Note 2 — ISAIAH.
Reading edition
The title of the book is “The vision of Isaiah,” which suggests these remarks—
(1.) Being a vision, it will frequently speak of events that are yet future, as if they had already occurred. So in iii. 8: “Jerusalem is ruined; Judah is fallen.” In v. 13: “Therefore my people are gone into captivity.”
(2.) What is seen in vision must be subject to the laws of perspective. One who views the snowy Alps from a distance may see two mountain peaks, which really are many miles apart, as one object. The illustration is imperfect; yet it may serve to explain how, to the eye of a seer, a nearer event may be blended with one that is in the same direction, but vastly more remote; the type, for instance, melting into the antitype, or the interval between the first and second advents of the Messiah being indiscernible.
(3.) It is, as a whole, The Vision;—one vision. It consists, indeed, of various parts; yet from the very outset these represent the same vision. Judah is rebellious; is sentenced to exile; is redeemed; is purified. These elements, on a large scale, compose the book as a whole; and, on a smaller scale, they compose the first chapter. The body is made up of portions similar in quality to itself, and to each other. The visions are greatly diversified in size, form, colouring, and other detail; but in essential characteristics it is one vision.—Dr. Kay, in The Speaker’s Commentary, vol. v. p. 19.