Isaiah 1–39

Gary V. Smith’s 2021 CSC volume is a useful and worthwhile revision of his respected 2007 NAC commentary, though readers should expect selective refinement and updating rather than extensive reworking or substantially new exegesis. The revised edition retains the NAC’s six-part structure, principal interpretations, theological conclusions, and sustained emphasis on trusting the Holy God who sovereignly rules Judah and all the nations. The presentation is improved through clearer decimal headings, more polished section titles, integration of the CSB in place of the NIV, updated references, and engagement with newer works by scholars such as Williamson, Raabe, House, Roberts, and especially S. Z. Aster. The most important broader development is Smith’s fuller use of Assyrian imperial ideology: Isaiah’s proclamation of Yahweh’s universal kingship is presented more explicitly as a direct challenge to Assyria’s propaganda that Assur had authorised its king to rule the world, with Sennacherib’s defeat demonstrating Yahweh’s supremacy. Some difficult passages receive sharper reasoning rather than changed conclusions. In Isaiah 7:16, for example, Smith condenses his earlier objections to the common interpretation, incorporates newer linguistic discussion associated with Peter Gentry, considers whether the disputed participle means “tear down,” and more clearly identifies Ahaz as the one abandoned amid Judah’s devastation, thereby connecting the verse more closely with the judgment of verse 17. Smaller textual-critical revisions correct details and improve explanations of Qumran, Septuagint, and Targum readings; for instance, the CSC offers a plausible scribal explanation for how the Qumran “seer/watchman” reading in Isaiah 21:8 could have become “lion.” The prose is also tighter and more formal, with some repetition, jokes, conversational asides, and less useful older discussion reduced. Despite the new scholarship and additional footnotes, the introduction is about three per cent shorter and the commentary proper about one per cent shorter. Overall, the revision is more polished, current, precise, and readable while retaining Smith’s historically grounded, textually attentive, theologically conservative, and pastorally useful exposition.