How did Isaiah die?

Of his personal history we know very little. We learn that his father's name was Amoz, but we do not know which tribe he belonged to. Isaiah has told us that he was married and had two children, and he has recorded for our instruction the great lesson he learned about the uncleanness of his nature. But the date of his birth and the year of his death are facts hidden in the darkness of the past.

Isaiah's prophetic service covered the reigns of the kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. Uzziah's rule started around the year 767 BC, and Hezekiah died around 697 BC. The prophet's service fell within that time. According to Jewish tradition, Isaiah was persecuted by the ungodly king Manasseh, the son of king Hezekiah, and sawn in two inside a hollow tree trunk (compare Hebrews 11:37).

There is a trustworthy tradition that he lived during the reign of Manasseh, and that he suffered martyrdom because he rebuked the vices and idolatries that were rampant under that wicked king. This tradition says that he died by being sawn in two. (See Hebrews 11:37, which, if this tradition is true, would apply to Isaiah.) Josephus, the great Jewish historian, speaks of the cruel persecutions under Manasseh's reign in these words: "He barbarously killed all the righteous men among the Hebrews; nor would he spare the prophets, for he killed some of them every day, until Jerusalem was flooded with blood."

Jewish tradition claims that the aged prophet, then about ninety years old, was "sawn in two" during the reign of Manasseh, and that a wooden instrument was used for the cruel purpose in order to prolong his sufferings. Many suppose that Hebrews 11:37, "sawn in two," refers to the barbarous martyrdom of our prophet. Isaiah, being their favourite prophet, also had to have royal parentage, so they tell us that Amoz, the prophet's father, was a brother of king Amaziah. These traditions are not supported by a shred of evidence. We do not say they are false, neither can we affirm they are true.

Some were stoned, as Zechariah was (2 Chronicles 24) and Jeremiah, according to tradition. Some were sawn in two, as Isaiah was under Manasseh. Some were killed with the sword, like Urijah (Jeremiah 26:23) and James the brother of John (Acts 12). They might have dressed in silks and velvets and lived in luxury in the palaces of princes, had they denied God and believed the world's lie.

"They were sawn in two" — referring perhaps to the period between Malachi and the New Testament, when such persecutions were inflicted.

If the Old Testament does not give us the details of such history, at least in many of these cases, yet no doubt there were many. And the records of later church history contain a multitude of cases of godly people suffering these very things, and tortures even more cruel, for Christ's sake. How full of meaning and how precious is that word, "of whom the world was not worthy."