One Isaiah
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Take for example, first, the prophet's constant reference to Judah and Jerusalem, 1:7-9; 3:8; 5:13; 24:19; 25:2; 40 :2, 9; 62 :4. Also, to the temple and its ritual of worship and sacrifice. In chapter 1 :11-15, when all was prosperous, the prophet complained that the people are profuse and formal in their ceremonies and sacrifices; in chapter 43 :23, 24, on the contrary, when the country had been overrun by the Assyrians and Sennacherib had beseiged the city, the prophet complains that they had not brought to Jehovah the sheep of their burnt offerings, nor honored Him with their sacrifices. In chapter 66 :1-3, 6, 20, not only is the existence of the temple and the observance of the temple ritual presupposed, but those are sentenced who place their trust in the material temple, and the outward ceremonials of temple worship. As for the "exile", the prophet's attitude to it throughout is that of both anticipation and realization. Thus in chapter 57 :1, judgment is only threatened, not yet inflicted: "The righteous is taken away from the evil to come." That is to say, the exile is described as still future. On the other hand, in ehapter 3 :8, "Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen"; while in chapter 11 :11, 12, "the Lord will set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant . from the four corners of the earth." To interpret such statements literally without regard to Isaiah's manifest attitude to the exile, leads only to confusion. No prophet realized so keenly or described so vividly the destiny of the Hebrews. 4. The Predictive Element. This is the strongest proof of the unity of the Book of Isaiah. Prediction is the very essence of prophecy. Isaiah was pre-eminently a prophet of the future . With unparalleled suddenness he repeatedly leaps from despai-r to hope, from thre;it to promise, from the actual to the ideal. What Kent says of "Deutero-Isaiah" may with equal justice be said of Isaiah himself: "While in touch with his own age, the great unknown prophet lives in the atmosphere of the past and the
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