The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1–39 (New International Commentary on the Old Testament (NICOT))

This commentary has more than enough for a typical pastor who is exegeting Isaiah for a sermon series. He recognizes that visions ought not be interpreted literally all the way through, and also seems solid on the author issue, yet intelligently interacts with the other views in his extended introduction. I found more material than I care to read on the theories of how Isaiah was written. I found his conclusions convincing and I agree with his rejection of multiple authors on the basis of no ancient evidence at all. (That was only part of his argument).The commentary itself lends itself to be a preaching aid for Pastors/Bible Teachers. There is plenty of meat there for anyone who desires to study. For example, in Isaiah 4:4 the term 'daughters of Zion' is used. At one point some scribes adjusted the phrase because of the implications for men if only the daughters of Zion are blessed. However, Oswalt points out that if we interpret this symbolically as a reference to all of Jerusalem, then there is no problem with seeing the blessing coming on both men and women. The over zealous literalists don't have an answer for that which makes sense. Oswalt has excellent information throughout this commentary.I also recommend John Walton's Bible Background Commentary of the OT as a supplement to this. Another great commentary is Motyer on Isaiah.Here is my review on the other volume for your convenience.This review focuses on Volume 2 on Isaiah for the NICOT series. I'm a preacher and full time pastor who uses commentaries in my sermon preparation. I've found that this commentary is very helpful on a number of points. It provides a wealth of relevant resources that I've typically not found in other commentaries (I'll illustrate that in a moment). He deals with the Hebrew exegetical ideas and source issues without spending a lot of time (no bogging down in minutia as some have a tendency to do). His footnotes do contain the minutia on textual issues that some require or desire. Yet in the main text of his commentary he deals with crucial textual issues if they affect the exegetical outcome. That's helpful, especially his pithy summaries of the various views. Summaries are well done in this commentary.The second volume has over 700 pages of information on Isaiah 40-66.Since it may be the greatest passage in Isaiah, let me zoom in on how he handles the fourth Servant song. (Isaiah 52:13 to 53:3). For this section he gives 37 pages of information. He breaks the passage down into the following outline:a. Astonishment and Rejection (52:13-53:3)b. Punished for others (53:4-6)c. Unjustly punished (53:7-9)d. Many made righteous (53:10-12)He provides his own unique translation for each one.In section a. Astonishment and Rejection 52:13-53:3 Oswalt prefers the translation in 52:15 of the Hebrew 'Yazzeh' [sprinkle] to be interpreted as 'startle' because of the parallelism meaning. He also interacts with a variety of other opinions, including a footnote on 52:14 that introduces some technical points about protasis and apodasis as support for his position. They really do make the most sense of all the options (imo).I was convinced by his points. For application ideas, see Oswalt's NIVAC on Isaiah. In that volume, which I also own, he draws out practical application to Philippians 2:5-11 as he discusses the idea of sacrificing for others. Then he draws out contemporary significance to this passage in his NIVAC by focusing on Accepting the offering by an appropriate response to what Jesus has done for us. He has many preachable points in this section.Overall, Oswalt has written a worthy commentary that I believe is an excellent addition to every pastor's library. I also have found Alec Motyer's commentary on Isaiah to be very helpful, especially for a quick evaluation of literary style and outline ideas.Oswalt's NIVAC commentary won the Gold Medallion Award. I think this commentary I am reviewing here, the NICOT, is worthy of an award. It's that good.Back to the passage I was using to illustrate Oswalt's NICOT Vol 2 with.At the end of his commentary on Isaiah 52:13-53:12, he has an Excursus.Actually it is a select bibliography on the passage. However, the bibliography is organized into categories:The Identity of the ServantNew Testament and Early Christian InterpretationJewish InterpretationExegetical and Theological StudiesAlthough several of the bibliographical entries are obviously in German, and useless to most of us, most of them are in English.Here is my note on the first volume of this series.This commentary has more than enough for a typical pastor who is exegeting Isaiah for a sermon series. He recognizes that visions ought not be interpreted literally all the way through, and also seems solid on the author issue, yet intelligently interacts with the other views in his extended introduction. I found more material than I care to read on the theories of how Isaiah was written. I found his conclusions convincing and I agree with his rejection of multiple authors on the basis of no ancient evidence at all. (That was only part of his argument).

Oswalt's commentary on Isaiah comes in two volumes, but really should be read as one work. With that in mind, I will post the same review for both volumes of this commentary.Oswalt takes a largely amillennial approach to the text. He is a sane exegete and especially careful about pressing poetic-prophetic language to mean more than it should. In critical issues, Oswalt writes from a conservative perspective. He occasionally engages the drivel of scholars, who think Isaiah should be chopped up into tiny pieces and assigned to different authors, but the bulk of this commentary is devoted to explaining the text of Isaiah. He writes with a "big picture" view of Isaiah's message, while still having enough space to discuss items of particular interest in the details. The commentary does not demand knowledge of Hebrew to be useful (but a little bit never hurts!) The introduction was useful for summing up historical information and appreciating the situation of Isaiah's day.Oswalt does a brilliant job exposing the hypocrisy of those that would praise the theology of Isaiah, but then try to re-assign the Cyrus prophecy to a date that places it after the fact. Repeatedly, Oswalt demonstrates from Isaiah's argument in chapters 40-48 that the whole argument for Yahweh's superiority to idols rests on the fact of His ability to know Cyrus' actions over a century in advance. In essence, to deny the integrity of Isaiah's prophecy demands an outright rejection of the book as a whole, since it would otherwise be presenting itself in deceptive fabricated terms.The main reason I give Oswalt five stars is because I believe he has done better than any commentator to date in coming to grips with the main thrust of Isaiah's message. For the first part of the book (1-39), Oswalt sees the trust in God as the predominant issue facing Israel. The basic question is whether Israel will choose to ally with the nations, or to trust God for her salvation. For the second part of the book, (40-66), Oswalt argues that "Servanthood" is the binding theme, namely as the means of Israel's salvation in spite of their shortcomings. The central question he raises repeatedly creates a tension between the ideal and the actual, when he asks, "How can this Israel become that Israel?"This is not to say that Oswalt's explanations are completely flawless. In a big two-volume work such as this, everyone is bound to find something to disagree with. For instance, I found myself unconvinced by his suggestion that Immanuel is really Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. I also found it odd that Oswalt appears to believe in a final gathering of historic national Israel (for instance, his comments on 11:10-16), a viewpoint which I believe ignores the crucial redefining of "Israel" in the NT. On the whole though, I do not feel that these disagreements are significant enough to detract from the overall value of this work.Ultimately though, I consider this book to be one of the most helpful expositions of Isaiah available today (outside of the Bible itself, obviously!), and I heartily recommend it to anyone who wants to learn the message of the prophet.

Having enjoyed Block's commentary on Ezekiel in the same series, I was disappointed to find this on Isaiah such extremely hard work. If you want a study of textual variants, disputed authorships and scholarly controversies, this may be for you (although somewhat out of date). But if you want a warm, encouraging, challenging commentary that helps you understand the dilemmas, choices, fear and faith of Isaiah and his contemporaries, and which strengthens your trust in God, then Barry Webb's BST volume is much more helpful. We wait eagerly for the forthcoming volume on Isaiah by Peter Gentry in the Zondervan Exegetical commentary series.

Oswalt has presented to the theological world an excellent commentary on the book of Isaiah, it has not been rushed and one can sense hours of hard work being poured into this labour. I highly recommended this book alongside Youngs 3 vol commentary, if you want to go deeper into Isaiah buy these two commentary's and Youngs!

Great book .