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Isaiah’s words constitute one of the greatest books ever written! How many books have been personally endorsed by Jesus Christ? “For great are the words of Isaiah,” Jesus declared (3 Nephi 23:1). He then affirmed that Isaiah’s prophecies have been or would one day be fulfilled: “And all things that [Isaiah] spake have been and shall be, even according to the words which he spake” (v. 3).

The importance of Isaiah’s book cannot be expressed too strongly. It is important not because of the number of its words, but because of its eternally significant truths about God and his divine workings with nations, peoples, and individuals. Isaiah’s words are also important because of their capacity to reach individuals from all walks of life during all periods of history. The book of Isaiah is especially important to us in the latter days because much of it was written for us, and many of its topics (such as the gathering of Israel, the establishment of Zion, the Second Coming, and the Millennium) pertain directly to us.

Isaiah wrote his book in ancient Hebrew, what we would now call Biblical Hebrew. At the time, Hebrew lacked uppercase letters, punctuation, vowels, and chapters and verses; all of these were added later, although Isaiah’s original writings and revelations may have had some form of a paragraph system. Isaiah’s book as we have it at the present time is divided into 1,292 verses and 66 chapters. This system of chapters and verses assists us as we study, teach, and cross-reference Isaiah’s words with other scriptural texts.

Figure 4.1. Isaiah wrote his book in Hebrew. Ancient (or Biblical) Hebrew does not have vowels, punctuation, uppercase letters, verses, or chapters. (Photo by Pete Unseth. “Isaiah Scroll.” Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Many people throughout the centuries have considered Hebrew to be a sacred language because God used it to reveal his word to prophets, seers, and others during much of the Old Testament period. The oldest extant Hebrew texts of Isaiah are those belonging to the Dead Sea Scrolls, which date between the years 175 BC and AD 74. However, the Isaiah texts in the Book of Mormon (from the brass plates) belong to an earlier period than the Dead Sea Scrolls; God revealed these Isaiah texts to the Prophet Joseph Smith, who translated them from the golden plates “by the gift and power of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 135:3).

Isaiah: Prophet to the World

As stated above, Isaiah was a prophet to both the houses of Judah and Israel; he was also a prophet to the nations. Jesus Christ taught the Nephites that Isaiah “spake as touching all things concerning my people which are of the house of Israel; therefore it must needs be that he must speak also to the Gentiles” (3 Nephi 23:2; emphasis added). Consequently, Isaiah’s book contains prophecies to several cities and nations, including the following:

• Arabia (21:13–17)
• Assyria (10:12–19)
• Babylon (13:6–22; 21:1–10; 47:1–15)
• Damascus and Israel (17:1–11)
• Dumah, a territory in Edom (21:11–12)
• Edom, or Idumea (34:1–15)
• Egypt (19:1–25)
• Jerusalem and Judah (3:1–12)
• Jerusalem (29:1–10; 51:17–23; 52:1–2)
• Moab (15:1–16:4)
• Nations that oppress Israel (17:12–14)
• Northern Kingdom of Israel (9:8–10:4; 28:1–8)
• Philistis (14:28–32)
• Tyre (23:1–14)

Figure 4.2. Isaiah was a prophet to the world around him. He prophesied to many of the countries shown on this map. (Image created by ThinkSpatial, BYU Geography; Reprinted from Ann N. Madsen and Shon D. Hopkin, Opening Isaiah: A Harmony [Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, 2018].)

Isaiah’s Prose

As God’s prophet and seer, Isaiah related thousands of magnificent, brilliantly articulated words, expressions, and prophecies in his book. These exist in various forms throughout Isaiah’s text. He set forth a variety of parallelisms, including those that include synonymous and antithetical elements, as well as complements, resultative relationships, gender matching, domains and subcategories, and many others (see chapter 6 in this volume). There are approximately 1,100 parallelistic structures in Isaiah.

Additionally, Isaiah’s use of figurative speech is of the highest quality. He employed a variety of elements, such as metaphors, similes, personification, synecdoche, metonymy, hyperbole, irony, apostrophe, interrogation, and dialogue, among others. These elements represent significant and fascinating details in Isaiah’s text. In short, Isaiah was a masterful rhetorician and the quintessential wordsmith who presented the word of God in an eloquent, persuasive, and powerful manner. It is an indisputable reality that he had an astounding command of the Hebrew language.

Why Is Isaiah’s Book So Hard to Understand?

We may well ask, if Isaiah’s book is so important to us and is full of such great prose, then why is it so difficult to comprehend? The following section presents four reasons why Isaiah’s writings are difficult to understand.

Isaiah’s Manner of Prophesying

Nephi stated, “Isaiah spake many things which were hard for many of my people to understand.” Why? Because “they know not concerning the manner of prophesying among the Jews” (2 Nephi 25:1; emphasis added). I will explain Isaiah’s manner of prophesying in chapter 5 of this volume.

Stiffneckedness, or Pride and Stubbornness

Jacob noted that some people were “stiffnecked” and “despised the words of plainness.” He further explained, “Behold, the Jews . . . killed the prophets, and sought for things that they could not understand. Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And because they desired it God hath done it, that they may stumble” (Jacob 4:14).

Types and Shadows

Similar to many other ancient prophets, Isaiah used types and shadows as he wrote and prophesied. King Benjamin explained, “Yet the Lord God saw that his people were a stiffnecked people, and he appointed unto them a law, even the law of Moses. And many signs, and wonders, and types, and shadows showed he unto them, concerning his coming; and also holy prophets spake unto them concerning his coming” (Mosiah 3:14–15; emphasis added. See also 2 Nephi 11:4; Alma 33:19–21).

Elder Bruce R. McConkie explained it this way: “Nephi chose to couch his prophetic utterances in plain and simple declarations. But among his fellow Hebrew prophets it was not always appropriate so to do. Because of the wickedness of the people, Isaiah and others often spoke in figures, using types and shadows to illustrate their points. Their messages were, in effect, hidden in parables (2 Nephi 25:1–8).” Elder McConkie continues:

For instance, the virgin birth prophecy is dropped into the midst of a recitation of local historical occurrences so that to the spiritually untutored it could be interpreted as some ancient and unknown happening that had no relationship to the birth of the Lord Jehovah into mortality some 700 years later (Isaiah 7). Similarly, many chapters dealing with latter-day apostasy and the second coming of Christ are written relative to ancient nations whose destruction was but a symbol, a type, and a shadow, of that which would fall upon all nations when the great and dreadful day of the Lord finally came. Chapters 13 and 14 are an example of this. Once we learn this system and use the interpretive keys found in the Book of Mormon and through latter-day revelation, we soon find the Isaiah passages unfolding themselves to our view.[1]

Casual Reading

Some individuals read Isaiah in a casual and easygoing manner, as if they are reading a novel, newspaper, or letter. But Jesus Christ commanded us to “search” Isaiah’s words—more specifically, to “search these things diligently” (3 Nephi 23:1). To “search” is to seek thoroughly and carefully. To be “diligent” is to be conscientious and to show care.

I have taught Isaiah (as written in the Hebrew Bible) at Brigham Young University for more than twenty-five years. Often, my classes will spend several minutes discussing the meaning or richness of a single word in a single verse of Isaiah, or we will spend an hour analyzing a single verse from Isaiah, exploring its significance and power in our lives. When we do this, we are endeavoring to search Isaiah’s words with great diligence. Such diligent searching has never been a chore or tedious exercise for us; rather, it is always a source of great joy, bringing us peace and spiritual contentment. We recall that Nephi wrote, “And now I write some of the words of Isaiah, that whoso of my people shall see these words may lift up their hearts and rejoice for all men” (2 Nephi 11:8; emphasis added).

For multiple reasons, the book of Isaiah is of great import to each of us. Some of these reasons are as follows:

1. Isaiah was a prophet to both the houses of Judah and Israel.
2. He was also a prophet to the nations; his prophecies were directed to Assyria, Babylon, Edom, Egypt, Moab, and other prominent kingdoms and powers.
3. The fact that Isaiah’s words are cited numerous times in the Book of Mormon, New Testament, and Dead Sea Scrolls underscores the significance of his writings to various ancient peoples.
4. Isaiah’s poetry—including his parallelisms and chiastic structures—are unparalleled in literature throughout the ages.
5. Additionally, his diversity of figures of speech and literary techniques demonstrate that he was a masterful penman, who presented God’s word in a most eloquent manner.
6. Finally, it is of great consequence that the resurrected Jesus Christ declared, “Great are the words of Isaiah” (3 Nephi 23:1).

Notes

[1] McConkie, “Keys to Understanding Isaiah,” 82–83.