The latter half of the sixth century BC 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 wrote a poetic argument for a loving and attentive God and the rightful place of God's creatures in the unfolding of history. Many of Isaiah writings have been used as an example to illustrate the ethics of a biblical text. In a modern, pluralistic society there is a need for a comprehensive ethical view by which one can combine a solid religious foundation, including responsibility towards God, the Creator and Lord of life, with a broad human wisdom gained from a rational understanding of the circumstances of existence for a true human life in a created world of order.