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Isaiah 1-4 Listen 
An overview of Isaiah
We find our most helpful information about Isaiah right here in Isaiah 1:1, "The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah." So, here's what we know: Isaiah was God's prophet to the Southern Kingdom during the fall of the Northern Kingdom to the Assyrians and down through the reign of Hezekiah of the Southern Kingdom. You will recall that the Northern Kingdom never had a king that was right before God, and the Southern Kingdom sometimes did and sometimes did not. The Southern Kingdom (based in Jerusalem) survived until after Isaiah was dead. The Northern Kingdom fell to the Assyrians in 721/722 B.C. during the reign of King Hoshea of Israel (II Kings 17, see notes), and Jerusalem of the Southern Kingdom ultimately fell to the Babylonians (who had already conquered the Assyrians) in 586 B.C. (II Kings 24-25, see notes).
Isaiah prophesied from about 740 B.C (the year King Uzziah died). until at least 701 B.C., the year of the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib; it is likely that Isaiah's prophetic ministry stretched to as late as 680 B.C. or so. He warned Judah (Southern Kingdom) that they were facing impending downfall. Isaiah was an advisor to Hezekiah during his reign, and Hezekiah was responsive to his advice. Note: Except for Jerusalem itself, the Southern Kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians under Sennacherib, although their hold weakened in the years leading up to Assyria's demise at the hands of the Babylonians. More detail is available below with the notes on chapter 2.
The wickedness of Judah, the Southern Kingdom (Isaiah 1:1-20)
1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth!
For the LORD has spoken:
“I have nourished and brought up children,
And they have rebelled against Me;
3 The ox knows its owner
And the donkey its master’s crib;
But Israel does not know,
My people do not consider.”
4 Alas, sinful nation,
A people laden with iniquity,
A brood of evildoers,
Children who are corrupters!
They have forsaken the LORD,
They have provoked to anger
The Holy One of Israel,
They have turned away backward.
5 Why should you be stricken again?
You will revolt more and more.
The whole head is sick,
And the whole heart faints.
6 From the sole of the foot even to the head,
There is no soundness in it,
But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores;
They have not been closed or bound up,
Or soothed with ointment.
7 Your country is desolate,
Your cities are burned with fire;
Strangers devour your land in your presence;
And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
8 So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard,
As a hut in a garden of cucumbers,
As a besieged city.
9 Unless the LORD of hosts
Had left to us a very small remnant,
We would have become like Sodom,
We would have been made like Gomorrah.
10 Hear the word of the LORD,
You rulers of Sodom;
Give ear to the law of our God,
You people of Gomorrah:
11 “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?”
Says the LORD.
“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of fed cattle.
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
Or of lambs or goats.
12 “When you come to appear before Me,
Who has required this from your hand,
To trample My courts?
13 Bring no more futile sacrifices;
Incense is an abomination to Me.
The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—
I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.
14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts
My soul hates;
They are a trouble to Me,
I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands,
I will hide My eyes from you;
Even though you make many prayers,
I will not hear.
Your hands are full of blood.
16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.
Cease to do evil,
17 Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Rebuke the oppressor;
Defend the fatherless,
Plead for the widow.
18 “Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the LORD,
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient,
You shall eat the good of the land;
20 But if you refuse and rebel,
You shall be devoured by the sword”;
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Isaiah prophesies against the wickedness of Judah in these verses and challenges them to put this wickedness behind them. Notice the reference to Deuteronomy 30:19 (see notes) in verse 2 when Isaiah says, "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth!" Deuteronomy 30:19 (see notes) says, "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live." Isaiah seems to be saying that the day about which Moses prophesied back in Deuteronomy 30 is just around the corner. Isaiah makes a sobering comparison between the wickedness of Judah and that of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19, see notes) in verses 9-10. He does make a differentiation; a remnant of Judah will be left. However, verses 11-15 make it clear that there was no shortage of the appearance of worship, yet God despised this fake reverence toward God. He says in verse 16, "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil." God doesn't want religious looking people; he wants truly God-fearing committed people. No wonder prophets weren't popular back then. Isaiah is pleading with Judah in this passage to turn back to God or fall in verses 19-20. Zion (verse 8) is a reference to Jerusalem.
And then there's Jerusalem (Isaiah 1:21-31)
21 How the faithful city has become a harlot!
It was full of justice;
Righteousness lodged in it,
But now murderers.
22 Your silver has become dross,
Your wine mixed with water.
23 Your princes are rebellious,
And companions of thieves;
Everyone loves bribes,
And follows after rewards.
They do not defend the fatherless,
Nor does the cause of the widow come before them.
24 Therefore the Lord says,
The LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel,
“Ah, I will rid Myself of My adversaries,
And take vengeance on My enemies.
25 I will turn My hand against you,
And thoroughly purge away your dross,
And take away all your alloy.
26 I will restore your judges as at the first,
And your counselors as at the beginning.
Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”
27 Zion shall be redeemed with justice,
And her penitents with righteousness.
28 The destruction of transgressors and of sinners shall be together,
And those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed.
29 For they shall be ashamed of the terebinth trees
Which you have desired;
And you shall be embarrassed because of the gardens
Which you have chosen.
30 For you shall be as a terebinth whose leaf fades,
And as a garden that has no water.
31 The strong shall be as tinder,
And the work of it as a spark;
Both will burn together,
And no one shall quench them.
Isaiah doesn't cut the "faithful city" (Jerusalem) itself any slack. Notice the language of verse 21, "How the faithful city has become a harlot!" God frequently described Israel's worship of other gods as spiritual harlotry. In these verses, he describes their wickedness and their fall. Then, however, Isaiah begins to describe their restoration as the center of all the world's worship. While the time frame for these events were hidden to his original readers, we now know that the prophesied final fall took place in 586 B.C. (II Kings 24-25, see notes). We further now know that there was no restoration as Isaiah prophesied up to the present time. This restoration will not be realized until the yet-future time we know as the millennium, which follows the seven years of tribulation. Click here to see a "Guide to Prophetic Scripture." We'll see in Isaiah's writings a description of nearly everything prophetic including the first advent of Christ the Messiah, as well as his second return which is yet future to us.
A glimpse of the future Messianic Kingdom (Isaiah 2:1-5)
1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the LORD’S house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow to it.
3 Many people shall come and say,
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations,
And rebuke many people;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war anymore.
5 O house of Jacob, come and let us walk
In the light of the LORD.
Chapter 2 starts out in a promising fashion with a description of life under Messianic rule (the millennium). We see the conditions of the Messianic rule here in Isaiah's prophecy, but it is also in the following passages:
Click on the references to read the notes on each passage.
Isaiah 11:1-16
Isaiah 60
Isaiah 65-66
Micah 4
Ezekiel 34:25-31
Revelation 20
Interestingly, Micah 4:1-3 (see notes) are nearly identical to verses 2-4 of this passage. The cessation of war during the millennium is seen in verse 4, "He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore."
The fall of the Southern Kingdom (Isaiah 2:6-22)
6 For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob,
Because they are filled with eastern ways;
They are soothsayers like the Philistines,
And they are pleased with the children of foreigners.
7 Their land is also full of silver and gold,
And there is no end to their treasures;
Their land is also full of horses,
And there is no end to their chariots.
8 Their land is also full of idols;
They worship the work of their own hands,
That which their own fingers have made.
9 People bow down,
And each man humbles himself;
Therefore do not forgive them.
10 Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust,
From the terror of the LORD
And the glory of His majesty.
11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,
The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down,
And the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
12 For the day of the LORD of hosts
Shall come upon everything proud and lofty,
Upon everything lifted up—
And it shall be brought low—
13 Upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up,
And upon all the oaks of Bashan;
14 Upon all the high mountains,
And upon all the hills that are lifted up;
15 Upon every high tower,
And upon every fortified wall;
16 Upon all the ships of Tarshish,
And upon all the beautiful sloops.
17 The loftiness of man shall be bowed down,
And the haughtiness of men shall be brought low;
The LORD alone will be exalted in that day,
18 But the idols He shall utterly abolish.
19 They shall go into the holes of the rocks,
And into the caves of the earth,
From the terror of the LORD
And the glory of His majesty,
When He arises to shake the earth mightily.
20 In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver
And his idols of gold,
Which they made, each for himself to worship,
To the moles and bats,
21 To go into the clefts of the rocks,
And into the crags of the rugged rocks,
From the terror of the LORD
And the glory of His majesty,
When He arises to shake the earth mightily.
22 Sever yourselves from such a man,
Whose breath is in his nostrils;
For of what account is he?
While chapter 2 begins with a Messianic promise, it quickly turns bad, however, when we get to verse 6 where we realize that Judah has rejected that rule, leaving those verses (1-5) to be fulfilled after the coming of the Messiah. First, however, Isaiah outlines the coming destruction of Israel. We know from history that this destruction came in two phases - the Assyrians first conquering everything except Jerusalem in 722/721 B.C. (II Kings 17, see notes), and Jerusalem itself falling to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. (II Kings 24-25, see notes). Isaiah lumps both phases into his term for judgment ("the day of the LORD") in verse 12. We should not make the mistake of associating this with the second coming of Jesus in Revelation 19:11-16 (see notes). The fall being described took place in Isaiah's day upon the people who had turned their backs upon God.
Isaiah's prophecy here describes the fall of Israel as an event that takes place all at one time in history - not two phases. That might cause concern for some, but consider this: Isaiah did see the comprehensive fall of Israel at one time, but later God rewarded faithful King Hezekiah (II Kings 19:1-7; Isaiah 37:1-7 - see notes) and spares Jerusalem from the Assyrian onslaught for over 100 years beyond Israel's demise before they fall to the Babylonians. God was longsuffering because of the faithfulness of Hezekiah, but the prophecy was ultimately fulfilled anyway.
Now...the fall of Jerusalem itself (Isaiah 3)
1 For behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts,
Takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah
The stock and the store,
The whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water;
2 The mighty man and the man of war,
The judge and the prophet,
And the diviner and the elder;
3 The captain of fifty and the honorable man,
The counselor and the skillful artisan,
And the expert enchanter.
4 “I will give children to be their princes,
And babes shall rule over them.
5 The people will be oppressed,
Every one by another and every one by his neighbor;
The child will be insolent toward the elder,
And the base toward the honorable.”
6 When a man takes hold of his brother
In the house of his father, saying,
“You have clothing;
You be our ruler,
And let these ruins be under your power,”
7 In that day he will protest, saying,
“I cannot cure your ills,
For in my house is neither food nor clothing;
Do not make me a ruler of the people.”
8 For Jerusalem stumbled,
And Judah is fallen,
Because their tongue and their doings
Are against the LORD,
To provoke the eyes of His glory.
9 The look on their countenance witnesses against them,
And they declare their sin as Sodom;
They do not hide it.
Woe to their soul!
For they have brought evil upon themselves.
10 “Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them,
For they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,
For the reward of his hands shall be given him.
12 As for My people, children are their oppressors,
And women rule over them.
O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err,
And destroy the way of your paths.”
13 The LORD stands up to plead,
And stands to judge the people.
14 The LORD will enter into judgment
With the elders of His people
And His princes:
“For you have eaten up the vineyard;
The plunder of the poor is in your houses.
15 What do you mean by crushing My people
And grinding the faces of the poor?”
Says the Lord GOD of hosts.
16 ¶ Moreover the LORD says:
“Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,
And walk with outstretched necks
And wanton eyes,
Walking and mincing as they go,
Making a jingling with their feet,
17 Therefore the Lord will strike with a scab
The crown of the head of the daughters of Zion,
And the LORD will uncover their secret parts.”
18 In that day the Lord will take away the finery:
The jingling anklets, the scarves, and the crescents;
19 The pendants, the bracelets, and the veils;
20 The headdresses, the leg ornaments, and the headbands;
The perfume boxes, the charms,
21 and the rings;
The nose jewels,
22 the festal apparel, and the mantles;
The outer garments, the purses,
23 and the mirrors;
The fine linen, the turbans, and the robes.
24 ¶ And so it shall be:
Instead of a sweet smell there will be a stench;
Instead of a sash, a rope;
Instead of well-set hair, baldness;
Instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth;
And branding instead of beauty.
25 Your men shall fall by the sword,
And your mighty in the war.
26 Her gates shall lament and mourn,
And she being desolate shall sit on the ground.
Here Isaiah describes the ultimate fall of Judah and the capital city, Jerusalem. What did Isaiah see? Note verse 8, "For Jerusalem stumbled, And Judah is fallen." It didn't happen until after Isaiah's death, but this vivid description of their fall did indeed come to pass. Notice that the corruption of Judah had even extended to the women of Judah ("daughters of Zion," 3:16-17). Isaiah doesn't save any words in describing the condition and fall of Judah in these two chapters. That fall would be to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. (II Kings 24-25, see notes).
A note of explanation is in order here. All of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah fell to the Assyrians in 722/721 B.C. At that time, the walled city of Jerusalem was spared. As the Assyrian Empire weakened over the next few decades, they lost their stronghold on the land, and Judah's King Josiah was able to regain some authority over both kingdoms beginning around 620 B.C. until his death in 609 B.C. (II Kings 23:1-20; II Chronicles 34:29-33 - see notes). As a matter of fact, it would appear that he had actually reunited the two kingdoms for this brief time. After Josiah's death, a series of four weak and evil kings were not able to hold the line in Judah resulting in their fall to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. (II Kings 24-25, see notes).
Jerusalem is in deep trouble (Isaiah 4:1)
1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying,
“We will eat our own food and wear our own apparel;
Only let us be called by your name,
To take away our reproach.”
This verse is really the last verse of the discussion of Jerusalem's capture by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The influential men of Judah and Jerusalem were deported to Babylon and pagans were brought in to replace them. There would naturally have been a shortage of Jewish men for the women at that point in time, thus bringing about the scenario seen in verse 1.
Jerusalem, your day is coming (Isaiah 4:2-6)
2 In that day the Branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious;
And the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing
For those of Israel who have escaped.
3 ¶ And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy—everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem.
4 When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning,
5 then the LORD will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering.
6 And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain.
There is considerable discussion among Bible scholars regarding these verses. To us, are they history or prophecy? In other words, are these verses looking toward the beginning of the millennium or some previous period in Israel's history? The problem with assigning these verses to some previous period is that there is not a point in time where these requirements were all fulfilled. While it is curious that verse 1 concludes with the destruction of Jerusalem and verse 2 proceeds with a subsequent restoration, I still prefer the millennium view of fulfillment here. Jerusalem finally collapsed completely to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. (II Kings 24-25, see notes), and the exiled inhabitants did begin returning to Jerusalem in 535 B.C. (Ezra 1, see notes). However, these returning exiles were still under Persian rule with restricted freedom. That situation does not seem sufficient to fulfill the conditions we see in these 5 verses. The yet-future millennium is the only time when we see verses 4-6 fulfilled per se. Therefore, it seems more consistent that we should not take anything in chapter 4 to be a reference to the return of the exiles in the sixth century B.C., but rather to the future millennium.