The greatest Old Testament prophet of the second period, as Elijah was of the first, and Daniel of the third.  He was the son of Amoz, who must not be confounded with the prophet Amos.  It is not known to what tribe he belonged, but he lived in Jerusalem.  He saw visions concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekial, kings of Judah (Isa. i. 1).  His formal designatino to the prophetic office was in the last year of King Uzziah (vi. 1-13), B.C. 742, chapters i.-v. of Isaiah's prophecies having been delivered, probably, in the reign of Jotham, Uzziah's successor.  From the time when the seer began his prophetic ministry, he was the adviser of the successive kings, conveying them messages from Jehovah, and, in some cases at least, inducing them to act on the advice which he offered.  He supported Ahaz when Syria and Israel in alliance sought to capture Jerusalem, and put a creature of their own upon the throne.  We learn that at this crisis Isaiah was a married man (viii. 3), with a son Shear-Jashub (meaning "a remnant shall return") (vii. 3).  A second son was afterwards born to him.  This one was called by the Divine direction Maher-shalal-hash-baz, meaning "(the) spoil speedeth, (the) prey hasteth" or "spoil quickly, rob quickly" (Sayce), both names enshrining prophecies.  Isaiah's wife is called a prophetess (viii. 3), either by courtesy, or more probably because she herself uttered predictions.  Though the extreme peril into which Jerusalem was brought in Ahaz's reign was from the confederacy between Israel and Syria, the more permanent danger was really from another quarter, namely, from Assyria, which was anxious to possess itself of Palestine, to open a way for the conquest of Egypt, which was its great rival.  Isaiah's counsel was to avoid entangling alliances with any of the Gentile nations, and simply trust in Jehovah (viii. 12, etc.). [Immanuel]  Ahaz unwisely rejected this advice, called in Tiglath-Pileser, the founder of the second Assyrian empire, and at once sank into the position of his vassal.  Under Hezekiah the prophet's counsel was treated with more respect.  To place events in the order in which they are arranged by the Assyrian monuments, first Isaiah carried Divine messages in connection with the king's dangerous sickness (xxxviii.), then followed the embassy of Merodach-Baladan, 712, 711 B.C. (xxxix.), the conquest of Jerusalem by Sargon.  711 B.C. (x., xxii.), and the unsuccessful siege of the same capital by Sennacherib, B.C. 701 (xxxv., xxxvii.).  During the last-named crisis in the history of the chosen people, Isaiah's prophecies and encouraging words were important factors in producing the successful resistance to the besieging army.  Hezekiah died B.C. 697.  Whether Isaiah was then alive is doubtful.  His predictions, it will be remembered, did not extend beyond the reign of Hezekiah (Isa. i. 1), and it is natural to suppose that their cessation was produced by the prophet's death.  On the other hand, if "the rest of the acts of Hezekiah" recorded by Isaiah mean all that were performed while the king lived, his biographer must have survived him (2 Chron. xxxii. 32).  But compare the wording in xxvi. 22.  If, again, the murder of Sennacherib and the accession of Esarhaddon, which did not take place till 681 B.C., were recorded by Isaiah himself (Isa. xxxvii. 38), then he must have lived at least till that year.  Doubtful Jewish tradition affirms that he was martyred by Manasseh, having been sawn asunder.  But it is thought that this cruel method of death was not introduced till the Persian period, and that it is an error to suppose, as some have done, that Heb. xi. 37 alludes to the manner of Isaiah's death.
    ¶ The Book of the Prophet Isaiah.—The first in order of the Old Testament prophetic books, both in the Hebrew and the English Bible... (The Sunday School Teacher's Bible Manual, Hunter, 1894)