Thursday Night Study

"Commentary on The Book of Isaiah"

Isaiah's public career extended over a period of forty (according to others, 46 or 61) years, corresponding with the last forty years of the eighth century B.C.E., to his prophetic mission in the closing year of the life of Uzziah or Azariah (740-739 B.C.E.), and his activities continued throughout the reigns of the succeeding kings of Judah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah.

"There is no written record of the date or cause of the prophet's death, but a tradition is preserved in both the Babylonian and (Jerusalem) Talmudim (Yevamot [Brother’s Widow] 49b; Baba Batra [Last Gate] 15a) and elsewhere that he met a tragic and violent death at the hands of Manasseh whose long and wicked reign followed that of his pious father Hezekiah.

The Book of Isaiah is a book not just about God’s word to the people of Israel It contains prophecy regarding all nations—words that apply to both the contemporary conditions that existed in his own time and prophecy regarding the coming of the Messiah—his life, his death, his resurrection and his return to reign as king over all nations.