What does Isaiah 1:1 mean?

Isaiah was sent to Israel as a "prophet" of God in the most specific sense of that word. God chose Isaiah and used Him as a messenger. God showed Isaiah what He wanted Israel to hear, and Isaiah wrote it down and delivered it to the people. Isaiah's words reveal God's thoughts and feelings, as well as many predictions about what would happen to Israel and the nations of the world in the future. Isiah's book also points to God's plan to redeem the world through a coming Savior.

Isaiah was the son of a man named Amoz, who is otherwise unknown in the Bible. Isaiah's name means "Yahweh is salvation." God called Isaiah to prophecy to the people of Judah. Judah was the name for the southern kingdom, made up of two tribes of Israel: Judah and Benjamin. Jerusalem was the capital of Judah.

Isaiah's career as a prophet spanned as many as six decades, beginning at the end of the kingship of Uzziah (Isaiah 6:1), around 740 BC. This continued through the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah until at least 681 BC, when he recorded the death of Sennacherib (Isaiah 37:37–38).

A few modern Bible scholars believe the book of Isaiah was compiled from the work of at least three authors over different periods in Israel's history. Most researchers make a strong case that the entire book is the work of just one man. Jesus and the New Testament authors also point to only one man named Isaiah when quoting from verses throughout the book.

Isaiah describes the sixty-six chapters of his book as a vision. This means, in part, they are a revelation from Yahweh. More than that, though, Isaiah describes himself as seeing the word revealed to him (Isaiah 2:1). Prophets were often called "seers" during the Old Testament period.