ISAIAH, Book of. It must be premised that the old prophets of Israel, for the most part, gave themselves to oral utterance, and made little use of the written roll. In the case of some of them, the issue of written discourses was an after-thought, and the latter assumed forms revised to suit the practical needs of the readers, just as the first forms had been adapted to the needs of the audience that listened to the preacher's spoken words. This is undoubtedly true of the phophet Isaiah, who appears to have felt that by changes in phraseology he could the better meet the advancing needs of the men for whom he labored. In other words, the prophet's interest was not historical; he did not reproduce his sermons with the thought of pre serving them for the world exactly as they were delivered, but he had the practical aim of moving a new circle of people to that faith in God which he had previously inculcated. This example was not lost upon the disciples and ad mirers of the prophets, and in the book of Isaiah the old messages have received modifica tions at different times to suit the conditions of successive generations. Indeed Isaiah in the pre-Christian centuries was held in such honor that authors added to his writings other dis courses and historical material that were cal culated to produce the results aimed at by our prophet, and in much of this material there is not even a kernel of Isaian authorship. It is true that such procedure is not in accord with modern ideas of literary ownership, but there is reason to suppose that in ancient times the name of the author of new material was of little con sequence, and his work was often hidden in the product of some distinguished predecessor, the delivery of an exigent message being all im portant.
The book of Isaiah contains 66 chapters from various sources, being a combination of several collections of oracles, and divides itself naturally into seven grand divisions, viz.: chap ters i-xzi, xiii-xxvii, xxviii-xxxiii, xxxiv-xxxv, xxxvi-xxxix, xl-lv, lvi-lxvi.
1. Chapters i-xii contain several small sec tions or series of addresses, mostly by Isaiah himself. From the time of his call to the pro phetic office in 739 a.c., he probably made notes of his discourses, and about 734, perhaps, he be gan to issue combinations of these, first for his disciples, and then doubtless for a larger circle of readers. Chapters vii, 1-ix, 7, composed of discourses delivered to Ahaz and the people of Judah in 735, 734, is probably the first of these combinations, and not long afterward this was increased by prefixing to it the inaugural vision, chap. vi, and by affixing ix, 8-x, 4 (with v, 25
30, now misplaced), the prophetic interpretation of north Israel's unhappy history and the appli cation to Judah. Subsequently the prophet ap pears to have added the woe on Assyria, the instrument of Jehovah's anger against his peo ple (x, 5-34), and a prophecy of the righteous king, to whom he had already referred, and of the restoration of Israel (chap. xi).
He, or some disciple of his, prefixed to the book ii, 1-iv, 1; chap. i; v, 1-24, series of dis courses that present in most vivid manner the social conditions and the debased life of the age of Jotham and Ahaz, as well as the evil consequences to follow, ere the kingdom of God could be established. Chap. i, called by Ewald The Great Arraignment, is a general introduction to this pant, and was composed after 734, possibly several years afterward, chap.
i :1, being an editorial note to introduce all the prophecies of Isaiah. Chap. iv, 2-6, chap. xii, are probably post-exilic additions to this divi sion of Isaiah.
2. Chapters xiii-xxvii may be called the book of woes. The genuine Isaiah passages are in substance: xiv, 24-27, the removal of the As syrian yoke, xiv, 28-32 woe on the Philistines, both delivered during the domination of Sargon or Sennacherib; xvi, 13-14, on Moab, delivered perhaps in 711; xvii, 1-11, the fall of Damas cus, 735; xvii, 12-14, the repulse of Assyria, 701; chap. xviii, the message to Ethiopia con cerning the disaster to Assyria, 701; chap. xx, on Egypt, 711; xxi, 11, 12, on Edom, and xxi, 13-17, on Arabia, of uncertain date, may have been readapted to the exilic situation in 545 B.C. ; chap. xxii, against Jerusalem and one of its prominent statesmen, belongs to 702, 701; the substance of chap. xxiii (on Tyre), espe cially vss. 1-14, was given about 702 a.c. Upon these as a nucleus have been grafted oracles from various epochs and authors; namely xiii, 1-xiv, 23, the fall of Babylon, composed in Babylonia about 549 it.c.; xv, 1-xvi, 12, an old oracle quoted by Isaiah himself, possibly in 711; chap. xix, on Egypt, is a post-exilic oracle, but in vss. 1-15 there may be an Isaiah kernel, from 720, 711 or 702; xxi, 1-10, on Babylon, is exilic, dating from about 545 a.c.; chapters xxiv-xxvii form a long post-exilic apocalypse, concerning the judgment on the world and the future blessedness of Israel, and may be as signed with probability to the later Persian period.