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 The
Prophet Isaiah: Witness to History
by
John A. Tvedtnes, FARMS
The Book of Isaiah is
the longest of the prophetic books of the Old Testament. Modern
Bible readers tend to think of Isaiah as the great visionary who
foresaw the coming of the Messiah and the captivity and gathering
of Israel. But most of his prophecies were for his own day and concerned
the political turmoil of the latter part of the eighth and the early
part of the seventh centuries B.C.
The preface to Isaiah’s book, found in Isaiah 1:1, indicates
that his ministry occurred during the reigns of “Uzziah, Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.” This means that Isaiah
began to prophesy no later than 740 B.C. Since his record notes
the death of the Assyrian king Sennacherib and the rise of his successor
Esarhaddon in 681 B.C. (Isaiah 37:38), Isaiah must have prophesied
for some six decades, during which time he saw much war and political
turmoil. It was one of the most eventful periods in ancient Near
Eastern history.
The latter part of the eighth century B.C. saw numerous struggles
on the part of various nations and city state of the Near East to
retain their independence in the face of Assyrian expansion. In
747 B.C., the Babylonian king Nabonassar broke away from Assyria.
About the same time, the rulers of Napata (also known as Kush, Nubia,
and Meroe), in what is today Sudan, began moving into Egypt, where
they established a rival dynasty in the area of Thebes.
Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria had already subdued most of the small
kingdoms of Syria and had taken away part of the kingdom of Israel.
The struggle was carried on by Shalmaneser V, who laid siege to
the Israelite capital of Samaria. When he died in 722 B.C., his
successor, Sargon II, managed to complete the job and deported large
numbers of Israelites from their homeland.
While Sargon was busy with Israel, the Elamites and Babylonians
allied against him and were able to prevent Assyrian expansion to
the southeast. Concentrating his efforts in the west, he completed
the capture of the Phoenician city Tyre (after a 6 year siege),
defeated the Syro Philistine confederacy, and received tribute from
Egypt. In 717 716, he defeated and annexed Carchemish and also beat
the army of Pharaoh Osorkon III in a battle that ended the Egyptian
22nd Dynasty. He then turned his attention to the northwest, defeating
and annexing to his empire Cilicia and all of the Neo-Hittite kingdoms
beyond the Taurus Mountains, in modern-day Turkey.
Meanwhile, the kingdoms of Judah, Moab, Edom and Philistia plotted
with Egypt against the Assyrians. In response to this threat, in
712 B.C., Sargon subdued Judah--then ruled by the anti Assyrian
king Hezekiah--and annexed the Philistine port city of Ashdod (see
Isaiah 20). At the same time, he allowed Shabaka of Nubia to reconquer
Egypt. Two years later, Sargon made the Medes of what is now northern
Iran his vassals.
In 709 BC, Sargon was finally able to reconquer Babylon and become
its king. He then turned his attention southward and fought the
Aramaeans of what is now southern Iraq. Meanwhile, Mita of the Mushki
(known as Midas, king of Phrygia, in Greek mythology) offered his
friendship and presents were sent to Sargon from as far away as
Dilmun (modern Bahrain) and Cyprus. True to his martial nature,
Sargon died in battle and was succeeded by his son Sennacherib in
705 B.C. The new king spend many years at war with Elam, allowing
some of the western nations to reassert their independence. In 703
B.C., the Babylonian king Merodach-Baladan returned from exile in
Elam and led an Aramaean uprising in Babylon, regaining the throne.
Encouraged by this, the Egyptians convinced Judah and the Philistine
and Phoenician city-states to break with Assyria, resulting in the
famous invasion of 701 B.C., when Sennacherib took 46 Judean cities.
While he was besieging the city of Lachish, some 20 miles southwest
of Jerusalem, Sennacherib sent emissaries to also lay siege to king
Hezekiah’s capital, Jerusalem. Reading the accounts in 2 Kings
18:17 and Isaiah 20:1, English readers get the impression that the
Assyrian leaders were named Tartan, Rabsaris and Rabshakeh. In actual
fact, however, these are military titles used in ancient Assyria
and Babylonia and known to us from ancient tablets unearthed in
Iraq.
The Assyrian officers spoke to the Jews in Hebrew (“the Jews’
language” of 2 Kings 18:26), which was displeasing to the
Jewish leaders. Not wanting the people of the city to understand
what was being said, they asked that the conversation be carried
on in Aramaic (“Syrian”), which was then the lingua
franca of the Near East, used in trade and international relations,
spoken only by the upper class. But the Assyrians, wanting to persuade
the people of the city not to resist, continued to deliver their
message in the native tongue.
Sennacherib’s successors, Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, spent
much of their time at war with the Egyptians, notably against the
Nubian king Taharqa, known from the Bible as Tirhakah (2 Kings 19:9;
Isaiah 37:9). In 663 B.C., the Assyrian army was able to move far
up the Nile river to sack the capital city of Thebes. The Assyrians
were firmly in control of the largest empire the world had known
to that time.
Many of the prophecies of Isaiah reflect the events of his time.
He foresaw the fall of Israel and Judah and neighboring kingdoms
to the Assyrians and the ultimate fall of Assyria to a combined
Babylonian-Medan army in 605 B.C. As we read the book of Isaiah,
we see history in both retrospect and in prophecy.
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