The Words of Isaiah — A Study Guide
All sixty-six chapters of Isaiah, arranged by what each one is about, with in-depth studies of the chapters that matter most — laid out in the Hebrew poetic forms Isaiah actually wrote in, so the structure itself shows you the doctrine.
A Commandment, Not a Suggestion
Most members have a quiet confession about Isaiah. They skim him. They hit 2 Nephi 12 and start turning pages until Nephi starts talking again. Is that a sin? The Savior would say it is at least a missed commandment, for when He stood among the Nephites at Bountiful and had just finished quoting Isaiah 54 to them, He said this:
“And now, behold, I say unto you, that ye ought to search these things. Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah. For surely he spake as touching all things concerning my people which are of the house of Israel; therefore it must needs be that he must speak also to the Gentiles. And all things that he spake have been and shall be, even according to the words which he spake.”
A commandment. Not a reading suggestion — a commandment, from the Savior’s own mouth, to search the words of one prophet by name. Why Isaiah? Because “he spake as touching ALL things concerning my people,” and because everything he spoke “have been and shall be.” Past and future at once. That is the key to the whole book, and we will come back to it again and again.
Nephi felt the same way. “My soul delighteth in his words,” he wrote, “for he verily saw my Redeemer, even as I have seen him” (2 Nephi 11:2). He copied Isaiah onto the plates at enormous cost in metal and effort — thirteen chapters in a row in 2 Nephi alone — and he told us why: “that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah; for I did liken all scriptures unto us” (1 Nephi 19:23). Then, when Moroni came to Joseph Smith in 1823, one of the chapters he quoted was the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, “saying that it was about to be fulfilled” (Joseph Smith—History 1:40).
The Savior commanded it, Nephi delighted in it, and an angel opened the Restoration with it. So this guide exists for one reason: to get you reading Isaiah, and enjoying it.
How to Use This Guide
Isaiah wrote in poems. Hebrew poems, which do NOT rhyme and do not scan the way English verse does — they repeat ideas instead. Once you see the repetition, the chapters that looked like a wall of words fall into couplets, and the couplets fall into patterns, and the patterns point to the main idea. So the method is simple. Isolate the couplet by writing it out in poetic form. Ask what the theme is, what the imagery is, and why he chose those words. Find the main point by its poetic form — the centre of a chiasm, the top of a crescendo. Then liken it to yourself, listen to the Holy Ghost, and act on what He tells you.
Start with How to Read Isaiah — Hebrew Poetry and Nephi’s Keys. It teaches the forms and the keys. Everything else rests on them. Then take the chapters in any order you like. EVERY in-depth study below lays the text out in its actual structure, so you can see it for yourself rather than take anyone’s word for it. For who Isaiah was and when he lived, see Isaiah — He Saw Christ’s Mission 700 Years Early.
What is Isaiah talking about at any given moment? Ask that first. Nearly every passage is about one of these:
The Four Themes of Isaiah
- The Premortal Messiah — Jehovah on His throne, the Creator, the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 6; 40; 43–45).
- The Mortal Messiah — born of a virgin, despised, wounded for our transgressions (Isaiah 7–9; 50; 53; 61).
- The Millennial Messiah — the King who returns in red apparel and reigns in peace (Isaiah 11; 24–26; 63–66).
- The Covenant People — scattered for sin, gathered by an ensign, restored to Zion (Isaiah 2; 5; 29; 49; 54; 60–62).
And when he talks to the covenant people he almost always works like a physician: a diagnosis of their present state, a prescription — repent — and a prognosis of what will happen. Watch for that rhythm. It is everywhere. Chapter 1 is built on it from start to finish.
The Shape of the Whole Book
Most readers never see this. Couplets can parallel other couplets — even across a WHOLE book. Isaiah opens and closes with the same words, turned from judgment to promise:
Isaiah 1 and Isaiah 65–66 — the frame around the book
A “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth” — called as witnesses against Israel (1:2)
B “confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen” (1:29)
C “they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them” (1:31)
C′ “neither shall their fire be quenched” (66:24)
B′ “purify themselves in the gardens… shall be consumed together” (66:17)
A′ “the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me” (66:22)
The same heavens and earth that witnessed Israel’s rebellion in chapter 1 are made new in chapter 66. The book begins in a courtroom and ends in a new creation.
The repeated words show it; you do not have to take anyone’s theory for it. Open chapter 1 and chapter 66 side by side and read them. Is that an accident? No. Not in a book this carefully built. The gardens, the fire that no one quenches, and the heavens and earth all appear in both places, and between those two bookends Isaiah walks the covenant people through the whole plan — rebellion, judgment, the promised Child, scattering, the suffering Servant, gathering, and Zion in glory.
The map below follows that walk, chapter by chapter. Chapters marked In-depth study have a full page of their own.
Chapters 1–12: Judgment and the Promised Child
The Lord takes His people to court, shows them the mountain of His house, sings them a love song about a vineyard that went wild, and calls a prophet in the temple. Then, in the middle of a war, He promises a Child. Nephi copied chapters 2–14 into the Book of Mormon almost whole, as 2 Nephi 12–24.
The Overture and the Latter-day Zion — Isaiah 1–6
- Isaiah 1 — The Lord’s lawsuit: a rebellious people, empty sacrifices, “though your sins be as scarlet,” Zion redeemed. In-depth study
- Isaiah 2 — The mountain of the Lord’s house in the last days; the proud brought low (2 Nephi 12).
- Isaiah 3 — Judah’s leadership collapses; the daughters of Zion and the price of worldliness (2 Nephi 13).
- Isaiah 4 — Zion cleansed; cloud by day and fire by night over every dwelling (2 Nephi 14). In-depth study of 2–4
- Isaiah 5 — The song of the vineyard, six woes, and an ensign lifted to the nations (2 Nephi 15). In-depth study
- Isaiah 6 — Isaiah sees the Lord, is cleansed by a coal from the altar, and answers “Here am I; send me” (2 Nephi 16). In-depth study
The Book of Immanuel — Isaiah 7–12
- Isaiah 7 — Syria and Ephraim threaten Judah; “a virgin shall conceive” (2 Nephi 17).
- Isaiah 8 — The Lord a stone of stumbling; “to the law and to the testimony” (2 Nephi 18).
- Isaiah 9 — A great light; “unto us a child is born”; His hand is stretched out still (2 Nephi 19). In-depth study of 7–9
- Isaiah 10 — Assyria, the rod of God’s anger, falls — a type of the wicked at the Second Coming; a remnant returns (2 Nephi 20).
- Isaiah 11 — The rod and root of Jesse; the wolf and the lamb; the ensign and the gathering (2 Nephi 21; D&C 113).
- Isaiah 12 — The song of the redeemed: “with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation” (2 Nephi 22). In-depth study of 11–12
Chapters 13–35: The Nations and the Last Days
Now Isaiah turns to the nations around Israel — Babylon, Moab, Damascus, Egypt, Tyre. Why should a Latter-day Saint care about Moab? Because Isaiah is the king of double reference. He almost never means just one thing. Babylon is a city on the Euphrates and it is also the world; its king is a man and he is also Lucifer. Then the lens widens to the whole earth — the “little apocalypse” of chapters 24–27 — and narrows again to the woes on Ephraim and Jerusalem, where a sealed book comes forth.
Oracles against the Nations — Isaiah 13–23
- Isaiah 13 — Babylon’s fall, a type of the world’s fall at the Second Coming (2 Nephi 23).
- Isaiah 14 — “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer”; Israel’s rest (2 Nephi 24). In-depth study with 22
- Isaiah 15 — Moab laid waste; her people howl and weep.
- Isaiah 16 — Moab’s sorrow; a throne established in mercy in the tabernacle of David.
- Isaiah 17 — Damascus and Ephraim fall because Israel forgot the God of her salvation.
- Isaiah 18 — An ensign on the mountains; messengers sent to a scattered people; a present brought to mount Zion.
- Isaiah 19 — Egypt smitten and then healed — Egypt, Assyria, and Israel blessed together.
- Isaiah 20 — Isaiah walks barefoot as a sign: do not trust Egypt.
- Isaiah 21 — “Babylon is fallen, is fallen”; “Watchman, what of the night?”
- Isaiah 22 — Shebna falls; Eliakim receives the key of David, “a nail in a sure place.” In-depth study with 14
- Isaiah 23 — Tyre, the merchant city, overthrown — and her gain finally made holiness to the Lord.
The Little Apocalypse — Isaiah 24–27
- Isaiah 24 — The everlasting covenant broken; the earth reels like a drunkard; the Lord reigns in Zion.
- Isaiah 25 — A feast on the mountain; “He will swallow up death in victory.”
- Isaiah 26 — Perfect peace for the mind stayed on Him; “thy dead men shall live.” In-depth study of 25–26
- Isaiah 27 — Israel blossoms and fills the world with fruit; gathered “one by one.”
The Woes and the Sealed Book — Isaiah 28–35
- Isaiah 28 — Woe to the drunkards of Ephraim; “line upon line”; a tried corner stone laid in Zion.
- Isaiah 29 — A voice from the dust, a sealed book, a marvelous work and a wonder (2 Nephi 27). In-depth study
- Isaiah 30 — A people who tell the seers “see not”; “this is the way, walk ye in it.”
- Isaiah 31 — Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help; the Lord defends Jerusalem.
- Isaiah 32 — A king reigns in righteousness, a hiding place from the wind.
- Isaiah 33 — “The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king”; Zion’s stakes never removed.
- Isaiah 34 — The day of the Lord’s vengeance on the nations (Edom as the type).
- Isaiah 35 — The desert blossoms as the rose; a highway of holiness; the ransomed return to Zion.
Continued below: chapters 36–66.