a;- 11evernl house," Jotham his son being regent and having the direction of affail-s (2 Kings xv. 5; 2 Chron. xxvii. 21). Isaiah's early prophecies ( eh,. i.-v.) were probably written at this time. "In the year that King Uzziah died" (eh. vi. I)-probably, but not certainly, before his death 1- Isaiah saw the vision recorded in eh. vi., and received thus a fresh designa- tion to hie office under circumstances of the deepest solemnity. It is remarkable, however, that we cannot assign any of his extant writings, except eh. vi., to the next period of sixteen years. Apparently, during the reign of Jotham he was silent. But with the accession of Jotham's son Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah (B.C. 743), commenced a period of prophetic activity. : The prophecies from eh. vii. 1 to eh. x. 4 have a structural con- nection and a .unity of purpose which unite them into a single body, and belong manifestly to the portion of the reign of Ahaz when he was engaged in the Syro-Ephraimite war. • A prophecy in eh. xiv. (vers. 28-32) is assigned by the. writer to the last ye&J: of the same king. Hitherto the prophetic energy of Isa,iah had, seemingly, been fitful and spasmodic, but from henceforth it proceeded to flow in a steady continuous stream. There are enfficie:ii.t grounds for assigning to the reign of Hezekiah the entire series· of prophecies following upon eh. x. 5, with the single exception of the short "Borden of Palestine," dated in Ahaz's last year. The contents of these prophecies tend to spread them over the different periods of Heze- kiah's reign, and show us the prophet constantly active throughout its entire duration. Whether Isaiah~s prophetic career lasted still longer, extending into the earlier part of the reign of Manasseh, is doubtful. A portion of the prophecies contained in his book are thought by some to belong to Manasseh's time/1 and Jewish tradition places his death under Manasseh: Our conjectural estimate of his lifetime, as falling between B.C. 780 and· B.C. 690, •wonld make him contemporary with Manasseh for the space of nine years. ' His death. The tradition of the rabbis concerning Isaiah's death placed it in the reign of Manasseh, and declared it to have been a most horrible and painful martyrdom.8 Isaiah, having resisted some of Manasseh's idolatrous acts and ordinances, was seized by his orders, and, having been fastened between two planks, was killed by being "sawn aSUD.der." The mention of this mode of punishment in the Epistle to the Hebrews is thought'by many to be an allusion to Isaiah's fate (Heb. xi. 37). His character. Isaiah's temper is one of great earnestness and boldness. He •lives under five kings, of whom one only is of a religious and God- 1 Dr. Kay says. the phrase means "after his death" ('.Speaker's Commentary,' voJ. v. p. fT/); but he ad~uoes no proof. To rui the probability 11eems the other way. Why men- tion Uzziah_ at all, ~less he was on the throne? Why not say, "In the first year of Jotham"? • 1 Ewald, 'History of Israel,' vol. v. p. 15, note 4.
• 1 Jebamoth: xlix. 2; 'Sanhedr:,' ciii. 2. The tradition wu acoepte4 u authentio 'bJ, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Laotantius, Jerome, and Augustine. INTRODUOTION TO