exulting in divine joy, mocking and earnest;_ but ever at the right time it returns to its original elevation and repose, and never loses the clear ground-colour of its divine seriousness.--_Ewald, quoted in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible,_ vol. i. pp. 888, 889, article ISAIAH. [2] The title of the book is _"The_ VISION _of Isaiah,"_ which suggests these remarks-- (1.) Being a _vision,_ it will frequently speak of events that are yet future, as if they had already occurred. So in iii. 8: "Jerusalem _is ruined;_ Judah _is fallen."_ In v. 13: "Therefore my people _are gone into captivity._" (2.) What is seen in vision must be subject to the laws of _perspective._ One who views the snowy Alps from a distance may see two mountain peaks, which really are many miles apart, as one object. The illustration is imperfect; yet it may serve to explain how, to the eye of a seer, a nearer event may be blended with one that is _in the same direction, but vastly more remote;_ the type, for instance, melting into the antitype, or the interval between the first and second advents of the Messiah being indiscernible. (3.) It is, as a whole, _The Vision;_--_one_ vision. It consists, indeed, of various parts; yet from the very outset these represent the same _vision._ Judah _is rebellious; is sentenced to exile; is redeemed; is purified. These elements, on a large scale, compose the book as a whole;_ and, on a smaller scale, they compose the first chapter. The body is made up of portions similar in quality to itself, and to each other. The visions are greatly diversified in size, form, colouring, and other detail; but in essential characteristics it is one vision.--_Dr. Kay, in The Speaker's Commentary,_ vol. v. p. 19. THE PROPHET OF THE LORD. i. 1. _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._ +I. The nature of the prophet's endowment:+ a "vision" into the very heart of things, a power of distinguishing between the seeming and the real. +II. The sadness and the joy of the prophet's life:+ sadness arising from his "vision" of human sin (vers. 2-15); joy arising from his "vision" of the wondrousness of the Divine mercy (ver. 18).