The long, complex scroll of Isaiah begins with the deceptively simple introduction read in today's lection. The very fact that this first verse is exhaustive and conclusive suggests that it is a later redactor's attempt to encapsulate the scope of Isaiah's prophetic task into one brief statement.

The scene of this pronouncement is obviously cultic. The time is about 701 B.C. The all-encompassing appeal to the heavens and the earth in verse 2 suggests that Isaiah chose none other than the temple in Jerusalem as the site of this diatribe. The destruction described by Isaiah in verses 7-9 suggests that Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem was already under way and that much of the southern kingdom had already felt the effects of the Assyrian invasion.

Imagine the shock Isaiah's message must hav…