"Only Life Changes"

Question:
What extremity will this lead to, according to the prophet Isaiah?
Answer:
In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, “We will eat our own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!”
Isaiah 4:1 NIV
Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives violated.
Isaiah 13:16 NIV
“I will make mere youths their officials; children will rule over them.”
Isaiah 3:4 NIV

“Question:
What was the internal situation in the nation at the time Isaiah began his ministry?
Answer:
His call to prophecy about 742 BCE coincided with the beginnings of the westward expansion of the Assyrian empire, which threatened Israel and which Isaiah proclaimed to be a warning from God to a godless people. {“It reads in Isaiah 3:8 NIV: Jerusalem staggers, Judah is falling; their words and deeds are against the Lord, defying his glorious presence.”}

Question:
Under the terms of his contract, how long does Isaiah have to remain at is task?
Answer:
Then I said, “For how long, Lord?” And he answered: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged.
Isaiah 6:11 NIV:

Question:
How is the Prophet Isaiah summoned to begin his work?
Answer:
Isaiah, Hebrew Yeshaʿyahu (“God Is Salvation”), (flourished 8th century BCE,) The earliest recorded event in Isaiah’s life is his call to prophecy as now found in the sixth chapter of the Book of Isaiah; this occurred about 742 BCE. The vision (probably in the Jerusalem Temple) that made Isaiah a prophet is described in a first-person narrative. (A throne high and lifted up” 6:1) According to this account he “saw” God and was overwhelmed by his contact with the divine glory and holiness. (“I am a man of unclean lips. and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. 6:5) He became agonizingly aware of God’s need for a messenger to the people of Israel, and, despite his own sense of inadequacy. ( Receives assurance of pardon. Your guilt is taken away, and sins forgiven.” 6:7) Isaiah offered himself for God’s service: “Here am I! Send me.” He was commissioned to give voice to the divine word. It was no light promise; he was to condemn his own people and watch the nation crumble and perish. As Isaiah tells it, he was only too aware that, coming with such a message, he would experience bitter opposition, willful disbelief, and ridicule, to withstand which he would have to be inwardly fortified. (All this came to him in the form of a vision and ended as a sudden, firm, and lifelong resolve. 6:8)

Question:

At what points has the text of Isaiah been corrected by reference to the Isaiah scroll, which was among the first of the finds in the Dead Sea Caves?

Answer:
A thousand years older than any copies of Isaiah that had hitherto been known, this has necessitated minor correction at thirteen points: 3:24 (Insertion of the word “Shame”); 14:4 (“Insolent fury” replaces “Golden City”); 14:30 (“I” replaces “He”); 15:9 (“Dibon” twice replaces “Dimon”); 21:8 (“he who saw” replaces a Lion”); 23:2 (“your messengers passed over the sea” replaces “who passed over the sea, they replenished you”); 33:8 (“witnesses” replaces “cities”); 45:2 (“the mountains” replaces “the swellings”); 45:8 (“that salvation may sprout forth” replaces “that they may bring forth salvation”); 49:24 (“tyrant” replaces “righteous man”); 51:19 (“who will comfort you?” replaces “how may I comfort you?”); 56:12 (“us” replaces “Me”); 60:19 (addition of “by night”). In each case the corruption had resulted from a copy list’s error in the days when all books had to be written out by hand. In each case, the corrected text makes better sense than the version previously known.

Question:
What theological differences are there between 1 Isaiah and 2 Isaiah?
Answer:
Examples of the doctrinal differences they mention are that “Second Isaiah” does not mention the Messianic King or faithful remnant of Israel, but instead emphasizes the suffering Servant. Another is that God’s rule and uniqueness was also more emphasized in “Second Isaiah”.
1 Isaiah emphasizes the holiness of God {Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts 6:3}
2 Isaiah stresses His everlastingness: “Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, The Lord, the first, and with the last; I AM HE!” {41:4}
1 Isaiah pictures the coming of the Messianic King: And the government will be on His shoulder, and His name will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace'” {9:6}
2 Isaiah revolves about the idea of the Suffering Servant: He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and aquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not” {53:3}.
The author of 1 Isaiah was himself called to be a prophet{“Whom shall I send? “Send me” 6:8}
In 2 Isaiah it is the community of Israel that is called to be a prophet “To the nations” {42:1}, whose function it is to establish “Justice on the earth” {42:4} and be “a light to the nations” {42:6; 49:6}.

Question:
What linguistic arguments are there for believing that the work of more than one man in Isaiah is bound up in this role?
Answer:
The style of 1 Isaiah has been described as “Condensed, lapidary, and plastic,” while that of 2 Isaiah is referred to as “gentle” and “Joy,” 1 Isaiah engages “Force” and “Glory,” 2 Isaiah relies upon “Persuasion” and “Sadness.” This difference in style can be observed even in translation. In addition, 2 Isaiah has a special vocabulary, with a considerable number of frequently recurring words not found at all in 1 Isaiah. Among these are “to choose” {41:8; 43:10; 44:2;} and “My chosen” {43:20; 45:4; 65:9,15,22} “PRAISE” {42:8,10,12; 43:21; 48:9; 60:18; 61:3,11; 62:7,9; 63:7; 64:11}”Shoot” or Spring up like grass” {44:4; 55:10;61:11 (twice); 45:8; 58:8; 42:9; 43:19} “Break forth into singing” {44:23; 49:13; 52:9; 54:1; 55:12} “Favor” in the sense of “Good will” or “Acceptance” {49:8; 56:7; 58:5; 60:10; 61:2}.

Question:
What are the historical reasons for believing that not all parts of Isaiah’s book date from the same era?
Answer:
Another widely held view is that parts of the first half of the book (chapters 1–39) originated with the historical prophet, interspersed with prose commentaries written in the time of King Josiah 100 years later, and that the remainder of the book dates from immediately before and immediately after the end of the exile in Babylon, almost two centuries after the time of the historical prophet, and perhaps these later chapters represent the work of an ongoing school of prophets who prophesied in accordance with his prophecies. The book of Isaiah provides us with the most comprehensive prophetic picture of Jesus Christ in the entire Old Testament. It includes the full scope of His life: the announcement of His coming (Isaiah 40:3–5), His virgin birth (7:14), His proclamation of the good news (61:1), His sacrificial death (52:13–53:12), and His return to claim His own. Who knew?

Question:
What is the date of 2nd Isaiah?
Answer:
Isaiah received his call “in the year that King Uzziah died” (742 B.C.), and his latest recorded activity is dated in 701 B.C. Only chapters 1–39, however, can be assigned to this period. Chapters 40–66 are much later in origin and therefore known as Deutero-Isaiah (Second Isaiah). Second Isaiah (40-55) probably dates to the Babylonian exile (ca 545 B.C.E.). (549-537B.C.)

Question:
What title is given to the second part of the book of Isaiah?
Answer:
Deutero-Isaiah, or 2nd book of Isaiah, has come to be the conventional designation for Chapters 40-66. Some scholars discern further refinements, confining 2nd book of Isaiah to Chapters 40-48, with Chapters 49-55 regarded as a post-exilic appendix, and Chapter 56-66, sometimes called Trito-Isaiah, or 3rd Isaiah, as belonging to the age of Ezra and Nehemiah.