The title prefixed to the first chapter refers certainly to the first part, and probably to the whole book.  The contents of the first chapter are well suited to constitute a general introduction to the book, and there is much ground for the opinion that the prophet prefixed them, as such an introduction, to the whole collection of prophecies.  The four chapters that follow were evidently written during a period of great worldly prosperity.  They contain visions against Judah and Jerusalem of a threatening character, but interspersed with glorious promises to the true Israel.  The sixth chapter records a vision which the prophet had of Jehovah in the temple, with the awful message to the people which he received from His lips.  Many regard this as the prophet’s inauguration to his office, and consequently as the first of his prophecies in order of time.  The four preceding chapters will then naturally fall into the reign of Jotham.  There is no decisive ground, however, for understanding the words, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (verse 8,) as containing the original call of Isaiah to the prophetical office.  They may have reference to the special message which he immediately receives; a message of the most weighty import, and often quoted in the New Testament.  The confession of Isaiah, moreover, that he is “a man of unclean lips,” may be very naturally referred to his previous exercise of the prophetic office.  According to this view, the preceding four chapters belong to the latter part of Uzziah’s reign.

The series of prophecies that follows (chaps. 7-12) is connected with the invasion of Judah by the allied kings of Israel and Syria.  In this emergency Ahaz, instead of seeking help from Jehovah, had hired the Assyrians to defend him against the confederate forces.  The prophet predicts the overrunning of the land by these same Assyrians in whom the Jews had reposed their confidence; and afterwards the overthrow of the Assyrians themselves, and the universal establishment of the Messiah’s kingdom, who is foretold under the name of Immanuel.  The series closes with the millennial song of Zion.

Next we have a series of prophecies relating mainly to the heathen world (chaps. 13-23), through all of which the prophet keeps prominently in view the great truth that the nation which will not acknowledge Jehovah and minister to the welfare of his people must perish.  He begins with Babylon, and passes in order to Philistia, Moab, Syria (with which as a confederate nation Ephraim is joined), Ethiopia and Egypt (first separately and then conjointly), Babylon again under the enigmatical name of “the desert of the sea,” Edom, and Arabia.  Next follows a prophecy against “the valley of vision,” that is, Jerusalem, to which is appended one against Shebna.  The prophet then passes to Tyre, and so he brings this series to a close.

The four chapters that follow (24-27) are general in their character.  They exhibit Jehovah as the avenger and deliverer of his people, who abases the proud and destroys sinners as well within the pale of Zion as without in the heathen world, while he exalts his true worshippers to honor and salvation.