Line upon Line

How to Read Isaiah

Nephi’s keys, Hebrew poetry, prophetic time, and a handful of habits that make Isaiah much easier to understand.

If Isaiah has ever made your eyes glaze over, you’re in good company. Nephi’s own people found him hard: “Isaiah spake many things which were hard for many of my people to understand” (2 Ne. 25:1). Nephi didn’t respond by skipping Isaiah. He gave them keys. The Savior, for His part, commanded us to “search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah” (3 Ne. 23:1).

This guide gathers the keys that help most. None of them are secret. They are habits of reading that, once learned, turn Isaiah from a fog into a landscape.

Key 1: Nephi’s four keys

In 2 Ne. 25:1–8, Nephi explains why Isaiah is hard and what makes him plain. Read those verses slowly; they are the best introduction to Isaiah ever written. Nephi names four things:

  1. “The manner of prophesying among the Jews” (verse 1). Isaiah writes in the forms of ancient Hebrew prophecy: poetry, symbolic actions, oracles, and lawsuits. Nephi’s people, raised far from Jerusalem, didn’t know those forms. Keys 2–5 below are about learning them.
  2. “The regions round about” (verse 6). Nephi had lived in Jerusalem and knew the geography and the nations Isaiah names. We have to learn them. See Isaiah’s World.
  3. “The spirit of prophecy” (verse 4). Isaiah’s words “are plain unto all those that are filled with the spirit of prophecy.” John defines that spirit: “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10). Isaiah opens up to people who are looking for Christ in him.
  4. Living in the last days (verses 7–8). Nephi promised that “in the last days… shall they understand them.” Many of Isaiah’s prophecies concern our time: the gathering of Israel, the coming forth of a book, an ensign to the nations, the temple in the tops of the mountains. We are in a better position to understand them than any earlier generation.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie expanded Nephi’s list into ten keys. He urged readers to know the plan of salvation and the destiny of the house of Israel, to use the Book of Mormon and latter-day revelation, to see how the New Testament reads Isaiah, to study the Old Testament setting, to learn the Jewish manner of prophesying, to seek the spirit of prophecy, and to devote themselves to hard, conscientious study. His article is well worth reading in full.

Key 2: Read it as poetry

Most of Isaiah is poetry, and Hebrew poetry doesn’t rhyme sounds. It rhymes ideas. The basic unit is a pair (sometimes a trio) of lines in which the second line echoes, sharpens, or contrasts the first. Scholars call this parallelism. Once you hear it, Isaiah becomes far easier.

The second line restates the first:

Hear, O heavens, / and give ear, O earth (Isa. 1:2)

These aren’t two separate commands to two audiences. They are one summons said twice, with the second line widening the frame.

The second line intensifies the first:

though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; / though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool (Isa. 1:18)

The second line contrasts with the first:

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: / but the word of our God shall stand for ever (Isa. 40:8)

The lines build step by step:

they shall mount up with wings as eagles; / they shall run, and not be weary; / and they shall walk, and not faint (Isa. 40:31)

(Notice the surprising order: fly, run, walk. Isaiah ends with the smallest motion, as if the greatest miracle is simply to keep walking.)

A practical tip: When a verse confuses you, find its partner line. Isaiah almost always explains his hard line with an easier one right next to it. In “he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities” (Isa. 53:5), wounded and bruised explain each other, and so do transgressions and iniquities.

Chiasmus. Sometimes Isaiah arranges ideas in a mirror pattern (A-B-C-C′-B′-A′), a form the Book of Mormon also uses beautifully. The classic example is Isa. 6:10:

Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart…

The structure acts out the message: the heart is sealed on both ends.

Key 3: Know which “horizon” you are looking at

Isaiah moves between several time periods, often without warning:

Horizon Rough dates Typical signals
Isaiah’s own day 740–700 BC Assyria, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Ephraim, Syria
The Babylonian exile and return 587–538 BC Babylon, Cyrus, “comfort,” the way through the wilderness
The Savior’s mortal ministry c. AD 30 the Servant, Immanuel, the Anointed One, the Man of Sorrows
The last days and the Millennium our day and beyond the ensign, gathering, Zion, “in that day,” new heavens and new earth

One passage can speak to more than one horizon. The fall of Babylon in chapters 13–14 was literally fulfilled in 539 BC, and it also describes the downfall of “Babylon” the wicked world at the Second Coming (D&C 1:16; D&C 133:14). The Book of Mormon calls this likening. Scholars call it multiple fulfillment. Nephi says “all things which have been given of God from the beginning of the world, unto man, are the typifying of him” (2 Ne. 11:4). A good question to ask of any Isaiah passage is: Where else has this pattern happened, and where will it happen again?

Key 4: The “prophetic perfect”

Hebrew prophets often describe future events in the past tense, as though they had already happened. The prophet has seen it, so it is as good as done. “For unto us a child is born” (Isa. 9:6) was spoken about seven hundred years before Bethlehem. Isaiah 53 is written almost entirely in the past tense: “he was wounded… he was oppressed.” Don’t let the tense throw you. Ask what the prophet saw, not when the verb says it happened.

Key 5: Listen for the change of speaker

Hebrew had no quotation marks. In a single chapter Isaiah may shift among the Lord speaking, Isaiah speaking, Zion answering, the nations mocking, and the Servant speaking about Himself. Isaiah 49 is a good example: the Servant speaks (verses 1–6), then the Lord (verses 7–13), then Zion complains (verse 14), and the Lord answers (verses 15–26). When a verse seems to contradict the one before it, ask: Who is talking now? The chapter pages on this site flag these shifts in the plain-words summaries.

Key 6: Learn a few symbols

Isaiah uses a vocabulary of images that recur throughout the book. A few to start with:

Key 7: Read Isaiah with the Book of Mormon open

The Book of Mormon quotes or paraphrases about a third of Isaiah. It also interprets him. Nephi explains Isaiah 48–49 in 1 Ne. 22. Jacob explains Isaiah 49–52 in 2 Ne. 6–10. Nephi comments on Isaiah 2–14 and 29 in 2 Ne. 25–30. Abinadi explains Isaiah 53 in Mosiah 15. The Savior Himself quotes and explains Isaiah 52 and 54 in 3 Ne. 16 and 3 Ne. 20–22. The Book of Mormon versions sometimes differ from the King James text in illuminating ways. See Isaiah and the Restoration.

Key 8: Watch out for 1611 English

Some confusion comes from the King James English, not from Isaiah. A few words that have changed meaning:

KJV word Means
crib manger, feeding trough (Isa. 1:3)
let hinder, prevent (Isa. 43:13)
prevent go before, anticipate
conversation conduct, way of life
meat food of any kind
suffer allow
quick alive
bowels the inner self, deep feelings of compassion (Isa. 63:15)
peculiar specially treasured
judgment often justice, fair dealing (Isa. 1:17)
vex harass, trouble
wot, wist know, knew

Key 9: Liken, and look for Christ

Nephi read Isaiah for two purposes: to “liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning” (1 Ne. 19:23), and to persuade his people to “believe in the Lord their Redeemer” (1 Ne. 19:23; 2 Ne. 11:2–6). He said his soul delighted “in proving unto my people the truth of the coming of Christ” (2 Ne. 11:4). Every chapter page on this site ends with Seeing Christ and Liken it for that reason. See Isaiah’s Witness of Christ.

A word about “Second Isaiah”

If you read modern commentaries, you will quickly meet the idea that the book of Isaiah had more than one author. Many scholars assign chapters 1–39 to Isaiah of Jerusalem (8th century BC), chapters 40–55 to an anonymous prophet of the Babylonian exile (6th century BC), and chapters 56–66 to still later writers. The main reasons are the shift in setting to Babylon, the naming of Cyrus (Isa. 44:28; Isa. 45:1), and differences in style.

Latter-day Saints have strong reasons to read the book as Isaiah’s prophecy:

That doesn’t mean the observations behind the scholarly theory are worthless. Isaiah 40–66 really is addressed to a people in exile, and knowing that helps enormously. It simply means we read those chapters as Isaiah’s inspired view of a future he was shown.

Where to start

If you’re new to Isaiah, don’t start at chapter 1 and grind forward. Try this sampler first, then go back and read in order:

  1. Isaiah 53: the Suffering Servant. The heart of the book.
  2. Isaiah 40: “Comfort ye my people.”
  3. Isaiah 6: Isaiah’s call in the temple.
  4. Isaiah 11: the stem of Jesse and the gathering. Moroni quoted it to Joseph Smith.
  5. Isaiah 29: the sealed book and a marvelous work.
  6. Isaiah 61: the chapter Jesus read in Nazareth.
  7. Isaiah 2: the mountain of the Lord’s house.

Then read Isaiah’s World and begin with Isaiah 1.

Sources & further reading