Notes on Isaiah

Future judgment on the nations: 26:20-21: 26:7-10 (?); 26:11-14 Future restoration (Israel): 26:15-19 Kingdom of God (?): 26:1-6 Resurrection of the dead: "Your dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy,  for your dew is as the dew of the dawn, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits" (26:19).

Future Judgment (unspecified nation): 25:1-4 Future Judgment (Moab): 25:10-12 The Kingdom of Heaven: 25:6-9 The Kingdom of Heaven is for the nations as well as for Israel: "A lavish banquet for all peoples" (25:6) It will last for ever and the citizens will be immortal: "He will swallow up death for all time" (25:8) And no one will be harmed: "The LORD God will wipe tears away from all faces" (25:8) As for Israel: "He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth" (25:9) All mankind--or the survivors--will thank God for what He has done for them: "This is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us, etc." (25:9).

Future judgment (on the entire earth): 24:1-22 Future Kingdom of God: 24: 23 All mankind broke the "everlasting covenant" (the natural law?) (24:5). The "inhabitants of the earth" will be "burned" and only "a few men are left" (24:6). See also 24:13: "As the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleanings when the grape harvest is over." Who are the few who are left? Not the people of Israel, but a remnant of the inhabitants of the earth.  "Thus it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleanings when the grape harvest is over. They cry out from the west concerning the majesty of the LORD. Therefore glorify the LORD in the east, the name of the LORD, the God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea. From the ends of the earth we hear songs, "Glory to the Righteous One ..." (24:13-16). All that will remain is the Kingdom of God:  "For the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount...

Future Judgment (Tyre): 23:1-17. Future Empire (Judah): 23:18 "[Tyre's] gain and her harlot's wages will be set apart to the LORD; it will not be stored up or hoarded, but her gain will be sufficient food and choice attire for those who dwell in the presence of the LORD" (23:18).

Future Judgment  (Judah): 22:1-25 

Future Judgment (Babylon): 21:1-10 Future Judgment (Edom and Arabia): 21:11-17

Future Judgment (on Egypt and Cush): 20:1-6 God will use Assyria to conquer Egypt and Cush, and Israel will be ashamed that they turned to Egypt and Cush for help against Assyria rather than turn back to their God. Or at least they will realized that Egypt and Cush won't be able to help them.

Future Judgment (on Egypt): 19:1-16 Future Conquest (Israel over Egypt): 19:17 Future Empire (Israel over Egypt and Assyria): 19:18-25 Egypt and Assyria will worship the God of Israel, the LORD of hosts (19:23)--who sent them "a Savior" to "deliver them" from their "oppressors" (19:20). Israel, Egypt, and Assyria--all worshipping the same God (19:24)--with Egypt and Assyria now being included in God's people (19:25).

 Judgment (Ethiopia): 18:1-6 World Empire (Israel): 18:7 "At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the LORD of hosts ... to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, Mount Zion" (18:7) It sounds like some nation (Israel?) will conquer Ethiopia and Ethiopia will become subject to Israel, bringing a gift of homage to Jerusalem. Also, there are lots of banners and standards in Isaiah: "As soon as the standard (or banner,  נֵ֤ס ) is raised on the mountains, you will see it, and as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it" (18:3). The signal of a conquering army about to conquer. (See also 5:26 and 11:12). "As soon as the trumpet is blown"--the last trumpet in the NT: "And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matthew 24:31). "Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in t...

Future judgment (Damascus): 17:1-3 Future judgment (Israel): 17:4-11 Future judgment (the nations that plunder Israel): 17:12-14 

Future destruction (Moab): 16:1-4, 6-14 Future Kingdom/Empire (Israel): 16:5 "A throne will be established in lovingkindness, and a judge will sit on it in faithfulness in the tent of David; moreover, he will seek justice and be prompt in righteousness: (16:5).

 Future Judgment (on Moab): 15:1-9

Future Judgment (Israel): 14:1-2, 32 Future Judgment (Babylon): 14:3-22 Future Judgment (Assyria): 14:24-27 Future Judgment (Philistia): 14: 28-31 After Israel's judgment, God will bring them back to the land of Israel. As a punishment for what the nations did to Jews when they were experiencing God's judgment, the Jews who have been brought back to Israel will have non-Jewish slaves--"they will rule over those who oppressed them."

Future Judgment (Babylon): entire chapter? or at least 13:1-5; 13:17-22 Parts of 13:6-16 sound like God's judgment on the entire world:  "Thus I will punish the world for its evil..." (13:11) "I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir." The judgment will be accomplished at the hands of some army (13:15-16).

Future Deliverance/Restoration (All Israel): 12:1-6 The people of Israel will return to Jerusalem/Israel from captivity/scattering and thank God for delivering/restoring them.  They will have an obligation to make the God of Israel known to the nations/peoples (12:4-5): "Make known His deeds among the peoples; make them remember that His name is exalted."  "[The LORD] has done excellent things; let this be known throughout the earth." It was, it is.

Future Restoration: 11:10-12; 15-16 Future Empire: 11:1-9; 11:13-16. There will be a king of Israel who will be a perfect king--so perfect that there will be perfect justice in his kingdom: "they will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain" (11:9) Compare this to 2:4: "He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples.... Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore." Who is "he"? It is the LORD--the God of Israel himself. Every king of Israel was a failure, every king of Judah was a failure. In this future kingdom, there will have to be a different kind of king than anyone who came before.  What will make this king different from any who came before? This king would almost have to be superhuman. In Isaiah's first description of the kingdom of heaven, The LORD himself is the king (2:4). In this second description, the king is a son of David: "a shoot will come up from the stu...

Present Evil (Judah): 10:1-2 Future Judgment (Judah): 10:3-6 Future Deliverance/Restoration (Judah): 10:20-24 Future Judgment (Assyria): 10:7-19; 24-34

Future Deliverance/Restoration (Judah): 9:1-5 Future Empire (Judah): 9:6-7 "Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end" (9:7, NIV) Future Judgment (Israel): 9:8-21

Future Judgment (Israel and Aram): 8:1-4 Present Evil (Judah): 8:16-20 Future Judgment (Judah): 8:5-8; 11-15, 21-22 Future Judgment (Assyria): 8:9-10

Present Evil (Judah): 7:1-17 Future Judgment (Judah): 7:18-25 On the "virgin" controversy in 7:14, cf. Genesis 24:43 and Proverbs 30:19, in which the Hebrew word clearly refers to a virgin (translated "maiden").

Isaiah see the LORD sitting on a throne in the temple in the year Uzziah died--so 739 B.C. Present Evil (Judah): 6:1-10 Future Judgment (Judah): 6:11-12 Future Restoration (Judah): 6:13 Apparently, the text of 6:13 is guesswork--it may be in the original or it may have been altered later, even much later (as late as 9th century A.D ).  As is, it says that a remnant will return after the destruction of the Temple (not the Jews who went down to Egypt--see Jeremiah 44). This remnant will be a like a tree and this tree itself will be burned down ("felled") leaving only a stump--so only a remnant of the remnant will remain. But this remnant of the remnant (the stump) will be a "holy seed"--so a new and better Israel will grow out of it. In the time of the Maccabees, you get a remnant of the remnant--only a few Jews remain faithful to the LORD during this time.  Presumably, the new and better Israel that grows out of the holy seed has two components. One component grows o...

Present Evil (Judah): 5:1-2; 5:8; 5:18-23;  Future Judgment (Judah): 5:3-7; 5:9-17; 5:24-30

Present Evil (Judah): N/A Present Call to Repentance (Judah): N/A Future Judgment (Judah): 4:1 Future Deliverance (Judah): 4:2-6 Note that God will only deliver some of the people of Israel-"the survivors of Israel" (4:2); "he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem ... everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem" (4:3). There will be a washing away and a purging of all the wrongdoing in Jerusalem--which sounds like God's wrath and destruction on the wrongdoers--followed by a permanent heaven on earth ("In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, etc." (4:2) and the cloud by day and fire by night and the shelter and refuge and protection of 4:5-6).

 I. Present Evil (of Judah): 3:8-17 II. Present Call to Repentance: N/A III. Future Wrath (on Judah): 3:1-7; 3:18-26 Note that injustice within Israel is the cause of His wrath. He says to the elders and princes of Israel, "The plunder of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing My people, and grinding the face of the poor"? Declares the LORD God of hosts (3:14-15). Also, when God judges Judah, "the people will be oppressed, each one by another, and each one by his neighbor" (3:5). In other words, injustice in a society is a mark of God's displeasure with it and a characteristic of a nation that is suffering God's wrath.  

 2:1 It says this is a vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem--but it also includes Jerusalem as the capitol of a world empire and a vision of God's judgment--a day of wrath-- not only for Judah but for the entire world. I. Present Evil (of Judah): 2:5-9 II. Present Call to Repentance: 2:5 III. Future Wrath (on Judah): 2:10-11 IV. Future Wrath (on the entire world): 2:12-22 V. World Empire under Israel (the last days): 2:2-4 Note: 2:2-4 is identical or nearly identical to Micah 4:1-4; Micah adds one more verse: "And each of them will sit under his vine and under his fig tree, with no one to make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken." This makes it clear that the empire described is benign and not like typical empires in which the ruling state benefits at the expense of the states that are subject to it. In other words, the world empire under the rule of Israel (or more precisely under the rule of the LORD himself) is characterized by justice--both of ...

 1:1 The kings mentioned reigned in Judah between 792-686 B.C. (NIV). The prophecy is concerning Judah and Jerusalem (not the northern kingdom). Isaiah prophesied between 739-681 B.C. (NASB). I. Present Evil:1:2-6; 10-15; 21-23 II: Call to Repentance: 1:16-20 III. Future Judgment: 1:7-9; 24-25; 28-31 IV. Future Restoration: 1:26-27