ISAIAH

(I·saʹiah) [Salvation of Jehovah].

A prophet, the son of Amoz (not the prophet Amos). He served Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah. (Isa 1:1) Kings Pekah and Hoshea were ruling in the northern kingdom of Israel, which ended in 740 B.C.E., during the time of Isaiah’s prophetic service. Contemporary prophets were Micah, Hosea, and Oded. Isaiah evidently began his prophesying later than Hosea did and before Micah began.​—2Ch 28:9; Ho 1:1; Mic 1:1.

Historical Background. Isaiah 1:1 informs us that Isaiah visioned these things in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. This was a period of severe international tension and one in which false religious attitudes had a profound effect on the people of Judah. Near the beginning of Isaiah’s career King Uzziah died a leper because of his presumptuousness in taking over priestly duties. (2Ch 26:16, 19-21) It is reported that during the reign of Uzziah’s son Jotham, while the king did what was right, “the people were yet acting ruinously.”​—2Ch 27:2; 2Ki 15:34.

Next came King Ahaz, who for 16 years set a bad example for the nation, carrying on Baal worship with its rites of human sacrifice. There was “great unfaithfulness toward Jehovah.” (2Ch 28:1-4, 19) It was at this time that the allied kings of Syria and Israel besieged Jerusalem so that Ahaz, ignoring the counsel of Isaiah the prophet, sent to Tiglath-pileser III, the king of Assyria, for military assistance. (2Ki 16:5-8; Isa 7:1-12) By this Ahaz ‘made flesh his arm, his heart turning away from Jehovah.’ (Jer 17:5) Assyria agreed to an alliance, but, of course, was interested mainly in expanding its own power. The Assyrian army captured Damascus of Syria and apparently took into exile those inhabitants of religiously apostate Israel that lived E of the Jordan.​—1Ch 5:26.

Later, when Samaria failed to pay tribute, it too was besieged and its inhabitants were deported. (2Ki 16:9; 17:4-6; 18:9-12) This ended the ten-tribe kingdom and left Judah surrounded on all sides by Gentile nations. Later Assyrian rulers kept up military operations in the W, assaulting cities of Judah and of surrounding nations. Sennacherib even demanded the capitulation of Jerusalem itself. But under the kingship of Hezekiah the situation there had changed. Hezekiah trusted in Jehovah, and Jehovah proved to be with him.​—2Ki 18:5-7; Isa chaps 36, 37.

Isaiah undertook his service as a prophet during the reign of Uzziah, who began to rule in 829 B.C.E., and he continued as such into the time of Hezekiah’s reign, which concluded by about 717 B.C.E. Isaiah, chapter 6, verse 1, refers to “the year that King Uzziah died” (c. 778 B.C.E.) as the time when Isaiah received the commission from Jehovah that is recorded in that chapter; though it may be that he had recorded the preceding information before that. Then in chapter 36, verse 1, reference is made to “the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah” (732 B.C.E.), when Sennacherib sent an army against Jerusalem and was turned back. In addition to giving the account of the threatened siege and the delivery of Jerusalem, Isaiah tells of Sennacherib’s return to Nineveh and his assassination. (Isa 37:36-38) If this bit of historical information was written by Isaiah and was not an insertion by a later hand, it may show that Isaiah prophesied for some time after Hezekiah’s 14th year. The Assyrian and Babylonian chronological records (though their reliability is questionable) seem to indicate that Sennacherib ruled some 20 years after his campaign against Jerusalem. Jewish tradition, which can also be unreliable, says that Isaiah was sawn asunder at King Manasseh’s order. (Whether Paul has reference to this at Hebrews 11:37, as some believe, has not been proved.)​—Isa 1:1.