Reading Isaiah: A Literary and Theological Commentary (Reading the Old Testament)

Engaging with theological messages of the book of Isaiah as a unified whole, the volume of the Reading the Old Testament series will both illuminate and inspire readers to wrestle with its theological implications for today’s church and society.

In this commentary, Hyun Chul Paul Kim brings together innovative interpretive approaches and the proposals of various scholars to interpret the book of Isaiah in light of the ancient literature/culture, intertextual allusions/correlations, and socio-historical contexts of the empires. While closely exegeting key issues of each chapter, the commentary also explores interpretive relevance and significance between ancient texts and the modern world. Engaging with theological messages of the book of Isaiah as a unified whole, the commentary will both illuminate and inspire readers to wrestle with its theological implications for today’s church and society.

Hyun Chul Paul Kim is the Harold B. Williams Professor of Hebrew Bible at Methodist Theological School in Ohio. He is the co-author of You Are My People: An Introduction to Prophetic Literature and co-editor of The Desert Will Bloom: Poetic Visions in Isaiah, Formation and Intertextuality in Isaiah 24–27, and Concerning the Nations: Essays on the Oracles against the Nations in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. A former co-chair of the Formation of the Book of Isaiah group at SBL and a recent Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Korea, he is currently a co-chair of the Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible consultation at SBL.


Praise for Reading Isaiah

"Hyun Chul Paul Kim presents a compelling commentary on the book of Isaiah, a book that would be considered politically incorrect in our contemporary world. He deftly combines the details of a diachronic, or historical, analysis of the various elements of the book with an overarching synchronic, or literary, perspective that unites the book as a whole. His work is fundamentally intertextual in that it explores the relationships between Isaiah and ancient and contemporary worlds. This accessible commentary will both prompt and enable students to engage this endlessly fascinating book." —Marvin A. Sweeney, Professor of Hebrew Bible, Claremont School of Theology and Professor of Tanak, Academy for Jewish Religion