are probably several small collections, such as chaps. ii,-iv., embraced in this larger section.

(2.) Chaps. xiii.-xxiii., prophecies on foreign nations. These prophecies occupy the middle place in the book, as prophecies on the nations do in Ezekiel, and possibly also did in Jeremiah. The prophecies are miscellaneous and of very different dates, but the heading ‘Oracle' (A.V. ‘Burden,' Heb. massa') common to most of them, seems to show that they form a distinct collection. The great apocalyptic prophecy, chaps. xxiv.-xxvii., which follows this collection of oracles may have been intended to form a general conclusion to them. Chaps. xiii.-xxiii. are occupied with the destinies of individual nations; chaps. xxiv.xxvii. is a vision of the destiny of the universal heathen world and of the consummation of the kingdom of God.

(3.) Chaps. xxviii.-xxxv. Chap. xxviii. ff. is a collection of Isaiah's prophecies belonging to the Sennacherib period (704-701). The collection was probably made by the prophet himself (xxx. 8). It contains many glimpses of the final felicity and peace when the Assyrian terror shall be only a memory; and a more formal vision of the End, chaps. xxxiv.-xxxv., has been appended to it.

(4.) The historical appendix, chaps. xxxvi.-xxxix. The passage forms a natural close to the Book of Isaiah's prophecies, furnishing details of his career and influence additional to what is given in chaps. vi., vii. and xx. The passage is taken, with some variations, from the Book of Kings, and resembles the histories of Elijah and Elisha preserved in that book.

The Order of Succession and Date of the Prophecies. Owing to the uncertain date of many of the prophecies, any

attempt to assign them to the different periods of the prophet's career can have only partial success.

(1.) From the prophet's call to the Syro-Ephraimitic war, 740-735. Chaps. vi. ; ii.-iv.; v. ; possibly ix. 8-x. 4. Much of chap. i. is probably of this period, though some parts may

be later.

(2.) During and after the Syro-Ephraimitic war, 735-732. Chaps. vii. I-ix. 7; xvii; xi. ?

(3.) During the earlier Assyrian period, 730-705. Chaps. xiv. 28-32, about 727; xxviii. 1-6, before 722; xx. in 711; x. 5 ff. appears later than 717, and possibly it belongs to the Sennacherib period.

(4.) The later Assyrian period, 704-701, Chaps. xiv. 24-27; x. 5-34? xviii.; xxii.; xxviii.-xxxii. (xxxiii. ?); xxxvii. 22-35.

Isaiah's Religious Conceptions. The prophet's general ideas, and the order in which they rise out of one another, appear in his inaugural Vision. This consists of four steps, each of which arises out of the preceding. (1) The vision of Jehovah the Sovereign, the Holy One of Israel, whose glory fills the whole earth; (2) the reaction of this vision on his mind, making him think of himself in connection with the Sovereign whom he had seen, and fear death because of his own uncleanness; (3) the purification of his lips and taking away of his sin; and (4) his immediate impulse to enter the service of the King and be His messenger to the people. The Vision did not bring new thoughts to the prophet; it was mainly the concentration of old thoughts and their fusion into a fiery intensity, such as compelled him to take a public place among his people.

(1.) Idea of God. It is the sovereignty or majesty of Jehovah that is his main thought. The conception is singularly pure and lofty. It is a worshipper's thoughts when he draws near to God. The vision is but the service in the Temple transfigured. The prophet fell into a trance while beholding the service and musing on its meaning. Suddenly the house and the service and the ministers became transfigured; the walls went apart, and the roof lifted itself up till it seemed the high dome of God's palace on high under which he stood, and the Lord the King sat upon His throne receiving the adoration of all holy beings. The mental history through which the prophet passed has a singular psychological sequence. And his own experience will be that of his people: the fire of God burnt up the impurity of his lips, and the filth of Jerusalem shall be consumed with a blast of judgment and a blast of burning (iv. 4). Jehovah is a fire in contact with the sin of His people, which must either consume them or purify it.

(2.) Idea of Sin. Corresponding to the prophet's conception of Jehovah as the King of an infinite Majesty is his conception of the sin of men. This is also a purely spiritual thing. It is insensibility to God: to His goodness-the ox knoweth his owner, Israel doth not know (i. 2); to His majesty (iii. 11), and to the operations of His hand among men (v. 12). This insensibility, this want in the mind of the consciousness of God is sin, and the source of all sin; it leads to that levity which characterises human life (v. 11 ff.), a levity which in the presence of the manifest 'work' of Jehovah is so insensate as to be an inexpiable sin (chap. xxii.) ; and it leads to that pride of self which provokes the eyes of His glory. This proud consciousness of self and

absence of the thought of God is what inspires all sinful conduct. It is the sin of the King of Assyria: the Lord 'will punish the fruit of the proud heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his high looks' (x. 12). Similarly it is the 'pride of heart' of the inhabitants of Samaria that brings the chastisement of 'adversaries' upon them (ix. 8 ff.). And the sin of the women of Jerusalem is the same: 'Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched-out necks, walking and mincing as they go,' therefore their beauty shall be marred (iii. 16 ff.). There is a certain sternness in the prophet's temper. The levity of men and their insensibility to the Sovereign Ruler Who is alone exalted, awakens a kind of animosity in his mind, and he feels that the insensibility must be broken in upon. The Lord will reveal Himself in His Majesty, and shake terribly the earth. And realising His manifestation as actually breaking on the world, the prophet apostrophises men, 'Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust from before the terror of the Lord and from the glory of His Majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day' (ii. 10 ff.). Naturally, when Jehovah reveals Himself, all else called god disappears; 'the idols shall utterly pass away.'

(3.) Religion. If the essence and source of sin be this insensibility to the Majesty of God, the essence of true religion is the opposite condition of mind: it is the constant consciousness of God, humility and reverence before Him Who is alone exalted, and Trust or Faith in the Sovereign Ruler. Isaiah has been called the prophet of Faith. He is the first to define it formally as the principle of conduct, whether in politics or

religion. To Ahaz his words were, 'If ye will not believe, ye shall not be established (vii. 9). Whether the kingdom of Judah is to stand or fall hangs on Faith in Jehovah in king and people. And of himself he says, 'I will trust in Jehovah, Who hideth His face from the house of Israel, and will wait for Him’ (viii. 17). And the same note is heard all through his prophecies: 'They that are escaped of the house of Jacob shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel in truth’(x. 20). ‘In that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall be toward the Holy One of Israel' (xvii. 7, cp. xxx. 15, xxxi. 1-3, etc.). The principle of religion is the same in the Old Testament as in the New.

(4.) Thoughts of the Future. In his earlier prophecies (chaps. i.-vi.) it is chiefly the internal condition of the people that occupies the prophet's attention, their insensibility to God, and the social and civil wrongs everywhere prevailing. The Sovereign Ruler must interpose and reveal Himself. His revelation will be a desolating judgment upon the nation, but behind the judgment a new era shall begin (i. 24-26). These thoughts the prophet expressed in the name of his child, Shearjashub, 'a remnant shall turn' to the Lord, and often in his preaching. The thoughts are irrepressible presentiments and moral necessities. No instrument of the judgment in Jehovah's hand, no foreign nation as the rod of His anger, seems as yet thought of. But when Ahaz, in his terror of the coalition of Syria and Ephraim against him (B.C. 735), resolved to appeal to the King of Assyria to interpose in his behalf the prophet received a new illumination. He sees his conceptions of the destiny of his people about to take shape in history. The conditions