The Book of Isaiah is the first and the longest of the books of the Major Prophets. (The usual division of the prophetical books of the Bible into major and minor is based primarily on length.) Isaiah’s poetic grandeur and sublime expression of faith in God have resulted in the inclusion of many passages from the book in the liturgy of the Church.

  The prophetic office, originating with Moses and ending with Malachi, had a long tradition in the history of Israel. The office also had a high place in the community. King, priest, and prophet, although frequently at loggerheads, were linked in governing the nation. In 1 Kings 1, David commands that the prophet Nathan as well as the high priest Zadnok anoint Solomon as his successor. However, the prophetic office differed in one essential respect from the kingly and priestly. It was a vocation. Kings could be chosen, priests were of the lineage of Aaron, but prophets were called by God.

  The words “prophet” and “prophecy” come from the Greek pro (“fore” or “forth”) and phanai (“to speak”). In modern English usage, the words usual connote foretelling the future. Therefore they can be misleading when we meet them in the Scriptures where they frequently connote “forthtelling,” or in ordinary language, “speaking out.” Although the Old Testament prophets did foretell the future of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, they were primarily the voice of Yahweh guiding His people: “The Lord God has spoken; who will not prophesy?” (Amos 3:8).

  Isaiah (the name means  ”Salvation of God”) was a member of the nobility and a resident of Jerusalem who was influenced by the earlier prophets Amos and Hosea. His mission began in the latter part of the reign of Uzziah and continued throughout the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, ad Hezekiah, covering the period from about 738 to 690 B.C. According to a later tradition he was executed by Hezekiah’s successor, Manasseh who turned from Yahweh  to the gods of Assyria.

  Isaiah’s work was partly political, e.g., he urged Hezekiah not to enter the Egyptian coalition against Assyria. More important, however, were his efforts to ensure that faith in Yahweh would survive the political destruction of the nation which he foresaw. In doing so, according to one Biblical scholar he liberated “eternal truths of religion from their temporary national embodiment and disclosed their true foundation in the immutable character of God and the essential nature of man.”

  The Book of Isaiah is composed of two major sections of metrical prophecies, Chapters 1-35 and 40-66, with a prose section, Chapter 36-39, between them. The first section treats the overthrowing of the Assyrian Empire and consists of an introduction  (Chapters 1-6), A Messianic prophecy and prophecies directed against Syria, Assyria, and many other nations (Chapter 7-27), and finally prophecies about Israel and Judah, announcing their destruction and subsequent redemption (Chapters 28-35).

    The prose section of the book, which closely resembles II Kings 18:13-20, is divided into two parts. The first, which may have inspired The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron, is concerned with that Assyrian’s unsuccessful  siege of  Jerusalem and with his murder twenty years later (Chapters and with his murder twenty years later (Chapters6-37) . The second, Chapters 38-39, covers the serious illness of Hezekiah, his recovery, and his reception of an embassy from Babylon. It ends with a prediction of the Babylonian Captivity.

  The second metrical section of Isaiah is a prophecy of redemption which has three natural divisions. Chapters 40-49 cover the return from captivity. Chapters 49-57 are concerned with redemption from sin, and Chapters 58-66 with the promise of the New Jerusalem when all men will live in peace and will worship the Lord.

  Because the Book of Isaiah covers events taking place over a period of two hundred years, from the end of the reign of Uzziah to the return from Babylon and because of differences of style and mood between the first metrical section and the remainder, most modern Scripture scholars believe it to be the work of at least two authors. Chapters 1-35 they assign  to Isaiah “of Jerusalem” whose words would have been written down by his disciples, who, loyal to the memory and message of their master, wrote in the Isaian tradition, and to whom they refer as Deutero (Greek for “second”) and Trito (Greek for “third”) Isaiah.

  Two copies of the Book of Isaiah, dating from the second to the first centuries B.C., are among the Dead Sea Scrolls. One of them is the oldest complete text of a biblical book that has been discovered and is almost identical with the version of the book which has come down to us in the Hebrew Bible.

   Readers, who come to the book for the first time, will find, in addition to the Messianic prophecies and its magnificent poetry, many familiar passages: `Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory`(6:3); “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,”  “the spirit of wisdom and understanding,” “ the spirit of counsel and might,” “ the spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord“(11:2); “Is not this what I require of you as a fast: to loose the fetters of injustice…“ (58:6-8); “Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above…“ (45:8).