HI. Historical Works of Isaiah. — Besides the collec- tion of prophecies which has been preserved to us, Isa- iah also wrote two historical works (comp. Isa. xxxvi, 3, 22). It was part of the vocation of the prophets to write the history of the kingdom of God, to exhibit in this historj' the workings of the law of retribution, and to exhort to the true worship of the Lord (see Augusti,
CHRONOLOGICAL VIEW OF ISAIAH'S PEOPHECIES.
Principal Theme.
Pruhable Occmimi.
-22 ; iii ; iv, 1 ; ii, 1-5 ; iv, 2-6.
vii, 1-16; viii, 1-4, 21, 22 ; ix, 1-7 ; viii, 5- 20 ; ix, 8-21 ; x, 1-4 ; vii, 17-25.
xvii.
xiv, 28-32.
i, 1 ; xxviil ; xxiv ; xxxiii ; xxv ; xxvi ; xxvii; xi, 11-16; XXXV : xii; xxxii, 1- 8 ; xxxiii, 13-24 ; xxviii, 5, 6, 16 ; xi, 1 -10.
XV; xvi.
XX; xix; xviii ; XXX, 1-17; xxxi, 1-3 : XXX, 18-33; xxxi, 4-9; xxxiv; xxi, 11- 17 ; xxiii.
xxxvi, 1; xxix; xxii; x, 5-34; xxxvi, 2- 22; xxxvii.
xiii ; xiv, 22, 23 ; xxi, 1-tO ; xiv, 1-27.
! xxxviii, 1-6, 21, 22, 7-20 ; xxxix.
lvi,9-12; Ivii; xlviii,22; Iviii; lix; Ixiii ; Ixiv; 1; xl, 27-31; xlviii, 1-21 ; xlvii; xlii, 13-17 ; Ii ; Mi, 1-12 ; xl, 1, 2 ; xli, 8- 20; xlix; xli, 1-7; xliv, 21-28 ; xiv, 1- 13; xli, 21-29; xliii; xliv, 6-20; xiv, 14-25 ; xlvi ; xl, 12-26 ; xlii, 1-12 : xl, 3 -11 ; Iii, 13-15; liii ; xlii, lS-25; xliv, 1 -5 : Ix ; Ixi ; Ixii ; liv ; Iv ; Ivl, 1-8 ; Ixv ; Ixvi.
Divine punishment and ultimate mer- cy on the nation.
Rebuke of the prevalent apostasy.
Rebuke of tlie popular want of "faith and justice, and typiflcation of Mes- siah.
Capture of Damascus by Assyria.
Against the Philistines.
I Generally on the fate of the land ( and the sera of Messiah.
Against the Moabites.
I Further snccess of Assyria, but j check at Jerusalem.
!■ Defeat of Sennacherib.
Overthrow of Babylon and return of
the Jews. Cure and reproof of Hezekiah.
^Future of the nation and person of
The prophet's inauguration.
Accession of Ahaz. Invasion of Jerusalem by Reziu and Pekah.
Invasion of Tiglath-pileser. Death of Ahaz.
/• A summary.
In view of the Assyrian con- quest.
(progress of the Assyrian j empire.
(Sennacherib's invasion of
\ Jerusalem. Culmination of Assyro-Bab-
yloniau power. Ilezekiah's sickness and van-
. ity.
Concluding summary.
^Is
}.,
[712
ri2
ISAIAH
676
ISAIAH
Etnleit. p. 290; Bertholilt, Einhit. iv, 1349). Most of tlie liistorical books in the Old Testament have been written b}' prophets. The collectors of the canon placed most of these books under the head prophets ; hence it appears that, even when these historical works were re- modelled bv later editors, these editors were themselves prophets. "The Chronicles are not placed among the ])rophetical books so called: we may therefore conclude that they were not written by a prophet. But their au- thor constantly indicates that he composed his work from abstracts taken verbatim from historical mono- graphies written by the prophets; consequently the books of Ruth, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are the only historical books of the Old Testament which did not originate from prophets.
The first historical work of Isaiah was a biography of king Uzziah (comp. 2 Chron. xxvi, 22), "Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiali the propli- et, the son of Amoz, write." The second historical work of Isaiah was a biography of king Hezekiah, which was subsequently inserted in the annals of Judah and Israel. These annals consisted of a series of prophetic mono- graphies, which were received partly entire, partly in abstracts, and are the chief source from which the in- formation contained in the Chronicles is derived. In this work of Isaiah, although its contents were chiefly historical, numerous prophecies were inserted. Hence it is caUed in 2 Chron. xxxii, 32, iin^S'd;' ','.Tn, The Vision of Isaiah. In a similar manner, the biography of Solomon by Ahijah is called in 2 Chron. ix, 29, " the prophecy of Ahijah." The two historical works of Isa- iah were lost, together with the annals of Judah and Is- rael, into which they were embodied. Whatever these annals contained that was of importance for all ages, has been preserved to us by being received into the his- torical books of tlie Old Testament, and the predictions of the most distinguished prophets have been formed into separate collections. After this ivas effected, less care was taken to preserve the more ditfuse annals, which also comprehended many statements, of value only for particular times and places.
The so-called "Ascension of Isaiah" is a pseudepi- graphal work of later times, originally written, it ^^-ouId seem, in Greek (AvafiaTiKcv 'Haaiov), of which only an old Latin translation (Ascenxio Isaice) was known to scholars, until H[). Laurence discovered and published the Ethiopic version (Oxford, 1819, 8vo). See the cri- tiques above quoted on Laurence's edit, of the A scension of Isaiah; also Caqizov, Infruducf. iii, p. 90; Gesenius, Comment, at Isa. i, 3 sq. ; Knobel, Prophet, ii, 176 sq. ; Stickel, in the Half. Eiin/Idop. II, xv, 871 sq. ; Stuart's Comment, on the Apocali/pse, Introd. ; Whiston, A uthen- tir /'erort/s, i,470 ; (Jieseler, Visio Jesaire illmtrata (Gott. 1832); CAumr, Prophetw retercs (Stuttg. 1840); .lolo- wicz, llimmelfdhrt ii. Vision des I'roph. .les. (Lpz. 1854) ; I)e heemeh-aart van den profeet Jesaja, in the Godr/e- leerde Bijdrarjen for 1862, pt. vii, p. 529-601. See Ai-oc-