Isaiah 40—66
Isaiah's artistry as a prophet and writer is evident in this second part of his great work in what may be called its architectonic arrangement, or structural pattern. This second half has three divisions,1 each composed of nine (3 x 3) parts. That this entire second half of Isaiah's book forms one complete unit is the contention of such eminent scholars as Franz Delitzsch, C. W. E. Naegelsbach, C. von Orelli, George L. Robinson, George Rawlinson, James Muilenberg,2 James D. Smart,3 and Gleason L. Archer, Jr.4 Others, like J. Skinner and George A. F. Knight,5 are convinced only of the unity of the sixteen chapters from 40 through 55.
Of this second part of Isaiah's book, Delitzsch observes: “There is nothing in the Old Testament more finished, nothing more splendid than this trilogy of prophetic discourses.”6 The great theme of these chapters is the same as that so often enunciated previously by Isaiah, namely, Israel's redemption. The immediate historical background is the devastation wrought by Sennacherib in 701 B.C.7 Babylon was chosen by the prophet as the symbol of “the city of the godless,” just as Jerusalem and Zion so often in his thinking symbolize “the city of God.”
(1) Chapters 40—48 are concerned with theology. They set forth the incomparable Deity—the Eternal One—in contrast with the vain and impotent idols of the heathen. Deliverance from the Babylonian captivity is predicted through the Eternal's political servant with the significant and symbolic name Cyrus.8
(2) Chapters 49—57 are given to soteriology, the doctrine of redemption. They place in contrast the sufferings of God's Servant in the present situation and His glory that shall be revealed in the future. They thus predict a deliverance from a spiritual captivity through the Suffering Personal Servant of the Lord. Each of these first two enneads9 concludes with the refrain, “No peace … to the wicked.”
(3) Chapters 58—66 set forth the prophet's eschatology, his doctrine of the last days. They place in contrast the hypocrites, the immoral, and the apostates, on the one hand, with the faithful, the mourners, and the persecuted, on the other. Here deliverance is in the form of a new creature and a new creation, involving, as it does, the future glory of the sons of God and the fate of the wicked. This section concludes with the prediction of “peace … like a river” (66:12) to the redeemed in contrast with the destiny of the reprobates in a death where “their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched” (66:24).
Of the setting and mood of the second major section, Delitzsch observes:
The prophet lives among the exiles, but not in such tangible reality as Ezekiel, but like a spirit without visible form. We learn nothing directly about the time and place of his appearance. He floats along through the exile like a being of a higher order, like an angel of God; and one must needs confess that this distinction may be used to support the view that the life and action of the Deutro-Isaiah in the exile is an ideal one, not like Ezekiel's corporeal.”10
A good case can be made from the allusions to place, history, idolatry, and the like, that these point, not to an author living during the exile in Babylon, but to one living in the Holy Land. And though Delitzsch accepts a different author for chapters 40—66, still he further admits:
And yet much seems to be better explained when chaps, xl—lxvi are regarded as testamentary discourses of the one Isaiah, and the entire prophetic collection as the progressive development of his incomparable charism. For the deliverance predicted, with its attendant circumstances, appears in these discourses as something beyond the range of creaturely foreknowledge, and known to Jehovah alone, and, when it takes place, proclaiming Him the God of gods. Jehovah, the God of prophecy, knows the name of Cyrus before he does himself, and by predicting the name and work of Israel's deliverer proves His Godhead to the whole world, xlv. 4—7. And if chaps, xl—lxvi are not cut off from chaps, i—xxxix and taken by themselves, the entire first half of the collection forms, as it were, a staircase leading up to these discourses to the exiles.11
The two hemispheres of Isaiah's book lift up for us a significant contrast. In the first the road that leads into captivity and exile is ever before the prophet's mind. But in the second that which leads back from exile to the city of God is ever uppermost in his thinking. In both, however, he stands as the herald of divine revelation to the nations.
Space does not permit further arguments for the unity of these chapters with the thirty-nine that precede them, but the following observation from C. von Orelli is correct:
The only view known to Jewish tradition (apart from gently hinted doubts of Ibn Ezra) is that the entire book of Isaiah has the prophet of this name for its author, to whose fame as a great, or the greatest, prophet the Second Part (xl—lxvi) contributed not a little.12
He further observes the fact that if this tradition be rejected then “one thing remains utterly unexplained—the anonymity of so glorious a book, carefully arranged by the author himself.” He then states: “But that the prophet was one anointed with God's Spirit in rare degree, is proved by the unique matter of his treatise.”13
This embarrassing speculation about an anonymous prophet is removed if one holds that both hemispheres of this great prophecy are from the pen of the prophet and statesman of Jerusalem, the one Isaiah. We believe, as does George L. Robinson, that “Isaiah's message of comfort in chapters 40—66 … was addressed to the remnant of Judah in Judah, and to Jerusalem, which survived the disaster of 701B.C.”14 It is quite probable that Isaiah survived the crisis by at least another decade.