The book of Isaiah uses both prose and poetry to engage readers in a drama of great emotion and intensity. Although the circumstances under which this book took its present form remain in scholarly dispute, this commentary highlights its larger purpose-to provide the people of Judah and Jerusalem with hope for the future and the will to re-embrace their ancestral religious traditions.
Leslie Hoppe assumes the composite character of the books and approaches the work as a whole with its own literary and theological integrity. Unlike many other contemporary commentaries on the book of Isaiah, the divisions of the book used here focus on its literary shape rather than the history of its composition. With this approach, we recognize that the book of Isaiah is an expression of faith in the Holy One of Israel and in the future of Jerusalem, both of which have decisively shaped the faith of Jewish and Christian believers over the centuries.
Leslie J. Hoppe, OFM, is an adjunct professor at Catholic Theological Union after serving on its faculty for twenty-four years, and serves as the provincial minister of the Assumption Province Franciscans. He has written several books on biblical studies and archaeology, including The Holy City: Jerusalem in the Theology of the Old Testament (Liturgical Press, 2000). He is a former editor of The Bible Today and currently serves on its editorial board.