Isa·iah /aɪˈzeə, ||ˈzaɪ-/
 男人名,希伯來的大預言家,以賽亞書


 Isaiah
      n 1: (Old Testament) the first of the major Hebrew prophets (8th
           century BC)
      2: an Old Testament book consisting of Isaiah's prophecies
         [syn: Book of Isaiah]


 Isaiah
    (Heb. Yesh'yahu, i.e., "the salvation of Jehovah"). (1.) The son
    of Amoz (Isa. 1:1; 2:1), who was apparently a man of humble
    rank. His wife was called "the prophetess" (8:3), either because
    she was endowed with the prophetic gift, like Deborah (Judg.
    4:4) and Huldah (2 Kings 22:14-20), or simply because she was
    the wife of "the prophet" (Isa. 38:1). He had two sons, who bore
    symbolical names.

      He exercised the functions of his office during the reigns of
    Uzziah (or Azariah), Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (1:1). Uzziah
    reigned fifty-two years (B.C. 810-759), and Isaiah must have
    begun his career a few years before Uzziah's death, probably
    B.C. 762. He lived till the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, and in
    all likelihood outlived that monarch (who died B.C. 698), and
    may have been contemporary for some years with Manasseh. Thus
    Isaiah may have prophesied for the long period of at least
    sixty-four years.

      His first call to the prophetical office is not recorded. A
    second call came to him "in the year that King Uzziah died"
    (Isa. 6:1). He exercised his ministry in a spirit of
    uncompromising firmness and boldness in regard to all that bore
    on the interests of religion. He conceals nothing and keeps
    nothing back from fear of man. He was also noted for his
    spirituality and for his deep-toned reverence toward "the holy
    One of Israel."

      In early youth Isaiah must have been moved by the invasion of
    Israel by the Assyrian monarch Pul (q.v.), 2 Kings 15:19; and
    again, twenty years later, when he had already entered on his
    office, by the invasion of Tiglath-pileser and his career of
    conquest. Ahaz, king of Judah, at this crisis refused to
    co-operate with the kings of Israel and Syria in opposition to
    the Assyrians, and was on that account attacked and defeated by
    Rezin of Damascus and Pekah of Samaria (2 Kings 16:5; 2 Chr.
    28:5, 6). Ahaz, thus humbled, sided with Assyria, and sought the
    aid of Tiglath-pileser against Israel and Syria. The consequence
    was that Rezin and Pekah were conquered and many of the people
    carried captive to Assyria (2 Kings 15:29; 16:9; 1 Chr. 5:26).
    Soon after this Shalmaneser determined wholly to subdue the
    kingdom of Israel. Samaria was taken and destroyed (B.C. 722).
    So long as Ahaz reigned, the kingdom of Judah was unmolested by
    the Assyrian power; but on his accession to the throne, Hezekiah
    (B.C. 726), who "rebelled against the king of Assyria" (2 Kings
    18:7), in which he was encouraged by Isaiah, who exhorted the
    people to place all their dependence on Jehovah (Isa. 10:24;
    37:6), entered into an alliance with the king of Egypt (Isa.
    30:2-4). This led the king of Assyria to threaten the king of
    Judah, and at length to invade the land. Sennacherib (B.C. 701)
    led a powerful army into Palestine. Hezekiah was reduced to
    despair, and submitted to the Assyrians (2 Kings 18:14-16). But
    after a brief interval war broke out again, and again
    Sennacherib (q.v.) led an army into Palestine, one detachment of
    which threatened Jerusalem (Isa. 36:2-22; 37:8). Isaiah on that
    occasion encouraged Hezekiah to resist the Assyrians (37:1-7),
    whereupon Sennacherib sent a threatening letter to Hezekiah,
    which he "spread before the Lord" (37:14). The judgement of God
    now fell on the Assyrian host. "Like Xerxes in Greece,
    Sennacherib never recovered from the shock of the disaster in
    Judah. He made no more expeditions against either Southern
    Palestine or Egypt." The remaining years of Hezekiah's reign
    were peaceful (2 Chr. 32:23, 27-29). Isaiah probably lived to
    its close, and possibly into the reign of Manasseh, but the time
    and manner of his death are unknown. There is a tradition that
    he suffered martyrdom in the heathen reaction in the time of
    Manasseh (q.v.).

      (2.) One of the heads of the singers in the time of David (1
    Chr. 25:3,15, "Jeshaiah").

      (3.) A Levite (1 Chr. 26:25).

      (4.) Ezra 8:7.

      (5.) Neh. 11:7.



 Isaiah, the salvation of the Lord