Chapters 40–55 in the Book of Isaiah are believed to be the work of a prophet who lived with the Hebrew exiles during the Babylonian captivity. Because this prophet's real name is unknown and his work has been preserved in the collection of writings that include the prophecies of the earlier Isaiah, he is usually designated as Deutero-Isaiah — the second Isaiah. The chapters attributed to this prophet of the exile include some of the noblest religious ideals found in the entire Old Testament. The prophet was a pure monotheist. Rejecting the idea of Yahweh as a god who belonged only to the Hebrews, Deutero-Isaiah boldly proclaimed Yahweh as the only true God of the entire universe. He maintained that the so-called gods of foreign nations were but figments of the imagination. His conception of the people of Israel was also unique in that he regarded them as Yahweh's servants, whose primary function in the world is to carry religion to the ends of the earth. He made explicit an interpretation of history that, although it had been implied in the teachings of the earlier prophets, had never been stated as clearly by any of them. Finally, he introduced a new concept to account for the sufferings of people that could not, in all fairness, be explained as punishment for sins.
Deutero-Isaiah faced the task of giving new hope and encouragement to the exiles, who were on the verge of despair, feeling either that Yahweh had forsaken them entirely or that Yahweh's power had been broken by the superior gods of the Babylonians. To these disheartened people, Deutero-Isaiah calls out, "Here is your God!" He assures them that Yahweh has not forsaken the exiled people; neither has Yahweh been defeated by the Babylonians or any other foreign power. Yahweh is the supreme ruler of the universe, and all the nations of the earth are subject to him: "Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales." And again, "Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing." Deutero-Isaiah ridicules people who bow down before man-made idols and who claim that these idols are representations of their gods. The only true God cannot be represented or symbolized by an image because there are no objects in nature to which he can be compared. Yahweh is the creator of the heavens and the earth. Whatever exists is dependent on him. He alone has the power to create and is the only presence whose purpose can be discerned in the course of history: "He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. . . . He brings princes to nought and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing."
