Isaiah

Isaiah is the towering prophet of Judah, ministering through the Assyrian crisis of the eighth century BC. The first half warns of judgement on a faithless nation and the surrounding powers, yet shot through with promises of a coming king from David's line — 'For to us a child is born' (9:6) — and of God's universal reign.

The later chapters speak comfort to exiles: the promise of return, the majestic vision of the Servant of the Lord who suffers for the sins of others (chapter 53), and the hope of new heavens and a new earth. Quoted more than any other prophet in the New Testament, Isaiah is often called 'the fifth Gospel'.