Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country, even from Babylon.

And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD.

Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. And he said, Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days?

Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write.

And for this cause Hezekiah the king, and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz, prayed and cried to heaven.

Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his goodness, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field;

The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.

2:3 sanctified it. God’s “rest” on the seventh day is not continuing; the verb is in the past tense–“rested,” not “is resting.” His blessing and hallowing of the seventh day could not apply to this present age of sin and death, but only to the “very good” world He had just completed. Nevertheless, this “hallowing” of every seventh day was for man’s benefit (Mark 2:27), and was obviously intended as a permanent human institution, not controlled by the heavenly bodies which mark days, months, seasons and years, but by the physical and spiritual need of all men for a weekly day of rest and worship, in thankfulness for God’s great gift of creation and (later) for His even greater gift of salvation. The Sabbath (literally “rest”) day was incorporated in the Mosaic covenant with Israel in a special way, but its use preceded Israel and will continue eternally (Isaiah 66:23). However, the emphasis is on a “seventh” day, not necessarily Saturday. Since Christ’s resurrection, in fact, most Christians have identified their weekly cycle as centering on the first day of the week. The age-long, worldwide observance of the “week” is not contingent on the movements of the sun and moon (like the day, the month and the year) but rather is mute testimony to its primeval establishment as a memorial of God’s literal seven-day creation week.

3:16 multiply thy sorrow. Had Eve not sinned, the experience of childbirth would have been easy and pleasant, like every other experience in the perfect world God had made. The Curse, however, fell in a peculiar way on Eve and her daughters, and the pain and sorrow of conception and birth would be greatly multiplied. Nevertheless, the bearing of children, especially by a woman who loves God and seeks to obey Him, is a time of blessing and rejoicing even though accompanied by a time of suffering (John 16:21). In the experience of giving birth, every woman experiences by proxy, as it were, the privilege granted Mary when she became the mother of the promised Seed. Furthermore, she even becomes a type of Christ, who “shall see His seed...He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:10-11). The suffering is submerged in the rejoicing, and this in itself goes far toward mitigating the physical pain (note I Timothy 2:15).

3:19 sweat of thy face. The Curse on Adam had four main aspects: (1) sorrow, because of the futility of endless struggle against a hostile environment; (2) pain, signified by the thorns; (3) sweat, or tears, the “strong crying” occasioned by the labor necessary to maintain life and hope; and (4) eventual physical death in spite of all his efforts, returning back to the dust. But Christ, as the second Adam, has borne the curse for us (Galatians 3:13), as the “man of sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3), wearing the thorns and suffering the greatest pain (Mark 15:17), acquired by strong crying (Hebrews 5:7) to sweat as it were drops of blood before being finally brought into the dust of death (Psalm 22:15). And because He so suffered for us, once again someday God will dwell with men, and “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain” (Revelation 21:4). Indeed there shall be “no more curse” (Revelation 22:3).

3:22 tree of life. The delicious fruit of the tree of life had been freely available to Adam and Eve, but it was not necessary for their survival. It was only eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that would result in death (Genesis 2:17). The same will apply when the tree of life is planted again in the new earth. Its fruit and leaves will be freely available for food (Revelation 22:2), but it will not be necessary for survival, since there will be no more death there (Revelation 21:4). However, it did contain such wonderful health-giving ingredients that it would have enabled people to survive to tremendous ages even after sin and death entered the world, and this would have undermined God’s intended purpose for death (see note on Genesis 3:17). The words “for ever” in this verse are from the Hebrew olam, which can also legitimately be translated a “long time,” depending on context (e.g., Isaiah 42:14). It is also used for the “lasting hills” (Deuteronomy 33:15).

18:14 hard. “Hard” is the same word as “wonderful,” one of the terms used to describe the coming Messiah in Isaiah 9:6. God gave Sarah the faith to believe He could accomplish this wonderful miracle of rejuvenating her body, partly by letting her know He could hear her laugh even when she was out of His sight, and only laughed “within herself” (Genesis 18:12).

14:13 stand still. There are times when believers have done, to the best of their understanding, all they know how to obey the will of God, and the challenge confronting them still seems impossible to meet. Rather than becoming fearful and depressed, however, they should simply “stand still” to let God work. Compare Ruth 3:18; Isaiah 30:7.

17:6 rock in Horeb. This is the first mention of “rock” in Scripture, and it is significantly taken by Paul as a type of Christ (see adjacent note). Just as Moses smote the rock with his rod of judgment (Exodus 17:5), so Christ had to be “smitten of God” (Isaiah 53:4) before He could invite men to “come unto me, and drink” (John 7:37).

14:5 Rephaims. Some of these Canaanite tribes seem actually to have been demon-possessed, in the same manner as the demon-energized population before the Flood (see notes on Genesis 6:1-4). The Rephaim (“strong ones”) and the Zamzummim (“powerful ones,” probably the same as the Zuzim) along with the Emim, all seem to have been of “the sons of Anak” or the Anakim, and all seem to have been giants (note Deuteronomy 2:10,20; Joshua 15:13). In Numbers 13:33, these Anakim are actually said to have been “giants” (Hebrew nephilim, the same word as used in Genesis 6:4). Furthermore, the term rephaim is also used to refer to some of the spirits of the wicked dead in Hades (Job 26:5; Proverbs 2:18; 9:18; 21:16; Isaiah 14:9; 26:14). All of this suggests another irruption of demonic spirits after the Flood, possibly at the rebellion at Babel, with giant progeny again being produced through demon-possessed parents. Their descendants inhabited Canaan.

18:11 they dealt proudly. This is the first mention in the Bible of the sin of pride, and it is significant that it is referring to the primeval sin of “the gods”–that is, the supposed deities of the pagan nations. The first sin was that of Lucifer, or Satan, who aspired to dethrone God (Isaiah 14:12-15; I Timothy 3:6).

19:6 kingdom of priests. Israel was called by God to be a peculiarly holy nation, as a witness to all other nations that either had already departed from acknowledging the true God of creation, or were in the process. In the sense of mediating between other nations and God, all the Israelites were to serve as a royal priesthood, even though within their own nation the tribe of Levi would be designated as their priests. This wonderful offer was given to Israel even before they received the ten commandments. Even though they failed miserably, the promise is still there, probably to be accomplished in the millennial age (Isaiah 61:6; Revelation 5:10). In the meantime, in this present age Christian believers have been chosen spiritually to be both a “holy priesthood” and a “royal priesthood” (I Peter 2:5,9), and this shall be our privilege throughout eternity (Revelation 1:6).