What the book is
Isaiah is the longest of the prophetic books and, after the Psalms, the book of the Old Testament most often quoted in the New. It opens in Jerusalem in the eighth century BC, under the threat of the Assyrian empire, with a vision of the Lord on a throne, “high and towering” and the cry of the seraphim, “Holy, holy, holy”. From chapter 40 its voice changes, and it speaks comfort to a people in exile:
Bring comfort, bring comfort to my people, says your God.
Isaiah gave the church many of its best-loved words: the child whose name is “Ruler of Peace”, the voice in the wilderness, the servant who was pierced through for our rebellions, and the new heavens and the new earth.
Who wrote it, and when
The book names its prophet as Isaiah son of Amoz, who saw his visions in the reigns of four kings of Judah, from Uzziah to Hezekiah (1:1), in the second half of the eighth century BC. Jewish and Christian tradition has long held that Isaiah wrote the whole book, foreseeing the exile and the return. Since the eighteenth century, many scholars have held instead that chapters 40–55 were written during the exile in Babylon, about 150 years later, since they speak to the exiles directly and name the Persian king Cyrus (44:28; 45:1), and that chapters 56–66 come from after the return. Others see one book shaped by Isaiah and the disciples who carried on his work. The Great Isaiah Scroll from among the Dead Sea Scrolls, copied around the second century BC, has all sixty-six chapters, as one book.
The draft does not take a side on these questions; they do not change how a sentence is translated.
How the book is laid out
- Judgment and hope for Judah and Jerusalem (1–12): the vineyard song, Isaiah’s call, the sign of Immanuel, and the child born to rule on David’s throne.
- Oracles against the nations (13–23): Babylon, Assyria, Moab, Egypt, Tyre and others.
- The LORD’s judgment on the whole earth, and the feast that follows (24–27).
- Woes and promises (28–35): Jerusalem’s leaders, the alliance with Egypt, and the desert that will blossom.
- Hezekiah (36–39): the siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians and its deliverance, told also in 2 Kings.
- Comfort for the exiles (40–55): the LORD who alone is God, the coming return, and the songs of the servant of the LORD (42; 49; 50; 52:13–53:12).
- The future glory of Zion (56–66): true worship, the anointed one who brings good news, and new heavens and a new earth.
How Open Word Bible translates Isaiah
Lines of poetry. Most of Isaiah is poetry, and the text keeps it in its lines, as in the Psalms. See Hebrew poetry and parallelism.
The divine name. God’s personal name appears hundreds of times in Isaiah. The text writes it “the LORD” in small capitals, and a reader setting shows “Yahweh” instead. Isaiah’s favourite title for God, “the LORD of Armies” (the “LORD of hosts” of older Bibles), names him as commander of the armies of heaven. See the divine name and Names and titles of God.
Verse numbers. The verses are numbered as in the Hebrew text, which in a few places differs from English Bibles: the child’s names in what most English Bibles number 9:6 are in 9:5 here.
The young woman (7:14). The sign given to King Ahaz is that “the young woman is pregnant; she will give birth to a son and call him by the name Immanuel”. The Hebrew word means a girl or young woman of age to marry; it does not itself say whether she is a virgin, and the Hebrew can mean that she is already pregnant or that she will be. The draft says “the young woman” and gives “the virgin” in a footnote. The ancient Greek translation used the word for a virgin, and Matthew quotes it in that form of Mary (Matthew 1:23), where the draft says “the virgin”. The decisions on both verses explain this, and see How the New Testament quotes the Old.
The child’s names (9:5). “Planner of Wonders, God the Mighty Warrior, Father for All Time, Ruler of Peace”: the draft translates the four names so that their meaning is plain, where older Bibles have “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”. A decision notes the other reading, a single sentence-name about God.
The shining one (14:12). The fallen “shining one, son of Dawn” is a title for the king of Babylon, pictured as the morning star cast down. Older Bibles took the Latin word for it, “Lucifer”, as a name; the footnote explains.
A voice in the wilderness (40:3). The Hebrew accents put “in the wilderness” with the road to be built: “In the wilderness clear a road for the LORD”. The Gospels quote the Greek translation, where it is the voice that cries in the wilderness, of John the Baptist; the footnote gives that reading.
The servant (52:13–53:12). The draft translates the fourth servant song as the Hebrew has it, with decisions on each of its many hard lines: who “we” are, what “he will see” means where the Great Isaiah Scroll and the Greek translation add “light” (53:11), and how the servant’s death and life after it are described. The New Testament reads the song as fulfilled in Jesus’s suffering and death (Acts 8:32–35; 1 Peter 2:22–25).