Literary Devices in Book of Isaiah
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
The Book of Isaiah is set in Judah during the reigns of King Ahaz and King Hezekiah, around the eighth century BCE, and it's often accepted that this is the period when Proto-Isaiah (chapters 1-39)...
Genre
Isaiah is one of the major prophets, along with Jeremiah and Ezekiel. When someone thinks of a prophet and the kind of things a prophet tends to write and say, Isaiah is liable to spring immediatel...
What's Up With the Title?
The title is Isaiah's name, which seems to check out—seeing as how he's the main central figure in the book and all (aside from God, that is). Since Isaiah's character speaks most of the words in...
What's Up With the Ending?
In the second to last chapter of Isaiah, we get a vision of the Holy Mountain, of that promised reign of peace that's going to ultimate and permanently be so awesome. But in the very last chapter,...
Trivia
The Book of Isaiah claims the 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were massacred by an angel before they could attack Jerusalem. But the Greek Historian, Herodotus, somewhat similarly claimed that, while fig...
Sex Drugs And Violence Rating
There's not much sex in Isaiah, and pretty much no drugs—unless you count illicit drink-mixing competitions—but there's a ton of violence. It's not quite as psychedelic and disturbing as the vi...
Allusions
Matthew ArnoldThe British poet and literary critic, Matthew Arnold, loved the Book of Isaiah (he thought it was even better than Shakespeare, apparently). Although he was a pretty secular reader an...