The latter half of the sixth century BCE found the Jewish community fragmented and under great strife after having been conquered by the Babylonian armies. As a response to a growing despair over life in servitude and exile Isaiah 40-66 was written. Paul Hanson examines the writings of Second and Third Isaiah. What he discovers is a poetic argument for a loving and attentive God and the rightful place of God s creatures in the unfolding of history.