The second book is simpler in its composition.
(a) Chaps. xl.-xlviii. set forth the hope of the Babylonian exiles. The period of probation is drawing to an end. Babylon has fallen, and the hopes of the faithful .Jews who have learned the hard lesson of the past are centred in Cyrus.
(b) Chaps. xlix.-Iv.. while still dealing with conditions during the Exile, appear to he the work of a different author front chaps. xl. xlviii. The tone is not so hopeful. Difficulties have arisen in the work of reorganization of the community, and the chief aim of the author is to encourage the zealous workers and to induce Babylonian Jews to join their brethren in Judea. Both sections were written in Babylonia. In serted in this second section are four songs of the servant of Yahweh. i.e. Israel as represented by its best exponents. which have been attached to the discourses by a later editor. (c) Chaps. Ivislxvi. are inure complex in character than the two previous divisions, and represent pro ductions belonging mainly to the age of miah, though some sections (e.g. the prayer, 7-Ixiv.) point to a still later period of Persian supreinauy in Palestine. It is occupied with the difficulties encountered by Nehemiah and Ezra, and presents the point of view of the uncompromising adherent to Yahweh's law. The
combination of these sections into a single col lection was probably made at the close of the fourth century n.c., somewhat earlier, therefore, than the date that may be assigned for the other collection. The reference in Ecclesiasticus(xlviii. 22-25. c. ISO n.c.) to the Book of Isaiah in the form in which we have it furnishes a positive limit for the final combination and redaction of the two collection: into a single work.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. The literature on the Book of Bibliography. The literature on the Book of Isaiah is very extensive. A good bibliography may be found in the commentary by Skinner in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge. 1596-98). Other excellent commen taries are those by Cheyne, Dulmt, Dillmann, Delitzsch. Kittel, Marti, and G. A. Smith. Con sult, also, the Old Testament introductions of Kuenen, Driver, Bleek-Wellhausen. and Kautzsch, and, for a particularly full discussion of the critical problems, Cheyne, Introduction to the Book of Isaiah (London, 1895).