Editing Book of Isaiah (section)

== Themes ==
[[Image:Isaiah Wall.jpg|thumb|right|[[Swords to ploughshares|Isaiah 2:4]] is taken as an unofficial mission statement by the [[United Nations]]. (Isaiah Wall in [[Ralph Bunche Park]], a [[New York City]] park near [[United Nations Headquarters|UN headquarters]].)]]

=== Overview ===
The Book of Isaiah focuses on the main role of Jerusalem in God's plan for the world, seeing centuries of history as though they were all the single vision of the 8th-century prophet Isaiah.{{sfn|Sweeney|1998|p= 78}}

* Proto-Isaiah speaks of Israel's desertion of God and what will follow: Israel will be destroyed by foreign enemies, but after the people, the country and Jerusalem are punished and purified, a remnant of Israel will live in God's place in Zion, governed by God's chosen king, under the presence and protection of God.
* Deutero-Isaiah has as its subject the liberation of Israel from captivity in Babylon in another [[The Exodus|Exodus]], which the God of Israel will arrange using Cyrus, the Persian conqueror, as his agent.
* Trito-Isaiah concerns Jerusalem, the Temple, the Sabbath, and Israel's salvation.{{sfn|Lemche|2008|pp=18–20}} (More explicitly, it concerns questions current among Jews living in Jerusalem and Judea in the [[Second Temple period|post-Exilic]] period about who is a God-loving Jew and who is not).{{sfn|Lemche|2008|p=233}}

[[Walter Brueggemann]] has described this overarching narrative as "a continued meditation upon the destiny of Jerusalem".{{sfn|Brueggemann|2003|p= 160}}

=== Holiness, righteousness, and God's plan ===
God's plan for the world is based on his choice of Jerusalem as the place where he will manifest himself, and of the line of [[David]] as his earthly representative – a theme that may possibly have originated with Jerusalem's reprieve from [[Assyrian siege of Jerusalem|Assyrian attack]] in 701 BCE.{{sfn|Petersen|2002|pp=91–94}} God is "the holy one of Israel"; justice and righteousness are the qualities that mark the essence of God, and Israel has offended God through unrighteousness.{{sfn|Petersen|2002|pp=89–90}} Isaiah speaks out for the poor and the oppressed and against corrupt princes and judges, but unlike the prophets [[book of Amos|Amos]] and [[book of Micah|Micah]] he roots righteousness not in Israel's covenant with God but in God's holiness.{{sfn|Petersen|2002|pp=89–90}}

=== Monotheism ===
Isaiah 44:6 contains the first clear statement of Yahwist [[monotheism]]: "I am the first and I am the last; beside me there is no God". In Isaiah 44:09–20, this develops into a satire on the making and worship of idols, mocking the foolishness of the carpenter who worships the idol that he himself has carved. While Yahweh had shown his superiority to other gods before, in Second Isaiah he becomes the sole God of the world. This model of monotheism became the defining characteristic of post-Exilic [[Judaism]] and provided the basis for Christianity and for [[Islam]].{{sfn|Coogan|2009|pp=335–336}}

=== A new Exodus ===
A central theme in Second Isaiah is that of a new Exodus – the return of the exiled people Israel from Babylon to Jerusalem. The author imagines a ritualistic return to Zion (Judah), led by Yahweh. The importance of this theme is indicated by its placement at the beginning and end of Second Isaiah (40:3–5, 55:12–13). This new Exodus is repeatedly linked with Israel's [[The Exodus|Exodus]] from Egypt to Canaan under divine guidance, but with new elements. These links include the following:
* The original Exodus participants left "in great haste" (Ex 12:11, Deut 16:3), whereas the participants in this new Exodus will "not go out in great haste" (Isa 52:12).
* The land between Egypt and Canaan of the first Exodus was a "great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland" (Deut 8:15), but in this new Exodus, the land between Babylon (Mesopotamia) and the Promised Land will be transformed into a paradise, where the mountains will be lowered and the valleys raised to create level road (Isa 40:4).
* In the first Exodus, God provided water, but sparingly. In the new Exodus, God will "make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water" (Isa 41:18).{{sfn|Coogan|2009|p= 333}}