Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 1:1

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Ch. Isa 1:1. The Superscription

The verse is probably best understood as the heading of the first great collection of prophecies, ch. 1 12. The contents of these chapters are described with sufficient accuracy for the purposes of a title; whereas the phrase concerning Judah and Jerusalem is unsuitable to many of the later prophecies, and the note of time forbids us to limit the reference to ch. 1. The second difficulty (but not the first) might be removed by accepting Vitringa’s ingenious suggestion that the first half of the verse (down to “Jerusalem”) was originally the title of ch. 1, the latter part having been added in order to extend its scope to the whole book. Since, however, there is reason to suppose that ch. 1 12 once formed a separate volume (see General Introduction, p. lxxii), it is better to adopt the view which most fully accounts for all the particulars of the superscription.

The word vision is used here in the wide sense of a collection of prophetic oracles (cf. Nah 1:1; Oba 1:1). As the prophet was called a “seer” ( zeh), and his perception of divine truth was called “seeing,” so his message as a whole is termed a “vision” ( zn). See further on ch. Isa 2:1, Isa 30:10.

Isaiah the son of Amoz ] On the name and parentage of the prophet, see General Introduction, p. xxii.

concerning Judah and Jerusalem ] as distinguished from prophecies on foreign nations, ch. 13 ff.

in the days of Uzziah Judah ] The words indicate generally the period covered by Isaiah’s public ministry. The author of the title probably understood that the vision of ch. 6 took place in the lifetime of Uzziah. It is not necessary to suppose that he assigned other prophecies to the reign of that king.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The vision – The first verse evidently is a title, but whether to the whole book or only to a part of it has been questioned. As it stands here, however, it seems clearly intended to include the entire book, because it embraces all that was seen during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah; that is, during the whole prophetic life of the prophet. The same title is also given to his prophecies in 2Ch 32:32 : Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his goodness, behold they are written in the vision of Isaiah. Vitringa supposes that the former part of this title, the vision of Isaiah, was at first affixed to the single prophecy contained in the first chapter, and that the latter part was inserted afterward as an introduction to the whole book. This might have been done by Isaiah himself if he collected his prophecies into a volume, or by some other inspired man who collected and arranged them; see the Introduction to Isa. 36.

The word vision, chazon, denotes properly that which is seen, from the verb, chazah, to see, to behold. It is a term which is often used in reference to the prophecies of the Old Testament; Num 12:6; Num 24:4; 1Sa 3:1; Psa 89:19; Dan 2:19; Dan 7:2; Dan 8:1; Nah 1:1; Gen 15:1; Isa 21:2; Isa 22:1. Hence, the prophets were anciently called Seers, as those who saw or witnessed events which were yet to come; compare 1Sa 9:9 : He that is now called a prophet was beforetime called a Seer; 1Sa 9:11, 1Sa 9:18-19; 1Ch 9:22; 1Ch 29:29; 2Ki 18:13. In these visions the objects probably were made to pass before the mind of the prophet as a picture, in which the various events were delineated with more or less distinctness, and the prophecies were spoken, or recorded, as the visions appeared to the observer. As many events could be represented only by symbols, those symbols became a matter of record, and are often left without explanation. On the nature of the prophetic visions, see Introduction, Section 7. (4.)

Of Isaiah – The name Isaiah y^eshayahu from yesha – salvation, help, deliverance – and y^ehovah or Jehovah, means salvation of Yahweh, or Yahweh will save. The Vulgate renders it Isaias; the Septuagint has: Eesaias, Esaias. This is also retained in the New Testament; Mat 3:3; Mat 4:14; Mat 12:17; Mat 15:7; Mar 7:6; Luk 4:17; Joh 12:39; Act 8:28; Rom 9:27, etc. In the book of Isaiah itself we find the form y^eshayahu, but in the inscription the rabbis give the form y^eshayah. It was common among the Hebrews to incorporate the name Yahweh, or a part of it, into their proper names; see the note at Isa 7:14. Probably the object of this was to express veneration or regard for him – as we now give the name of a parent or friend to a child; or in many cases the name may have been given to record some signal act of mercy on the part of God, or some special interposition of his goodness. The practice of incorporating the name of the God that was worshipped into proper names was common in the East. Thus the name Bel, the principal idol worshipped in Babylon, appears in the proper names of the kings, as Belshazzar, etc.; compare the note at Isa 46:1. It is not known that the name was given to Isaiah with any reference to the nature of the prophecies which he would deliver; but it is a remarkable circumstance that it coincides so entirely with the design of so large a portion of his predictions. The substance of the latter portion of the book, at least, is the salvation which Yahweh would effect for his people from their oppressers in Babylon, and the far mightier deliverance which the world would experience under the Messiah.

The son of Amoz – See the Introduction, Section 2. Concerning Judah. The Jews after the death of Solomon were divided into two kingdoms; the kingdom of Judah, and of Israel, or Ephraim. The kingdom of Judah included the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Benjamin was a small tribe, and it was not commonly mentioned, or the name was lost in that of Judah. The kingdom of Israel, or Ephraim, included the remaining ten tribes. Few of the prophets appeared among them; and the personal ministry of Isaiah does not appear to have been at all extended to them.

Jerusalem – The capital of the kingdom of Judah. It was on the dividing line between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. It is supposed to have been founded by Melchizedek, who is called king of Salem Gen 14:18, and who is supposed to have given this name Salem to it. This was about 2000 years before Christ. About a century after its foundation as a city, it was captured by the Jebusites, who extended its walls and built a citadel on Mount Zion. By them it was called Jebus. In the conquest of Canaan, Joshua put to death its king Jos 10:23, and obtained possession of the town, which was jointly occupied by the Hebrews and Jebusites until the latter were expelled by David, who made it the capital of his kingdom under the name of Jebus-Salem, or, for the sake of easier pronunciation by changing the Hebrew letter (b) into the Hebrew letter (r), Jerusalem. After the revolt of the ten tribes, it of course became the capital of the kingdom of Judah. It was built on hills, or rocks, and was capable of being strongly fortified, and was well adapted to be the capital of the nation. For a more full description of Jerusalem, see the notes at Mat 2:1. The vision which is here spoken of as having been seen respecting Judah and Jerusalem, pertains only to this chapter; see Isa 2:1.

In the days of Uzziah – In the time, or during the reign of Uzziah; 2 Chr. 26; compare the Introduction, Section 3. He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty-two years. It is not affirmed or supposed that Isaiah began to prophesy at the commencement of his reign. The first part of the long reign of Uzziah was prosperous. He gained important victories over his enemies, and fortified his kingdom; 2Ch 26:5-15. He had under him an army of more than three hundred thousand men. But he became proud – attempted an act of sacrilege – was smitten of God, and died a leper. But though the kingdom under Uzziah was flourishing, yet it had in it the elements of decay. During the previous reign of Joash, it had been invaded and weakened by the Assyrians, and a large amount of wealth had been taken to Damascus, the capital of Syria; 2Ch 24:23-24. It is not improbable that those ravages were repeated during the latter part of the reign of Uzziah; compare Isa 1:7.

Jotham – He began to reign at the age of twenty-five years, and reigned sixteen years; 2Ch 27:1-2.

Ahaz – He began to reign at the age of twenty, and reigned sixteen years. He was a wicked man, and during his reign the kingdom was involved in crimes and calamities; 2 Chr. 28.

Hezekiah – He was a virtuous and upright prince. He began his reign at the age of twenty-five years, and reigned twenty-nine; 2 Chr. 29; see the Introduction Section 3,

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Isa 1:1

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz

Isaiah the son of Amoz

This is not Amos the inspired herdsman.

It is his glory simply that he was the father of Isaiah. Like many another he lives in the reflected glory of his offspring. The next best thing to being a great man is to be the father of one. (S. Horton.)

Isaiahs father

The rabbis represent his father Amoz as having been a brother of King Amaziah; but, at any rate, if we may judge from his illustrious sons name, which means salvation is from Jehovah, he was loyal to the national faith in days clouded by sore troubles, political danger threatening from without, and deep religious decay pervading all classes of the community. (C. Geikie, LL. D.)

The vision of Isaiah

The word vision is used here in the wide sense of a collection of prophetic oracles (Nah 1:1; Oba 1:1). As the prophet was called a seer, and his perception of Divine truth was called seeing, so his message as a whole is termed a vision. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)

The time when Isaiah prophesied

Why does the Bible tell us so particularly the time when Isaiah prophesied? Does not the thinker belong to all the ages Does not the poet sing for all time? Why weight the narrative with these thronelogical details? Because you can only judge either a man or his message by knowing the circumstances of his time. If you take a geologist a new specimen he not only wants to know its genus and species, but the matrix out of which it was hewn. The best men not only help to make their times, but their times help to make them. He who is moulded entirely by his surroundings is a human jelly fish–of no account. He who is not influenced at all by the play of popular passion–the set of public opinion–is an anachronism, a living corpse. (S. Horton.)

Isaiahs manly outspokenness

It is a living man who speaks to us. This is not an anonymous book. Much value attaches to personal testimony. The true witness is not ashamed of day and date and all the surrounding chronology; we know where to find him, what he sprang from, who he is, and what he wants. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH

Chronological Notes relative to the commencement of Isaiah’s prophecy

-Year from the Creation of the World, according to the computation of Archbishop Usher, 3244.

-Year from the Deluge, according to the generally received Hebrew text, 1588.

-Year from the vocation of Abram, 1161.

-Year from the foundation of Solomon’s Temple, 251.

-First year of the fifth Olympiad.

-Year before the building of Rome, according to the Varronian computation, 7.

-Fifteenth year of the reign of Thurimas, king of Macedon.

-Eleventh year of the reign of Theopompus, king of Lacedaemon.

-Second year of the reign of Alyattes, king of Lydia.

-Eighteenth year of AEschylus, perpetual archon of the Athenians.

-Second year of the reign of Pekahiah, king of Israel.

-Fifty-first year of the reign of Azariah, or Uzziah, king of Judah.

-Epoch of the establishment of the Ephori at Lacedaemon by Theopompus.

CHAPTER I

The prophet, with a boldness and majesty becoming the herald of

the Most High, begins with calling on the whole creation to

attend while Jehovah speaks, 2.

A charge of gross insensibility and ingratitude is then brought

against the Jews, by contrasting their conduct with that of

the ox and ass, the most stupid of animals, 3.

This leads to an amplification of their guilt, 4;

highly aggravated by their slighting the chastisements and

judgments of God, though repeated till they had been left

almost like Sodom and Gomorrah, 5-9.

The incidental mention of those places leads to an address to

the rulers and people of the Jews, under the character of

princes of Sodom, and people of Gomorrah, which is no less

spirited and severe than elegant and unexpected, 10.

The vanity of trusting to the performance of the outward rites

and ceremonies of religion is then exposed, 11-15;

and the necessity of repentance and reformation is strongly

enjoined, 16, 17,

and urged by the most encouraging promises as well as by the

most awful threatenings, 18-20.

But neither of these producing the proper effect on that people

who were the prophet’s charge, he bitterly laments their

degeneracy, 21-23;

and concludes with introducing God, declaring his purpose of

inflicting such heavy judgments as would entirely cut off the

wicked, and excite in the righteous, who should also pass

through the furnace, an everlasting shame and abhorrence of

every thing connected with idolatry, the source of their

misery, 24-31.

ISAIAH exercised the prophetical office during a long period of time, if he lived to the reign of Manasseh; for the lowest computation, beginning from the year in which Uzziah died, when some suppose him to have received his first appointment to that office, brings it to sixty-one years. But the tradition of the Jews, that he was put to death by Manasseh, is very uncertain; and one of their principal rabbins, Aben Ezra, Com. in Isa 1:1, seems rather to think that he died before Hezekiah, which is indeed more probable. It is however certain that he lived at least to the fifteenth or sixteenth year of Hezekiah; this makes the least possible term of the duration of his prophetical office about forty-eight years. The time of the delivery of some of his prophecies is either expressly marked, or sufficiently clear from the history to which they relate; that of a few others may with some probability be deduced from internal marks; from expressions, descriptions, and circumstances interwoven. It may therefore be of some use in this respect, and for the better understanding of his prophecies in general, to give here a summary view of the history of his time.

The kingdom of Judah seems to have been in a more flourishing condition during the reigns of Uzziah and Jotham, than at any other time after the revolt of the ten tribes. The former recovered the port of Elath on the Red Sea, which the Edomites had taken in the reign of Joram. He was successful in his wars with the Philistines, and took from them several cities, Gath, Jabneh, Ashdod; as likewise against some people of Arabia Deserta, and against the Ammonites, whom he compelled to pay him tribute. He repaired and improved the fortifications of Jerusalem; and had a great army, well appointed and disciplined. He was no less attentive to the arts of peace; and very much encouraged agriculture, and the breeding of cattle. Jotham maintained the establishments and improvements made by his father; added to what Uzziah had done in strengthening the frontier places; conquered the Ammonites, who had revolted, and exacted from them a more stated and probably a larger tribute. However, at the latter end of his time, the league between Pekah, king of Israel, and Retsin, king of Syria, was formed against Judah; and they began to carry their designs into execution.

But in the reign of Ahaz his son not only all these advantages were lost, but the kingdom of Judah was brought to the brink of destruction. Pekah king of Israel overthrew the army of Ahaz, who lost in battle one hundred and twenty thousand men; and the Israelites carried away captives two hundred thousand women and children, who however were released and sent home again upon the remonstrance of the prophet Oded. After this, as it should seem, (see Vitringa on Isa 7:2,) the two kings of Israel and Syria, joining their forces, laid siege to Jerusalem; but in this attempt they failed of success. In this distress Ahaz called in the assistance of Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, who invaded the kingdoms of Israel and Syria, and slew Rezin; but he was more in danger than ever from his too powerful ally; to purchase whose forbearance, as he had before bought his assistance, he was forced to strip himself and his people of all the wealth he could possibly raise from his own treasury, from the temple, and from the country. About the time of the siege of Jerusalem the Syrians took Elath, which was never after recovered. The Edomites likewise, taking advantage of the distress of Ahaz, ravaged Judea, and carried away many captives. The Philistines recovered what they had before lost; and took many places in Judea, and maintained themselves there. Idolatry was established by the command of the king in Jerusalem, and throughout Judea; and the service of the temple was either intermitted, or converted into an idolatrous worship.

Hezekiah, his son, on his accession to the throne, immediately set about the restoration of the legal worship of God, both in Jerusalem and through Judea. He cleansed and repaired the temple, and held a solemn passover. He improved the city, repaired the fortification, erected magazines of all sorts, and built a new aqueduct. In the fourth year of his reign Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, invaded the kingdom of Israel, took Samaria, and carried away the Israelites into captivity, and replaced them by different people sent from his own country; and this was the final destruction of that kingdom, in the sixth year of the reign of Hezekiah.

Hezekiah was not deterred by this alarming example from refusing to pay the tribute to the king of Assyria, which had been imposed on Ahaz: this brought on the invasion of Sennacherib in the fourteenth year of his reign, an account of which is inserted among the prophecies of Isaiah. After a great and miraculous deliverance from so powerful an enemy, Hezekiah continued his reign in peace. He prospered in all his works, and left his kingdom in a flourishing state to his son Manasseh-a son in every respect unworthy of such a father. See Lowth.

NOTES ON CHAP. I

Verse 1. The vision of Isaiah] It seems doubtful whether this title belongs to the whole book, or only to the prophecy contained in this chapter. The former part of the title seems properly to belong to this particular prophecy; the latter part, which enumerates the kings of Judah under whom Isaiah exercised his prophetical office, seems to extend it to the whole collection of prophecies delivered in the course of his ministry. Vitringa-to whom the world is greatly indebted for his learned labours on this prophet and to whom we should have owed much more if he had not so totally devoted himself to Masoretic authority-has, I think, very judiciously resolved this doubt. He supposes that the former part of the title was originally prefixed to this single prophecy; and that, when the collection of all Isaiah’s prophecies was made, the enumeration of the kings of Judah was added, to make it at the same time a proper title to the whole book. As such it is plainly taken in 2Ch 32:32, where the book of Isaiah is cited by this title: “The vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.”

The prophecy contained in this first chapter stands single and unconnected, making an entire piece of itself. It contains a severe remonstrance against the corruptions prevailing among the Jews of that time, powerful exhortations to repentance, grievous threatenings to the impenitent, and gracious promises of better times, when the nation shall have been reformed by the just judgments of God. The expression, upon the whole, is clear; the connection of the several parts easy; and in regard to the images, sentiments, and style, it gives a beautiful example of the prophet’s elegant manner of writing; though perhaps it may not be equal in these respects to many of the following prophecies.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The vision, or, the visions; the word being here collectively used, as it Isa 22:1; 1Sa 3:1. The sense is, This is the book of the visions or prophecies. As prophets were called seers, 1Sa 9:9, so prophecies are called visions, because they were as clearly and certainly represented to the prophets’ minds as bodily objects are to men’s eyes.

Amoz; either the brother of Amaziah king of Judah, as the Hebrew writers fancy; or rather, some other person then well known.

Saw, i.e. foresaw and foretold. But he speaks, after the manner of the prophets, of things to come as if they were either past or present.

Concerning Judah and Jerusalem; principally, but not exclusively. For he prophesieth also concerning Egypt and Babylon, and divers other countries; which yet he doth with respect to Judah.

In the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah; in the time of their reign; whence it may be gathered that Isaiah exercised his prophetical office above fifty years together: see 2Ki 15; 2Ki 16.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

1. THEGENERAL TITLEOR PROGRAM applyingto the entire book: this discountenances the Talmud tradition, thathe was sawn asunder by Manasseh.

Isaiahequivalent to”The Lord shall save“; significant of the subject ofhis prophecies. On “vision,” see 1Sa 9:9;Num 12:6; and see my Introduction.

Judah and JerusalemOthernations also are the subjects of his prophecies; but only in theirrelation to the Jews (Isa13:1-23:18); so also the ten tribes of Israel are introduced onlyin the same relation (Isa7:1-9:21). Jerusalem is particularly specified, being the site ofthe temple, and the center of the theocracy, and the future throne ofMessiah (Psa 48:2; Psa 48:3;Psa 48:9; Jer 3:17).Jesus Christ is the “Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Re5:5).

Uzziahcalled alsoAzariah (2Ki 14:21; 2Ch 26:1;2Ch 26:17; 2Ch 26:20).The Old Testament prophecies spiritually interpret the histories, asthe New Testament Epistles interpret the Gospels and Acts. Study themtogether, to see their spiritual relations. Isaiah prophesied foronly a few years before Uzziah’s death; but his prophecies of thatperiod (Isa 1:1-6:13)apply to Jotham’s reign also, in which he probably wrote none;for Isa 7:1-25 entersimmediately on Ahaz’ reign, after Uzziah in Isa6:1-13; the prophecies under Hezekiah follow next.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz,…. This is either the particular title of the prophecy contained in this single chapter, as Jarchi and Abarbinel think; seeing the second chapter Isa 2:1 begins with another title, “the word that Isaiah saw”, c. or rather it is the common title of the whole book since it is the vision which Isaiah saw in the reign of four kings, as is later affirmed; and so is no other than in general “the prophecy of Isaiah”, as the Targum renders it; called a “vision”, because it was delivered to him, at least the greatest part of it, in a vision; and because he had a clear perception of the things he prophesied of, as well as delivered them in a clear and perspicuous manner to others: hence the Jews say m, that Moses and Isaiah excelled the other prophets, seeing they understood what they prophesied of. The name of Isaiah, the penman of this book, signifies either “the Lord shall save”, according to Hilleras n; or “the salvation of the Lord”, as Abarbinel, Jerom, and others; and is very suitable to the message he was sent with to the people of God; to acquaint them that the Lord had provided a Saviour for them, and that he would come and save them. He is said to be “the son of Amoz”; not of Amos the prophet; the names differ; the name of the prophet that stands among the twelve lesser prophets is , “Amos”; the name of Isaiah’s parent is , “Amoz”. It is a tradition with the Jews o, that Amoz, the father of Isaiah, was brother to Amaziah, king of Judah, so that Isaiah was of the royal family. Abarbinei endeavours to confirm it from that greatness of mind, freedom and boldness, he used in reproofs, and from his polite and courtly way of speaking; and this is mentioned by Aben Ezra as a reason why the Jews did not harm him, as they did Jeremiah: but this tradition is not equally regarded by the Jewish writers; and though Kimchi takes notice of it, yet he says the genealogy of Isaiah is not known, nor of what tribe he was. If he was of the seed royal, this is an instance of God’s calling some that are noble, not only by his grace, but to office in his church; and it is with a view to this tradition, no doubt, that Jerom p calls him “vir nobilis”, a “nobleman”. It is also a rule with the Jews q, that where the name of a prophet’s father is mentioned, it is a sign that his father was a prophet; and so they say this Amoz was, though the king’s brother; and that he is the same with the man of God that came to Amaziah r, 2Ch 25:7 but Aben Ezra suggests, that this rule does not always hold good.

Which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem; that is, chiefly and principally; for though Ephraim, or the ten tribes of Israel, are mentioned, yet very rarely; and though there are prophecies concerning other nations in it, yet these relate to the deliverance of the Jews from them, or to God’s vengeance on them for their sake. Judah is put for the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and is particularly mentioned, because the Messiah, so much spoken of in this book, was to spring from thence, whose title is the Lion of the tribe of Judah; and though Jerusalem was in it, yet that is also particularly taken notice of, because not only the temple, the place of divine worship, was in it, and it was the metropolis of the land; but because the Messiah, when he came, was often to appear here, and from thence the Gospel was to go forth into all the world; and this was a figure of the Gospel church state to the end of the world, which often bears this name: and many things are said in this prophecy not only concerning the coming of Christ, but of the Gospel dispensation, and of various things that should come to pass in it; concerning the glory of the church in the latter day, the calling of the Gentiles, the conversion of the Jews, the destruction of antichrist, and the new heavens and new earth.

In the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah: if Isaiah began to prophesy in the first year of Uzziah’s reign, as Kimchi and Abarbinel think, relying pretty much on

2Ch 26:22 and lived out the reign of Hezekiah, as he must, if he was put to death by Manasseh, according to the tradition of the Jews, he must prophesy a hundred and twelve or thirteen years; for Uzziah reigned fifty two years, Jotham sixteen, Ahaz sixteen, and Hezekiah twenty nine; but as this seems to begin his prophecy too soon, since so small a part of it was in or concerns Uzziah’s reign; so it seems too late to fix the date of his prophecy from the year that King Uzziah died, when he had the vision in Isa 6:1 and desired to be sent of the Lord; which is the opinion of Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and others; but Dr. Lightfoot’s opinion is more probable, who places the beginning of his prophecy in the twenty third year of Uzziah; though perhaps it may be sufficient to allow him only ten years of Uzziah’s reign: and as he lived through the two reigns of Jotham and Ahaz, so it is certain that he lived through more than half of the reign of Hezekiah; his whole reign was twenty nine years; and therefore it was when he had reigned fourteen years that he was taken sick, and then fifteen years more were added to his days; and the year after this came the messengers from Babylon to congratulate him on his recovery; all which Isaiah gives an account of Isa 38:1 but how long he lived and prophesied after this cannot be said: had his days been prolonged to the times of Manasseh, it would have been written, as Aben Ezra observes, and who pays but little regard to the tradition of the Jews concerning Isaiah’s being put to death by Manasseh; if the thing, says he, is “cabala”, a tradition, it is truth; but he seems to call in question its reality; however, it is not to be depended on.

m R. Eleazar in Yalkut, pars 2. fol. 118. 2. n Onomastic. Sacr. p. 319. o T. Bab. Megilla, fol. 10. 2. & Sota, fol. 10. 2. & Seder Olam Zuta, p. 104. Juchasin, fol. 12. 1. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 11. 2. p Ad Paulam, fol. 8. M. tom. 3. q T. Bab. Megilla, fol. 15. 1. r Kimchi in 2 Chron. xxv. 7.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Title of the collection, as given in Isa 1:1: “Seeing of Jesha’-yahu, son of Amoz, which he saw over Judah and Jerusalem in the days of ‘Uzziyahu, Jotham, Ahaz, and Yehizkiyahu, the kings of Judah.” Isaiah is called the “son of Amoz.” There is no force in the old Jewish doctrine ( b. Megilla 15 a), which was known to the fathers, that whenever the name of a prophet’s father is given, it is a proof that the father was also a prophet. And we are just as incredulous about another old tradition, to the effect that Amoz was the brother of Amaziah, the father and predecessor of Uzziah ( b. Sota 10 b). There is some significance in this tradition, however, even if it is not true. There is something royal in the nature and bearing of Isaiah throughout. He speaks to kings as if he himself were a king. He confronts with majesty the magnates of the nation and of the imperial power. In his peculiar style, he occupies the same place among the prophets as Solomon among the kings. Under all circumstances, and in whatever state of mind, he is completely master of his materials – simple, yet majestic in his style – elevated, yet without affectation – and beautiful, though unadorned. But this regal character had its roots somewhere else than in the blood. All that can be affirmed with certainty is, that Isaiah was a native of Jerusalem; for notwithstanding his manifold prophetic missions, we never find him outside Jerusalem. There he lived with his wife and children, and, as we may infer from Isa 22:1, and the mode of his intercourse with king Hezekiah, down in the lower city. And there he laboured under the four kings named in Isa 1:1, viz., Uzziah (who reigned 52 years, 811-759), Jotham (16 years, 759-743), Ahaz (16 years, 743-728), and Hezekiah (29 years, 728-699). The four kings are enumerated without a Vav cop .; there is the same asyndeton enumerativum as in the titles to the books of Hosea and Micah. Hezekiah is there called Yehizkiyah , the form being almost the same as ours, with the simple elision of the concluding sound. The chronicler evidently preferred the fullest form, at the commencement as well as the termination. Roorda imagines that the chronicler derived this ill-shaped form from the three titles, were it is a copyist’s error for or ; but the estimable grammarian has overlooked the fact that the same form is found in Jer 15:4 and 2Ki 20:10, where no such error of the pen can have occurred. Moreover, it is not an ill-shaped form, if, instead of deriving it from the piel, as Roorda does, we derive it from the kal of the verb “strong is Jehovah,” an imperfect noun with a connecting i, which is frequently met with in proper names from verbal roots, such as Jesimil from sim , 1Ch 4:36: vid., Olshausen, 277, p. 621). Under these four kings Isaiah laboured, or, as it is expressed in Isa 1:1, saw the sight which is committed to writing in the book before us.

Of all the many Hebrew synonyms for seeing, (cf., Cernere , , and the Sanscrit and Persian kar , which is founded upon the radical notion of cutting and separating) is the standing general expression used to denote prophetic perception, whether the form in which the divine revelation was made to the prophet was in vision or by word. In either case he saw it, because he distinguished this divine revelation from his own conceptions and thoughts by means of that inner sense, which is designated by the name of the noblest of all the five external senses. From this verb Chazah there came both the abstract Chazon , seeing, and the more concrete C hizzayon , a sight ( visum ), which is a stronger from of C hizyon (from C hazi = C hazah ). The noun C hazon is indeed used to denote a particular sight (comp. Isa 29:7 with Job 20:8; Job 33:15), inasmuch as it consists in seeing ( visio ); but here in the title of the book of Isaiah the abstract meaning passes over into the collective idea of the sight or vision in all its extent, i.e., the sum and substance of all that was seen. It is a great mistake, therefore, for any one to argue from the use of the word Chazon (vision), that Isa 1:1 was originally nothing more than the heading to the first prophecy, and that it was only by the addition of Isa 1:1 that it received the stamp of a general title to the whole book. There is no force in the argument. Moreover, the chronicler knew the book of Isaiah by this title (2Ch 32:32); and the titles of other books of prophecy, such as Hosea, Amos, Micah, and Zephaniah, are very similar. A more plausible argument in favour of the twofold origin of Isa 1:1 has been lately repeated by Schegg and Meier, namely, that whilst “Judah and Jerusalem” are appropriate enough as defining the object of the first prophecy, the range is too limited to apply to all the prophecies that follow; since their object is not merely Judah, including Jerusalem, but they are also directed against foreign nations, and at chapter 7 the king of Israel, including Samaria, also comes within the horizon of the prophet’s vision. And in the title to the book of Micah, both kingdoms are distinctly named. But it was necessary there, inasmuch as Micah commences at once with the approaching overthrow of Samaria. Here the designation is a central one. Even, according to the well-known maxims a potiori , and a proximo , fit denominatio , it would not be unsuitable; but Judah and Jerusalem are really and essentially the sole object of the prophet’s vision. For within the largest circle of the imperial powers there lies the smaller one of the neighbouring nations; and in this again, the still more limited one of all Israel, including Samaria; and within this the still smaller one of the kingdom of Judah. And all these circles together form the circumference of Jerusalem, since the entire history of the world, so far as its inmost pragmatism and its ultimate goal were concerned, was the history of the church of God, which had for its peculiar site the city of the temple of Jehovah, and of the kingdom of promise. The expression “concerning Judah and Jerusalem” is therefore perfectly applicable to the whole book, in which all that the prophet sees is seen from Judah – Jerusalem as a centre, and seen for the sake and in the interests of both. The title in Isa 1:1 may pass without hesitation as the heading written by the prophet’s own hand. This is admitted not only by Caspari ( Micah, pp. 90-93), but also by Hitzig and Knobel. But if Isa 1:1 contains the title to the whole book, where is the heading to the first prophecy? Are we to take as a nominative instead of an accusative ( qui instead of quam , sc. visionem ), as Luzzatto does? This is a very easy way of escaping from the difficulty, and stamping Isa 1:1 as the heading to the first prophetic words in Chapter 1; but it is unnatural, as , according to Ges. (138, note 1), is the customary form in Hebrew of connecting the verb with its own substantive. The real answer is simple enough. The first prophetic address is left intentionally without a heading, just because it is the prologue to all the rest; and the second prophetic address has a heading in Isa 2:1, although it really does not need one, for the purpose of bringing out more sharply the true character of the first as the prologue to the whole.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

The Vision of Isaiah.

B. C. 738.

      1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

      Here is, I. The name of the prophet, Isaiah, or Jesahiahu (for so it is in the Hebrew), which, in the New Testament is read Esaias. His name signifies the salvation of the Lord–a proper name for a prophet by whom God gives knowledge of salvation to his people, especially for this prophet, who prophesies so much of Jesus the Saviour and of the great salvation wrought out by him. He is said to be the son of Amoz, not Amos the prophet (the two names in the Hebrew differ more than in the English), but, as the Jews think, of Amoz the brother, or son, of Amaziah king of Judah, a tradition as uncertain as that rule which they give, that, where a prophet’s father is named, he also was himself a prophet. The prophets’ pupils and successors are indeed often called their sons, but we have few instances, if any, of their own sons being their successors.

      II. The nature of the prophecy. It is a vision, being revealed to him in a vision, when he was awake, and heard the words of God, and saw the visions of the Almighty (as Balaam speaks, Num. xxiv. 4), though perhaps it was not so illustrious a vision at first as that afterwards, ch. vi. 1. The prophets were called seers, or seeing men, and therefore their prophecies are fitly called visions. It was what he saw with the eyes of his mind, and foresaw as clearly by divine revelation, was as well assured of it, as fully apprised of it, and as much affected with it, as if he had seen it with his bodily eyes. Note 1. God’s prophets saw what they spoke of, knew what they said, and require our belief of nothing but what they themselves believed and were sure of, Joh 6:69; 1Jn 1:1. 2. They could not but speak what they saw, because they saw how much all about them were concerned in it, Act 4:20; 2Co 4:13.

      III. The subject of the prophecy. It was what he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, the country of the two tribes, and that city which was their metropolis; and there is little in it relating to Ephraim, or the ten tribes, of whom there is so much said in the prophecy of Hosea. Some chapters there are in this book which relate to Babylon, Egypt, Tyre, and some other neighbouring nations; but it takes its title from that which is the main substance of it, and is therefore said to be concerning Judah and Jerusalem, the other nations spoken of being such as the people of the Jews had concern with. Isaiah brings to them in a special manner, 1. Instruction; for it is the privilege of Judah and Jerusalem that to them pertain the oracles of God. 2. Reproof and threatening; for if in Judah, where God is known, if in Salem, where his name is great, iniquity be found, they, sooner than any other, shall be reckoned with for it. 3. Comfort and encouragement in evil times; for the children of Zion shall be joyful in their king.

      IV. The date of the prophecy. Isaiah prophesied in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. By this it appears, 1. That he prophesied long, especially if (as the Jews say) he was at last put to death by Manasseh, to a cruel death, being sawn asunder, to which some suppose the apostle refers, Heb. xi. 37. From the year that king Uzziah died (ch. vi. 1) to Hezekiah’s sickness and recovery was forty-seven years; how much before, and after, he prophesied, is not certain; some reckon sixty, others eighty years in all. It was an honour to him, and a happiness to his country, that he was continued so long in his usefulness; and we must suppose both that he began young and that he held out to old age; for the prophets were not tied, as the priests were, to a certain age, for the beginning or ending of their administration. 2. That he passed through variety of times. Jotham was a good king, and Hezekiah a better, and no doubt gave encouragement to and took advice from this prophet, were patrons to him, and he a privy-counsellor to them; but between them, and when Isaiah was in the prime of his time, the reign of Ahaz was very profane and wicked; then, no doubt, he was frowned upon at court, and, it is likely, forced to abscond. Good men and good ministers must expect bad times in this world, and prepare for them. Then religion was run down to such a degree that the doors of the house of the Lord were shut up and idolatrous altars were erected in every corner of Jerusalem; and Isaiah, with all his divine eloquence and messages immediately from God himself, could not help it. The best men, the best ministers, cannot do the good they would do in the world.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

THE LAND IN THE TIME OF ISAIAH

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH

Isaiah, known as “chief of the 16 writing prophets,” is believed to have written this book; about 760 B.C. and 698 B.C. It was addressed to Judah and Jerusalem, though his prophecies often concerned other nations, Isa 1:1.

His message was first, one of coming judgment captivities upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their sins, chapters 1-39; Part of the book, chapters 40-66, look beyond the captivities to an hour of Redemption for Judah, Jerusalem, and the believing of the Gentile nations who would accept the coming Redeemer as Messiah, the Righteous Branch of David.

About the Writer of This Commentary

The material of this commentary of Isaiah was written and compiled by Elder Eugene Garner, pastor of Landmark Baptist Church of Rockford, Illinois for the past 33 years. It is believed [in 1984] that it’s content and presentation will be widely acclaimed as a special contribution of handy and helpful material for diligent Bible students, teachers, and ministers.

Eugene Garner is the younger brother of Albert Garner, founder of the Blessed Hope Foundation, which was founded to publish a verse by verse commentary on all the Bible. They have been joined by Dr. Jerry Crumley, who will soon complete a large volume covering the entire Pentateuch [now complete].

The writer of this volume has also agreed to do a commentary of one volume, covering Jeremiah and Lamentations, expected to be released in about two years [now complete]. Dr. Albert Garner, Editor and Publisher of the commentary, expects to release the Minor Prophets in a single volume in late 1984 [now complete].

ISAIAH CHART I

PROPHECIES OF JUDGMENT AND RESTITUTION

1. JEHOVAH’S DEALINGS WITH JUDAH AND JERUSALEM,

(Isa 1:1 to Isa 6:13).

II.JEHOVAH’S DEALINGS WITH ISRAEL, (7:1 – 12:13).

III.PROPHECIES AGAINST FOREIGN, HOSTILE NATIONS, (Isa 13:1 to Isa 23:18).

IV.PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE ENDING OF THE AGE, (Isa 24:1 to Isa 27:13).

V.PROPHETIC WARNINGS AGAINST MISPLACED TRUST, (Isa 28:1 to Isa 33:24).

VI.THE DAY OF THE LORD’S VENGEANCE AND REDEMPTION, (Isa 34:1 to Isa 35:10).

VII.HISTORICAL NARRATIVE RELATIVE TO REIGN OF HEZEKIAH, (Isaiah chapters. 36-39).

ISAIAH … CHART 11

PROPHECIES OF MESSIANIC REDEMPTION

I.JEHOVAH’S SUPREMACY REVEALED IN HIS ACTS, AND ATTRIBUTES, (Isa 40:1 to Isa 48:22).

II.THE MESSIANIC SERVANT AS REDEEMER, (Isa 49:1 to Isa 57:21).

III.JEHOVAH’S CHALLENGE TO A THOUGHTLESS PEOPLE, (Isa 58:1 to Isa 66:24).

ISAIAH – CHART III

(A clearer presentation of this chart is found in the hardbound edition of the commentary)

KINGS – NEAR THE TIMES OF ISAIAH THE PROPHET

Kings of IsraelKings of JudahKings of Assyria

JehoashUzziah (Ahazariah)Shalmaneser II

Jereboam IIAshurdan ill

782-745 B.C.771-753 B.C.

ZechariahAshurnirari V

745 B.C.753-745 B.C.

ShallumTiglathpileser III

745 B.C.745-726 B.C.

MenahemJotham

745-736 B.C.740-735 B.C.

PekahiahAhaz

736-735 B.C.735-715 B.C.

Pekah

735-732 B.C.

i

HosheaShalmaneser V

732-724 B.C.726-721 B.C.

HezekiahSargon II

721-686 B.C.721-705 B.C.

Sennacherib 705-681 B.C.

Manasseh

686-641 B.C.

(SINCE NO TWO CHRONOLOGISTS SEEM TO AGREE, THESE ARE BUT APPROXIMATE DATES.)

CONTENTS

OUTLINE OF ISAIAH – PART I

PROPHECIES OF JUDGMENT AND RESTITUTION

(Chapters 1-39)

I. JEHOVAH’S DEALINGS WITH JUDAH AND JERUSALEM,

(1:1-6:13)

A. AN INTRODUCTORY VISION, (1:1-31)

B. THE DAY OF THE LORD – an initial vision of the Messianic

Kingdom, (2:1-5:30)

1.The Nature of the Kingdom, (2:2-4)

2.Judgments Required by a Rule of Righteousness, (2:5-4:1)

3.The Future Glory of Mt Zion, (4:2-6)

4.The Parable of the Lord’s Vineyard, (5:1-7)

C. THE PROPHET’S CALL AND COMMISSION; (6:1-13)

II. JEHOVAH’S DEALINGS WITH ISRAEL, (7:1-12:6)

A. A SIGN FOR AHAZ – Who Fears the Alliance Between Israel and Syria, (7:1-25)

B. SAMARIA TO BE SPOILED AND BROKEN BY ASSYRIA, (Ch. 8)

C. DARKNESS BANISHED BY “THE LIGHT OF ISRAEL” – a Message of Hope After Judgment, (Ch. 9)

D. ASSYRIA, THE INSTRUMENT OF GOD’S WRATH, (Ch. 10)

E. THE REIGN OF “THE BRANCH” OVER A RE-UNITED THEOCRACY, (Ch. 11)

F. MILLENNIAL THANKSGIVING AND PRAISE FOR MESSIANIC DELIVERANCE, (Ch. 12)

III. PROPHECIES AGAINST FOREIGN AND HOSTILE NATIONS,

(13:1-23:18)

A. AN ORACLE CONCERNING BABYLON, (13:1-14:23)

B. AN ORACLE CONCERNING ASSYRIA, (14:24-27)

C. AN ORACLE CONCERNING PALESTINA, (14:28-32)

D. AN ORACLE CONCERNING MOAB, (15:1-16:14)

E. CONCERNING DAMASCUS AND SAMARIA, (17:1-14)

F. AN ORACLE CONCERNING ETHIOPIA, (Ch. 18)

G. AN ORACLE CONCERNING EGYPT, (Ch. 19-20)

H. CONCERNING BABYLON, EDOM AND ARABIA, (Ch. 21)

I. THE ORACLE OF “THE VALLEY OF VISION”, (Ch. 22)

J. AN ORACLE CONCERNING TYRE, (Ch. 23)

IV.PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE, (24:1-27:13)

A. JEHOVAH JUDGES A SINNING WORLD, (Ch. 24)

B. ZION PRAISES JEHOVAH FOR HER SALVATION AND COMFORT, (Ch. 25)

C. A SONG OF PRAISE FOR REDEMPTION, (Ch. 26) D. PUNISHMENT AND PRESERVATION, (Ch. 27)

V.PROPHETIC WARNING AGAINST MISPLACED TRUST,

(28:1-33:34)

A. THE WOE OF EPHRAIM – A Warning to Judah, (Ch. 28)

B. A NECESSARY DISCIPLINE, (Ch. 29)

C. A WOE UPON JUDAH FOR HER FOLLY, (30:1-31:3)

D. JEHOVAH REDEEMS HIS PEOPLE AND REIGNS GLORIOUSLY FROM MT ZION, (31:4-33:24)

VI.THE DAY OF THE LORD’S VENGEANCE AND REDEMPTION,

(34:1-35:10)

A. DIVINE INDIGNATION AGAINST HUMAN REBELLION, (Ch. 34)

B. THE BLESSEDNESS OF ISRAEL IN THE COMING AGE, (Ch. 35)

VII.HISTORICAL NARRATIVE RELATIVE TO HEZEKIAH’S REIGN, (Chapters 36-39)

A. THE ASSYRIAN AT THE GATES OF JERUSALEM, (Ch. 36)

B. THE HUMILIATION OF THE PROUD ASSYRIAN, (Ch. 37)

C. THE SICKNESS AND HEALING Of HEZEKIAH, (Ch. 38)

D. HEZEKIAH RECEIVES EMISSARIES FROM BABYLON, (Ch. 39)

OUTLINE OF ISAIAH – PART II

PROPHECIES OF MESSIANIC REDEMPTION AND THE CONSUMMATION OF GOD’S PURPOSE (Chapters 40-66)

I. THE SURPREMACY OF JEHOVAH REVEALED IN HIS ACTS

AND ATTRIBUTES, (40:1-48:22)

A. COMFORT FOR THOSE WHO TRUST, (Ch. 40)

B. ISRAEL’S DELIVERANCE AND RESTORATION, (Ch. 41)

C. MESSIAH, THE ELECT SERVANT OF JEHOVAH, (Ch. 42)

D. JEHOVAH, THE ONLY REDEEMER OF HIS PEOPLE, (Ch. 43)

E. JEHOVAH FAITHFULLY BLESSES HIS PEOPLE, (Ch. 44)

F. GOD’S PURPOSE FULFILLED THROUGH CYRUS, HIS ANOINTED SERVANT, (Ch. 45)

G. DIVINE JUDGMENT ON THE IDOLS OF BABYLON, (Ch. 46)

H. DIVINE JUDGMENT ON BABYLON, (Ch. 47)

I.A REBUKE OF JUDAH’S INFIDELITY, (Ch. 48)

II. THE MESSIANIC SERVANT AS REDEEMER, (49:1-57:21)

A. SALVATION THROUGH THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH, (Ch. 49)

B. AN EXHORTATION TO THE UNBELIEVING IN ISRAEL, (Ch. 50)

C. EXHORTATIONS TO THE FAITHFUL REMNANT, (Ch. 51)

D. ZION’S JOY IN THE SALVATION OF JEHOVAH, (Ch. 52)

E. THE VICARIOUS SUFFERING OF THE MESSIANIC SERVANT, (Ch. 53)

F. THE RESTORATION OF ZION THROUGH MESSIANIC SUFFERING, (Ch. 54)

G. DIVINE MERCY AND SALVATION FREELY OFFERED TO ALL, (Ch. 55)

H. AN EXHORTATION TO RIGHTEOUSNESS IN VIEW OF DIVINE DELIVERANCE, (Ch. 56)

I.MESSIANIC BLESSINGS CONTINGENT ON RIGHT HEARTS, (Ch. 57)

III.THE CHALLENGE OF JEHOVAH TO A THOUGHTLESS PEOPLE, (58:1-66:24)

A. CONDITIONS FOR DIVINE ACCEPTANCE AND BLESSING, (Ch. 58)

B. THE REDEEMER COMES TO ZION, (Ch. 59)

C. THE GLORY OF THE LORD IN ZION, (Ch. 60)

D. MESSIAH’S MINISTRY, (Ch. 61)

E. JERUSALEM, A PRAISE IN THE EARTH, (Ch. 62)

F. THE DAY OF GOD’S VENGEANCE, (Ch. 63)

G. THE PRAYER AND ASPIRATION OF THE REMNANT, (Ch. 64)

H. DIVINE RESPONSE TO ISRAEL’S SUPPLICATION, (Ch. 65)

I. ZION RENEWED AND JUDGMENT EXECUTED, (Ch. 66)

JEHOVAH’S DEALINGS WITH JUDAH AND JERUSALEM, (Isa 1:1 to Isa 6:13)

AN INTRODUCTORY VISION

Verse 1-9: THE SINFUL CONDITION OF JUDAH AND JERUSALEM

1. The prophet Isaiah first identifies himself, (Verse 1).

2. His message relates what has come to him in a series of visions, during the reign of four successive kings in Judah. “Without a vision the people perish”; but, the people of Judah need not perish if they will heed the word of this true man of God, (Pro 29:18; Amo 8:11-12).

3. Specifically, the vision is for the benefit of Judah and Jerusalem – the Southern kingdom, and “city of the Great King”, (Psa 48:2; Mat 5:35).

4. The heavens and earth are called to attention at the grief of their Creator Who speaks through the prophet Isaiah, (comp. Deu 32:1; Mic 1:2).

a. He has nourished and brought up children who, through violence and self-will, have rebelled against Him so as to destroy the fellowship they once enjoyed, (Isa 30:1; Isa 30:9; Isa 65:2).

b. Lower creatures, regarded by most as “dumb animals”, know their masters – the source of their sustenance; but, Israel does not know or consider, (Isa 5:12-13; Isa 44:18; Jer 8:7).

c. Highly honored, and richly blessed, by a divine call to special intimacy with Jehovah; the nation exalted to a position of covenant-fellowship With Him, at Mt Sinai, seems totally void of any spiritual discernment, (Deu 14:2; Exo 19:3-6; comp. 1Co 1:9).

5. Called to be a “holy nation” and “peculiar people”, Israel has been a sinning nation – a proud people bent under the weight of their own iniquities! (Isa 5:18; Jer 10:14).

a. Descendants of evil-doers, they have acted corruptly, (comp. Isa 14:20; Isa 31:2; Psa 37:28; Neh 1:7; Dan 9:5).

b. Forsaking the Lord, they have shown contempt for “the Holy One of Israel” in such a way as to provoke His anger, (Verse 28, Isa 5:24-25).

c. Thus, they have so alienated themselves that fellowship has been broken between them and their God.

6. Further discipline seems futile – since they have only rebelled against it and deliberately insisted on rejecting the truth. The fruit of corrective discipline is determined, for good or evil – NOT by the hand that administers it, but by the heart-attitude of its recipient, (Verse 5-6; Isa 31:6).

a. The depravity of their rebellious hearts has corrupted their whole beings, (Verse 5).

b. From head to foot there is a lack of moral soundness in the nation, (Verse 6; Eze 34:4-6; Eze 34:16; comp. Psa 38:3).

c. The prophet views them as weak and diseased – with rotten sores and bleeding wounds to which no healing balm has been applied, because none has been sought.

7. Detestable moral disobedience has brought devouring judgment, (Verse 7-9; Isa 6:11; Lev 26:33; Jer 44:5-6).

a. Their cities have been burned; their fields plundered by the enemy.

b. Devastation and desolation have come upon them at the hands of aliens.

c. So complete is the devastation that Jerusalem is likened unto: a temporary shack – erected for use during harvest, but now deserted and silent; a besieged city which, though left standing, is desolate.

d. But for a small remnant, graciously spared by the Lord of hosts (Isa 10:20-22; Isa 37:4; Isa 37:31-32; Isa 46:3), its overthrow would have been as complete as that of Sodom and Gomorrah, (Rom 9:29; Jer 49:18; Jer 50:40).

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

1. The vision of Isaiah The Hebrew word חזון ( chazon,) though it is derived from חזה, ( chazah,) he saw, and literally is a vision, yet commonly signifies a prophecy. For when the Scripture makes mention of special visions which were exhibited to the prophets in a symbolical manner, when it was the will of God that some extraordinary event should receive confirmation, in such cases the word Tibet, ( מראה,) vision, is employed. Not to multiply quotations, in a passage which relates to prophecy in general the writer says, that the word of God was precious, because חזון, ( chazon,) vision, was of rare occurrence. (1Sa 3:1.) A little afterwards, the word מראה : (mar-ah) is employed to denote the vision by which God revealed himself to Samuel. (1Sa 3:13.) In distinguishing between two ordinary methods of revelation, a vision and a dream, Moses speaks of a vision ( מראה) as the special method. (Num 12:6.) It is evident, however, that the seer, הראה, ( haroeh,) was the name formerly given to prophets, (1Sa 9:9😉 but by way of excellence, because God revealed to them his counsel in a familiar manner.

So far as relates to the present passage, this word unquestionably denotes the certainty of the doctrine; as if it had been said that there is nothing contained in this book which was not made known to Isaiah by God himself. The derivation of the word, therefore, deserves attention; for we learn by it that the prophets did not speak of their own accord, or draw from their own imaginations, but that they were enlightened by God, who opened their eyes to perceive those things which otherwise they would not of themselves have been able to comprehend. Thus the inscription of Isaiah recommends to us the doctrine of this book, as containing no human reasonings, but the oracles of God, in order to convince us that it contains nothing but what was revealed by the Spirit of God.

Concerning Judah Were we to render it to Judah, it would make little difference, for the preposition על ( al) has both significations, and the meaning will still be, that everything contained in this book belongs strictly to Judah and Jerusalem. For though many things are scattered through it which relate to Babylon, Egypt, Tyre, and other cities and countries, yet it was not necessary that those places should be expressly enumerated in the title; for nothing more was required than to announce the principal subject, and to explain to whom Isaiah was chiefly sent, that is, to Jerusalem, and the Jews. Everything else that is contained in his prophecies may be said to have been accidental and foreign to the subject.

And yet it was not inconsistent with his office to make known to other nations the calamities which should overtake them; for in like manner Amos did not go beyond the limits of his calling, when he did not spare the Jews, though he was not sent to them. (Amo 2:4.) A still more familiar instance is found in the calling of Peter and Paul, the former of whom was appointed to the Jews, and the latter to the Gentiles. (Gal 2:8.) And yet Peter did not rush beyond the limits of his office, by preaching to the Gentiles; as, for example, when he went to Cornelius: (Act 10:17 🙂 nor did Paul, when he offered his services to the Jews, to whom he immediately went as soon as he entered into any city. (Act 13:5.) In the same light ought we to view Isaiah; for while he is careful to instruct the Jews, and directs his labors expressly towards that object, he does not transgress his proper limits when he likewise takes a passing notice of other nations.

Judah and Jerusalem He takes Judah for the whole nation, and Jerusalem for the chief city in the kingdom; for he does not make a distinction between Jerusalem and the Jews, but mentions it, by way of eminence, ( κατ ᾿ ἐξοχὴν,) as the metropolis, just as if a prophet of the present day were to address the kingdom of France, and Paris, which is the metropolis of the nation. And this was of great importance, that the inhabitants of Jerusalem might not hold themselves exempted, as if they were free from all blame, or placed above the laws on account of their high rank, and thus might send the meaner sort of people to be instructed by homely prophets. It is a mistake, however, to suppose that Jerusalem is mentioned separately, on account of its being situated in the tribe of Benjamin; for the half of that tribes which was subject to the posterity of David, is included under the name of Judah

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

ISAIAHTHE PROPHET, AND HIS PROPHECIES

Isa 1:1

THE preacher is always attempting the impossible. His office lays upon him this necessity. Who could sound all the depths of the great inspired Word of God? Who can reach the heights of its God-given sentences? The tongues of men and of angels are, alike, inadequate to this task. And yet the preacher is compelled to attempt it over and over again. Think of the impossibility of discussing the Bible in a single discourse! And yet that has been tried. The task set for this chapter, namely, to speak to you of Isaiahthe Prophet, and his Prophecies, is one entirely beyond the preachers ability, if by the subject we mean anything like a full presentation of the theme; and yet it must be attempted.

For every Book in the Bible, Isaiah has a chapter. Sixty-six of them, and not a short one in the whole volume. It requires the earnest student some hours to read the words of this prophecy. How then can we hope to discuss his Name, Character and Ministry in forty minutes? It is impossible! And yet the attempt need not be useless. No man can give himself to the consideration of so great a subject without receiving profit there from; and giving profit to those who attend upon his words.

You will notice that I speak of Isaiah, the Prophet and his prophecies; not of two Isaiahs, and certainly not of twenty. Please do not imagine that I have never heard of those critics who have cut this man in twain, some of whom have sawn him asunder in at least twenty separate places. I have heard of them, and have investigated their arguments; I have weighed them in the balance and, to me, they are wanting. I find but one Prophet in this matchless production, and I may be pardoned for presenting him and his message, since even the critics have given us no satisfactory account of that second man to whom they have assigned the last twenty-seven chapters, or of the other authors some claim for certain sections.

Three words stand out in my mind as good points of departure in the discussion of IsaiahThe Man, His Ministry and His Message.

THE MAN

But for the ministry of Isaiah, the man might never have been known. His apology for appearing before the public rests in the fact that a vision was vouchsafed him of the Lord. He was not distinguished by those accidents of life that furnish the excellencies of so many names. His birth, breeding, blood and burial are all questions about which such doubtful traditions have gathered that the truth will probably never shine through. From his own pen we learn his fathers name, his wifes character, the number and names of his children. Beyond this, his family connections are in the fogs of uncertainty. But what of it?

Sonship is not the pivotal point of success. It matters little enough whether Amoz, his father, was a plain peasant, or, as the Rabbinical tradition has it, the brother of King Amaziah. The great question of life is not, Who is your father? but Who are you? As Joseph Parker, speaking of Moses, said, Renown often has obscurity for a pedestal. Orison Swett Marden, in his chapter on Boys With No Chance, mentions such an array of great names as to make one almost feel that uncrowned kings and queens are commonly the children of the poor, and, quite often, of the ignorant. He reviews for us the hardships of the youth of the sculptor Thorwaldsen; the penury in which the scholar Kitto spent his youth; the degradation of Creons estate as a Greek slave. He quotes Vice-President Henry Wilsons words, I was born in poverty; want sat by my cradle. I know what it is to ask a mother for bread when she has none to give; and Horace Greeleys defense of the ragged clothes which covered him as a child. He tells how George W. Child began his career without promise; and how William Corbett commenced his with thirteen halfpence; and Thurlow Weed by studying while attending sapbush. He names in this same catalogue of the unfavored, Theodore Parker, Elihu Burritt, Alva Edison, Daniel Manning, David Hill, and I know not how many more. But John Bright ought not to be forgotten, nor Michael Faraday left unmentioned. But why add to the list Cornelius Vanderbilt, Lord Eldon, Stephen Girard, Fred Douglas, and four hundred others? Why make fresh mention of Abraham Lincolns poor opportunities, yet prodigious accomplishments? Only to illustrate the truth suggested with reference to Isaiah, sonship is not the pivotal point of success.

The great question in life is not, Whose son art thou, but rather, Who art thou? The trouble with most people in the world is not that they were born outside of palaces, but that they lack the moral and mental force that captures crowns and thrones; not that they come of common stock, but that they have remained common. You have heard of that instance of repartee which is so seriously true of many others! Said the Duke of Modena, tauntingly to the Cardinal, Remember, your father was the swineherd of the Dukes father. To which the Cardinal, unmoved, answered, True, but if your father had been my fathers swineherd you would have been a swineherd still. Among all of Gods creatures, that man is the greatest nonentity, whose only merit exists in the fact that he is the son of a favored sire. Isaiah had no kinship with that character. He was not bom great, nor yet did he have greatness thrust upon him; he attained it!

As to Isaiahs personal appearance we are also left largely to guess-work. The Book that bears his name furnishes some facts and some fancies that lead many to make a mental photograph of him, the main features of which must be supplied by the imagination. Doubtless his face was serious ! No man can read his words and question that his eyes flashed with fire. That he wore a haircloth dress is recorded. Thereby he presented a prophetic preaching by fact. Before he opened his lips his external appearance proclaimed Repent, as clearly as the lips of John the Baptist said the same.

In mental force and moral character he was almost a Moses in statesmanship, more than a Caleb for courage, an Elijah of reproof, a David in authorship, a Daniel for prophecy, and, as John the Baptist, a forerunner of Jesus.

But one must restrain his imagination from further attempting to picture this man and turn rather to the more sure subject of

HIS MINISTRY

Here the best picture of him is seen. That is true of every good man, and especially true of the Prophets of God. Into his ministry he threw so much of himself; so much of physical vigor, mental fire, moral force; so much of courage, conduct, character; so much of spiritual perception and inspired power, that to follow his words is to feel acquainted with Isaiahthe Preacher, Statesman, Historian, Poet, Reformer, and Prophet; for he was all of these.

He commenced that ministry at the call of God. Before he consented to accept the Prophets office, God had said to him, You must. God had sent a seraph to touch his lips with a live coal from off the altar, symbol of his mission as a minister of truth. In spite of that theological drift which strives more and more to set aside the doctrine of a Divine call, we are persuaded that Isaiahs convictions, courage and splendid character were all influenced, in no mean measure, by the indelible memory of that high moment when he had a vision of God on His exalted throne, and heard Him say Go. He knew, then, what he never forgot, that his ministry was Divinely appointed; his mission was Divinely meted out to him.

There may be men who can afford to enter the ministry without any such sense of Divine appointment. There are men who seem to approach it solely from a professional standpoint; but we doubt if such make true prophets. They may be sober, moral, unselfish; yes, they may be even conscientious in their choice of this profession; and yet why should any man start on a mission to whom God has not spoken saying, Go.

We believe with Pastor Stalker that enthusiasm for humanity is hardly strong enough for the rough uses of this world. There come hours of despair when men hardly seem worthy our devotion. Those for whom we are sacrificing ourselves take all we do as a matter of course; pass us by unnoticed or turn and rend us. Why should we continue to press our gifts on such as do not desire them? Stalker is right in saying, There is but one reason that is sufficient to keep one stable in such a course and that is found in the command of God. If He has ordered it, one dares not draw back; the work is His, the souls are His, and, if He has committed them to ones care and at the Judgment Seat will require them at his hands, he can do nothing less than lay life upon the altar of their interests and wait for Gods words of approval, and Gods enduement of power.

As a minister of the Gospel, I bear witness to bigger blessing than I ever dreamed when I first entered this way. The people have been kind above my deserts; and God, gracious beyond my happiest dreams. This profession is dearer to me today than life, as dear as wife and babies. But for all that, I counsel every young man who has not a conscious call of God to such a mission to let the Gospel ministry alone, severely alone. It is an office so stern, so serious, and so sublime that the man who remains in it must be supported in its continual discharge by the consciousness of a Divine call.

I have said that this Divine call accounts, in some great measure, for the courage of this mans ministry. Isaiah had no more marked characteristic than his courageousness. Never once does he seem to flinch from duty, or fear the voice of a foe, crowned or uncrowned. Four different kings he was compelled to confront and expose their faults; but he never faltered. His own people walked in ways of wickedness and God gave him the words of reproof. It was a cross of crosses to plainly tell them of their sin; yet he never came short.

Wendell Phillips tells us, When I was a boy of fourteen years of age in the old church at the North end of Boston, I heard Lyman Beecher preach on the theme, You Belong to God. I went home after the service, threw myself on the floor and prayed, O God, I belong to Thee. Take what is Thine. I ask this, that whatever I know to be wrong may have no power of temptation over me; whatever I know to be right may take no courage to do it. In later life he declared that from the very hour of his prayer the evident wrong never tempted him; and in doing the known right he never knew a fear. Somehow Isaiah secured this same blessing from above.

He did not ask sinners to settle the circle of his labors. He paid no heed to the ever continuing cry of unregenerates that the preacher should keep to his little homilies on Christian Love, and let corporations, city fathers, sinful institutions, state officials, and crowned heads alone. He knew no namby-pamby ministry, circumscribed by a circle of platitudes, beyond which he must be careful not to go lest he invade the secular realm and lose his ministerial standing or sanctity. Before he finishes the first chapter of his Book he has lifted the veil from civic corruption.

How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:

Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

That is but an earnest of the civic cannonading to come. As one reads the whole Book of Isaiah, he finds the philipics of a Parkhurst, the cannonading of a Clinton Howard, the blasting of a John Roach Straton, tame beside the speeches with which this Prophet of God condemns.

Nor did he stop his reform utterances with exposing civic corruption in such speech! He went from city fathers, state officials, crowned heads, to elders and princes, saying, Ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye that ye beat My people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord God of Hosts.

Nor did he interest himself in Judah only. The Book that bears his name contains his prediction of destruction for the surrounding, yet sinful, nations. Babylon was to be swept with the besom of destruction; Palestine dissolved; Moab laid waste; Syria and Israel become a ruinous heap; Ethiopia be trodden under foot; Egypt confused and destroyed.

He lifted up his voice against drunkenness. Evidently Isaiah was a third party man, polling his vote, as well as preaching.

If there were time I should like to show how he related sound theology to social and political reform.

His first call was not to reform but to repent. He did not believe in a reformation which began on the outskirts of society and wrought toward its center. He believed in one which began with the regeneration of the individual and worked out toward the reformation of society. Gods spirit within the heart was His method of changing social conditions. He believed in the political revolution resulting from obedience to Gods Laws and not through the smooth statesmanship of some self-seeking, but sin-stained party.

Isaiah was the sort of Prophet that our century needs. Salvation for the souls of men resulting in proper social conditions for their bodiesthat is the call of the true reformer; and it is in accord with Isaiahs opinions. The man who is Gods agent for regeneration is the best reformer; and the spirit of this ancient Prophet, lives afresh in him.

But I want the burden of this discussion to be about another thing, namely,

HIS MESSAGES

For sinners he had his scathing words. Ewald calls one of his chapters The Great Arraignment, and that term applies to all of the earlier chapters of the Book. They are addressed to men who are committing crime, and they call it by no soft terms. In fact, to the very end of the Book Isaiah never forgets, never permits his auditors to forget, that The wicked shall not be unpunished (Pro 11:21). His closing sentences present the loyal subjects of God as going forth to look upon the carcasses of the men that transgressed against the Lord. Of them, he says, Their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.

He would have agreed with the Apostle Paul in describing sin as exceeding sinful. He would have consented with that writer who says of this terrible thing which has blighted the world, You cannot pronounce its name without the hiss of the serpent, or the hiss of the flame.

He did his best to be free of the blood of those who were perishing by it. For about sixty straight years the sound of his voice was silenced only while he slept; and all that time it was sounding the alarm in the ears of men who sinned against God. It is a graphic picture we have of Jonah as he walks nineteen miles, clear across the great city of Nineveh, in a single day, crying at every step, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

But for sixty years Isaiah cries in the ears of the people their crimes and coming judgment. Our greatest need now is a ministry that will warn the wicked from his way; and, seeing the sword of judgment coming upon the land, will blow the trumpet in no uncertain sound. If we had more prophets in the earth who preached the sinfulness of sin, we should have more saints leading lives of holiness.

For the saints of God, this man had a message of love and hope. Into his darkest picture of impending destruction, he also painted the radiant remnant to be redeemed. From the very first, this vision of Gods elect was before him. He adumbrates in the last verse of the sixth chapter (Isa 6:13), and sets it more fully before us in the name of his second son. The very words meaning is remnant shall return. In his later writings that message grows upon his vision until we see in it the clear and distinct outline of Christs character, and Christs Kingdom, rising into the place of first importance. A man cannot read the latter chapters of Isaiah without learning whence the poet draws his thought:

On the mountain-top appearing

Lo! the sacred herald stands,

Welcome news to Zion bearing,

Zion long in hostile bands.

Mourning captives,

God Himself will loose thy bands.

It was what Isaiah promised! He said, The remnant that is escaped of the House of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward: For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall do this (Isa 37:31-32).

This includes the coming Messiah. The cleanest, most clear-cut description of the God-man ever given, until John the Baptist, fell from Isaiahs lips. This Messiah was promised in Genesis at the Fall; visions of His rising glory were vouchsafed to Moses, to David, and to Solomon, They taught their generations about it. But the express image of His presence; the perfect outline of His character, the complete fulfilment of His office, inspiration reserved to Isaiah. Early in his ministry he voices that wonderful name Immanuel (Isa 8:8). From His name he went to the outline of His character, Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6).

Later he tells us all about His rule; and how He is coming to it through sufferingthe suffering that shall save wicked men from their wickedness. What a marvelous exposition of the great doctrine of the atonement and substitution is his fifty-third chapter

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a, dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.

He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.

He was taken from prison and judgment: and who shall declare His generation? for He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was He stricken.

And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.

He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore will I divide Him a, portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death; and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors (Isaiah 53).

It is little wonder that he follows that with the fifty-fourth chapter,

Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord.

Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;

For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.

It is the Church of God comforted with His gracious promise in Christ Jesus. Isaiah also in the chapter following invites all men to the vision of Gods gracious provisions, Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Yes, and it is Isaiah who has the first clear vision of the new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (Isa 66:22; Isa 55:12-13); and out of which transgressors shall have been cast forever more. He is the great millenarianthe man of God who saw the Golden Age and gospelized it (Isaiah 60; Isaiah 65). He was the Prophet who pictured the first appearance of Jesus, to be born of a virgin; and he, the Prophet also, who promises the Second Appearance of Jesus in power and glory. Driver, critical, as he was, and unreliable in so many of his ideas, was yet compelled to admit that the later chapters of Isaiah contain an outline of glorious things to come, and he says, This portrait is essentially the creation of Isaiah, and even later Prophets did not contribute to it in essentially substantial features.

How much of Isaiah has already transpired! The nations he pictured as doomed, perished. The Son of David he said would come, was born according to his word. The suffering One he represented as brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth, fulfilled the last letter of it. The Church he saw rising into prominence, her light enlightening the Gentile, has been the power of God for twenty centuries, preserving an otherwise putrid world. The Gospel he affirmed as adequate to the opening of hard hearts, and breaking down heathen bars, is already proving the truthfulness of his prophecies. And today the march of Gods truth stimulates men in the perfect hope that Israels Christ is about to come again and call His own about Him and with the army of the redeemed bring in the Millennium. His faithful ones are now saying,

Hasten, Lord, the glorious time,

When beneath Messiahs sway,

Every nation, every clime,

Shall the Gospel call obey.

Mightiest kings His power shall own,

Heathen tribes His Name adore

Satan and his host, overthrown,

Bound in chains shall hurt no more.

Then shall wars and tumults cease

Then be banished grief and pain;

Righteousness and joy and peace,

Undisturbed shall ever reign.

Bless we then our gracious Lord;

Ever praise His glorious Name;

All His mighty acts record,

All His wondrous love proclaim.

John Lord, speaking to the vision which Isaiah had of Christ triumphing over wicked men says, In the temporal fall of a monstrous despotism; in the decline of wicked cities and empires; in the light which is penetrating all lands; in the shaking of Mohammedan thrones; in the opening of the most distant East; in the arbitration of national difficulties; in the terrible inventions which make nations fear to go to war; in the wonderful network of philanthropic enterprises; in the renewed interest in sacred literature; in the recognition of law and order as the first condition of civilized society; in that general love of truth which science has stimulated and rarely mocked, and which casts its searching eye into all creeds and all hypocrisies and all false philosophy, we share the exultant spirit of the Prophet, and in the language of one of our great poets we repeat the promised joy:

Rise, crowned with light, imperial Salem, rise.

Exalt Thy towering head and lift Thine eyes!

See a long race Thy spacious courts adorn,

See future sons and daughters yet unborn!

See barbarous nations at Thy gates attend,

Walk in Thy light, and in Thy Temple bend!

See Thy bright altars thronged with prostrate kings,

And heaped with products of Sabaen springs!

No more the rising sun shall gild the morn,

Nor evening Cynthia fill her silver horn;

But lost, dissolved in Thy superior rays,

One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze

Oerflow Thy courts; the Light Himself shall shine

Revealed, and Gods eternal day be Thine!

The seas shall waste, the skies to smoke decay

Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away;

But fixed His Word, His saving power remains;

Thy realm forever lasts; Thy own Messiah reigns!

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

THE PROPHET OF THE LORD

Isa. 1:1. The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

I. The nature of the prophets endowment: a vision into the very heart of things, a power of distinguishing between the seeming and the real.

II. The sadness and the joy of the prophets life: sadness arising from his vision of human sin (Isa. 1:2-15); joy arising from his vision of the wondrousness of the Divine mercy (Isa. 1:18).

Application.

1. In these latter days the prophetic endowment, to a greater or lesser extent, is possessed by all Gods people (1Jn. 2:20).

2. The Church should pray that it may be possessed to the fullest extent by all who are called to minister in holy things. Prophets of clear and penetrating vision are among the greatest gifts which God can confer upon the Church [126]

3. This great endowment must be used not merely for the detection and exposure of human sin, lest we become cynical and inhuman, but also for the discovery of the abounding evidence of the Divine compassion (as in Isa. 1:9), that we may be brought into more perfect sympathy with Him who hates sin but desires and seeks to save the sinner.

[126] A preacher who is not in some way a seer is not a preacher at all. You can never make people see religious realities by correct definitions. They will not believe in the reality of God on the word of a man who merely demonstrates it to them. You must see such things yourself if you are going to help others to see them. This is the secret of all the preaching that ever was good since preaching began.Beecher.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

I.

PERVERSITY AND PROPHET CHAPTERS 1 6

CHAPTER ONE
A. THE IMPEACHING ACCUSATION
1.

CONTROVERSY DECLARED Isa. 1:1-20

a. JEHOVAHS COMPLAINT

TEXT: Isa. 1:1-9

1

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

2

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for Jehovah hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

3

The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his masters crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

4

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that deal corruptly! They have forsaken Jehovah, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are estranged and gone backward.

5

Why will ye be still stricken, that ye revolt more and more? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

6

From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and fresh stripes: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oil.

7

Your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

8

And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

9

Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

QUERIES

a.

Why mention the fact that Uzziah was dead?

b.

Why compare people with animals?

c.

What sickness did the people have?

PARAPHRASE

These are the messages that came to Isaiah, son of Amoz, in the visions he saw during the reigns of King Uzziah, King Jotham, King Ahaz, and King Hezekiahall kings of Judah. In these messages God showed him what was going to happen to Judah and Jerusalem in the days ahead. Listen, O heaven and earth, to what the Lord is saying: the children I raised and cared for so long and tenderly have turned against Me. Even the animalsthe donkey and the oxknow their owner and appreciate his care for them, but not My people Israel. No matter what I do for them, they still dont care. Oh, what a sinful nation they are! They walk in reverse from the way I have asked them to walk. Their fathers before them were evil too. Born to be bad, they have turned their backs upon the Lord, and have despised the Holy One of Israel. They have cut themselves off from My help. Oh, my people, havent you had enough of punishment? Why will you force Me to whip you again and again? Must you forever rebel? From head to foot you are sick and weak and faint, covered with bruises and welts and infected wounds, untreated and unbound. Your country lies in ruins; your cities are burned; while you watch, foreigners are destroying and plundering everything they see. You stand there helpless and abandoned like a watchmans shanty in the field when the harvest time is overor when the crop is stripped and robbed. If the Lord of Hosts had not stepped in to save a few of us, we would have been wiped out as Sodom and Gommorah were.

COMMENTS

Isa. 1:1 The first chapter is a prototype of the entire book. Contains the basic outline of the whole message: (a) sinfulness of Judah and Jerusalem (Isa. 1:3-8); (b) appeals for repentance (Isa. 1:16-19); (c) the coming judgment (Isa. 1:24-25; Isa. 1:29-31); (d) the blessings of the salvation to come (Isa. 1:26-27). The combined reigns of the four kings mentioned covered some 81 years. 2Ch. 32:32 suggests that Isaiah may have outlived Hezekiah. The prophecy concerns the destinies of Judah and Jerusalemnot the Second Coming of Christ-the preservation of the covenant people and points toward a fulfillment in the First Advent of Christ.

Isa. 1:2 Jehovahs complaint is expressed in terms of Fatherhood (Cf. Hos. 11:1-7). When God chose Israel she was a small and insignificant people. He reared her and nourished her to a position of eminence and exaltation through special gifts and protections. Then she rebelled against Him and spurned His love (Cf. Eze. 16:1-63).

Isa. 1:3 This sin on the part of Israel is unnatural. It is animalistic, brutish, unreasoning. They behave worse than the most unintelligent, instinctive brute, for even the ass and the ox know enough to know who feeds them. Men often allow sin to degrade them; they behave worse than animals (Cf. Hos. 10:11-12; Jer. 5:8; 2Pe. 2:12; Psa. 73:22; Isa. 56:9-12; Rom. 1:18-32). When men exchange the truth of God for a lie and serve the creature rather than the Creator they live in the passions of their flesh, following the (animal) desires of body and mind (Cf. Eph. 2:1-3). Evolutionism as a philosophy teaches that man has no Creator and such a philosophy is responsible for much of the animalistic behavior of men and women in our age.

Isa. 1:4 Notice the sins of which they were guilty: Inconsiderateness; Sins of their forefathers (grumbling, idolatry, etc.); Crooked dealing; Forsaking the Lord; Going backward (backsliding); Reducing their worship to a mere formality; Despising the Holy One of Israel. Unbelief usually first manifests itself in the sin of Ingratitude (Inconsiderateness) (Rom. 1:21; Deu. 8:11-20; 1Co. 10:1-10).

Isa. 1:5 It amazes the Lord that in spite of the afflictions He has allowed to come upon them, they persist in the hard way of the transgressor. (Cf. Eze. 33:10-11) So useless, uncalled for, but as long as they continue in sin they will be stricken. Jesus marvelled at the unbelief of the people of His home town (Mar. 6:6). With all the advantages, liberties, and blessings of people in countries where the Gospel has been preached for centuries, it is nothing short of amazing to behold the unbelief, ingratitude and despising of the Holy God.

Isa. 1:6 What is the explanation? The head is sick and diseased. The intellectual and moral life of the nation is diseased. They think wrong, because they love sin (Cf. Joh. 3:18-20). Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people, (Pro. 14:34). You cannot think wrong and be right! As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he, (Pro. 23:7). The malignant cancer of sin is in all four receptacles of the heart (intellect; emotions; will; conscience). The whole man is diseased! The immortal heart pours its poison to every facet of life.

Isa. 1:7 Note the use of both figurative and literal language. The country is desolate and literally burned with fire because of the spiritual conditions described figuratively. Desolationburned citiesforeigners occupying their farms. Who the invaders were we do not know for certain. Possibilities: Edomites and Philistines who invaded Judea in the time of Ahaz; Israelites under Amaziah; Assyrians under Sargon.

Isa. 1:8 Because of this condition Jerusalem is left humiliated like a frail, lonely, neglected watchmans shack in a vineyard or a cucumber patch. She was surrounded by her enemies and cut off from the rest of the nations like a besieged city.

Isa. 1:9 But there is one hopea remnant, literally, a very small number which remains righteous and thus saved from the coming judgment. Only a few thousand remained faithful through the captivity and returned to restore the commonwealth of the covenant people with Ezra, Nehemiah, et al. Had it not been for this faithful remnant, Judah and Jerusalem would have been utterly obliterated like Sodom and Gomorrah. Ed. J. Young says, Whereas, however, the delay of judgment also involves postponement of blessing, nevertheless the fact of the choice of the remnant is evidence that God is fulfilling His purposes in history. Here, then, is the true philosophy of history. It is because of the righteous remnant that the world remains. The wickedness of the world is permitted to continue until, in the counsel of Gods infinite wisdom, the time of punishment has come. That time is delayed for God is truly the God of the heathen also, a God of longsuffering and mercy. At the same time, in that delay, the delay of the full accomplishment of the blessing is also involved. The preserving of a remnant, however, is a step toward the fulfillment of the promise of blessing. This applies to the blessings of redemption fulfilled in the First Coming of Christ and applies to the redemption and ultimate salvation to be fulfilled in the Second Coming of Christ.

QUIZ

1.

How many years are spanned by the four kings who reigned during Isaiahs ministry?

2.

What makes men act like animals?

3.

What is usually the first sign of unbelief?

4.

Where does spiritual sickness start?

5.

What is a booth in a vineyard?

6.

Who is the remnant remaining?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(1) The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz . . .The term vision, as descriptive of a prophets work (1Sa. 3:1), is the correlative of the old term seer, as applied to the prophet himself (1Sa. 9:9). The latter fell into disuse, probably because the pretenders to the clairvoyance which it implied brought it into discredit. The prophet, however, did not cease to be a seer; and to see visions was still one of the highest forms of the gift of the spirit of Jehovah (Joe. 2:28). It describes the state, more or less ecstatic, in which the prophet sees what others do not see, the things that are yet to come, the unseen working of the eternal laws of God. As compared with the word of the Lord, it indicates a higher intensity of the ecstatic state; but the two terms were closely associated, and, as in Isa. 2:1, a man was said to see the word of the Lord. Judah and Jerusalem are named as the centre, though not the limit, of the prophets work.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

PREFATORY.

1. The vision This is a programme word a title applying to this entire book of prophecies, spoken or written during the reigns herein mentioned. The word denotes a supernatural perception, inspiration, revelation, prophecy; here taken collectively for a body of prophecies.

Isaiah the son of Amoz Or Isaiah’s origin nothing is certainly known beyond what is stated in this verse. Nothing whatever is known of his father, Amoz, though many of the Church Fathers supposed him to be the prophet Amos, an error caused, possibly, by the Greek word in the Septuagint being “Amos” for both Amoz and Amos. So noble a character had little need to be known other than as simple “Isaiah.” To this prophet has always been assigned the pre-eminence among the so-called prophets of the Old Testament scriptures. Till the time of Semler (1725-1791) his sole authorship of this book was little called in question. The portion then questioned is the last twenty-seven chapters. Eichhorn and others vigorously continued the dispute, resting their objections on internal reasons purely, such as philological peculiarities, archaisms, and words used once only, and that in the questioned chapters. Gesenius, Ewald, and some lesser lights, have pressed this evidence also against the genuineness of other chapters; for an example, Isa 13:1 to Isa 14:23; also, Isa 21:6-10. The ground of opposition is largely the supernatural element in prophecy. It is claimed that what is herein predictive can be accounted for by mere statesmanlike prevision; that, at least, the last twenty-seven chapters are a later production, written at or after the Babylonian captivity. Other pieces of this collection, beside those named, on one or another ground of criticism are denied to Isaiah as the author. Against all this, Drechler, Delitzsch, Hengstenberg, Alexander, Prof. Harman, and others, protest staunchly; and with candour, great learning, and acute criticism, utterly overthrow the opposition. Keil, in his Introduction to the Old Testament, (Eng. trans, in Clark’s Theol. Library,) and Kay, in his Introduction to Isaiah, ( Speaker’s Commentary,) give excellent aid to one in search of the facts on this subject: the one discusses generally, but thoroughly, in the interest of unity of authorship in Isaiah; and the other is a valiant demolisher of philological difficulties raised against this unity of authorship.

Concerning Judah and Jerusalem These prophecies all had a bearing, direct or remote, on the people of Judah. Though several were uttered with reference to immediately outlying peoples and to foreign nations, they also had alternate reference to the Jews.

The question as to what time this chapter relates, is difficult to settle. Is it the first prophecy written by Isaiah? Or is it rather a comprehensive introduction, covering by anticipation the average character of the people and age for the entire term of the prophet’s career? The latter is more likely to be the true view, because the more reasonable one.

Throughout the chapter the prophet’s central thought is God’s covenant with Israel as a nation, as seen in Leviticus 26, in Deuteronomy 28-32, and in Solomon’s prayer, 1Ki 9:9.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Introduction.

‘The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.’

Isaiah’s prophecies date from the year of Uzziah’s death (Isa 6:1) in aound 740 BC, through the period when the independence of Judah was lost by Ahaz, who refused to trust Yahweh for deliverance and instead turned to Assyria for help (2Ki 16:7), to the great success under Hezekiah when Yahweh amazingly delivered Jerusalem from Assyria (36 to 37). But when, in contrast, Hezekiah looked to men for deliverance and not to Yahweh (Isa 39:1-6) and allowed Babylon to know the size of his treasures, Isaiah foresaw what this would mean for the future. It was not wise to reveal one’s treasures to a predator of the nature of Babylon.

Isaiah’s prophecies are said to be a vision of the future for Judah and Jerusalem. For he knew that that future would in the end be the consequence of the sinfulness of his people, and their rejection of God’s ways as revealed in His covenant. It would result from the state of the nation which these opening chapters describe. But beyond that he saw hope, for he knew, as God revealed to him, that finally their future lay in the hands of God, and that God would not fail in His promises to Abraham that through his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Isa 41:8; Isa 51:2; Gen 12:3 and often), or in His promise of the rise of a great king of the house of David who would rule in God’s name and whose seed would rule an everlasting kingdom (Isa 9:6-7; Isa 11:1-10; Isa 55:3-4; 2Sa 7:13-16; Psalms 2; Psalms 89), even though later consideration made him reinterpret the idea.

So in chapters 6-11 he depicts the replacement of the earthly Davidic house which had failed to trust Yahweh, with One who will be miraculously born, can be described as the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and Who will have everlasting dominion, and will fulfil all the promises to David (Isa 9:6-7). While in 41-55 he depicts the seed of Abraham as being Yahweh’s Servant, fulfilling the promises made to Abraham, and resulting in One Who will give Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world (53). And in Isa 59:20; Isa 61:1-2; Isa 63:1-6 he reveals Him as the Redeemer Who comes with an offer of redemption to His people

The prophecies are gathered in thematic rather than chronological order. Prophecies made by him at different times are selected and put together to form a theme. This explains why sometimes connections may seem disjointed, and a certain abruptness is found in the narrative. For it was not originally written as one whole. (This refers especially to the first half of Isaiah). Prophecies made at different times and in differing circumstances were thus brought together to present a unified picture.

Thus the purpose of the first chapter is to lay the foundation for the whole book, which it summarises. It firstly brings out God’s view of His people’s moral condition, and why judgment was so necessary, followed by His view of their religious superficiality, and how their whole attitude needed to be changed. It then deals with His requirement for a complete change of heart and mind, declaring why refinement would in the end also be so necessary, and how He would bring about deliverance in the future, while destroying the wicked. It describes how the old harlot Jerusalem will become a new Jerusalem, the city of righteousness, and utterly condemns the turning of Israel/Judah to Canaanite religion. In a slightly different order this is precisely what we find in chapter 66. And the book itself will finally finish with the description of the new heaven and the new earth, the true worship of the redeemed and the final fate of the wicked (Isa 66:22-24). It is a declaration of the triumph of God in the face of the intransigence of His people and of the world.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Isaiah Outlines The Message He Is Bringing ( Isa 1:1-31 ).

This introductory message is also presented in balanced chiastic form.

a He calls on Creation to be aware of God’s judgment on His people (Isa 1:2-3).

b The description of Judah and Jerusalem’s present state, they are almost like Sodom and Gomorrah (Isa 1:3-9)

c What God has against His people is that their outward religion is not matched by inner response (Isa 1:10-15).

c The inner response that God requires is urged on them (Isa 1:16-20).

b God’s purpose for the future is to restore the harlot city and make it a city of righteousness (Isa 1:21-26).

a Doom and gloom for the unrepentant (Isa 1:28-31).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Isa 1:1 Title Isa 1:1 serves as the title of the book of Isaiah, introducing the author and the time period in which his collection of prophecies were uttered.

Isa 1:1  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Isa 1:1 “The vision of Isaiah” Word Study on “vision” Gesenius says the Hebrew word “vision” ( ) (H2377) means, “a divine vision, a divine revelation, an oracle.” Strong says it means, “a sight, a dream, a revelation, an oracle,” and comes from the primitive root ( ) (H2372), which means, “to gaze at, to perceive, to contemplate (with pleasure), to have a vision of.”

Word Study on “Isaiah” Gesenius says the Hebrew name ( ) (H3470) means “the salvation of Jehovah.” Strong says it means, “Jah has saved,” and is derived from the primitive root “Yasha” ( ) (H3467), which means, “to be safe, to free, succor,” and he Hebrew word “Yahh” ( ) (H3050), which is a contraction of the name “YHWH” ( ) (H3068).

Comments – As his name implies, Isaiah’s prophecies foretell of Christ’s coming in several passages of this book, especially of His birth and Crucifixion:

Isa 7:14, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Isa 9:6, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

Isa 52:12 thru Isa 53:12 deals with Christ’s crucifixion.

Isa 1:1 “the son of Amoz” Word Study on “Amoz” – The father of Isaiah was called “Amoz” ( ) (H531) and not “Amos” ( ) (H5986). Strong says this name means, “strong,” and comes from the primitive root ( ) (H553), which means, “to alert.” The Enhanced Strong says this name occurs 13 times in the Old Testament and refers to only one individual.

Comments – This name is only found in the phrase “Isaiah the son of Amoz.” Thus, nothing is positively known about his life. However, ancient Jewish tradition says that he was the brother of Amaziah, the tenth king of Judah (837-809 B.C.). [13]

[13] R. F. Youngblood, F. F. Bruce, R. K. Harrison, and Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, rev. ed. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), “Amoz.”

Isa 1:1 “which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah” Isaiah’s ministry extends through the reigns of four kings of Judah:

1. Uzziah – Eleventh king of Judah 809-8 to 757-6 B.C., reigned 52 years.

2. Jotham – Twelfth king of Judah, 758 – 741 B.C., reigned 16 years.

3. Ahaz – Thirteenth king of Judah, 741-726 B.C., reigned about 16 years.

4. Hezekiah – Fourteenth king of Judah, 726 – 701 B.C., reigned 25 years.

Dates and times have been measured differently throughout the course of history. Today’s western civilization uses the Roman calendar and its citizens wear watches to know the time of day; thus, this culture is “time conscience.” Other, more primitive cultures tend to be more “event conscience.” This simply means that westerners organize their day around a clock, while primitive cultures mark time by significant events in their lives. After reading Isa 1:1, the first thing our mind does as a Bible student is to try and put dates with the period that is described in this passage, but not so in ancient cultures. Even today, in African societies, people do not always know their birthday by the day in the year they were born, but by an event, usually centered around the event of their local king. This is because these people are more conscience of particular events than they are of time. Many of these Old Testament prophets were dated around the events of the kings of Israel and Judah, rather than by a date. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the president of Uganda, 1986 to present, does not know his birthday. Rather, he just knows that he was born in the year that King Kahaya II, the king of the Anchole tribe, died, which was now known to date 1944. [14]

[14] Yoweri K. Museveni, Sowing the Mustard Seed (London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd, 1997), 1.

Isa 1:1 Comments The Title of the Book – Isa 1:1 does not simply introduction Isaiah’s first prophecy (Isa 1:2-31); but rather, it serves as a summary of the entire collection of prophecies found in the book of Isaiah. The Old Testament prophet ministered to Israel and Jerusalem for approximately sixty years during the reign of four kings of Judah. Thus, this opening verse serves as a title for the book.

Comments The Manner in which Divine Oracles were Delivered unto the Prophets – God spoke through the Old Testament prophets in various ways, as the author of the epistle of Hebrews says, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets” (Heb 1:1). The Lord spoke divine oracles ( ) through the Old Testament prophets in three general ways, as recorded in the book of Hosea, “I have also spoken by the prophets, and have multiplied visions; I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets.” (Hos 12:10) ( NKJV) In other words, the prophets spoke to Israel through the words they received, they described divine visions to the people, and they acted out as divine drama an oracle from the Lord.

(1) The Word of the Lord Came to the Prophets – God gave the prophets divine pronouncements to deliver to the people, as with Hos 1:1. The opening verses of a number of prophetic books say, “the word of the Lord came to the prophet” Thus, these prophets received a divine utterance from the Lord.

(2) The Prophets Received Divine Visions – God gave the prophets divine visions ( ), so they prophesied what they saw ( ) (to see). Thus, these two Hebrew words are found in Isa 1:1, Oba 1:1, Nah 1:1, and Hab 1:1. Ezekiel saw visions ( ) of God.

(3) God Told the Prophets to Deliver Visual Aids as Symbols of Divine Oracles – God asked the prophets to demonstrate divine oracles to the people through symbolic language. For example, Isaiah walked naked for three years as a symbol of Assyria’s dominion over Egypt and Ethiopia (Isa 20:1-6). Ezekiel demonstrated the siege of Jerusalem using clay tiles (Eze 4:1-3), then he laid on his left side for many days, then on his right side, to demonstrate that God will require Israel to bear its iniquities.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Address

v. 1. The vision of Isaiah (“The Lord will save”), the son of Amos, which he saw, by special enlightenment and inspiration of the Lord, concerning Judah, the southern kingdom, and Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, the site of the Temple, and therefore the center of theocratic worship, in the days of Uzziah, also known as Azariah, 2Ki 14:21, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

v. 2. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, the witnesses who were present at the giving of the Law, Deu 4:36, were to hear the complaint of the Lord, as He entered into judgment with His people after seven centuries, Cf Deu 32:1; for the Lord hath spoken, the very words of Jehovah, the self-existing and unchangeable God, being quoted here, I have nourished, brought to maturity, to adult age, and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me, for so Israel, the first-born son of God, Exo 4:22, had rewarded the blessings received at the hand of God during these many years since the deliverance out of the serfdom of Egypt. Rebellion against God, apostasy from God: that is the chief characteristic in the history of Israel since the days of Solomon.

v. 3. The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master’s crib, the very unthinking brutes acquiring a certain attachment for their master, so that they will not voluntarily leave him; but Israel doth not know, does not realize, My people doth not consider, does not meditate and reflect upon it, continues in deliberate ignorance of its Lord and Provider.

v. 4. Ah! sinful nation, going its way of willful error, a people laden with iniquity, with guilt and corruption of right, burdened with transgressions, a seed of evil-doers, a brood of such as prefer wickedness to the holiness required of them, children that are corrupters, themselves subject to spiritual decay and infecting others with their corruption; they have forsaken the Lord, they are guilty of apostasy in heart and mind, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they have gotten into the habit of blaspheming and mocking or rejecting with scorn, Him who is spotlessly pure and who chose these people to be a holy nation unto Himself; they are gone away backward, following their own corrupt ways, especially in sins of idolatry. Such is the sevenfold woe of the Lord, which may rightly be applied wherever apostasy is found in His Church, also in our days.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

PART I.EARLIER PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH (CH. 1-35.)

SECTION I.THE GREAT ARRAIGNMENT (Isa 1:1-31.).

EXPOSITION

Isa 1:1

TITLE OF THE WORK. It is questioned whether the title can be regarded as Isaiah’s, or as properly belonging to the work, and it is suggested that it is rather a heading invented by a collector who brought together into a volume such prophecies of Isaiah as were known to him, the collection being a much smaller one than that which was made ultimately. In favor of this view it is urged

(1) that the prophecies, as we have them, do not all “concern Judah and Jerusalem;”

(2) that there is a mistake in the title, which Isaiah could not have made, none of the prophecies belonging to the reign of Uzziah. But it may be answered, that, in the scriptural sense, all and Jerusalem, prophecy “concerns Judah and Jerusalem,” i.e. the people and city of God; and, further, that it is quite impossible to prove that no part of the “vision” was seen in the reign of Uzziah. There are no means of knowing whether Isaiah collected his prophecies into a volume himself or whether the collection was the work of others. In either case, the existing title must be regarded as designed for the entire work. All the earlier propheciesthose of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, and Zephaniahhave some title introducing them.

Isa 1:1

The vision (comp. Oba 1:1; Nah 1:1). The term is probably used in a collective sense, but is also intended to suggest the intrinsic unity of the entire body of prophecies put forth by Isaiah. As prophets were originally called “seers” (1Sa 9:9), so prophecy was called “vision;” and this latter use continued long after the other. Isaiah the son of Amoz (comp. Isa 2:1; Isa 13:1; Isa 37:2; etc.; 2Ki 20:1; 2Ch 32:32). The signification of the name Isaiah is “the salvation of Jehovah.” The name Amen (Amots) is not to be confused with Amos (‘Amos), who seems to have been a contemporary (Amo 1:1). Concerning Judah and Jerusalem. The prophecies of Isaiah concern primarily the kingdom of Judah, not that of Israel. They embrace a vast variety of nations and countries (see especially Isa 13:1-22; 15-21; Isa 23:1-18; Isa 47:1-15.); but these nations and countries are spoken of “only because of the relation in which they stand to Judah and Jerusalem” (Kay), or at any rate to the people of God, symbolized under those names. Jerusalem occupies a prominent place in the prophecies (see Isa 1:8, Isa 1:21; Isa 3:16-26; Isa 4:3-6; Isa 29:1-8; Isa 31:4-9, etc.). In the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Uzziah (or Azariah, as he is sometimes called) reigned fifty-two yearsprobably from B.C. 811 to B.C. 759; Jotham sixteen yearsfrom B.C. 759 to B.C. 743; Ahaz also sixteen yearsfrom B.C. 743 to B.C. 727; and Hezekiah twenty-nine yearsfrom B.C. 727 to B.C. 698. Isaiah probably prophesied only in the later years of Uzziah, say from B.C. 760; but as he certainly continued his prophetical career tin Sennacherib’s invasion of Judaea (Isa 37:5), which was not earlier than B.C. 705, he must have exercised the prophet’s office for at least fifty-six years. The lowest possible estimate of the duration of his ministry is forty-seven yearsfrom the last year of Uzziah, B.C. 759, to the fourteenth of Hezekiah (Isa 38:5). The highest known to us is sixty-four yearsfrom the fourth year before Uzziah’s death to the last year of Hezekiah.

Isa 1:2-6

GOD‘S COMPLAINT AGAINST HIS PEOPLE. The groundwork of Isaiah’s entire prophecy is Judah’s defection from God. God’s people have sinned, done amiss, dealt wickedly. The hour of vengeance approaches. Punishment has begun, and will go on, continually increasing in severity. National repentance would avert God’s judgments, but the nation will not repeat. God’s vengeance will fall, and by it a remnant will be purified, and return to God, and be his true people. In the present section the indictment is laid. Judah’s sins are called to her remembrance.

Isa 1:2

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth. “A grave and magnificent exorilium! All nature is invoked to hear Jehovah make complaint of the ingratitude of his people” (Rosenmller). The invocation is cast in the same form with that so common in Deuteronomy (Deu 4:26; Deu 30:19; Deu 31:28; Deu 32:1), and seems to indicate familiarity with that book. The idea extends widely among sacred and other poets (see Psa 1:3, Psa 1:4; Mic 6:1, Mic 6:2; AEsch; ‘P. V.,’ 11. 88-92). The Lord hath spoken; rather, the Lord (literally, Jehovah) speaketh (so Lowth, Cheyne, and Gesenius). The speech of Jehovah follows in verses 2, 3. I have nourished and brought up children; literally, (my) sons I have made great and high; i.e. I have raised Israel to greatness and exalted him among the nations. Notwithstanding their disobedience, God still acknowledges them as his “sons.” They have rebelled against me. The verb used is generally rendered in our version “transgressed” (see Jer 3:13; Hos 7:13; Amo 4:4); but it may also have the stronger sense here assigned it. Lowth translates, “revolted from me;” Gesenius, “fallen away from me;” Cheyne, “broken away from me.”

Isa 1:3

The ox the ass. The ox and the ass are probably selected as the least intelligent of domesticated animals (so Jerome, Rosenmller, and Gesenius). Yet even they recognize their owner or master. Jeremiah contrasts the brutish stupidity of Israel with the wise instinct of animals that have not been domesticated, as the stork, the turtle-dove, the crane, and the swallow (Jer 8:7). Israel doth not know; i.e. does not acknowledge its Master and Owner, pays him no respect, does not recognize him as either Owner or Master. My people. Compare the formula, so frequent in Exodus, “Let my people go” (Exo 7:16; Exo 8:1, Exo 8:20; Exo 9:1, etc.). Israel was God’s people by election (Gen 15:13), by covenant (Exo 19:5-8; Exo 24:3-8), by pardoning grace (Exo 33:12-17). Despite all their backslidings, he had not yet cast them off. They are still “his people” in Isaiah from first to last, standing in contrast with “the nations, “or “the Gentiles, “among whom they are to be “set as a sign” (Isa 66:19). Doth net consider. Gesenius translates, “doth not consider thereof;” Cheyne, “is without understanding.” Bishop Lowth retains the words of the Authorized Version. The meaning would seem to be, “My people doth not consider me, cloth not reflect on my relation to them as Lord and Master.”

Isa 1:4

Ah sinful nation. These are the words of Isaiah, not of Jehovah. The prophet, having delivered God’s message in verses 2 and 3, proceeds to impress and enforce it on the people by remarks of his own. He begins with a lamentation over their wickedness and impenitence; “Ah sinful nation!” or “Alas for the sinful nation! “the nation called to be holy (Exo 19:6; Le Exo 20:26, etc.), but sunk in sin and wickedness. How sad their condition! How almost hopeless! Laden with iniquity; literally, heavy with guilt. But our version well expresses the sense. As the psalmist says, “My sins have gone up over my head, and are like a sore burden, toe heavy for me to bear” (Psa 38:4; cf. Mat 11:28). A seed of evil-doers. Not descendants of evil-doors, but “an evil-doing seed, “or “race” ( , LXX.; comp. Isa 14:20; Isa 61:9; Isa 65:23). Children that are corrupters; literally, sons that do corruptly. It is not their corrupting of others, though that might follow, but the corruption that was in themselves, which is spoken of. The corruption was both moral and doctrinal (see verse 21). In corroboration of the fact, see 2Ch 27:2. They have forsaken the Lord. Not by renouncing his worship, which they still continued (see verses 11-15), but by reducing it to a formality. The people “honored him with their lips, while their hearts were far from him” (Isa 29:13). They have provoked to anger; rather, despised (Revised Version), or scorched (Kay, Cheyne), or rejected with disdain (Lowth), in allusion to their disobeying his commandments (see verses 21-23). The Holy One of Israel. This title of God is a favorite one with Isaiah (see Isa 5:19, Isa 5:24; Isa 10:17, Isa 10:20; Isa 12:6; Isa 17:7; Isa 29:19, Isa 29:23; Isa 30:11, Isa 30:12, Isa 30:15; Isa 31:1; Isa 37:23; Isa 41:14, Isa 41:16, Isa 41:20; Isa 43:3, Isa 43:14; Isa 45:11; Isa 49:7; Isa 54:5; Isa 55:5; Isa 60:9, Isa 60:14), and is very rarely used by the other sacred writers. We find it thrice in the Psalms (Psa 71:22; Psa 78:41; Psa 89:18); once in Kings (2Ki 19:22), but then in the mouth of Isaiah; twice in Jeremiah (Jer 1:1-19 :29; Jer 51:5); and once in Ezekiel (Eze 39:7). According to Isaiah’s conception of God, holiness is the most essential element of his nature (see Isa 6:3, Isa 6:5, Isa 6:7). They are gone away backward; literally, they are estranged backwards; or, as Bishop Lowth paraphrases, “they are estranged from him; they have turned their back upon him.” Instead of looking to God, and following after him, they “followed a multitude to do evil (Exo 23:2).”

Isa 1:5

Why should ye, etc.? Translate, Why will ye be still smitten, revolting more and more? or, Why will ye persist in rebellion, and so be smitten yet more? The Authorized Version does not express the sense, which is that suffering must follow sinthat if they still revolt, they must still be smitten for itwhy, then, will they do so? Compare Ezekiel’s “Why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Eze 18:31). The whole head the whole heart. Mr. Cheyne translates, “Every head every heart;” but Lowth, Gesenius, and Ewald agree with the Authorized Version. The prophet personifies Israel, and means to say that the whole head of the nation is diseased, its whole heart faint, or “prostrate with languor” (Kay). The head and heart represent respectively the intellectual and moral natures.

Isa 1:6

From the sole of the foot even unto the head (comp. Job 2:7). From top to bottom, the body corporate is diseased throughoutthere is no soundness in it (cf. Psa 38:3, Psa 38:7)all is one wound, one livid bruise, one festering sore. Note the use of the singular number in the original. They have not been closed; literally, they have not been pressed; which is explained to mean (Aben Ezra, Kay) that they have not had the matter formed by suppuration pressed out of them. Neither bound up; i.e. not bandaged, Neither mollified with ointment; rather, with oil. On the treatment of wounds and ulcers with oil m ancient times, see ‘Hippocrat; De Ulceribus,’ 4; Galen; ‘De Compos. Medic.,’ 2; and comp. Luk 10:34. Recent medical science has revived the practice, and wounds of all kinds are now frequently treated with nothing but carbolic oil. The general sentiment of the entire passage is that there has been no medical treatment of the wounds of any kind; they have been left to themselves, to spread corruption over the whole bodyno attempt has been made to cure them.

Isa 1:7

Your country is desolate. Metaphor is now dropped, and the prophet describes in strong but simple language the judgments of God, which have already followed the sins of the nation. First of all, their land is “a desolation.” It has been recently ravaged by an enemy; the towns have been burnt, the crops devoured. There is nothing to determine who the enemy had been. Knobel supposes the Edomites and Philistines, who invaded Judaea in the time of Ahaz (2Ch 28:17, 2Ch 28:18), to be intended; Rosenmller suggests the Israelites under Amaziah (2Ch 25:21-24); while Mr. Cheyne supposes the devastation to have been wrought by the Assyrians under Sargon. If we could be assured that the prophecies of Isaiah are arranged in chronological order, we should either have to accept Rosenmller’s view, or to suppose some invasion of Judaea to have taken place in the later years of Uzziah of which no mention is made by the authors of Kings and Chronicles; but it is impossible to be certain on what principle Isaiah’s prophecies are arranged. The mention of “strangers” is in favor of the enemy having been actual foreigners, and therefore not the Israelites. Your cities are burned with fire. The common fate of cities taken in war. In the Assyrian sculptures we often see the torch applied to them. Your land. Mr. Cheyne translates, “your tillage.” Adamah means “soil” or “ground” generally; but here no doubt denotes the ground which bore crops. Strangers devour it; i.e. “foreigners” others than the sons of the soilnot necessarily persons of a different race, but still probably such persons. In your presence; before your eyes, as you look onan aggravation of the affliction. It is desolate, as overthrown by strangers; literally, it is a desolation, like an overthrow by strangers. The near approach to repetition displeases moderns, who conjecture

(1) that zarim, strangers, has another meaning, and should be here translated by “inundation” or “deluge” (Aben Ezra, Michaelis, Lowth); or

(2) that it is a wrong reading, and should be altered into sodim, a word not very different (Ewald, Cheyne). But “the return to words whose sounds are yet lingering in the ear” is characteristic of ancient writing, and a favorite practice of Isaiah’s (Kay). The translation of the Authorized Version may therefore stand.

Isa 1:8

The daughter of Zion. Not “the faithful Church” (Kay), but the city of Jerusalem, which is thus personified. Comp. Isa 47:1, Isa 47:5, where Babylon is called the “daughter of the Chaldeans;” and Lam 1:6; Lam 2:1, Lam 2:4, Lam 2:8, Lam 2:10, where the phrase here used is repeated in the same sense. More commonly it designates the people without the city (Lam 2:13; Lam 4:22; Mic 3:8, Mic 3:10, 13; Zep 3:14; Zec 2:10; Zec 9:9, etc.). As a cottage; rather, as a booth (Revised Version; see Le 23:42). Vineyards required to be watched for a few weeks only as the fruit began to ripen; and the watchers, or keepers, built themselves, therefore, mere “booths” for their protection (Job 27:18). These were frail, solitary dwellingsvery forlorn, very helpless. Such was now Jerusalem. As a lodge in a garden of cucumbers. Cucumber-gardens required watching throughout the season, i.e. from spring to autumn, and their watcher needed a more solid edifice than a booth. Hence such gardens had “lodges” in them, i.e. permanent huts or sheds, such as those still seen in Palestine. As a besieged city. Though not yet besieged, Jerusalem is as if besiegedisolated, surrounded by waste tracts, threatened.

Isa 1:9

Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom. Lowth and Cheyne prefer to divide the two clauses differently, and to translate, “Except the Lord of hosts had left us a remnant, within a little we should have been like Sodom.” The “remnant” is that of the few godly men who still inhabit Jerusalem. The comparison of Jerusalem with Sodom is made again in Isa 3:9, and is carried out at some length by Ezekiel (Eze 16:44-57). It implies a condition of extreme depravity.

Isa 1:10-15

THE PEOPLE‘S PLEA NO EXCUSE, BUT AN AGGRAVATION OF THEIR GUILT. The prophet supposes the people, by the mouth of their rulers, to meet the charge of rebellion with an appeal to the fact that they maintain all the outward ordinances of religion, as required by the Lawn and are therefore blameless. This draws from him a burst of indignant eloquence, which the Holy Spirit directs him to put, mainly, into the mouth of God (Isa 1:11-15), denouncing such a pretence of religion as an aggravation of their sin, and characterizing their whole worship as an “abomination.”

Isa 1:10

Hear the word of the Lord; i.e. “Do not speak to no purpose, but hear.” The rulers are supposed to have begun their plea, but the prophet stops them. Ye rulers of Sodom. Having said in the preceding verse how nearly Jerusalem had suffered the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, the writer grows more bold, and proceeds to give Jerusalem the obnoxious names. Her “rulers, “literally, judges (katsin in Hebrew corresponding to kadi in Arabic), are “rulers of Sodom;” her people are the “people of Gomorrah.” There is as much wickedness, though it may be not the same wickedness, in “the daughter of Zion” at the existing time, as in the cities of the plain when God destroyed them. The law of our God. Not the Levitical Law, though the word used has generally that sense, but the “instruction” or “direction” that was about to be uttered (comp. Psa 78:1; and see below, Isa 2:3 and Isa 51:4). See Mr. Cheyne’s note on the passage.

Isa 1:11

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? Cui bono? What good end do they serve? “Thinkest thou that I will eat the flesh of bulls, and drink the blood of goats? “(Psa 1:1-6 :13). God “delights not in burnt offerings.” From the time of Samuel he had declared, “Behold, to obey is better then sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1Sa 15:22). David had said of him, “Sacrifice and meat offering thou wouldest not; burnt offerings and sacrifice for sin hast thou not required” (Psa 40:8, Psa 40:9); and again, “I will not reprove thee because of thy sacrifices, or for thy burnt offerings, because they were not always before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goat out of thy folds; for all the beasts of the forest are mine, and so are the cattle upon a thousand hills” (Psa 50:8-10). Not, of course, that either David or Isaiah desired to abolish sacrifice, or had any commission so to do; but they were, both of them, anxious to impress on men that sacrifice, by itself, was nothingthat self-dedication, self-renunciation, true devotion of the heart, with its necessary concomitant obedience, must accompany sacrifice, for God to be pleased therewith. The sacrifices of a people such as is described in verses 21-23 could not but be an offence to him. Saith the Lord. The phrase employed is unusual, and almost confined to Isaiah, occurring elsewhere only in Psa 12:5. Isaiah uses it again in verse 18, and also in Isa 33:10; Isa 41:21; and Isa 66:9. It is explained to be emphatic, implying that this is what God says, and will say, concerning the matter in hand, once and forever (Kay). I am full of the burnt offerings of rams; rather, I am overfull, satiated, wearied with them. Barns formed a part of the required sacrifice on all great occasions, as at the Passover (Num 28:19), at the Feast of Weeks (Num 28:27), at the Feast of Tabernacles (Num 29:13, Num 29:17, Num 29:20, Num 29:23, Num 29:26, Num 29:29, Num 29:32, Num 29:36), at the Feast of Trumpets (Num 29:2), and on the great Day of Atonement (Num 29:8). They were commanded as the sole sacrifice for a trespass offering (Le Isa 5:16, Isa 5:18). Under David were offered on one occasion “a thousand rams” (1Ch 29:21); and the occasions where seven rams formed the legitimate sacrifice were many. Unaccompanied by a proper frame of mind, each such offering was an offence to God, displeased him, wearied him. The fat of fed beasts. The fat was always regarded, both by the Hebrews and the Greeks, as especially suitable for sacrifice. It was burnt upon the altar in every case, even where the greater part of the victim was consumed as food (see Le Isa 1:8, Isa 1:12; Isa 3:3, Isa 3:10, etc.; note particularly the expression in Le Isa 3:16, “All the fat is the Lord’s”). “Fed beasts” are those which were kept separate in stalls or sheds for some time before the sacrifice, and given food in which there was nothing” unclean.” The Paschal lambs were required to be thus separated and fed for four days (Exo 12:3, Exo 12:6). I delight not in the blood. The blood, “which is the life” (Le Isa 17:14), was to be sprinkled on the altar in every sacrifice of a victim. This sprinkling was of the very essence of the sacrifice (Le Isa 1:5; Isa 3:2, Isa 3:8, Isa 3:13; Isa 4:6, 17, 25, 30, etc.). Bullocks lambs he-goats. These, together with rams, constituted all the sacrificial beasts of the Hebrews.

Isa 1:12

When ye come to appear before me. Mr. Cheyne translates, “to see my face;” but most other commentators (Gesenius, Delitzsch, Ewald, Kay) regard the phrase used as equivalent to that employed in Exo 23:17; Exo 34:23; Deu 16:16; and the passage as referring to that attendance in the temple at the three great annual festivals, which was required of all adult male Israelites. The requirement of the Law was still observed in the letter, but not in the spirit. They came with no true religious object. Hence the question which follows: Who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? This was not what God had enjoineda mere bodily attendance, a trampling of his courts with their feet, when their hearts were far from him.

Isa 1:13

Bring no more vain oblations. The command is net “Bring no more oblations, “as though the daily oblation was to cease; but “bring no more oblations that are vain ones, “i.e. empty and unrealmere forms, without the proper corresponding spirit. The “oblation” spoken of is the minchah, or “meat offering,” cf. Le Isa 2:1-11; Num 28:12-31, which was a cake of fine flour mingled with oil, and generally had incense joined with it, which explains the nexus of this clause with the following one. Incense is an abomination unto me. God had commanded the use of incense in worship, as he had commanded burnt offerings and oblations (Exo 30:1-8, Exo 30:34-38; Le Exo 2:2; Exo 16:12, Exo 16:13). But incense symbolized prayer (Psa 141:2); and if no heartfelt prayer accompanied its use, it was emptied of all its significance, and became hateful to Goda mere form, and consequently an “abomination.” The new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with. The weekly festival of the sabbath, the monthly one of the “new moon, “and the annual “assemblies” or “solemn feasts” (2Ch 8:13), were the main occasions of Jewish worship. As at this time conducted, God could endure none of them; all were tainted with the prevalent unreality. The construction of the passage is highly rhetorical, and indicates great excitement of feeling. Kay translates it literally, “New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies, I cannotit is ungodlinesseven the solemn meeting.” The authors of the Revised Version also suppose an aposiopesis. The solemn meeting. The word thus translated is applied only to particular days in the great festival seasons, as to the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Le 23:36; Num 29:35; Neh 8:18), and the seventh day of the Passover (Deu 16:8), or else to days specially appointed for religious services by civil authority (2Ki 10:20; 2Ch 7:9; Joe 1:14; Joe 2:15). The meaning thus is, that even the very highest ‘occasions of religious worship were abused by the Israelites of the time, and made an offence to God.

Isa 1:14

Your new moons. (For the ceremonies to be observed at the opening of each month, see Num 28:11-15.) Your appointed feasts. The “appointed feasts” are the great festival-timesthe Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. They do not include the sabbath or the “new moon, “with which they are, both here and elsewhere (1Ch 23:31; 2Ch 31:3), contrasted. They are a trouble unto me; literally, an encumbrance (see Deu 1:12).

Isa 1:15

I will hide mine eyes, etc. A time comes when the wicked are alarmed, and seek to turn to God; but it is too late. “Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me” (Pro 1:28). When ye make many prayers; literally, multiply prayer. Full of blood (comp. Isa 1:21). Actual bloodshed may be pointed at, as the murder of Zechariah (2Ch 24:21), and the fate which befell Isaiah himself, according to the tradition, would seem to show. But cruelty and oppression, producing poverty and wretchedness, and tending to shorten life, are no doubt also included (comp. Mic 3:10, Mic 3:11). These were the special sins of the time (see verses 17, 23).

Isa 1:16-20

THE REQUIREMENT OF GODAMENDMENT OF LIFE. God, having put aside the worthless plea of outward religiousness made by his people, goes on to declare, by the mouth of his prophet, what he requires. First, in general terms (Isa 1:16), and then with distinct specification (Isa 1:17), he calls on them to amend their ways, both negatively (“cease to do evil”) and positively (“learn to do well”). If they will really amend, then he assures them of forgiveness and favor; if they refuse and continue their rebellion, the sword will devour them.

Isa 1:16

Wash you, make you clean. The analogy of sin to defilement, and of washing to cleansing from sin, has been felt among men universally wherever there has been any sense of sin. Outward purification by water has been constantly made use of as typical of the recovery of inward purity. Hence the numerous washings of the Levitical Law (Exo 29:4; Le Exo 1:9, Exo 1:13; Num 19:7, Num 19:8, Num 19:19; Deu 21:6; Deu 23:11; etc.); hence the ablutions of the priests in Egypt (Herod; 2.37); hence the appropriateness of the rite of baptism; hence the symbolical washing of hands to free from complicity in blood-guiltiness (Mat 27:24). “Wash you, make you clean, “could not be misunderstood by the Israelites; they would know that it was a requirement to “wash their hands in innocency” (Psa 26:6; Psa 73:13), even apart from what follows. Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Not “hide it, “for that was impossible; but remove it altogether – in other words, “cease from it.” “Cast off all the works of darkness;” get rid of evil, to begin with. So much is negative.

Isa 1:17

Learn to do well. Now comes the positive; first, in the general form” learn,” etc.; which resembles the apostle’s “Put on the armor of light” (Rom 13:12). Then follow the particulars. Seek judgment; or, seek out justice; i.e. endeavor to get justice done to all men; see that they “have right.” Relieve the oppressed. So the LXX; the Vulgate, the Syriac, and the Chaldean Versions. But the word translated “oppressed” is thought by many to mean “oppressor” (Kimchi, Gesenius, Cheyne). This is certainly its meaning in Psa 71:4. Translate, tighten the oppressor; i.e. correct and chasten him. Judge the fatherless; rather, do justice to the orphan (Cheyne); see that he is not wrongedbe his champion. Plead for the widow; i.e. plead her cause in the courts; or, if judge, and she have no advocate, lean towards her, as if her advocate. The widow and the orphan were taken under God’s special protection from the time of Moses, and constantly commended to the tender care of the righteous (Exo 22:22-24; Deu 10:18; Deu 24:17; Deu 27:19, etc.).

Isa 1:18

Come now, and let us reason together. God has from time to time permitted man to reason with him (Gen 18:23-32; Exo 4:1-17; Job 23:3-7; Mic 6:2); but it is difficult to see that there is any “reasoning” or “controversy” here. Mr. Cheyne translates, “Let us bring our dispute to an end.” Though your sins be as scarlet like crimson; i.e. “open, evident, glaring.” Or there may be an allusion to their blood-guiltiness (see Isa 1:15, Isa 1:19). They shall be as white as snow. Comp. Psa 51:7, which is completely parallel, whether it was written before or after. There can be no better image of, purity than snow (comp. Job 9:30; Lam 4:7). As wool. A weaker illustration than the preceding one, but needed for the parallelism. (The resemblance of falling snow to wool is noted in Psa 147:16.)

Isa 1:19

If ye be willing and obedient. Rosenmller explains this as equivalent to “if ye be willing to obey” (cf. Eze 3:7); but perhaps it is better to give each verb its separate force: “If you consent in your wills, and are also obedient in your actions” (so Kay). Ye shall eat the good of the land; i.e. there shall be no invasion; strangers shall not devour your crops (see Isa 1:7); you shall consume them yourselves. “The good of the land” is a common expression for its produce (Gen 45:18, Gen 45:20; Ezr 9:12; Neh 9:36; Jer 2:7).

Isa 1:20

If ye refuse and rebel; i.e. “if ye neither consent in will, nor obey in act, “antithetical to the two verbs in the first clause of Isa 1:19. Ye shall be devoured; or, ye shall be eaten. The same verb as in the latter clause of Isa 1:19. With the sword. The metaphor is not a common one, but occurs in Jeremiah (Jer 2:30; Jer 12:12; Jer 46:10, Jer 46:14) and Nahum (Nah 2:13). The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. A weighty ending, indicating the certainty of fulfillment, Jehovah, who cannot lie, has spoken; the result will assuredly follow.

Isa 1:21-23

ISAIAH‘S LAMENT OVER JERUSALEM. The exhortation to amendment has been madethe results have been set forth; the temporal reward has been promised; the temporal vengeance, unless they amend, threatened. Time must be allowed the people for the prophet’s words to reach them, and do their work upon them, i.e. either soften or harden them. Meanwhile, Isaiah reflects on the condition of Jerusalem, and the unlikelihood of its rulers turning to God in consequence of his preaching.

Isa 1:21

How is the faithful city become an harlot! Not here an idolatress, but one that has left her first love, and turned to other attractions. Faithful once to her lord her spouse (Cant; passim), she has now cast him offshe is an adulterous wife, she no longer obeys or loves her husband. It was full of judgment; righteousness, etc. “She that was full” (Revised Version). Under Solomon (1Ki 3:9-28) and again under Jehoshaphat (2Ch 19:5-11). It is not clear when the systematic perversion of justice by the rulers began. Perhaps it originated in the latter part of Uzziah’s reign, when the royal authority was weakened by being divided between Uzziah and Jotham (2Ch 26:21). But now murderers (see the last note on Isa 1:15).

Isa 1:22

Thy silver is become dross. Primarily, “thy great men have deteriorated.” From pure silver, they have become mere dross, the vile refuse of the smelted ore, only fit to be cast away as worthless. But per-Imps there is some further reference to all that was once precious in Jerusalem; there had been a general deteriorationall the silver was now a debased metal of no value. Thy wine mixed with water. A parallelism; but (as so often happens) a weakened iteration of the preceding sentiment.

Isa 1:23

Thy princes are rebellious; i.e. “rebels against their true King, Jehovah.” Companions of thieves. Leagued with those who are engaged in filching away the inheritance of the widow and the orphan by chicane in the law courts (see above, Isa 1:15-17; and compare the Homiletics on Isa 1:16-20). Gifts rewards; i.e. “bribes, “given and taken on the condition of their perverting justice (comp. Jer 22:17; Eze 22:12; Mic 3:11; Mic 7:3). They judge not the fatherless, etc. They dismiss the orphan’s complaint without hearing it, and are so noted for perversion of justice that the widow does not even bring her cause before them.

Isa 1:24-31

THE DECLARATION OF GOD‘S JUDGMENT. It is foreknown to God that Israel will not repent. He therefore fulminates his judgment; which, however, is still conditional, so far as individuals are con-corned. His vengeance will fall upon the land; but the result will be twofold. Destruction will come upon the unrighteous and the sinners (Isa 1:28)they will be “consumed” (Isa 1:28), and “confounded” (Isa 1:29); but there will be some on whom the punishment will have a purifying power, whose dross it will purge away, and whom it will convert to God (Isa 1:25, Isa 1:27). From these will rise up a new Jerusalema “city of righteousness,” a “faithful stronghold” (Isa 1:26).

Isa 1:24

The Lord, the Lord of hosts. In the original, Ha-Adon, Jehovah Sabaothi.e. “The Lord” (or “Master” of men and angels), “the Self-Existing One of the hosts of heaven”i.e; their God, the only proper object of their worship. It gives peculiar weight and significance to this prophecy, that it is introduced by a triple designation of the Divine Being. The Mighty One of Israel. A very unusual designation, only found here and, with the modification of “Jacob” for “Israel, “in the following places: Isa 49:26; Isa 60:16; Gen 49:24; Psa 132:2, Psa 132:5. God’s might would be shown alike in his vengeance on his enemies, and in his purification of a remnant to serve him. I will ease me of mine adversaries; literally, I will comfort me; i.e. I will rid myself of them, and so obtain the only comfort that they will allow me to receive from them (comp. Eze 5:13, “I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted”).

Isa 1:25

I will turn my hand upon thee; rather, I will bring back my hand upon thee; i.e. I will once more put forth the “strong hand and mighty arm, with which I brought thee out of Egypt” (Psa 136:12), and will work another deliverancethe deliverance of Israel out of captivity. Purely purge away thy dross; literally, will purge away thy dross like borax, which was used as a flux in purifying the metal. The prophet continues the metaphor of Isa 1:22. And take away all thy tin; rather, thy hadthe alloy with which the “silver” had become mixed.

Isa 1:26

I will restore thy judges as at the first (see Exo 19:25, 26). In the early times there was no bribery, no perversion of justice (Jer 2:2, Jer 2:3). God will bring back a time when the nation will renew its first love, and be as it was in the days of Moses and Joshua. Thy counselors. The city of righteousness; or, of justice. The prophecy may have been fulfilled in part by the earthly Jerusalem under Zerubhabel, Ezra, and the Maccabees. but is mainly fulfilled in the heavenly Jerusalemthe Church of God, the true Israel. The faithful city (comp. verse 21). Certainly the post-Captivity Church was “faithful” to Jehovah, in the way of acknowledging him, and him only, to be God, to a very remarkable degree, and in strong contrast to its inclination during pro-Captivity times.

Isa 1:27

Redeemed with judgment; rather, delivered through judgment; i.e. God’s judgment shall have the effect of “delivering” a remnant, who shall build up Zion once more, and dwell in it. Her converts; i.e. those of her children who turn to God, shall be delivered through God’s righteousness, i.e. through the righteous vengeance which he executes upon the unfaithful nation. Some, however, understand both clauses to mean that the penitent remnant shall “deliver their own souls by their righteousness” (comp. Eze 14:14, Eze 14:20; Eze 18:27, etc.).

Isa 1:28

Transgressors sinners they that forsake the Lord (comp. Isa 1:2 and Isa 1:4). These are scarcely distinct classesrather different names for the ungodly. All of them, by whatever name they were called, would perish “together.”

Isa 1:29

The oaks which ye have desired are, primarily, the “green trees“ under which images were set up (2Ki 17:10), but perhaps represent also any worldly attractions which draw the soul away from Godas wealth, or power, or honors. In the day of suffering, sinners are ashamed of having been led away by such poor temptations as those to which they have yielded (comp. Rom 6:21, “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?”). The gardens. Kay suggests “idolatrous pleasure-gardens as those at Daphne, near Antioch, “which is a reasonable exegesis. Such were probably to be found wherever Astarte, or the “Dea Syra,” was worshipped.

Isa 1:30

Ye shall be as an oak, etc. Contrast the case of the godly, whose “leaf shall not wither” (Psa 1:3).

Isa 1:31

The strong (literally, the strong one) shall be as tow; i.e. weak and powerless (comp. Jdg 16:9), utterly unable to resist the Divine fiat when it goes forth. The maker of it. An extraordinary mistranslation, since po‘al never means anything but “work.” His own acts would light the fire by which the “strong one” would be consumed and perish.

“Nec lex justior ulla est,

Quam necis artifices arts perire sua.”

HOMILETICS

Isa 1:1

The vision of Isaiah which he saw.

The modern theory, that the prophetical gift was a mere “presentiment, “or” insight, “closely akin to that by which clear-sighted men of all times and nations have been able, in many respects, to forecast the coming course of events, is not very easily reconcilable with these words, “the vision of Isaiah which he scow.” As a commentator whose freedom from the shackles of tradition is beyond dispute observes, “With Isaiah, it” (i.e. prophecy) “is not a mere presentiment; it is a calm and settled conviction, based on a direct revelation, and confirmed by a deep insight into the laws of the Divine government”. Isaiah “sees” that which he announces. It is placed distinctly before him, as that which is about to be. He no more doubts it than he doubts that which is presented to his bodily vision. Hence it may be concluded

I. That the prophetic inspiration was absolutely convincing to those who were favored with it, and precluded all feeling of doubt.

II. That it was wholly different in kind from that power of prevision which all men more or less possess, resting, not upon grounds of reason or experience, but upon an inward spiritual conviction that the substance of the prophetic announcement had been communicated to the prophet by God.

Isa 1:2, Isa 1:3

God’s arraignment of his people.

God claims his people’s willing obedience on three grounds.

1. They are his children.

2. He has made them great.

3. He has exalted them to eminence among the nations.

I. As HIS CHILDREN, they are bound to love and serve him, to be grateful to him for his manifold mercies, and to yield him entire obedience. He is the Author of their being; he sustains their life; he feeds them, supports them, gives them every blessing which they enjoy. In return, what less can they do than love him unfeignedly, serve him truly, and obey him implicitly? Earthly children are bound to act thus towards their earthly parents: how much more God’s children towards their heavenly Father!

II. AS RAISED BY HIM TO POWER AND GREATNESS, they are yet more bound to serve him. Every gift of God to us increases our responsibilities, lays us under a more stringent obligation to make a due return to our Benefactor. Israel was increased from a family into a nation, was multiplied in numbers, given a land flowing with milk and honey, raised from the bondage of Egypt to an independent and commanding position. Each step in their progress constituted a demand on them for greater love, profounder gratitude, more exact observance of every Divine commandment.

III. As EXALTED AMONG THE NATIONS, they are at once called upon for additional thankfulness, and required to manifest to the heathen that God’s favor has not been bestowed on them by mere caprice, but with some reference to their capacity of profiting by it. “A city set on a hill cannot be hid” (Mat 5:14). Eminence of whatever kind calls upon us for increased exertion. Noblesse oblige. If men are bound to serve God in the lowest walks of life, still more are they bound to serve him when he has “raised them out of the dust, and lifted them out of the dunghill, that he may set them with princes, even with the princes of his people” (Psa 113:7, Psa 113:8). And as with individuals, so with nations. Eminence among the powers of the earth calls on them to set a good exampleto “let their light shine before men, “to make a decided profession of religion, and to carry out their profession in their acts.

Israel, however, had acknowledged none of these obligations. They had “rebelled against God, “turned away from following him, cast his words behind their back. More dull than either ox or ass, they had refused to “know God, “to have him in their thoughts, to “consider his operations” (Isa 5:10). Have not multitudes of Christians also followed their example? They too are God’s children (Rom 8:16; 1Jn 3:1, etc.), created by him, regenerated by him, adopted by him in his beloved Son, Jesus Christ. They too have been raised by him to greatness, increased from a “little flock” to hundreds of millions, “carried on eagles’ wings” (Exo 19:4), borne safely through the storms of centuries. And they have been exalted among the nations of the earth, given the chief place, manifestly elevated above both Jews and heathen. Must not Christians, if they rebel, if they refuse to “know God” or “consider ‘him, expect the same terrible punishments as overtook the Israelites, or others similar to them? “If we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries” (Heb 10:26, Heb 10:27). “It is fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’ (Heb 10:31).

Isa 1:4-9

The prophet’s enforcement of God’s charge.

God’s words are so weighty, that they may well be few; the preacher’s enforcement of them must needs be, comparatively speaking, lengthy. Isaiah, in addressing his erring countrymen, aimed at producing in them

I. CONVICTION OF DIN. For this purpose, he begins with an array of seven charges (verse 4), varying, as it were, the counts of the indictment:

(1) they are a sinful nation;

(2) they are laden with guilt;

(3) they are a race of evil-doers;

(4) they are children that act corruptly;

(5) they have forsaken Jehovah;

(6) they have scorned him;

(7) they have estranged themselves from him, and, as it were, turned away from him and gone backward.

The first four are general, and seem to be little more than rhetorical variations of one and the same theme. We may learn from them that rhetorical variation is allowable, nay, proper, since different words catch hold of different persons, rouse them, touch them to the quick, are effectual to the producing of repentance. The last three charges are particular, and to some extent different, each exceeding the last in heinousness, and thus rising in the way of climaxdesertion, insult, complete estrangement. Metaphor is then called in to work on the imagination, and through the imagination on the conscience: the nation is depicted as a diseased and stricken body, a mass of sores and corruption (verses 5, 6).

II. FEAR OF PUNISHMENT. Undoubtedly fear is a low motive in religionsome think it altogether an unworthy one. But while human nature remains such as it is, while the mass of men are incapable of being stirred by the higher motives, appeal must be made to the lower ones. The prophet, therefore, reminds his people of God’s judgments in the past (verse 7), threatens them with further judgments in the future (verse 5), and ends the paragraph by suggesting that his people have barely escaped the most terrible of all judgmentsa destruction like that of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Isa 1:11-14

The outward form of religion, without inward piety, an offence to God.

It is strange how deeply ingrained the idea is in man, that formal acts of worship, outward acknowledgment, ritual, ceremonial, pageantry, constitute religion, and will be accepted by God in lieu of the inward devotion of the heart. Heathenism was full of the notion. Plato tells us that the Greeks thought they might commit any number and any kind of sins or crimes, and obtain pardon for them at the hands of the gods, if they offered sufficient sacrifices (Plato, ‘Rep.,’ 2. 7). It is evident that the Jews of Isaiah’s time were possessed with a similar idea. They “tried to compensate for their unrighteous lives by sumptuousperhaps extravagantperformance of ceremonial observances” (Kay). So did the Pharisees of our Lord s day. Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law, judgment, mercy, and faith.” “Ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer” (Mat 23:23, Mat 23:14). And do not professed Christians too often do the same? Is not “saying prayers” too often made a substitute for private devotion, and “going to church” for the true public worship of God? Nay, is not attendance at the Holy Eucharist itself sometimes allowed to become a mere form? Alas! Isaiah’s warning voice is needed as much by Christians as by Jews. He tells us that the outward form of religion, without inward piety, is not only not pleasing to God, but is an offence unto him. It is so

I. As IMPLYING A LOW AND UNWORTHY CONCEPTION OF GOD. To imagine that God will be content with external observance is to suppose, either that he is unable to read our hearts or that he does not care how we are in our hearts disposed towards him. It is thus either to question his omniscience or to deny his moral nature. A good father does care whether his sons render him a mere formal obedience or are heartily bent on obeying him through love and gratitude. Only one unworthy of the name is careless upon the point, and content so long as that which he commands is done.

II. As A SPECIES OF HYPOCRISY. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!“ was our Lord’s denunciation of those who paid tithe of every minutest vegetable, yet were without mercy and faith (Mat 23:23). The outward acts of religionprayer, praise, observance of fast and festival, attendance at sacraments, and the likeconstitute a profession of certain inward feelingslove, gratitude, faith, reverenceand, if these are absent, the performance of the acts is deceptive and hypocritical. It is to make a pretence that we are what we are not. It is bad enough if it is done to deceive men; but it is worse if we think thereby to hoodwink God. God hates hypocrisy, and is revolted by the conduct of such as “honor him with their lips, while their hearts are far from him.”

III. As A DESECRATION OF THINGS SACRED. The observances of religion have something sacred about them. They are either suggested by nature or formally ordained by God for a holy use; and, if practiced in an irreligious, or even in a non-religious, spirit, they are desecrated. It is a mockery to bend the knee and repeat the words of formularies while our thoughts are straying to other matters, as business, amusements, gaietiesit is emptying things holy of their holiness, and bringing them down to a lower level. We injure ourselves by so doing, we scandalize the truly religious, we give occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme. Better not to “tread God’s courts” at all than to do so without a reverent and prayerful spirit.

Isa 1:15

God will not listen to the prayers of the wicked.

Sinners sometimes think that they may persist in sin as long as they like, because they can at any time turn to God, ask his forgiveness, obtain pardon, and be saved. But Scripture is very full of warnings that this is not the case. There is “a sin against the Holy Ghost, “which “shah not be forgiven to men, neither in this world, neither in the world to come” (Mat 12:32). There is a persistence in sin, which “quenches the Spirit” (1Th 5:17). Men cannot turn to God whenever they please. The “accepted time” passes away, and they find it impossible to turn to him in true faith and penitence. They may “say prayers, “but they do not really pray. And God shuts his ears against such prayers (see, besides the present passage, Job 27:8, Job 27:9; Pro 1:28; Jer 11:11; Eze 8:18; Heb 6:4 6; Heb 10:26-29; 1Jn 5:16).

Isa 1:16-20

No return to God’s favor without amendment of life.

The outward show of religion, which the Israelites maintained, vain and futile as it was, seemed to indicate that they were not wholly irreclaimablethey did not desire to break altogether with God. The prophet, therefore, assumes that they would wish to know the way by which they may remove God’s anger, and enter once more into favor with him; and he proceeds to point out that the one and only road open to them is to amend their waysto reverse their course of life. This amendment consists in two things: one negative, the other positive.

I. NEGATIVELY: AMENDMENT CONSISTS IN CEASING TO DO EVIL. This is the first thing needed. Men must break off their sins, put away the iniquity of their doings, resolutely determine that the works of darkness shall be done by them no more. The works will be different in different cases. To one man they will be impure acts and words; to another, falsehood, deception, equivocation; to another, profanity of speech; to another, drunkenness; to another, intemperate anger, and so on. To the Israelites at this time, or at any rate to their chief men, who are here specially addressed (Isa 1:10), the evil-doing most common, and to which they were most prone, was cruelty and oppression. The chief men acted as judges, held courts, heard complaints, determined causes; but, instead of seeking to do justice between man and man, they sought merely to advance their own interests by means of the office entrusted to them. They accepted bribes from rich suitors to determine law-suits in their favor; they leaned in their judgments against the weak and the defenseless. They were probably a clique, who enriched themselves by playing into each others’ hands, and ousting weak persons from their properties and estates by legal artifices. All this whole system of evil-doing they were required, first of all, to put aside, before they could hope that God would look upon them with anything but anger and reprobation.

II. POSITIVELY: AMENDMENT CONSISTS IN LEARNING TO DO WELL. Negative goodness is not enough. God expects each man to glorify him by good actions. Those who have gone astray must not only retrace their steps, but must enter resolutely on the path of virtue. They must “set themselves in some good way.” And this must be especially done in the matters wherein they have failed. The Jewish judges had failed in their task of administering justicethey had given unjust sentences, favored oppressors, dealt hardly with the widow and the orphan. Hence the prophet’s exhortations to them are “Seek out justice; correct the oppressor; right the orphan; plead the cause of the widow” (Isa 1:17). And so it must be with all the varieties of evil-doers. Each must be exhorted to the virtue which is the opposite of the vice that he has indulged in. Each must labor, if he really seeks restoration to God’s favor, to do deeds the very opposite of those which he did formerly. If he was a drunkard, he does well to become a total abstainer; if a glutton, to chasten his flesh by fasting; if impure, to give him-serf to the reclaiming of outcasts; if niggardly, “to sell all that he has and give to the poor;” if violent, to suffer wrong, and turn his cheek to the smiter.

From the nature of amendment, the prophet proceeds to its consequences, which are likewise twofold, consisting in

I. THE CLEANSING OF THE INDIVIDUAL SOUL. Here much is kept back which is revealed later, as

(1) the mode whereby the soul is cleansed, or in other words, the doctrine of the atonement, which appears in Isa 53:5, Isa 53:6;

(2) the necessity of laying hold of the atonement by faith (Rom 3:25; Rom 4:5, etc.); and

(3) the immediate removal of the guilt of sin, when God justifies us, and the gradual removal of its taint, as he sanctifies us. But the declaration of the fact of our cleansing is directly made, and made with the utmost plainness: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow,” etc. The cleansing will be entire, complete, thorough. Snow will not be purer than the redeemed soul, which “the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed from all sin” (1Jn 1:7).

II. A REWARD, EXTERNAL TO THE SOUL ITSELF, WHICH GOD‘S FREE GRACE WILL BESTOW. Here still more is kept back. The reward held out is merely temporal: “Ye shall eat the good of the land.” Ye shall live in peace and prosperity, under your own vines and fig trees, and enjoy the fruits of the earth, which God in his bounty gives you. Not a whisper of the eternal rewardthe blessedness reserved for man in heaven, the bliss which “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive.” Probably the Israelites of Isaiah’s day were too gross and sensual, too much wrapt up in material things, to have been stirred to action by anything so distant and intangible as the heavenly life, even if they could have formed the faintest conception of it. Here, again, “God has provided better things for us” (Heb 10:1-39 :40), and given us a motive for exertion far beyond any that was presented to his ancient people.

Isa 1:21-23

The grievousness of the sin of oppression in God’s sight.

The Israelites of Isaiah’s time were guilty of many heinous sins, as we see by later chapters. They were idolaters (Isa 2:8), haughty (Isa 2:11, Isa 2:17), wanton (Isa 3:16), covetous (Isa 5:8), drunken (Isa 5:11), perverse (Isa 5:20), vain (Isa 5:21). But of all their sins, none seems to have so much offended God as their oppression of the poor and weak. The prophet refers to it over and over again (Isa 1:15, Isa 1:21, Isa 1:23; Isa 3:5, Isa 3:12, Isa 3:14, Isa 3:15; Isa 5:7, Isa 5:23, etc.), He denounces it in the strongest terms (Isa 1:15, Isa 1:23). He represents it as an especial offence to Jehovah (Isa 3:15; Isa 5:7). The reasons would seem to be

I. BECAUSE OPPRESSION IS A BREACH OF TRUST. To oppress another we must have authority over him, and all authority is committed to man by God, as a trust. “Thou couldest have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above” (Joh 19:11). God entrusts us with power over others for their benefit and for our own moral training. He puts us in his place, to act for him, to be his instruments: “By me kings reign, and princes decree justice” (Pro 8:15). Abuse of our position is breach of trust; it is to use the power God has committed to us for a purpose the very opposite to that which he intended. It is flagrant rebellion against him.

II. BECAUSE IT IS CRUEL AND INHUMAN.

“‘Tis excellent to have a giant’s strength,
But tyrannous to use it like a giant.”

Weakness naturally makes an appeal to our emotions of pity and compassion. To injure the defenseless, to hurt, crush, ruin the poor and the weak, instead of being their champion, is to be wanting altogether in manhood. It is to be at once unjust and cowardly. Oppressors have always been the objects of general hatred and condemnation. Rameses II; Nebuchadnezzar, Tarquin, Nero, Bajazet, have left an evil memory behind them, which will continue while the world endures. Oppressors are of various kinds. Some are emperors or kings, some princes, some judges, and other public personages. But there is far more oppression in private life titan in public. Slave-owners, and still more, slave-drivers, are apt to be fearful oppressors, making the lives of hundreds a burden to them. Even employers of free labor are often oppressors, when they take advantage of competition to beat down wages below the rate at which life can be sustained in decent comfort. Masters often act oppressively towards their servants, heads of schools towards their pupils, even parents towards their children. Of all the evils “done under the sun, “there is none more widespread than oppression (Ecc 4:1), and none more hateful.

III. BECAUSE IT OUTRAGES GOD‘S ATTRIBUTE OF JUSTICE. To be just is of the very essence of God’s nature. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen 18:25). Exact justice is what he deals out even to the feeblest, the weakest, the most contemptible of his creatures. And he “has made man upright” (Ecc 7:29). He has implanted in man a sense of justice, the reflex of his own attribute, and made him to be self-condemned if he transgresses it. God’s law of conduct, “Do unto others as thou wouldst have them do to thee, “is a law of strict, equal justice, and if carried out would put an end to all oppression and wrong. Thus, when men oppress their fellow-men, they disobey both God’s inward and his outward law; nay, more, they outrage him by showing contempt for one of his highest attributes.

Isa 1:25

The purifying power of punishment.

Great national judgments, such as that which Isaiah was sent to announce, have a purifying effect in three ways.

I. THEY ALARM A CERTAIN NUMBER OF PERSONS, AND INDUCE THEM TO QUIT THEIR SINS. The careless and indifferent have their attention excited and their fern’s aroused by the dangers which manifestly threaten all, and the calamities which naturally fall on some. The class of waverers, who would fain be on the side of good, but continually fall away when temptation assails them, find their power of resistance strengthened by the perils of the time, which render sinful enjoyment insecure, and bring home to them the certainty that there is retribution in store for sin. Even among pronounced and habitual sinners there are apt to be some whom the novel circumstances of the time startle and induce to “consider their ways.” It is an undeniable fact, that of such penitents a certain proportion repent with extreme earnestness, and become examples to the flock, advancing with the same impulse and fervor in the way of godliness as they formerly advanced in the “way which leadeth to destruction” (Mat 7:13).

II. THEY INCREASE THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE BETTER DISPOSED, AND RENDER THEM MORE CIRCUMSPECT AND STRICT IN THEIR CONDUCT. Men are aware, under ordinary circumstances, that they may at any moment be summoned to meet their Judge. But they do not commonly realize the possibility. It is one of the effects of great national judgmentswar, pestilence, faminethat they force on men the consideration of the peril in which they stand, and compel them to contemplate death as near, and their own speedy demise as probable. They lead men’s thoughts to existence beyond the grave, and encourage them to prepare for the great change which death will make in their condition. They break in upon the placid calm of everyday life, which laps so many souls in an elysium of unconsciousness, and remind men of their Lord’s solemn injunction to them: “Watch” (Mar 13:37).

III. THEY GIVE OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE EXERCISE OF THE HEROIC VIRTUES, AND HAVE THUS AN ELEVATING AND PURIFYING INFLUENCE ON THE BEST MEN. There is more room for self-devotion in times of national calamity than under any other circumstances. Thousands are thrown upon the charity of their neighbors. The suffering which exists is at once quasi-universal and extreme. Much danger has to be encountered in its relief. The best men at such times give themselves up wholly to the task of alleviating their neighbors’ woes. Singly, or in bands, they go forth, fling themselves into the thick of the struggle, and do their best to relieve the general distress and misery. Whether they succeed or whether they fail in their object of helping others, they do not, cannot fail in one thingthe improvement of their own characters. Their “dross” is certain to be “purged away” by their unselfish efforts, and the pure metal of their virtue to shine forth ever more and more, as time goes on, free from all alloy of pride, or vanity, or self-seeking. Affliction has also a purifying effect on the individual. “Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth,” etc. Thus only can “patience have her perfect work” (Jas 1:4). Thus only can faith be tried (1Pe 1:7) and strengthened. Thus only can “the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings” (Php 3:10) be known and realized. But this branch of the subject lies outside of Isaiah’s teaching in the present chapter.

HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON

Isa 1:1-9

Jehovah arraigns his people.

I. INGRATITUDE THE BASEST OF SINS.

He, the Father, has been faithlessly forsaken by ungrateful sons. This is the worst form of ingratitude.

“Filial ingratitude!
Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand
For lifting food to it?”

(‘King Lear.’)

It has been said that

The wretch whom gratitude once fails to bind,
To truth or honor let him lay no claim,
But stand confess’d the brute disguised in man.”

But the brutes are grateful; while Jehovah’s sons seem to have neither memory nor understanding. Man, by his nature, if he does not rise above, must sink below, the level of the beast. There is nothing more hateful, then, because more radically amiss and evil, than ingratitude. It is, great men have said, the sum of guilt and evil, worse than any taint of the blood, more odious than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness,

II. THE PEOPLE HAVE ADDED REBELLION TO INGRATITUDE. They have forsaken, reviled, “gone backward” from him. This is a climax of sin. Our passions are ever in movement; there is no stagnation. Insensibility to God’s goodness soon leads to antipathy, antipathy to active hatred, and this to open revolt. “Be ye thankful.” The neglect of the heart and its proper attitude to God is certain to lay us open to every sin. The greatest physical pests of the city, and not less its moral corruptions, may be traced to neglect. Some “covenant” of God made known to us in natural or in spiritual law has been broken; hence sin and sorrow, and hence alone, as the prophets ever teach.

III. HEAVEN AND EARTH WITNESSES OF MAN‘S GUILT. The whole language and style call up to mind the court of justice. All human events form part of a drama, of which God and the angels are spectators. We in all our thoughts and deeds are surrounded by a great cloud of spectators. The great solid mountains, for example, seem the very symbols of those fixed laws by which our actions must be judged. Napoleon in Egypt called his soldiers to reflect that “forty centuries were looking down upon them from the pyramids.” By a similar figure, Micah summons the people to trial in the presence of the mountains (Mic 6:2); the Deuteronomist appeals to heaven and earth to listen to his words (Deu 32:1). So does a psalmist (Psa 1:1-6.) represent Jehovah as demanding the attention of earth from east to west. All our acts run out into a universal significance.

IV. THE EXTREMITY OF NATIONAL RUIN. The people have run the whole course of sin, have left no stone unturned in the attempt to defeat Jehovah; and lo! the result. The body corporate is one mass of disease and wounds, fresh and bleeding. The land is devastated and fire-scarred. Barbarians are devouring it; it reminds of awful Sodom’s ruin. Jerusalem, indeed, is as yet unscathed; but she stands alone in the midst of the dread silence. Like “a booth in the vineyard, a hammock in a cucumber-field, “is she? Thus, when appeals to the car have been repeatedly neglected, God paints the truth upon the field of vision. If we heed not the voice, we must feel the weight of the hand, of the Lord. Yet there is still a spark of hope. Jerusalem is all but, yet not quite, a Sodom or Gomorrah. There is still a remnant of people left. Thank God, while there is life there is hope. At the very moment when we are tempted to say of the ruined nation, the broken life, “All is lost!” a voice is heard, “All may yet be restored!”J.

Isa 1:10-17

The people’s plea considered.

The leading men of Jerusalem are supposed to reply to the charge of Jehovah, pointing to the elaborate manner in which his worship is kept up. And Jehovah rejects their plea with scorn.

I. THE DIVINE INDIGNATION AGAINST WICKEDNESS. No more scathing denunciation could there be than to term the rulers of the holy city “chiefs of Sodom,” and the people in general “people of Gomorrah.” Those were names of horror and shame. Christ used them in the same manner of extreme denunciation. Three forms of sin were prevalentluxury, violence, and oppression. The widow and the orphan stand out especially as victims of greed and hard-hearted, grasping selfishness. As nothing could be more humane and gentle than the spirit of the Law, so nothing could be more wicked than the disregard of it. The Talmud, no less than the prophets, said the strongest things against injustice. The judge is particularly cautioned not to be biased in favor of the poor against the rich. What a light does this throw upon the fine education of the conscience! How much more flagrant the opposite fault! “He who unjustly hands over one man’s goods to another, he shall pay God for it with his own soul. In the hour when the judge sits in judgment over his fellow-man, he shall feel as it were a sword pointed at his own heart.” So says the Talmud. Jerusalem had evidently, in the earlier time of Isaiah, been obscuring its highest conscience.

II. DIVINE CONTEMPT FOE SACRIFICES AND RITUAL.

1. These things were never beautiful nor acceptable unless as expressions of piety. If the piety were not existent, the streams of blood, the reek of incense, became a spiritual disgust. The beasts chosen for sacrifice were from the meeker and pursued animals: how horrible a lie for the persecutor and the proud to bring such symbols to God! Says the Talmud, “Look at, Scripture: there is not a single bird more persecuted than the dove; yet God has chosen her to be offered up on his altar. The bull is hunted by the lion, the sheep by the wolf, the goat by the tiger. And God said, ‘Bring me a sacrifice, not from them that persecute, but from them that are persecuted.'”

2. Mere attendance on public worship is not acceptable. Who has required them, Jehovah asks, to “wear out” his courts? Their thronging and their noise is offensive to him. Their meat offerings are vanity; meaning nothing spiritual, they have no value whatever. The incense itself, the finest flavor and aroma of the offering, stinks as it were in the nostrils of God. New moon and sabbath, and all the innumerable solemnities,they are hateful and burdensome to Jehovah. He cannot endure the contradictionwickedness and worship quantity goes for nothing, quality is everything in the service of God. There is only one act of true worship, but it fills a lifetime. Repetitions of unmeaning acts harden the heart, dull the perceptions, accumulate guilt. Homer spoke of the crimes of men “going up to the iron heaven.” So here the heaven is like an iron bound, not suffering the prayers of the wicked to pass through.

III. THE TRUE DIVINE SERVICE.

1. It consists in moral, as distinguished from ritual acts. In making the “inside of the cup and platter clean. It is a “washing” of the soul from those thoughts and passions which lead to sin. It is a giving of one’s self up to the godly sorrow that works repentance. “When the gates of prayer in heaven are shut, that of tears is open, “says the Talmud. What more blessed than the tears of the sinner over his sin? The rainbow of hope never fails to overarch them.

2. It has a negative side. Self must be denied in every evil meaning that self bears. The evil lusts and habits in the embrace of which we have been locked, must now be held at arm’s length, and a divorce a mensa et tore be effected. Every true learning must be preceded by an unlearning; there must be a pause and a turning of the whole person, in short, a conversion, before we can start on a new course. God’s voice says to us, “Hold! Leave off!” as often as it says, “Go forward!” Habits form unconsciously. It is, perhaps, a question more important to ask, because easier to be answered and dealt withAre we doing anything to break off bad habits? It is God’s part to weave and form the good in us. We should make space and room for him to operate in our souls.

3. It has a positive side. We are to learnto inquire, to seek, in order to act rightly. Thought is the soul of act. We learn to do well by looking to good examples. The “consideration” of Christ is the life-business and art of the Christian. “Why do I tell you incessantly to study the old masters?” asked a great painter of his pupils. “Because the great masters are nearest to nature” (Ingres). So Christ is nearest to. God, to the nature and soul of all goodness. “Learn of me!” Nor can we approximate to right living without much seeking, much thought, comparison of experiences, much earnest prayer. “Show me thy ways, teach me thy paths!” Note the stress laid upon justice. This is the basis of character. Love is a vague sentiment without it, and may work as much harm as good. Love strengthened and purified by justice; this is the ideal of the good man’s character. It is the imitation of God. And to seek to resemble the revealed Divine in temper and in life,this is the essence of worship, the heart of piety.J.

Isa 1:18-23

Argument and conviction.

I. THE TRIAL OF THE CASE.

1. God is reason, otherwise he could not be God of justice. And if the nature can defend itself, clear itself from guilt, its plea will be allowed. Just so in Isa 43:19, the imagery of a court of justice is presented: “Let them bring forth their witnesses that they may be justified, and let them hear, and say, It is true.” The question isCan the nation clear itself from the charges alleged against it? If so, the deep fixed stain that now seems to rest upon them shall be taken away, and they shall be white as driven snow or as undyed wool.

2. God appeals to fixed principles of right. These have long been known, are written in the conscience of the people. A willing spirit of obedience to Divine law is assured of blessing; rebellion brings about hostility, invasion, and all those calamities from which the people are now suffering. Have these curses come “causeless” upon the people? Or are they the just consequences of disobedience? Let them answer. A long pause and silence convey the admission of guilt. They have no argument to urge, no cause to show why judgment should be stayed.

II. THE PROPHET‘S LAMENTATION. He, as daysman, or go-between, mourns over the city thus convicted, unable to stand in judgment against Jehovah. He is compelled in this cause to turn witness against his own people. Once loyal and pledged as in the covenant of marriage to Jehovah, the city has become like her who “forsakes the guide of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.” Where once the splendid seat of justice and purity stood, there is now lawless bloodshed. The pure metal of her virtue has been debased; and “as water unto wine” is her moral feebleness now as contrasted with her moral strength then. They who, as rulers, were set for an example of obedience to God, integrity among men, are rebels and thieves’ comrades. Instead of withholding their hands from bribes, they greedily clutch after them. Pity and mercy are extinct; the orphan and the widow are thrust aside. The guilt of guilt lies in the use of power without love. Christ, as the impersonation of humanity and of love, points out that the condemnation of evil conduct lies in this, that love is wanting, The splendid temple ritual was naught, because there was no love in it, as their conduct out of the temple so clearly showed. We may never miss a Sunday service or a celebration of the communion, yet for all that be undone. And many who have never been “professed” Christians will be, on other grounds, professed by Christ.J.

Isa 1:24-31

Sentence passed.

I. THE JUDGE. He is “Jehovah of hosts, the Strong One of Israel.” He saith, “By the strength of my hand I have done it” (Isa 10:13). He has power to carry out his sentences. The holy fire of his indignation breaks forth like a volcanic flood. From one point of view evil men must be conceived as the enemies of God, and their punishment as his vengeance. If alone dwelt upon, such a representation becomes false, because it ignores the aspect of Divine love, which converts this holy vengeance into a remedial process. Human vengeance would extinguish the sinner and the sin in one act; Divine vengeance would save the sinner by extinguishing the sin.

II. THE PURPOSE OF JUDGMENT.

1. It is separation. The dross and the lead are to be detached from the silver. Human nature is a mixture. There are two extremes to be avoided in thinking of itone that it is all evil, the other that it is all pure. Pessimism enervates, and optimism hoodwinks us. The Bible always takes the middle view. Things are bad enough with us, but they might be worse. We are sunk low enough, but cannot sink out of sight of our spiritual end, nor beyond the redeeming power of God. The separation of the gross and base element from the spiritual in men involves a fiery process. This fire is always burning in the heart of mankind, sometimes breaking out into flame and fume of war or pestilence, to remind of its presence. God has in constant operation his purgatory for souls. It is this truth which only can reconcile us to the presence of suffering. As mere pain it seems intolerable; as the means to the removal of evil it is blessed.

2. It is restoration. The better on golden age is ever ready to begin; good judges and rulers will again be given to the city, and it will deserve the title of Righteous and Faithful once more. When we see clearly the abuses that exist, and the necessity of fiery suffering for the renewal of purity, we have grasped a hope that cannot fail. God is ever remaking and recasting life. Not a day passes but some rust gathers, some disintegration of solid structure takes place. It may appear in any and every day that society is becoming hopelessly choked in its vices; or that we ourselves are slipping down into moral ruin. Yet in a happier morning mood it seems that all is mending with ourselves and the world. God’s holiness is the vital sap of human life, and when we die to hope of ourselves, we live anew in him. Conversion, if real, will take place, not once, but many times in a life. The heliotrope turns every morning by a fresh effort to the sun. The result of many such personal acts is seen now and again in times of religious revival, when the multitude turns as one man, saying, “Let us walk in the light of Jehovah!”

III. THE PERDITION OF THE OBSTINATE. One will may defeat the remedial purposes of God. If man says, “I will be joined to my idols and my sins, “no fire, no earthquake has power to dislodge him. If we will not relax our hold on the evil object, we must share its fate. To fix our affections on objects unworthy of our choice is to bring on ourselves shame and self-contempt. The terebinth trees and the pleasant gardens, the seats of ancient idolatry, are typical of all scenes of spurious enjoyment. The voluptuary, the mammon-worshipper, the votary of ambition, create around them a world of objects, fascinating, but unreal. The terebinth shall wither; the garden, parched for want of water, shall lose all its charm. The man who seemed but now the very type of force, shall feel himself slack as tow, and his life-work the spark that sets it on fire. So both shall irretrievably be consumed. What are the “terebinth trees and pleasant gardens” of our idolatry? Each man’s soul must answer. Any and every pleasure is good under right conditions; pernicious else. Everything that is naturally precious to the human heart should be precious to each one of us. In the soul lies the only test. In the way that objects react upon our finest feeling we know whether they are objects for our personal pursuit or no: idols that must degrade us to their level, or symbols and sacraments of God. It is in the life of imagination and association that we differ. Any scene supposed to be holy may become an idolatrous pleasure-garden to the ill-ordered fancy; and the soul that lives in God, seeking ever the true amidst the false, will ever convert the terebinth tree of ill repute into an altar of pure religion. The world is to us what our will permits it to seem. Wedded to the sensual, we must perish from the spiritual; united to the spiritual, the sensual becomes transformed and acquires new associations.J.

HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM

Isa 1:4

Children that are corrupters.

Here we have a broad light on the mission of Isaiah the prophet. The holy nation had become evil. Plants are more poison-spreading in their corruption than forest trees. It is an old proverb, “The corruption of the best is the worst.” “Children that are corrupt.” How solemn the emphasis of the prophet’s adjuration! “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.”

I. THE MEASURE OF LIFE IS THE MEASURE OF CORRUPTION. Even physically it is so.

The horse does not breed such corruption as man. The body, God’s most perfect work, must in its corpse state be buried quickly. Israel was a privileged people. They had the Law and the prophets and the glory; but their rottenness was complete: “From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores” (verse 6). Such, then, is the revealed philosophy concerning evilthe richer the life the more rotten the corruption.

II. THE MEASURE OF OPPORTUNITY IS THE MEASURE OF RESPONSIBILITY. “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.” But in head and heart they had been “nourished and brought up as children.” And as children their character ought to have reflected the Father’s image. “Ye are my witnesses, “saith the Lord. But Israel had become vain, proud, carnal, self-seeking, idolatrous. They imagined themselves elected to the enjoyment of privilege instead of to the use and responsibility of privilege. Hence they sought to become a “vortex” instead of a “fountain.” And evil had spread through them. Their lofty position had made the leaven of their influence wider. Alas! the “children” were “corrupters!”W.M.S.

Isa 1:9

The faithful remnant.

Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” This is as music of hope amid a strain of grief. And it is the first note of an evangelic prophecy, which is to merge into the “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,” of a later chapter. Where there is life there is hope in national calamity as well as in personal sickness. “A cottage in a vineyard” is a cottage that speaks of home (Isa 1:8), “a lodge in a garden of cucumbers” is a center of care and toil; and a very small remnant may be a branch of healing to save a nation.

I. THE SMALL REMNANT BELONGS TO THE LORD OF HOSTS. Therefore power is on their side. What a contrast!”host” and “remnant.” Even so. God can multiply the loaves and fishes. God can put such power into the remnant that they may be able to say, “Greater is he that is for us than all that can be against us.” We must not judge by numbers or statistics, nor by quantity, but by quality. Whose are these? Decide that; and then “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, “for that faith centers in God.

II. THE SMALL REMNANT IS ANTISEPTIC. It can arrest disease. It can heal. Take a few grains of some chemical substance, and they will color and cleanse an entire stream. “We should have been as Sodom is.” Yes; God’s judgments on a nation, as in our own at the time when profligate plays had undermined the moral life, have saved the nation. For when men laugh at sin, well-nigh the deepest depth has been reached; but godly souls are then used as leaven to purify the body politic. Judah and Jerusalem were almost gone, but the Lord had mercy on them.

III. THE SMALL REMNANT IS TO SPREAD THE WORD OF THE LORD. The next verse says, “Hear ye the Word of the Lord.” It is a Divine revelation that is to save them. And the prophet who speaks is called Isaiah, or Iesahiaha, signifying “the salvation of the Lord; ‘so that though the prophet speaks stern words of rebuke, his very name contains the glorious issue of his work. His work was laborious and longhe prophesied in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Terribly profane were those days, for in the days of Ahaz “the doors of the house of the Lord were shut up, and idolatrous altars were erected in every corner of Jerusalem.” But God sent his Word and healed them; and that is the true regenerator in every age.W.M.S.

Isa 1:18

Salvation to the uttermost.

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” The previous verses show that the Jews had mistaken the ideal of Divine services; they had turned them into a correct ritual, to a multitude of sacrifices without purpose. And purpose or motive is the very heart of religion. They were devotional, but cruel. “When ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.” It was all empty ceremony. The solemn meeting even was iniquity. A change must come. And it must bean in character. “Cease to do evil.” Yes; but that is not enough. Negation is not salvation. There must be life unto God as well as death unto sin. “Learn to do well.” Then come the words of our text. They sound a strange note at first; they speak of what man cannot do and what God can.

I. HERE IS THE GOSPEL IN ISAIAH. Free, full, perfect redemption. We see in these words Gethsemane and Calvary. There God’s purpose was fulfilled; but it is in his heart when these words are spoken, for “the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world.” It is a glorious gospelGod giving himself for the world. And now, as we read Israel’s sins in this record, we may see even then that, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

II. HERE IS THE REASONABLENESS OF RELIGION. How condescending! Let usthe Infinite and the finite, the immaculate and the evil. Yet so it is. God says, “While you are stained with blood and cloaked with hypocrisy, I can have nothing to say to you or to do with you.” It cannot be that light should have fellowship with darkness. That is reasonable surely. But how can the sins of Judah and Jerusalem be purged away? Amendment is not atonement. And God is their Ransom, the high God is their Redeemer!

III. HERE IS THE CHARTER OF THE CHURCH‘S LIBERTY. These words will never be forgotten. They have comforted millions. It is not liberty to sin, but salvation from all sin, and from the punishment of sin. Not from punishment only, but from sin itself, in all its forms, all its depths, all its degrees! For the colors are chosen as the symbols of the most marked and malignant evilscarlet and crimson. Yet God is able to save to the uttermost. The words are best understood beneath the cross and in the history of redeemed men in every age.W.M.S.

HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON

Isa 1:1, Isa 1:2

Ingratitude and intervention.

The “vision of Isaiah” during the reigns of four kings of Judah (verse 1), and the declaration (verse 2) that “the Lord hath spoken” (or speaketh), suggests

I. THE FACT THAT GOD HAS INTERVENED AND DOES INTERVENE IN HUMAN AFFAIRS.

1. Such Divine intervention ought not to have been necessary. For God has so ordered everything around us, and has so constituted us ourselves, that there were abundant sources of truth and heavenly wisdom without it. All visible nature (Rom 1:20); the bounties of Divine providence (Act 14:17); the manifestations of Divine pleasure and displeasure in the events and issues of life (Psa 34:15, Psa 34:16); the conscience that speaks and strikes within the soulthe moral judgment of which our spiritual nature is capable (Pro 20:27; Act 24:16; Rom 2:15);these should have sufficed for man’s instruction, integrity, perfection. But we find, from the religious history of our race, that these sources of enlightenment and influence have not been sufficient.

2. There has been needed, and there has been granted, special intervention from God. “The Lord hath spoken” to mankind:

(1) From the Fall to the Incarnation, God intervened, “at sundry times and in divers manners”by such visions as those he gave to Isaiah, and which the prophet communicated to the people; by creating and ordaining men of illumination and leadership, such legislators as Moses and Nehemiah, such kings as David and Hezekiah, such prophets as Elijah and John Baptist; by the institutions and precepts of the Law; by parental chastisements.

(2) At and in the Incarnation itself: when the eternal Father said to the human race, “This is my beloved Son, hear him; “by the words, the works, the sorrow, the death, the resurrection, of that Son of man who was the Son of God.

(3) From the Ascension to this present time: by the Word of his truth; by the ministry of the gospel; by the corrections of his disciplinary hand; by the quickening influences of his Spirit. By these things “the Lord is speaking” to us still, is speaking to us all.

II. HUMAN INGRATITUDE THE OCCASION OF THE DIVINE INTERVENTION. What is it that calls forth the Divine utterance? It is the shameful ingratitude of his own sons. “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.” There are great and terrible crimes which have to be recorded against the human race; there are evil and shameful wrong-doings which stain and darken many individual lives; but there is one common and inexcusable wrong, to which all people and all souls must plead guilty, one common sin, with which we have all to reproach ourselves,it is that with which God himself reproaches Israelheinous and aggravated ingratitude.

1. God has done everything to attach us to himself. He has closely related us to himself; he has made us his children; he has expended upon us the lavish love, the patient care, the multiplied bounties, of a Father’s heart, of a Father’s hand.

2. We have broken away from his benignant rule. We “have rebelled against him;” our rebellion includes forgetfulness, inattention, dislike, insubmissiveness, disobedience. To whom we owe everything we are and have, to him we have rendered nothing for which he has been looking, everything which has been grievous in his sight.

III. OUR FITTING ATTITUDE WHEN GOD IS SPEAKING. When God speaks, let every voice be hushed; let all things everywhere, even the greatest and most majestic of all, lend their reverent attention. “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth.” There are

(1) those who mock;

(2) those who are deliberately deaf, who close their ears by filling them with noisy activities or absorbing pleasures;

(3) those who are persistently unconcerned;

(4) those who pay a passing and fruitless consideration;

(5) those who bring a reverent and obedient inquiry.C.

Isa 1:3

Obligation and interest.

I. THE WEIGHTIEST OBLIGATION. Isaiah speaks of ownership as a relation existing between a brute beast and a man; the “ox knoweth its owner.” There is a legal and not unimportant sense in which a man may own art animal; the creature is his in so far as this, that no one else can lay an equal claim to its use, and no one can dispute his legal right to employ it in his service. In a far larger sense than this does man belong to God. God has that strong and indefeasible claim

(1) which the Creator has on the creature he has called into being;

(2) which the Divine Sustainer has on the one whom he has been momentarily preserving in being;

(3) which the generous Giver has on the one upon whom he is bestowing innumerable and invaluable benefactions;

(4) which the merciful Judge has on the one he has spared again and again when life has been forfeited by wrong-doing;

(5) which the Divine Friend has on the one whom he has delivered at the greatest possible cost to himself. Surely he is, in very deed, our Divine Owner: to him we belong; our lives, our powers, ourselves, are his. There is nothing which the brute of the field owes to his human master, there is nothing which man owes to man, that is comparable to that strong, supreme obligation under which we all rest to God.

II. THE HIGHEST INTEREST. The ass or any other domestic animal has the greatest interest in his “crib:” there he finds food, rest, renewal,life. The highest interest which man has is not in the place where he secures food and rest. This is, indeed, necessary for his bodily well-being. But in gaining this he does not find his life. The life of man is in an instructed mind and, still more distinctively, in a well-ordered soul; in an intelligence that holds the highest truth it is capable of receiving; in a heart that fills and overflows with purest and holiest emotions; in a will that chooses the wisest courses; in a spiritual nature that realizes and rejoices in its highest relationships. A man who acts as if his chief interest were in a comfortable “crib,” a well-stocked “stall,” is a man who does not know himself and his opportunities.

III. THE DIVINE REPROACH. “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib,” etc. The brute beast has sense enough to recognize his master, discernment enough to perceive what is best for him to do, but instructed and enlightened Israel, recipients of so many mercies, and with all their golden chances of enlargement and elevation, did not recognize their God nor understand their true and real interests. When we live in ignorance of God and in pursuit of the lower instead of the higher blessedness, we may see ourselves condemned and feel ashamed in our soul as we look on the beasts of the field, and see them using their humble powers to discharge their duties and to enjoy their heritage. A life of spiritual ignorance is

(1) a shameful thing, rebuked by the “beasts that perish;”

(2) a guilty thing, exciting the high displeasure of Almighty God, drawing down his urgent and powerful remonstrance;

(3) a needless thing,it is in our power to rise above it, if we will and when we will. The last word of the text, as rendered in our version, is suggestive of the true way of return. We have to “consider,” to reflect upon our obligation and our interest; and honest and serious consideration must lead to self-condemnation, conviction will end in repentance, and repentance will issue in eternal life.C.

Isa 1:4

The course of sin.

It is true that both righteousness and sin have very varied manifestations, the course of one good or one bad man’s life differing widely from that of another. Yet there is a logical and moral order in which both holiness and iniquity pursue their path from their beginning to their end. The course of sin is not indicated by the sequence of these accusations, but the different steps are included in the prophetic denunciation.

I. IT BEGINS IN THE WITHDRAWAL OF THE SOUL FROM GOD. The first movement in the soul’s downward course is to “forsake the Lord”to withdraw itself from him. At first it has no intention to take up an attitude of positive rebellion; it does not say to itself, “I will not have this One to reign over me.” But it withholds its thoughts, its affection, its consultation of his revealed will, its activity and contribution in the field of Christian work. It fails to “magnify” him in its own mind and sphere; it “follows afar off;” it loses its hold on him, and its joy in him. It allows an increasing distance to be placed between itself and him.

II. IT SHOWS ITSELF IN WRONG–DOING. They who withhold from God the reverence and the obedience which are his due soon become “a seed of evil-doers.” Morality rests on religion as on its only solid basis. Without a sense of religious obligationas individual and national histories abundantly testifymoral principles will soon decline and disappear. When God is forgotten and his will is disregarded, life becomes darkened with evil deeds, it is stained with vice and crime.

III. IT PASSES INTO DELIBERATE DISLOYALTY TO HIM. “They are gone away backward;” or, “they have turned their backs upon him.” The outcome of irreligion and iniquity is presumptuous infidelity, unblushing atheism: man turns his back on God.

IV. IT BRINGS DOWN THE HIGH DISPLEASURE OF THE HOLY ONE. “They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger.” We read that God is “angry with the wicked every day” (Psa 7:11); that sin “grieves him at his heart” (Gen 6:6). The Divine emotion is doubtless different, in some respects, from that with which we are familiar, but there is enough resemblance between a holy man and the Holy One of Israel for us to say that such grief and anger as we feel when we look upon shameful sin and shocking crime God himself feels in an infinitely greater degree. It is a thought as true as it is terrible that, when we forsake, disobey, and disavow the Lord, his high and awful wrath is directed against our souls.

V. IT RESULTS IN THE HEAVIEST OF ALL PENALTIES THAT CAN BE BORNE. “A people laden with iniquity.” Sin, “when it is finished,” when it has run its course and done its work, triumphs over the sinner; it may seem at first to be a power under his feet, and then to be a pleasure to his heart; but it ends in being a crushing weight upon his head. It becomes an insupportable burden; he becomes a soul “laden with iniquity.”

1. Iniquity itself, ever growing and spreading, covers the entire surface of his life.

2. The effect of sin is to dwarf and shrivel his whole nature. A man who has given away to sin (notably to such a hateful vice as intemperance, or licentiousness, or gambling) suffers like a man who; all his. life bears a burdensome weight upon his shoulders. He “bears his iniquity.” His soul is dominated, damaged, tyrannized, by it. He is the miserable, pitiable slave of his own sin; it bears him down to the very ground in feebleness and humiliation. Yet there is one aspect of the course of sin which is even worse.

VI. IT CULMINATES IN THE PERPETRATION OF SPIRITUAL MISCHIEF. The people laden with iniquity are “children that are corrupters.” The very darkest aspect of evil is that it communicates itself on every hand. It is a terribly infectious thing. Every corrupt man is a corrupter of souls. Who shall estimate the evil which one false life starts and spreads? Who shall calculate the distance, in space or time, which the consequences of one wrong action travel?

1. What need of mercy!

2. What need of Divine direction and guardianship!C.

Isa 1:5-9

Sin in its hopelessness.

I. THAT SIN IS MORE OR LESS RECLAIMABLE. Whatever we might have antecedently expected, we find practically, that there are those on whom Divine truth is far more likely to tell than it is on others. Thus

(1) youth is more impressionable than age;

(2) poverty is more accessible than riches;

(3) the unprivileged are more open to influence than the “children of the kingdom.”

Time, pleasure, the misuse of sacred opportunity,these things indurate the soul and make it far less responsive than it once was; so that there are some that are more hopeless than others.

II. THAT THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN UNCHARGED BY THE DISCIPLINE OF GOD ARE THE MOST HOPELESS OF ALL. Many things are effective as spiritual weaponsthe Word of God, the ministry of the gospel, the entreaties of friendship, the influence of a godly home, sacred literature, etc.; but not one of them is so penetrating, so affecting, so reformative, as the discipline of the Divine hand. When God comes to a man in his providence; when he sends loss, disappointment, bereavement; when he lays his correcting hand on the man himself,then there is the deepest silence in the soul, then the voices which are from heaven reach the inmost chambers of the spirit. And if these be felt and heard in vain, if the lessons which come thus be unlearned by the rebellious heart, then the last state of that man is about the worst that is imaginable: “There is more hope of a fool than of him.”

III. THAT THERE ARE THOSE UPON WHOM GOD SEEMS TO HAVE EXHAUSTED HIS DISCIPLINARY RESOURCES. The prophet says (Isa 1:5), “The whole head is sick,” etc; already. As it is, the entire body is covered with open, unhealed wounds (Isa 1:6); the nation (the body politic) was witnessing the most harrowing evils and the most humiliating indignities to which it could be subjected (Isa 1:7, Isa 1:8). What further chastisement could the arm of the Almighty inflict? By what severer blows could he recall his people to repentance and righteousness? So with individual men. God has sent them chastisement after chastisement, reminder on reminder; he has touched them in one part of their nature, he has laid his correcting hand on another part; he has visited them in many ways; he has multiplied his most solemn lessons unto them. What more can he do? Where “can they be stricken any more?” In what other way shall he strike their follies and seek to save their souls?

IV. THAT IN THEIR CASE FURTHER SUFFERING WOULD PROBABLY RESULT IN AGGRAVATED sin. Isaiah might well ask (if that be not the precise point), “Why should ye be smitten any more?” (verse 5); he certainly does say, “Ye will revolt more and more.” His thought apparently is that added blows will only mean increased rebelliousness. When a man (or a nation) has reached a certain depth in iniquity, the very thing (Divine chastisement) which ought to arrest and restore him will only goad him to proceed with quickened step on his evil way. Thus are the purposes of love defeated and the means of recovery perverted. And yet there remains one redeeming thought, viz.

V. THAT, THOUGH COMPARATIVELY, SIN IS NOT UTTERLY HOPELESS HERE. The “daughter of Zion” was little better than a “cottage in a vineyard,” a “lodge in a garden of cucumbers” (verse 8); but it was left, to be at least as much as that. The Lord of hosts had left a “remnant,” though that was “very small” (verse 9). Jerusalem had not yet become as “the cities of the plain.” The penalty of sin is great: it reduces the sinner very low indeed; it robs him of his heritage; it leaves him almost nothing of the spiritual faculties, of the filial portion (Luk 15:12), of the heavenly hopes with which he was endowed. But it leaves somethingsome sensibility to which we can appeal; some thread of willingness by which we can draw him; some plank by which, through a thousand perils, he may yet reach the shore.

“The blackest night that veils the sky

Of beauty hath a share,

The darkest soul hath signs to tell

That God still lingers there.”

C.

Isa 1:10-20

The prophetic strain.

Isaiah had gone only a very little way in his testimony when he broke into the true prophetic strain. The prophets were God’s witnesses against the mere shows and semblances of piety, and for the reality of godliness and virtue; they lived to expose the false and to expound the true, to pierce with keen edged sword that which was hollow and rotten, and to commend with glowing zeal that which was sound and good. Here we have a deliverance which evidently came hot from a heart that burned with fiery indignation.

I. THE UTTER INSUFFICIENCY OF MERE RITUAL TO COMMAND THE DIVINE FAVOR. “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?” etc. (verses 11-13). These various offerings were all according to the commandment, correct, scriptural; but they were unacceptable; they were “vain oblations, “all of them. They were ineffectual, because they came from hands that were unclean, from hearts that were unholy. It is a significant and solemn fact that men may be engaged in doing those very things, using those very words which God has plainly prescribed, and yet they may be utterly failing to win his Divine favor. The services of the sanctuary, the “eating of that bread and drinking of that cup, “the ministries of the pulpit and the study,all these may be unimpeachably correct, but yet wholly unacceptable. If the heart be not right, if the life be not pure, they are unacceptable.

II. ITS POSSIBLE ODIOUSNESS IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. Those who are rendering an abundance of formal devotion are actually denominated by a term which indicates the last extremity of wrong-doing: “Ye rulers of Sodom,” “ye people of Gomorrah;” they are addressed as if they were responsible citizens of those infamous cities. Jehovah not only does “not delight in the blood of bullocks” (verse 11), and not only does not rear, ire this kind of service (verse 12); not only does he call the oblations “vain,” but he declares incense to be an abomination to him (verse 13). “Your new moons my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them” (verse 14). The thought is positively terrible that the very things we are doing with a view to gain God’s pleasure may be bringing down upon us his awful anger; that the very means we are taking to avert his wrath may be only adding to its weight. It is certain that the offerings of the hypocrite are of this kind. This prophetic strain is not only applicable to the specialties of the Hebrew ritual; it includes all the ordinary approaches of the human soul to the Divine Father; it embraces that which we call “prayer” (see verse 15). And we have to face the fact that the most devout utterances of our lips, in the most approved or even in biblical phraseology, may be worse than worthless in the sight of God.

III. THE PRIMARY DUTY OF REPENTANCE. “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings,” etc. (verses 16, 17). When men are loving and practicing unrighteousness, the first thing they have to do is to “put it away,” both from their minds and from their lives. The drunkard must first dash down his cup, the untruthful man must at once give up his falsehoods, the licentious man his impurities, the dishonest man his rogueries; it is a vain and even guilty thing for a man to kneel in prayer or to sit down at the Lord’s table when he is deliberately intending to go on in his sin: that is nothing less than mockery; it is defiance assuming the attitude of devotion. “Let the wicked forsake his way,” etc. (Isa 55:7).

IV. THE READINESS OF GOD TO PARDON THE PENITENT. (Verse 18.)

V. THE ALTERNATIVE WHICH GOD PLACES BEFORE ALL HIS CHILDRENOBEY AND PROSPER, OR REFUSE AND SUFFER. (Verses 19, 20.) They who now return unto the Lord from the state of sin in which they are foundfrom crime, from vice, from ungodliness, from indecisionand who attach themselves to the service of Jesus Christ, shall “eat the good of the land;” to them shall be granted the sunshine of God’s favor, the blessedness of Christ’s friendship and service, the hope of a heavenly heritage. But they who remain apart and afar from God, who will not have the Man Christ Jesus to reign over themthey must abide under the condemnation of the Holy and the Just.C.

Isa 1:18

The magnitude of the Divine mercy.

I. THE FULNESS OF THE DIVINE MERCY. In estimating the fullness of God s grace to mankind, we must include:

1. His patience toward all men, both penitent and impenitent. From the beginning of sin until the present hour God has been forbearing to inflict penalty. He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.” The times of long-continued ignorance God overlooked, or did not interpose with special penalty or redemption (Act 17:30).

2. His pardon offered to the penitent and believing. In the Law we read that he is “the Lord God, merciful and gracious,” etc. (Exo 34:6, Exo 34:7); in the Psalms we read that he is “plenteous in mercy,” etc. (Psa 103:8, Psa 103:11, Psa 103:12); in the prophets we read that “he is merciful and will not keep anger forever” (Jer 3:12; and see text and Isa 55:7-9; Dan 9:9). In the gospel of Jesus Christ remission of sins is a cardinal doctrine (Mat 26:28; Luk 24:47; Acts hi. 38; Act 5:31; Act 10:43; Act 26:18).

3. The thoroughness of his forgiveness.

(1) The breadth which it covers.

(a) The worst kinds of sinblasphemy, idolatry, all forms of impurity, murder, etc.;

(b) the most criminal conditionlong-continued forgetfulness, sin against multiplied privilege, persistent and obdurate rebelliousness of heart, etc.

(2) The depth to which it goes down.

(a) Penetrating to the most secret thoughts of the mind, to the most inward motives of the soul, to the slightest choices of the will;

(b) extending to the thoughts and things which have been overlooked and omitted, as well as to those which have been entertained and wrought.

(3) The height to which it rises.

(a) Leading to actual holinessfor pardon is the fruit of penitence and faith, and with them in the soul, the scarlet becomes as snow, the crimson as wool, the mind is radically changed, the life is thoroughly transformed

(b) including full restoration, not merely the not exacting penalty, but the actual bestowal of the Divine favoradmitting to the Father’s home and table, lavishing upon the accepted child every sign and proof of parental love.

II. THE DIVINE ARGUMENT THEREFROM. God condescends to “reason” with us; he appeals to our sense of obligation, to our regard for our own interests, to our human affections, etc. The argument here is not stated, but it may be easily inferred. If such is the Divine mercyso large and full and free, then how wise to seek it at once! because of:

1. The blessedness of being right with God henceforth.

2. The uncertainty of the future. Between our souls and its possession may be interposed

(1) sudden death;

(2) hardening of the heart;

(3) increased outward obstacles.

3. The immeasurable, issues which are at stake”everlasting punishment or life eternal.”C.

Isa 1:21-31

Divine dealing with the degenerate.

We have here

I. DEPLORABLE DEGENERACY.

1. Degeneracy of character. “How is the faithful city become an harlot!” etc. (Isa 1:21, Isa 1:23). There is nothing more melancholy than the sight of a people or city or of a human being fallen from spiritual and moral integrity to a depth of sin and follydevoutness exchanged for impiety, conscientiousness for unscrupulousness, self-restraint and self-respect for laxity or even for licentiousness, spiritual excellency for moral unloveliness. But many illustrations confront us, both in history and experience.

2. Degeneracy of power. The result of this spiritual decline is weakness: the silver becomes dross, the wine is mixed with water (Isa 1:22). The sinner is not long before he finds that there is “no might in his hand” (Deu 28:32). Sin saps the life-blood from the soul, and leaves it strengthless and useless. It makes him to be as an Oriental garden from which the life-giving waters have been withdrawn, as a tree whose leaves have faded and fallen (Isa 1:30)everything is parched, barren, fruitless.

II. DIVINE VISITATION. This includes:

1. Punishment; the outpouring of wrath upon the wicked, involving

(1) personal ruin (Isa 1:24, Isa 1:28); and this

(2) the result of the sinner’s evil deeds: the man himself is as tow, and his work (not the maker of it) is as a spark which enkindles it (Isa 1:31). The “work” of the drunkard, i.e. his intemperance, consumes himit wastes his estate, it enfeebles his strength, it reduces the number of his friends, it brings him to destruction; and so with other vices which are the “works” of the unholy; they burn and they consume, and nothing quenches them. One part of the Divine punishment is

(3) the shame with which the guilty are confounded: “They shall be ashamed and confounded” (Isa 1:29). It is one of the constant penalties of sin that, when enjoyment is over, then comes shame and confusion of face. The soul is smitten with a sense of abasement; it suffers the smartings of conscience, the pangs of remorse.

2. Purification. (Isa 1:25-27.) God would turn his handhis hand that healed and saved; and, in his purity, would purge away the dross, and restore to the favored city its ancient righteousness. Penalty would become correction, and correction would end in transformation and redemption. Whether God visits

(1) nations, or

(2) churches, or

(3) individual souls,

it is that they may “come to themselves;” that they may return unto him; that they may be purified of their iniquity, their pride, their selfishness, their worldliness, their self-indulgence; and that they may rejoice in his holy service.C.

HOMILIES BY R. TUCK

Isa 1:1

The times and mission of Isaiah.

God raises up the man for the age, giving him gifts for the particular work which the age may demand. History is not a mere faithful record of things done, but a wise and sympathetic estimate of men doing. A man has more power on us than a truth. A man is grander than any doctrine or any book. Christianity, as a mere system, is a powerless thing; it never quickened anybody from his death of trespasses and sins. The personal Christ is our life. In the sphere of philanthropy we are interested in the doings of Howard and Wilberforce and Nightingale; in politics we trace the influence of Pitt and Burke and Cobden; and in the field of patriotism you kindle into enthusiasm all America when you speak of Washington and Lincoln, and all Scotland when you speak of John Knox. But it is not an easy thing for us to reproduce the men of a long bygone history. The men of one period must not be judged by the ideas and manners and social sentiments of another period; and yet it makes a surpassing demand on us if we have to create, with our imaginations, times wholly differing from our own. If we could be set down amidst the ruins of the buried Pompeii, and see around us the rooms, the furniture, the pictures, the ornaments, and the utensils, we think that, with their help, it would be easy to reproduce the life of old Rome; we could fill banqueting-hall, and theatre, and baths, and market-place with the men and women of that age. With old Israel we can have no such helps; we are dependent on the historical and imaginative faculties.

I. THE PROPHET HIMSELF. “The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amotz.” Little is known of his private life, and nothing of his personal appearance. He resided in Jerusalem; he was married, and his wife is spoken of as a prophetess. They had two sons; both were named with prophetic names, the two taken together embodying the substance of Isaiah’s message. The one was called “Maher-shalal-hash-baz””He hasteth to the prey”indicating the swift desolating forces that were coming on the people of Judaea; the other was called “Shear-Jashub”a “remnant shall return”indicating the mercy of God towards some, the mercy with which so much of the Book of Isaiah deals. It appears that the prophet wore a garment of haircloth or sackcloth, the ordinary symbol of repentance among Eastern nations; and so his very appearance reminded the people of his message. Isaiah prophesied for nearly fifty years. No record is left of his death, but Jewish traditions represent him as martyred in the reign of Manassehsawn asunder with a wooden saw. He was a prophet, not necessarily foretelling future events, but a directly inspired man; one who received communications from God which he was to address to the people. The prophet had three things to do:

(1) to awaken the nation to a sense of sin in disobeying and forsaking the Lord their God;

(2) to counteract the delusion that an external observance of rites and ceremonies is sufficient to satisfy God; and

(3) to oppose the delusions of those who imagined that their election as a nation, and their covenant with Jehovah, formed an absolute security against overwhelming national judgments.

II. THE TIMES IN WHICH THE PROPHET LIVED. They were times of national decline and decay. Isaiah saw four kings upon the throne of Judah. He saw the flickering of the candle ere it went out in the darkness. There was some appearance of prosperity; but Isaiah knew that it did but gloze over deep national corruption that called for national judgments. During the time of Isaiah the neighboring kingdom of the ten tribes did actually fallthe corruptions of idolatry and sensuality, in their case, running a swifter course; and the prophet holds up their case as a solemn warning to the people of Judah. The first six chapters of Isaiah have been referred to the reign of Uzziah, a king whose prosperity developed a strong self-will and masterfulness, which led him to attempt a sad act of sacrilege. Jotham was a pious king; but Ahaz plunged into all the idolatries of the surrounding nations, making molten images for Baal, and sacrificing his children by passing them through the burning hands of Moloch in the valley of Hinnom. The people were only too ready for this debasing change. But judgment quickly followed on the heels of iniquity. Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Damascus attacked and injured the country, though they failed to take Jerusalem. Soon other enemies cameSyrians in front, Philistines behind. Ahaz sought help from Tiglath-Pileser, King of Assyria, who soon turned upon him, and Assyria became the gravest enemy of Israel.

III. THE WORK WHICH THE PROPHET HAD TO DO.

1. His first work was to make men understand that their sufferings were actual Divine judgments on their sins, and therefore calls, like thunder-peals, to awaken them to repentance. God will not leave men in their troubles to imagine that some evil chance has befallen them, that they are the victims of accident. By the mouth of some prophet he will assuredly vindicate the connection between sin and suffering.

2. But Isaiah had also to bring comfort to the people of God in the time of national calamity. Godly people are often bowed down by the pressure of surrounding evil, and in their despairing they sometimes say, “God hath forgotten to be gracious.” God will never leave his faithful few to sink under discouragements.

3. Isaiah’s work may be more precisely stated as this: he was to prepare the way for the spiritual kingdom of God, in the person of Messiah the crucified yet glorified Redeemer. The old theocracy was breaking up, and God’s rule in the world might be lost. Isaiah was to say that it was only passing into a spiritual theocracy, giving place to the spiritual and eternal reign of God in souls. In Isaiah messages of severity and of mercy are most graciously blended. The following passage precisely represents his mission: “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.”R.T.

Isa 1:2

Sin as broken sonship.

Literally, the verse reads, “Sons I have made great and high, and they have broken away from me.” The later conception of the Jewish covenant embraced the ideas of fatherhood and sonship, and thus prepared for the revelation of the fatherhood of God in the teachings of the Lord Jesus, and for the apprehension of the “sonship of men” through Christ’s own sonship. It is the point of impression, that this relation intensifies the guilt of the people’s unfaithfulness and rebellion, just as Absalom’s relation, as son, to David aggravates the criminality of his deceptions and his revolt. In addition to the actual relation of father and son, the text suggests the exceptional goodness and considerateness of Israel’s Father-God. He had brought the nation to its maturity, and given it a high place among the kingdoms. And still the extreme painfulness of sin is not its breaking of law, its insult to kingly majesty, or the necessarily bitter consequences that must attend upon it; it is its filial ingratitude, its dishonor of the sacred claims and duties of sonship. All heaven and earth may be called to see this shameful sightchildren turning against their father.

I. THE SIN OF THE UNFILIAL SON. Dwell upon its characteristic features. We estimate the motive and spirit of the wrongs rather than the precise nature of the acts. Show the aggravations of such sin. Every persuasion of dependence, love, and duty must be pushed aside ere unfilial sin can become possible.

II. ITS POSSIBLE EXCUSE IN AN UNWORTHY FATHER. This is the only excuse that can be urged, and this does not count for much. The natural relation sustains the demand for obedience, and nothing can conflict with parental law save the supreme law of God. If even parents command what is contrary to God’s revealed will, we must obey the Father in heaven rather than the father on earth. Illustrate how this conflict of the human and Divine law was the burden of the Greek dramas. Short of this, obedience must be fully rendered, even when fatherly requirements cannot be approved.

III. THE ABSENCE OF ALL SUCH EXCUSE WHEN THE FATHER IS GOD. His will is right, is love. Apprehend what he is. Apprehend what he has been to our forefathers and to us. Realize the “goodness” of him in whom our breath is, and whose are all our ways, and then the unspeakable iniquity must be to grieve him, disobey him, and revolt from him.R.T.

Isa 1:5

The foolishness of increasing Divine judgments.

The plea of the prophet appears to be this: “You have run terrible lengths in sin; and you have seriously suffered from the consequences of sin; now why will you bring down fresh judgments upon your head through persisting in your infidelity” (comp. Eze 18:31)? So serious, indeed, had been the penalties of transgression already that there seemed to be no part of the body politic upon which another stroke might fall; new inflictions must come upon old sores and wounds. “The two noblest parts of the human body are here selected to represent the body politic; and the extreme danger to which it was exposed is significantly set forth under the image of universal sickness and languor. There were no parts which did not suffer from the calamities which sin had entailed.” Remember the expression of St. Paul (Rom 2:5), “After thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”

I. ALL SINS ARE FOLLOWED BY JUDGMENTS. We say, by consequences; and we even admit that they are usually “unpleasant” consequences; but we must go further and admit that every sinbe it neglect, or be it willful disobedience, whether it concern the individual or the communityis attended by its appropriate and necessary result, and that this is always the Divine judgment. Sorrow waits on sin. Suffering follows sin. Moral deterioration is Divine judgment. Painful circumstance is Divine judgment. The old world sins, and comes under the judgment of the Flood. Sodom sins, and comes into the judgment of the Divine fires. David sins, and quarrel and curse break up his family and break his heart. Judgment always links on to sin, and no human power can snap the uniting tie. If we will enjoy sin we must bear suffering. Illustrate by the pagan conceptions of the Furies and the Fates. Something bad grows out of all sin; and “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

II. ALL JUDGMENTS ARE CHASTISEMENTS. It is impossible to associate punishment, as a mere exercise of tyrannical power, with God the great Father. In the long run, or in the short run, all Divine judgments must be proved to have been remedial in their design. It is quite beyond our province to decide to what extent the free-will, the self-will, of man may resist the remedial purpose of God’s judgments. All we can say is, that a father’s punishments must be, at the very heart of them, chastisements; and that the plea of the passage before us rests upon the fact that God had been smiting in order to correct, and was deeply grieved because his correcting purpose had hitherto been so successfully resisted. Illustrate how epidemics and plagues, following upon sanitary sins, are designed to correct sanitary evils. The same applies in moral spheres. From this point a review of God’s dealings with us in our past lives may be taken, and we may be searchingly reminded how we have resisted the remedial influence of God’s chastisements.

III. REFUSAL TO LEARN BY CHASTISEMENT IS FRESH SIN. This the prophet pleads. “You are further grieving God by this, that you will not be humbled; you will not learn; you will not let him lift his judgments off you.” Illustrate by the hardened boy who will not respond to his father’s punishment. That hardened resistance is a fresh sin.

IV. FRESH SIN INVOLVES FURTHER AND WORSE JUDGMENTS. Before, the judgment was but to reveal the evil character of the sin; now, the judgment has to bear upon the heart-hardness, and it must be more searching and severe. The secret of more than half our calamities and afflictions is, that they are second and sharper strokes because we would not heed the first. Israel was swept away into captivity at last, because she would resist the smaller national calamities that were gracious Divine persuasions to repentance. In a great measure it is true that our life-troubles are in our own hands. We suffer so much because we are such dull and unwilling scholars in the school of God.

V. THE WORST OF ALL WOES WOULD BE THE SUSPENSION OF DIVINE JUDGMENTS. There is no more terrible conception than that ordinarily awakened by the passage “Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone.” The unspeakable calamity for a man or for a nation would be for God to lay down his chastening rod, and stop his judgments. There is hope for us so long as he will smite.R.T.

Isa 1:11-13

Mere ceremonial an offense to God.

What a painful sight it would be to see some of our houses with the fronts off!to look into the abodes of vice; to witness the impurity and profanity, and wretchedness and wild license, and seething corruption of our large towns! That sight we may escape, but we must see ourselves with the fronts offthose false fronts with which self-worship hides the truth from view. We must look behind the gaily painted scenes of a decent moral life and conformity with outward social laws. We must know our souls if we would know ourselves. Isaiah seeks to lay hare to the view of Israel their transgressions, by lifting off them that covering of religious service under which they tried to hide the truth of their moral state. That is the burden of this first chapter. The people drew near to God with the lip, but their heart was far from him. Their relations to the worship of God in the temple were anxiously maintained, but with that they thought to he satisfied; and, while keeping up the ceremonials, they “followed the devices and desires of their own hearts.” Jehovah declares that the merely formal service of the impure is an abomination unto him. Those very sacrifices and offerings which were his delight, became hateful to him when offered with unclean hands, and when no loving, trusting, obedient hearts found expression through them. “I cannot away with iniquity and the solemn meeting.”

I. THE POSSIBILITY OF UNITING TOGETHER INIQUITY AND THE SOLEMN MEETING. At first it may seem as if that were not possible. Surely conscience will prevent men from joining in religious worship who are indulging in open sin. Perhaps this is the real reason why so many people around us stay away from worship. But it is a fact that many of the worst men have kept, all through their lives, in outward association with religious worship. In the times of the old monasteries you might have listened to the solemn services and heard the monks breathe out strains of holy music set to holy words. You might have seen priests in gorgeous garments waving incense and uplifting the symbol of the Redeemer. They were precise in all prayers, minute in all ceremonial. And many of them were faithful and true men. But History writes one of her saddest pages about many of them. They were given over to gluttony, drunkenness, and immorality, and were uniting “iniquity and the solemn meeting.” This is even a possibility for our own times and for ourselves. Many of us, if we were conscious of heart-sins and life-sins cherished and loved, would only become more exact in religious formalities, trying to cover up the wrong and hide it, as far as possible from our own view. We do religiously somewhat as Cain did when he hid his murdered’ brother in the ground, and then set vigorously to work in his fields, trying, by sheer earnestness in work, to persuade himself and to persuade others that he knew nothing whatever of his brother’s blood. We are not, however, so likely to unite the open forms of iniquity with the solemn meeting as we are the more secret forms, the inner heart-sins, which may be cherished without disgracing us before God; such sins as:

1. The unforgiving spirit. To fail to forgive is to sin.

2. Backslidings and lustings of heart: proud, selfish, sensual, corrupting thoughts. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” And the God to whom we offer worship is the Heart-searcher, the Thought-searcher.

3. Openness to the vanities of the world.

4. Occasional yieldings to temptation and self-indulgence. Many indulge the idea that, if their indulgences do not become habitual, they need not interfere with their religious worship. Plead the Divine requirement as given in Psa 24:3-5.

II. THE VIEW GOD TAKES OF UNITING INIQUITY AND THE SOLEMN MEETING. “I am weary to bear.” “I cannot away with.” “It is an abomination to me.” We should clearly distinguish what it is which is thus hateful to God. It is not the sacrifice, or the offering, or the solemn meeting. God takes delight in those places and in those services in which his Name is recorded. They are the highest things that can engage human attention, the seasons in which man transcends the earthly and anticipates the hallowed occupations of heaven. They are the times in which man ought to be the truest, the most sincere, the most himself; all cloaks, all hoods, all masks, all pride, ought to be laid aside whenever we pass the threshold of God’s sanctuary. Naked, guileless, open souls alone may stand before the all-holy Lord. The thing which is so hateful is the separation between a worshipping and an obedient heart. God has encouraged outward worship, that it might express, and strengthen while it expresses, the love and trust of an obedient heart. The husk becomes worthless when the worm of self and pride has eaten out the kernel. The dress is hideous which no longer clothes a warm living body, but covers, and scarcely hides, the skeleton of rebellion. The voice is hateful that is only a voice, and utters no joy, no trust, no love of the heart. Be true in thy worship, be spiritual, and God will look down on thee with delight and acceptance. Be formal, be insincere, and God will frown thee from his presence; from thine hands he will reject the costliest sacrifices and the grandest show of devotion. Our cherished sins will as surely be an offence to God as were those which are referred to in this chapter. Ours, indeed, are not sins of violence and blood, but rather sins of secret indulgence. We have seen the light of the sun as effectually hidden by thin light mists as by black thunder-clouds. And God’s face has often been hidden by the mists of little transgressions. He notices sins of will. He observes sins of inadvertence. He sees sins of neglect. He reckons sins of nourished evil thoughts. More souls have died away from the love of God through the subtle plague-breath of little heart-sins than have fallen under the strokes of temptation in open conflict with evil. And what shall we do, if it is revealed to us that secret evils have come in upon our souls, and that the devil’s work of woe has been progressing in us, and the work of God’s grace in us is flagging and failing? What shall we do if we can detect stains of secret disobediences, unforgivings, and self-indulgences? Let us not stay away from worship; but let us at once obey in this: “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well.”R.T.

Isa 1:16, Isa 1:17

Conditions of Divine acceptance.

The prophet has been dealing with the insufficiency of mere ceremonial as a ground of acceptance before God. He is equally severe on mere professions of penitence, that find no adequate expression in changed moral conduct and hearty return to the rules of duty and charity.

I. IT WOULD BE MISCHIEVOUS TO ACCEPT THE HARDENED. Mischievous for the hardened themselves, who would be made yet harder by a goodness they could not fail to misunderstand. Mischievous for all others, in whose minds moral distinctions would be confused, and the Divine righteousness sullied. Under no pretence, by no equivocations, through no disguises, can God possibly accept the guilty and impenitent. In this, as in all else, the Judge of all the earth will do right.

II. IT IS HOPELESS TO ACCEPT MERE PROFESSORS. For they are self-deluded, and would be kept from awakening to their true state, if God accepted them as they are. The man who is satisfied with profession, and fails to aim at godly living, can never appreciate Divine acceptance or rightly respond to it. Divine acceptance is one great help to righteousness, and this the professor neither admires nor seeks. What good is it to accept professors? God cannot get beyond their fine outer shell. They are apples of Sodom, acceptable neither to God nor man. “He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.”

III. GOD ACCEPTS ONLY THOSE WHOSE PENITENCE FINDS EXPRESSION IN EFFORTS TO DO RIGHT. They only show that they are sincerely desirous of help; and they only are in a moral condition to receive, and to use well, Divine forgiveness and favor. Show how intensely practical the plea is in the text: “Put away just those very sins that you have been so freely indulging in. But do not be satisfied with any mere negation of evil; seek opportunities of doing justice; take care to blend justice with charity; do the right, and do the kind to all those who cannot right themselves.” Goodness as a sentiment is of little value. Goodness as a life Gad looks for, and man asks from his fellows. “I will show thee my faith by my works.”R.T.

Isa 1:18

Reasoning with God about our sins.

Conceive a man responding to this appeal, what may we think he would say to God, and what may we suppose God would reply?

I. FIRST PLEA. “Thou art revealed as the great God, inhabiting eternity, whose Name is Holy; who art of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity. I am afraid thou wouldst not concern thyself about the sin, much less about the forgiveness, of such creatures as we are.” What is God’s answer? “I have a great interest in that little world where you dwell. I have given you many proofs of it. I have hidden my great sun to shine on you, and quicken life and beauty everywhere around you. I am coming down continually in the rains and winds that provide food for you, coming down to attend your steps and ward off evils from you. It is quite true that by me even ‘the very hairs of your head are all numbered.’ If I take such interest in you, should I not concern myself about your sin, the worst of the evils that gather about you? Do you think I could temper the storms and the sunshine, keep away pestilence and blight, and not strive to take away sin? And there is something more: ‘I am merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and of great kindness.’ You know that I am Light, Power, Majesty, King, Judge. But you do not really know me till you know that I am Love, and love will spend itself until every stain is cleansed from those whom it loves. My love sends forth streams that wash away sins.” When love opens the cleansing fountain, what can we do but

Plunge rote the purple flood,
And rise into the life of God.

II. SECOND PLEA. “I read that thou hast given a great Law, by which thy creatures are to be judged. ‘The Law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.’ Thou hast said, ‘The soul that sinneth, it shall die.’ I do not see how thou canst keep thy justice and thy truth, and yet blot out my scarlet, my crimson sins.” What is the reply? “It is indeed the mystery of mysteries, but love has solved it. I can be just and justifying. I have set forth my dear Son as your Sin-bearer, your Substitute, the Propitiation for your sin. In his righteous life, by his vicarious death, my Law is magnified and shown to be honorable. Not a stain can even seem to be upon it after such an obedience as Christ rendered, if I did gather every sinful creature into my love and heaven. I have myself put such an eternal honor upon Law by permitting my Son to submit to it, that none can ever doubt the transcendent glory of my justice.”

III. THIRD PLEA. “But my sins are so great, so aggravated, it seems to me as though such sins as mine cannot even be atoned for; even if atoned for, I think I should never be able to hold up my head for very shame.” Some of us know what scarlet sins mean, crimson sins, sins of deepest die. What is God’s reply? “I have provided for the uttermost of sin in the infinite merit of my Son. His worth outweighs all sin; it can cover and blot out the deepest crimson stains. His sacrifice sends up such a fragrant incense to me that I can freely pardon all your iniquity. If his robe of righteousness cover you, I shall not see any of those stains; I shall accept you in him.”

IV. FOURTH PLEA. “But my sins are not just acts of willfulness and rebellion, they are the habits of my life, the neglectings and self-servings of my life. I hear of rolling sin as a sweet morsel under the tongue, and that is just the way with me. If I were forgiven, I fear I should just go on sinning still.” But God answers, “I have provided also for this. I will pour out of my Spirit upon you; and to them that have no might he shall increase strength. He shall be Teacher, Guide, Comforter, Earnest, and Seal. He shall be with you always.”

V. FIFTH PLEA. “Even if my scarlet sins are made like wool, and my crimson sins like the snow, I fear I shall never be able to return anything for such grace abounding.” What a wonderful reply God makes to you, closing up your mouth and humbling you in the very dust! “Not for your sakes do I this, O house of Israel, but for mine own Name’s sake.” Truly that is a wonderful answer. It is like God coming to us, opening the fountain of his being, and saying, “Look in, look long, and peer into the depths. I am love.” There is all the secret. Love saves. Love saves even those who never can hope to make worthy returns for love.R.T.

Isa 1:19-23

Unrighteousness a nation’s curse.

Comp. Pro 14:34, “Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people.” The prophet is picturing the corrupt state of the metropolis, and contrasting its present moral degradation with the high and honorable character which it had formerly sustained. The following points may be illustrated, and the lessons of them enforced.

I. UNRIGHTEOUSNESS IN THE LEADERS IS THE CURSE OF A BAD EXAMPLE. Illustrate by the mischievous influence of a corrupt court and aristocracy, and by the discontent produced by corruptions of the fountains of justice.

II. UNRIGHTEOUSNESS IN THE PEOPLE ENFEEBLES THE NATIONAL LIFE. Illustrate by the effect of prevalent sensuality on the morale of soldiers. The moral degradation of France was the secret of her weakness when struggling against Germany. A nation’s manhood sinks under the power of self-indulgence and sin. This was strikingly illustrated again and again in the history of God’s people Israel. When they were idolatrous and immoral they were weak before their foes. Virtue is strength.

III. UNRIGHTEOUSNESS PREPARES THE WAY FOR NATIONAL EVILS. Both for such as are internal and for such as are external. Family life, society, religion, all are affected. Ordinary checks are removed. The sense of common weal no longer binds men together to seek national interests. And the “enemy coming in like a flood” finds no “standard of the Lord lifted up against them.” Illustrate by the iniquities wrought by and encouraged by Hophni and Phinebas, and the consequent despising of Jehovah’s worship, and inability to stand before the nation’s foes. Nobody from outside can really hurt a nation. Nations hurt themselves by permitting vice and iniquity to run riot. Show what are the features of modern city sins, country sins, national iniquities. These are our peril, our woe, our curse. Against these every servant of the Lord must strive and plead and fight. Nations can build national life securely on no other foundation than thismorality, righteousness, the clean heart, and the clean hand.R.T.

Isa 1:24, Isa 1:25

Hope in God’s refinings.

Cheyne translates, “Ha! I will appease me through mine adversaries, and avenge me on mine enemies, and will bring back my hand upon thee, smelting out as with lye thy dross, and will take away all thy lead-alloy.” The “lye” referred to is potash, which was used as a flux in purifying metals. Calamities, diseases, bereavements, failures, anxieties, are God’s refining forces, but their influence for good depends on the state and condition of those to whom they come.

I. CALAMITIES OF LIFE TO MEN STANDING ALONE. Without any faith in God, or idea of the gracious meaning there is in earthly trouble. How such men fret and chafe, and question why they have to suffer, and give way to rebellious thoughts! Too often troubles only harden them, and drive them further still from God.

II. CALAMITIES OF LIFE TO MEN UNDER GOD‘S WRATH. These must take intense and severe forms. They must first crush and humble, breaking down proud wills and rebellious spirits. They must first look like overwhelming judgments, and then, if men will respond to them, they shall seem to be gracious chastisements and refinings.

III. CALAMITIES OF LIFE TO MEN UNDER GOD‘S MERCY. This opens the whole subject of God’s refining and purifying of his people. We all have so much tin and dross mingled with our gold, and it is so good of God that he will not let the dross stay. With his “fires” and his “lye” he will graciously refine us, until all the dross is got away, and his image shines clear on our purified gold. And God’s dealings with individuals may be illustrated by his dealings with nations, and especially with his own favored nation.R.T.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Isa 1:1. The vision of Isaiah, &c. I divide the book of Isaiah, says Vitringa, into the title prefixed to the book, and the matter contained in it. The matter is twofold, prophetical and historical, which are interwoven together. The prophetical is divided into five parts; the first of which, from the 1st chapter to the 13th contains five prophetic sermons or harangues, immediately directed to the Jews, and also to the Ephraimites; whom the prophet variously reproves, exhorts, and consoles. The second part, from the 13th to the 24th chapter, contains eight sermons, in which the fate of other nations is declared; Babylonians, Philistines, Moabites, Syrians, Egyptians, Tyrians, and others. The third part, from the 24th to the 36th, explains the penal judgments denounced by God upon the disobedient Jews and enemies of the church, with the most ample promises given to the true church; and is comprehended in three sermons. The fourth part, from the 40th chapter to the 49th, sets forth in four sermons, of a consolatory kind, the manifestation of the Messiah in the flesh, with its circumstances and effects, and the signs preceding it; particularly the deliverance of the Jewish church from their exile in Babylon. The fifth part exhibits, in five sermons, from the 49th chapter, the fate and events of Jesus Christ, his person and kingdom; with which this most noble prophecy closes. The historical part relates some notable events of those times, in which God was pleased to make use of the ministry of Isaiah, and, beginning with the 36th, ends with the 39th chapter. Vitringa reads the verse, The prophecy of Isaiahwhich he prophesied, &c. Vitringa also remarks, that the word Isaiah signifies the salvation of Jehovah; which he conceives to have been, in some degree, expressive of his office.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

1. THE TITLE

Isa 1:1

1The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, Kings of Judah.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isa 1:1. . is the proper word for prophetic seeing in the double sense named below; whence is used synonymously with , (1Sa 9:9; 2Ki 17:13). Thence also the expressions Isa 2:1; Amo 1:1; Mic 1:1; Isa 13:1; Hab 1:1. These are the only places where occurs as part of a superscription.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

We must consider this title in reference to three things, viz., in its relation to chap. 1 and to chap. 2, where a title essentially like this recurs, and to the entire collection. That the superscription belongs to the entire collection, is evident at once from the words, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. That the title is comprehensive enough to apply to the entire book is clear when we consider that the vision has a collective meaning, (comp. Hos 12:10; Eze 7:26; Lam 2:9, etc.), and that Judah and Jerusalem represent the centre of the prophetic view, around which also the prophecies that relate Ephraim and the world potentates are grouped as radii servi. In this connection Caspari says very appropriately: Jerusalem, Judah, Israel, are, from Isaiah 7 on, the centre of prophecy in such a way that they form three concentric circles, of which Jerusalem is the smallest. Jerusalem and Judah the wider, while Jerusalem, Judah and Israel is the widest. To these three the heathen world joins on as a fourth circle. (Beitr. z. Einleit. in, d. B. Jes., p. 231 sq.). Therefore both and concerning Judah and Jerusalem make a denominatio a potiori. The first, because prophetic sight, in the double sense of more or less bodily vision, (comp. chap. 6) and of pure spiritual knowing, gave origin to the nucleus of the book, so that about this nucleus doctrine, warning, comfort and history should find their place. The latter because, as has already been remarked, Judah and Jerusalem must be regarded as those to whom the prophet speaks first of all, and for whose sake he speaks of others.

But it has seemed strange, especially to Vitringa, that in Isa 2:1 a superscription of almost the same sound recurs; and he would infer from it that originally in this title the date ( in the days of) was wanting, and the remaining words were only a title to the first chapter. Against this the following is to be remembered: 1) The two superscriptions are not quite alike. In this one we have ; in Isa 2:1. is plainly a word of weightier import. It is better fitted, therefore, for the beginning of the book, and in a certain measure for its title; wherefore we see (2Ch 32:32), that the book even at that time was known under that title. 2) That a superscription almost alike occurs twice, has its reason in the fact that Isa 2:1 is the title of the second introduction. For the book of Isaiah has a threefold portal, as said above; and that the superscription vision or word that Isaiah saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem occurs only Isa 1:1, and Isa 2:2, and not again afterwards, is precisely proof, that with chap. 2 we enter the second portal which comprehends chapters 25

Finally, as regards the relation of this superscription to chap. 1, we may fittingly say that the entire Isa 1:1, date included, is the title of chap. 1 For chap. 1. is just the whole prophecy of Isaiah in nuce, as he delivered it under the four kings; an assertion whose correctness can only appear indeed as the result of exposition.

At the beginning of prophetic books as here we find Oba 1:1, Nah 1:1.Isaiah the son of Amoz. For the meaning of the name and the lineage of the prophet see the Introduction.Concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Jerusalem, as the holy city and centre of the theocracy is made equal to the entire region of Judah, and distinguished from it, which also happens elsewhere; Jer 9:2; Jer 17:20, etc.;2Ki 18:22, etc.;2Ch 34:3; 2Ch 34:5, etc.; and in a reversed order, Jer 36:31; 2Ki 24:20; Ezr 2:1. We have already remarked that the naming of Judah and Jerusalem presents no incongruity between the superscription and the whole book. It is worthy of special remark, that only in Isa 2:1 beside this does the expression form part of the title, and that it occurs in chap. 25 relatively with most frequency. For it is found beside Isa 2:1, also Isa 3:1; Isa 3:8; Isa 5:3. Beside this only in Isa 22:21; Isa 36:7; Isa 44:26. Comp. remarks at Isa 2:1.In the days of, etc. That Isaiah lived and labored under these four kings cannot be doubted. Comp. the Introduction. The time designated is identical with that given Hos 1:1, and with that in Mic 1:1, only that in the latter the name of Uzziah is wanting. Even the asyndeton and the form instead of (about which comp. Drechslerin loc.) are to be found in both the places named.

2. THE MOURNFUL PRESENT

Isa 1:2-9

2Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth:

For the Lord 1hath spoken,

I have nourished and brought up children,
And they have rebelled against me.

3The ox knoweth his owner,

And the ass his masters crib:

But Israel doth not know,

My people doth not consider.

4Ah sinful nation, a people 2laden with iniquity,

A seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters:
They have forsaken the Lord,

They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger,
They are 3gone away backward.

5Why should ye be stricken any more?

Ye will 4revolt more and more:

5The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

6From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it;

But wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores:

6They have not been closed, neither bound up,

Neither mollified with 7ointment.

7Your country is desolate,

Your cities are burned with fire:

Your land, strangers devour it in your presence,
And it is desolate, 8as 9overthrown by strangers.

8And the daughter of Zion is left as a 10cottage in a vineyard,

As 11a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,

As a besieged city.

9Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant,

We should have been as Sodom,

And we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isa 1:2. The formula , is found Joe 3:8; Oba 1:18; Mic 4:4; Jer 13:15. Beside these, in Isaiah partly in the simple form as here (Isa 22:25; Isa 25:8), partly somewhat extended (Isa 21:17; Isa 24:3). The more extended form is found in Isaiah only, Isa 1:20, and Isa 40:5; Isa 58:14., is often used by Isaiah especially, for bringing up children, Isa 23:4; Isa 49:21; Isa 51:18 : comp. Isa 44:14; Hos 9:12.It is to be seen from the exposition that we take in an emphatic sense. Although elsewhere (Isa 23:4; Eze 31:4) it means the same as , yet our construction (which is found in Luther, Knobel, et al.) is justified here because , does not stand in a parallel phrase to , but follows with epexegetical emphasis. For if is taken as meaning just the same as , it would be empty repetition. Besides, Vitringa refers appropriately to Deu 32:6. [Eze 31:4. The same words occur: Children I have made great and set on high.M. W. J.]

Isa 1:3. properly the buyer, (comp. Isa 24:2) then, the owner, the possessor, (Lev 25:50; Zec 11:5). is found only in Job 39:9; Pro 14:4, beside this place. From these places it is not evident whether stall or crib is the correct meaning. As little decisive is the root meaning fatten (1Ki 5:3, (Eng. Bib. 1Ki 4:23), Pro 15:17). Still in the later Hebrew, which uses the word for the platter of the laborer (see Buxtorf Lex., p. 16. Gesenius and Delitzsch in loc.) the meaning crib seems to prevail. The earliest versions, moreover, all give this rendering. The context demands that the object of and be supplied from what precedes. For would one take the words absolutely (Rosenmueller, Fuerst) then the two members of the comparison do not harmonize. Just what ox and ass do notice, Israel does not notice. is used as verb. trans. by Isaiah, also Isa 43:18; Isa 52:15. As substantially parallel we may compare (Jer 8:7)

Isa 1:4. , (frequent in Isaiah, also in the 2d part; Isa 45:9-10; Isa 55:1; he uses it twenty-one times, whereas in the rest of the prophets it occurs twenty-eight times; for it is only found in the prophetic books, with the exception of 1Ki 13:30) is distinguished from in that the latter is more substantive, the former more adverb. Hence it is that , with few exceptions (Num 24:23; Eze 24:6; Eze 24:9) has after it, whereas is followed by only Eze 13:18, and by , Eze 13:3; Jer. 1:27, and by , Jer 48:1; everywhere else (e. g. 1Ki 13:30; Isa 5:8; Isa 5:11, etc.) it is used without a connecting proposition. therefore has more the character of a prepositive exclamation, though in regard to the meaning no essential difference is noticeable. It is taken for granted that an intentional paronomasia influenced the selection of the word . On the other hand it is clear that a synonym of was meant, as after this and correspond to one another. is guilt-encumbered. Regarding the meaning, comp. Gen 13:2; Exo 4:10; Eze 3:5-6; regarding the form (the construct-form, along with , like along with , only here).A is not one who destroys another, but one that acts ruinously (direct causative Hiphil, 2Ch 27:2). The expression is partly stronger, partly more general than the kindred ones: Isa 30:1; Isa 30:9. Jer 3:14; Jer 3:22; Jer 4:22. Comp. Isa 63:8. We see that this form of expression is especially current with Isaiah, for, excepting the phrase just quoted from Jeremiah, it is to be found in no other prophet.

Isa 1:5. , Isa 1:5, declinatio, defectus only in Deu 13:6; Deu 19:16; Jer 28:16; Jer 29:32 and Isa 14:6; Isa 31:6; Isa 59:13.It is true that without the article sometimes has the meaning of whole (Isa 9:11; Eze 29:7; Eze 36:5; 2Ki 23:3; see Delitzsch in loc.; Ewald 290, c). But a comparison of these passages shows that the expressions in question are partly proverbial, (see Drechsler in loc.) partly do not admit of the meaning all in any wise. In the present case both meanings are in themselves possible. If, then, the prophet would convey the meaning whole, he must use the article. must, any way, be regarded as dependent on understood. But it is doubtful whether that is to be taken in the sense of belongs, is fallen to, or as meaning is become. The latter is the more probable, because bears analogy to expressions like ,. It is a strong expression, stronger than . is then to be taken as abstractum pro concrete. Apart from this concrete meaning of the word, we may compare the construction of with with passages like 1Sa 4:9 ( ) and 1Sa 18:17 ( ). . is found also Jer 8:18, and Lam 1:22. does not occur again in Isaiah.

Isa 1:6. The expression is found only here. Every where else it reads , (Deu 28:35; 2Sa 14:25; Job 2:7). . We would expect , as in Isa 1:5. But such changes in person and number occur frequently in Hebrew, comp. Isa 17:13; Psa 5:10. integrum, sanum, is found beside only Jdg 20:48; Psa 38:4; Psa 38:8. (from fidit) is fissura, a wound that comes from tear or scratch; found in Isaiah only here. (joined to , also Pro 20:30) is the extravasated stripe or swelling, (see Delitzsch in loc.); only here in Isaiah. ( from = recent fuit, found beside only in Jdg 15:15) is the raw wound of a cut. with accented penult cannot be derived from dispersit: nor can it be the same as in Psa 58:4. It is either an intensive form analogous to ,, 1Sa 14:29; , Num 24:5; Son 4:10; or an archaic passive form from (comp. , Job 24:24). The latter seems to me likely for , Isa 59:5, the squeezed, crushed (egg), (the foot shall crush it, Job 39:15) (he squeezed out the fleece, Jdg 6:38), as well as the substantive compressio, compressum, vulnus, (Jer 30:13; Hos 5:13) prove that there is a root with the meaning press together (comp. ), to which then our would serve as a passive, like to ; comp. Gesenius Thesaur., p. 412. in Isaiah beside this Isa 3:7; Isa 30:26; Isa 61:1.The first two verbs are in the plural, which shows that the substantives are to be understood collectively: the third verb is fem. singular. No grammatical necessity appears for this. It seems as if the prophet wanted to vary the form of expression and the fem. sing, with its quality of taking a neuter construction offered the handle for it. Pual only found here; Kal of it is found Isa 7:4.

Isa 1:7. occurs in Isa also Isa 6:11; Isa 17:9; Isa 62:4; Isa 64:9. The expression (Psa 80:17) is only found here.The following does not belong as a second predicate to , for then ought not to be absent. But it is itself subject, to which must be supplied. The last, then, has the words as attribute. These last-named words are explained quite variously. But as it is established that the first word is used only in reference to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the meaning of it cannot be doubtful. From the original passage, Deu 29:22 (23) we find the words cited in Amo 4:11, and in Isa 13:19 and Jer. 1:40 exactly alike. In Jer 49:18 we find them as in Deut.

Isa 1:8. . The here is not conversive but simple conjunctive, as the whole context proves, which is only a representation of things present. from , to weave together, the lair of the lion as well as the foliage of the feast of tabernacles, Lev 23:34 sqq., or the booth of the watchman, Job 27:18; found again Isa 4:6. synonym of locus pernoctandi, night lodging Isa 10:29, is used Isa 24:20, for the watchmans sleeping rug, that swings to and for, having been hung up and spread out., from cucumis, field of cucumbers, found also only Jer 10:5.

Isa 1:9. The expression as to its meaning, is borrowed from the usus loquendi of the Pentateuch and Joshua. Only there it always reads, , Num 21:35; Deu 2:34; Deu 3:3; Jos 8:22; Jos 10:28 sq.Jer 44:7 reversed .

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. The prophet first introduces Jehovah Himself speaking, (Isa 1:2-3). He calls heaven and earth to witness in order to enhance His lament over the people Israel. For His beneficence the Lord had only a harvest of disobedience, (Isa 1:2). The ox and ass are attached to their lord. Israel is not, (Isa 1:3). Therefore the prophet pronounces a war against the people that had forsaken the best and the greatest Lord, the Holy One of Israel, (Isa 1:4). Had the Lord been wanting in discipline? No. He had chastised the people so much, that for the future He hopes for nothing more from that. Israel is (inwardly, morally) incurably sick, vers. (5, 6). While outwardly (from the chastisement) it is reduced to a minimum, (Isa 1:7-8). Thus far, (directly and indirectly) the address of Jehovah. In the last verse, (9), the prophet himself confirms the fact, that still a little remnant exists on which to build the hope of a better future.

2. Hear heavendo not consider it, Isa 1:2-3. When the Lord of the world speaks, the world must hear in silence. Comp. Deu 32:1; Psa 50:1; Psa 50:4; Mic 1:2; Mic 6:1-2. But here, as elsewhere, (Deu 4:26; Deu 30:19; Deu 31:28; Psa 1:4) the world is not invoked as simply an audience, but as a witness, before whom the Lord would make good His claim of right. For it concerns a matter of universal interest. The world must react with Jehovah against Israels infraction of law, that the , foundations of the earth, Psa 82:5, may not totter. At the same time one must assent to the remark of Delitzsch: heaven and earth were present and participants when Jehovah gave His people the law (comp. Deu 4:36, and the places cited above)so then must they hear and witness what Jehovah, their Creator and Israels God, has to say and complain of, [after seven centuries.M. W. J.]

As Isaiah begins his book of prophecy with almost the words of Deu 32:1, he indicates that he had that prophetic song before his eyes, which, with Delitzsch, may be called, the compendious outline and the common key to all prophecy. He does not indeed quote verbatim, for the predicates and are transposed (comp., too, Isa 28:23; Isa 32:9). But the thought is the same. The same is true in regard to the causal phrase, . In Deut. it reads: . What Isaiah assigns as the reason, is in Deut. designated as object and effect. The difference is substantially a formal one. Jehovah is indeed Father of all men and all creatures. He is even called (Num 16:22; Num 27:16) God of the spirits of all flesh; and Psa 145:15 sq.comp. Psa 104:27 sqq.we read that the eyes of all wait on the Lord, and that He fills everything that lives with satisfaction (comp. Rom 3:29; Rom 9:24 sqq.; Isa 10:12 sqq.). But among the many children that He has, there is one race that He has not only brought up to maturity, but has elevated to high honor. The Lord did not suffer all peoples to attain the grown-up state; or rather, not all sons of the original Father, became the fathers of nations. But to Abraham precisely this was granted as the first promise: I will make of thee a great nation, Gen 12:2; and, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt, unto the great river, the river Euphrates, Gen 15:18. And this promise was fulfilled. Abrahams seed became a great and numerous people. But this people also were the recipients of high honor. For it is the holy nation, Deu 7:6, to whom the Lord drew near and revealed Himself in an especial manner, Deu 4:6 sqq.; 32 sq.; Psa 147:19 sq. It is therefore the peculiar people ( , Deu 7:6; Deu 14:2) through whom the blessing of Jehovah shall come on all nations (Gen 12:2 sq.; Isa 22:18; Jer 4:2). And in consequence of all this, it is called high above all nations, Deu 26:19; Deu 28:1; comp. 2Sa 7:23. The time of David and Solomon, and Uzziahs and Jothams time, the echo of the former, are to be regarded as forerunner and type of these promises. And they have rebelled against me.According to well-known Hebrew usage, what in substance stands related as opposite is designated as equivalent in form. is a current word in Isa 1:28; Isa 43:27; Isa 46:8; Isa 59:13, etc. Expositors inquire whether only idolatry is meant, or also every kind of transgression. But we cant see why every thing should not be meant that could be called opposition to the Lord; or rather, why every transgression should not be regarded as idolatry. [They have broken away from me.M. W. J.] The ox knoweth his owner.An ox knoweth his owner, any ox. The words explain the rebelling, Isa 1:2, by a rhetorical contrast that sets this in clearer light. The unthinking brutes, even those of lowest degree, as the ox and ass, still know their masters that feed them, and the crib out of which they eat, and acquire a certain attachment for master and crib, so that they do not voluntarily forsake them.

3. Ah, sinful nationbesieged city.

Isa 1:4-8. Jehovahs benefactions have not sufficed to awaken in Israel the feeling of grateful attachment. On the contrary this nation forsakes its God, rejects Him, and sinks back into the darkness of heathendom, out of which He had rescued them. The three verbs in Isa 1:4 b express the positive consequences of the negative doth not know, Isa 1:3; and Isa 1:3-4 together contain the more particular signification of rebelled against me, Isa 1:2. Thus a climax occurs in Isa 1:2-4. The outward construction of the language also corresponds to this. Isa 1:2-3 consist of four members, and Isa 1:4 of seven, of which the first begins with an impressive assurance. But in the first four members of Isa 1:4 the reason is given why Israel became untrue to its God. The reason is a subjective one. Israel itself is good for nothingit is a bad tree with bad fruit. The meaning heathen nation need not be pressed, and so much the less, seeing the singular is often used for Israel without any secondary idea of reproach (Exo 19:6; Jos 3:17, etc.), and also parallel with . We have translated it Woe world in order to re-echo the consonance of the original as nearly as possible. It has been justly remarked besides that Israel is called here , sinful nation, in contrast with , holy nation, which it ought to be according to Exo 19:6; Deu 7:6; Deu 14:2; Deu 14:21; and in contrast with , which it is called Isa 33:24. Israel is called moreover a seed of evil doers, though it ought to be a holy seed (Isa 6:13; Ezr 9:2). Many expositors (e. g., Drechsler) scruple to render these words as in the Genitive relation, because then the ancestors themselves would be called reprobates. They therefore take as in apposition with . But, apart from the fact that then it must rather read , as in Isa 57:3, , that scruple is entirely groundless. For is not only a posterity from reprobates, but also a posterity that consists of reprobates, as Isa 65:23, , means, not the descendants of blessed ones, but those themselves blessed, and like the expressions, , , , etc., do not mean the sons of fools, of worthless fellows, of prophets, of sheep, but sons that are themselves fools, worthless, prophets, sheep. But as the idea points to the essential identity in fruit and seed, and to the former being conditioned by the latter, so one must think, not of the original ancestors of the nation, but rather of the generation immediately preceding, chiefly, however, of an ideal ancestry, a notion that even underlies the expression , generation of vipers, Mat 3:7. is therefore a genitive relation, in which the ideas of causality and of the attribute are combined. The expression is found again Isa 14:20.Finally, the Israelites are called , children that are corrupters, although, according to Isa 1:2, they are children whom the Lord has brought up and made high; for, although any one may be called , who as a man (not as a son) is , all reference must not be denied to Isa 1:2, and all the places that express Israels filial relation to Jehovah, e. g.Deu 14:1.

In three phrases, now, the bad fruits are declared that the bad tree has borne. They have (negative) forsaken Jehovah, they have (positive) rejected with scorn (Isa 5:24; Isa 52:5; Isa 60:14), the Holy One of Israel (an expression peculiarly Isaiahs, that occurs fourteen times in the first part, and fifteen times in the second, and in other parts of the Old Testament only six times), and they have turned themselves backwards. This turning backwards can only mean the turning to idols. For the Lord had turned Israel from idols to Himself, comp. Jos 24:2; Jos 24:14. If the nation then turned their backs to Him, it was precisely that they might return to their idols. This is confirmed by Eze 14:5, the only place beside the present in which the expression occurs.

Isa 1:5-6 seem to respond to an objection. For after the description in Isa 1:3-4, of the nations deep depravity, the prophet proceeds to portray the impending chastisement of it, Isa 1:7. But before he does so, he removes an objection that might be raised from the stand-point of forbearing love, viz. had sufficient discipline been exercised on Israel? if not, might not the renewed application of it ward off the judgment? The inquiry is negatived. For the uselessness of the smiting has long been proved by the ever-repeated backsliding of the nation. It is seen that we render the beginning of Isa 1:5 : To what purpose shall one smite you still more? For there are three expositions of these words. The first is: On what part of the body shall one still smite you? (thus Jerome, Saada,

Gesenius, Rosenmueller, Umbreit, Knobel and others [J. A. Alexander, Barnes].

This rests chiefly on what follows, where the body is described as beaten all over. However, four things are to be objected to this view: a) it could not then read , but , or the like. For is purely the general, abstract what? never the partitive, distinguishing one part from another: which? Job 38:6 cannot be appealed to. For the meaning of that place is not: On which foundations do the pillars of the earth rest? But: do they rest at all on anything? b) Were the rendering: where shall we smite? correct, then the intermediate phrase, , were out of place. For then one would right off look for the answer: nowhere, for all is beaten to pieces. The insertion of those words in this form plainly indicate that they themselves contain the answer to the inquiry, , and that what follows is only to be viewed as the nearer explanation of this reply. It would be very different if the words were in apposition with the subject of . c) It is remarked by Luzzatto (see in Delitzsch) that the fact that the body was beaten all over would not hinder its being smitten more d) The phrase, Isa 1:6 b, . etc., they have not been closed, shows that not the being wounded itself was the matter of chief moment, but the being wounded without application of curatives. The latter, however, as little hinders the smiting as the binding up and healing would provoke it. If = where? then the whole phrase, Isa 1:6 b, would be superfluous.A second exposition (Delitzsch) takes = , and = ye want to be smitten. Then the remote thought would be: That were an insane delight in self-destruction. But the that were must not be adopted as the underlying thought, but: that is indeed delight in self-destruction. For: that were would involve the thought that this delight is not presupposed, consequently there can be no question about a wanting to be smitten. But if we supply that is, etc., that would impute too much to the simple Imperfect. The idea of wanting it must then be more strongly indicated, say by , or the like.According to the third rendering, which seems to me the correct one. means to what purpose? Comp. Num 22:32; Psa 10:13; Jer 16:10. The imperfect Passive is then simply a briefer expression for the Active: why should I, or should one smite you more? with which at least a suffix were needed. need not then be taken as a dependent adverbial phrase; as if, in that ye add revolt, which involves a certain grammatical harshness, that might be easily avoided by a participial construction. But is principal phrase and reply to the inquiry: to what purpose shall one smite you more?

However, the following words give the reason for the saying. That is: Israel adds revolt to revolt, because it is thoroughly sick, and does not even use curatives for its sickness. We therefore construe the words to not as describing a condition resulting from the previous smiting, much as this seems to answer the inquiry, , but as a figurative expression for the moral habit of the nation. ,, especially seem to favor this view. This does not mean the whole head, the whole heart, but every head, every heart. If it read , the meaning might easily enough be that head and heart were already so sore and sick that no spot remained for a blow. But every head, every heart only expresses that no head, no heart remained intact.

The context closely considered forbids our understanding by head and heart all that exercise indispensable functions in spiritual and temporal offices (Drechsler). For by Isa 1:6 it plainly appears that not only the heads, but all individuals of the nation, are described as seriously sick. Head and heart are rather the central and dominant organs in the life of every single person, whereas Isa 1:6 speaks also of the structure of the outward manifestation of the life. From a comparison of with Isa 1:6, it seems to me that by not an outward wounding of the head is meant, but an internal disorder (comp. 2Ki 4:19).From the sole of the foot,etc. Isa 1:6. As has been remarked, these words describe the moral condition as to its outward manifestation, as Isa 1:5 b described its inward form. We must not press too far the figurative language of the prophet in regard to this inward and outward disorder, and especially the wounds of Isa 1:6 must not be regarded as presenting something additional.

The three substantives , and are followed by three corresponding verbs, and one is tempted to construe them as if those occupying the same relative position belonged to each other. But such strict parallelism cannot be carried out. It is rather to be said that each of the three sorts of wounds referred to requires all the three means of healing. Each wound must be pressed together, and treated with healing stuffs. The former process is two-fold: first it is done by the hand in order to cleanse the wound from blood and matter, and then by the bandage, that prevents further bleeding and promotes the growing together of the several parts. Thirdly, mollifying, healing oil (see Luk 10:34; Herzogs R. Encyc. X., p. 548) must be superadded as organic means of cure.

The words of Isa 1:6 b moreover contain another proof for the assertion that from , every head, on, only the moral habit of the nation is described. For is not the want of all bodily therapeutics a figure for the want of the spiritual; i. e. repentance? Not only is Israel inwardly sick, but also in its outward life it presents the picture of a torn and distracted existence without one trace of discipline or effort at improvement. If the chief thought of Isa 1:5-6, were that Israel cannot be smitten any more because it is beaten all to pieces, then, as already remarked, the phrase , not closed up, would be quite without meaning. For may a bandaged-up person be sooner smitten than one not bound up? But this phrase becomes very significant if we regard the words: every head, etc., as portraying the moral condition of things. For it is most important in regard to a mans moral state whether the proper curatives for the moral disorder are used or not.

Your land, etc. The outward state of the nation answers to the moral state. The nation had already begun to reap the fruits of their revolt. The country is desolate; only the metropolis still remains intact, yet isolated in the midst of a land that has been made a desert. Therefore it may be said that the train of thought that began with Isa 1:5 ends with Isa 1:8. The Lord declares, Isa 1:5, that for the present He will smite Israel no more. For there is no use. This is because Israel is still sick inside and out, spite of having suffered chastisement almost to annihilation. It seems to me therefore that Isa 1:7-8 stand in contrastive relation to the two preceding, although this contrast is indicated by no particle. Israel is morally sick, the country is turned into a desert. Had things taken a normal course, then the country had been desolated, but Israel would have been in health. Then Israel had received instruction, Pro 8:10; Pro 19:20. But now that the country is waste, and Israel still sick, one sees that whipping is of no use. Comp. Jer 2:30; Jer 5:3; Isa 9:13; Isa 42:25. Thus I construe Isa 1:7-8, not as a mere change from figurative language (Isa 1:5-6) to literal, because, as was shown, both Isa 1:5 b and 6b contain thoughts that do not answer to purely outward circumstances. Moreover, according to our explanation, it is clear that Isa 1:7 sqq. does not speak of future, but of present affairs. These verses do not contain threats of judgment, but a portrait of judgment already accomplished. If it were otherwise, then surely the threatenings of judgment would not stop outside of the gates of the metropolis, which yet was crater and fountain of all the revolt. This is not opposed by Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10; Jer 5:18 : Yet will I not make a full end, which some adduce against our view. For threats of Judgment only for the country, but that spare the capital, are not to be found in any prophet.The words: your land waste, etc., are quoted from Lev 26:33, where it is said: Your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.

Your ground before, etc. Here, too, imprecations from the Law are in the mind of the prophet, and particularly Deu 28:33 : The fruit of thy land, and all thy labors, shall a nation which thou knowest not, eat up. Comp., too, 1:51; Lev. 21:16, 32. From Deu 28:33; Deu 28:51, it is seen what is meant by . It is one that Israel does not know, and whose language is not understood. That the word stranger includes also the idea of enemy, is manifest from the parallel passages in Lev 26:16; Lev 26:32, where for we have . occurs Isa 17:10; Isa 25:2; Isa 25:5; Isa 28:21; Isa 29:5; Isa 43:12; Isa 61:5. The participle confirms our view that the prophet speaks of present and still continuing circumstances. The metonymy (the enemies eat the land) is as in Isa 36:16; Gen 3:17, etc., according to the accents and the sense, relates to what follows. Before your eyes, without your being able to hinder them, the enemies devour your land.

In our passage it is evident the prophet would compare the destruction of the land of which he speaks to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. He calls the Jewish country a second destroyed Sodom, only with the difference that that was a destruction of God, this of strangers. The question whether we have here a genitive of the subject or of the object thus settles itself. It is the genitive of the subject. For then God was the destroyer; here it is the strangers. If , strangers, be taken as object, it will not suit the context. For immediately before the strangers were named as destroyers. How shall they suddenly be named the destroyed?From the connection it appears that the daughter of Zion means Jerusalem. Zion is originally the mountain, then the castle, then the quarter built about it (2Sa 5:6-9; 1Ki 8:1); then in an extended sense the city without the inhabitants (Lam 2:8) or the inhabitants without the city (Mic 4:10), or as both together, as in our passage.

Jerusalem with its inhabitants lying isolated in the midst of a desolated country is now compared to: a) a booth in a vineyard; b) to a hanging mat [hammock] in a cucumber field, which like the booth of the vineyard-keeper, is a lonely and scanty dwelling-place for men; c) to a besieged city. But why is Jerusalem only compared to a beleagured city? After all that Isa 1:7-8 say of it, is it not such itself? First of all we must investigate the meaning of . The verb means primarily observare, which can be said of commandments, Psa 78:7, and of covenants, Deu 33:9, as well as of the overseeing of a protector or keeper, Isa 27:3; 2Ki 17:9, and of the attention of a besieger, Jer 4:16; comp. 2Sa 11:16; Jer 5:6. An is therefore either a watched or a beleaguered city. But the first does not suit the connection. The latter is equally unsuitable if Jerusalem at the time of writing was actually besieged. But Isa 1:7 speaks only of the desolating of the country. That Jerusalem itself was besieged or blockaded is not said directly. At the moment of saying this, therefore, the position of Jerusalem seems to have been that the enemy enclosed the city, not yet in its immediate neighborhood, but still so as to restrict all intercourse with it, so that it lay there isolated like a blockaded town No one ventured out or in, for the enemy was near, though his forces were not seen encamped around the walls of the city. The other renderings: as a rescued city (Gesenius,in loc.;Maurer,etc.), as a devastated city (Rabbins, Vulg., Luther), as a watch tower (Hitzig, Tingstad, Gesenius in his Thesaurus, p. 908), etc., which are to be found in Rosenmueller, either conflict with the requirements of the language or the context.

4. Had notwe were like, Isa 1:9. We must regard it, not as accidental, but as an evidence of the artistic design of this address, that in Isa 1:2-3, Jehovah Himself speaks, in Isa 1:4-8 the prophet in the name of Jehovah, and in Isa 1:9 the prophet in his own and the peoples name. It is therefore a climax descendens. The first word belongs to Jehovah the Lord. After that Jehovahs prophet speaks in His name to the people. Last of all the prophet, who is in a sense the mediator of the people, speaks in their name to Jehovah. In this scheme is prefigured in a certain degree the direction of all prophetic discourse. For it is either Jehovah speaking, directly or indirectly, or it is a speaking to Jehovah. But Isa 1:9 is joined by a double band to what precedes: by , had left, and by the comparison to Sodom and Gomorrah. As to the former, it is recognized that something remains in Israel, , Isa 1:8, and that this remnant is owing to the grace of Jehovah. But so the clear consciousness is expressed, that but for the grace of God, the resemblance to Sodom and Gomorrah, which in Isa 1:7 was only slightly intimated, would have been a notorious one. This is, on the one hand, an humble confession, for this comparison is not honorable for Israel; but on the other hand there is the opposite thought that underlies the hypothetic reflection: he has, however, left something remaining; therefore we are still not like Sodom and Gomorrah; and that forms a comforting germ of hope for the future.

The expression , Jehovah Sabaoth, is not to be found in the Pentateuch, nor in Josh., Jud., Ezek., Joel, Obad., Jonah. In Exo 12:41 is said of the Israelites. If one may regard the completest form as the original one, then we must designate Hosea as the originator of the expression. For in Hos 12:6 we find ; similarly Amo 3:13; Amo 6:14; Amo 9:5. Here it is seen that is still construed as appellative. They are not the , Exo 12:41, but , Isa 34:4, whose relation to the stars may be debated. Comp. Delitzsch,The Divine Name Jahve Zebaot, in der Zeitschrift f. d. ges. luth. Theologie u. Kirche 1874, Heft 2, p. 217.But Hosts becomes gradually a proper name. It is so beyond doubt in God of Hosts, Psa 59:6; Psa 80:5, 8, 15, 20; Psa 84:9, and Lord of Hosts, Isa 10:16. Probably it is to be so rendered in Jehovah of Hosts, which is very frequent in the first and second parts of Isaiah. Also Jer, Zech., Mal., use it very often. is not added to the verb here adverbially with the meaning almost, but united to it substantively, and as in 2Ch 12:7, is object (as apposition with the object). In Pro 10:20; Psa 105:12, it is similarly a predicate. In respect to its sense, it is a dimished , i. e. not paulum, but quasi paulum. I do not think with Delitzsch that referring to Psa 81:14 sq.; Job 32:22, it may be construed with what follows. For with the supposition that is expressed in the first clause of the verse, they had been, not almost, but altogether a Sodom and Gomorrah. Moreover, it is affecting to observe how the man penetrates through the prophet. He began as the mouth of God, that does not distinguish himself from God; he proceeds as servant of God, that clearly distinguishes himself from God; he concludes as citizen of Jerusalem, that comprehends himself with the men against whom he directs his words of threatening.

[Isa 1:7. , like the overthrow of strangers, J. A. Alexander, i. e. as foreign foes are wont to waste a country in which they have no interest, and for which they have no pity. Barnes, similarly.

Isa 1:9. The idea of a desolation almost total is expressed in other words, and with an intimation that the narrow escape was owing to Gods favor for the remnant according to the election of grace, who still existed in the Jewish Church. That the verse has reference to quality, as well as quantity, is evident from Rom 9:29, where Paul makes use of it, not as an illustration, but as an argument to show that mere connection with the Church could not save men from the wrath of God. The citation would have been irrelevant if this phrase denoted merely a small number of survivors, and not a minority of true believers in the midst of the prevailing unbelief. J. A. Alexander].

3.THE MEANS FOR OBTAINING A BETTER FUTURE

Isa 1:10-20

10Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom;

Give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

11To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord:

I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts;
And I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of12he goats.

12When ye come13to appear before me,

Who hath 14required this at your hand, 15to tread my courts?

13Bring no more 16vain oblations;

Incense is an abomination unto me;
The new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with;17

It Isaiah 18 iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

14Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth:

They are a trouble unto me;
I am weary to bear them.19

15And when ye spread forth your hands,

I will hide20 mine eyes from you:

Yea, when ye 21make many prayers, I will not hear:

Your hands are full of 22blood.

16Wash you, make you clean;

Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes:

17Cease to do evil; learn to do well;

Seek judgment, 23relieve the oppressed,

Judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

18Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord:

Though your sins be as scarlet,24 they shall be as white as snow;

Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

19If ye be willing and obedient,

Ye shall eat the good of the land:

20But if ye refuse and rebel,

Ye shall be devoured with the sword:
For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isa 1:10. is found in Isa. also; Isa 3:6-7; Isa 22:3.

Isa 1:12. In regard to the construction , it is to be noticed especially that we have here an old, solemn form of expression. It is found first, Exo 23:17, where it is said: All thy males shall appear before the Lord; also Psa 84:8. This is the customary, and besides very frequent construction of the Niphal , Gen 12:7; Gen 35:1; Exo 3:16, etc. But then the form is found in five places: Exo 34:23 sq.; Deu 16:16; Deu 31:11; 1Sa 1:22. Here the question arises, whether is nota accusatavi, or preposition with the meaning cum, coram; or finally, whether the accusative, as in : Ye shall be devoured by the sword, Isa 1:20, is to be taken in an instrumental sense, as if it ought to be rendered: was seen of Gods face (so Ewald, Gram. 279, c). This last rendering commends itself the least. For in , the is conceived of as adverbial. It is as one would say in Latin: gladiatim devorabimim, Ye shall be sword-fashion devoured. It is essential to this construction that the substantive so used be without suffix, or a genitive following. In or , however, this adverbial use is not admissible. It is to be objected against the first rendering that always marks distinctly the definite object, and never is used after the question where? On the other hand it is admitted that means coram facie, e. g. Gen 27:30 : . Comp. 2Ki 16:14 : Gen 19:13. The cry of them is waxen great, before the face of the Lord. Comp. 1Sa 22:4; Gen 33:18. According to that we must translate the expression in question: appear before the presence of Jehovah. It may be remarked, in passing, that Deu 16:16, , is to be translated; the face of the Jehovah is not seen empty, i. e. without the presentation of a gift: where the passive, according to well-known usus loquendi, is construed as active. This latter form of expression is, as to sense, like those found Exo 23:15; Exo 34:20,Lastly, in two places, viz. Psa 42:3 and in our text with is found without . In both places stands before the Niphal of . Here, without doubt, is the accusativus localis. In itself, this accusative can depend on as well as on the Niphal . However, the original sense of the formula favors decidedly the last supposition. Thus the expression, as found in our text and in Isa 42:3, is to be taken as a modification of the older formula, and as having the same meaning. therefore is here accusativus localis in the same sense as in the places cited above. , Gen 31:39; Gen 43:9; 1Sa 20:16.( is in restrictive apposition with . Isaiah uses pretty often: Isa 16:4; Isa 26:6; Isa 28:3; Isa 41:25; Isa 63:3. Moreover, the substantive is used by him relatively oftener: Isa 5:5; Isa 7:25; Isa 10:6; Isa 28:18.

Isa 1:13. It is debated whether the following , incense, is to be taken as stat. absol. as distinct from , or as stat. construct., and as designating that which the is to Jehovah (it is abominable incense to me). Grammatically both renderings are admissible. It is not decisive for the latter rendering that the Masorets have pointed with the conjunctive Darga. It seems to me important to our inquiry, that with the exception of Psa 66:15 (which confessedly dates after the exile), neither burnt-offerings nor meat-offerings are ever called , although is the solemn word employed for the consumption of both. Rather it is always said, that the sacrifice shall be , a sweet savor to the Lord. I believe, therefore, that the prophet must have written had he wished to express what the defenders of the second rendering take the words to mean.The combination of and , beside the text, is to be found also 2Ki 4:23; Hos 2:13.The expression is only found here. Everywhere else we read: , a holy convocation, Exo 12:16; Lev 23:3 sqq.; Num 28:18 sq.; Isa 29:1 sqq. As regards the meaning of the phrase, it is not indictio sancti, i. e. the publication of a feast, but convocatio, the assembling of the nation to the feast. For only on the principal feast-days was the nation obliged to appear in the sanctuary, (comp. the citations immediately above, and Oehler in Herzogs R. Encycl. IV., p. 385). The three substantives stand before as casus absoluti, and represent a premise, to which forms the conclusion: as for new moon, Sabbath, solemn assembly, I cant bear them, etc. The word is found beside only in 2Ki 10:20 and Joe 1:14. In the Pentateuch only the form (stat. absol. and constr.) is used: Lev 23:36; Num 29:35; Deu 16:8. It is absolutely parallel with , holy convocation; comp. 2Ch 7:5; Neh 8:18; Amo 5:21. The fundamental idea of is cogere, conciere, continere, to draw together, to keep together. The noun, therefore, denotes coactio, concio. The fundamental idea of (, spirare) is halitus, breath. It is thus synonym with .

Isa 1:14. Of the verb only the Kal (comp. Psa 11:5) partcps. occur in our book after this: Isa 60:15; Isa 61:8; Isa 66:5. , burden (from , fatigari, Job 37:11) is found also Deu 1:12. Niphal again in Isa 16:12; Isa 47:13. The infinitive is only found in Isa. again Isa 18:3; comp. beside Gen 4:13; Psa 89:10.

Isa 1:15. The spreading out of the hands for prayer (comp. Hoelemann, Bibelstudien I., The Scriptural Form of Worship, p. 137, neid. I. 93, duplices tendens ad sidera palmas) is designated here by in the Piel, and so occurs also Jer 4:31; Lam 1:17; Psa 143:6. Usually Kal is used: Exo 9:29; Exo 9:33; 1Ki 8:22, etc.Only the Hithpael of occurs beside in our book, Isa 58:7.The meaning of is not continually hearing, in distinction from , Jer 7:16; Jer 11:14; Jer 14:12.Comp. this passage, Isa 1:11-15, with the similar one, Amo 5:21 sqq.

Isa 1:16. On account of the accent, can only be Hithpael from , not Niphal of ; comp. Gesen., Thesaur., p. 413. The word is not used again by Isaiah; and this Hithpael occurs nowhere else.The expression (which occurs first Deu 28:20, and afterward especially frequent in Jer 4:4; Jer 21:12; Jer 23:2; Jer 26:3; Jer 44:22), calls to mind the Latin usus loquendi, that makes a conception prominent by designating it by means of the abstract idea hovering, so to speak, over the single, concrete manifestation of it: agricol non dolent, prterita verni temporis suavitate statem auctumnumque venisse (comp. Naegelsbach, Stilistik, 74).

Isa 1:17. (inf. nominascens like , Isa 1:16, because standing in the accusative).As nouns of the form , all have an active meaning (comp. = , , ,, etc.) so , which occurs only here, must have the same sense as , Psa 71:4, i. e.=vialentus, violent (comp. ). The Piel means then, just as Isa 3:12; Isa 9:15; Pro 23:19, make direct, make go right, conduct aright. The verbs and , as so often elsewhere (Isa 1:23; Psa 10:18; Psa 82:3; Jer 5:28, etc.), signify not merely a formal judging, but also rendering material justice, that is, so rendering judgment that what is just shall actually be done. , moreover, here stands for the more usual . For is not properly judge, but strive, and first attains the meaning of helping one to justice in the connection to manage some ones quarrel. It is therefore with a derivative sense that is used when it means judging, which it does, sometimes in malam partem, as Deu 33:3; Job 10:2, again in bonam partem, as Deu 33:3; Job 10:2, again in bonam partem, as here and Isa 51:22; and in either sense it is joined to the accusative.

Isa 1:18. The Niphal that occurs here, is found elsewhere only in the participle; Gen 20:16; 2Sa 15:3; Pro 24:26; Job 23:7. The meaning is disceptare, , argue. The word is evidently used in a friendly sense. Regarding the Hiphil in (comp. Psa 51:9 (6), the word does not again occur in Isa.) and ( .) and their direct causative meaning (producing whiteness, redness, i. e, becoming white, red).

Isa 1:19. The fundamental meaning of , (which it is worthy of note always has before it except here and Job 39:9, where it stands in a negative question), is ready, to be willing. (Psa 81:12; 1Ki 20:8). Accordingly the construction with vav and perfectum consecutivum is explained; when ye are willing, so that ye hearken (comp. the otherwise usual construction with just the infinitive or ; Isa 28:12; Isa 30:9; Eze 3:7; Eze 20:3; Lev 26:21). The construction Isa 1:20 is evidently copied from this.The expression , good of the land, is first found Gen 45:18; Gen 45:20, where it stands parallel with fat of the land, (comp. Deu 6:11; 2Ki 8:9; Ezr 9:12).

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. This section refers to the future, as Isa 1:2-9 did to the past and present. For the theme is how to escape out of the misery of the present and attain a better future. The people had hitherto employed false means; outward ceremonies that were an abomination to the Lord, (Isa 1:10-15). Instead of these the people must bring the genuine fruits of repentance, (Isa 1:16-17). Then conference may be held with the people; then will Gods grace be greater than all guilt, (Isa 5:18). This is the right road. If the people will go that road they shall find salvation; if they will not, they shall find destruction, (Isa 1:19-20). It is seen that a simple and clear order of thought occurs in this section. Isa 1:18-20 must not be severed and joined to what follows. For they contain exactly the indispensable conclusion, viz.: the promise of grace in case of obedience, on the other hand denunciation of wrath in case of disobedience.

2. HearGomorrah, Isa 1:10.As regards the verbs, hear,hearken, this beginning is like that of the preceding section, Isa 1:2. But the subjects are different: there heaven and earth, here the Sodom-judges and the Gomorrahnation. The dividing into judges and nation is occasioned partly by the double idea Sodom and Gomorrah, by which this section is connected with the foregoing one, partly by the contents of the positive demand, Isa 1:17. For, as regards its general contents, this is directed against the entire nation, but especially also against the princes and judges of the nation. Expositors correctly call attention to the fact that after Isa 1:9, the prophet supposes a reply on the part of the people to this effect; how have they deserved so hard a fate, seeing they had been so zealously diligent, to observe all the ceremonies of the worship of Jehovah. To this it is replied, that they are not unjustly become like Sodom and Gomorrah because for a long time they were inwardly like them. What Sodom-judges and a Gomorrahnation may be, can be learned from Eze 16:48 sqq. As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters. Behold this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her, and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me; therefore I took them away as I saw good. Comp. Gen 13:13; Gen 18:20. Therefore, rude, violent selfishness, joined with sensual abomination was the sin of Sodom, and is the sin of Judah. Consequently, and in reference to our passage, the earthly Jerusalem is called in Rev 11:8 p . The prophet does not understand by , the law of our God, a simple parallel with , the word, etc. institutio, or (chastisement) in general, but the Mosaic Law, especially, corresponding to the context, which treats of the difference between a true and a false observance of the law. Thus the second member marks an advance in reference to the first, and is to be construed synedochically. Docebovos, &c., says Vitringa, I will teach you what is the cum of the law of Moses; not this, assuredly, which ye hypocritically exhibit, but to worship God with a pure heart, and manifest zeal for justice, equity, honor and every virtue.

3. To what purposefull of blood, v. 1115.Vitringa calls attention to a gradation in these verses. Bloody sacrifices, attendance at the temple, unbloody sacrifices, feasts, prayers, make the series of religious formalities which approach step by step to a truly spiritual worship. And yet they may all of them not satisfy the Lord as Israel observed them: for the nation, notwithstanding, does not rise above the level of mere outward ceremonial service. The are a comprehensive expression for bloody sacrifices, as is often the case in writers of later date than the Pentateuch, see 1Sa 2:29; 1Sa 3:14. Isa 19:21; HerzogR. Encycl. X. p. 621, 637. This appears from the prominence of the word in Isa 1:11, and from its being made parallel with Isa 1:13. That the discourse of Jehovah must not be regarded as the first and only one of the sort spoken in this matter, but as a member of a continuous chain of words of the same purport, is indicated by the Imperfect.

Without exactly intending completeness, or an especially significant order of the classes of beasts and sacrifices, the prophet still enumerates the chief sorts of those sacrifices that were taken from and (flocks and herds). The as the principal sacrifice is named first: (it is comp. hlerinHerzogsR. Encycl. X. p. 634). That only are named, is accidental. For burnt-offerings were not presented only of rams, see Leviticus 1. nor were offerings of rams especially holy. In all enumerations of the sacrificial beasts rams are in the second place, after bullocks. Exodus 29; Leviticus 8; Num 7:15 sqq.; Isa 29:2 sq., etc. In as much as, with the exception of the whole burnt-offering, only the fat and the blood were offered, (comp.hler HerzogsR. Encycl. X. p. 632), Lev 3:16 sq.; Isa 7:23 sqq.; Eze 44:15, it is natural that these should have especial prominence in this place. By we are not to understand a particular species of beast, as many have thought. The word is only found elsewhere in 2Sa 6:13; 1Ki 1:9; 1Ki 1:19; 1Ki 1:25; Isa 11:6; Eze 39:18; Amo 5:22. The meaning is not made out with certainty. But in this place it seems to mean fed beasts in general. If the fat were all that was offered of the solid matter of the beast, then must a beast be the better suited for an offering according as it had more fat. Thence the being fat is named as a desirable quality in the sacrificial animal, Psalms 22; Gen 4:4. A further proof that the prophet does not intend an exact classification is seen in the fact that he speaks only of the blood of bullocks, of sheep, ( the male sheep Lev 14:10) and of he-goats ( the younger, the older he-goat), although neither the blood of only these beasts, nor yet of these beasts was only the blood offered.

Isa 1:12. When ye come to appear,etc.A grade higher than the rude bloody sacrifice, this personal appearance at the place of worship stands on the platform of spirituality. It also is an homage that is paid to the divinity. But it does not suffice. Hence it may be said of the mere bodily presence, that the Lord has not demanded that.

Who hath required.Jehovah does not require the mere bodily presence, so far as this is nothing but an useless wearing out of the courts by the feet of those that stand in them.

The unbloody sacrifices and the solemn assembles represent again a different and still higher grade of worship. No more lying meat-offerings shall they bring, (Comp. Isa 5:18; Isa 30:28) i. e., such, in which the disposition of the one sacrificing does not correspond to the outward rite. I do not believe that the text has to do only with the performances of the , laity, as Delitzsch supposes. For the prophet rejects the entire outward ceremonial service, which, in fact, the priests solemnized only in place of the nation which ideally was itself a priestly nation, Exo 19:6. Moreover, there would be an omission in the enumeration of the parts of worship if that very important and most holy incense offering were left out (Exodus 30, especially Isa 1:36). The Lord says, therefore, that incense, otherwise so like the fragrant blossom of the sacrificial worship, was itself an abomination, when offered in the false way as hitherto.

The new moon and Sabbath.The observance of the holy days and seasons appointed by the Lord Himself was an essential part of the obedience demanded from the nation, comp. Exo 23:10-17; Leviticus 23; Numbers 28; Numbers 29.; Deuteronomy 16. Yet even such performance is of no account in Gods sight, but, on the contrary, offensive and vexatious when it does not proceed from that disposition He would have. The new moons, were so to speak the first born among the days of the month, and the fixing of the other feast days that occurred in the month depended on them (From the moon is the sign of feasts, Sir 43:7; comp.Saalschuetz,Mos. R., p. 402 sqq.). Concerning their celebrations, see Num 10:10; Num 28:11-16; 1Sa 20:5; 1Sa 20:18 sq. By is to be understood the weekly Sabbath, as appears from the fact that, in what follows, the feasts and therefore the feast Sabbaths are especially mentioned; see HerzogsR. Encycl. IV. p. 385. is used here in the pregnant sense of surmounting, enduring, being able to hold out, like we too could say; nicht vermag ich Frevel und Festversammlung. I cant (stand) outrage and solemn assembly, i. e., the combination of the two, both at once surpasses my ability. In a similar sense is used Hos 8:5; Psa 101:5 sq.; Isa 13:5; Pro 30:21. God cannot put up with this combination of concentration and decentralization, of centripetal and centrifugal forces. He opposes to them a non possumus. In the following verse the prophet repeats the same thought with still stronger expressions. For he names again the new moons. But what in Isa 1:13 he designates by the words, Sabbath, calling assembly and solemn meeting, he comprehends here in the one conception ( the most general word for the holy seasons that occurred by established order. hlerinHerzogsR. Encycl. IV. p. 383, comp. Lev 23:2). What he says to them Isa 1:13, in one word , I cant bear, he now expresses by three verbs. He explains his non possumus in that he says he hates those ceremonies, that they are a burden to him and a subject of loathing.

But prayer, too, although it is the fragrant blossom of the souls life (comp. Rev 5:8; Rev 8:3 sq.), and therefore stands high above the previously named elements of worship in regard to immateriality and spirituality, is not acceptable to the Lord in the mouth of this people. For it also is only empty lip and hand service. Jehovah shuts His eyes at the caricature of prayer; comp. 1Sa 12:3; Pro 28:27; and also much praying does not help the matter, for Jehovah does not go on hearing constantly.

Your hands are full of blood.In this short phrase, which is added emphatically without connecting particle, the reason is given why Jehovah cannot endure all the ceremonial observances of the nation. They are offered by hands stained with blood. It is thus a revolting lie, Isa 29:13.

4. Wash yeplead for the widow, Isa 1:16-17.Heart cleansing, turning away from evil, proper fruits of repentance,such is the divine service that the Lord requires. There are nine demands made on the people; four negative, Isa 1:16, and five positive, Isa 1:17. The first two of the four negative expressions are figurative. is indeed often used of bodily washing (and in a medial sense as here: Exo 2:5; Lev 14:8; Lev 15:5 sqq. etc.). is used only of moral purity, but, according to its fundamental idea, must be regarded as a figurative expression. In what follows the prophet says the same thing without figure of speech: they must let the Lord see no more wicked works, i. e., they must cease to sin.

The five positive demands proceed from the general to the particular. For in advance stands the quite general learn to do well. Then follows the exhortation to seek judgment, (the phrase is found again only Isa 16:5). The Old Test. , righteousness, consists essentially in conformity to , judgment. Whoever, under all circumstances, does what is right, even when he has the power to leave it undone, is a , righteous one. When the powerful, then, spite of his power, suffers the poor, the wretched, the widow and the orphan to enjoy their rights, then this justice appears subjectively as gentleness and goodness, objectively as salvation. Hence has so often the secondary meaning of kindness, mercy (comp. Psa 37:21; Pro 12:10; Pro 21:26) and or that of salvation (Psa 24:5; Psa 132:9; Psa 132:16; Isa 41:10; Isa 45:8, etc.). The Old Test. contrasts, therefore, on the one hand with grace, that gives more than can justly be demanded, on the other hand, with oppressive unrighteousness, (comp. , , and others) that gives less. Comp. my comment, on Jer 7:5.Whoever exercises strict justice will quite as much restrain the oppressor from doing injustice, as aid those seeking their rights to the enjoyment of them. The prophet expresses the former by the words , righten [marg. Eng. vers.] the oppressor.

5. Come nowhath spoken it, Isa 1:18-20. As in Isa 1:15 the phrase your hands are filled with blood is loosely strung on without connecting particle, so also the complex thought of Isa 1:18-19, as to its sense, refers back to Isa 1:15 b. For the prophet evidently would say: your hands are indeed full of blood, but if ye truly become converted, all debts shall be forgiven, etc. Verse 18 therefore contains the necessary consequences of the premises laid down in what precedes. The discourse gains in brevity and vivacity by its members being strung together without conjunctions.Come, now, etc., comp. Isa 2:3; Isa 2:5. The prophet would say: when ye shall have truly repented, then come, and then we shall easily come to an understanding. Gesenius and others would have the sense to be, not that Jehovah is represented as forgiving, but that the taking away of the blood-red guilt consists in an extirpation of the sinner. They support this view by reminding that and always designate God as the punitive Judge; comp. Isa 66:16; Joel 4 (3) 2; Jer 25:31; Eze 20:35, etc. But it is precisely for this reason that Isaiah does not employ the usual expression for litigate, but a word that does not elsewhere occur, in order to indicate that he has in mind a litigation altogether different from the usual sort. Besides, it contradicts not only the sense and the connection of our passage, but the spirit of the Holy Scriptures generally, for one to assume that pardon may not follow the fulfilling of the conditions proposed in Isa 1:16, or that this pardon may consist in the extirpation of the outrageous offenders and the cleansing and clearing away thus effected. No! just those, whose hands are full of blood, may, if they cleanse themselves, be pure and white; comp. Isa 43:24 sq.; Isa 44:22; Psalms 32, 51. and are one and the same color, viz., bright red, crimson. Here, evidently, it means the color of blood. In many places, as Exo 28:5-6; Exo 36:8, etc.;Jer 4:30, we find or ; Lev 14:4; Lev 14:6; Lev 14:49; Lev 14:51-52; Num 19:6 , Lam 4:5 only . The last word means worm, (comp. Exo 16:20, and Isa 14:11; Isa 66:24; Job 25:6). What the is we are well informed. It is the female cochineal (coccus ilicis,Linne) which lays its eggs on the twigs of the holm oak, and, expiring upon them, covers them with its body. The egg nests so formed were pulverized and the color prepared therefrom. It is less certain why the color is named . Comp. Leyrer,Art. crimson inHerzogsR. Encycl. XXI., p. 606. The plural is found only here and Pro 31:21. It seems to me in both places to mean more probably scarlet stuffs. That sin is here called red, has its reason in the evident reference to the bloody hands, Isa 1:15 b. But that the righteous estate is compared to white color, happens according to the natural and universal symbolism of colors; comp. Psa 37:6; Mal. 3:20 (Mal 4:2); 1Jn 1:5; 1Jn 1:7; Rev 1:14; Rev 3:4; Rev 19:14, etc.

If ye be willing, Isa 1:19. The exhortation Isa 1:16-17 is followed Isa 1:18 by a similar promise, i. e., by one that similarly confines itself to the inward, spiritual domain. To this is now joined a twofold word of a) promise also of outward felicity, Isa 1:19; b) of threatening of bodily destruction, Isa 1:20. The conclusion ye shall be devoured of the sword, Isa 1:20, corresponds to ye shall eat the good of the land, not only as to sense, but also, as near as may be, as to sound. On the formula for the mouth, etc., comp., at Isa 1:2.

[Isa 1:13. The last clause, meaning of course, I cannot bear them together, is a key to the preceding verses. It was not religious observance itself, but its combination with iniquity, that God abhorred. J. A. Alexander.

Oblations, . This word properly denoted a gift of any kind, (Gen 32:13), then especially a present or offering to the Deity. Gen 4:3-5.The proper translation would have been meal or flour-offering, rather than meat-offering, since the word meat with us now denotes animal food only. Lev 2:1; Lev 6:14; Lev 9:17. Barnes.

Isa 1:16. Wash.It is used here in close connection with the previous verse, where the prophet says that their hands were filled with blood. He now admonishes them to wash away that blood, with the implied understanding, that, then their prayers would be heard. Barnes.

From before mine eyes. As God is omniscient, to put them away from before His eyes is to put them away altogether. Barnes.

Isa 1:18. God has been addressing magistrates particularly, and commanding them to seek judgment, etc., all of which are terms taken from the law. He here continues the language, and addresses them as accustomed to the proceedings of courts, and proposes to submit the (their) case as if on trial. Barnes.

Scarlet.There is another idea here. This was a fast or fixed color. Neither dew, rain, nor washing, nor long usage would remove it. Hence it is used to represent the fixedness and permanency of sins in the heart. No human means will wash them out. No effort of man, no external rites, no tears, no sacrifice, no prayers are of themselves sufficient to take them away. An almighty power is needful to remove them. Barnes.

Like the wool.Instead of the wool becoming like the crimson, the crimson shall become like the wool. Regarding the sequence of Isa 1:16-17, and Isa 1:18; comp. Mat 5:22-24.Tr.

Isa 1:19. Ye shall eat.Instead of seeing them devoured by strangers, as in Isa 1:7. J. A. Alexander].

4. COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Isa 1:21-31

21How is the faithful city become an harlot!

It was full of judgment;
Righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

22Thy silver is become dross,

Thy wine mixed with water:

23Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves:

Every one loveth gifts, and 25followeth after rewards:

They judge not the fatherless,
Neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

24Therefore saith the Lord,

The Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel,
Ah, I will 26ease me of mine adversaries,

And avenge me of mine enemies:

25And I will turn my hand upon thee,

And27 28purely purge away thy dross,

And take away all thy 29tin:

26And I will restore thy judges as at the first,

And thy counsellors as at the beginning:
Afterward thou shalt be called,
The city of righteousness, the faithful city.

27Zion shall be redeemed with judgment,

And 30her converts with righteousness.

2831And the 32destruction of the trangressors and of the sinners shall be together,

And they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

29For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired,

And ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.

30For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth,

And as a garden that hath no water.

31And the strong shall be as tow,

33And 34the maker of it as a spark,

And they shall both burn together,
And none shall quench them.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isa 1:21. Concerning the distinction between , and comp. Drechsler in loc. I will only remark that the grammatical form requires as its primitive, fundamental meaning the being righteous, integrity, therefore the idea of the verb in its abstract generality (comp. , ), whereas , although also abstract, signifies integrity as the moral quality of a person, and as the prerequisite of right doing. Comp. also Ewald, 143 a; 150 b. on the other hand, involves the idea of right per se, and in every respect of its concrete realization. It is thus at once normal right, and also rightful claim, legal proceeding, verdict, and judgment. It is natural that in application the three conceptions should blend with one another., related by root to is properly pernoctare, then to stay, to dwell generally: comp. Psa 25:13; Pro 15:31; Job 19:4.The verb does not again occur in Isaiah; its participle Piel only 2Ki 6:32.Regarding the construction of Isa 1:21, is not in a manner in apposition with , as one might be tempted to think, out of liking for the easier grammatical connection, for the sense is decidedly against it.

Isa 1:22. because of the derivation from more correct than , comp. Eze 22:18 sq.; Psa 119:119; Pro 25:4; Pro 26:23; only in Isaiah again, Isa 1:25. , only found again Hos 4:18, comp. Isa 56:12, that with which one carouses, intoxicates himself, in French, ce qui soule. . ., is kindred to circumcised, cut, comp. juglare Falernum, Martial Eph 1:18; castrare vinum, Plin. Hist. Nat.

Isa 1:23. and (comp. Isa 30:1; Isa 65:2; Jer 6:28; Hos 9:15) is a play on words and indicates the relation of those men to God (1. Table), as the following ( ) does their relation to men (2. Table, comp. Pro 29:24).The singular embraces the as unity, as rank. is . . is in Isa 5:23; Isa 33:15; Isa 45:13.

Isa 1:24. On comp. Isa 1:4. The Niphal is used here in the sense to breathe again refreshed, i. e., refresh oneself, as Isa 57:6; Jer 31:15; Eze 31:16, etc. This meaning, however, changes to the kindred one of to revenge, Niphal, to revenge oneself. For revenge is a refreshment. Therefore also is joined here with , which construction is the usual one for , ultionem capere, Jdg 16:28; 1Sa 14:24; Jer 15:15; Jer 46:10, etc.

Isa 1:25. Whereas means either to draw back the hand, Gen 38:29; Jos 8:26; 1Sa 14:27; 1Ki 13:4; Isa 14:27; or to return the hand to a place, Exo 4:7, or to bring the hand repeatedly somewhere Jer 6:9, in most places of its occurrence (Eze 38:12 : Amo 1:8; Zec 13:7; Psa 81:15; comp. 2Sa 8:3)to turn ones hand in a figurative sense, i. e., to turn in an hostile way against any one. stannum or plumbum nigrum, only used this once in Isa. = vegetable alkali, only here in Isa., comp. Job 9:30. As the alkali does not effect the smelting process, but only promotes it, must not be construed as nominative, but as an accusative that supplies the preposition that is wanting after (alkali fashion, comp. on Isa 1:20; Isa 1:12), comp. Gesenius, 118, 3 Anm; the plural , lead pieces, is the only form of the word, which occurs only here; comp. Eze 22:18; Eze 22:20; Eze 27:12.Kindred passages, whose authors may have had our text in mind, are Jer 6:29 sq.; Zec 13:7 sqq.

Isa 1:26. The beginning with has almost the appearance of a rhyme in relation to the same word, Isa 1:25. Evidently the prophet intends to emphasize the difference of sense by the similar sound of the words. The construction is an adverbial prolepsis. For whereas otherwise, in prolepsis that, which is the effect of the transaction, is adjoined to the object in the form of adjective, the adjoining occurs here in adverbial form; (comp. Jer 33:7; Jer 33:11; and 1Ki 13:6).

Isa 1:28. As regards the sense, it does not matter whether we take (properly fractura Isa 15:5; Isa 30:26) as predicate, as Hitzig does, or, like most others, as the object of an exclamatory phrase. As in this chapter several such nominatives occur absolutely, and representing a phrase (Isa 1:7; Isa 1:13), the latter may be more correct.

Isa 1:29. The singular of occurs only once Gen 14:6 in the proper name . As singular (Isa 1:30) is always used elsewhere. The meaning Terebinth, which, parallel with meanings strength, and ram (comp. the Latin robur), develops out of the fundamental meaning torquere, is now admitted by all expositors, whereas many of the older ones, following the LXX.

and Vulgate, took the word in the sense of Idols. Isa. mentions the as objects of idolatrous worship, also Isa 57:5, whereas, Isa 61:3, he opposes to these idolatrous ones the , trees (Terebinths) of righteousness. with plainly a pregnant meaning.The word only Isa., uses of the groves of idols, Isa 65:3; Isa 66:17; comp. also Herzogs R. Encycl. V. p. 474, Art. Haine. The abrupt change of person in animated address cannot be thought strange. As (Isa 44:9😉 and (Isa 66:3 sq.; Jos 24:15; Jos 24:22, etc.), are often used of religious deciding, so, still more frequently (Isa 20:5; Jer 2:36; Jer 48:13, etc.), and (Isa 24:23; Mic 3:7, etc.), are used for the confounding results of the assurance reposed in idols.

Isa 1:30. may be construed as the accusative of closer definition (a terebinth falling away in regard to its leaves), because as feminine connects more easily with than with the masculine . Yet to me it seems more probable that is to be joined to , not as adjective, however, but as substantive. For, as we see from Isa 28:1; Isa 28:4; Isa 34:4, the participle Kal of becomes a noun both in the masculine and in the feminine. In that case it would be rendered; a terebinth, foliage that falls, (are) its leaves. is to be taken collectively = foliage. Comp. Jer 17:8; Psa 1:3; Eze 47:12. As the plural occurs only in the later Hebrew, (Neh 8:15), the reading is to be rejected.

Isa 1:31. The word occurs beside here only in Amo 2:9. According to this passage, and Psa 89:9 (where the form occurs) and according to the noun (Isa 33:6; Jer 20:5, etc.), whence the Niphal (Isa 23:18), the meaning can only be opulentus, opibus validus. The punctuation does not conflict with our explanation; see Exeg. and Crit. For, apart from the fact that it is not without analogy, the use of for idols would be quite unusual, and the idea that the idolater plunges his idols in ruin would not only be strange, but also wholly without motive in the context.The formula occurs in Isa., only here; elsewhere Amo 5:6; Jer 4:4; Jer 21:12.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. The prophet first looks back into the past. What were the people formerly? They were a people in whom faithfulness and righteousness flourished. But then he asks: what are they now? A ruined nation, in which unrighteousness and violence hold the sceptre. (Isa 1:21-23). The Lord will subject this people to a severe process of purifying, (Isa 1:24-25): whose consequences will be a future, two-fold in form; a) the good elements will attain their original supremacy, Jerusalem will again become a city of justice, and by justice become partaker of salvation (Isa 1:26-27); b) but the bad elements, the apostates that have forsaken Jehovah and served idols, shall by their own works be pitiably destroyed (Isa 1:28-31).

2. How is the faithful citywidow come unto them.

Isa 1:21-23. Delitzsch justly remarks that Isa 1:21 calls to mind the tone of the , the Elegy. And I have myself, in the comment on Lam 1:1, pointed to the dependence of that passage on this. The tone of lament, the (occurring four times in Lam.), the archaic form made this passage appear to the author of Lam. a suitable prototype and point of departure.By reason of many expressions in the Pentateuch, that designate idolatry as whoredom (Exo 34:15 sq.; Lev 17:7; Lev 20:5 sqq.; Num 15:39; Deu 31:16). Isa., here calls Jerusalem on account of its apostacy from Jehovah by grosser and more refined idolatry. Comp. Hos 1:2; Hos 2:6 sqq.; Hos 4:10 sqq.; Jer 2:23 sqq.; Isa 3:1 sqq.; Eze 16:15 sqq., etc.). It was become such, however, only in process of time. For originally, so to speak, in its paradisaical or golden age it was , faithful. It may be asked; does the prophet by this golden age mean the time of wandering in the wilderness, as Hos 11:1; Jer 2:2, or the period of David and Solomon? But as the prophet speaks here of the city () by which he can only mean Jerusalem, so one can only think immediately of the beginning period of the kingdom. The prophet seems to have especially in mind the early days of Solomon. For this, without doubt, was in respect to the administration of justice the golden age of Israel. For in answer to Solomons prayer for an understanding heart, to judge the people and to discern between good and bad, the Lord had given him a wise and understanding heart, so that there was none like him before him, neither after him should any be like him. 1Ki 3:9; 1Ki 3:12. And by the celebrated judgment Solomon rendered (ibid Isa 1:16 sq.), the people saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment (ibid. Isa 1:28). And, moreover, as Solomon loved Jehovah (ibid Isa 1:3), he was permitted also to build the Lord an house, and thereby to join the Lord and the people together by an important outward tie. Hence could Jerusalem, in reference to that time, be justly named a fixed city (comp. 22:23, 25; 1Sa 2:35; 1Sa 25:28), that was full of justice, and in which righteousness had, not a transitory, but a permanent abode. It is therefore doubtful whether, in addition to this elevated point represented by Solomon, we may regard the reign of Jehoshaphat, with its reformation of justice, 2Ch 19:5 sq., that came an hundred years later, as referred to in this place. For that effort can only be looked on as a momentary check of the downward course that the nation began with Rehoboan. It may be asked with more justice; did not Isaiah have in mind here also an earlier age than that of Solomon? If only the city, and not the nation, is in question here, that age could only be Melchisedecs. This occurred to Vitringa, but with a non ausim he left the matter in suspenso. I believe that the reference to Melchisedecs time is not to be rejected, and shall give the reason for this at Isa 1:26. The phrase , righteousness lodged in it, is only another turn and at the same time the establishing of the sentiment full of judgment. For if Jerusalem is full of the concrete manifestation of a truly right-living, then this comes only from the fact that the idea of right has, so to speak, taken up its permanent abode in Jerusalem. The words full of judgment, therefore, belong to what follows, and stand absolutely, at the beginning (comp. Isa 1:13), the one full of right,righteousness dwelt in her; but now murderers. The antithesis is, of course, not quite complete. Either must be wanting or else a corresponding adversative be found. It must either say: as regards justice, righteousness formerly dwelt in it, but now murderers,or; full of justice, righteousness dwelt in it; devoid of justice, murderers swarm in it. But the prophet, evidently influenced by an effort at brevity, expresses in the second member of the adversative phrase only that thought that corresponds to the thought of the first member, and easily joins on to it. That one may not translate, it was full of justice arises from the absence of the pronomen separatum. For only in cases where this may be supplied of itself may it be dispensed with.

Thy silver is become.With these words the prophet passes from the region of the inward and general to that of the concrete outward appearance. The silver of Jerusalem has become dross, the noble wine mixed with water. The noble metal, the noble wine can only mean the noble men. And it appears from Isa 1:23, which explains the figurative language, that the prophet has the princes of the people in mind. Dicitur argentum, etc. The silver is said to be turned into dross, and the pure wine to be mixed with water, when judges and senators turn from purity and grave manners, from integrity, sincerity and candor, and prostitute their own dignity. Vitringa.

As dross is related to silver, the emblem of moral purity (comp. Leyrer in HerzogsR. Encycl. XV. p. 111, 114) so the diluting with water to the strong wine.On the matter of the ver. comp. Jer 6:28; Eze 22:18 sqq.

Thy princes, etc.By these words the prophet himself shows, as he often does, the meaning of his figurative language. On the change of number comp.Psa 5:10. It is not , that they chase after, but , not peace, but pacifying their greed. Delitzsch. Comp. Isa 1:23 b with Isa 1:17 b, and the comment there.

3. Thereforeall thy tin.

Isa 1:24-25. From the contemplation of the past and present the prophet now turns to consider the future. The transition to it shall be made by a grand act of judgment and purifying. The prophet introduces his discourse with solemn language, especially by employing in detail all the titles of the Lord. He uses the solemn , which is found in Isa. much more seldom than in Jer., and Ezek. Also occurs in Isa. relatively, not often; comp. Isa 1:9, on of hosts; the mighty one, of Israel, is found first Exod. 49:24, where however it reads . The latter form appears in all the rest of the places where it is used, Isa 49:26; Isa 60:16; Psa 132:2; Psa 132:5.Ah! I will ease, etc. The Lord announces His intervention in terms that make known His determination to obtain satisfaction.

I will turn, etc.In the passages cited (see Text. & Gram.) the hand of the subject is not said to have been previously on the object named, and as little is such the case here. The translation of Umbreit, therefore, let come afresh is not admissible. And for the same reason we must not, with Vitringa, who appeals to Isa 11:11, refer, to the sanans et benefica manus, the healing and beneficent hand of God. The totality of the nation shall be subjected to a purifying process which the prophet compares to the process by which silver ore is freed from the mixture of ignoble metal, and rendered solid silver ( or Psa 12:7). The separation of the lead ore is promoted by applying alkali, comp. WinerR. W. B., word, Metals.

4. And I will restorewith righteousness.

Isa 1:26-27. With these words the prophet indicates the positive good that shall arise from this purifying process; such judges and counsellors as shall resemble those of the early age (Isa 1:21) and by whose agency Jerusalem shall become a righteous and faithful city. It is seen that the prophet ascribes a decisive effect to the influence of the chiefs of the state. He must very well have known, by what he observed in his times, how great must have been this influence for evil. This place reminds us much of Jer 23:3-6; Jer 33:15-16. For as Isa. in this place, so there Jer., promises the restoration of a good administration that shall exercise righteousness, and procure a name that shall be significant of that righteousness. Here as there, that name shall be an ideal one (not a name actually employed, comp. my comment on Jer 23:6). The glorious end shall correspond to the glorious beginning, (comp. faithful city, righteousness lodged in it, Isa 1:21). It is, moreover, to me very probable that by the original and first times Isa. understands, not only Solomons time, but also Melchizedecs. For and (city of righteousness and king of righteousness) comp. Heb 7:2, look quite too much alike. Also the name Adoni-zedec, Joshua 10; (comp. Adoni-bezek, Jdg 1:5; 1Sa 11:8), proves that not only one king of Salem had a name composed of Zedec. It can only be objected that Melchizedec does not belong to the beginning of the Israel Jerusalem. Yet he does belong to the beginning of the Jerusalem of the history of grace. This city had not become the capital city of Israel, had it not before that been the city of Melchizedec; and all the glory and significance of the Israel Jerusalem is only a transitional fact, that would restore that ancient glory of Melchizedec. (comp. my Art. Melchizedec inHerzogsR. Encycl. IX. p. 300 sq.). We are so much the more justified in this reasoning as the ideal fact of the future that the prophet has in view is, without doubt, identical with the Messianic future (comp. Isa 11:3-5; Psa 72:1 sq.); the Messiah, however Psa 110:4 (comp. Heb 5:6; Heb 5:10; Heb 6:20; Heb 7:1 sqq.), is expressly designated as the antitype of Melchizedec.

Isa 1:27, is difficult. The question is; by whose righteousness is Zion redeemed? To this three answers are given. Some say by the righteousness of the Israelites. Thus the Rabbins especially, Because in it there shall be those who exercise justice, it is redeemed from its iniquities. Raschi. But that conflicts with Isa 1:24-25; for according to these declarations the Lord Himself vindicates the cleansing and deliverance of Israel as His own judging and sifting operation. Others regard the judgment and righteousness in question as Gods. Against this idea there is, in itself, naturally nothing to object, in as much as there are plenty of passages in which saving effect is ascribed to the righteousness of God. Delitzsch, who adopts this view, cites especially Isa 4:4; Isa 5:16; Isa 28:17. But then Isa 1:27 would, in substance, say only in other words what is already contained in Isa 1:24-25. It is to be considered moreover,and therein is seen the third answer to our inquirythat in many passages, to which this is nearest kindred in its description of Messianic salvation, the righteousness of the administration of justice forms an essential element of that glorious time. Thus Isa 9:6 it is said, the Messiah shall order and support the kingdom of David with judgment and righteousness. Thus Isa 11:3-5 it is said of the rod out of Jesse, that he shall judge the poor with righteousness, and that righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. And Isa 16:5 we read that upon the throne and in the tabernacle of David one shall sit, judging and seeking judgment, and hastening righteousness. But in Jeremiahs celebrated prophecies, Isa 23:5 sq. and Isa 33:15, it is emphatically said that the Lord will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and that this one shall restore judgment and righteousness in the land, and shall procure to him the name Jehovah our righteousness. And, to prevent our thinking that this righteous government is to be only the prerogative of the Messiah, it is said Isa 32:1, expressly of the princes too, they shall rule, in judgment. Our passage, also, which does not at all mention the person of the Messiah, speaks of judges and counsellors in the plural, which may remain undetermined whether the abstract pluralis generalis, is meant or an actual pluralis multitudinis. In the former case the plural would include the Messiah, and this is in the end, the more probable; in the latter case the righteous judges and counsellors would be distinguished from the Messiah, who is only presented in idea. In any case, by our construction, Isa 1:27 is a corollary of Isa 1:26. The righteous judges named in Isa 1:26, shall fulfil as the task set before them just that which is mentioned Isa 1:27; by righteous rule they shall procure deliverance from the evils under which Zion and the (those returning, Eng. vers converts) had to suffer hitherto on account of the unrighteousness of their rulers.

This , by reference to the (those turning from transgression) Isa 59:20 has been translated converts; [so Eng. ver.]. But to me it seems more likely that Isa., whose manifold use of is a prelude to Jeremiahs use of the word, uses the word here in the double sense of the spiritual and bodily return, that it so often has in Jer. (comp. my comment on Jer 31:22). To be sure Isa., does not, in what precedes, speak expressly of the Exile. But this notion is impliedly contained in Isa 1:25. For, of course the exile belonged essentially to that mighty smelting and purifying process to which the people must be subjected. Let a comparison be made of the passages that give a survey of the Messianic salvation, and it will be seen that precisely the return to the holy land, which of course cannot be conceived of without the spiritual reform, forms a principal element (see my comment Jer 3:18). If therefore our text is related to later passages like the germ to the developed plant, then we are right in regarding the latter as a commentary on it, and accordingly in taking the in the double sense of a spiritual and bodily return (Ezr 6:21; Neh 8:17).

5. And the destructionnone shall quench them.

Isa 1:28-31. The reverse side of the smelting process, the fate of the dross is presented to us here. It is difficult to say what difference there is between , (transgressors) and (sinners). At all events the former is the more particular, (see Isa 1:2), the latter the more general word. Both words signify inimical conduct, the former more toward the person of Jehovah, the latter more to the idea of the good. At the same time as Piel form, contains an intensive force in comparison with Isa 1:4.The , they that forsake, are related to the transgressors, as negative to positive. Whoever does evil conducts himself, in some fashion, aggressively against the Lord. But whoever deserts from the Lord is an idolater. In this sense the expression is often used; so Isa 1:4; still more plainly Isa 65:11, the sole place in Isa., beside this where the participle occurs in connection with ; comp. Hos 4:10; Jer 2:13; Jer 16:11; Jer 17:13 (in which place Jer., had our text before him); Isa 22:9; 1Ki 9:9, etc.

For ye shall be ashamed, etc.The general declaration that the transgressors, etc., shall be destroyed, is more particularly established by two connected sentences, each of which begins with for, and the second is subordinated to the first. Those that forsake the Lord would not be destroyed if they found the expected help from those to whom they deserted. But they are destroyed because they do not find in idols this help; consequently are brought to shame in the hopes they entertained in this direction. I understand, therefore, the oaks and gardens to be synecdochical for the idols that were worshipped in them. It is past comprehension how Drechsler can say that nothing whatever in the text itself or in the context suggests the explanation of idolatry He could only say so because he has utterly disregarded the specific meaning of , they that forsake.

For ye shall be as an oak, etc.This explains how the becoming ashamed Isa 1:29 shall be realized. The for of Isa 1:30, is therefore not co-ordinate with the for of Isa 1:29, but subordinate to it. Thus the prophet retains his figure of speach. Those that clung with their hearts to treacherous trees and gardens, and forsook the living waters, (Jer 2:13; Jer 17:13), shall themselves become withered trees and driedup gardens. The Terebinth is not evergreen, as is commonly asserted (comp. Arnold in HerzogsR. Encycl. XI. p. 26). Therefore not the normal falling of the leaves is meant, but their abnormal wilting.

And the strong shall be, etc.

Isa 1:31. But the idols are not only powerless, they are positively ruinous. For this sin against the first commandment includes in itself all the elements of spiritual as well as bodily ruin. The prophet would say that the idolater, even if he be no poor, powerless man, resembling the withered tree, or the garden devoid of water, if, on the contrary, he is rich, and mighty, and like the tree abounding in sap, or a well watered garden, nevertheless, by the ruinous influences of idolatry he shall be destroyed. He compares such an idolater to the tow (Jdg 16:9); his work, however, i.e., the idols to a spark (-.)

[Isa 1:21. The faithful city (including the ideas of a city and a state, urbs et civitas, the body politic, the church of which Jerusalem was the centre and metropolis.) The particle at the beginning of the verse is properly interrogative, but like the English how is used also to express surprise, How has she become? i.e., how could she possibly become? How strange that she should become! J. A. Alexander.

Isa 1:23. They judge notdoth not come unto them.They are not simply unjust judges, they are no judges at all, they will not act as such, except when they can profit by it. J. A. Alexander.

Isa 1:24. I will ease me.This refers to what is said in Isa 1:14, where God is represented as burdened with their crimes.It means that He had been pained and grieved by their crimes; His patience had been put to its utmost trial; and now He would seek relief from this by inflicting due punishment on them. Comp. Eze 5:13; Deu 28:63, Barnes.

Isa 1:27. This verse means that the very same events by which the divine justice was to manifest itself in the destruction of the wicked, should be the occasion and the means of deliverance to Zion, or the true people of God, J. A. Alexander.

With judgment.In a righteous, just manner. That is, God shall evince His justice in doing it; His justice to a people to whom so many promises had been made, and His justice in delivering them from long and grievous oppression. All this would be attended with the displays of judgment, in effecting their deliverance. With righteousness.This refers to the character of those who shall return. They would be a reformed, righteous people, Barnes].

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. On Isa 1:1. Concerning Judah and Jerusalem.Jerome here pronounces decidedly against Chiliasm, in that he says: Scio quosdam Judaeam, etc. I am aware that some explain Judah and Jerusalem of celestial things, and Isaiah under the person of the Lord Jesus, that He foretells the captivity of that province in our land, and the after return and ascending the sacred mount, in the last days. Which things we make no account of, holding them to be wholly contrary to the faith of Christians.

Whether Jerome understands by these fidei Christianorum contraria, which the universa despises, Chiliasm generally, or only the giving this passage a chiliastic significance may be doubted. For, on Jer 19:10, he says in regard to the Jewish expectation of a restitution of Israel to the earthly Canaan; Qu licet non sequamur, etc.

Which we may not follow, nor yet can we condemn it; for many churchmen and martyrs have said that. And each is strong in his opinion and the whole may be reserved to the judgment of the Lord. We see from this he inclined more to reject Chiliasm.

2. On Isa 1:1. In the days of, etc.Sciamus quoque, Ezechiam, etc. We know, moreover, that Hezekiah began to reign in Jerusalem in the twelfth year of Romulus, who erected a city of his own name in Italy, so that it is very apparent how very much more ancient our history is than that of other nations. Jerome, comp. his Epist. ad Damasum, where it is said: Regnavit Ozias annis 52, etc. Uzziah reigned 52 years, in the time Amulias ruled among the Latins, and Agamester 12th among the Athenians. After whose death Isaiah the prophet saw this vision, i.e., in that year that Romulus, founder of the Roman empire, was born.

3. On Isa 1:2. Theodoret remarks that heaven and earth were qualified witnesses to the ingratitude of Israel because the people received through them the most manifold benefits. For heaven extended to them from above the food of manna. For he commanded, says Psa 78:23-24, the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, and rained down manna upon them to eat, and he gave them bread from heaven. But the earth brought them in the desert the needed water, and in Palestine it afforded them a superabundance of all sorts of fruits. That heaven and earth, however, can actually bear their testimony he proves by reference to the display at the death of the Lord; for when the Jews had nailed the Saviour to the cross, the earth quaked mindful of the testimony; but heaven, unable to convey this sensation owing to its position overhead, displayed the sun in his course, robbed of his beams and brought in darkness as testimony against the impious deed.

4. On Isa 1:3. There God tells them to go to the beasts school and uncover their heads before the oxen and asses as their teachers, who though the stupidest and slowest beasts, still submit to their lords and drivers, and are therefore presented to us by God that we may learn from their example, how we should have reverence before our God. Is not that the greatest shame that, according to divine declaration, an ox and ass are, I will not say contrasted with us, but preferred to us because they do their duty toward their lord? Shall we not observe our duty toward God? This is expressly the wisdom and piety of men, that they are more stupid than an ox and ass, although in their own eyes they fancy they are wiser than all men. For what sort of wisdom can be left when one does not know God? Heim and Hoffmann, The great prophets according to Luther.

5. On Isa 1:4. A sinful people is one that altogether sticks in sin (Joh 9:34), that makes of sin a real trade, and its best amusement;of the people that is loaded with iniquity, the impostures and trespasses are so great and so many, that they load their conscience therewith as with a burden (Psa 38:5); the evil seed (Joh 8:39) has not the disposition of Abraham, but is of Cains and the serpents kind. Starke. In peccato originali, etc. In original sin are two evils: evil itself and punishment (Augustin, De civ. Dei. Isa 22:24). Parts of sin itself are imperfection and concupiscence (Augustin), as Gerson says: impotent toward good, potent toward evil. Foerster.

6. On Isa 1:5-9. God has two ways by which to bring His ill-advised and disobedient children to obedience; goodness and severity (Rom 11:22).That many men become only worse and more hardened by the divine judgments comes about, not from God, but from their own guilt (Jer 2:30; Rom 2:5). The desolation of whole cities and lands is the result of sin, hence there is no better means against it than true repentance (Jer 2:19; Jer 18:7-8).God is gracious even in the midst of wrath (Psa 138:7), and does not utterly consume (Lam 3:22). The true Church must not be judged by outward appearance for often things look very bad within it (1Ki 19:14).God is never nearer His own than in cross and misfortune (Isa 43:2; Psa 91:15).Starke.

7. On Isa 1:10-15. We learn here plainly, that God did not command them to offer sacrifices because of pleasure He had in such things, but because He knew their weakness. For as they had grown up in Egypt, and had learned there to offer sacrifices to idols, they wished to retain this custom. Now in order to divert them from this error, God put up with the sacrifices and musical instruments (sic!) in that He overlooked their weakness, and directed their childish disposition. But here, after a long course of years, He forbids the entire legal observance.Theodoret.Hosti et, etc. Sacrifices and the immolation of victims are not principally sought by God, but lest, they may be made to idols, and that from carnal victims we may, as by type and image pass over to the spiritual sacrifice.Jerome.

8. On Isa 1:10. Jerome observes: Aiunt Hebri, etc. The Jews say that Isaiah was slain on two accounts: because he had called them princes of Sodom and people of Gomorrah, and because the Lord having said to Moses, thou canst not see my face, he had dared to say, I saw the Lord sitting (Isa 6:1).

9. Isa 1:10-15. What Isaiah says here is just as if one in Christendom were to say: What is the multitude of your assemblies to me? I dont want your Lords suppers. My soul loathes your feast days, and if you assemble for public prayer, I will turn my eyes from you. If one were to preach so among us, would he not be regarded as senseless and a blasphemer because he condemned what Christ Himself instituted? But the prophet condemns that which was the principal matter of the law, and commanded by God Himself, viz., sacrifices; not as if sacrifices in themselves were evil, but because the spirit in which those people sacrificed was impious. For they cast away reliance on the divine compassion, and believed they were just by the sacrifice, by the performance of the bare work. But sacrifices were not instituted by God that the Jews should become righteous through them, but that they might be signs through which the pious testified that they believed the promises concerning Christ, and expected Christ as their Redeemer.Heim and Hoffmann. The Great Prophets, according to Luther.

10. Isa 1:16-20. A generali reformatione, etc. He begins with a general reformation, lest, having finished with one part, they might think it opposed a veil to God. And such in general must be the treatment of men alienated from God. Not one or other of the vices of a morbid body is to be dealt with, but, if one cares to have a true and entire recovery, they are to be called to renovation, and the contagion thoroughly purged, that they may begin to please God, who before were hateful and nauseous. And by the metaphor of washing there is no doubt but that they are exhorted to cleanse away inward filth; a little later indeed he adds the fruits of works.Calvin.

11. Isa 1:18. My art is wonderful. For, whereas the dyers dye rose-red, and yellow and violet and purple, I change the red into snow white.Theodoret. Opera crucris, etc. Works of blood and gore are exchanged for a garment of the Lord, which is made of the fleece of the Lamb whom they follow in the Revelation (Isa 3:5; Isa 6:11), who shine with the whiteness of virginity.Jerome.

12. Isa 1:21-23. From the condition of Jerusalem at that day, one may see how Satan often exercises his lordship in the Church of God, as if all bands were dissolved. For if anywhere, then the church was at that time in Jerusalem. And yet Isaiah calls it a den of murderers and a cave of robbers. If Satan could so rage in it, we must not wonder if the same thing happens in our day. But we must take pains that we be not seduced by so bad an example.Heim and Hoffmann.

13. Isa 1:23. It is great consolation for pious widows and orphans that God knows when rulers and judges will pay no heed to their want (Psa 68:6).Starke.

14. Isa 1:24-25. God proceeds very unwillingly to punishment (Gen 6:3).Not only those are the enemies of God that defiantly reject His word, but those also who hypocritically glory in it.Although one may not carnally rejoice at the misfortune of his enemies, yet it is allowable to praise the righteousness of God in it (Psa 58:11).If God wishes to avenge Himself on His enemies, every thing is ready for the exercise of His will (Sir 39:5 sq. ).It is a blessing when God by persecution purifies His church from dross (Mat 3:12).What is tin and what silver can be easily found out by fire. So by the fire of affliction is soon made plain who has been a hypocrite and who a true Christian.Starke.

15. Isa 1:26. Regarding the fulfilment of this prophecy, many, e. g., Musculus, have found in it the promise of a return of the days of the Judges, i. e., the days of a Jephtha, Gideon, Samuel, etc. Others understand the language of the restitution of the kingdom. Others again refer the language to the return out of the Babylonish captivity under Zerubabbel, Joshua, Ezra and Nehemiah. Still others see the Apostles in the promised judges. But all these explanations are evidently too narrow and one-sided. The fulfilment has its degrees. And if Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah are justly regarded as the representatives of the first feeble beginnings of the great restitution of Israel; if, further, the Apostles are justly regarded as the founders of the new Zion on a higher plain, still by all this the prophecy is not at all fulfilled. It will only then be fulfilled when the Lord comes into His kingdom (Luk 23:42).

16. Isa 1:27. The happiness of a people is not secured by sword and spear, nor by horse and chariot, nor even by industry, flourishing commerce or any sort of outward institution. Only justice and righteousness in Christs sense can give true peace and true well-being.

17. Isa 1:27-31. Precisely from that quarter shall ruin come upon the godless, where they looked for salvation. For their images and idols are the tinder for Gods wrath by which an unquenchable conflagration shall be kindled.Heim and Hoffmann.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

1. Isa 1:2-9. The judicial process of the Lord is no secret one, but public. Yea, He gives it the greatest publicity that can be imagined. He invites heaven and earth, and all creatures that are in it, to attend the great trial He has with His people.He is a true Father. He has let it cost Him a great deal to bring up His children. He has raised them from small beginnings to a high degree of honor and dignity.For that they ought to be grateful to Him.How God wrestles for human souls: 1. He nourishes and trains them with true paternal love. 2. They reward His love with ingratitude and apostasy. 3. He chastises them as they deserve. 4. They become little in order renewedly to grow up to true greatness.

4. Isa 1:27-31. Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people. Pro 14:34. Therefore every policy that is contrary to the commands of God, can only have God for opponent.Now wherever the chastisements of God are disregarded, there will His judgment also go forth until He exterminates those that oppose Him. Then it goes on to the judgment of being hardened, and sin itself must become the mans scourge, so that he is as the tow and his work as the spark, that it may consume himself. (Tholuck, Hours of Christian Devotion, p. 131).False and true progress. 1. False progress is in fact a retrograde, for a) it consists in turning back from Gods command (mostly under guidance of over-shepherds); b) it necessarily occasions outward ruin. 2. True progress is a) apparently a going backwards, in that it first of all rests on a return to the eternal foundations of salvation; b) in fact, however, is a genuine movement forward; a) to a deeper comprehension of the truth; b) to an inalienable possession of true salvation.

From M. Henry on the whole chapter

[Isa 1:4. Children that are corrupters. If those that are called Gods children, that are looked upon as belonging to His family, be wicked and vile, their example is of the most malignant influence.

Isa 1:11-15. When sinners are under the judgments of God they will more easily be brought to fly to their devotions, than to forsake their sins and reform their lives.

Your sacrifices. They are your sacrifices and none of mine; I am full of them, even surfeited with them.

Dissembled piety is double iniquity. Hypocrisy in religion is of all things most abominable to the God of heaven.

Isa 1:16-20. Let them not say that God picks quarrels with them; no, He proposes a method of reconciliation.

Cease to do evil; learn to do well. 1. We must be doing; not cease to do evil and then stand idle. 2. We must be doing good, the good which the Lord requires, and which will turn to good account. 3. We must do it well, in a right manner, and for a right end; and 4. We must learn to do well: we must take pains to get the knowledge of our duty, etc.

Let us reason. 1. Religion has reason on its side: there is all the reason in the world that we should do as God would have us do. 2. The God of heaven condescends to reason the case with those who contradict Him, and find fault with His proceedings, for He will be justified when He speaks. Psa 51:4. The case needs only to be stated (as here it is, very fairly), and it will determine itself.

Isa 1:21-23. Corruptio optimi est pessima. That which originally was the best, when corrupted becomes the worst, Luk 11:26; Ecc 3:16; Jer 23:15-17. This is illustrated 1, By similitudes, Isa 1:22. 2, By some instances, Isa 1:23.

Isa 1:24-26. Two ways in which God will ease Himself of this grievance: 1. By reforming His church and restoring good judges in the room of those corrupt ones. 2. By cutting off those that hate to be reformed, that they may not remain either as snares or as scandals to the faithful city.

Isa 1:30. Justly do those wear no leaves that bear no fruit: as the fig tree that Christ cursed.

Isa 1:10. There could have been no more severe or cutting reproof of their wickedness than to address them as resembling the people whom God overthrew for their enormous crimes.Barnes.

Isa 1:11. Hypocrites abound in outward religious observances just in proportion to their neglect of the spiritual requirements of Gods word. Comp. Mat 23:23.Barnes.

Isa 1:31. The principle in this passage teaches us the following things. (1). That the wicked, however mighty, shall be destroyed. (2). That their works shall be the cause of their ruina cause necessarily leading to it. (3). That the works of the wickedall that they do and all on which they dependshall be destroyed. (4). That this destruction shall be final. Nothing shall stay the flame. No tears of penitence, no power of men or devils shall put out the fires which the works of the wicked shall enkindle.Barnes.

Footnotes:

[1]Speaks.

[2]Heb. of heaviness.

[3]Heb. alienated, or, separated.

[4]Heb. increase revolt.

[5]Every head, every heart,

[6]Not pressed out.

[7]Or, oil.

[8]Heb. as the overthrow of strangers.

[9]a Sodom of stranger.

[10]a booth.

[11]a hanging mat.

[12]Heb. great he goats.

[13]Heb. to be seen.

[14]Requires.

[15]Trample.

[16]Oblations, the sacrilegeincense that is abomination to me.

[17]I cannot bear sacrilege and solemn meeting.

[18]Or, grief.

[19]I bear them no longer.

[20]I hide.

[21]Heb. multiply prayer.

[22]Heb. bloods.

[23]Or, righten.

[24]scarlet stuffs.

[25]chases.

[26]refresh myself on, and avenge me on.

[27]Heb. according to pureness.

[28]will melt out thy dross with lye.

[29]lead.

[30]Or, they that return of her.

[31]But.

[32]Heb. breaking.

[33]Or, And his work.

[34]his work a spark.

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

The Prophet opens his vision with complaints. Both Judah and Jerusalem are reproved for their sins, and affectionately entreated to return to the Lord.

Isa 1:1

We have in this first verse, both the subject and the time in which it was delivered; together with the name and family of the writer. All which were proper for an introduction; by way of authority, for the cordial reception of what was written, by the church. But what I beg the reader yet more particularly to remark, is the title of this book. It is called a vision, intimating the special revelation by which the prophet was favoured and commissioned for the delivery of it. And, by consequence, how highly it ought to be regarded. The apostle Paul, in after ages, considered what he said upon divine things as of this kind, when passing by all self importance, he cried out, I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord, 2Co 12:1 . Judah and Jerusalem, are the people concerned in this vision; that is the church of God. And consequently in the present day of the gospel, both Jew and Gentile, brought as they now are into one fold, have an interest in all that is preached by the prophet in this vision, Gal 3:28-29 . I only detain the Reader with one observation more, on this introductory verse of the prophet, just to remark, that Isaiah must have ministered in the church, not less than fifty years; as the Reader will himself find, if he calculates the different periods, from the reign of Uziah to Hezekiah. And under what discouragement this highly favoured servant of the Lord ministered, may in some measure be conceived, from the account we have of the idolatrous practices, at that time more or less prevailing, of both kings and people, 2Ki 16:3-4 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

A Catechetical Note

Accusations

Isa 1:1-17

It is a living man who speaks to us. This is not an anonymous book. Much value attaches to personal testimony. The true witness is not ashamed of day and date and all the surrounding chronology; we know where to find him, what he sprang from, who he is, and what he wants.

“The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah” ( Isa 1:1 ).

This man is a speaker. Has the speaker any function in society? Does the man of sentences, of eloquence, play any part in the education of the age? Isaiah defines the part he is about to attempt; he says he will first of all accuse the times of degeneracy. This is not a grateful task. More loudly would he be welcomed who came to pronounce a eulogy upon the age. But Isaiah was characterised by intense and invincible reality. He will be an iconoclast; nothing will be spared by the iron rod of his vengeance: yea, though they be gods, they shall go down; though they be idols well cared for they shall be smitten as if they were common clay. This is a chapter of denunciation, with which is strangely inwrought figures of mercy and tones evangelical. My song shall be of judgment and mercy!

Isaiah personates the divine Being as accusing Judah and Jerusalem:

“Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me” ( Isa 1:2 ).

Instead of “children” say “sons” “I have nourished and brought up sons” not a mixed family, but all sons; so to say, all eldest sons, all equal sons, without favour or specialty of advantage “and they have rebelled against me.” Sometimes we imagine that the fatherhood of God is a New Testament revelation; we speak of the prophets as referring to God under titles of resplendent glory and overpowering majesty, and we set forth in contrast the gentler terms by which the divine Being is designated in the new covenant. How does God describe himself in this chapter? Here he claims to be father: I have nourished and brought up sons not, I have nourished and brought up slaves or subjects or creatures or insects or beasts of burden I have nourished and brought up sons: I am the father of creation, the fountain and origin of the paternal and filial religion. “And they have rebelled against me.” In what way have they rebelled? We must come to particulars. We find those particulars in the fourth verse “Ah! sinful nation.” The word “ah” is not an interjection, indicating a mere sighing of pity or regret; the word should not be spelt as it is here, the letters should be reversed, it should be “ha,” and pronounced as expressive of indignation. God does not merely sigh over human iniquity, looking upon it as a lapse, an unhappy thing, a circumstance that ought to have been otherwise; his tone is poignant, judicial, indignant, for not only is his heart wounded, but his righteousness is outraged, and the security of his universe is threatened, for the universe stands in plomb-line, in strict geometry, and whoever trifles with the plomb, with the uprightness, tampers with the security of the universe. “A people laden with iniquity;” so that you cannot add another element to the heavy burden: genius cannot invent an addition. “A seed of evildoers;” not a mere progeny, as if the force of heredity could not be resisted and therefore fate must be accepted, but a house of evildoers that is to say, all the evildoers having grouped themselves to keep house together a whole houseful of bad men. “Sons that are corrupters”; sons that are as cankerworms; sons that throw poison into pellucid water streams; sons that suggest evil thoughts to opening minds. What have they done? They have done three things. It is no general accusation that is lodged against Judah and Jerusalem, and through them against all the nations of the earth; it is a specific indictment, glittering with detail. “They have forsaken the Lord.” By so much their action is negative: they have ceased to attend the altar; they have neglected to read the holy writing; they have turned their backs upon that towards which they once looked with open face and radiant eye. Next, “they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger.” Observe how the intensity increases, how the aggravation deepens and blackens: “they have forsaken;’ “they have provoked;” they have grown bold in sin; they have thrown challenges in the face of God; they have defied him to hurl his thunderbolts and his lightnings upon them. “They have provoked the Holy One of Israel.” That is the key of Isaiah’s whole revelation “the Holy One of Israel.”

The book of Isaiah is divided into two parts: in the first part “the Holy One of Israel” is a phrase which is used some fourteen times; in the second part it is used sixteen times. “The Holy One of Israel” is the key of Isaiah’s whole religious position. His was a majestic mind; specially was that majesty invested with highest veneration. God is not to him a mere conception; he is “the Holy One of Israel” the one holy, the only holy. Every man has his own God, in the sense of having his own conception or view of God. There are as many conceptions of God as there are men to conceive of God. Here is a mystery, and yet a joy. When men compare their several conceptions of God one with another they make each other’s hearts ache. To what mind does it ever occur that the multitude of conceptions of God is due to the wondrousness and infinite glory of the God who is thought about? Were he himself less it would be easier to comprehend him, and represent him in one formula; but seeing the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, where is the word-house you will build for him, where is the creed-tabernacle in which you will confine him as in a prison? Isaiah thought of God as “the Holy One of Israel,” and in this connection he beholds that Holy One under the action of provocation. So far then we have two specific charges: first, “they have forsaken”; secondly, “they have provoked”: now there remains a third detail in the great indictment “they are gone away backward.” They forsook, they provoked, they apostatized. Sin has its logical course as well as holiness. There is a method in madness as well as a method in reason. Men do not stand still at the point of forsaking God: having for a little while forsaken him, they will find it almost necessary to provoke him, that they may justify themselves to themselves and to others, saying, Even provocation cannot awaken the judgment of heaven with any sign of impatience; and having provoked the Holy One of Israel, the next point will be universal apostasy, a thorough off-casting of the last traces and semblances of religion. See if this be not so in the history of the individual mind. We do not pass from the Church to perdition always at one great leap. There is a course in which men move towards their ruin: it is a well-beaten course; it is a turnpike that cannot be mistaken in all the religion of time and history. First of all is given up all week-night attendances or week-day services; after the week-day passes the Sabbath morning or the Sabbath evening. The process has begun; it will end in death! Every doctor who visits the patient will say, There is no hope; this man is death-bound; he will land in hell. But why speak so? He has but forsaken, withdrawn, given up. Certainly, that is all he has done at present; but there is a law of gravitation, spiritual as well as physical, and now the man who has begun by forsaking will end by going backward, his whole life thrown out of order, decentralised; and he perpetrates the irony of walking backwards, and his crab-like action will bring him to the pit. Isaiah having these real conceptions was a fire among the people. He was not a namby-pamby teacher, a man who would exchange compliments and courtesies, and say that after all there is an average of morality, and one man is not much superior to another. He did not come along that line at all; he came from talking with the Holy One of Israel, and his face burned like a fire, and his voice was enlarged with thunder. He will do something in his age. Such men are not to be put down. How he changes his tone into one of remonstrance and expostulation! He says, “Why should ye be stricken any more?” God will never give up striking until you give up sin: you cannot outwear the Infinite, you cannot compete with the eternal; law never gives over. How will you, poor children of a day, creatures of an hour, compete with that which is infinite and everlasting? Now Isaiah was, like all other prophets, not only a seer, but a physician. You will find in his description, or diagnosis, of the case a physician’s knowledge and a physician’s technicality. He says, You are vitally wrong, organically out of health: the whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint: the chief members of your constitution are wrong. It is a question of the head and the heart. Not, The foot has gone astray, and the hand has been playing an evil game, or some inferior member of the body has given hint of restlessness and treason; but, The head, where the mind abides, is sick; the heart, continually keeping the life-current in action, is faint and cannot do its work. Until you see the seriousness of the case you cannot apply the right remedies. This is the accusation which is brought by the prophets of heaven. They do not come to complain that some little error has been committed, or some passing ailment is troubling the human constitution; whether they were right or wrong, they set themselves in this attitude: every head is sick, and every heart is faint; from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores. Let us have a right diagnosis at the beginning. Some are clever in minutely describing a disease; they seem to have the power of looking behind, and indicating with precision everything that is wrong in substance and wrong in action. We go to such men that we may really know what the matter is, and there is no appeal from their learned and experienced criticism. Isaiah, however, was not only good at diagnosis, but good also in therapeutics. He says, “They have not been closed” physicians admire that language; it is so precise “neither bound up” another point of admiration “neither mollified with ointment.” This is a man talking who understands about disease, and about what is necessary for its cure. It is not enough to know we are diseased, though the poet is right when he says, “To know oneself diseased is half the cure,” that is to say, it excites concern, it leads men to thoughtfulness and to inquiry, and probably into practical courses that may end in healing. Is this true of human nature? Do not consult the sanguine poet, for he takes a roseate view of everything: he sees in leprosy only the beauty of its snowiness; he looks upon the green mantling pool, and sees nothing there but some hint of verdure. Do not consult the gloomy pessimist, for at midday he sees nothing but a variety of midnight, and in all the loveliness of summer he sees nothing but an attempt to escape from the dreariness of winter. But consult the line of reason and solid fact, or undeniable experience, and what is this human nature? Can it be more perfectly, more exquisitely described than in the terms used by the prophet in the fifth and sixth verses of this chapter? Do the poor only fill our courts of law? Are our courts of justice only a variety of our ragged schools? Is sin but the trick of ignorance or the luxury of poverty? Or the question may be started from the other point: Are only they who are born to high degree guilty of doing wrong? Read the history of crime, read human history in all its breadth, and then say if there be not something in human nature corresponding to this description. Do not be vexed in your pursuits, and troubled and fretted by merely theological definitions, but ask after having read fifty volumes of the history of human crime whether there be not great truth in the indictment “From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” Unless we have a right conception of human nature we shall never have a right conception of Christ’s work. We cannot understand the Cross until we understand the crime: we cannot begin to see the mercy until we have seen the sin.

But even in this indictment there is an evangelical tone, there is the beginning of a great remonstrance, expostulation, and proposal. What a sweet word is in the ninth verse:

“Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” ( Isa 1:9 )

My song shall be of mercy and judgment! “Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us——” Then you may fill up the verse according to present history, or personal experience, or individual recollection. The beginning of our speech is provided for us; it opens thus, “Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us” or given us or provided for us or interposed for us. The divine action explains the turns which human history has taken in the direction of recovery or redemption, or any form of restoration. Except the Lord of hosts had come with the morning, it had perished, it had perished even whilst it was dawning; except the Lord of hosts had taken up the little child, and warmed the little life at the infinite heart, it had died; except the Lord of hosts had come into the house when the harvest was a heap and the day was a multitude of sorrows, the tempest had crushed in the roof, and put out the household fire; except the Lord of hosts had done this or that, we had stumbled into darkness and fallen into ruin.

And now begins a great revolution. The challenge is:

“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts [or fasts] my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood” ( Isa 1:11-15 ).

Is God, then, condemning the very ceremonies which he may have himself instituted? Nothing of the kind. He is only condemning them because they are used by men whose hearts are no longer in them. The liturgy may be the finest expression of the language in which it is written; it may be comprehensive in thought, eloquent in diction, pious in spirit; but when lying lips utter it the Lord says, Take it away; it wearies me: pious words without pious hearts constitute an irony which I cannot tolerate. We are not to consider that oblations, incense, new moons, Sabbaths, calling of assemblies, and appointed feasts, were condemned in themselves, and were ruthlessly abrogated; we are to consider that they had been abrogated by their false professors. He makes a nullity of the church who comes to it and leaves his heart outside. He makes the altar a laughing-stock who bends his knee but not his heart. Rend your hearts, and not your garments. God will have nothing to do with unreality, heartless ostentation, pomp and circumstance of worship: God abhors the sacrifice where not the heart is found. It is needful to remember all this, at least in some of the phases of its suggestion, lest men should come to a passage of this kind, and say, See how all formality, institutionalism, ceremonialism, and ritualism have been driven out of the sanctuary: God himself has cursed them, and abolished them. Nothing of the kind. They were cursed by the men who used them; they were practically abolished by the men who turned them into a cloak under which to conceal the very genius of evil. We still need institutions, churches, Bibles, altars, helps and auxiliaries of every kind, and shall do so as long as we are in the body; but let us take heed how we use them. To read the Bible without the Biblical spirit is to mock its inspiration. To profess Christ without living Christ is to crucify the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. Christianity gives infidelity any hold it may have upon human attention. Christianity could have outbuilt infidelity, could have shamed it away, could have made it almost equal to murder when it charged a Christian with anything that was wrong. Christianity could so have operated in society that if any man whispered one word against it the very spirit of judgment would have burned the air in which he whispered. If we have left the building standing but have expelled the divinity which glorified it; if we maintain the shell after we have extracted the kernel; if we hold up the name when the substance has been taken away then do we tell lies to society; then may we write Ichabod upon the door which hides our desolation; then may we say to the mocker, Mock on, for we are but dead men. What then is to be done?

“Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow” ( Isa 1:16-17 ).

That is the new ritualism; that is the new programme. Look at two points. “Relieve the oppressed.” Literally the words might read from the other point of view, and would then stand thus: Correct the oppressor. It is of little use to relieve the oppressed until you kill the tyrant You are but offering temptations to the oppressor when you take under your patronage his victims. It is right that they should be cared for; in fact, unless they are cared for there is no Christianity in the case, but the real thing to do is this: whilst relieving the oppressed, correct the oppressor; put manacles on the hands of the tyrant, put fetters upon his feet, and chastise him with the rod of righteousness. “Judge the fatherless.” Let the judge become an advocate; then the advocate will be a judge. This is what we have to be and to do in the great Church of Christ. The judge seated on the bench is to be the advocate to whom the fatherless can look, saying to him, You know my case; speak for me: you have words; I have none; you know how to state the reasons: take up my cause for me. And then the judge shall be advocate, and the advocate shall be no longer a paid hireling to prove that wrong is right, or make the worse appear the better cause. When called upon to plead for the fatherless, to judge the fatherless, the orphan, the homeless, then his eloquence will be touched. Hear how he halts, stumbles, hesitates when he expounds an old black-letter law for which he cares nothing: how poor he is when challenged by the spirit of pedantry! but let an orphan appeal to him, let a widow who cannot speak for herself commit her case to him; then see how he rises in stature, flames into sacred fire, and speaks as if he were pleading for his own life. That is the enthusiasm which the love of Christ enkindles! “Plead for the widow.” The very word “widow” comes from an ancient term which signifies dumbness a woman who cannot speak for herself; she is made silent by grief, or she is speechless because she has no status in the court “Plead for the widow”: be a mouth to her, an eloquent tongue to her silence: she cannot speak, you must speak for her: accept her brief and relinquish her fee. Then will heaven clear away the clouds from its kind face, and there will come back again all summer, all beauty, all love.

Prayer

O thou Christ of the living God, thou didst die for men; yea, whilst they were yet sinners thou wast crucified, buried, and raised again, that they might obtain through faith eternal salvation. This is the love of God; this is the appeal of heaven to the children of time. How gracious the invitation! how tender every tone of the Father’s speech! how yearning the solicitude that broods over us! May we hear the gospel voice, and answer it with our love; may we know how much we need the Saviour; may all attempts at self-help and self-redemption be abandoned as falsehoods and impossibilities: with one consent may the nations turn to Christ and to his Cross, seeking cleansing only through the blood of his sacrifice, and finding peace only through him who is our reconciliation. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Jesus Christ has answered the law; he has filled up all that was needful, all that was lacking; he came to seek and to save that which was lost: he has found us, he has brought us home rejoicingly, and there has been joy in the presence of the angels of God over repentant and returned sinners. May none be left behind; may not one perish in the wilderness: may the last be brought in as the first, and may thy flock be thus completed, O Shepherd of Israel, O Pastor of the universe. We bless thee for a gospel which we need so much. We need it most when the night is darkest, when the temptation is severest, when the enemy is cruellest, when all sense of self-help abandons us, and when we are cast upon the mercy of the living God: then how great the gospel, how gracious the redeeming speech, how ample the provision made for sinners, how free how infinite the forgiveness of God! May we all cease to do evil, learn to do well, betake ourselves to those Christian activities which are binding upon Christian souls; and having served our day and generation on this side the vale may we pass beyond the cloudy screen, and there look upon all that has been waiting for us with the patience of eternity, and with the confidence of love. Amen.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XI

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 3

Isa 1:1-5:30

There are three things suggested by the word, “vision,” in the title, viz:

1. Being a vision, it will frequently speak of events, that are yet future, as if they had already occurred, e.g., Isa 3:8 ; Isa 5:13 .

2. What is seen in vision must be subject to the laws of the perspective. To illustrate: One who views a series of mountains from a distance may see a number of peaks, which are many miles apart, as one object. Thus in the fulfilment of prophecy, there may be a primary fulfilment and a long distance from that, the larger fulfilment. But they appear to the eye of the prophet as one fulfilment because they are in line with each other. A notable instance of this is seen in the case of the anti-Christs. Antiochus Epiphanes, the first one, was followed by the papacy; then after him comes the World Secular Ruler; and last comes the man of sin, who fills out the outline of all the ones who have preceded him.

3. It is, as a whole, one vision. It consists, indeed, of various parts, but from the outset they present the same vision. Though the visions are greatly diversified in size, form, coloring, and other details, they are in essential character only one vision.

This vision was “concerning Judah and Jerusalem” and yet it embraces a vast variety of nations and countries. There is a primary reference here to Judah versus Israel, but in the scriptural sense, all this prophecy is “concerning Judah and Jerusalem,” i.e., the people and city of God. Other nations and countries are spoken of only as they are related to Judah and Jerusalem, or at any rate to the people of God symbolized in those names. The first chapter is the preface to the whole book, whose standpoint is the covenant as set forth in Lev 26 and Deuteronomy 28-32, being especially modeled on Deu 32 , the song of Moses, and consists of “The Great Arraignment,” divided into four well-marked messages, in each of which Jehovah is introduced as himself speaking directly to his people. The divisions are as follows: Isa_1:2-9; 10-17; 18-23; 24-31.

The first message (Isa 1:2-9 ) opens with an invocation to heaven and earth to hear Jehovah’s indictment against his people, and it contains (1) a charge of rebellion against their nourishing father; (2) a charge of brutish ignorance, indifference, and ingratitude, such as the ox and the ass would not have shown their owners; (3) a charge of corruption and estrangement from Jehovah; (4) a charge of unyielding stubbornness which rendered the chastisement of Jehovah ineffective though stroke upon stroke had fallen upon them until there was not place found on the body for another stroke; (5) a penalty of desolation of their land and the captivity of the people; (6) a hope of an elected remnant who would be purified by the coming affliction upon the nation.

In this paragraph we have a picture of severe chastisements, not of the depravity of human nature, though sin in Israel has, of course, led Jehovah to chastise his rebellious son. In Isa 1:9 we have mention of the remnant left by Jehovah. This is the first mention of it and gives us the key to the hope of Israel in this dark hour, a favorite doctrine with Isaiah and Paul.

The second message of the first chapter (Isa 1:10-17 ) contains the charge of formality without spirituality in their religion. They are compared to Sodom and Gomorrah though they abound in their ritualistic service. After showing his utter contempt for this formality without spirituality, Jehovah exhorts them to return to him. The ceremonial is not condemned here, except as it was divorced from the spiritual. The prophet insists that ritual and sacrifice must be subordinated to faith and obedience. This is in harmony with the teaching of Hos 6:5-6 ; Mic 6:6-8 ; and Jer 7:4 ; Jer 7:21 ff., et al. In Isa 1:13 here we have the mingling of wickedness with worship which is an abomination. A real reformation is twofold: (1) cease to do evil; (2) learn to do well. Human activity Isa 1:17 emphasized in Isa 1:16-17 , while divine grace is set forth ia Isa 1:18 .

The third message of this chapter (Isa 1:18-23 ) is a message of” offered mercy and grace, with an appeal to their reason and an assurance of cleansing from the deepest pollution of sin. There is a back reference here to the promises and threatenings of the Mosaic covenant (Lev 26 ; Deu 30 ) in which life and death were set before them with an exhortation to choose. There is also a renewed charge here contained in the sad description of the moral degradation of Zion (Isa 1:21-23 ) in which Jerusalem is called a harlot and her wickedness is described as abominable.

The fourth message in this chapter (Isa 1:24-31 ) is a message of judgment on the ungodly. This judgment is both punitive and corrective. God avenges himself on his enemies and at the same time purifies his people, especially the holy remnant, and restores them to their former condition of love and favor. But the utter destruction of transgressors and sinners is positively affirmed, the sinner and his work being consumed. Sin is a fire that consumes the sinner. Therefore sin is suicidal. Isa 1:9 is quoted by Paul in Rom 9:29 and is there used by him to prove his proposition that, though Israel was in number like the sands of the sea, only a remnant should be saved. The remnant of the election of grace is both an Old Testament and a New Testament doctrine, as applied to the Jews.

Someone has called Isaiah 2-5 “the true and the false glory of Israel.” In chapter I the prominent idea is Justice coming to the help of rejected mercy, and pouring out vengeance on the sinful; in Isaiah 2-5 the idea is one of mercy, by means of justice, triumphing in the restoration of holiness. The characteristic in chapter I is its stern denunciations of the Sinaitic law, while the reference to Psa 72 is subordinate; the characteristic of Isaiah 2-5 is that, though the menaces of the law are still heard in them, it is only after the clearest assurance has been given that the prophecies of 2Sa 7 and Psa 72 shall be realized.

That Isaiah 2-5 belong to the time of Uzziah, is the natural inference from Isa 1:1 and Isa 6:1 . The contents of the chapters are such as to thoroughly confirm this obvious view. They refer to a period of prosperity (Isa 2:6-16 ) and luxury (Isa 3:16-23 ); when there was great attention to military preparations (Isa 2:7 ; Isa 2:15 ; Isa 3:2 ) and commerce (v. 16), and great reliance on human power (v. 22). Above all, it is only by remembering how, “when Uzziah was strong, his heart was lifted up” (2Ch 26:16 ), and he invaded the holy place, that we can fully appreciate the emphatic assertion of God’s incomparable exaltation and inviolable sanctity which prevails throughout this section.

In Isa 2:1 we have the title to Isaiah 2-5 and it shows that the message is for Judah and not for Israel. In this sense it means the same as in 1:1. The main body of Isa 2 (Isa 2:7-22 ) is an expansion of Isa 1:31 , “the strong one shall be as tow.” Isa 2:2-4 are intensely messianic and give an assurance that, amidst the wreck of Solomon’s kingdom and earthly Zion, as herein described, the promise made to David shall stand firm. It is the promise of this scripture that a time shall come when controversies shall not be settled by war; they shall be settled by arbitration, and the arbiter is the glorious One of the prophecy, and the principles of arbitration will be his word, the law that goes forth from his mouth. Cf. Mic 4:1-5 . We may never know whether it is Isaiah or Micah that is borrowing, or whether both alike quote from some earlier prophet. This glorious and far-reaching prediction has not yet been completely fulfilled. This is the first messianic prophecy of Isaiah, the pre-eminently evangelical prophet.

But what is meant here by “the latter days”? I cite only two scriptures, which tell us exactly what is meant. John, in his first letter says, “this is the last day,” or the last time, that is, the times of the gospel are “the latter days.” The prophet, Joel, says, “It shall come to pass in the last days,” or the latter days, “That God will pour out his Spirit,” and we know from the New Testament that this was fulfilled in Jerusalem on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of our Lord. It is settled by these words of God that “the latter days” in the Old Testament prophecies are the gospel days of the New Testament. Let us remember that the gospel days are the last days. There is no age to succeed the gospel age. Whatever of good is to be accomplished in this world is to be accomplished in the gospel days, and by the means of the gospel. All this universal peace arbitration, knowledge of the Lord and his kingdom come by means of this same gospel.

I shall not cite the scriptures to prove it, but it is clearly established by the New Testament that the “mountain of the Lord’s house” here is the visible, not invisible, church of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he established himself, empowered it through the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and it is through the instrumentality of that church that the great things of this prophecy are to be brought about. This passage distinctly says, “Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Our Saviour came, established his church, and then said, “Go into all the world, etc.” and “Ye shall preach the gospel to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.” The instrument then, by which these things are to be accomplished is just the gospel which we preach and which people hear and by which they are saved.

It is here prophesied that the nations shall be impressed with the visibility of the Lord’s house, the church, and shall say, “Come, ye, and let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.” They shall be enlightened by the light of the church, which being full of the Holy Spirit shall catch the eye of the nations and attract them. Then will they gay, “Come and let us go up to the house of the Lord.” The purpose of all this shall be that he may teach them. The church is God’s school and God himself is the teacher) and they are taught the principles of arbitration.

The arbiter of the nations, as here described, is the Lord Jesus Christ, the daysman betwixt the nations. He and the principles of his gospel alone can bring about such a state of things that “there shall be war no more.” The result of this arbitration will be universal peace (Isa 2:4 ). This shall be a glorious consummation when will be settled by arbitration controversies of every kind whether between nations or individuals, and righteousness shall prevail throughout the whole world. God’s means of preparation of the nation for the great future, as just shown in the messianic prophecy, are his judgments. These only can prepare the nation for this great future (Isa 2:5-4:1 ), the items of which are (1) the sins to be visited and (2) the classes of objects to be visited by these judgments. The sins to be visited by these judgments (Isa 2:5-9 ) are soothsaying, heathen alliances, luxury, militarism, and idolatry.

The objects against which these judgments are to be brought (Isa 2:10-4:1 ) are everything proud and lofty:

1. Inanimate things that minister to pride, such as cedars and oaks, mountains, military defenses, ships and idols (2:1021).

2. Men, especially the ruling classes (Isa 2:22-3:15 ). In Isa 3:4 we have a picture of weak, foolish rulers. Cf. Isa 3:12 . The ruling classes were especially to blame for the growing sin and corruption of Judah. They were “grinding the face of the poor.”

3. Women, for pride and wantonness (Isa 3:16-4:1 ). Here let us recall the indictment of the cruel, carousing women by Amos (Amo 4:1-3 ), and the words of Hosea about the prevalence of social impurity in his day (Hos 4:2 ; Hos 4:13-14 ). Isaiah dumps out the entire wardrobe of the luxurious sinner of the capital city. What a pity that wicked Paris should set the fashions for Christian women!

After this blast of judgments then follow the messianic prosperity, purity, and protection (Isa 4:2-6 ), a beautiful picture on a very dark background. Here we have the first mention of the’ key word, “Branch,” in “the Branch of the Lord.”

The subject of Isa 5 is the vineyard and its lessons, and the three essential things to note are: (1) the disappointing vineyard and its identification; (2) a series of woes announced; and (3) the coming army.

The prophet shows great skill here in securing attention by reciting a bit of a love song and then gliding gradually into his burning message to a sinful people. The description of this vineyard in the text is vivid and lifelike, showing the pains taken by the owner in preparing, tending, and guarding it. The great pains thus taken enhanced the expectation and, therefore, the disappointment. So, in despair and disgust he destroyed the vineyard and made its place desolate.

The prophet identifies the vineyard with Israel and Judah which had their beginnings, as a nation, with Abraham, and from the day of its planting it was under the special care of Jehovah. He always gave it the most desired spot in which to dwell, both in Egypt and in Canaan, but it never did live up to its opportunities and more, it never did yield the fruits of justice and righteousness, but instead, oppression and a cry. These general terms give way to the particular in the woes that follow. There are six distinct woes pronounced (Isa 5:8-23 ) against sinners in this paragraph, as follows:

1. Woe unto the land monopolies. This is a picture of what may be observed in many parts of the world today. Monopolies lead to loneliness and desolation. God is against the land shark. For a description of conditions, similar to Isaiah’s, in England, gee Goldsmith’s Deserted Village, in which are found these lines: Ill fares the land, to hastening his a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay. 2. Woe unto the drunken revelers. This is a vivid picture of wine with its accompaniments and results. People inflamed with strong drink relish a kind of music which is not very religious. These musical instruments are all right but they were put to the wrong use. Intoxicating drinks not only pervert the instruments of the Lord, but they make their subjects disregard the works and rights of Jehovah. In Isa 5:13 we see the effect of spiritual ignorance, which is captivity, perhaps the Babylonian captivity, or it may refer to Israel’s captivity already begun. Sheol in Isa 5:14 refers to the place of the departed, the underworld in which the “shades” rested. Here the picture is that of the increasing multitudes in the spirit world because of their disobedience here and God’s destruction of them, after which their land becomes the pasture for the flocks of foreign nomads.

3. Woe unto the defiant unbelievers. This is a picture of the harness of sin, and awful effect produced on those who follow its course. They are harnessed by it and rush madly on in their defying of the Holy One of Israel.

4. Woe unto the perverters of moral distinction, calling evil good, and good evil, putting darkness for light, and light for darkness. Their moral sense is so blunted that they cannot make moral distinctions, as Paul says in Hebrews, “not having their senses exercised to distinguish between good and evil.”

5. Woe unto the conceited men, perhaps their politicians. They are often so wise that they cannot be instructed, but they can tell us how to run any kind of business, from the farm to the most intricate machinery of the government. They may have never had any experience in the subject which they teach, yet they can tell those who have spent their lives in such service just how to run every part of the business down to the minutest detail. But they are really “wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight.”

6. Woe unto drunken officers, who justify the wicked for a bribe and pervert justice. When one is once allowed to look in upon our courts of justice (?) he can imagine that Isaiah was writing in the age in which we live. He goes on to show the just punishment that they were destined to receive because of their rejection of the law of Jehovah and because they despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

The conditions herein set forth (Isa 5:25-30 ) reach beyond those of the Assyrian invasion and find a larger fulfilment in the carrying away of Judah by the Chaldeans. Here Jehovah is represented as giving the signal and the call to the nations to assemble for the invasion of Judah and Israel, which may apply either to the Assyrians or to the Chaldeans and, perhaps, to both. Then the prophet describes the speed with which they come and do their destructive work, which may apply to the march of the Assyrians against Samaria and the Chaldeans against Jerusalem. (For minute details of description see the text.) The prophet closes his description of this invading army (or armies) and their destructive work, with Israel in the deepest gloom, which was fulfilled in three instances: (1) the capture of Samaria by the Assyrians; (2) the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans; (3) the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Perhaps all three of these events are in the perspective of the prophet’s vision, which constitute the dark picture and disappointing gloom with which he closes chapter 5 and section I of his book.

Isa 6 gives us Isaiah’s encouraging vision of Jehovah. The preceding section closed in the deepest gloom; the light of prophecy only made the darkness more fearful. Already the heir of David’s throne, Uzziah, had been “humbled” by God’s stroke, “cut away” as a withered branch, excluded from the house of the Lord, and continued till death “unhealed of his plague.” The prophet had delivered his message faithfully, but being only a man, he was conscious of the failure of his message, and therefore, at such a time he needed the comforting revelation of Jehovah, just such as the vision of Isa 6 affords. Thus Jehovah, as he comforted Abraham, Jacob, Moses Joshua, Elijah, the twelve, Paul, and John, in their darkest hours by a vision of himself, so here he comforts Isaiah in his gloom of despondency.

A brief outline of Isa 6 is as follows:

1. The heavenly vision, a vision of the Lord, his throne, his train, the seraphim with six wings each and saying, “Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts.” These creatures are God’s attendants and the six wings represent the speed with which they fly in carrying out his behests, but when in divine presence four of them were used for another purpose. One pair veiled the seraph’s face from the intolerable effulgence of divine glory; another pair veiled his feet, soiled in various ministrations, which were not meet for the all-pure presence.

2. The sense of unworthiness produced by the vision and the symbolic cleansing which encouraged him in his mission. Here the prophet acts very much as Job and John did when they saw his holiness, crying out, “unclean.” This is a most natural result from the contrast between relative and absolute holiness. Job maintained his integrity until he saw the Lord and then he was ready to say, “I abhor myself and repent.” So John fell at the feet of the glorious Son of God as one dead, and Peter said, “Depart; I am a sinful man.” With these examples before us we may conclude that he who boasts of his holiness advertises thereby his guilty distance from God.

3. The offer for service, which naturally follows such a preparation as Isaiah had just received. This, too, is an expression of renewed courage, in the face of such a dark prospect.

4. The message and its effect. He was to preach with the understanding that his message would not be received and that the hearer, because of this message, would pass under the judicial blindness. This passage is quoted by our Lord (Mat 13:14-15 ) to show the same condition in his day and that the responsibility for this condition did not rest upon the prophet or the preacher but that it was the natural result of an inexorable law, viz: that the effect of the message on the hearer of it depends altogether upon the attitude of the hearer toward the message. Them that reject, it hardens and them that accept, it gives life. Thus it has ever been with subjects of gospel address, but the message must be delivered whether it proves a savor of life unto life or of death unto death.

5. The terrible judgments to follow. Here the prophet asks, “How long is to continue this judicial blindness?” and the answer comes back, “Until cities are laid waste, etc.” This includes their captivity in Babylon, their rejection of the Saviour and consequent dispersion, and will continue until the Jews return and embrace the Messiah whom they now reject until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

6. The final hope expressed. This is the hope of the “remnant,” “the holy seed.” This was Isaiah’s hope of Israel in his day; it was Christ’s hope of Israel in his day; it was Paul’s hope of Israel in his day, and is it not our hope of Israel in our day? “The remnant according to the election of grace.”

QUESTIONS

1. What three things are suggested by the word, “vision,” in the title?

2. How do you explain the fact that this vision was “concerning Judah and Jerusalem” and yet it embraces a vast variety of nations and countries?

3. What relation does Isa 1 sustain to the whole book, what it standpoint, after what is it modeled, and of what does it consist?

4. What are the contents of the first message?

5. What expressions in this paragraph are worthy of note and what is their application?

6. What is the second message of Isa 1 (Isa 1:10-17 )?

7. What is the third message of this chapter (Isa 1:18-23 ), what the back reference here and what the renewed charge?

8. What is the fourth message in this chapter (Isa 1:24-31 ) and what in particular, the hope here held out to Judah?

9. What is the New Testament quotation from this chapter and what use is there made of it?

10. What is the nature of the contents of Isaiah 2-5 and what the relation of this section to Isa 1 ?

11. To what period of time does the section (Isaiah 2-5) belong and what the proof?

12. What is the title to this section and what does it include?

13. What is the close relation of Isaiah 1-2?

14. What is the assurance found in the introduction (Isa 1:2-4 ) and how does this passage compare with Micah’s prophecy on the same point?

15. What is meant here by “the latter days”?

16. What is meant by “the mountain of the Lord’s house”?

17. What means shall be used by the church in accomplishing these results?

18. What spirit of inquiry is here awakened?

19. To what purpose shall all this be?

20. Who is to be the arbiter of the nations, as here described?

21. What is the result of this arbitration?

22. What God’s means of preparation of the nation for the great future, as just shown in the messianic prophecy, and what, in general the items of judgment?

23. What are the sins to be visited by these judgments (Isa 2:5-9 )?

24. What are the objects against which these judgments are to be brought (Isa 2:10-4:1 )?

25. What shall follow these judgments on God’s people (Isa 4:2-6 )?

26. What is the subject of Isa 5 and what the three main points in it?

27. Describe the disappointing vineyard.

28. Identify this vineyard and show its parallels in history.

29. Itemize the woes that follow (Isa 5:8-23 ) and note the points of interest in each case.

30. What is the coming army as predicted in Isa 5:25-30 and what the parallels of this prophecy and its fulfilment?

31. What is the subject of Isa 6 and what its relation to the section (Isaiah 2-5) and what its bearing on the condition of Judah at this time?

32. Give a brief outline of Isa 6 and the application of each point.

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

XXVII

THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH

The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.

Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.

In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.

In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.

In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.

The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.

In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.

In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.

In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.

In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).

The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7

In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:

1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.

2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.

3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:

According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .

In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.

In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.

In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”

In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”

The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.

The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.

In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”

In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”

Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .

The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”

So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?

In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”

The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”

The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14

For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23

QUESTIONS

1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?

2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?

3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?

4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?

5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?

6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?

7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?

8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?

9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?

10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?

11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?

12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?

13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?

14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?

15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?

16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?

17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?

18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?

19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?

20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?

21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?

22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?

23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?

24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?

25. Where is the great invitation and promise?

26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?

27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?

28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?

29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?

30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?

31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Isa 1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Ver. 1. The vision of Isaiah. ] That which was not unfitly affirmed of a modern expositor, a that his commentaries on this prophecy of Isaiah are mole parvi, eruditione mangni, small in bulk, but great in worth, may much more fitly be spoken of the prophecy itself, which is aureus quantivis precii libellus, worth its weight in gold. A “great roll” or “volume” it is called, Isa 8:1 because it is magnum in parvo, much in a little; and it is said there to be “written with a man’s pen,” that is, plainly and perspicuously; so little reason was there that John Haselbach, professor at Vienna, should read twenty-one years to his auditors upon this first chapter only, and yet not finish it. b I confess there is no prophecy but hath its obscurity – the picture of prophecy is said to hang in the Pope’s library like a matron with her eyes covered – and Jerome saith that this of Isaiah containeth all rhetoric, ethics, and theology. But if brevity and suavity, which Fulgentius maketh to be the greatest graces of a sentence – if eloquence of style, and evidence of vision may carry it with the reader, here they are eminently met in this seraphical orator, of whom we may far better say than the learned critic doth of Livy, Non ita copiosus ut nimius; neque ira suavis ut lascicus; nec adeo lenis ut remissus: non sic tristis ut horridus; neque ita simplex ut nudus; aut adeo comptus ut affectata compositione calamistris videatur inustus. Par verbis materia, par sententia rebus, &c. c A courtier he was, and a master of speech; a man of noble birth, and as noble a spirit; not the first of the holy prophets, and yet worthily set in the first place – as St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans is for like cause set before the rest – because in abundance of visions he exceedeth his fellows; and in speaking of the Lord Christ, he delivereth himself more like an evangelist than a prophet, and is therefore called the evangelical prophet. d In the New Testament he is cited by Christ and his apostles sixty different times at least; and by the more devoted heathens he was not a little respected, as appeareth by the history of that Ethiopian eunuch. Act 8:26-40

The vision. ] That is, The several visions or doctrines so certainly and clearly revealed to him by God, as if he had seen them with his bodily eyes. See Isa 2:1 Nah 1:1 . For they are not to be hearkened to who hold that these seers, the prophets, understood not their own prophecies, 1Pe 1:10-11 though it is true that those “holy men of God spake as they were moved,” acted, and powerfully carried on ( ) to see and say as they did, by the Holy Ghost. 2Pe 1:21

Of Isaiah. ] Which signifieth “God’s health.” He would indeed have healed that perverse people to whom he was sent; but they “would not be healed,” as he sadly complaineth, Isa 44:4 ; Isa 53:1 turning them over to God with a Non convertentur; They will not repent, let them therefore perish. When there is no hope of curing, there must be cutting.

The Son of Amoz. ] Who likewise was a prophet, say the Hebrews, and of royal extraction.

Which he saw. ] Not which I saw; thus he speaketh for modesty sake. Luther e wittily saith, that Haec ego feci, haec ego feci, shows men to be nothing else but faeces, dregs.

Concerning Judah and Jerusalem. ] The inhabitants whereof lived in God’s good land, but would not live by God’s good laws; to them was objected, as afterwards to the Athenians, Eos scire quae recta sunt, sed facere nolle, that they knew what was right, but had no mind to do it, though this and other prophets used their best oratory in inviting those of them that did rebel, inciting those that did neglect, hastening those that did linger, and recalling those that did wander, to sue out their pardons, and make their peace with their Maker.

In the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. ] And longer too, if that be true which the Hebrews tell us, that at the age of one hundred twenty-six years he was sawn asunder by Manasseh (his grandson by the mother’s side) with a wooden saw. f Sure it is that Manasseh was a most bloody persecutor, and perhaps not inferior to Dioclesian, in whose days such cruelty was exercised toward the Christian bishops and others, Ut totum orcurn dicas in orbem effusum, ubi nemo nisi tortus vel terror sit, g as if hell had been broken loose, and all men turned either torturers or tortured.

a Snepfius.

b Mercat. Atlas.

c Casaub.

d Jerome. Est in fragmentis Demadis, orationes Demosthenis esse . De Isaiae visionibus idem puta. Conciones habet poenitentiales, comminatorias et consolatorias.

e Luth. in Ps. cxxvii.

f Jerome, lib. xv. in Isa. in fine.

g Bussieres.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Isaiah Chapter 1

The opening appeal of the prophet is to the conscience. No reader can avoid seeing that through Isaiah Jehovah charges His people with ungrateful, enormous, and persistent rebellion. It is the more terrible, because it is expressly general. There were marked differences between Uzziah and Jotham, between Ahaz and Hezekiah yet more and deeper. But the state of His people before the Holy One of Israel all through could not be truly described in terms less scathing. in themselves they were hopelessly evil; and one of the most pious of Judah’s kings, prompt beyond all (2Ch 29:3 ) to care for Jehovah’s honour and will, and large-hearted enough to embrace of all the tribes those who humbled themselves before Him Whom they had long despised, gave the occasion for most solemn appeal. Granted that no one can fix a special epoch, or an outbreak of iniquity of peculiar malignity. Even this, however deplorable, is not so desperate as a continuous state of alienation, where their corruption was the companion of despite done to Him Who had ever watched over them with a patience and tender mercy as perfect as His righteousness; His chastenings only preceded revolt more and more. Not even intense misery drew out groans to Him. Israel was utterly insensible to their loathsome wounds and mortal disease at His hands Who loved them, Whose readiness to heal was set at naught by their callous indifference. The body politic, civic and rural, was a disastrous ruin and desolation; and Zion’s daughter left as a temporary booth, instead of sitting for ever in royal grace above all rivals as became the favoured of Jehovah. In short, but for Him Whose title is to rule heaven and earth, and Who was pleased to reserve a very small residue, they had been as the doomed cities of the Plain.

But is this the gospel? or is such a national appeal in the least degree according to its spirit, or the revealed examples of those who preached it? Is it not evident from the Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, etc., as well as the Acts of the Apostles, that the gospel is sent forth by God’s grace, on the proved ruin of Jew no less than of Greek, to proclaim God’s righteousness in Christ (now that man’s unrighteousness is beyond dispute) unto all, and upon all that believe? Here probation still goes on under the law, as the rule of Jehovah’s government of His people. Their sins and their sufferings are urgently pressed home, and that mercy which is mingled with His law, as declared in Ex. 32-34, is before the prophet in pleading with the people perseveringly. Yet was he well aware that the mass would still stumble at the word, being disobedient, madly rushing to destruction, and that a very small residue would hear and in the end be blessed and triumph, when Jehovah would intervene for that double issue. This, however, is in no way what the gospel now makes known to the believer, but the display of Him Who is coming to bring in together the acceptable year of Jehovah, and the day of vengeance of our God: not the mysteries, but the manifestation, of the kingdom of the heavens. The judgement of the wicked, and the restoration of the righteous remnant are here joined, which is a state of things wholly foreign to the gospel, as every Christian knows. And our hopes are as different from theirs, as heaven is higher than the earth. They will look for the Messiah to restore the kingdom to Israel in that day of the earth’s glory, as He surely will, and from Zion to rule all the nations; but we hope to be with Him in the Father’s house, though we shall also reign over the earth. Those who merge both in one, not only defraud the Lord of His earthly reign, and Israel of the promises for them and the land, but lower and lose the heavenly glory of Christ and the church, which is our proper position. And this loss is Satan’s aim and success, ever since the apostles were succeeded by men who corrupted the truth.

Here, as elsewhere, we find grave and precious instruction, humbling lessons for the heart of man, and on God’s part unfailing pity and long-suffering, but withal solemn and sure judgement of all evil. Everywhere and at all times God’s character shines out to the eye of faith, as His glory will to “every eye” in a day which hastens fast. But the only wise God has been pleased to bring out His mind and display His ways in a variety of forms, which create no small perplexity to the narrow mind and unready heart of man. Some are apt to forget the past, as if the revelation of present privilege were all; many more would merge the actual calling of God in a vague amalgam, a truly unintelligent monotony, which confounds Israel and the church, law and gospel, earth and heaven, grace and glory. Here it is national dealing throughout: national apostasy with vain religious self-complacency; as it will be national judgement, and national restoration for a remnant, by Jehovah Himself in the day of the Lord’s return.

Doubtless, now that the Son of God has appeared, it is meet that we should hear Him; and it is vain to talk of honouring the law and prophets, Moses or Elias, if He have not the central and supreme place in our hearts. And it is to hear Him, if we believe that the Spirit of truth is come to guide into all truth; much of which even apostles could not bear, till redemption was accomplished and the Son of man ascended where He was before. It is due, therefore, to the New Testament that we should look for our special portion there, the revelation of that mystery which was hid from ages and from generations. But we cannot forget, without dishonour to God and loss to our souls, that there are certain moral principles which never change, any more than God can act or speak beneath Himself, whatever may be His condescension to the creature.

Thus obedience is always the right pathway for the faithful, and holiness is inseparable from the new nature; but then the character of the obedience and the depth of the holiness necessarily depend on the measure of light given of God and the power of the motives He reveals for working on the heart. What was allowed in Levitical time and order is largely out of place now, if we heed the Saviour’s authority. And this is at least as strikingly true of the public worship and service of God as of private life and duty. In many measures and in many modes He spoke in the prophets to the fathers; now He has spoken in the person of His Son. Hence unbelief assumes the character of resistance to the fullest love, light, authority, and wisdom, revealed in Him Who is the image of the invisible God – Himself God over all, blessed for ever; while the faith, which has bowed to Him thus displayed, loves to hear the earlier oracles and to reflect the true light which now shines, along with the fainter but equally divine luminaries which pierced through the darkness of man’s night; for all the blessed promises of God are now verified in Christ.

The title is, “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah” (ver. 1). This gives unity to the entire collection, as distinguished from particular dates, as in Isa 6:1 ; Isa 7:1 ; Isa 14:28 ; Isa 20:1 . In strict accordance with all, the first chapter then has a more general character than any other in the book. It most pathetically accuses the people and the capital and the sanctuary of the grossest ingratitude.

By the prophet before us God is still dealing with His people as a body; and therefore He pleads with them because of their iniquities, setting forth a full, searching, and even minute portraiture of their evil ways. For if prophecy encourages the faithful by the sure word of coming blessing from the Lord, it casts a steady and convicting light on the actual state of those who bear His name; its hopes strengthen those who bow to its holy sentences. Hence, if handled in a godly and reverent manner, it never can be popular, though notions drawn from it and used excitingly may be so. But the Spirit addresses it to the conscience in God’s presence, and there is nothing man as such shrinks from more.

If it grieved Jehovah at His heart to behold man’s wickedness great in the earth and to blot him out from the face of the ground, what was it now for Him thus to despair of the chosen people full of disease and wounds? For though He smote, they were but hardened, and revolted more and more. And outward disasters completely failed, though He had allowed it so far that only His mercy hindered destruction as unsparing as that which befell the doomed cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. How very small the residue! Compared with the days of David and Solomon, how evil and fallen even now!

Need the details be pointed out in further proof of these remarks? “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for Jehovah hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children; and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah! sinful nation; a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children corrupting themselves. They have forsaken Jehovah; they have despised the Holy One of Israel; they are estranged backward. Why be smitten any more? Ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it (or him): wounds, and weals, and open sores – they have not been closed, nor bound up, nor mollified with oil. Your country [is] desolate; your cities [are] burned with fire; your ground, strangers devour it in your presence, and [it is] desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a lodge in a melon-field, as a besieged city. Unless Jehovah of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, we should have resembled Gomorrah” (vv 2-9).

So the law-giver in his song (Deu 32:1 ) called the heavens and the earth to give ear, as he proclaimed the name of Jehovah, and set before the people that searching glance into the future which, through divine power, took in the failure and ruin of Israel. Moses sees Jehovah judging Israel’s idolatry, and hiding His face from them, also the call of the Gentiles, but to provoke them to jealousy, not to give them up for ever; and at length His glorious intervention, both to deliver them and the land, and to execute judgement on their adversaries, while in the end causing the nations to rejoice with His people. Isaiah was given to fill up that magnificent outline, bringing in Messiah and His work and His reign in the clearest and richest way for all that have eyes to see. Here it is the dark picture of their sins. What an expostulation from God and for God! Heaven and earth are summoned to hear the complaint against His people. The dullest of their own beasts of burden put them to shame. God’s chastenings were as vain as His gracious training. The body politic was utterly diseased and loathsome from head to foot; medicine and remedial measures quite neglected. Country and town a waste and scene of devastation; the ground eaten up by strangers; the daughter of Zion no longer enjoying that holy fortress, but left in distress and isolation like a city besieged. But that Jehovah had left a very little residue, we (says the prophet) had been as Sodom and like Gomorrah. Sudden and complete destruction was their deserved doom. The last chapters of the prophecy, like others throughout, attest the judgement executed by fire on the mass, the remnant also delivered and blessed as Jehovah’s servants under His righteous Servant.

It is the Jew, not the church, throughout that is in question. Zion measures the privilege and the guilt of Judah. Nowhere in scripture is it applied to the church, which is Christ’s body. In Heb 12:22 this is distinguished from Zion; and Rev 14 . sets Zion forth quite distinctly from those already glorified above as the church then is. In Mat 20:15 ; Joh 12:15 ; Rom 9:33 ; 1Pe 2:6 , the word has its historical sense. And so it is with Rom 11:26 . To read the church in any of these instances would yield no right meaning. And these are all the occurrences in the New Testament.

But has not such an appeal to Judah a voice for us? It is not only that the church of God began to be called out and formed when all was a failure: man, Israel, the world, were judged morally in the cross. But besides for us, too, the house of God is in disorder. The last time of many antichrists is long since come. The Christian witness has more deeply and widely departed from God than the Jewish one, notwithstanding immensely greater privileges. What remains but judgement for the mass, with the reserve of grace for those who humble themselves under God’s mighty hand? Does this produce hardness of feeling? On the contrary a spirit of intercession is the invariable companion of a holy heed to prophecy, both of them the offspring of communion with God. He loves His people too well to look with indifference on their sins, of all men’s; He must vindicate His outraged majesty, and those who are in the secret of His mind cannot but go forth in importunate desire for the good of souls and the glory of the Lord. But real love has no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness; rather does it reprove them. Neither does that love which is of God measure sin as nature does, but feels first and most that which slights Himself, His character, and His word

As to Israel, they were more guilty than the heathen, as bad as the worst. Hence it is no longer the doom, but the abominations of Sodom and Gomorrah. “Hear the word of Jehovah, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith Jehovah: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to trample my courts? Bring no more vain oblations: incense is an abomination unto me; new moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies, – I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear [them]. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgement, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken” (vv. 10-20).

There was no lack of zeal in religion, nor did they fail to seek a remedy for the evident gravities of their day; but their remedies were worse than useless. Divine privileges only rendered their moral state more portentous and intolerable. If they approached the doom of Sodom but for Jehovah’s mercy, morally they were already Sodom, and, therefore, their sacrifices, feasts, and assemblies all the more odious to Jehovah, Who felt His courts to be profaned by their tread, and refused to hear their multiplied prayers. There was no real repentance, no trembling at His word, but a religious veil over utter and shameless iniquity.

Yet Jehovah deigns to call them to repentance and the fruits suited to it. The language is clearly founded on the ceremonial washings so familiar to the Jews; but moral reality is the point, as is immediately after made plain. God can tolerate iniquity nowhere, least of all in His people. They must therefore cease from evil and learn to do well, proving it in ways of ordinary life. But He adds withal a gracious invitation that He and they should reason together. Soon would they then find where the fault lay, and with Whom is the grace that is willing to wash the foulest clean. The call ends with His promise to help them if they were broken down and obedient, and the threat to devour them by the sword if they refused. In the earlier of these verses there is much which we can freely take to ourselves now, for the immutable principle of God is to ally repentance to faith, and to insist on suitable works and ways in all whom He draws to Himself. Particularly do the words apply to saints who shirk responsibility and trifle with a pure conscience; and we may fairly encourage timid souls by the words “Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” But we necessarily stop there. Vers. 19 and 20 cannot be torn away from the Jewish stock. Christians have ample appeals, and more direct in the later volume of inspiration. For God’s moral government as Father follows His grace.

The universal corruption of Jerusalem, and of its rulers especially, is then laid bare. “How is the faithful city become a harlot! she that was full of judgement, righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water. Thy princes [are] rebellious, and companions of thieves; every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them” (vv. 21-23). Finally Jehovah shows He must deal with His adversaries, as well as Himself restore Zion, when idols and their makers perish together under His mighty hand. Their present state of ruin is contrasted with what it was and what it is to be. “Therefore saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies. And I will turn my hand on thee and thoroughly purge away thy dross, and take away all thine alloy. And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: after that shalt thou be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful town. Zion shall be redeemed with judgement, and her converts with righteousness. But the destruction of the transgressors and the sinners [shall be] together; and those that forsake Jehovah shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the terebinths which ye desired, and ye shall blush for the gardens that ye have chosen. For ye shall be as a terebinth whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. And the strong shall be as tow and his work as a spark; and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench [them]” (vv. 24-31).

The promise and judgement go far beyond the circumstances before and after the Babylonish captivity. The last fiery trial of Israel is in view, which grace will use for spiritual refining; after which will follow the times of restitution of all things, when the former rule shall come to Zion (Mic 4 ), the kingdom to the daughter of Jerusalem. It is a comprehensive preface of the prophet to his entire prophecy. But it is in no way the gospel as now, which is grace reigning through righteousness unto life eternal by Jesus Christ our Lord. Here it is destructive judgement executed on the evil, when the repentant remnant of the Jews enjoy God’s mercy. This is beyond cavil the bearing of the address, and the only just inference from its terms. What God has thus joined, let not man sunder to suit the present dealing of God in Christianity. Only “in that day” will Jehovah restore the judges and the counsellors of Jerusalem as at the beginning, and the city itself be one of righteousness and fidelity. In that day shall Zion be redeemed with judgement and her converts with righteousness, coincidentally with the execution of Vengeance on the wicked and her idols. It is a victory reserved for Christ’s appearing in the consummation of the age. Jerusalem must be purged before God can make her a centre of the nations. It is Christ there in power which accounts for all.

All believers thankfully acknowledge how much is shared by the faithful on earth from the beginning to the end of time. There is but one object of faith for all, though made known in very different measures before and since redemption, and in ways so distinct as the day of the displayed kingdom must be from preceding time and especially from the present. Hence none need cavil at Jerome’s calling our prophet evangelical, as compared with his fellows, or wonder at the countless gospel discourses preached from this chapter and many more. But the important thing exegetically is to observe the essential differences which prove that not the gospel but God’s ways with His ancient people, strictly speaking, are intended. Thus in the first paragraph (vv. 2-9) the appeal is national, whereas the gospel is strictly individual, though the house may be joined in a spirit of grace to its head. In the second (vv. 10-20) Jehovah declares He will hide in anger from their hypocritical worship. Now, since the grace of redemption, this is never said of the Christian. God did hide His face from, yea forsake, Him Who is our propitiation, and for this very reason when God made Him sin for us; but it was that we might never be thus abandoned. But He did abandon guilty Israel. In the third (vv. 21-31) He promises that “Zion shall be redeemed with judgement, and they that return of her with righteousness.” This characterises the redemption which will be, not only as a witness by the blood of the Saviour Who rose again, but with the mighty execution of God’s judgement of His adversaries when He with lye purges away Israel’s dross. So confirms all the context to the last verse. It is the distinctions, not of course the resemblances, which mark off the varying dispensations or ages one from another.

But no Christian ought to need proof how different is the ground of the gospel from such an intervention of Jehovah as the prophet describes here, and almost everywhere else. For moral probation is closed; law can only condemn those under it. All alike are lost; every mouth is stopped, and all the world under judgement to God. The Lord Jesus, the Son of God, sent as Man in the infinite love of God, has been by all rejected and crucified. Yet the judgement of sins and sinners was then and there laid on Him; and God is so glorified in His sacrificial death that He can and does proclaim to everyone that believes life eternal in His name, remission of sins, justification, and salvation as everlasting as glory. Such is the new state of things under the gospel and for the church, which meanwhile suffers with Christ, and waits for His coming to take us on high; whence He will appear in due time to judge the habitable earth, and introduce His kingdom before every eye here below, and over all nations and lands.

But our prophet, like the rest, predicts that day of His appearing to judge living man on earth, and deliver a remnant, here of Jews, as elsewhere of Gentiles also, for His manifested reign, when no evil will be tolerated but righteousness is exalted under His dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. Divine judgement will not be on Him, as the gospel we know is based on; but then at length, as the new and predominant fact in God’s ways, He will judge His people in a way beyond all past experience, and put down the wicked both there and outside them throughout the world, as He alone can, and thus establish His kingdom not only in Zion but over all the earth. It is this of which the chapter speaks, though in the general way which characterises every part of it, each divine communication having that perfect consistency with itself, which is proper to revelation, and in strong contrast with the gospel and the church, whatever be the efforts of popular theology in all ages to identify them, thus losing the distinctive power of both truths.

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

Isaiah

THE GREAT SUIT: JEHOVAH VERSUS JUDAH

Isa 1:1 – Isa 1:9 ; Isa 1:16 – Isa 1:20 .

The first bars of the great overture to Isaiah’s great oratorio are here sounded. These first chapters give out the themes which run through all the rest of his prophecies. Like most introductions, they were probably written last, when the prophet collected and arranged his life’s labours. The text deals with the three great thoughts, the leit-motifs that are sounded over and over again in the prophet’s message.

First comes the great indictment Isa 1:2 – Isa 1:4. A true prophet’s words are of universal application, even when they are most specially addressed to a particular audience. Just because this indictment was so true of Judah, is it true of all men, for it is not concerned with details peculiar to a long-past period and state of society, but with the broad generalities common to us all. As another great teacher in Old Testament times said, ‘I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt-offerings, to have been continually before me.’ Isaiah has nothing to say about ritual or ceremonial omissions, which to him were but surface matters after all, but he sets in blazing light the foundation facts of Judah’s and every man’s distorted relation to God. And how lovingly, as well as sternly, God speaks through him! That divine lament which heralds the searching indictment is not unworthy to be the very words of the Almighty Lover of all men, sorrowing over His prodigal and fugitive sons. Nor is its deep truth less than its tenderness. For is not man’s sin blackest when seen against the bright background of God’s fatherly love? True, the fatherhood that Isaiah knew referred to God’s relation to the nation rather than to the individual, but the great truth which is perfectly revealed by the Perfect Son was in part shown to the prophet. The east was bright with the unrisen sun, and the tinted clouds that hovered above the place of its rising seemed as if yearning to open and let him through. Man’s neglect of God’s benefits puts him below the animals that ‘know’ the hand that feeds and governs them. Some men think it a token of superior ‘culture’ and advanced views to throw off allegiance to God. It is a token that they have less intelligence than their dog.

There is something very beautiful and pathetic in the fact that Judah is not directly addressed, but that Isa 1:2 – Isa 1:4 are a divine soliloquy. They might rather be called a father’s lament than an indictment. The forsaken father is, as it were, sadly brooding over his erring child’s sins, which are his father’s sorrows and his own miseries. In Isa 1:4 the black catalogue of the prodigal’s doings begins on the surface with what we call ‘moral’ delinquencies, and then digs deeper to disclose the root of these in what we call ‘religious’ relations perverted. The two are inseparably united, for no man who is wrong with God can be right with duty or with men. Notice, too, how one word flashes into clearness the sad truth of universal experience-that ‘iniquity,’ however it may delude us into fancying that by it we throw off the burden of conscience and duty, piles heavier weights on our backs. The doer of iniquity is ‘laden with iniquity.’ Notice, too, how the awful entail of evil from parents to children is adduced-shall we say as aggravating, or as lessening, the guilt of each generation? Isaiah’s contemporaries are ‘a seed of evil-doers,’ spring from such, and in their turn are ‘children that are corrupters.’ The fatal bias becomes stronger as it passes down. Heredity is a fact, whether you call it original sin or not.

But the bitter fountain of all evil lies in distorted relations to God. ‘They have forsaken the Lord’; that is why they ‘do corruptly.’ They have ‘despised the Holy One of Israel’; that is why they are ‘laden with iniquity.’ Alienated hearts separate from Him. To forsake Him is to despise Him. To go from Him is to go ‘away backward.’ Whatever may have been our inheritance of evil, we each go further from Him. And this fatherly lament over Judah is indeed a wail over every child of man. Does it not echo in the ‘pearl of parables,’ and may we not suppose that it suggested that supreme revelation of man’s misery and God’s love?

After the indictment comes the sentence Isa 1:5 – Isa 1:8. Perhaps ‘sentence’ is not altogether accurate, for these verses do not so much decree a future as describe a present, and the deep tone of pitying wonder sounds through them as they tell of the bitter harvest sown by sin. The penetrating question, ‘Why will ye be still stricken, that ye revolt more and more?’ brings out the solemn truth that all which men gain by rebellion against God is chastisement. The ox that ‘kicks against the pricks’ only makes its own hocks bleed. We aim at some imagined good, and we get-blows. No rational answer to that stern ‘Why?’ is possible. Every sin is an act of unreason, essentially an absurdity. The consequences of Judah’s sin are first darkly drawn under the metaphor of a man desperately wounded in some fight, and far away from physicians or nurses, and then the metaphor is interpreted by the plain facts of hostile invasion, flaming cities, devastated fields. It destroys the coherence of the verses to take the gruesome picture of the wounded man as a description of men’s sins; it is plainly a description of the consequences of their sins. In accordance with the Old Testament point of view, Isaiah deals with national calamities as the punishment of national sins. He does not touch on the far worse results of individual sins on individual character. But while we are not to ignore his doctrine that nations are individual entities, and that ‘righteousness exalteth a nation’ in our days as well as in his, the Christian form of his teaching is that men lay waste their own lives and wound their own souls by every sin. The fugitive son comes down to be a swine-herd, and cannot get enough even of the swine’s food to stay his hunger.

The note of pity sounds very clearly in the pathetic description of the deserted ‘daughter of Zion.’ Jerusalem stands forlorn and defenceless, like a frail booth in a vineyard, hastily run up with boughs, and open to fierce sunshine or howling winds. Once ‘beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, . . . the city of the great King’-and now!

Isa 1:9 breaks the solemn flow of the divine Voice, but breaks it as it desires to be broken. For in it hearts made soft and penitent by the Voice, breathe out lowly acknowledgment of widespread sin, and see God’s mercy in the continuance of ‘a very small remnant’ of still faithful ones. There is a little island not yet submerged by the sea of iniquity, and it is to Him, not to themselves, that the ‘holy seed’ owe their being kept from following the multitude to do evil. What a smiting comparison for the national pride that is-’as Sodom,’ ‘like unto Gomorrah’!

After the sentence comes pardon. Isa 1:16 – Isa 1:17 properly belong to the paragraph omitted from the text, and close the stern special word to the ‘rulers’ which, in its severe tone, contrasts so strongly with the wounded love and grieved pity of the preceding verses. Moral amendment is demanded of these high-placed sinners and false guides. It is John the Baptist’s message in an earlier form, and it clears the way for the evangelical message. Repentance and cleansing of life come first.

But these stern requirements, if taken alone, kindle despair. ‘Wash you, make you clean’-easy to say, plainly necessary, and as plainly hopelessly above my reach. If that is all that a prophet has to say to me, he may as well say nothing. For what is the use of saying ‘Arise and walk’ to the man who has been lame from his mother’s womb? How can a foul body be washed clean by filthy hands? Ancient or modern preachers of a self-wrought-out morality exhort to impossibilities, and unless they follow their preaching of an unattainable ideal as Isaiah followed his, they are doomed to waste their words. He cried, ‘Make you clean,’ but he immediately went on to point to One who could make clean, could turn scarlet into snowy white, crimson into the lustrous purity of the unstained fleeces of sheep in green pastures. The assurance of God’s forgiveness which deals with guilt, and of God’s cleansing which deals with inclination and habit, must be the foundation of our cleansing ourselves from filthiness of flesh and spirit. The call to repentance needs the promise of pardon and divine help to purifying in order to become a gospel. And the call to ‘repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,’ is what we all, who are ‘laden with iniquity,’ and have forsaken the Lord, need, if ever we are to cease to do evil and learn to do well.

As with one thunder-clap the prophecy closes, pealing forth the eternal alternative set before every soul of man. Willing obedience to our Father God secures all good, the full satisfaction of our else hungry and ravenous desires. To refuse and rebel is to condemn ourselves to destruction. And no man can avert that consequence, or break the necessary connection between goodness and blessedness, ‘for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it,’ and what He speaks stands fast for ever and ever.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 1:1-3

1The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

2Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth;

For the Lord speaks,

Sons I have reared and brought up,

But they have revolted against Me.

3An ox knows its owner,

And a donkey its master’s manger,

But Israel does not know,

My people do not understand.

Isa 1:1 vision This term (BDB 302) is used in the sense of a revelatory message (cf. Isa 29:7; Mic 3:6). The terms visions and dreams are parallel in Isa 29:7 (cf. Dan 7:1). Usually dreams occur at night and visions both day and night. It appears to describe an altered state of consciousness whereby God, through metaphors, idioms, and physical objects, communicates special revelation. These truths are divine, not human. Isaiah probably structured the messages, but the content was from God! It is hard to describe the mechanisms of inspiration, but the results are a divine, authoritative message.

Here, in this context of an opening verse, the term is used as a title for Isaiah’s messages (cf. Isa 2:1; Isa 13:1; Amo 1:1; Mic 1:1; Hab 1:1).

Isaiah The name (BDB 447) means YHWH saves or salvation is of YHWH (there is no VERB). When iah appears on the end of a Hebrew name, it implies royalty and also stands for the covenant name of God, YHWH (cf. Exo 3:14).

SPECIAL TOPIC: NAMES FOR DEITY

Amoz This person (BDB 55) is mentioned only in connection to Isaiah. The basic root means strength, strong, or mighty.

he saw This VERB, (, BDB 302, KB 301, Qal PERFECT) is from a similar root, visions () and the same as seer (). It is used repeatedly in Isaiah (cf. Mic 1:1).

Uzziah Tradition says that Isaiah was related to Uzziah (YHWH is my strength). This cannot be corroborated, but the evidence points in this direction. This godly king died of leprosy in 740 B.C. (there is no consensus on the dates of his reign). He is also known in the Bible as Azariah (YHWH is my help).

For the dates of these kings and their relationship to the kings of Israel, see Appendix Four.

Isa 1:2 Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth These two IMPERATIVES are from different roots, but mean basically the same.

1. listen, BDB 1033, KB 1570, Qal IMPERATIVE, cf. Isa 1:10; Isa 1:15; Isa 1:19; Isa 6:8-9 (twice),10, etc.

2. hear, BDB 24, KB 27, Hiphil IMPERATIVE, cf. Isa 1:2; Isa 1:10; Isa 8:9; Isa 28:23; Isa 32:9; etc.

This was a striking way to jolt His people into acknowledging their rebellion. YHWH was initiating a court case against His own people! This opening is similar to Mic 1:2, Isaiah’s contemporary Judean prophet.

This sets the stage for chapter 2, which is also a court scene. God is taking his people to trial. This is a common literary technique in the Prophets (i.e., Mic 6:6-8; Jer 2:1 ff; Rom 8:31 ff). This is a common procedure in the OT of providing two witnesses to confirm a testimony (cf. Deu 4:26; Deu 30:19; Deu 31:28; Deu 32:1; Psa 50:4).

Heaven (BDB 1029) here refers to the atmosphere above the earth which was part of original creation (cf. Genesis 1). In this context it does not refer to God’s abode.

For the LORD speaks This is the covenant name for Israel’s Deity. See Special Topic: NAMES FOR DEITY .

Sons I have reared and brought up Here again God is described in anthropomorphic, familiar terms as a loving parent of Hos 11:1-4 (also note Exo 4:22; Deu 32:6; Jer 3:4; Jer 31:9, see Special Topic at Isa 6:1). The best human analogies to comprehend the character and actions of YHWH are (1) parent; (2) marriage partner; and (3) kinsman redeemer.

revolt This VERB (BDB 833, KB 981, Qal PERFECT) implies active, violent, open-eyed, personal rebellion (cf. Isa 1:28; Isa 43:27; Isa 46:8; Isa 53:12; Isa 59:13; Isa 66:24).

Me Sin is primarily a violation against God (cf. Gen 39:9; 2Sa 12:13; Psa 41:4; Psa 51:4). Norman H. Snaith, The Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament, says (the prophets) thought of it (sin) as rebellion rather than transgression (p. 65). Sin is a perversion of the divine image and likeness of God in humankind (cf. Gen 1:26-27). God wants the world to know Him! He chose a person (Abram), a family (Jacob), and a nation (Israel) to reveal Himself to all humanity (see Special Topic at Isa 1:3), but Israel failed to reflect the holiness and compassion of YHWH. They rebelled against Him with opened eyes. The essence of sin is me, more for me at any cost!

Isa 1:3 This verse may have been a well known, cultural proverb. Even dumb animals do not bite the hand that feeds them, but Judah does!

Israel does not know The VERB know (BDB 393, KB 390, Qal PERFECT) does not imply facts about a subject, but personal knowledge of someone (cf. Gen 4:1; Jer 1:5). Israel did not know their own creator, savior, and protector because they would not listen (cf. Isa 5:12-13; Isa 6:9-13; Isa 30:9).

My people This is covenant language (cf. Hosea 1-3, 11). It must be remembered that in the OT, election is God’s primary initiating choice of Abraham and Israel. There is commensurate responsibility after God’s initial choice known as covenant. This involves responsibility on both sides.

SPECIAL TOPIC: YHWH’s ETERNAL REDEMPTIVE PLAN

SPECIAL TOPIC: Election/Predestination and the Need for a Theological Balance

do not understand This VERB (BDB 106, KB 122, Hithpalel PERFECT) in this stem means to be inattentive. The problem was not lack of knowledge, but their unwillingness to obey (cf. Isa 6:9-10; Deu 4:6; Deu 32:29). They were content with a facade of religiosity (the cultus of Israel), but without the necessary lifelong faith, repentance, and personal trust! Their true nature is described in Isa 5:18-23, esp. Isa 1:21 (cf. Mic 4:12). They were covenant people in title, but not covenant people in heart (cf. Rom 2:28-29; Rom 9:6)!

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

The vision of Isaiah. This is the title of the whole book.

he saw = he saw in vision. Hebrew. chaza, to gaze on, as in Isa 2:1; Isa 13:1. Not the same word as in Isa 6:1, Isa 6:6; Isa 21:6, Isa 21:7; but Jehovah was the speaker. Isaiah’s voice and pen, but Jehovah’s words (Isa 1:2).

concerning Judah and Jerusalem. This is the subject of the book. It is not concerning the or the: nor to other nations, except as they come in contact with “Judah and Jerusalem”. Its theme is the salvation of the nation by Jehovah through judgment and grace, as being “life from the dead”. (Rom 11:15). It is addressed to those who look for Messiah (Isa 8:17; Isa 45:22) and those who “wait for Him” (Isa 8:17; Isa 25:9; Isa 26:8; Isa 33:2.

Uzziah (2Ch 26:1-23649 BC).

Jotham (2Ch 27:1-9.

Ahaz (2Ch 28:1-27).

and. The absence of conjunctions between these names, and the Hebrew accents attached to them, seem to indicate that some of them reigned for a time jointly. App-50.

Hezekiah (2Ch 29:1-32:33, and Isa 36:1-39:8).

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

The book of Isaiah is a marvelous book of prophecy. Of course, it is the longest book of prophecy in the Bible, and it would seem that God gave to Isaiah a clearer vision of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ than any other of the Old Testament prophets. He writes much concerning the Messiah that is to come.

In the first verse he tells us the historical time of his prophecies, beginning when Uzziah was king of Judah, which puts it about 760 BC. And he lived through the succeeding reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and into Hezekiah’s reign. And there is some conjecture that he lived through Hezekiah’s reign until the reign of Hezekiah’s son Manasseh, who was an extremely wicked king. And there are some stories that Manasseh the son of Hezekiah ordered Isaiah to be sawed in two, and that in the New Testament the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, where it tells us about the Old Testament heroes.

It’s interesting the New Testament in Hebrews calls them men of faith, but some modern evangelists today would tell you they lacked faith, because it tells you how they suffered. And it’s amazing that the men of greatest faith were marked by their suffering. And it tells how they were imprisoned, how they were stoned, and it does say how they were sawed asunder, or sawed in two. And there are those that believe that that is a reference to the fate of Isaiah under the king Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah.

But Isaiah names these kings through Hezekiah as the kings under which he served. In the Old Testament, if you go back to II Chronicles beginning with chapter 26 and on through to chapter 32, you will get the historic background for Isaiah’s prophesies. Because in II Chronicles, chapter 26-32, these kings, their reigns are listed, and for special credit for the course, you’ll go back and read 2Ch 26:1-23; 2Ch 27:1-9; 2Ch 28:1-27; 2Ch 29:1-36; 2Ch 30:1-27; 2Ch 31:1-21; 2Ch 32:1-33 in order to best understand the prophecies of Isaiah as they fit in their historic setting.

There is always a tremendous value in understanding the message of the prophet to read in the contextual historic background the things that were happening to the nation at the time that he was prophesying. It would appear that the first five chapters of Isaiah are during the reign of Uzziah. Uzziah was a very popular king. In chapter 6, Isaiah records the death of Uzziah and the resulted effect that it had upon his own life. So the first five chapters are probably written during the time of the reign of Uzziah who was a very popular king, a very prosperous king over Judah.

So it is,

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz ( Isa 1:1 ),

Which is not the same as the prophet Amos–different Hebrew word.

that he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, the kings of Judah ( Isa 1:1 ).

Now it’s as though man isn’t listening anymore. It’s as though Israel isn’t giving heed to the word of the prophet, so he calls unto the heavens and unto the earth to hear. Have you ever sat in a conversation and you’re talking and you look up and no one is paying attention to what you’re saying? They’re in conversation and you discover that you’ve just been talking and no one is paying any attention. Quite often in a restaurant I’ll be talking and I’ll look up and no one is paying any attention to what I say. So I pick up the vase of flowers in the middle and I say, “Now as I was saying, I really think that… ” And it’s like people aren’t listening anymore, so he says,

Hear, O heavens, give ear, O eaRuth ( Isa 1:2 ):

Man isn’t listening to the word of God, so he’s calling the heavens and the earth to bear witness to what the Lord hath spoken. And God gives here His indictment against the nation of Judah. Now it’s interesting that as you read it in it’s historic context, Uzziah was a fairly good king. It would seem that under his reign there was an outward revival among the people. They were going to temple, they were observing the Sabbath, and under Uzziah’s reign they were also observing the feast days, the Passovers and all. And though there was an outward form of religion, yet the Lord is calling out to the nation because underneath of it God had this indictment against Judah at the time.

I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me ( Isa 1:2 ).

So God’s first indictment is that His own children have rebelled against Him. It is interesting that God gives this figure of father and children to the nation of Judah at this time, even as we still see the same figure, as we are children of God. But God said He has nourished these children, but they have rebelled against Him. “I’ve brought forth these children, I’ve nourished them, and now they are rebelling against Me.” They have become worse than animals for,

The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel does not know, my people doth not consider ( Isa 1:3 ).

In other words, at least an animal has enough innate sense. An ox, and we say a dumb ox, but an ox has enough sense to know his owner, and a donkey has enough sense to know his master’s crib.

A few years ago in Jerusalem a crime was committed and the criminal in escaping left his donkey at the scene of the crime. And the detective, who happened to know a little bit of scripture who was examining the case, came and said, “Well, just turn the donkey loose,” and they followed him and led them to his master’s crib. And the man was apprehended.

The donkey has enough sense to know his master’s crib. But God said, “But Israel doesn’t know. My people do not consider.” They have not taken God into consideration that God has been providing for them. “They don’t know Me,” God is complaining.

As I said this morning, how long would you keep a dog if it would attack you viciously every time you went into your backyard? He didn’t know his owner, he didn’t know who was buying the dog food. You’d have to throw his food out the window. Where every time you went out in the back yard he’d come attacking you viciously, biting at you. But yet, if strangers, or a burglar would come into the yard, he’d go up wagging his tail and greeting him. How long do you think you’d keep a dog like that? I’d get rid of a dog like that in a hurry.

Think how patient God has been with some of you. Think of how long-suffering God is. Even an animal has enough sense to know his owner, to know his master’s crib. To know where his provisions are coming from. But God says, “My people haven’t considered; Israel doesn’t know Me.”

The third indictment that God has against them is they have become

A sinful nation, a people who are loaded down with iniquity, they are a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, and they have gone away backwards ( Isa 1:4 ).

Or they have backslidden. They have gone away backwards from God. They’re not going forward towards God, going backwards from God. What a heavy indictment God lays upon them here.

And then God questions,

Why should you be stricken any more? ( Isa 1:5 )

Now they had already been suffering. The condition of the nation was vastly deteriorating, weakening. Their enemies had been coming in. They had lost a vast amount of their treasures. They had lost a vast amount of their cities. They were in a period of decline. And God said, “Why should you receive any more strife? Why should you be stricken anymore?”

[Why is it that] you revolt still more and more: for the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot to the top of the head there is no soundness in it; but there are wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment ( Isa 1:5-6 ).

Here’s the nation battered, bruised, bleeding because they have turned their backs on God. And God has allowed the judgment, the chastisement to come to His children, but still they’re not learning the lesson, still they are not turning to God. “Why should you be stricken still? Why should it have to go on?” And the whole idea is turn to God.

Now I’ve always said that you can make it easy on yourself, or make it hard on yourself. And some people just make it hard on themselves. In a few chapters we are going to read, “Woe unto those who strive with their Maker.” Whenever you strive with God you’re making it hard on yourself. You’re gonna hurt, you’re gonna come out the loser. “Why should you be stricken any more?” God said. Covered with bruises.

Now God turns and He speaks of the desolation of the land. He deals, first of all, with the people as the result of their sin the land has been ravished.

Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire ( Isa 1:7 ):

Now this is equivalent to the wounds and the bruises and the putrefying sores. He is just talking about how the nation has been ravished.

your land, the strangers devour it in your presence, it is desolate, it is overthrown by strangers. The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in the garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city ( Isa 1:7-8 ).

Become isolated and just alone like a city that is under siege.

Except the LORD of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and would have been like unto Gomorrah ( Isa 1:9 ).

Unless God had spared the small remnant that was left, they would have totally been wiped out as was Sodom and Gomorrah. They would have been devastated.

Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah ( Isa 1:10 ).

So God, here He brings up the reference of Sodom and Gomorrah, the destruction by God’s judgment, and now He speaks of Jerusalem as a present Sodom and Gomorrah, as we in a figurative sense would speak of San Francisco as a modern Sodom and Gomorrah. Where the same openness of the same sin, the parading and the flaunting of that sin that brought the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is being flaunted in San Francisco. So God then talks about Jerusalem as being Sodom and Gomorrah. In Revelation, John picks up the same figure and uses, “which is spiritually Sodom,” he said concerning Jerusalem, where the bodies of the prophets are slain.

To what purpose, [God said,] is the multitude of your sacrifice? ( Isa 1:11 )

Now He gets into the religious aspect of their lives. And getting into the religious aspects, God shows that the outward form of religion is without value. God isn’t interested in religious forms; God is interested in your heart. The attitude of your heart is far more important to God than the actions. There are many people who are going through the right actions but have the wrong attitudes. And that’s a sad condition. God is interested in the attitude of your heart. And, of course, this is certainly manifested in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus speaks of the importance of attitude.

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I’m full of burnt offerings of rams, the fat of fed beasts; I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or in lambs, or of he goats. When you come to appear before me, who’s required this at your hand to tread in my courts? ( Isa 1:11-12 )

I didn’t ask you to come, God said. Who invited you into My courts? They were coming; they were still going through the religious exercises. They were still observing the Sabbaths and the new moons and the feast days, but God said, “Hey, I’m full up with your sacrifices. That’s not what I want.” David said, “Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not, else I wouldst give it. But a contrite heart, O Lord, that You will not turn away.” This after his sin with Bathsheba and his fifty-first Psalm, a prayer of forgiveness. “Sacrifices and offerings, Lord, You’re not really interested in, but the contrite, broken and contrite heart, Lord, You’re not going to turn away.” God is interested in the broken and contrite heart much more than your bringing some sacrifice to Him.

We look at the evil of the church and the church history that gave the impression to man that he could buy the forgiveness of his sins. “That’s all right, just as long as you can make a healthy contribution.” We’ll pat you on the back and say, “Fine fellow. Sit down here in the front row. We got your name with a gold star on the window, crystal. We’ve got your name here. You’ve donated. You’re in good standing.” It’s been the curse of the church. To make men feel comfortable thinking that because of their contributions and all that they’re well accepted and God has an open-door policy. God is interested in the heart. God says, “Hey, I’ve had it up to here with your sacrifices. I didn’t ask you to come in. Who invited you into My courts? Who required you to come along?”

Don’t bring me any more of these vain oblations; your incense is an abomination unto me; and the new moons and the sabbaths, and the calling of the assemblies, I cannot away with it; it’s iniquity, even in your solemn meetings ( Isa 1:13 ).

Even in your sacred services are just filled with iniquity.

Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates: they are a trouble; I am weary to bear them ( Isa 1:14 ).

Oh how God is just so sick of the religious forms if your heart isn’t in it.

And when you spread forth your hands ( Isa 1:15 ),

Now, of course, this is in their prayer, as they would come to the time of the solemn assembly to pray, they would stretch forth their hands to heaven. And God said, “When you stretch forth your hands that is in prayer,”

I will hide my eyes from you: yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear: for your hands are full of blood ( Isa 1:15 ).

The president of the Southern Baptist Association got into a lot trouble recently for a careless statement that he made concerning whose prayers God hears. But here God Himself declares that there are certain prayers He’s not gonna listen to. People that are spreading their hands towards God, but God said, “Hey, I’m not gonna hear.” Why? Because your hands are full of blood.

God does answer prayer that’s the basic thrust of prayer. That’s why we continue to pray and that’s our encouragement for prayer. But it is true that there are prayers that God doesn’t hear. David said, “If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord does not hear me when I pray.” In the fifty-ninth chapter of Isaiah it says, “God’s hand is not short that He cannot save, neither is His ear heavy that He cannot hear, but your sins have separated between you and God.” Here God is saying, “When you stretch forth your hands to pray and you offer your prayers, I’m not gonna hear them, for your hands are full of blood.”

Wash yourselves, make yourself clean; put away the evildoings from before my eyes; and cease doing evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, and plead for the widow ( Isa 1:16-17 ).

So the things that God was really concerned about is that they would really seek an honest judgment, that they would relieve the oppressed people, that they would give a true judgment to the fatherless and to the widow. After this indictment against them for their sins declaring the desolation that has come to their nation as a result of it and of God’s total abhorrence to their formal religious exercises without any heart behind it, He calls for them really to repent to cease doing their evil, learn to do well, learn to do the things that God wants. It is interesting that God didn’t want the sacrifices. God didn’t want the offerings or whatever that were being brought to Him. He wanted them to start living right, to deliver the oppressed. So God said,

Come now, let us reason together, saith the LORD ( Isa 1:18 ):

God never challenges a person to take a leap of blind faith. The concept and idea of blind faith has been invented by those outside the church. It is not a scriptural term, nor is it something God has challenged any man to do. It is something that man is being challenged to do by the existential philosophers today. For the philosophy of existentialism has concluded that truth, good, evil do not exist on a universal base, that they only exist in the experience of an individual, and because we are all different, we must all then experience for ourselves what is good. And that if you live in reality, real honesty or reality is hopeless and despairing. And their net result of their search for truth has led them to hopelessness and despair. It doesn’t exist. It is only relative as it relates to you. Therefore, because we as human beings cannot exist in hopelessness and despair, we must take our leap of faith, blind faith, hoping that we might find something to sustain us when we land. No guarantees, but you’ve got to take your leap of faith. And they start talking about the ultimate experience, the search for that ultimate experience. Take your leap of faith; maybe you can discover it.

One of the professors in Germany had so many students commit suicide that were taking his course started interjecting into his lessons, “We don’t know that suicide is the ultimate experience. Now it may be, but we’re not sure of that.” Of course, Huxley thought the ultimate experience would be to die on a wild LSD trip. So as he was dying, he took a large dose of LSD. He thought that was the ultimate experience. It probably was. Hopelessness and despair, but you can’t live in that, so you’ve got to take a leap of faith into a non-reasoned religious experience. Now that is why the Eastern religions, the mystics, the occultists, and so forth are so popular today. That’s why some little guru with a high whiny voice can say, “I have flowers, I love me… “and all this and everybody starts contemplating their navels and start chanting their ohmmmms. Because somehow as they get into this transcendental meditation, they get into an altered conscious state that they can not explain, but they have a sense of well being and a sense of peace and tranquility. “Can’t give you any reason for it, it’s just that I felt in oneness with the great creative force of the universe,” or something. And that’s why you see these kids with their shaved heads and finger symbols and their white robes and they’re dancing and chanting, because they are discovering some kind of a feeling that they cannot explain. It’s a non-reasoned religious experience, a state of altered consciousness. And that’s what philosophy says we must experience, you’ve got to experience it for yourself and thus you might discover what to you is relevant or meaningful or true.

But God doesn’t say, “Take a leap of blind faith.” God says, “Hey, come, let’s reason together.” God wants you to be reasonable. “Let us reason together, saith the Lord.” Not a non-reasoned religious experience. God will give you a reason and a base for your peace. God gives you a reason why you’re upset, a reason why there is the inner turmoil, a reason why there is that emptiness within. And God will give you a reason for believing and trusting.

One of the areas where we have strong evidence that God wrote the book and that God knew what He was talking about is in the area of prophecy. God challenged the false gods in Isa 41:1-29 to bring forth their strong reasons by telling us something before it happens. So that after it happens we really know you’re a god. Show us a sign, a miracle, and wonder in heaven or on the earth that we might wonder at it and know that you are god. Prove yourself, give some evidence. Don’t demand that we blindly follow you. Give some evidence. “That you might know,” He said, “that I am God, I’m going to tell you things before they ever transpire.”

Jesus said to His disciples, “Now I’ve told you those things before they come to pass so that when they come to pass you might believe.” It’s to give you a basis for your faith. Not blind faith. To give you a reason to believe. So I tell you in advance the things that are going to take place so that after these things take place you will believe. A reason for it. “Come now, let us reason together saith the Lord.”

Then God makes a challenging offer to these rebellious children who have sunk lower than the animals, who are covered with bruises, whose hands are filled with blood. He said,

Though your sins be as scarlet ( Isa 1:18 ),

The word scarlet has as its background, double-died, soaked in the die so long, dried and soaked again until the die has permeated the very fibers of the fabric and it is impossible to remove. And some people are so steeped in sin that it has penetrated the very fibers of their being and sin has become second nature to them. You by nature are a sinner, but when it has become second nature, you are in big trouble. You are a rank sinner. Second nature, you do it without thinking. It’s just second nature to you, but even though your sins be double-died, even though your sins have permeated the very fiber of your being,

though they be as scarlet, they may be as white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they may be as wool ( Isa 1:18 ).

Again, very white. What a marvelous offer by God to sinning man. And this, of course, is an offer of grace. You can’t do it yourself. You can’t bring it about by sacrifice, by offering; God is sick of those. You can only do it by receiving the grace of God. Come now, let us reason together, though you are in this terrible, hopeless state, I’ll wash you, I’ll cleanse you, I’ll make you over again–if you be willing. That’s the key, if you are willing. It has to be your choice. God is not going to force His will upon any man, for God has created you with a capacity of choice and that would be totally meaningless unless He respected the choices that you made. So,

If you are willing and obedient [God said], you can eat of the good of the land ( Isa 1:19 ):

The land that is wasted and desolate and taken over by your enemies, you can eat of it again, the good of it again.

But if you refuse and you rebel, then you will be devoured with a sword: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it ( Isa 1:20 ).

That’s it. You’ve got your choice. Come, let’s reason together. If you’re willing, if you’ll be obedient, you can have the best. If you continue to rebel, you’re gonna get cut off.

Hey, with those kind of terms it would be reasonable to accept God’s offer of grace and forgiveness. That would be the only reasonable thing under those terms. It would be very unreasonable to continue in your rebellion at that rate, to be cut off. So God speaks of Jerusalem,

How is the faithful city become as a harlot! ( Isa 1:21 )

Speaking, of course, in spiritual terms. The city that God had chosen, the city that God had selected from all the cities of the earth to place His name there that the people might come to it to worship Him, and yet, they had established within the city the various groves, and high places and the worship of false gods and Mammon and Molech and Baal.

It’s interesting some recent archeological excavations that have been done above the springs of Gihon, going up from the Pool of Siloam and the Spring of Gihon, just above the two and heading on up towards the temple mount, recent archeological excavations have uncovered the ruins of the ancient city of Jerusalem, some of the houses that were there in Isaiah’s day and on up to the fall of Jerusalem. They have found the ruins of the houses that were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar when he did come in and level the city. And there are marvelous interesting artifacts that they have discovered in these houses that were torn down and broken down by Nebuchadnezzar’s army. And within the houses they have found multitudes of little idols to the various pagan gods. Confirming what the prophets were saying to the nation of Judah as they were warning of the impending destruction, even as Isaiah said here, “The faithful city has become a harlot!” Because they’ve turned from the love of God, the true God, the living God. And as Jeremiah said, “You’ve forsaken the fountain of living waters and you’ve hewn out cisterns that can’t hold water.” And so they’re turning to these idols and to these other gods. They’ve turned, as God would say, spiritually, unto harlotry. They’ve become a harlot.

the city is full of judgment; righteousness once lodged in it; but now murderers. Thy silver has become dross, thy wine is mixed with water: Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves ( Isa 1:21-23 ):

Bribery was rampant.

and every one loves gifts, and they follow after rewards ( Isa 1:23 ):

And thus, their judgment is perverted.

they do not really judge the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them ( Isa 1:23 ).

Because they are receiving bribes, the total breakdown of the judicial system.

Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies ( Isa 1:24 ):

And what a tragic thing when the people of God have become His enemy.

I will turn my hand upon thee, I will purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counselors as at the beginning: and afterwards thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city ( Isa 1:25-26 ).

Now, of course, we got to about as dark as you can get. God had painted a black, black background for the nation of Judah, the city of Jerusalem. Get your blackest paint; paint the background using nothing but black, slate black. Now God takes… and in this black background He begins to bring a shaft of light, the shaft of hope for the future. For God is going to cleanse their dross and He will restore their judges as at the first and your counselors as at the beginning. And afterwards, after the restoration, thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Now she’s a harlot, she’s turned from God, but she shall become once again faithful unto her husband.

Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens which ye have chosen ( Isa 1:27-29 ).

The oaks and the gardens were a couple of the different cultish religions that they had embraced there in Jerusalem. They are referred to by other prophets also. Worshipping under the trees, and planting these gardens and using them for a form of worship of other gods.

The strong shall be as a tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them ( Isa 1:31 ).

So God will wipe out the iniquity. He’ll destroy those who are guilty of iniquity and the strong will be as a tow, which is sort of a… the Hebrew word is to be cast off as a flax. The residue that is cast off, actually. So it is a broken rope or a strand that is broken and the maker as a spark and burning it, destroying it. “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Isa 1:1-2. The vision of Isaiah the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

The good and gracious God, having been treated ungenerously, makes his appeal not to men who themselves are guilty, but to the very heavens and each, calling on the silent stones of the field, and the trees of the wood, and the stars of heaven, to judge between him and his rebellious children. I have nourished and brought up children taken a nurses interest in them, shown a parents love to them, and they have rebelled against me.

Isa 1:3-4. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his masters crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

More brutish than the brutes are men when they forget their God. The dog follows its masters heels, but man will not be obedient to his Lord. The ox knows his owner, and gives some sign of recognition when he sees him; but alas! the ungodly sons of men know not the God that made them, feeds them, keeps them alive. Where art thou, oh! backslider? Mingling once again with the people of God, let these words come home to you. There is a Thus saith the Lord in the prophets words to them; and thus saith the Lord to you. You have gone away backward, provoking the Holy One of Israel to anger.

Isa 1:5. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

It was of no use chastising these people. They only sinned the worse for all the afflictions that were sent, and when the fire of affliction doth not melt the iron heart, what can do it? Why waste the fuel upon them? Ye will revolt more and more; the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. They had been smitten, they had been afflicted, till the whole nation through and through had been brought low. Their head and heart had been made faint. And, oh! there are some that have passed through many trials and are none the better. They have seen poverty, and yet they go again to the sin that first brought them to it. They feel in their very bones the result of their transgressions, and yet they hug in their bosoms the serpent that has stung them.

Isa 1:6. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

The whole land of Israel was so destroyed through sin, it was like a body that is covered with sores that have not been touched by the surgeons hand. Yet they do not repent.

Isa 1:7-8. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,

A mere shanty run up during the grape season, wherein the persons who took care of the vineyard found shelter from the rain.

Isa 1:8. As a besieged city.

For the same purpose.

Isa 1:9. Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

Yet, though they were reduced to this, they kept on with their sins. It really seems as if men would suffer anything for their sins rather than give them up. It is not always the pleasure of sin which seems to fascinate, but the very bitterness of sin seems sweet to some.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Isa 1:1

DIVISION I (Isaiah 1-12)

This division has prophecies concerning Judah and Jerusalem, closing with promises of restoration and a psalm of thanksgiving.

This chapter has the title for the whole prophecy (Isa 1:1), God’s complaint against Israel (Isa 1:2-9), the statement that Israel has no excuse (Isa 1:10-15), a summary of God’s requirements (Isa 1:16-20), the prophet’s lament over Jerusalem (Isa 1:21-23), and a declaration of God’s judgment upon the apostate people (Isa 1:24-31).

Isa 1:1

“The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.”

The critical viewpoint that alleges an error in this title because the whole prophecy of Isaiah does indeed have many prophecies concerning other cities and nations besides Judah and Jerusalem is in error because all of the prophecies throughout the whole Book of Isaiah are included because of their relationship to the covenant people of Judah and Jerusalem, and because of their bearing upon the ultimate achievement of God in his purpose of salvation for mankind. As Rawlinson noted, “In the scriptural sense, all prophecy relates to Judah and Jerusalem.”

“The vision …” “This is a technical term for `Divine Revelation,” as something displayed before the mind’s eye of the prophet. Actually, much of the Book of Isaiah was communicated to the prophet in a manner unknown to us, as the author of Hebrews put it, “by various manners and various portions” Heb 1:1, NIV. There are also examples of “visions” in the usual sense, as in Isaiah 6.

“The son of Amoz …” This is not the same name as “Amos.” The meaning of Amoz, the father of Isaiah, is “strong” or “brass.” The name which he gave to his son (Isaiah) means “salvation is of the Lord,” or “Jehovah is helper.” It is supposed by some that Amoz was the uncle of Uzziah, which, if true, would make Isaiah the king’s cousin. Whether or not this is true, Isaiah was certainly well educated and was apparently of high social standing as indicated by his easy access to the presence of the king and his familiarity with royal problems.

Some have wondered why Manasseh was not mentioned here by Isaiah, since it is certain that Manasseh was associated with Hezekiah in the throne for the last ten years of Hezekiah’s reign (see introduction). Added to this is the well established tradition that Isaiah was “sawn asunder” by Manasseh, a tradition accepted by many Jewish authorities and seemingly suggested by Heb 11:37. The evil character of Manasseh could have been the reason for Isaiah’s omission of his name here. After all, Hezekiah was actually the monarch on the throne during the first ten years of the period assigned to the reign of Manasseh, a fact proved by the truth stated in 2Ch 32:32, where it is stated that Isaiah wrote the biography of Hezekiah including “the rest of his acts” in the prophecy called the “Vision of Isaiah.”

Isa 1:1 The first chapter is a prototype of the entire book. Contains the basic outline of the whole message: (a) sinfulness of Judah and Jerusalem (Isa 1:3-8); (b) appeals for repentance (Isa 1:16-19); (c) the coming judgment (Isa 1:24-25; Isa 1:29-31); (d) the blessings of the salvation to come (Isa 1:26-27). The combined reigns of the four kings mentioned covered some 81 years. 2Ch 32:32 suggests that Isaiah may have outlived Hezekiah. The prophecy concerns the destinies of Judah and Jerusalem-not the Second Coming of Christ-the preservation of the covenant people and points toward a fulfillment in the First Advent of Christ.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Isaiah was a prophet to Judah. He exercised his ministry wholly within her borders, and with a view to her correction and comfort. His burdens of the nations were uttered concerning those nations which surrounded Judah, and had harassed her. His outlook was world-wide, and inclusive of the whole purpose of God. Profoundly conscious of the purpose of God that through His people all peoples should be blessed, he saw through all the processes of judgment the ultimate blessing of the whole earth.

The prophecies of judgment fall into three circles: concerning Judah and Jerusalem (1-12), concerning the nations and the world (13-27), concerning the chosen and the world (28-35). This concerning Judah and Jerusalem is separated into two parts by the prophet’s vision at the death of Uzziah. In the first five chapters, therefore, we have his messages during the reign of Uzziah.

This first message is of the nature of a great impeachment of the nation, in which the cause of controversy between Jehovah and His people is declared, and the necessity for judgment affirmed. The heavens and earth are summoned to hear the complaint of Jehovah, which is that notwithstanding His love and tenderness His people do not know Him. The prophet appeals to the sinning people, demanding why they will still be stricken. All their suffering is the result of their sin, and yet they rebel more and more. Again voicing the message of Jehovah, he corrects the prevalent and pernicious idea that relation to God is conditioned by external acts of worship. Sacrifices and feasts are nothing worth, and God hates them when unaccompanied by rectitude.

Jehovah now calls His people to reason with Him, and declares that the alternative issue of such reasoning is dependent on their attitude. Because of the fearful corruption of the city judgment is necessary. It will proceed to restoration in the case of those who are obedient; but to reprobation and utter destruction in the case of the transgressors.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

the Ingratitude of a Favored Nation

Isa 1:1-9

This chapter forms the preface to the prophecies of Isaiah. It is a clear and concise statement of the points at issue between Jehovah and His people. Special urgency was given to these appeals, when first uttered, from the fact which was well-known to the Hebrew politicians and people, that Assyria was preparing for a great war of conquest, which would be directed specially against Jerusalem and her allies. This chapter is east in the form of an assize, a crown case in which God is both complainant and judge. The conviction of sinfulness which the prophet desired to secure, was sought, not by appealing to a code of laws which had been transgressed, but by showing the ingratitude with which Israel had repaid the fatherly love of God. It is the personal element in sin that most quickly convicts men. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Thou art the man! He hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace!

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

EXPOSITORY NOTES ON

THE PROPHET ISAIAH

By

Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.

Copyright @ 1952

edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago

ISAIAH CHAPTER ONE

THE CALL TO HEAR

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment” (verses 1-6).

ABRUPTLY the voice of the Lord breaks in upon the ears of men who prided themselves upon their religiousness and trusted in their formal observance of the legal ritual, “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider.” There is something sublime in the very simplicity of this challenge to obedience. Heaven and earth, ever subject to His wl1l, are called to witness the base ingratitude of the Lord’s people. The objects of His solicitous care from their childhood in Egypt to the moment then present, they had never, as an entire nation, given Him that loving obedience which was His due.

Individual faithfulness there ever was; but nationally, as later in the case of the Church viewed as a collective body, failure had come in almost at the very beginning and there had never been recovery. Ox and ass know their owner or their master’s crib because of his care for them. May we not well challenge our hearts as to how far we really know our Owner?

To what extent do we sanctify CHRIST as Lord? He is our Owner now. Other lords have had dominion over us, but by Him only will we now make mention of the ineffable Name.

– The kingdom of GOD for us is that of the Son of His love.

– To the Crucified we owe unswerving allegiance.

– Our Master’s crib is the Word of GOD, a part of which we have now before us.

Do we really know it? Does hunger ever drive us to it; or, are we often found foolishly sniffing the desert air, following the wind like the wild ass, our backs on GOD’s well-filled storehouse, vainly seeking a satisfactory portion in the world we have professed to judge?

Solemn questions these, not to be evaded or ignored, but faced in the presence of the Lord: lest a day come when, of us too He shall have to say, “Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward” (verse 4).

There is no breach of relationship suggested here. Judah was still owned of GOD, but her moral state was such as demanded discipline. Yet that discipline she had despised until it seemed to be useless to chasten her further.

The sore seemed too deep to be healed; the whole head was sick and the heart faint. Everywhere the evidences of inward corruption were manifest. Soundness, there was none; nor had their hearts turned to Him that He who had smitten might bind them up in His grace and longsuffering.

“Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our GOD, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When you come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be wi1l1ng and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (verses 7-20).

Prophetically, Isaiah beholds the sad result of all this cold-hearted indifference to the message he brought. Their country was soon to be desolate and their fair cities were to be destroyed by conflagration. Strangers should dwell in their land and but a feeble remnant be left as a workman’s hut in a vineyard or a keeper’s lodge in a cucumber field.

The prophet speaks of things not seen as yet, in the present sense, for faith’s eye can see all that GOD has declared as though already fulfilled. It is here he uses the words quoted by the Apostle Paul in Rom 9:29: “Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah” (verse 9).

That remnant alone could be owned of GOD. Because of it, He would not utterly cast off His people, and it will be observed that throughout the balance of the book, the remnant is ever given the place of the nation. The mass are already rejected – “children in whom is no pleasure.”

In verses 10-20 it is this evil majority who are before GOD. No link of relationship does He acknowledge with them. They are in very deed as Sodom and Gomorrah, and as such He designates them and calls them to repentance. Rulers and people alike were evil; and in their unholy, unregenerate state, they could have no place before Him. For such as these to offer sacrifice was but to mock and insult His holiness. He found no delight in their offerings, nor could He complacently behold them treading His courts.

What a scathing rebuke have we here for any who would profess to draw near to GOD by sacramental observances while not born of His Spirit and broken before Him!

– Ritualism is an offence;

– Religious exercises, as they are called, are filthy in His sight, if there be no true recognition of guilt and the need of atonement whereby iniquity may be purged.

From all their solemn feasts and sacred seasons, the Lord turned away in disgust. He would hide His face and close His ears, for the proof of their defiled condition was in their hands.

What was needed? The application of the Word of GOD to heart and conscience, evidencing genuine faith in Him whose voice to man it is, resulting in purged ways and a clean life. “Wash you, make you clean,” He cries; “Put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord.”

Observe the order here. There is no promise of gospel blessing until the Word of GOD be bowed to. Nor is it making grace to wait on works, or salvation dependent on human effort or upon advancement in righteousness. But GOD has no blessing either for time or eternity for the man who persists in sin and refuses to judge himself in the light of His revealed Word. Where faith is truly present, contrition for sin will be manifest and amendment will follow inevitably.

It is to the self-judged, therefore, that the glorious Word comes in power; “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as

snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (verse 18). No more blessed proclamation of full amnesty is found in all the Bible than in this lovely verse.

It is the offer of full judicial cleansing for every repentant soul, no matter how grievous his record may have been. Well may Isaiah be called “the evangelical prophet.” A wondrous gospel pervades all his pages, though warnings of judgment are ever before us.

Cleansed and forgiven, the delivered soul is then called to tread the path of obedience and subjection to the One who has justified from all things. Dispensationally, it may be remarked, justification had to await the revelation of the gospel of the glory of the blessed GOD, announced in New Testament times only; but, actually, every soul in every age who heard the Word in faith was cleared of every charge.

The obedience here indicated was of a decidedly legal character as befitting the age of law and the reward in keeping. “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.” But in this age of grace there is a land, unknown to sight but seen and enjoyed by faith, of whose goodly fruits each subject soul eats in abundance through the Spirit’s gracious ministry.

On the other hand, where the Word of life and blessing is refused and a rebellious spirit is manifested, in place of one of contrition and brokenness, the sword, whether as here of a human enemy or as more clearly made known in the New Testament, of divine judgment, must devour the gainsayer, “for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” This whole section is deeply instructive and should be carefully weighed in the light of eternity, by every soul to whom it comes, “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.”

Another section begins with verse 21 and goes on to the end of the chapter. It has in view Jerusalem, once the faithful city, now corrupt and adulterous: in itself, the exemplification of all the evils that afflicted the land. In dirge-like measure the prophet bewails its fallen estate; but the Spirit of grace distinguishes a remnant still and so he sings of mercy and of judgment.

“How is the faithful city become an harlot? it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: and I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them” (verses 21-31).

The city in whose devotedness the Lord had once found such delight, which once bore the name of the holy, had become an harlot, following after other lovers who could not save. Once full of discretion and the home of righteousness, it had become a lodging-place for men of blood. In place of silver, speaking of atonement (cf. Exo 30:11-16), was the dross of complacent self-sufficiency; and the wine of joy was diluted with the foul water of earth’s broken cisterns (verses 21, 22).

The leaders of the people, who should have set an example of subjection to the Word of GOD, were rebellious and bribe-lovers. Righteous judgment was forgotten in the base desire for gain.

Because of all this, the Lord Himself would awake to judgment, and pour out His vengeance upon those who, posing as His friends, were in reality at enmity with Him. But unmixed judgment it could not be, for they were His covenant people still. He would correct in measure.

His discipline would have the effect of removing the unjust and unholy, purging the nation from its dross and sin, from all that was base and unpleasing to GOD, after which He would restore their judges as at the first and their counselors as of old. Then, redeemed with judgment, Zion shall be called once more The city of righteousness, The faithful city (verses 25-27).

This will be their final blessing as other Scriptures show us, after the long years of their dispersion and the bitterness of the last great tribulation have come to an end.

Their sufferings must go on until the unrepentant transgressors and willful sinners shall be utterly destroyed, and those that remain – a weak but faithful remnant – shall loathe themselves for their past sins and be ashamed of the many false gods who have allured them, as a nation, away from the GOD of their fathers. Beautifully, we see this spirit exemplified in three ninth chapters of our Bible: namely, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel; all remnant books, where faithful men judge their people’s sin as their own sin, but from it turn with abhorrence, to seek the Lord with all their hearts. All who do not repent shall be consumed together by the fierce anger of the Lord as a withered oak, a waterless garden, and as tow to which the Lord shall apply the spark.

Nor have the words of this section a voice for the Jew alone. They are also “written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have arrived. The failure of the professing Church has been even greater than that of Jerusalem, because of the greater light against which we have sinned. Soon must the Holy and the True, disgusted with such corruption, vomit out of His mouth all that is unreal and opposed to His Word.

But He stands knocking at the door, and whenever there is reality and a heart for Himself, He will come in and sup there in hallowed, blest communion, though the doom of guilty Christendom is so near.

~ end of chapter 1 ~

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Isa 1:12-13

Such texts as this ought to terrify us. For they speak of religious people and of a religious nation, and of a fearful mistake which they were making, and a fearful danger into which they had fallen.

I. Isaiah tells the religious Jews of his day that their worship of God, their church-going, their Sabbaths, and their appointed feasts were a weariness and an abomination to Him. That God loathed them and would not listen to the prayers which were made to Him. That the whole matter was a mockery and a lie in His sight. These are awful words enough-that God should hate and loathe what He Himself had appointed; that what would be, one would think, one of the most natural and most pleasant sights to a loving Father in heaven-namely, his own children worshipping, blessing, and praising Him-should be horrible in His sight.

II. The text should set us on thinking, Why do I come to church? Because it is the fashion? Because I want to hear the preacher? No; to worship God. To adore God for His goodness, and to pray to Him to make us good, is the sum and substance of all wholesome worship. Then is a man fit to come to church, sins and all, if he carry his sins into church not to carry them out again safely and carefully, as we are all too apt to do, but to cast them down at the foot of Christ’s cross, in the hope (and no man ever hoped that hope in vain) that he will be lightened of that burden, and leave some of them at least behind him.

C. Kingsley, The Good News of God, p. 51.

References: Isa 1:13.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 365. Isa 1:16.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 263. Isa 1:16, Isa 1:17.-J. Keble, Sermons from Advent to Christmas Eve, pp. 424, 435, 446; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 228; D. Burns, Ibid., vol. xxix., p. 83.

Isa 1:16-18

As early then as the time of Isaiah we find the doctrine of the reformation of character dependent on forgiveness of sin distinctly taught.

Consider:-

I. The demand made. (1) The nature of the demand. It is for a reformation of practice. Put in one word, it is Reform. This is the one Divine call to fallen man. At one time it is an old commandment, at another a new one. Whether it be faith or love, hope or patience, that are enjoined, they are all to issue in the moral elevation of man’s character. (2) The word “learn” suggests a further thought, namely, the ground of this demand for reform. The ground of the demand is the perversity of the human will. (3) Consider the justice of the demand. It is God who makes it. But He could not have made it unless it were just to do so; nor would He have made it unless it were possible for man to meet it.

II. How to meet God’s demand for reform. (1) The answer of nature. The belief in the ability of man to reform himself is founded either on ignorance of the real nature of his moral condition, as was the case in the pagan world, or on a deliberate refusal to recognise the truth when it is presented concerning that condition, as was the case in Judaism, and is the case at the present day with those who persuade themselves to a belief in the infinite intrinsic capability of human nature. (2) The answer of grace. A power from without is absolutely necessary to enable man to meet the demand for reform. This power is God’s forgiveness. (a) Pardon is an inducement to repentance, which is the first step in the reformation of character, (b) Pardon removes, or rather is itself, as its name implies, the removal of sin. When sin itself is removed in forgiveness, all its consequences, too, will soon vanish; and lightened of our burden, we shall feel free and ready to undertake the duties of the new life.

R. E. Morris, The Welsh Pulpit of To-Day, p. 295.

Isa 1:18

What are a few of the leading lines of God’s instruction to the soul?

I. He teaches through conscience. Conscience is a “necessary idea.” Nothing is so certain as that; from east to west, from north and south, comes testimony to that fact. The poems of Homer, the awful hints and warnings of the tragic poets of Greece, the religious teachings of the farthest East, the ethical form of the strong Egyptian faith in immortality,-all combine to record the existence of this “necessary idea.” Let each of us obey the invitation by keeping an ear ready for the warnings of conscience; let us lose no time. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord.”

II. The soul is instructed by the providence of God. The Bible, from beginning to end, is ever exhibiting this blessed truth. The beautiful stories of the earlier patriarchs, the incidental episodes (such as that sweet picture of dutiful devotion in the Book of Ruth), the proclamations of the Prophets, the tender verses of the Psalms, as well as the whole history of the chosen people, conspire to witness to the consoling fact that “the Lord careth for His people.” To learn, with ready mind, the lessons of Divine providence is to listen to the Divine invitation, “Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord.” Among His many lessons, surely there are two that He would teach us: (1) the blessing of a bright and patient spirit in those who are trying to serve God; (2) seek earnestly God’s guidance in all times of difficulty, and confidently trust in Him.

III. God instructs the soul of the creature by the revelation of Jesus Christ. What does Jesus Christ teach? (1) In His example, as exhibited in the Gospel, He shows us a righteousness so transcendent that it corroborates the teachings of conscience, a course of action of such unvarying tenderness that it illustrates and manifests the providence of God. (2) He gives the most vivid, the most appalling, revelation of human sin; but with it, what conscience could never do of the most loving, most complete forgiveness to the penitent, and the brightest hope (after sorrow) as to human destiny, in the tragedy-the love-marked tragedy-of the Passion. (3) And beyond that, He displays to us a prospect and a power of attainment to the heights of spiritual longing, by revealing the method and confirming the promise of the implanting of His own life, of His own image, ever more and more fully in the soul of His creature, which is the daily, hourly work of God’s blessed Spirit in those who diligently seek Him.

W. J. Knox-Little, Manchester Sermons, p. 1.

I. God, having made this proposition, proceeds on the assumption that He knows Himself to be right in this case.

II. God proceeds on the assumption that man ought to be prepared to vindicate his conduct by reasons.

III. The sinner is invited to take his case to the fountain-head. It is God who invites us to state the case directly to Himself.

IV. From a proposition of this kind, what can I infer but that God’s purpose is, in making it, to mingle mercy with judgment?

V. The sinner is left absolutely without excuse.

Parker, City Temple, vol. iii., p. 49.

References: Isa 1:18.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 366, and vol. xxii., No. 1278; Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 213; J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 33; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 117; S. Cox, Expositions, 3rd series, p. 427; R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii., p. 193. Isa 1:22-26.-H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 228. Isa 1:31.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 207.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

Analysis and Annotations

The reader will find that every chapter has been analyzed as to its contents. We have not made copious annotations, because the three lectures on the book of Isaiah as found at the close of the analysis cover the contents of this book in such a manner that detailed annotations for a study of the book can be omitted. We suggest that all who desire to study this great prophecy in a closer way read carefully the introduction, and after that the three lectures on The Scope of Isaiah, The Messianic Predictions and Future Glories and Blessings. These lectures should be carefully studied and every passage should be looked up. After this has been done, take up the book section by section and follow the analysis we give and consult the lectures whenever needed.

I. THE EARLIER PROPHECIES (1-35)

1. Prophecies under the Reign of Uzziah, Jotham, and Ahaz (1-12)

CHAPTER 1

Jehovahs Case Against Judah and the Promise Of Restoration

1. The title of the book and contents (Isa 1:1) 2. The moral and religious decline of the nations (Isa 1:2-15) 3. Jehovahs exhortation and appeal (Isa 1:16-20) 4. The result of obstinate refusal (Isa 1:21-24) 5. The promise of restoration (Isa 1:25-31)The promised restoration of Jerusalem is still future. The afterward when the earthly Jerusalem is to be called The City of Righteousness refers to the second coming of Christ. Compare with Jer 33:14-26.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

vision: Isa 21:2, Num 12:6, Num 24:4, Num 24:16, 2Ch 32:32, Psa 89:19, Jer 23:16, Nah 1:1, Hab 2:2, Mat 17:9, Act 10:17, Act 26:19, 2Co 12:1

saw: Isa 2:1, Isa 13:1, 2Pe 1:21

the days: Isa 6:1, 2Ch 26:1 – 2Ch 32:33, Hos 1:1, Amo 1:1, Mic 1:1

Reciprocal: 2Ki 16:1 – Ahaz 2Ki 16:20 – Hezekiah 2Ki 19:2 – the son of Amoz 2Ch 26:3 – Uzziah 2Ch 26:22 – Isaiah 2Ch 27:1 – twenty and five 2Ch 28:1 – Ahaz 2Ch 29:1 – Hezekiah Pro 25:1 – which Jer 1:1 – words Jer 22:29 – General Eze 1:1 – I saw Act 8:28 – Esaias Rom 9:27 – Esaias

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Of all the prophets Isaiah is the richest in the number of his references to the Christ who was to come, and in the variety of the figures under which He is presented to us. It is evident that it divides into three main sections (1) Isaiah 1;35, chiefly occupied with pronouncing judgment upon Israel and the nations, but with repeated references to Christ, in whom alone is hope of blessing found. Then (2) Isaiah 36-39, an historical section, recording God’s deliverance, both national and personal, granted to one of the best kings of David’s line; recording also how failure marked him. Then lastly (3) Isaiah 40-65, mainly occupied with predictions concerning the coming Messiah both in His humiliation and in His glory, but presenting it against the dark background of the idolatry of Israel in Isaiah’s day, and their rejection of Christ at His first advent.

The break that appears, as we reach Isa 40:1-31, is very evident, as also the change in the main themes. So much so that critical and unbelieving theologians have asserted that there must have been several writers or compilers of the book. They speak of two or more Isaiahs. When we turn to New Testament quotations from the book, we find no trace of any such idea. Here is one fact which strongly negatives it.

In the Old Testament God is spoken of as, “The Holy One of Israel” only about 37 times. Just 30 of these occur in Isaiah, so it is the characteristic title of God in his book. These 30 are almost equally divided between chapters 1-39, and 40-66, occurring 14 times in the first part, and 16 times in the second. This strongly supports unity rather than plurality of authorship.

The first verse shows that Isaiah’s ministry was in the southern kingdom and extended into four reigns. Three of the kings mentioned did mainly what was right, one especially so, and only one – Ahaz – turned aside and did evil. Yet the prophet’s opening words reveal a sad state of departure and rebellion among the people. There was not only this, but, as verse Isa 1:3 states, complete insensibility and indifference. They did not display the instinctive knowledge found in an ox or a donkey. Hence the terrible indictment of verse Isa 1:4. They were sinful and marked by iniquity, evil-doing, corruption, alienation; and all this was while God-fearing kings were on the throne. It illumines what is said in 2Ch 27:1-9 the end of verse Isa 1:2.

All this had brought upon them the heavy hand of God in discipline and disaster, yet without any reforming effect, as verses Isa 1:5-9 show. Graphic figures are used to bring home to the people their deplorable state, and verse Isa 1:9 reveals that only a small remnant existed, that God could recognize: Had not that remnant been there a judgment like to that of Sodom and Gomorrah would have fallen on them. This is ever God’s way. Again and again in the past He had maintained a small remnant for Himself in the midst of general departure. He has done so through the church’s history. He is doing so today.

Verse Isa 1:10 has a solemn voice to us. The prophet likens the religious leaders of his day to the rulers and people of those cities of wickedness, that centuries before had been destroyed. We say, religious leaders because of the verses that “follow, where they and the people are shown to have been zealous and punctilious observers of the ritual of Judaism. What were they doing? They were offering sacrifices and burnt-offerings, bringing oblations and incense, observing new moons, sabbaths, appointed feasts and assemblies, spreading forth their hands with many prayers. Were not these things right, as ordered through Moses? Yes, they were. Yet all this was declared to be a weariness to God and an abomination in His sight, because, as verses Isa 1:16-17 reveal, their ceremonial exactness was only a decent exterior covering a mass of moral evil and uncleanness. The state of things here exposed blossomed forth into the Pharisaism, so trenchantly denounced by our Lord in Mat 13:1-58.

What needed instruction for us! How easy for the present-day Christian to lapse into a similar condition! There are all too many professing Christians who do forsake “the assembling of ourselves together” (Heb 10:25), for like Demas they love this present age. But what about those of us who are present? – even at the prayer-meeting, which many seem to regard as the least interesting of such assemblies. Are we marked by godly and separate living? – by what the apostle James calls, “Pure religion and undefiled” (Jam 1:27)? – for there is a strong resemblance between his words and verses Isa 1:16-17 of our chapter. Let us never forget that with God right moral condition is far more important than ceremonial exactness in Judaism, or even correct church procedure in Christianity. If scrupulous ecclesiastical exactitude fosters moral negligence it becomes an abomination to God.

The stern denunciation we have read is followed by a word of grace and forgiveness, a foreshadowing of what we have in the Gospel today. The, “all have sinned” of Rom 3:1-31, is followed by justification, freely offered through “His grace.” Only, the cleansing, offered in verse Isa 1:18, was in its nature a “passing over” of sins “through the forbearance of God,” as stated in Rom 3:25, since the only basis for a cleansing full and eternal lay in the sacrifice of Christ, centuries ahead.

Notice too how “if” occurs in verses Isa 1:19-20. The cleansing and blessing offered hinge upon obedience. To refuse and rebel brings judgment. Both blessing and judgment are concerned with matters of this life, since what is involved in the life to come appears but little in the Old Testament. When the Gospel preacher of today happily and appropriately uses these verses, he of course refers to the eternal consequences of receiving or rejecting the offer,: basing what he says on New Testament scripture.

The prophet returns to his denunciation of the existing state of things in verse Isa 1:21. In verse Isa 1:24 he announces that the Lord is going to act in judgment, treating them as adversaries; but in the next verse declaring that He will turn His hand upon the remnant, refining them as silver, and purging away their dross. The expression, “turn My hand,” is also found in Zec 13:7, where also, as here, it denotes an action of blessing and not judgment. This is quite plain in the next verses of our chapter. But the redemption of Zion and her converts will be through judgment.

The testimony of Scripture is consistent that the earthly blessing of the coming age will be reached, not by the preaching of the Gospel, but by judgment. This is again declared most plainly when we reach Isa 26:9, Isa 26:10. A clear New Testament corroboration of this is found in Rev 15:4. This judgment will mean the destruction of the transgressors. They may have forsaken the Lord and turned to false gods with their oaks and gardens, but these evil powers will avail them nothing. All will be consumed together.

Isa 1:1-31 is introduced as a “vision;” Isa 2:1-22 is “the word;” but again concerning Judah and Jerusalem. The opening verses enlarge further upon the good things that will come to pass when redemption by judgment takes place. The first thing is that the house of Jehovah shall be established and exalted. Thus it ever is, and must be. God must have His rightful place, and from that blessing will flow out to men.

But the house of the Lord is here called very significantly, “the house of the God of Jacob,” for then God will manifestly have triumphed over the self-centred crookedness that marked Jacob, and has been perpetuated in his descendants. This will be so clear that all nations will flow to the house to learn of God, so that they may walk in His law. Judgment having been accomplished, men will be marked by obedience Godward, and consequently peace among themselves.

How significant is the word “neither shall they learn war any more.” Of recent years men have certainly been learning war, and all too efficiently have they learned it, so that mortal fear grips their minds. It is beyond the power of mankind to achieve what is predicted in verse Isa 1:4, though one day they will imagine they have reached it by their own schemes and say, “Peace and safety,” only to meet “sudden destruction,” as foretold in 1Th 5:3. The succeeding verses of that New Testament chapter are in keeping with verse Isa 1:5 of our chapter. The house of Jacob is entreated to leave the false lights of their idolatries and walk in “the light of the Lord.” That they will do, when the coming age arrives. It is what we are privileged to do today, since we are brought into the light as children of light, and of the day that is to dawn when Christ shall appear.

The prophet returns to the existing state of the people in verses Isa 1:6-9. From other peoples they had imported various forms of spiritist practices. They were prosperous in material things; plenty of silver and gold and treasures, and also horses, which were a luxury forbidden to Israel’s kings, according to Deu 17:16. All this led to the land being full of idols, before which both poor and great abased themselves. Truly a deplorable state of things.

What then was to be expected? Just that which the prophet now had to announce. He looked beyond the more immediate, disciplinary judgments, that were impending through the Assyrians or Chaldeans, to Jehovah being manifested in His majesty, when His “day” will be introduced. Rev 6:15-17, gives us an amplification of verses Isa 1:10, Isa 1:19; Isa 1:21, for men were filled with haughtiness and lofty looks, though they bowed down before their idols.

The list of things, upon which the day of the Lord will fall in judgment, is very impressive. It will evidently make a clean sweep of all the things in which fallen man boasts, even things pleasant and artistic. Instead of accepting and even enlarging the products of man’s inventive skill, as an introduction to the millennial age, as some have imagined, it will remove them, as well as the idols and the idolatrous notions that gave them birth. Today men are being humbled as they receive the grace and truth of the Gospel. Then men will be abased and their false glory depart, as the glory of the Lord shines forth.

What then is the spiritual instruction to be derived from this prophetic declaration? The last verse of the chapter supplies it. As it was with Israel in Isaiah’s day so in the world today, man is catered for, man is magnified; but if we “Walk in the light of the Lord” (verse Isa 1:5), his littleness is seen, and we “cease from man.” He is but a dying creature because of his sin. Before God he counts for nothing in himself. We know, in the light of the cross of Christ, that he is worse than nothing. How amazing then is the grace that has stooped to bless such as ourselves.

Having spoken of the day of the Lord and its effects in Isa 2:1-22, Isaiah deals again with the existing state of the people in Isa 3:1-26; making plain also how God was chastising them, and would continue to do so. The famine and confusion and oppression, with its accompanying miseries, so that Jerusalem should be ruined, might not come on them immediately, but they would ultimately, though God would favour the righteous as verse Isa 1:10 indicates. The ancients and princes of the people were the leaders in the evil of that day.

But the evil of the day was not confined to the leaders, or to the men of the nation, such as are described in verses Isa 1:2-3. The women also were deeply implicated. Their state is denounced from verse Isa 1:16 to the end of the chapter. They adopted all the devices, well practised in the heathen world, in order to increase the seductiveness of their attractions; and, as the closing verses state, the very men they tried to attract should fall by the sword, and so fail them.

The first verse of Isa 4:1-6 completes this grievous theme, and here we believe we do travel on to the last days. The destruction of male life will be so great that women themselves will be found advocating some kind of polygamy to cover the reproach of spinsterhood, prepared to be no real expense to the man whose name they take. This may read strangely to us, but when we consider the predictions of Scripture as to the strife and warfare which will mark the end of the age, we are not surprised. Read, for instance, the prediction as to the warfare, “at the time of the end,” given in Dan 11:40-45

The words, “in that day,” occur at the beginning of verse Isa 1:2 as well as in verse Isa 1:1, and here we see clearly that the “day” in question is the period that introduces the age to come, the time of the second Advent. The word translated, “Branch” is used of our Lord five times in the Old Testament, and has the sense of a sprout – “a Sprout of Jehovah for glory and beauty” (New Trans). Here we see, though somewhat veiled, an allusion to the Deity of the promised Messiah. The figure used is that of a living tree putting forth a sprout which displays its own nature and character. And the living tree here is Jehovah Himself; while the words, “for glory and beauty,” carry our thoughts to the robes made for Aaron, and to their typical significance as stated in Heb 2:7.

Twice in Jeremiah do we get the Lord Jesus alluded to as the Branch, or Sprout (Jer 23:5; Jer 33:15); but there what is emphasised is righteousness. It is the character He displays rather than the Source from whence He springs. Again in Zechariah the expression occurs twice (Zec 3:8; Zec 6:12). There the emphasis lies on the fact that though He springs forth from Jehovah, He is to take the place of the Servant, and enter into Manhood to serve. Reading the five occurrences in the fuller light of the New Testament, we see how full were these early predictions as to our blessed Lord. The one in our chapter is the first and deepest of them all.

We may remark that Isa 11:1, presents the Lord Jesus as a “Rod [or, Shoot – a different word from Sprout] out of the stem of Jesse,” and lower down in that chapter He is “a Root of Jesse;” two expressions which remind us of, “the Root and the Offspring of David,” (Rev 22:16). “Sprout” of Jehovah is what He was essentially. “Shoot” of Jesse and David is what He became in His holy Manhood.

Not only will Christ be thus revealed in that day but also a godly remnant will be found, spoken of as, “them that are escaped of Israel.” This indicates how fierce and destructive of life will be the great tribulation that is elsewhere foretold. Verse Isa 1:3 enforces the same fact, and from our Lord’s prophetic discourse, recorded in three of the Gospels, we learn that Judah and Jerusalem will be the very centre of that time of trial and persecution, which will only be ended when the Lord intervenes in power at His second advent. Those that remain will be alive spiritually and holy, and enjoy the excellent fruits which will be produced by His presence.

But before this happy state of things can be produced there must be that work of cleansing of which verse Isa 1:4 speaks, described as “a spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning;” that is, by fire. We may remember that John the Baptist said of our Lord, “He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire” (Mat 3:11). He indicated also that it was the chaff that should be burned, while the wheat was gathered into His garner. In our chapter the wheat is described in verses Isa 1:2-3. The burning of the chaff will purge and wash away the filth. The cleansing of Jerusalem, indeed of the whole earth, will be by a work of judgment and not by the preaching of grace.

Once judgment has accomplished its cleansing work the presence of God can be restored to Jerusalem, dwelling not merely upon a special building, like the temple in Solomon’s day, but rather upon every dwelling-place and convocation. His presence will be signalised as of old by a cloud in the daytime and a flame by night. When that takes place, who shall be able to strike a blow at Jerusalem? The presence of God and the glory accompanying it will be protection. Who can strike through a defence like that?

The word translated “tabernacle” in verse Isa 1:6, is not the one used for the tabernacle in the wilderness but for the feast of tabernacles or booths. Any extreme, either of heat or of rain, will be so slight that no more than a booth will be needed. Everything necessary will be found in connection with the presence of God in the midst of His people, redeemed by judgment.

The first of the minor sections of the book ends with chapter 4. Consequently we observe that though we have had before us from the outset a very dark picture of the sinful and corrupt state of the people, which would bring upon them the judgment of God, we are conducted at its close to Christ as the Sprout of Jehovah, in whom all hope is found. We shall find this feature repeated. The next section, Isa 5:1 – Isa 9:7, ends with Immanuel. The third section ends, in Isa 12:1-6, with the Shoot and Root of Jesse, and the joy that He will bring to pass.

As we further consider Isaiah, we shall note some of those things, “concerning Himself,” which, when He expounded them on the day of His resurrection to the two disciples going to Emmaus, caused their hearts to burn within them. Considering them rightly, they will have the same effect upon us.

Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary

1:1

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

GENERAL DISCOURSES

The first five chapters of Isaiah form a natural division, to which, for want of a better title, we give that of General Discourses, or messages. The first is limited to chapter 1, the second covers chapters 2-4, and the third chapter 5.

But first notice the introduction, Isa 1:1. By what word is the whole book described? What genealogy of the prophet is given? To which kingdom was he commissioned, Israel or Judah? In whose reigns did he prophesy?

Examine 2 Kings, chapters 15-20, and the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles for the history of this period. It will be seen later that the prophet received his vision in the last year of Uzziah, so that few of his messages belong to that reign. In the days of Jotham and Ahaz Judah was menaced by Syria and Israel, and shortly after Ahaz came to the throne he made an alliance with Assyria against them. This was contrary to the divine will and gives occasion for much of Israels prophecy, especially in the early part of the book. Assyria at first a friend, afterwards became the enemy of Judah, to the latters serious loss. When Hezekiah came to the throne however, he placed his trust in Jehovah and was able to resist the further inroads of Assyria. Familiarity with these facts is necessary to understand the allusions in Israel.

FIRST DISCOURSE (Isa 1:2-31)

This discourse opens with an indictment against the people for their sin (Isa 1:2-4), ingratitude and sinful ignorance being emphasized. The name of Israel in these verses is to be taken in a generic sense as including Judah. Now follows a description of the present consequences of their sin (Isa 1:5-9). Notice the figure of speech a cottage in a vineyard. The cottage was the shelter of the keeper of the vineyard, but Judahs desolation at this time represented a vineyard without fruit, the cottage alone indicating that it was a vineyard. In other words Jerusalem the daughter of Zion and the capital of the kingdom was about all that remained to her at this time. A remonstrance follows (Isa 1:10-15). The names Sodom and Gomorrah are used metaphorically. The people were hypocritical in their religious worship, and God was weary of it. He appeals to them (Isa 1:16-20). The appeal is recognized as fruitless, and judgments must follow, out of which purification and redemption shall come (Isa 1:21-27). This period of judgment runs throughout the history of Judah down to the end of this age, as indicated by Isa 1:26-27, which speak of a time not yet realized in her experience. In other words Jerusalem on this earth shall some day be known as the city of righteousness. This will be when Zion, or the kingdom of Judah, shall have been redeemed with judgment. The discourse closed with a further note of warning (Isa 1:28-31).

SECOND DISCOURSE (Isaiah 2-4)

This discourse opens where the previous one ends, viz. in the last days (Isa 2:2). Then the kingdom shall have been restored to Judah, and that nation shall have become the head of the Gentile nations on the earth, for such is the meaning of Isa 2:2-4. The millennial age is brought into view, when the other peoples of the earth are learning of God through the converted Jew, and when peace is reigning among them. This vision of future blessing for Judah is following by a repetition of the indictment against the people for their present sin (Isa 2:6-9). They have been affiliated with the Gentile nations, luxuriating in their wealth, and worshiping their idols. The coming penalty on Judah is predicted (Isa 2:10 to Isa 4:1). In these verses note the rebuke to the pride of the men of Judah and the luxury of the women. The details of the attire of the women (Isa 3:16-26) has had light thrown upon it recently by oriental exploration. Seventeen of the twenty- one ornaments spoken of were those worn by the heathen goddess Ishtar. The Baby-Ionian women copied the dress of their favorite goddess, and the Jerusalem women adopted their fashions. The discourse closes with a repetition of the future blessing promised (Isa 4:2-6).

THIRD DISCOURSE (Isaiah 5)

The vineyard spoken of, and of which such care was taken is Judah (Isa 5:1-3). How Judah repaid God for this care is shown (Isa 5:4). The penalty is indicated figuratively (Isa 5:5-7). The remainder of the chapter gives in plain language the details of Judahs sin, and the penalty to be inflicted upon her.

QUESTIONS

1. How many discourses are in the section?

2. Have you refreshed your memory by reading the chapters in Kings?

3. Give in your own words an outline of the first discourse.

4. How does the second discourse open and close?

5. Under what figure is the story of Gods goodness and Judahs unrighteousness repeated in chapter 5?

Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary

Isa 1:1. The vision of Isaiah It seems doubtful, says Bishop Lowth, whether this title belongs to the whole book, or only to the prophecy contained in this chapter. The former part of the title seems properly to belong to this particular prophecy: the latter part, which enumerates the kings of Judah, under whom Isaiah exercised his prophetical office, seems to appropriate it to the whole collection of prophecies delivered in the course of his ministry. Vitringa, to whom the world is greatly indebted for his learned labours on this prophet, has, I think, very judiciously resolved this doubt. He supposes, that the former part of this title was originally prefixed to this single prophecy; and that when the collection of all Isaiahs prophecies was made, the enumeration of the kings of Judah was added, to make it, at the same time, a proper title to the whole book. And such it is plainly taken to be, 2Ch 32:32; where the book of Isaiah is cited by this title. Thus understood, the word vision is used collectively for visions, and the sense is, This is the book of the visions, or prophecies, of Isaiah. The reader must observe, the two usual ways, whereby God communicated his will to the prophets, were visions and dreams: see Num 12:6. In visions, the inspired persons were awake, but their external senses were bound up, and, as it were, laid asleep in a trance. Thus Balaam describes them as to himself, Num 24:16. They are called visions, not from any use made of corporal sight, but because of the clearness and evidence of the things revealed, and the conformity of this kind of inspiration to the information which the mind receives by the sight of the bodily eyes. Hence, also, prophets were called seers, 1Sa 9:9. Sometimes, however, visions were accompanied with external representations. See Isa 6:1; Eze 40:2; Rev 21:10. See notes on Isaiah, by Wm. Lowth, B.D. Which he saw Foresaw and foretold. For he speaks, after the manner of the prophets, of things to come, as if they were either past or present. Concerning Judah Principally, but not exclusively. For he prophesies also concerning Egypt and Babylon, and divers other countries; yet with respect to Judah. In the days of Uzziah, &c. In the time of their reign. This, probably, was not the first vision which Isaiah had, but is placed at the beginning of his book, because, together with the four following chapters, it contains a general description of the state of the Jews, under the several judgments which God had brought upon them, and is a fit preface or introduction to the rest of his prophecy.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Isa 1:1. The vision. What the prophet saw with the eyes of his mind, concerning the state of Judah and Jerusalem, his ministry being chiefly confined to the kingdom of Judea.

Isaiah, the son of Amos, not the prophet Amos, but a nobleman of Judah, who had married the sister of king Amaziah, as is recorded in Zeder lam, a Hebrew book. He was therefore first cousin of king Azariah, whom he calls Uzziah, chap. 6. He prophesied in the reign of the four kings, Uzziah, Jothan, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, which extended to a period of more than sixty years. The Jews have a tradition, that he lived to the beginning of the reign of Manasseh, when the wicked and apostate rulers, who had utterly corrupted the young king, put him to death for opposing their idolatries. They did it under a cloke of religion, as Jezebel in procuring the death of Naboth. They charged him with blasphemy, for saying, Isa 6:1, I saw the Lord; alleging against him the words of the Lord to Moses.

Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me, and live. Exo 33:20. He was therefore sawn asunder with a wooden saw. It is probable that others about the same time suffered in like manner, for the apostle speaks of those martyrs in the plural number. Heb 11:37.

This tradition is noticed as undisputed by the christian fathers, Tertullian, Basil, and Hayman. It is also stated by Jerome, in his preface to Isaiah, who must have received the crown of martyrdom when near the hundredth year of his age.

As a prophet, his fame lives through every age of the church. He saved Jerusalem twice when the enemies had invaded the land. He saw the Messiah enthroned in the temple, and spake of his sufferings, of his glory and his kingdom, with light above all others; and on that account he is called the evangelical prophet.His political views of providence corresponded with those of grace. He saw the wicked and bloody nations which surrounded his country melt away like the snow before the warmer sun. In vision he saw Cyrus, and called him by name; he saw the Lord drying up before him the waters of Babylon, and giving him the hidden treasures of darkness. In a word (Daniel having lived to show the king the parchments) he saw Cyrus emancipate the Jews with largesses, adding, the Lord God hath commanded me to build him a temple in Jerusalem.

Isaiah left many writings whose loss is much regretted by the rabbins. He wrote a chronicle of all the occurrences in the long reign of king Uzziah. 2Ch 26:22. He wrote a biography of celebrated men, a work often cited by Origen. The ascension of Isaiah is named by Jerome and Epiphanius; and also another book, called the vision or apocalypse of Isaiah.

What was the time, and what the occasion, when the prophecies in the five first chapters of this book were delivered? It is replied, in the time when the young and ill-advised Ahaz had so discovered his weakness and superstition that Retzin king of Syria, and Pekah king of Samaria, united their armies to cut off the house of David, and to divide the kingdom. They slaughtered a hundred and twenty thousand of Ahazs army in one day, and led captive two hundred thousand women and children, which the prophet Oded persuaded them to return. Thus at a stroke, that Ahaz lost all the growing glory of the reign of Uzziah and of Jotham. In this tremendous crisis, when the city was full of refugees, Isaiah was in every place preaching and prophesying like a flame of fire.

Isa 1:2. Hear, oh heavens, and give ear, oh earth. Ye heavens that have witnessed the perfidy of this guilty people; and thou, oh earth, that has nourished them with harvests and wine. The like addresses to inanimate nature are used by Moses. Deu 4:29. By David, Psa 50:4. The prophets mind, full of his subject, bursts at once in effusions the most sublime.

Isa 1:3. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his masters crib. What, must the learned priests, doctors, and princes be reproved and instructed by the ox and the ass! Have beasts sagacity enough to abide in safe cribs and green pastures, while the Israelites leave Jehovahs altar for the barren hills of Baal! See the like arguments in Hos 11:4. Jer 8:7.

Isa 1:4. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity. The moment Ahaz ascended the throne, the idolater made a wide mouth, and shot out the tongue for joy: Isa 57:4. All the bad propensities of the heart were let loose, and degeneracy of morals pervaded all ranks of the nation. What proofs of original sin! The sour grapes, ate by the fathers, set the childrens teeth on edge; the degenerate vine bears degenerate fruit.

Isa 1:5. Why should ye be stricken any more? Wars, pestilence, famine, locusts, captivity, and ills which cannot be counted, have come upon you; yet you are the same people. The whole head is sick; the palace, the altar, the populace are all diseased. The works of the flesh, countless in number, Gal 5:19, are breaking out in loathsome ulcers. The nation is lost, the disease is incurable; nothing but the unveiled treasures of mercy can save you from ruin and destruction. The whole heart is faint; you are astounded with guilt, and lifeless with fear.

Isa 1:7. Your country is desolate. The people are slain, or fled, or taken captive. The cities smoke, the mountains mourn, the vallies weep. Invaders and destroyers are alone to be seen. Oh my country, my country, said a great statesman, in his last moments. Oh my country! Think of this, ye christians dwelling at ease.

Isa 1:8. The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage. A metropolis without a country; the whole land, once beautiful as the garden of the Lord, is now reduced to a solitary lodge.

Isa 1:10. Ye rulers of Sodom. The batch of prisoners put to the bar must hear the judge; the nuncio of a king must be bold to declare his masters pleasure. A similarity in moral character to Sodom, justified a similarity in appellatives. The burning of cities was already begun.

Isa 1:11. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices? Will heaven make bargains with the wicked? Will the Lord receive a gift from impure hands? Your hands are full of blood: yesterday you were offering children to Moloch.

Isa 1:14. Your new moonsmy soul hateth. The zodiac divided the seasons into twelve; the new moon announced fresh sacrifices the moment it was seen, with peace-offerings and music at home; festivals of sin, instead of piety. Num 28:11.

Isa 1:18. Come now, and let us reason. Let us argue. Lowth. venivookah. Nos increpemus, Let us rebuke ourselves. Montanus. Corrigamus, Let us correct ourselves. Castellio. The two last translators express the word better than Lowth, as calling on a guilty people to own the justice of their punishment for sin, deep as the dyes of scarlet and crimson.

The vivid colours of crimson and scarlet instruct us in the deepest stains of sin, which no frail efforts of reform can discharge. The dyes were anciently twice or oftener dipped, though now raised at once; but not in all cases. Our scarlet skins are stained first with a crimson tint by a dye of cochineal; then when dried, a solution of tin is poured over the leather, which gives the scarlet blaze. It is the same with cotton; on the second dip a solution of tin is poured into the vat. Surely then nothing but the altar of Calvary can discharge the stains of a conscience dipped in sin a thousand times. The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanseth from all sin. But grace does more than heal; when God takes away sin, he confers all the adornings of grace, and the beauty of holiness. He creates and cleanses, and makes the conscience white as wool.

Isa 1:19. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall recover from this tremendous stroke of invasion, and see golden harvests wave in the fields, and the purple clusters of grapes hang on the rocky hills. All your glory as in former days shall be restored.

Isa 1:21. How is the faithful city become a harlot, by idolatry. In the time of David, of Solomon, and Uzziah, it was full of judgment; righteousness dwelt in it, but now murderers.

Isa 1:27. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment. The second member of the metaboles of Hebrew poetry, when a doubt occurs, often determines the sense of the first. The righteousness which should redeem and restore Zion to glory was the practice of judgment, mercy, and truth; the ceasing to do evil, and learning to do well, as in Isa 1:26. Then thou shalt be called the city of righteousness. On the contrary, as in the verses following, the apostates to idolatry fade as the leaf, and burn as the tow with a spark.

REFLECTIONS.

What a tremendous chapter is this we have just read! What a flood of vices had suddenly inundated the land, and was followed by a reflux of divine visitations. We see a prophet fully enlightened with all the views of Jehovah, and deeply moved with pity for his bleeding country. But he sanctifies before he consoles. He runs like a flame of fire into all parts of the city; and while the people were weeping for their calamities, he directs all his energies to bring them to weep for their sins. He heals not slightly the wounds of Judah.

Ministerreader, fix your eye on this prophet. See his lips touched with a live coal from the atoning altar: Isa 6:6. See him emulous to convert a nation, though God had intimated that the effort was hopeless. Filled with the divine impetus as the special minister of God, he cries with a high voice, Hear, oh heavens, and give ear, oh earth. Being animated with the spirit of the venerable Moses, he addressed his country in the words of his song, which foretold their present misery. Deuteronomy 32. The whole body from the princes to the priests being corrupt, to whom could the Lord complain but to the heavens which had witnessed the crimes, and to the earth which had nourished the guilty. And who would be impartial judges but the angels who had watched, and the gentiles who had noticed the apostasy. The Lord as a father was pierced and grieved with the sin; for he had nourished and brought them up as his own children, and they had rebelled against his gracious covenant and gentle yoke. The sins of professors of religion are peculiarly provoking to God.

Israel, boasting of wisdom, and the revival of literature by Solomon, are reproached with brutish ignorance. Animals formed for labour can be trained to duty, and birds of passage know the seasons; but Israel could not discern the visitations of God in the calamities of their country. It was all chance and accident, if we may speak like the infidels of the present age; nor could they discern that God required purity of heart.

Israel is addressed as a nation totally infected with moral disease, and laden with iniquities. Ignorance and the want of piety are connected with every crime. Drunkenness and dissipation, swearing and infidelity, avarice and oppression, are all consequent on the loss of religion. When the heart is corrupted with vice, the judgment is perverted with error. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. Habits of sin corrode the heart, and the wounds remain unwashed, and unmollified with the oil of grace.

The infection was hereditary. They were a seed of evil doers. The children inherited the natural depravity of their fathers, and became still more and more corrupt by practice. The haughty father destroys his children by false maxims, and trains them by example to revolt against God.

They were incorrigible; past judgments had no effect. Many of their cities were burnt by the invader, others were forsaken through fear; and Isaiah saw yet greater visitations approach. Yet there were no real repentance, no seeking of God by fasting and prayer, and no public spirit to meet the invader. Jerusalem remained as a cottage; the worshippers through want of piety and fear, came not up to keep the feasts. Had it not been therefore for the praying remnant, they had been swallowed up as Sodom and Gomorrah, having resembled those cities in wickedness.

The case being desperate the prophet applies a severe remedy, that the keen caustic might consume the corruption and touch the heart. He addresses them in the revolting appellatives of the rulers of Sodom, and people of Gomorrah. What are sinners at the bar of God; and how can habits so depraved be reformed by lenient words? He declares that their festivals, their well-fed beasts, and their devotion even in solemn assemblies, were altogether odious to the Lord, because of the impurity of their hearts, and of the hands that offered. Hence we learn, that every sinner must put away his wickedness before he presumes to approach the Lord; and that the devotion of a contrite heart is more to him than if he offered the richest of exterior gifts.

The rebukes he gives to their excesses of devotion are among the keenest strokes of his ministry. How could the offerings of men be acceptable to God, whose heart in all its exercises, and whose life in all its habits, were wholly devoted to sin. What could the import of their prayers and tears be, but solicitations for grace that they might return to their errors with the greater zest. What a portrait for our contemplation!

The Lord next endeavours by gracious promises to excite them to reformation and spiritual worship. Wash ye, make you clean; make you a new heart. Here we have the harmony of grace and will; for God will give a new heart to those who properly use his grace. And as guilt is always inclined to shun the light, and shrink from Gods tribunal, he invites them to come and reason with him; yea, even to impeach him, if they thought he had failed in his promises. He invites them to lift up their hands for pardon. Oh mercy unutterable: grace which language cannot describe! The sinners guilt of blood may be purged with the innocent and availing blood of Christ. Oh what riches of mercy did this prophet preach to the misguided sinners of his age; and what riches of grace did he predict to the more hardened sinners in our Saviours time, who brought upon themselves the blood of the Holy and Just One. Oh amazing love, burning as a victim on Calvary. May my heart melt in a flame, and return, oh my Saviour, to the arms of thy compassion, with a love stronger than death, a love which cannot offend. Lord, may I live for thee alone; for the man who refuses this grace, and rebels against thy love shall be cut off. After pardon, purity must follow, otherwise the gospel would be licentious.I will restore thy judges, &c. These being prophecies of the latter-day glory, we may consider them at large at the end of the book.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Isa 1:1. Title by a later editor, originally prefixed to chs. 112.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

1:1 The {a} vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw {b} concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of {c} Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

(a) That is, a revelation or prophecy, which was one of the two means by which God declared himself to his servants in old times, as in Num 12:6 and therefore the prophets were called seers, 1Sa 9:9 .

(b) Isaiah was chiefly sent to Judah and Jerusalem, but not only: for in this book are prophecies concerning other nations also.

(c) Called also Azariah, 2Ki 15:1 of these kings read 2Ki 14:1 to 2Ki 21:1, 2Ch 25:1 to 2Ch 33:1 .

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

1. The title of the book 1:1

The book claims Isaiah as its author. His name summarizes the revelation of the book, namely, that it is Yahweh who saves. Obadiah was the only other writing prophet who described his book as a vision. This unusual title stresses that what Isaiah wrote reflects reality accurately; he saw it. This word does not mean that everything that Isaiah wrote is what he saw in one or more visions. Though unstated, this vision (the prophecies that constitute this book) came from God. According to Jewish tradition Isaiah’s father, Amoz (not the prophet Amos), was the brother of King Amaziah, Uzziah’s father, which would have made Isaiah King Uzziah’s cousin. Isaiah ministered in and to the people of Jerusalem and Judah, but he saw them as the real Israel since they lived under the Davidic kings, in contrast to the residents of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The kings of Judah mentioned ruled from 792-686 B.C.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

CHAPTER I

THE ARGUMENT OF THE LORD AND ITS CONCLUSION

Isa 1:1-31 -His General Preface

THE first chapter of the Book of Isaiah owes its position not to its date, but to its character. It was published late in the prophets life. The seventh verse describes the land as overrun by foreign soldiery, and such a calamity befell Judah only in the last two of the four reigns over which the first verse extends Isaiahs prophesying. In the reign of Ahaz, Judah was invaded by Syria and Northern Israel, and some have dated chapter 1 from the year of that invasion, 734 B.C. In the reign again of Hezekiah some have imagined, in order to account for the chapter, a swarming of neighbouring tribes upon Judah; and Mr. Cheyne, to whom regarding the history of Isaiahs time we ought to listen with the greatest deference, has supposed an Assyrian invasion in 711, under Sargon. But hardly of this, and certainly not of that, have we adequate evidence, and the only other invasion of Judah in Isaiahs lifetime took place under Sennacherib, in 701. For many reasons this Assyrian invasion is to be preferred to that by Syria and Ephraim in 734 as the occasion of this prophecy. But there is really no need to be determined on the point. The prophecy has been lifted out of its original circumstance and placed in the front of the book, perhaps by Isaiah himself, as a general introduction to his collected pieces. It owes its position, as we have said, to its character. It is a clear, complete statement of the points which were at issue between the Lord and His own all the time Isaiah was the Lords prophet. It is the most representative of Isaiahs prophecies; a summary is found, perhaps better than any other single chapter of the Old Testament, of the substance of prophetic doctrine, and a very vivid illustration of the prophetic spirit and method. We propose to treat it here as introductory to the main subject and lines of Isaiahs teaching, leaving its historical references till we arrive in due course at the probable year of its origin, 701 B.C.

Isaiahs preface is in the form of a Trial or Assize. Ewald calls it “The Great Arraignment.” There are all the actors in a judicial process. It is a Crown case, and God is at once Plaintiff and Judge. He delivers both the Complaint in the beginning (Isa 1:2-3) and the Sentence in the end. The Assessors are Heaven and Earth, whom the Lords herald invokes to hear the Lords plea (Isa 1:2). The people of Judah are the Defendants. The charge against them is one of brutish, ingrate stupidity, breaking out into rebellion. The Witness is the prophet himself, whose evidence on the guilt of his people consists in recounting the misery that has overtaken their land (Isa 1:4-9), along with their civic injustice and social cruelty-sins of the upper and ruling classes (Isa 1:10, Isa 1:17, Isa 1:21-23). The peoples Plea-in-defence, laborious worship and multiplied sacrifice, is repelled and exposed (Isa 1:10-17). And the Trial is concluded-“Come now, let us bring our reasoning to a close, saith the Lord”-by Gods offer of pardon to a people thoroughly convicted (Isa 1:18). On which follow the Conditions of the Future: happiness is sternly made dependent on repentance and righteousness (Isa 1:19-20). And a supplementary oracle is given (Isa 1:24-31), announcing a time of affliction, through which the nation shall pass as through a furnace; rebels and sinners shall be consumed, but God will redeem Zion, and with her a remnant of the people.

That is the plan of the chapter-a Trial at Law. Though it disappears under the exceeding weight of thought the prophet builds upon it, do not let us pass hurriedly from it, as if it were only a scaffolding.

That God should argue at all is the magnificent truth on which our attention must fasten, before we inquire what the argument is about. God reasons with man-that is the first article of religion according to Isaiah. Revelation is not magical, but rational and moral. Religion is reasonable intercourse between one intelligent Being and another. God works upon man first through conscience.

Over against the prophetic view of religion sprawls and reeks in this same chapter the popular-religion as smoky sacrifice, assiduous worship, and ritual. The people to whom the chapter was addressed were not idolaters. Hezekiahs reformation was over. Judah worshipped her own God, whom the prophet introduces not as for the first time, but by Judahs own familiar names for Him-Jehovah, Jehovah of Hosts, the Holy One of Israel, the Mighty One, or Hero, of Israel. In this hour of extreme danger the people are waiting on Jehovah with great pains and cost of sacrifice. They pray, they sacrifice, they solemnise to perfection. But they do not know, they do not consider; this is the burden of their offence. To use a better word, they do not think. They are Gods grown-up children (Isa 1:2) – children, that is to say, like the son of the parable, with native instincts for their God; and grown-up- that is to say, with reason and conscience developed. But they use neither, stupider than very beasts. “Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.” In all their worship conscience is asleep, and they are drenched in wickedness. Isaiah puts their life is an epigram-Wickedness and worship: “I cannot away,” saith the Lord, “with wickedness and worship” (Isa 1:13).

But the pressure and stimulus of the prophecy lie in this, that although the people have silenced conscience and are steeped in a stupidity worse than ox or ass, God will not leave them alone. He forces Himself upon them. He compels them to think. In the order and calmness of nature (Isa 1:2), apart from catastrophe nor seeking to influence by any miracle, God speaks to men by the reasonable words of His prophet. Before He will publish salvation or intimate disaster He must rouse and startle conscience. His controversy precedes alike His peace and His judgments. An awakened conscience is His prophets first demand. Before religion can be prayer, or sacrifice, or any acceptable worship, it must be a reasoning together with God.

That is what mean the arrival of the Lord, and the opening of the assize, and the call to know and consider. It is the terrible necessity which comes back upon men, however engrossed or drugged they may be, to pass their lives in moral judgment before themselves; a debate to which there is never any closure, in which forgotten things shall not be forgotten, but a man “is compelled to repeat to himself things he desires to be silent about, and to listen to what he does not wish to hear, yielding to that mysterious power which says to him, Think. One can no more prevent the mind from returning to an idea than the sea from returning to a shore. With the sailor this is called the tide; with the guilty it is called remorse. God upheaves the soul as well as the ocean.” Upon that ever-returning and resistless tide Hebrew prophecy, with its Divine freight of truth and comfort, rises into the lives of men. This first chapter of Isaiah is just the parable of the awful compulsion to think which men call conscience. The stupidest of generations, formal and fat-hearted, are forced to consider and to reason. The Lords court and controversy are opened, and men are whipped into them from His Temple and His Altar.

For even religion and religiousness, the common mans commonest refuge from conscience-not only in Isaiahs time-cannot exempt from this writ. Would we be judged by our moments of worship, by our temple-treading, which is Hebrew for church-going, by the wealth of our sacrifice, by our ecclesiastical position? This chapter drags us out before the austerity and incorruptibleness of Nature. The assessors of the Lord are not the Temple nor the Law, but Heaven and Earth-not ecclesiastical conventions, but the grand moral fundamentals of the universe, purity, order, and obedience to God. Religiousness, however, is not the only refuge from which we shall find Isaiah startling men with the trumpet of the Lords assize. He is equally intolerant of the indulgent silence and compromises of the world, that give men courage to say, We are no worse than others. Mens lives, it is a constant truth of his, have to be argued out not with the world, but with God. If a man will be silent upon shameful and uncomfortable things, he cannot. His thoughts are not his own; God will think them for him as God thinks them here for unthinking Israel. Nor are the practical and intellectual distractions of a busy life any refuge from conscience. When the politicians of Judah seek escape from judgment by plunging into deeper intrigue and a more bustling policy, Isaiah is fond of pointing out to them that they are only forcing judgment nearer. They do but sharpen on other objects the thoughts whose edge must some day turn upon themselves.

What is this questioning nothing holds away, nothing stills, and nothing wears out? It is the voice of God Himself, and its insistence is therefore as irresistible as its effect is universal. That is not mere rhetoric which opens the Lords controversy: “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken.” All the world changes to the man in whom conscience lifts up her voice, and to the guilty Nature seems attentive and aware. Conscience compels heaven and earth to act as her assessors, because she is the voice, and they the creatures, of God. This leads us to emphasise another feature of the prophecy.

We have called this chapter a trial-at-law; but it is far more a personal than a legal controversy; of the formally forensic there is very little about it. Some theologies and many preachers have attempted the conviction of the human conscience by the technicalities of a system of law, or by appealing to this or that historical covenant, or by the obligations of an intricate and burdensome morality. This is not Isaiahs way. His generation is here judged by no system of law or ancient covenants, but by a living Person and by His treatment of them-a Person who is a Friend and a Father. It is not Judah and the law that are confronted; it is Judah and Jehovah. There is no contrast between the life of this generation and some glorious estate from which they or their forefathers have fallen; but they are made to hear the voice of a living and present God: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me.” Isaiah begins where Saul of Tarsus began, who, though he afterwards elaborated with wealth of detail the awful indictment of the abstract law against man, had never been able to do so but for that first confronting with the Personal Deity, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” Isaiahs ministry started from the vision of the Lord; and it was no covenant or theory, but the Lord Himself, who remained the prophets conscience to the end.

But though the living God is Isaiahs one explanation of conscience, it is God in two aspects, the moral effects of which are opposite, yet complementary. In conscience men are defective by forgetting either the sublime or the practical, but Isaiahs strength is to do justice to both. With him God is first the infinitely High, and then equally the infinitely Near. “The Lord is exalted in righteousness!” yes, and sublimely above the peoples vulgar identifications of His will with their own safety and success, but likewise concerned with every detail of their politics and social behaviour; not to be relegated to the Temple, where they were wont to confine Him, but by His prophet descending to their markets and councils, with His own opinion of their policies, interfering in their intrigues, meeting Ahaz at the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fullers field, and fastening eyes of glory on every pin and point of the dress of the daughters of Zion. He is no merely transcendent God. Though He be the High and Holy One, He will discuss each habit of the people, and argue upon its merits every one of their policies. His constant cry to them is “Come and let us reason together,” and to hear it is to have a conscience. Indeed, Isaiah lays more stress on this intellectual side of the moral sense than on the other, and the frequency with which in this chapter he employs the expressions know, and consider, and reason, is characteristic of all his prophesying. Even the most superficial reader must notice how much this prophets doctrine of conscience and repentance harmonises with the metanoia of New Testament preaching.

This doctrine, that God has an interest in every detail of practical life and will argue it out with men, led Isaiah to a revelation of God quite peculiar to himself. For the Psalmist it is enough that his soul come to God, the living God. It is enough for other prophets to awe the hearts of their generations by revealing the Holy One; but Isaiah, with his intensely practical genius, and sorely tried by the stupid inconsistency of his people, bends himself to make them understand that God is at least a reasonable Being. Do not, his constant cry is, and he puts it sometimes in almost as many words-do not act as if there were a fool on the throne of the universe, which you virtually do when you take these meaningless forms of worship as your only intercourse with Him, and beside them practise your rank iniquities, as if He did not see nor care. We need not here do more than mention the passages in which, sometimes by a word, Isaiah stings and startles self-conscious politicians and sinners beetle-blind in sin, with the sense that God Himself takes an interest in their deeds and has His own working plans for their life. On the land question in Judah: {Isa 5:9} “In mine ears, saith the Lord of Hosts.” When the people were paralysed by calamity, as if it had no meaning or term: {Isa 28:29} “This also cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts, which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in effectual working.” Again, when they were panic-stricken, and madly sought by foolish ways their own salvation: {Isa 30:18} “For the Lord is a God of judgment”-i.e., of principle, method, law, with His own way and time for doing things-“blessed are all they that wait for Him.” And again, when politicians were carried away by the cleverness and success of their own schemes: {Isa 31:2} “Yet He also is wise,” or clever. It was only a personal application of this Divine attribute when Isaiah heard the word of the Lord give him the minutest directions for his own practice-as, for instance, at what exact point he was to meet Ahaz; {Isa 7:3} or that he was to take a board and write upon it in the vulgar character; {Isa 8:1} or that he was to strip frock and sandals, and walk without them for three years (chapter 20). Where common men feel conscience only as something vague and inarticulate, a flavour, a sting, a foreboding, the obligation of work; the constraint of affection, Isaiah heard the word of the Lord, clear and decisive on matters of policy, and definite even to the details of method and style.

Isaiahs conscience, then, was perfect, because it was two-fold: God is holy; God is practical. If there be the glory, the purity as of fire, of His Presence to overawe, there is His unceasing inspection of us, there is His interest in the smallest details of our life, there are His fixed laws, from regard for all of which no amount of religious sensibility may relieve us. Neither of these halves of conscience can endure by itself. If we forget the first we may be prudent and for a time clever, but will also grow self-righteous, and in time self-righteousness means stupidity too. If we forget the second we may be very devotional, but cannot escape becoming blindly and inconsistently immoral. Hypocrisy is the result either way, whether we forget how high God is or whether we forget how near.

To these two great articles of conscience, however-God is high and God is near-the Bible adds a greater third, God is Love. This is the uniqueness and glory of the Bibles interpretation of conscience. Other writings may equal it in enforcing the sovereignty and detailing the minutely practical bearings of conscience: the Bible alone tells man how much of conscience is nothing but Gods love. It is a doctrine as plainly laid down as the doctrine about chastisement, though not half so much recognised-“Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.” What is true of the material pains and penalties of life is equally true of the inward convictions, frets, threats, and fears, which will not leave stupid man alone. To men with their obscure sense of shame, and restlessness, and servitude to sin the Bible plainly says, “You are able to sin because you have turned your back to the love of God; you are unhappy because yon do not take that love to your heart; the bitterness of your remorse is that it is love against which you are ungrateful.” Conscience is not the Lords persecution, but His jealous pleading, and not the fierceness of His anger, but the reproach of His love. This is the Bibles doctrine throughout, and it is not absent from the chapter we are considering. Love gets the first word even in the indictment of this austere assize: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me.” Conscience is already a Fathers voice: the recollection, as it is in the parable of the prodigal, of a Fathers mercy; the reproach, as it is with Christs lamentation over Jerusalem, of outraged love. We shall find not a few passages in Isaiah, which prove that he was in harmony with all revelation upon this point, that conscience is the reproach of the love of God.

But when that understanding of conscience breaks out in a sinners heart forgiveness cannot be far away. Certainly penitence is at hand. And therefore, because of all books the Bible is the only one which interprets conscience as the love of God, so is it the only one that can combine His pardon with His reproach, and as Isaiah now does in a single verse, proclaim His free forgiveness as the conclusion of His bitter quarrel. “Come, let us bring our reasoning to a close, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Our version, “Come, and let us reason together,” gives no meaning here. So plain an offer of pardon is not reasoning together; it is bringing reasoning to an end; it is the settlement of a dispute that has been in progress. Therefore we translate, with Mr. Cheyne, “Let us bring our reasoning to an end.” And how pardon can be the end and logical conclusion of conscience is clear to us, who have seen how much of conscience is love, and that the Lords controversy is the reproach of His Fathers heart, and His jealousy to make His own consider all His way of mercy towards them.

But the prophet does not leave conscience alone with its personal and inward results. He rouses it to its social applications. The sins with which the Jews are charged in this charge of the Lord are public sins. The whole people is indicted, but it is the judges, the princes, and counsellors who are denounced. Judahs disasters, which she seeks to meet by worship, are due to civic faults, bribery, corruption of justice, indifference to the rights of the poor and the friendless. Conscience with Isaiah is not what it is with so much of the religion of today, a cul de sac, into which the Lord chases a man and shuts him up to Himself, but it is a thoroughfare by which the Lord drives the man out upon the world and its manifold need of him. There is little dissection and less study of individual character with Isaiah. He has no time for it. Life is too much about him, and his God too much interested in life. What may be called the more personal sins-drunkenness, vanity of dress, thoughtlessness, want of faith in God and patience to wait for Him-are to Isaiah more social than individual symptoms, and it is for their public and political effects that he mentions them. Forgiveness is no end in itself, but the opportunity of social service; not a sanctuary in which Isaiah leaves men to sing its praises or form doctrines of it, but a gateway through which he leads Gods people upon the world with the cry that rises from him here: “Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.”

Before we pass from this form in which Isaiah figures religion we must deal with a suggestion it raises. No modern mind can come into this ancient court of the Lords controversy without taking advantage of its open forms to put a question regarding the rights of man there. That God should descend to argue with men, what license does this give to men? If religion be reasonable controversy of this kind, what is the place of doubt in it? Is not doubt mans side of the argument? Has he not also questions to put-the Almighty from his side to arraign? For God has Himself here put man on a level with Him, saying, “Come, and let us reason together.”

A temper of this kind, though not strange to the Old Testament, lies beyond the horizon of Isaiah. The only challenge of the Almighty which in any of his prophecies he reports as rising from his own countrymen is the bravado of certain drunkards (chapters 5 and 28). Here and elsewhere it is the very opposite temper from honest doubt which he indicts-the temper that does not know, that does not consider. Ritualism and sensualism are to Isaiah equally false, because equally unthinking. The formalist and the fleshly he classes together, because of their stupidity. What does it matter whether a mans conscience and intellect be stifled in his own fat or under the clothes with which he dresses himself? They are stifled, and that is the main thing. To the formalist Isaiah says, “Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider”; to the fleshly (chapter 5), “My people are gone into captivity for want of knowledge.” But knowing and considering are just that of which doubt, in its modern sense, is the abundance, and not the defect. The mobility of mind, the curiosity, the moral sensitiveness, the hunger that is not satisfied with the chaff of formal and unreal answers, the spirit to find out truth for ones self, wrestling with God-this is the very temper Isaiah, would have welcomed in a people whose sluggishness of reason was as justly blamed by him as the grossness of their moral sense. And if revelation be of the form in which Isaiah so prominently sets it, and the whole Bible bears him out in this-if revelation be this argumentative and reasonable process, then human doubt has its part in revelation. It is, indeed, mans side of the argument, and, as history shows, has often helped to the elucidation of the points at issue.

Merely intellectual scepticism, however, is not within Isaiahs horizon. He would never have employed (nor would any other prophet) our modern habits of doubt, except as he employs these intellectual terms, to know and to consider-viz., as instruments of moral search and conviction. Had he lived now he would have been found among those few great prophets who use the resources of the human intellect to expose the moral state of humanity; who, like Shakespeare and Hugo, turn mans detective and reflective processes upon his own conduct; who make himself stand at the bar of his conscience. And truly to have doubt of everything in heaven-and earth, and never to doubt ones self, is to be guilty of as stiff and stupid a piece of self-righteousness as the religious formalists whom Isaiah exposes. But the moral of the chapter is plainly what we have shown it to be, that a man cannot stifle doubt and debate about his own heart or treatment of God; whatever else he thinks about and judges, he cannot help judging himself.

NOTE ON THE PLACE OF NATURE IN THE ARGUMENT OF THE LORD

The office which the Bible assigns to Nature in the controversy of God with man is fourfold-Assessor, Witness, Mans Fellow-Convict, and Doomster or Executioner. Taking these backward:-

1. Scripture frequently exhibits Nature as the domster of the Lord. Nature has a terrible power of flashing back from her vaster surfaces the guilty impressions of mans heart; at the last day her thunders shall peal the doom of the wicked, and her fire devour them. In those prophecies of the book of Isaiah which relate to his own time this use is not made of Nature, unless it be in his very earliest prophecy in chapter 2 and in his references to the earthquake. {Isa 5:25} To Isaiah the sentences and scourges of God are political and historical, the threats and arms of Assyria. He employs the violences of Nature only as metaphors for Assyrian rage and force. But he often promises fertility as the effect of the Lords pardon, and when the prophets are writing about Nature, it is difficult to say whether they are to be understood literally or poetically. But, at any rate, there is much larger use made of physical catastrophes and convulsions in those other prophecies which do not relate to Isaiahs own time, and are now generally thought not to be his. Compare chapters 13 and 14.

2. The representation of the earth as the fellow-convict of guilty man, sharing his curse, is very vivid in Isa 24:1-23; Isa 25:1-12; Isa 26:1-21; Isa 27:1-13. In the prophecies relating to his own time Isaiah, of course, identifies the troubles that afflict the land with the sin of the people, of Judah. But these are due to political causes-viz., the Assyrian invasion.

3. In the Lords court of judgment the prophets sometimes employ Nature as a witness against man, as, for instance, the prophet Micah. {Mic 6:10, ff} Nature is full of associations; the enduring mountains have memories from old, they have been constant witnesses of the dealing of God with His people.

4. Or lastly, Nature may be used as the great assessor of the conscience, sitting to expound the principles on which God governs life. This is Isaiahs favourite use of Nature. He employs her to corroborate his statement of the Divine law and illustrate the ways of God to men, as in the end of chapter 28 and no doubt in the opening verse of this chapter.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary