Were the prophet Isaiah's prophecies believed?

Answer 1

Some prophecies of Isaiah that was not believed;

Isaiah 13:19-20

These verses falsely predict that Babylon (present day Iraq) will never again be inhabited.

13:21-22, Dragons will live in Babylonian palaces and satyrs will dance there.

17:1, This verse prophesies that Damascus will be completely destroyed and no longer be inhabited. Yet Damascus has never been completely destroyed and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities.

19:5, The river of Egypt (identified as the Nile in RSV) shall dry up. This has never occurred.

19:17, "The land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt." Judah never invaded Egypt and was never a military threat to Egypt.

More Prophecies in Isaiah that was not believed;

1. 19:18 predicts that there shall be five cities in Egypt that speak the Canaanite language. But that language was never spoken in Egypt, and it is extinct now.
2. 19:18-21 predicts that the Egyptians will worship the Lord (Yahweh) with sacrifices and offerings. But Judaism has never been an important religion in Egypt.
3. 19:23-24 predicts that there will be an alliance between Egypt, Israel, and Assyria. But there has never been any such alliance, and it's unlikely that it ever will since Assyria no longer exists.19:23-24

Answer 2

In very early Hebrew times, it was not important for a prophet to tell the future, because a prophet was seen as someone who communicated with God, rather than just prophesy. And it could be said that Isaiah did not prophesy.
The most famous 'prophecy' was in verse 7:14, where Isaiah promised that "the young woman" would have a child. The young woman in question did have a child a few verses later, so this can hardly have been a real prophecy, since the outcome was known to Isaiah before he even wrote the book. The Septuagint (An early translation of the Hebrew Bible into the Greek language) incorrectly translated Isaiah 7:14 to say that a 'virgin' would conceive and bear a child. The author of the Gospel of Matthew relied on this mistranslation to show that it was prophesied that Jesus would be born of a virgin.

The Book of Isaiah actually had three authors, now known as First Isaiah or I Isaiah (who lived during the reigns of the Judahite kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah), Second Isaiah or II Isaiah, who lived more than a century later during the Babylonian Exile, and Third Isaiah, who wrote shortly after the end of the Babylonian Exile. This has led some to believe that I Isaiah had prophesied the events described by II Isaiah and III Isaiah..

Answer 3

The religious among the Israelites certainly believed him and still do. See also:

How many Isaiahs were there?

Israelite prophecy