In Isaiah one, verse one, “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.” Isaiah did not prophesy about or record his own ideas; rather, he received visions from God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, as in Second Peter two, verses twenty through twenty-one. He was allowed to see coming events in God’s plan of salvation through an unerring communication from God Himself. The name Isaiah means “the Lord saves.” As a prophet commissioned by God, Isaiah began his ministry in the year King Uzziah died, in chapter six, verse one. He prophesied for forty or more years.
Isaiah’s prophetic ministry during the divided kingdom was separated into two parts after the death of Solomon. The northern Kingdom, called Israel, was first ruled by Jeroboam, which included the ten tribes of the Israelites. The southern Kingdom, called Judah, was first ruled by Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, with its capital at Jerusalem, and consisted of ten tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Both Kingdoms had turned from God and His law to heathen nations and their false gods to deliver them from their enemies. The northern kingdom was conquered and destroyed by Assyria. Isaiah warned Judah that they, too, would be destroyed because of their sin and apostasy, as in Isaiah thirty-nine, verse six, “Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD.”
“The vision” depicts a servant being guided by God to overturn the Babylonians for their captivity and what they did to Jerusalem in carrying off its people and treasures to their own country, which occurred due to the rebuilding of idol worship condoned by God’s people.