Week 23 Isaiah 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. That’s the first verse of Isaiah’s long prophecy. It says that Isaiah’s oracles were specifically for Judah & Jerusalem. And the timeframe was during the reigns of four kings – Uzziah Jotham Ahaz & Hezekiah.
If Isaiah had divided his 66 chapters equally among the four kings each would have gotten 25% of the book – 16.5 chapters each. But that number isn’t even close. I checked a word book to see how much space each king got:
• Uzziah is named twice…nothing is said about him.
• Jotham is the same. Named twice and that’s it.
• Ahaz did actually meet with Isaiah in chapter 7.
• Hezekiah was treated the most liberally. Chapters 36-39 tell the king’s story and Isaiah’s advisory role.
So three of the kings barely rate as bit players. And Hezekiah – at only about 6% of the content – doesn’t exactly dominate the book. If Isaiah had more dealings with these kings he doesn’t let on. The only thing that the reference to the kings does do is give me a time-stamp of when Isaiah was working. Other than that the book is all about other things and other people.
Note: quote from Isaiah 1:1 (ESV). References to Uzziah Jotham & Ahaz are in Isaiah 1:1 & 7:1. Ahaz connects briefly with Isaiah in 7. Hezekiah’s four-chapter-long story is in Isaiah 36-39 (I’ve already read it twice this year – in 2 Kings 18-20 & 2 Chronicles 29-32).