1. Overall Structure

Ever since B. Duhm’s epochal commentary (1892), scholars have generally divided the Book of Isaiah into three parts:

• ¶ Isaiah I, chaps. 1–39, according to the dating in 1:1; 6:1; 36:1, the testament of the prophet Isaiah from the eighth century b.c.;

• Isaiah II (Deutero-Isaiah), chaps. 40–55, which the reference to Babylon (43:14; 47) and the election of the Persian king Cyrus (558–29; Isa. 44:28; 45:1) identify as an exilic prophecy; and

• Isaiah III (Trito-Isaiah)…