A linear holistic structure layered over the former again shows that God’s ultimate plan for his people and for humanity is to receive them into a covenant relationship with him. Although they have rebelled by breaking the commandments that are the terms of his covenant and are suffering its curses or misfortunes, all is not lost. God seeks to restore them to his covenant and its blessings and will again prosper them as soon as they start complying with its terms.
God’s people break his law and word (Isaiah 1–9)
God empowers an archtyrant against his people (Isaiah 10–34)
God’s servant restores God’s repentant people (Isaiah 35–59)
God’s elect people inherit a millennial earth (Isaiah 60–66)
Resembling a literary pattern in the Ugaritic myth of Baal and Anath, Isaiah’s themes of Israel’s apostasy, judgment, restoration, and salvation parallel the Ugaritic themes of threat, war, victory, and feast. Instead of the Canaanite God Baal and his consort Anath being the heroes of the story, it is God’s end-time servant and his people Israel. Echoing the Ugaritic myth is the servant’s subduing the king of Assyria, whom Isaiah depicts as the false god Sea and River.
Apostasy—breaking God’s law
Isaiah 1:4Alas, a nation astray, a people weighed down by sin, the offspring of wrongdoers, perverse children: they have forsaken Jehovah, they have spurned the Holy One of Israel, they have lapsed into apostasy.
Isaiah 3:8–9Jerusalem will falter and Judea fall because their tongue and their actions are contrary to Jehovah, an affront to his glory before his very eyes. The look on their faces betrays them: they flaunt their sin like Sodom; they cannot hide it. Woe to their souls; they have brought disaster upon themselves!
Isaiah 5:7The vineyard of Jehovah of Hosts is the house of Israel and the people of Judah his cherished grove. He expected justice, but there was injustice; [he expected] righteousness, but there was an outcry.
Isaiah 9:15–17The elders or notables are the head, the prophets who teach falsehoods, the tail. The leaders of these people have misled them, and those who are led are confused. My Lord is not pleased with their young men, nor does he pity their fatherless and widows, because all alike are godless malefactors, and every mouth utters profanities.
Judgment—reaping God’s punishment
Isaiah 10:5–6Hail the Assyrian, the rod of my anger! He is a staff—my wrath in their hand. I will commission him against a godless nation, appoint him over the people [deserving] of my vengeance, to pillage for plunder, to spoliate for spoil, to tread underfoot like mud in the streets.
Isaiah 8:7–8My Lord will cause to come up over them the great and mighty waters of the River — the king of Assyria in all his glory. He will rise up over all his channels and overflow all his banks. He will sweep into Judea [like] a flood and, passing through, reach the very neck.
Isaiah 17:10–11You have forgotten your God, your salvation, and not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you plant choice crops and sow hybrid seed, and though you make them thrive the day you plant them, causing them to sprout the very morning you sow them, yet shall the harvest vanish in a day of diseases and incurable pain.
Isaiah 34:2Jehovah’s rage is upon all nations, his fury upon all their hosts; he has doomed them, consigned them to the slaughter.
Restoration—returning to God’s favor
Isaiah 40:1–2Comfort and give solace to my people, says your God; speak kindly to Jerusalem. Announce to her that she has served her term, that her guilt has been expiated. She has received from Jehovah’s hand double for all her sins.
Isaiah 49:6He said: It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore those preserved of Israel. I will also appoint you to be a light to the nations, that my salvation may be to the end of the earth.
Isaiah 35:1–3Wilderness and arid land shall be jubilant; the desert shall rejoice when it blossoms like the crocus. Joyously it shall break out in flower, singing with delight; it shall be endowed with the glory of Lebanon, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. The glory of Jehovah and the splendor of our God they shall see [there]. Strengthen the hands grown feeble, steady the failing knees.
Isaiah 58:11–12Jehovah will direct you continually; he will satisfy your needs in the dearth and bring vigor to your limbs. And you will become like a well-watered garden, like a spring of unfailing waters. They who came out of you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will restore the foundations of generations ago. You shall be called a rebuilder of fallen walls, a restorer of streets for resettlement.
Salvation—inheriting blessedness
Isaiah 60:20–21Your sun shall set no more, nor your moon wane: to you Jehovah shall be an endless Light when your days of mourning are fulfilled. Your entire people shall be righteous; they shall inherit the earth forever — they are the branch I have planted, the work of my hands, in which I am glorified.
Isaiah 61:10–11I rejoice exceedingly in Jehovah; my soul delights in my God. For he clothes me in garments of salvation, he arrays me in a robe of righteousness — like a bridegroom dressed in priestly attire, or a bride adorned with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its vegetation, and as a garden causes what is sown to spring up in it, so will my Lord Jehovah cause righteousness and praise to spring up in the presence of all nations.
Isaiah 62:11–12Jehovah has made proclamation to the end of the earth: Tell the Daughter of Zion, See, your Salvation comes, his reward with him, his work preceding him. They shall be called the holy people, the redeemed of Jehovah; and you shall be known as in demand, a city never deserted.