Baltzer's magnificent commentary places the text in the new context after the Exile. The experience of catastrophe, the need to grapple with new problems, and hope for a peaceful future: these are all linked in Deutero-Isaiah's composition. The work aims to establish accord between adherents of the Jacob/Israel tradition on the one hand and those committed to the Zion/Jerusalem tradition on the other-the background being the tensions between the exiles, and the people who had remained on the land.
Along with masterful presentations of the book's themes, Baltzer also develops a creative hypothesis about the work's genre, identifying it as a "liturgical drama" in six acts, which makes it possible to understand the text's function in worship and its significance as a literary text of supreme artistry for a nonliterary audience.
