o Remember Isaiah 2 and 3 are not the same person as the original Isaiah from Jerusalem.
o They are nameless prophets who recorded during and after the Babylonian exile while the original Isaiah was from Jerusalem and recorded before the exile. o Called Isaiah because their message was regarding the foresee of the Babylonian exile by
Isaiah from Jerusalem. o Isaiah 2 prophesized during the end of the exile o Isaiah 3 prophesized during the beginning of their new life in Jerusalem after they were set free from Babylon.

 In some scholarly views, chapters 40-55 and 56-66 were written by different people than the original writer of Isaiah 1-40.
 The writer of chapters 40-55 is known as “Deutero
Isaiah”
 The writer of chapters 56-66 is known as “Trito- Isaiah”
 There are some doubts as to whether Deutero and Trito
Isaiah are the same person.

 Second Isaiah’s period of prophecy was around 550-540 BCE in Babylonia
 He is also called Deutero-Isaiah
 He is known as an exilic prophet
 His prophecies were focused mainly from the decades 588-538 BCE
 These were the years when Cyrus attacked and conquered Lydia in 546 and when the
Babylonian power fell from Nebuchadnezzar to
Cyrus in 539

 Second Isaiah most likely spoke at gatherings that the Jewish community held while they were living in exile in Babylonia.
 His oracles can be divided into two different groups:
1.
In the first few chapters, he addresses the exiled Jewish people in Babylon and tells them that restoration is coming
2.
In later chapters his attention is toward
Jerusalem and Zion because Zion is a ruined city that is awaiting its redemption

 We know next to nothing about Isaiah II. He was clearly an anonymous writer, or else the conflict would not have arisen.
 He brought hope to the Israelites in the Babylonian
Exile by bringing a new message that is very much like our modern view of sinning; that “Human suffering is not necessarily a punishment for sins” and that there is a “divine purpose”.
 He believed and said that Yahweh was greater and more omnipresent than any other prophet before him.
 He makes many references to King Cyrus of Persia, who would free the Israelites from exile in Babylon
 His work and teachings are mostly lyrical, such as the famous poems: “Songs of the Suffering Servant”

 Second Isaiah often spoke of the exodus from Egypt because he liked the image that it portrayed.
 He also made parallels of his situation to that of the
Exodus
1.
The Babylon desert that needed to be crossed in order to get to Zion, which would become the hope of the world, is like the desert of the Sinai and Canaan
2.
The journey can be known as the Second
Exodus

• Isaiah is accusing Israel of being no different from the nations.
• They are makers of idols. And beyond that, all of the consequent spiritual afflictions that plague the heathen are now the sicknesses of Israel.
• God’s invisibility has been transformed the people into making and worshipping idols.
• “If one worships a stone, one will become a stone. The consequence will be blindness and the hearing of cacophony (an unpleasant combination of loud, often jarring, sounds) instead of the word. Israel has blinded and deafened herself with idols”
• God’s purpose in sending Israel into captivity was to cure them of their addiction to idols.
• "And the idols shall utterly pass away." "Then you will defile your silver-covered graven images and your gold-plated molten images.
You will scatter them as unclean things; you will say to them ‘Be gone!’" (Is. 2:18, 30:22).
http://www.ldsces.org/inst_manuals/ot-in-2/images/14-00.gif
http://www.biblicalhorizons.com/biblical-horizons/no-78-the-second-isaiah-and-his-message/

Isaiah II focuses on the Jewish exile in Babylonia, which presented the Israelites with both religious and physical challenges.
The second half of Isaiah speaks to people who had given up hope on God. These chapters are direct link to the exiles and were crucial in the development of Jewish religious studies.
http://www.christcenteredmall.com/profiles/isaiah.jpg

 Zion (Mount Zion)= Speaks of a mountain or place where
Jerusalem used to be.
 The Suffering Servant= Someone described to have come down and suffered because of our sins. Said to have been sacrificed for our iniquities.

 Also called Mount Zion
 Place where Jerusalem first stood
 David’s palace and the Temple of
Yahweh used to stand on Mount
Zion
 Later, Zion symbolized the entire city of Jerusalem

• Mount Zion is the place where the city of
David stood.
•
It is said to be the mountain of the Lord or the Kingdom of God.
• Isaiah said the Lord’s house will be on
Mount Zion.
• Mount Zion became the Kingdom of God on Earth.
http://www.orthodoxphotos.co
m/readings/kingdom/mountai n.shtml

 The suffering servant atoned for sins/similar to animal sacrifice
 Some say this servant is a metaphor for
Judah/Judah suffered/though Judah’s suffering, others saw them suffer and then be saved by God’s grace and felt hope for their own lands.
 Some say it represents Jesus and how
He was sacrificed for our sins

 Some people don’t think the suffering servant is a symbol-some think it is another name for an actual person. If it was an actual person, some think it might have been Jeremiah
 The suffering servant also symbolizes how salvation is a result of selflessness and suffering rather than power
 The suffering servant is also used as a model for God’s chosen people.

 Third Isaiah prophesized after about 537 BCE
 He is also known as Trito-Isaiah
 He was centered in Jerusalem after the restoration
 God is more removed in the passages of Third
Isaiah than He was in Second Isaiah
 The prophecies of Third Isaiah are more restricted and concerned more with Israel
 But there are also views of hope which reflect with Second Isaiah’s optimism

 In chapters 1 thru 40, Isaiah lives in Jerusalem in the 8 th century BC
 Chapters 40 onward were written in the time of the
Babylonian Exile, in the 6 th century BC
 Isaiah II and Isaiah III don’t match up with Isaiah I, both in regards to historical references and speech patterns.

 Some conservative Christians and Jews along with Latter-day Saints (Mormons) believe that there is only one Isaiah and that the different time settings were only reflections of his prophesies about the future.
 This contradicts the Catholic belief that Biblical prophets are not fortune-seers but societal critics.
 What is important here is the overall message that Isaiah gives to us, no matter who the writer was.