he Hebrews (chap. 11:37);
but all such traditions are uncertain. Isaiah prophesied "in the days of
Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah." Chap. 1:1. If, with
many, we suppose him to have entered upon his office in the last year of
Uzziah, we have sixty-two years to the close of Hezekiah's reign. He
certainly exercised the prophetical office to the fifteenth year of
Hezekiah's reign, and possibly through the remaining fourteen years. As
the superscription is silent respecting any prophecies uttered in
Manasseh's reign, we are not warranted to extend the period of his
activity beyond that of Hezekiah, although he may have survived him, and
have perished in the way indicated by the Jewish tradition.

6. The book of Isaiah naturally falls into two great divisions. The
first, after an introductory chapter, contains a great variety of
prophetic messages, delivered on special occasions. Chaps. 2-39. The
second division, comprising the remaining twenty-seven chapters, seems
to have had no special occasion, but to have been written after the
overthrow of Sennacherib's army, probably in the old age of the prophet,
for the comfort and encouragement of God's people in all coming ages.
"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God"--this is its great
theme as expressed in the introductory verse. Of the various plans for
_classifying the contents_ of the first part, all that rest upon the
rationalistic view that the book is a collection of writings belonging
to different authors and ages are false and groundless. Among
evangelical men, who hold the unity of the book and its authorship by
Isaiah, there have been various schemes of classification. It has been
proposed by Drechsler and others to arrange all of Isaiah's prophecies
around two great central events in the history of his times; namely, the
invasion of Judah in the reign of Ahaz by the allied forces of Israel
and Syria (chap. 7), and in Hezekiah's reign by Sennacherib, king of
Assyria (chaps. 36, 37). That these were the two great crises of
Isaiah's age, and that many of his prophecies had reference to them
directly or indirectly, cannot be denied; but to affirm that _all_ his
prophecies, extending over a period of from forty-eight to sixty-two
years, were connected with those two events, either directly or by way
of anticipation beforehand and natural sequence afterwards, is more than
can be established by any probable arguments. We must be careful not to
t