousand Men in the Assyrian Camp – 37:36-38 (Gw)

B. Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery – 38:1-22 (Gx)

1. Hezekiah Became Ill and Was at the Point of Death -38:1-8 (Gy)

2. You Have Put All My Sins Behind Your Back – 38:9-22 (Gz)

C. The King of Babylon Sent Hezekiah a Gift – 39:1-8 (Ha)

X.  The Redemption and Restoration of Isra’el – 40:1 to 66:24 (Hb)

A. Comfort, Comfort My People Says Your God – 40:1-11 (Hc)

B. That Her Hard Service Had Been Completed – 40:12 to 48:22 (Hd)

1. The God of Hope – 40:12-31 (He)

a. Surely the Nations Are Like a Drop in the Bucket – 40:12-17 (Hf)

b. He Sits Enthroned Above the Circle of the Earth – 40:18-26 (Hg)

C. But Those Who Hope in God Will Renew Strength – 40:27-31 (Hh)

2. Idolatry on Trial – 41:1-29 (Hi)

a. Who Has Stirred Up the One from the East? – 41:1-7 (Hj)

b. The Helper of Isra’el – 41:8-20 (Hk)

1) The Cone of Isaiah – 41:8-10 (Hl)

2) I am God, Who Takes Hold of Your Right Hand – 41:11-20 (Hm)

c. Present Your Case says the LORD – 41:21-29 (Hn)

3. The Servant of God the Father – 42:1-25 (Ho)

a. Here Is My Servant, Whom I Uphold – 42:1-9 (Hp)

b. Sing to the LORD a New Song – 42:10-17 (Hq)

c. Hear, You Deaf; Look, You Blind, and See – 42:18-25 (Hr)

4. The Coming Deliverance from Babylon – 43:1 to 44:5 (Hs)

a. I Have Created You, O Jacob: Fear Not – 43:1-7 (Ht)

b. I Am the LORD, Your Holy One, Isra’el’s Creator – 43:8-21 (Hu)

c. I Blot Out Your Sins for My Own Sake – 43:22-28 (Hv)

d. For I Will Pour Out My Spirit on Your Offspring – 44:1-5 (Hw)

5. All Who Make Idols are Nothing – 44:6-23 (Hx)

a. Worship the LORD, Not Idols – 44:6-20 (Hy)

b. I Have Swept Away Your Sins Like the Morning Mist – 44:21-23 (Hz)

6. The Deliverance by Cyrus the Great – 44:24 to 45:25 (Ia)

a. Cyrus is My Shepherd and Will Accomplish All – 44:24-28 (Ib)

b. This is What the LORD says to Cyrus His Anointed – 45:1-8 (Ic)

c. I Will Rise Up Cyrus in My Righteousness – 45:9-17 (Ie)

7. The Judgment of Babylon and Her Idols – 46:1 to 47:15 (If)

a. Bel Bows Down, Nebo Stoops Low – 46:1-13 (Ig)

b. Go Down, in the Dust, Virgin Daughter of Babylon – 47:1-15 (Ih)

8. How Can We Know When a Message God Has Not Spoken – 48:1-22 (Ii)

a. I Foretold the Former Things Long Ago – 48:1-11 (In)

b. Listen to Me, O Jacob, Isra’el Whom I Have Called – 48:12-22 (Ik)

C. That Her Sin Had Been Pardoned – 49:1 to 57:21 (Il)

1. The Mission of the Servant of the LORD – 49:1-26 (Im)

a. He Made My Mouth like a Sharpened Sword – 49:1-13 (In)

b. Zion Consoled – 49:14-21 (Io)

1) Zion not Rejected – 49:14-21 (Ip)

2) The Gentiles and the Return of Isra’el – 49:22-26 (Iq)

2. Because the LORD Helps Me, I Will Set My Face Like a Flint – 50:1-11 (Ir)

3. Everlasting Salvation for Zion – 51:1 to 52:1-8 (Is)

a. Look to the Rock from which You Were Cut – 51:1-8 (It)

b. Awake, Awake! Clothe Yourself with Strength – 51:9-16 (Iu)

c. Awake, Awake! Rise Up, O Jerusalem – 51:17-23 (Iv)

d. My People Will Know My Name – 52:1-6 (Iw)

e. ADONAI Will Lay Bare His Holy Name – 52:7-12 (Ix)

4. The Death of the Suffering Servant – 52:13 to 53:12 (Iy)

a. See, My Servant Will Act Wisely – 52:13-15 (Iz)

b. Who Has Believed Our Message? – 52:1-3 (Ja)

c. Yet We Considered Him Punished and Stricken by God – 53:4-6 (Jb)

d. He was Oppressed Yet He Did Not Open His Mouth – 53:7-9 (Jc)

e. Yet It Was the LORD’s Will to Crush Him – 53:10-12 (Jd)

5. The Restoration of the Wife of the LORD – 54:1-17 (Je)

a. For Your Maker is Your Husband – 54:1-8 (Jf)

b. In Righteousness You Will Be Established – 54:9-17 (Jg)

6. The Offer of Salvation to the Gentile Nations – 55:1 to 56:8 (Jh)

a. My Word That Goes Out Will Not Return Empty – 55:1-13 (Ji)

b. My House Will be Called a House of Prayer — 56:1-8 (Jj)

7. Rebuke for the Wicked Promises to the Faithful – 56:9 to 58:14 (Jk)

a. Isra’el’s Watchman Are Blind and Lack Knowledge – 56:9 to 57:2 (Jl)

b. You Have Made Your Bed on Every Hill – 57:3-13 (Jm)

c. I Live in a High and Holy Place – 57:14-21 (Jn)

D.  That She Had Received from the Lord Double for All Her Sin – 58:1 to 66:24 (Jo)

1. Isra’el’s National Wickedness – 58:1 to 59:21 (Jp)

a. True Fasting – 58:1-14 (Jq)

b. We Acknowledge Turning Our Backs on God – 59:1-15a (Jr)

c. He Will Repay Wrath to His Enemies 59:15b-21 (Js)

2. Isra’el in the Messianic Kingdom – 60:1-22 (Jt)

a. The Glory of the LORD Rises Upon You – 60:1-3 (Ju)

b. The Attraction of the Gentiles – 60:4-9 (Jv)

c. Foreigners Will Rebuild Your Walls and Serve You – 60:10-14 (Jw)

3. The Year of the LORD’s Favor and the Day of Vengeance – 61:1-11 (Jy)

a. The Spirit of the LORD is Upon Me – 61:1-2a (Jz)

b. And the Day of Vengeance of Our God – 61:2b-3 (Ka)

c. They are a People the LORD Has Blessed – 61:4-11 (Kb)

4. The Redemption of Jerusalem and Isra’el – 62:1 to 63:6 (Kc)

a. You Will be a Crown of Splendor in the LORD’s Hand – 62:1-5 (Kd)

b. I Have Posted Watchmen on Your Walls, O Jerusalem – 62:6-9 (Ke)

c. You Will be Called Sought After, the City Not Deserted – 62:10-12 (Kf)

d. The Second Coming of Jesus Christ to Bozrah – 63:1-6 (Kg)

e. The Eight Stage Campaign of Armageddon (Kh)

5. Isra’el’s National Confession of Sin – 63:7 to 64:12 (Ki)

a. In All Their Distresses He Too Was Distressed – 63:7-14 (Kj)

b. Return for the Sake of Your Servants – 63:15-19 (Kk)

c. Come Down to Make Your Name Known to Your Enemies – 64:1-4 (Kl)

d. All Our Righteous Acts Are Like Filthy Rages – 64:5-12 (Km)

6. God’s Plan for Isra’el – 65:1-25 (Kn)

a. Keep Your Distance, I am Holier Than You – 65:1-7 (Ko)

b. My Chosen People Will Inherit My Mountains – 65:8-16 (Kp)

c. The Wolf and the Lamb Will Eat Together – 65:17-25 (Kq)

7. The Rebirth of Isra’el – 66:1-24 (Kr)

a. The Rejection of the Tribulation Temple – 66:1-4 (Ks)

b. Hear the Word of God, You Who Tremble at His Word – 66:5-6 (Kt)

c. Do I Bring the Moment of Birth and Not Give Delivery – 66:7-9 (Ku)

d. I Will Extend Peace to Her Like a River – 66:10-14 (Kv)

e. See, the LORD is Coming with Fire, Like a Whirlwind – 66:15-17 (Kx)

f. Those Who Survive Will Proclaim My Glory – 66:18-21 (Kx)

g. All Mankind Will Bow Down Before Me – 66:22-24 (Ky)

Messianic Prophecies in The Book of Isaiah

1.  He will be born of a virgin (7:14).

2.  He will bring joy to Isra’el (9:2).

3.  He will govern the world (9:6).

4.  He will reign on David’s throne (9:7).

5.  He will be a descendant of Jesse and thus in the Davidic line (49:1).

6.  He will be empowered by the Holy Spirit (11:2; 42:1).

7.  He will restore the nations (11:10).

8.  He will judge in righteousness, justice, and faithfulness (11:3-5; 42:1,4).

9.  He will be gentle toward the weak (42:3).

10. He will make a New Covenant with Isra’el (42:6; 49:8-9).

11. He will be a light to the Gentiles (42:6; 49:6).

12. He will be called before His birth to be God’s Servant (49:1).

13. He will manifest God’s glory (49:3).

14. He will restore Isra’el spiritually to God (49:5) and physically to the land (49:8).

15. He will be worshiped by Gentiles (49:7, 52:15).

16. He will be rejected by Isra’el (49:7; 53:1, 3).

17. He will be obedient to the LORD in His mission (50:6; 53:7-8).

18. He will voluntarily submit to suffering (50:6; 53:7-8).

19. He will be exalted (52:13; 53:12).

20. He will take on Himself the sins of the world (53:4-6, 10-12).

21. He will triumph over death (53:10).

22. He will come to comfort Isra’el and bring vengeance on the wicked (61:1-3).

Isaiah, Where Life and the Bible Meet . . .

1. To get the most out of this commentary, look at the outline (Ac), and read the Messianic prophecies in the Book of Isaiah (Ab) and the Introduction (Ad) before starting on the commentary itself.

2. The DIG and REFLECT questions are in bolded navy blue, and will help to give you a deeper understanding of the book and make it more personal to you. Go slowly and give yourself time to answer these questions. They really strike at the heart of the commentary. What are the DIG questions for? To dig into the scripture “story,” is to find out what’s going on, to figure out the main idea, the plot, the argument, the spiritual principle, and so on. What are the REFLECT questions for? To apply the “story” in the scripture to your own life; to take personal inventory and to decide what you are going to do about it! Most DIG and REFLECT questions are taken from the Serendipity Bible.

3. I strongly suggest that you look up the references that are given in each section. Many times this will greatly enhance the background, and hence, your understanding of the scriptures that you are reading on a particular day. Take your time, read only as much as you can digest.

There are times when I refer you to either another file in Isaiah, or a file in another commentary that I have written, to give you more detail on a particular person, topic, concept or theology. An example might be something like the Great Sanhedrin (see the commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Lg – The Great Sanhedrin). If you feel you already know enough about the Great Sanhedrin, you can skip the reference and continue reading. But if it interests you, or if you don’t know what the Great Sanhedrin is, you can go to that file and read it first before continuing. It’s your choice. 

4. All Scripture is in bold print. The NIV is used unless indicated otherwise. However, sometimes the purpose of the bold print is merely for emphasizing a certain point. When bolded maroon is used, it is for special emphasis. The words of Jesus are bolded in red.

5. When bolded teal is used, it is quoted from the Soncino Commentary Series on Isaiah. This will give you the moderate Orthodox Jewish interpretation. It is useful for word studies, but its Christology is obviously entirely wrong. Where rabbinical interpretation is cited, I will usually add, “The rabbis teach. . . or the sages teach” in front of the passage. Although it is not a Christian interpretation, I think it is interesting to see how the rabbis interpret different passages.

6. Read the Scriptures from your Bible, then skim the DIG and REFLECT questions, read the commentary and reflect on it; answer the DIG and REFLECT questions, then read your Bible again. Hopefully, it will have greater meaning and understanding for you the second time you read it. Then live it out.

7. If you come to a Jewish word or phrase you do not understand, see the Glossary at the end of the book (see Kz – Glossary).

8. To download a pdf file, click on the red rectangle on the top of any page.

8. You can download anything you want from this devotional commentary © 2007 but nothing can be sold. All rights reserved by Jay David Mack, M.Div.