《The Biblical Illustrator – Isaiah (Ch.0~5)》(A Compilation)
General Introduction
Over 34,000 pages in its original 56 volume printing, the Biblical Illustrator is a massive compilation of treatments on 10,000 passages of Scripture. It is arranged in commentary form for ease of use in personal study and devotion, as well as sermon preparation.
Most of the content of this commentary is illustrative in nature, and includes from hundreds of famous authors of the day such as Dwight L. Moody, Charles Spurgeon, J. C. Ryle, Charles Hodge, Alexander MacLaren, Adam Clark, Matthew Henry, and many more. The collection also includes lesser known authors published in periodicles and smaller publications popular in that ara. Unlike modern publishers, Exell was apparently not under any pressure to consolidate the number of pages.
While this commentary is not known for its Greek or Hebrew exposition, the New Testament includes hundreds of references to, and explanations of, Greek words.
Joseph S. Exell edited and compiled the 56 volume Biblical Illustrator commentary. You will recognize him as the co-editor of the famous Pulpit Commentary (this commentary is even larger than the Pulpit Commentary). This remarkable work is the triumph of a life devoted to Biblical research and study. Assisted by a small army of students, the Exell draws on the rich stores of great minds since the beginning of New Testament times.
The Biblical Illustrator brings Scripture to life in a unique, illuminating way. While other commentaries explain a Bible passage doctrinally, this work illustrates the Bible with a collection of:
- illustrations
- outlines
- anecodtes
- history
- poems
- expositions
- geography
- sermons
- Bible backgrounds
- homiletics
for nearly every verse in the Bible. This massive commentary was originally intended for preachers needing help with sermon preperation (because who else in that day had time to wade through such a lengthy commentary?). But today, the Biblical Illustrator provides life application, illumination, inspiriation, doctrine, devotion, and practical content for all who teach, preach, and study the Bible.
00 Overview
ISAIAH
INTRODUCTION
THE PROPHET ISAIAH
I. HIS NAME
Isaiah
The English name Isaiah is an approximate transliteration of the abbreviated form Yesha’yah, which appears as the title of the prophet’s book in the Hebrew canon, and occurs besides as the name of several individuals in post-exilic writings (Ezra 8:7; Ezra 8:19; Nehemiah 11:7; 1Chronicles 3:21). The full and older form is Yeshaʼyahu (Gr., ησαιας; Lat., Esaias and Isaias), by which the prophet himself is always called in the text of his book, and in the historical writings of the Old Testament (2Kings 19:2, etc.; 2Chronicles 26:22; 2Chronicles 32:20; 2Chronicles 32:32); also other Jews (1Chronicles 25:3; 1Chronicles 25:15; 1Chronicles 26:25). It means “Jehovah is salvation,” and is therefore synonymous with the frequent Joshua or Jeshua (Jesus), and Hosea (cf the Hebrews Elisha, “God is,” or “God of salvation”; Elishua, Ishi, etc.)
(Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
His original name may have been Meshullam
(See Prof. Margoliouth’s view, p. 22.)
II. HIS PERSONAL HISTORY.--The exact limits which we are led to assign to Isaiah’s career depend on the conclusions we reach with regard to several disputed portions of his book. Generally speaking, however, we may say that he prophesied from the year in which King Uzziah died (740 or 736 B.C.) to the year of the sudden deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib (701), and possibly some years after this. Isaiah was, therefore, born about 760, was a child when Amos appeared at Bethel (c. 756 or 750), and a youth when Hosea began to prophesy in N. Israel. Micah was his younger contemporary. The chief political events of his life were the ascent of the great soldier Tiglath-pileser III to the throne of Assyria in 745, with a new policy of conquest; the league of Aram and N. Israel in 735, and their invasion of Judah, which moved Ahaz to call Assyria to his help; Tiglath-pileser’s capture of Damascus, and the captivity of Gilead and Galilee in 734; the invasion of N. Palestine by Salmanassar IV in 725, with the long siege of Samaria which fell to his successor Sargon in or about 721; Sargon’s defeat of Egypt on her border at Raphia in 719; Sargon’s invasion of Palestine in 711, with the reduction of Ashdod, and his defeat of Merodach-baladan and capture of Babylon in 709; Sennacherib’s succession in 705, and invasion of Palestine in 701; his encounter with Egypt at Eltekeh on the borders of Philistia and Judah; his capture of Ekron and siege of Jerusalem, with the pestilence that overtook him between Palestine and Egypt; and his retreat from Palestine, with the consequent relief of Jerusalem--all in 701. About 695 (some say about 690 or even 685) Hezekiah was succeeded by Manasseh. Whether Isaiah lived into the reign of the latter is very doubtful. We have no prophecies from him later than Hezekiah’s reign, perhaps none after 701. The Mishna says that he was slain by Manasseh. The apocryphal work “The Ascension of Isaiah,” which was written in the beginning of the second Christian century, affirms that Isaiah’s martyrdom consisted in being sawn asunder, which Justin Martyr repeats. Whether this be true, and whether it is alluded Hebrews 11:37, we cannot tell. Isaiah is called the son of Amos Isaiah 1:1; Isaiah 2:1), who must not be confounded, as he has been by various Christian fathers, with the prophet Amos. A Jewish tradition makes Isaiah nephew of King Amaziah; and his royal descent has been inferred from his familiarity with successive monarchs of Judah, and his general political influence. A stronger reason than these might be drawn from the presence in his name of Jehovah, which appears to have been confined at the earlier periods of Israel’s history to proper names of the royal houses. But even this is not conclusive, and one really knows nothing of either Isaiah’s forefathers or his upbringing. He was married, his wife is called “the prophetess” (Isaiah 8:3), and he had two sons to whom he gave names symbolic of those aspects of the nation’s history which he enforced in his prophecies: Sheʼar-yashub, “A remnant shall return,” who was old enough in 736-735 to be taken by his father when he went to face King Isaiah 7:3), and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, “Spoil-speeds-booty-hastes,” who was born about a year later (Isaiah 8:1-4). The legend that Isaiah was twice married has been deduced from the false inference that “the young woman of marriageable age” (Isaiah 7:14) was his wife. By this expression the prophet probably did not mean a definite individual. The most certain and significant fact about Isaiah is that he was a citizen, if not a native, of Jerusalem, and had constant access to the court and presence of the king. Jerusalem is Isaiah’s immediate and ultimate regard, the centre and return of all his thoughts, the hinge of the history of his time, the summit of those brilliant hopes with which he fills the future. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
III. HIS VOCATION
A prophet
The work of a prophet was the vocation of his life, to which every energy was devoted; even his wife is called the prophetess (Isaiah 8:3); his sons bore prophetic names, not enigmatic like those given by Hosea to Gomer’s children, but expressing in plain language two fundamental themes of his doctrine The truths which he proclaimed he sought to make immediately practical in the circle of disciples whom he gathered round him (Isaiah 8:16), and through them to prepare the way for national reformation. And in this work he was aided by personal relations within the highest circles of the capital. Uriah, the chief priest of the temple, was his friend, and appears associated with him as witness to a solemn act by which he attested a weighty prophecy at a time when king and people had not yet learned to give credence to his word’s (Isaiah 8:2). His own life seems to have been constantly spent in the capital; but he was not without support in the provinces. (W. Robertson Smith, LL. D.)
Relation to the unseen and the seen
Never, perhaps, has there been another prophet like Isaiah, who stood with his head in the clouds and his feet on the solid earth, with his heart in the things of eternity and with mouth and hand in the things of time, with his spirit in the eternal counsel of God and his body in a very definite moment of history. (Valeton.)
IV. HIS COMMANDING INFLUENCE
The whole subsequent history of the Hebrew people bears the impress of Isaiah’s activity
It was through him that the word of prophecy, despised and rejected when it was spoken by Amos and Hosea, became a practical power not only in the State, but in the whole life of the nation. We can readily understand that so great a work could not have been affected by an isolated mission like that of Amos, or by a man like Hosea, who stood apart from all the leaders of his nation, and had neither friend nor disciple to espouse his cause. Isaiah won his commanding position, not by a single stroke, but by long-sustained and patient effort . . . The countryman Micah, who prophesied in the low country on the Philistine border near the beginning of Hezekiah’s reign, was unquestionably influenced by his great contemporary, and, though his conceptions are shaped with the individual freedom characteristic of the true prophet, and by no means fit mechanically into the details of Isaiah’s picture of Jehovah’s approaching dealings, the essence of his teaching went all to further Isaiah’s aims. Thus Isaiah ultimately became the acknowledged head of a great religious movement. It is too little to say that in his later years he was the first man in Judah, practically guiding the helm of the State, and encouraging Jerusalem to hold out against the Assyrian when all besides had lost courage. Even to the political historian, Isaiah is the most notable figure after David in the whole history of Israel. He was the man of a supreme crisis, and he proved himself worthy by guiding his nation through the crisis with no other strength than the prophetic word. (W. Robertson Smith, LL. D.)
A comparison with Elisha
His commanding influence on the history of his nation naturally suggests comparison with Elisha, the author of the revolution of Jehu, and the soul of the great struggle with Syria. The comparison illustrates the extraordinary change which little more than a century had wrought in the character and aims of prophecy. Elisha effected his first object--the downfall of the house of Ahab--by entering into the sphere of ordinary political intrigue; Isaiah stood aloof from all political combinations, and his influence was simply that of his commanding character, and of the imperial word of Jehovah preached in season and out of season with unwavering constancy. Elisha in his later years was the inspiring spirit of a heroic conflict, encouraging his people to fight for freedom, and resist the invader by armed force. Isaiah well knew that Judah had no martial strength that could avail for a moment against the power of Assyria. He did not aim at national independence; and, rising above the dreams of vulgar patriotism, he was content to accept the inevitable, and mark out for Judah a course of patient submission to the foreign yoke, in order that the nation might concentrate itself on the task of internal reformation, till Jehovah Himself should remove the scourge appointed for His people’s sin. In this conception he seized and united in one practical aim ideas which had appeared separately in the teaching of his predecessors, Amos and Hosea . . . In the supreme crisis of the Assyrian wars, Isaiah was not less truly the bulwark of his nation than Elisha had been during the Syrian wars. But his heroism was that of patience and faith, and the deliverance came as he had foretold, not by political wisdom or warlike prowess, but by the direct intervention of Jehovah. (W. Robertson Smith, LL. D.)
V. THE PERIOD OF HIS MINISTRY.--The period of Isaiah’s ministry falls into three parts:--
VII. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
Foremost book in prophetical literature
The book that bears [Isaiah’s] name, in the variety, beauty, and force of its style, and in the sublimity of its contents, takes the foremost place in the prophetical literature. (Prof. James Robertson, D. D.)
The greatest classic of Israel
With Isaiah sank into the grave the greatest classic of Israel. (Carl Heinrich Cornill.)
Isaiah a poet
If poetry is “the eloquence of excited emotion, whose chief end is to unite beauty with truth,” then there can be no doubt of the justice of Isaiah’s claim to be classed among poets. (F. Sessions.)
Isaiah a psalmist
It has been said of Burke that he would have been a great poet if he had not been a great orator. It might be said of Isaiah that, if he had not been the chief of the prophets of Israel, he would have been the chief of its psalmists. (E. H. Plumptre, D. D.)
Chaps. 28-38 are unexampled for grandeur, music, and the softness of idyllic peace. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
Literary characteristics of the acknowledged prophecies of Isaiah
The thing of chief importance is, that we are wholly unable to name a special peculiarity and favourite manner of style in the case of Isaiah. He is not the specially lyric, or the specially elegiac, or the specially rhetorical and monitory prophet, as, e.g., Joel, Hosea, Micah, in whose writings a special manner is predominant; but every kind of style and every variation of exposition is at his command to meet the requirements of his subject; and this it is which in respect of style constitutes his greatness, as well as generally one of his most prominent excellences. His fundamental peculiarity is only the exalted majestic repose of style, proceeding from the full and sure command of his subject. This response by no means requires that the language should never be more violently agitated, and not blaze up where the subject demands it; but even the most extreme agitation is bridled by this repose in the background, and does not pass beyond Its proper limits, and soon returns with higher self-mastery to it’s regular flow, not again to leave it (Isaiah 2:9-22; Isaiah 3:1; Isaiah 28:11-23; Isaiah 29:9-14). (H. Ewald, D. D.)
Isaiah’s style
It would hardly be possible to characterise the style of Isaiah better than by the four notes under which Matthew Arnold has summed up the distinctive qualities of Homer’s genius: Plainness of thought, plainness of style, nobleness, and rapidity. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
II. PHASES OF ISAIAH’S MINISTRY
Reformer, statesman, theologian
In the parts [of the book] which are indubitably his, we can watch him, and, as it were, walk by his side, through all the varied and eventful phases of his forty years’ ministry. We can observe him as a reformer, denouncing social abuses, sparing neither high nor low in his fearless and incisive censure. We can follow him u a statesman, devoted patriotically to his country’s interests, and advising her political leaders in times of difficulty and danger. We can see him as a theologian, emphasising old truths, developing new ones, bringing fresh ideas to light Which were destined to exercise an important influence in the generations which followed. Throughout the reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah he is the central figure in Jerusalem, and the position which he there took--his motives, principles, policy, the character of his teaching, the natureand extent of his influence--are all reflected in the collection of his prophecies which we possess. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
The evangelical prophet
Isaiah has received from the Christian Church the title of the evangelical prophet. This was given mainly in the belief that chaps. 40-46, were also by him. But even in the prophecies which criticism has left to him, we find the elements of the doctrines of grace. God forgives sin, the most heinous and defiling (Isaiah 1:18). Though He has passed sentence of death upon His people (Isaiah 22:14), their penitence procures for them His pardon and deliverance (Isaiah 36:1-22; Isaiah 37:1-38). Necessarily severe as His judgment is, cruelly as His providence bears upon sin and folly, His love and pity towards His own never fail (Isaiah 14:32). He is their well-beloved, and has constantly cared for them Isaiah 5:1, etc.). He longs to be gracious, and to have mercy even when His people are mint given to their own destructive courses; and He waits eagerly for their prayers to Him (Isaiah 30:18, etc.). (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
III. THE PLACE OF THE BOOK AMONGST THE PROPHETIC SCRIPTURES.--The canonicity of Isaiah was never questioned by the Jewish Church in later times. There is, however, a curious divergence of tradition with regard to its place amongst the prophetic Scriptures. The order of the E.V., where the book stands first among the “Later Prophets” (the strictly prophetic writings)
, is that of all printed editions of the Hebrew Bible, as well as of the Masora and the best MSS. in the LXX it stands first amongst the Major Prophets, but is preceded by the so called Minor Prophets. A still more peculiar arrangement is given by the Talmudic treatise Baba bathra (fol. 14 b), where the order is: Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, the Twelve (Minor) Prophets. It has been thought by some that this arrangement betrays a dim consciousness of the late authorship of the second part of the book, which is possible, although the Jewish authorities know nothing of it, and explain the traditional order by reasoning of a somewhat nebulous kind. (See. Ryle, “Canon of the Old Testament,” pp. 273 ff., 281 f.) (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)