He apostrophized Babylon in a satirical song of masterly perfection (Is. xlvii.); he derided the astrological science by which the Babylonian sages boasted that they could raise the veil from the future; he treated the coarse idolatry of the Chaldæans with more bitter irony than any of his predecessors had done. He foretold the siege of the city by Cyrus, and declared that the Persian conqueror would give freedom to the Judæan and Israelitish exiles; that they would return to their country and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. The prophet laid great stress upon these predictions, declaring that in their realisation Divine Providence would be manifest. Cyrus was but an instrument of God for furthering the deliverance of Judah and the salvation of the world.
For the sake of the exiles, the wonders of the exodus from Egypt would be renewed, every mountain and hill would be made level, springs would gush forth in the wilderness, and the desert would become a blooming garden. The exiles would raise Jerusalem from its ruins, and live in their beloved city in peace and comfort. But in spite of his reverence for Jerusalem, the prophet declared that the Divine Being was too great to be pictured as dwelling within a temple, however spacious it might be, but that each human heart should be a temple dedicated to God.
"Thus says the Lord: The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me; and where is the place of my rest? For all these things hath mine hand made, saith the Lord; but to this man will I look, to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word." (Isaiah lxvi. 1.)
The exiles, purged and truly pious, adopted this thought, and embodied it in Solomon's prayer:
"Behold, the heaven of heavens contain Thee not; how much less a temple." (1 Kings viii. 27.)
Unfortunately, in spite of the beautiful words of the prophet of the Captivity, the servant of God declined to accept this apostolic work, and remained blind and deaf. Instead of making the Law of God beloved, he made it contemptible, and became contemptible himself.
The ideal and the real being thus at variance with each other, the prophet felt that his mission was to preach, to exhort, to denounce and to arouse. The Judæan community in the Captivity was now more than ever divided into two camps: on the one side were the pious and patriotic; on the other, the worldly and the callous. The former, who had become timid and despondent from continued persecution and suffering, dared not come forward at this anxious time to oppose their persecutors; they were oppressed by the sorrowful thought that God had forsaken His people and had forgotten them, whilst their enemies called out mockingly, "Let the Lord be glorified and we will see your joy." (Isaiah lxvi. 5.) Now the aim of the great unknown prophet was to encourage the one class to action, and to move the other to penitence and improvement. He announced that God's salvation was at hand, and that if the worldly and selfish persisted in their evil ways, they would reap the punishment of their sins, whilst the pious would be rewarded with undimmed happiness. He finally depicted the coming deliverance and the return, when all the scattered of Judah and Israel would assemble on the holy mount of Jerusalem.
The king Nabonad and the Babylonian people probably felt less anxiety about the result of the war between Persia and Babylon than did the Judæan exiles. For the Judæans were alternating between the highest hopes and the most desponding fears; the preservation or the downfall of the Jewish race hung upon the issue of this war. The Babylonians, on the contrary, looked with indifference, it might be said, upon all of Cyrus's preparations. But one night, when they were dancing and carousing at one of their orgies, a large and powerful army appeared before the bastions of the city. The Babylonians were utterly unprepared for resistance, and when day broke, Babylon was filled with the enemy. Thus, as the prophet had foretold, the city of Babylon fell (539), but the king and the people escaped their predicted doom. Cyrus was a humane conqueror.
The disgusting idolatry of the Babylonians was uprooted when their city was taken. The religion of the victorious Persians and Medes was pure in comparison with that of the Babylonians. They worshipped only two or three gods, and abhorred the image-worship of the Babylonians, and perhaps destroyed their idols.
The fall of Babylon cured the Judæan community radically and for all time of idolatry. For the exiles saw that those highly honoured images were now lying in the dust, that Bel was on his knees, that Nebo was humbled, and that Merodach had fallen. The destruction of Babylon completed the regeneration of the Judæan people, and their hard hearts became softened. From that time all, even the worldly-minded and the sinners, clung to their God. For, had they not learned how His word, spoken by the mouth of His prophets, had been fulfilled? The sufferers and the mourners of Zion were no longer objects of hatred and contempt, but were, on the contrary, treated with veneration, and placed at the head of the community.