ce a new and clearer meaning.

IV. Their Probable Date. The reference in 43:23, 24 to the offerings
brought by the people to Jehovah's temple clearly implies that it had
already been built. Furthermore, the charges preferred against the Judean
community are very similar to those in the book of Malachi, which is
generally assigned to the period immediately preceding the arrival of
Nehemiah in 445 B.C. (cf. Section XCVII). From the parallels in chapter 48
and elsewhere it is evident that Jehovah's Messiah in 45:1 is not Cyrus
but Israel, the messianic nation, to which Jehovah in earlier days under
David and his successors gave repeated victories and far-extended
authority. The presence of the name Cyrus seems without reasonable doubt
to be due to a later scribe, who thus incorrectly identified the allusion.
It is supported neither by the metrical structure nor the context of the
passages in which it is found. Furthermore, the ideas in Isaiah 40-55 are
almost without exception those which Zechariah had already voiced in
germinal form, especially in his latest prophecies preserved in chapters 7
and 8. They are here more fully and far more gloriously expanded,
indicating that their author lived perhaps a generation later than
Zechariah. The years between 500 and 450 furnish the most satisfactory
setting for these prophecies. In a very true sense, however, like many
of the psalms, they are timeless. The question of their exact date
is comparatively unimportant except as it throws light upon their
interpretation.

V. Their Literary Characteristics. The prophecies in Isaiah 40-66 are
psalms, sharing the characteristics of all lyric Hebrew poetry. Each is
complete in itself and yet closely related to the others both in content
and literary form. Their nobility of theme, their breadth of outlook,
their wealth of rich and glowing figures, and their finished literary
character give them an incontestable place among the greatest writings of
the Old Testament. While there is a powerful argument running through them
all, the logic is not cumulative but rather moves in a spiral, frequently
returning to the same subject but having a gradual onward movement. It is
the characteristic Oriental method of thinking, which is the opposite of
that of the Western world. These poems are grouped into three cycles which
apparently represent the prophet's thinking during succeeding periods. The
first cycle is included in 40-48. Chapter 48 is a recap