Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 1:4
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.
4. seed (i.e. race or brood, consisting) of evildoers ] Cf. Mat 3:7, “brood of vipers.” The indef. art. should be omitted in this clause and the preceding.
children corrupters ] better: sons that deal corruptly (R.V.); lit. “that corrupt [sc. their way]” as Gen 6:12.
provoked unto anger ] R.V., rightly, despised.
Holy One of Israel ] i.e. “the Holy One who is Israel’s God.” Holiness was the aspect of the divine nature impressed on Isaiah’s mind in his inaugural vision, and this phrase, common in his writings and apparently coined by him, sums up his fundamental conception of God in relation to Israel (see Introd., p. lii, and on ch. 6 below).
they are gone away backward ] A pregnant construction, to be rendered as in R.V.: they are estranged [and gone] backward. The words are wanting in the LXX.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
4 9. The prophet speaks.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ah! sinful nation – The word rendered ah! – hoy – is not a mere exclamation, expressing astonishment. It is rather an interjection denouncing threatening, or punishment. Wo to the sinful nation. Vulgate, Vae genti peccatrici. The corruption pertained to the nation, and not merely to a part. It had become general.
Laden with iniquity – The word translated laden – kebed – denotes properly anything heavy, or burdensome; from kabad, to be heavy. It means that they were oppressed, and borne down with the weight of their sins. Thus we say, Sin sits heavy on the conscience. Thus Cain said, My punishment is greater than I can bear; Gen 4:13. The word is applied to an employment as being burdensome; Exo 18:18 : This thing is too heavy for thee. Num 11:14 : I am not able to bear eli this people alone; it is too heavy for me. It is applied also to a famine, as being heavy, severe, distressing. Gen 12:10 : For the famine was grievous ( kabed, heavy) in the land; Gen 41:31. It is also applied to speech, as being heavy, dull, unintelligible. Exo 4:10 : I am slow (heavy kebad) of speech, and of a slow (heavy kebad) tongue. It is not applied to sin in the Scriptures, except in this place, or except in the sense of making atonement for it. The idea however, is very striking – that of a nation – an entire people, bowed and crushed under the enormous weight of accumulated crimes. To pardon iniquity, or to atone for it, is represented by bearing it, as if it were a heavy burden. Exo 28:38, Exo 28:43, That Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things. Lev 10:17 : God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation. Lev 22:9; Lev 16:22; Num 18:1; Isa 53:6 : Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isa 53:11 : He shall bear their iniquities. 1Pe 2:24 : Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.
A seed – zera, from zara, to sow, to scatter, to disperse. It is applied to seed sown in a field; Jdg 6:3; Gen 1:11-12; Gen 47:23; to plants set out, or engrafted; or to planting, or transplanting a nation. Isa 17:10 : And thou shalt set it ( tizeraenu shalt sow, or plant it) with strange slips. Hence, it is applied to children, posterity, descendants, from the resemblance to seed sown, and to a harvest springing up, and spreading. The word is applied by way of eminence to the Jews, as being the seed or posterity of Abraham, according to the promise that his seed should be as the stars of heaven; Gen 12:7; Gen 13:15-16; Gen 15:5, Gen 15:18; Gen 17:7, …
Children – Hebrew sons – the same word that is used in Isa 1:2. They were the adopted people or sons of God, but they had now become corrupt.
That are corrupters – mashchiytiym – mashechythym, from shachath, to destroy, to lay waste, as an invading army does a city or country; Jos 22:33; Gen 19:13. To destroy a vineyard; Jer 12:10. To break down walls; Eze 26:4. Applied to conduct, it means to destroy, or lay waste virtuous principles; to break down the barriers to vice; to corrupt the morals. Gen 6:12 : And God looked upon the earth, and it was corrupt – nshechathah; for all flesh had corrupted his way – hshechyth – upon the earth; Deu 4:16; Deu 31:29; Jdg 2:19. They were not merely corrupt themselves, but they corrupted others by their example. This is always the case. When people become infidels and profligates themselves, they seek to make as many more as possible. The Jews did this by their wicked lives. The same charge is often brought against them; see Jdg 2:12; Zep 3:7.
They have provoked – Hebrew n’atsu They have despised the Holy One; compare Pro 1:30; Pro 5:12; Pro 15:5. Vulgate, They have blasphemed. Septuagint, parorgisate. You have provoked him to anger. The meaning is, that they had so despised him, as to excite his indignation.
The Holy One of Israel – God; called the Holy One of Israel because he was revealed to them as their God, or they were taught to regard him as the sacred object of their worship.
They are gone away backward – Lowth: They have turned their backs upon him. The word rendered they are gone away, nazoru, from zur, means properly, to become estranged; to be alienated. Job 19:13 : Mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. It means especially that declining from God, or that alienation, which takes place when people commit sin; Psa 78:30.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 1:4
Ah, sinful nation
Gods indignation against sin
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 plumb line, in strict geometry, and whoever trifles with the plumb, with the uprightness, tampers with the security of the universe. (J. Parker, D. D.)
A sinning nation
The original words used in reference to Gods ancient people are a sinning nation, which denotes a nation sinning habitually. There are three ways in which a nation becomes sinful.
I. WHEN THE GREAT BODY OF THE PEOPLE CONSENT TO OR APPROVE OF THE SINS OF FORMER GENERATIONS. Thus Christ said to the Jews, Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers.
II. WHEN THE GREAT BODY OF THE PEOPLE CONSENT TO THE SINS OF THEIR RULERS. Thus the Jews were a sinful nation, because they approved of the deeds of their rulers in killing the prophets and in crucifying Christ, and these sins are expressly charged against them, and were visited upon them nationally.
III. WHEN THE GENERALITY OF THE PEOPLE ARE LIVING IN THEIR OWN REASONS. Such was the state of the Jews when Isaiah charged them with contempt of God, hypocrisy and manifold habitual transgressions. (Original Secession Magazine.)
Savonarola and Florence
Florence, in the days of Lorenzo the Magnificent, had become practically a pagan city. She had fallen from Christ as Jerusalem from Jehovah. One of her historians descants upon her as being hopeless morally, full of debauchery, cruelty, and corruption, violating oaths, betraying trusts, believing in nothing but Greek manuscripts, coins and statues, and caring for nothing but pleasures. It was into such a city, to which Isaiahs prelude would almost literally apply, that Savonarola came. Seeing, as he expressed it, the world turned upside down, he traversed the streets and wandered along the banks of the Arno, musing and weeping over the great misery of the world, and the iniquities of men, and the enormous wickedness of the people of Italy. Then, after a time of probation at the convent of San Marco, he burst upon the Florentines as a prophet of fiery eloquence and uncompromising virtue, of a fearless character, and with Divine insight akin to that of his great prototype, Isaiah of Jerusalem. Through internal troubles, and assaults from without, he warned the people and their rulers, endeavouring to turn their hearts to God, and to stay them upon Him. To the priests he said, that the false and lukewarm among them, the dumb dogs that could not bark, had perverted the people, and prejudiced them against the truth. Before all, the wicked priests and servants of the Church are the guilty causes of this corruption as also of the coming calamities. He cried aloud to the populace, Thou knowest, thou knowest, O Florence, that I would have thee a spiritual State. I have always shown thee clearly that a kingdom is only strong in proportion as it is spiritual, by being more closely related to God. Thus faithfully and boldly spoke out Savonarola what was in him from the Holy Spirit. (F. Sessions.)
Corrupters
Corrupters
Sons that are as cankerworms; sons that throw poison into pellucid water streams; sons that suggest evil thoughts to opening minds. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The force of example
Have fellowship with the lame and you will learn to limp. (Latin Adage.)
The corrupt are corrupters
One rotten apple will infect the store; the putrid grape corrupts the whole cluster. (F. Jacox.)
Companionship in evil
Men love not to be found singular, especially where the singularity lies in the rugged and severe paths of virtue: company causes confidence, and gives both credit and defence, credit to the crime, and defence to the criminal (R. South, D. D.)
The contagion of character
Do you see, said Dr. Arnold to an assistant master who had recently come to Rugby, those two boys walking together? I never saw them together before; you should make an especial point of observing the company they keep;–nothing so tells the changes in a boys character. (F. Jacox.)
Bad company injurious
He that lies down with dogs shall rise up with fleas. (Spanish proverb.)
Leading others astray
A father bade his son set up some bricks endways, in regular line a short distance apart. Now, said he, knock down the first brick. The boy obeyed, and all the others fell with it. Now, said the father, raise the last brick and see if the others will rise with it. But no, once down, they must be raised singly. Said the father, I have given you this object lesson to teach you how easy it is for one to lead others astray, but how difficult for him to restore them, however sincere his repentance may be. (Sunday School Chronicle.)
They have forsaken the Lord
A specific and terrible indictment
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.
I. 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 Italy writing; they have turned their backs upon that towards which they once looked with open face and radiant eye.
II. THEY HAVE PROVOKED THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL UNTO ANGER. Observe how the intensity increases, how the aggravation deepens and blackens; 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.
III. THEY ARE GONE AWAY BACKWARD. They forsook, they provoked, they apostatised. Sin has its logical course as well as holiness. 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. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Moral gravitation
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. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The Holy One of Israel
The Holy One of Israel
That is, He who shows Himself holy in Israel. (Prof. T. K. Cheyne.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. Ah sinful nation – “Degenerate”] Five MSS., one of them ancient, read moschathim, without the first yod, in hophal corrupted, not corrupters. See the same word in the same form, and in the same sense, Pr 25:26.
Are corrupters – “Are estranged”] Thirty-two MSS., five ancient, and two editions, read nazoru; which reading determines the word to be from the root zur, to alienate, not from nazar, to separate; so Kimchi understands it. See also Annotat. in Noldium, 68.
They are gone away backward – “They have turned their backs upon him.”] So Kimchi explains it: “they have turned unto him the back and not the face.” See Jer 2:27; Jer 7:24. I have been forced to render this line paraphrastically; as the verbal translation, “they are estranged backward,” would have been unintelligible.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Ah: this particle implies both his wonder, and anger, and grief, and shame that they were such.
Laden with iniquity, Heb. of heaviness of iniquity, i.e. of heavy or great sins; for heavy is commonly put for great or grievous, as Isa 21:15; 30:27. Laden not with the sense of sin, as Mat 11:28, but with the guilt and bondage of sin.
A seed of evil-doers; the children of wicked parents, whose guilt they inherit, and whose evil example they follow.
That are corrupters, Heb. that corrupt, to wit, themselves, or their ways, or others by their counsel and example. Or, that destroy themselves and their land by their wickedness.
They have forsaken the Lord, not in profession, but in practice and reality, neglecting or corrupting his worship, refusing his yoke and conduct. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger; they have lived as if it were their great design and business to provoke him.
They are gone away backward; instead of proceeding forward, and growing in grace, which was their duty, they are all fallen from their former professions, and grown worse and worse, and have impudently turned their backs upon me.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. peoplethe peculiardesignation of God’s elect nation (Ho1:10), that they should be “laden with iniquity”is therefore the more monstrous. Sin is a load (Psa 38:4;Mat 11:28).
seedanotherappellation of God’s elect (Gen 12:7;Jer 2:21), designed to be a “holyseed” (Isa 6:13), but,awful to say, “evildoers!”
childrenby adoption(Ho 11:1), yet “evildoers”;not only so, but “corrupters” of others (Ge6:12); the climax. So “nationpeopleseed children.”
provokedliterally,”despised,” namely, so as to provoke (Pro 1:30;Pro 1:31).
Holy One of Israelthepeculiar heinousness of their sin, that it was against theirGod (Am 3:2).
gone . . .backwardliterally, “estranged” (Ps58:3).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Ah sinful nation,….. Or “sinning nation” y; that was continually sinning, doing nothing else but sin, the reverse of what they were chosen to be, De 7:6. These words are said, either as calling and crying to them, to cause them to hear and hearken to what is said, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi observe, and as is used in
Isa 55:1 or by way of complaint and lamentation, as Jarchi thinks, because of their general and continued wickedness, see
1Ki 13:30, or by way of threatening, as in Isa 1:24 and so the Targum paraphrases it,
“woe to them who are called a holy people, and have sinned:”
and so the Vulgate Latin and Arabic versions render it, “woe to the sinning nation”; their ruin is at hand:
a people laden with iniquity; full of sin; they multiplied offences, as in the Chaldee paraphrase: they were “heavy” with them, as the word z signifies, yet felt not, nor complained of, the burden of them:
a seed of evil doers; this is not said of their fathers, but of themselves, as Jarchi observes; they had been planted a right seed, but now were degenerate, a wicked generation of men.
Children that are corrupters; of themselves and others, by their words and actions; who had corrupted their ways, as the Targum adds; and so Kimchi and Aben Ezra.
They have forsaken the Lord; the worship of the Lord, as the Targum interprets it; the ways and ordinances of God, forsook the assembling of themselves together, neglected the hearing of the word, and attendance on the worship of the Lord’s house:
they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger; by their numerous sins, both of omission and commission:
they are gone away backward; were become backsliders and revolters, had apostatized from God and his worship, turned their backs on him, and cast his law behind them. The characters here given not only agree with the Jews in the times of Isaiah, but also with those in the times of Christ and his apostles, Mt 12:39.
y “gens peccatrix”, Sept. V. L. Syr. Ar. z “gravi iniquitate”, V. L.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“Woe upon the sinful nation, the guilt-laden people, the miscreant race, the children acting corruptly! They have forsaken Jehovah, blasphemed Israel’s Holy One, turned away backwards.” The distinction sometimes drawn between hoi (with He ) and oi (with Aleph ) – as equivalent to oh! and woe! – cannot be sustained. Hoi is an exclamation of pain, with certain doubtful exceptions; and in the case before us it is not so much a denunciation of woe ( vae genti , as the Vulgate renders it), as a lamentation ( vae gentem ) filled with wrath. The epithets which follow point indirectly to that which Israel ought to have been, according to the choice and determination of God, and plainly declare what it had become through its own choice and ungodly self-determination. (1.) According to the choice and determination of God, Israel was to be a holy nation ( goi kadosh , Exo 19:6); but it was a sinful nation – gens peccatrix , as it is correctly rendered by the Vulgate. is not a participle here, but rather a participial adjective in the sense of what was habitual. It is the singular in common use for the plural , sinners, the singular of which was not used. Holy and Sinful are glaring contrasts: for kadosh , so far as its radical notion is concerned (assuming, that is to say, that this is to be found in kad and not in dosh : see Psalter, i. 588, 9), signifies that which is separated from what is common, unclean, or sinful, and raised above it. The alliteration in hoi goi implies that the nation, as sinful, was a nation of woe. (2.) In the thorah Israel was called not only “a holy nation,” but also “the people of Jehovah” (Num 17:6, Eng. ver. Num 16:41), the people chosen and blessed of Jehovah; but now it had become “a people heavy with iniquity.” Instead of the most natural expression, a people bearing heavy sins; the sin, or iniquity, i.e., the weight carried, is attributed to the people themselves upon whom the weight rested, according to the common figurative idea, that whoever carries a heavy burden is so much heavier himself (cf., gravis oneribus , Cicero). (sin regarded as crookedness and perversity, whereas suggests the idea of going astray and missing the way) is the word commonly used wherever the writer intends to describe sin in the mass (e.g., Isa 33:24; Gen 15:16; Gen 19:15), including the guilt occasioned by it. The people of Jehovah had grown into a people heavily laden with guilt. So crushed, so altered into the very opposite, had Israel’s true nature become. It is with deliberate intention that we have rendered a nation ( Nation ), and (am a people ( Volk ): for, according to Malbim’s correct definition of the distinction between the two, the former is used to denote the mass, as linked together by common descent, language, and country; the latter the people as bound together by unity of government (see, for example, Psa 105:13). Consequently we always read of the people of the Lord, not the nation of the Lord; and there are only two instances in which goi is attached to a suffix relating to the ruler, and then it relates to Jehovah alone (Zep 2:9; Psa 106:5).
(3.) Israel bore elsewhere the honourable title of the seed of the patriarch (Isa 41:8; Isa 45:19; cf., Gen 21:12); but in reality it was a seed of evil-doers (miscreants). This does not mean that it was descended from evil-doers; but the genitive is used in the sense of a direct apposition to zera (seed), as in Isa 65:23 (cf., Isa 61:9; Isa 6:13, and Ges. 116, 5), and the meaning is a seed which consists of evil-doers, and therefore is apparently descended from evil-doers instead of from patriarchs. This last thought is not implied in the genitive, but in the idea of “seed;” which is always a compact unit, having one origin, and bearing the character of its origin in itself. The rendering brood of evil-doers, however it may accord with the sense, would be inaccurate; for “seed of evil-doers” is just the same as “house of evil-doers” in Isa 31:2. The singular of the noun is , with the usual sharpening in the case of gutturals in the verbs ( ‘ ‘( , with patach, with kametz in pause (Isa 9:16, which see) – a noun derived from the hiphil participle. (4.) Those who were of Israel were “children of Jehovah” through the act of God (Deu 14:1); but in their own acts they were “children acting destructively ( banim mashchithim ), so that what the thorah feared and predicted had now occurred (Deu 4:16, Deu 4:25; Deu 31:29). In all these passages we find the hiphil, and in the parallel passage of the great song (Deu 32:5) the piel – both of them conjugations which contain within themselves the object of the action indicated (Ges. 53, 2): to do what is destructive, i.e., so to act as to become destructive to one’s self and to others. It is evident from Isa 1:2, that the term children is to be understood as indicating their relation to Jehovah (cf., Isa 30:1, Isa 30:9). The four interjectional clauses are followed by three declaratory clauses, which describe Israel’s apostasy as total in every respect, and complete the mournful seven. There was apostasy in heart: “They have forsaken Jehovah.” There was apostasy in words: “They blaspheme the Holy One of Israel.” The verb literally means to sting, then to mock or treat scornfully; the use of it to denote blasphemy is antiquated Mosaic (Deu 31:20; Num 14:11, Num 14:23; Num 16:30). It is with intention that God is designated here as “the Holy One of Israel,”a name which constitutes the keynote of all Isaiah’s prophecy (see at Isa 6:3). It was sin to mock at anything holy; it was a double sin to mock at God, the Holy One; but it was a threefold sin for Israel to mock at God the Holy One, who had set Himself to be the sanctifier of Israel, and required that as He was Israel’s sanctification, He should also be sanctified by Israel according to His holiness (Lev 19:2, etc.). And lastly, there was also apostasy in action: “they have turned away backwards;” or, as the Vulgate renders it, abalienati sunt . is the reflective of , related to and , for which it is the word commonly used in the Targum. The niphal, which is only met with here, indicates the deliberate character of their estrangement from God; and the expression is rendered still more emphatic by the introduction of the word “backwards” ( achor , which is used emphatically in the place of ). In all their actions they ought to have followed Jehovah; but they had turned their backs upon Him, and taken the way selected by themselves.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
4. Ah sinful nation ! (14) Though he held already reproved their crime with sufficient severity, yet, for the purpose of exposing it still more, he adds an exclamation, by which he expresses still more strongly his abhorrence of such base ingratitude and wickedness. Some are of opinion that the particle הוי ( hoi) denotes grief; Jerome renders it vae ( Wo to); but for my part I reckon it sufficient to say that it is an exclamation, suggested partly by astonishment, and partly by sorrow. For we burst into loud cries, when the disgracefulness of the action is such as cannot be expressed in plain terms, or when we want words to correspond to the depth of our grief Where we have rendered wicked nation, the Greeks have translated ἁμαρτωλὸν that is, a sinner; and such is likewise the rendering of the Vulgate. But the Hebrew word denotes those who are given up to crime; and the Prophet unquestionably charges them with abandoned wickedness.
A people laden with iniquity The force of the metaphor ought to be observed; for not only does he mean that they are sunk in their iniquity, as in a deep mire, but he likewise brings a charge against them, that they sin, not through mistake or thoughtlessness, as frequently happens with those who are easily led astray, but that they follow out their rebellion with a firm purpose of mind; as if he had said that they were the slaves of sin, or sold to act wickedly.
When he adds, a seed of evil-doers, he means a wicked seed. Others, with greater ingenuity, consider this passage to mean, that they are declared to be unworthy of holding a place among the children of Abraham, because they are bastards, and not related to him; as they are elsewhere called the seed of Canaan, and are reproached with being uncircumcised, (Jer 9:26,) as if they had been the descendants of heathens and foreigners. But it is customary with the Hebrews to employ the phrase, “children of the good” for “good children,” a mode of expression which has been imitated by the Greeks. (15)
Degenerate children. The word משחיתים ( mashchithim) literally means corrupting, and accordingly translators supply the word themselves, or, their pursuits. But I reckon that degenerate is a more appropriate rendering; for the Prophet means that they are so depraved as to be altogether unlike their parents. The four epithets which are here bestowed by him on his nation are far from being honorable, and are widely different from the opinion which they had formed about themselves. For this is the manner in which we must arouse hypocrites; and the more they flatter themselves, and the farther they are from being regulated by the fear of God, so much the more ought we to wield against them the thunderbolts of words. On such persons a milder form of instruction would produce no effect, and an ordinary exhortation would not move them. It is necessary, also, to remove that false conviction of their holiness, righteousness, and wisdom, which they commonly employ as a disguise, and as the ground of idle boasting.
For they have forsaken the Lord He assigns the reason why he reproves them with such sharpness and severity. It is, that they may not complain, as they are wont to do, of being treated with excessive harshness and rigour. And first he upbraids them with that which is the source of all evils, their revolt from God; for, as it is the highest perfection of righteousness to cleave to God, agreeably to those words of Moses, Now, Israel, what doth thy God require from thee but that thou shouldst cleave to him ? (16) so, when we have revolted from him, we are utterly ruined. The design of the Prophet is, not to convince the Jews that they are guilty of a single crime, but to show that they are wholly apostates.
The following words, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel, whether the word be rendered provoke, or despise, the latter of which I prefer, are undoubtedly added in order to place their sin in a still stronger light; for it was shamefully base to treat with contempt the favor of him who had chosen them alone out of all the nations to be adopted into his family. This is also the reason why he calls himself the Holy One of Israel; because, by admitting them to alliance with him, he had at the same time adorned them with his holiness; for wherever this name occurs it is ascribed to him on account of the effect. What barbarous pride was there in despising so great an honor! If any one choose rather to render the word provoke, the meaning will be, that they rejected God, as if they expressly intended to provoke his anger; which shows how detestable their apostasy is.
They are gone away backward The meaning is, that when the Lord laid down to them a fixed way and rule of living, they were hurried along by their sinful passions; but he confirms the statement which he had just now made, that their licentiousness was so unbridled that they utterly revolted from God, and deliberately turned aside from that course to which their life ought to have been directed.
(14) This comes very near the rendering of the Septuagint, οὐαὶ ἔθνος ἁμαρτωλὸν
(15) Vigerus remarks, that παῖδες, when construed with the genitives of nouns, denoting artists, nations, or any particular condition or profession of men, is put for the nouns themselves; and he adduces the following instances, ῥητόρων, ἰατρῶν φιλοσόφων, γραφέων παιδες, which is far more elegant than ῥήτορες etc.; and in like manner, Κελτῶν παῖδες, sons of the Celts, or, Gauls, that is, Gauls; δυστήνων παῖδες, sons of the wretched, that is, the wretched — Ed
(16) Our Author, quoting from memory, has mingled two passages: And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul? (Deu 10:12.) Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave and swear by his name. (Deu 10:20.) — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
INIQUITY A BURDEN
Isa. 1:4. A people laden with iniquity.
A very surprising description: A people laden with iniquity. On account of their punctilious and costly observance of the Mosaic ritual (see Isa. 1:11-15), the Jews imagined that they deserved the commendation of Heaven; but God pronounced them to be a people laden with iniquity. Men often form very different estimates of the same thing; e.g., buyer and seller (Pro. 20:14). There is often as marked a difference between the divine and human estimates of character (Luk. 18:11; Rev. 3:17). This is so because God and men judge by different standards; men take into account only their occasional good actions; God judges by that feature of their character which is predominant [195] So judging, He condemned those most religious Jews. What is His estimate of us?
[195] Men are to be estimated, as Johnson says, by the mass of character. A block of tin may have a grain of silver, but still it is tin; and a block of silver may have an alloy of tin, but still it is silver. The mass of Elijahs character was excellence; yet he was not without the alloy. The mass of Jehus character was base; yet he had a portion of zeal which was directed by God to great ends.Cecil.
A very instructive description: A people laden with iniquity. The conception is that of a nation that has gone on adding sin to sin, as a man gathering sticks in the forest adds fagot to fagot, until he staggers beneath the load; that which was eagerly sought after becomes an oppressive burden. How true this is! There are many national burdens; despotism, an incapable government, excessive taxation, &c., but the worst and most oppressive of all is a nations iniquities.
The iniquities of a nation constitute a burden that impede it
1. In its pursuit of material prosperity. With what desperate intensity this English nation toils! and for what end? Chiefly that it may accumulate wealth. How greatly it is impeded in this pursuit by its costly government! But how much more by its costly vices! On strong drink alone this nation expends a larger sum than the whole amount both of imperial and local taxationmore than one hundred millions annually! Other vices that are nameless, how much they cost, and what a hindrance they are to the nation in its pursuit of wealth!
2. In its pursuit of social happiness. What a crushing burden of sorrow the nations iniquities impose upon it!
3. In its pursuit of moral and intellectual improvement. According to a monkish legend, the church of St. Brannocks, in Braunton, Devon, could not be erected on its original site, because as fast as the builders reared up the walls by day, by night the stones were carried away by invisible hands. A like contest goes on in our own land. The nations virtues are toiling to elevate the national character morally and intellectually, using as their instruments the school, the church, the press; but as fast as the virtues build, the vices pull down. In all these respects the nations iniquities constitute its heaviest burden.
Consequently,
1. To give a legal sanction to vices, or to connive at what promotes them, for the sake of certain additions to the national revenues, is suicidal folly of the grossest kind.
2. Those are the truest national benefactors who do most to abate the national iniquities. The palm for truest patriotism must be awarded, not to active politicians, but to faithful preachers, Sunday-school teachers, temperance reformers, &c.
3. Vices of all kinds should be branded, not only as sins against God, but as treasons against society; and all good men should, in self-defence, as well as in a spirit of enlightened patriotism, band themselves together for their overthrow. That is a mistaken spirituality which leads some good men to leave imperial and local affairs in the hands of the worldly and the vicious. We are bound to labour as well as to pray that Gods will may be done on earth as it is in heaven, and that His kingdom may come in our own land [198]
[198] As Christians are to think of living for awhile in the world, it is not unreasonable for them to be affected with its occurrences and changes. Some plead for a kind of abstracted and sublimated devotion, which the circumstances they are placed in by their Creator render equally impracticable and absurd. They are never to notice the affairs of government, or the measures of administration; war, or peace; liberty, or slavery; plenty, or scarcity,all is to be equally indifferent to them; they are to leave these carnal and worldly things to others. But have they not bodies? Have they not families? Is religion founded on the ruins of humanity? When a man becomes a Christian, does he cease to be a member of civil society? Allowing that he be not the owner of the ship, but only a passenger in it, has he nothing to awaken his concern in the voyage! If he be only a traveller towards a belter country, is he to be told that because he is at an inn which he is soon to leave, it should not excite any emotion in him whether it be invaded by robbers or consumed by flames before the morning! In the peace thereof ye shall have peace: and are not Christians to provide things honest in the sight of all men? Are they to detach themselves while here from the interests of their fellow-creatures; or to rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep? Is not religion variously affected by public transactions? Can a Christian, for instance, be indifferent to the cause of freedom, even on a pious principle? Does not civil liberty necessarily include religious? and is it not necessary to the exertions of ministers, and the spreading of the gospel?Jay.
That which is true of nations is true also of individuals; the heaviest burdens which men can take upon themselves are vices. Vices lay upon men a burden
1. Of expense. Even so-called indulgences are costly; many professing Christians spend more annually on tobacco than they give to the cause of missions. Vices keep millions poor all their lives [201]
2. Of discredit.
3. Of sorrow, clouding all the present.
4. Of fear, darkening all the future.
[201] What are you going to take that for? said an old labourer to a young one who was about to drink a glass of ale. To make me work, was the reply. Yes, answered the old man, you are right; that is just what it will do for a certainty: I began to drink ale when I was about your age, and it has made me work until now!
There is this terrific feature about the burden of iniquitythere is none so hard to be got rid of. It is hard to inspire a nation or a man with the desire to get rid of it. How nations and men hug their vices, notwithstanding the miseries they entail! It is still harder to accomplish the desire! Society is full of men who stagger and groan under this burden, from which they strive in vain to free themselves. In them the fable of Sinbad, unable to rid himself of the old man whom he has taken upon his shoulders, has a melancholy realisation. These men feel themselves to be helpless, and their case would indeed be hopeless were it not that God has laid help for us on One who is mighty to save. Cry to Him, ye burdened ones, and obtain release!
TRANSMITTED DEPRAVITY
Isa. 1:4. A seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters.
Transmitted depravity is
I. A doctrine of Scripture.
II. A fact in human life [204] Application.
1. God will not fail to make allowance for it in dealing with us.
2. We should make allowance for it in judging our fellow-men. Our censures should be mingled with compassion.
3. By self-restraint and a life of virtue we should endeavour as far as is possible to cut off from our children this sad entail. A bias towards good may be transmitted as well as a bias towards evil [207]
4. In the education of our children, we should be especially solicitous to check and prevent the development of the faults we have transmitted to them, that so, though they are a seed of evil-doers, they may not themselves be corrupters.
[204] As colour and favour, and proportion of hair and face and lineament, and as diseases and infirmities of the body, so, commonly, the liabilities and dispositions and tempers of the mind and affections become hereditary, and run in the blood. An evil bird hatches an evil egg, and one viper will breed a generation of vipers. Most sins pass along from the father to the son, and so downward, by a kind of lineal descent, from predecessors to posterity, and that for the most part with advantage and increase, whole families being tainted with the special vices of their stock. John the Baptist speaks of a generation of vipers; and if we should but observe the condition of some families in a long line of succession, might we not espy here and there even whole generations of drunkards, and generations of swearers, and generations of idolaters, and generations of worldlings, and generations of seditious, and of envious, and of riotous, and of haughty, and of unclean persons, and of sinners in other kinds.Sanderson, 15871662.
[207] Where children are the children of Christian parents, as they were children of Christian parents, the presumptions are that they will turn out right; not without parental training, but, that being implied, the presumptions are that they will, by the force of natural law, tend in that direction. All the presumptions are that the children of moral and sensible parents will become moral and sensible. Only the grossest neglect and the most culpable exposure to temptation will overrule the presumption and likelihood that the children of good parents will be good. There may be opposing influences; there may be temptations and perversions that shall interrupt the natural course of things; but this does not invalidate the truth that there is a great law by which like produces like. And I say that under this law the Christian parent has a right to this comforting presumptionMy children have all the chances in their favour by reason of the moral constitution which they have inherited.
I know multitudes of families in which the moral element is hereditary; and it is not surprising that the children of those families are moral. Moral qualities are as transmissible as mental traits or physical traits. The same principle applies to every part of the human constitution. And where families have been from generation to generation God-fearing, passion-restraining, truth-telling, and conscience-obeying, the chances are ninety-nine in every hundred in favour of the children.Beecher.
Original or birth sin is not merely a doctrine in religion, it is a fact in mans world acknowledged by all, whether religious or not. Let a man be providing for an unborn child: in case of distribution of worldly property, he will take care to bind him by conditions and covenants which shall guard against his fraudulently helping himself to that which he is to hold for or to apportion to another. He never saw that child; he does not know but that child may be the most pure and perfect of men; but he knows it will not be safe to put temptation in his way, because he knows he will be born in sin, and liable to sin, and sure to commit sin.Alford, 18101871.
FORSAKING THE LORD
Isa. 1:4. They have forsaken the Lord.
How many souls are guilty of forsaking the Lord? They forsake Him by yielding to what are called little sins [210] Then they are further removed from Him by habitual wickedness.
[210] There is many a man who evinces, for a time, a steadfast attention to religion, walking with all care in the path of Gods commandments, &c., but who, after awhile, declines from spirituality, and is dead, though he may yet have a name to live. But how does it commonly happen that such a man falls away from the struggle for salvation? Is it ordinarily through some one powerful and undisguised assault that he is turned from the faith, or over one huge obstacle that he falls not to rise again? Not so. It is almost invariably through little things. He fails to take notice of little things, and they accumulate into great. He allows himself in little things, and thus forms a strong habit. He relaxes in little things, and thus in time loosens every bond. Because it is a little thing, he counts it of little moment, utterly forgetting that millions are made up of units, that immensity is constituted of atoms. Because it is only a stone, a pebble, against which his foot strikes, he makes light of the hindrance; not caring that he is contracting a habit of stumbling, or of observing that whenever he trips there must be some diminution in the speed with which he runs the way of Gods commandments, and that, however slowly, these diminutions are certainly bringing him to a stand.
The astronomer tells us, that, because they move in a resisting medium, which perhaps in a million of years destroys the millionth part of their velocity, the heavenly bodies will at length cease from their mighty march. May not, then, the theologian assure us that little roughnesses in the way, each retarding us, though in an imperceptible degree, will eventually destroy the onward movement, however vigorous and direct it may at one time have seemed? Would to God that we could persuade you of the peril of little offences! We are not half as much afraid of your hurting the head against a rock, as of your hurting the foot against a stone. There is a sort of continued attrition, resulting from our necessary intercourse with the world, which of itself deadens the movements of the soul; there is, moreover, a continued temptation to yield in little points, under the notion of conciliating; to indulge in little things, to forego little strictnesses, to omit little duties; and all with the idea that what looks so light cannot be of real moment. And by these littles, thousands, tens of thousands, perish If they do not come actually and openly to a stand, they stumble and stumble on, getting more and more careless, nearer and nearer to indifference, lowering the Christian standards, suffering religion to be peeled away by inches, persuading themselves that they can spare without injury such inconsiderable bits, and not perceiving that in stripping the bark they stop the sap.Melvill.
I. This conduct is surprising. Is it not most surprising that men should forsake the great God, their Creator and Benefactor? He is all-powerful. He is all-wise. He is all-loving. The soul cannot have a better helper in difficulty, or a truer and wiser friend in sorrow. From the Godward aspect of the case nothing is more surprising than that man should forsake God; but from the manward aspect of things this is not surprising, for man is carnal, and the carnal mind is enmity against God. Satan draws the soul from God. It chases a phantom into the great darkness, and finds in the end that it has wandered from the Infinite Being.
II. This conduct is criminal. We should esteem it criminal to forsake a parent, to forsake a benefactor, to forsake a master. But this offence is small compared with that of the soul when it wanders from the Lord. It exhibits insubordination. It rejects the Supreme Moral Ruler of the universe. It exhibits ingratitude. It forsakes its Redeemer. It exhibits folly, for away from Christ the soul cannot obtain true rest.
III. This conduct is inexcusable. The soul can give no true reason, or valid excuse, for such unholy conduct. The Lord has dealt bountifully with it, and therefore it has no ground of complaint. He is attractive in character. He is winning in disposition. He is kindly in the discipline of life. He gives holy influences to draw the soul to Himself. Hence man has no excuse for forsaking God.
IV. This conduct is common. The world of humanity has forsaken God. One by one souls are returning, and are being welcomed to Christ and to heaven. Many agencies are at work for the return of souls to the heavenly kingdom. Let us seek to make them efficient. Let us pray that they may be successful. Have you forsaken God?J. S. Exell.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(4) Ah, sinful nation . . .The Hebrew interjection is, like our English Ha! the expression of indignation rather than of pity.
A seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters.The first phrase in the Hebrew idiom does not mean the progeny of evil-doers, but those who, as a seed or brood, are made up of such. (Comp. Isa. 14:20; Isa. 65:23.) The word children (better, as in Isa. 1:2, sons) once more emphasises the guilt of those who ought to have been obedient.
They have forsaken the Lord . . .The three verbs paint the several stages of the growth in evil. Men first forsake, then spurn, then openly apostatise. (Comp. Luk. 16:13). In the Holy One of Israel we have the Divine name on which Isaiah most delights to dwell, and which had been impressed on his mind by the Trisagion, which accompanied his first call to the office of a prophet (Isa. 6:3). The thought expressed by the name is that all ideas of consecration, purity, and holiness are gathered up in God. The term occurs fourteen times in the first part of Isaiah, and sixteen times in the second. A corrupt people needed to be reminded ever more and more of the truth which the name asserted.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Ah The exclamation denotes mental pain, and answers to our word alas! The adjective of the text is an active participle in the Hebrew.
Seed of evildoers Offspring of wicked immediate ancestors.
Children corrupters From a word of a reflexive form, hence corrupting themselves. Deu 4:16; Deu 4:25. The word denotes violence, moral self-violence, and is used of the antediluvians who “corrupted” their way, so as to compel God to destroy them. Gen 6:12-13. All the phrases here express intense feeling.
Holy One of Israel This phrase is used by Isaiah more than by any other prophet. It is used in all parts of this collection of the prophecies, and is a proof of one authorship of the whole. It means Him “whose name is holy,” (Isa 57:15,) essentially holy; who deigned to choose Israel, and dwell with him: but he forsook God, and turned his back, not his face, to him. Such is the thought stated in the words, they are gone away backward.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Majority Are Like Sodom and Gomorrah ( Isa 1:4-9 ).
Isaiah now describes the condition of Judah, which would include refugees from Israel. This can be analysed as follows:
a Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children who deal corruptly, they have forsaken Yahweh, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they have estranged themselves, backwards (Isa 1:4).
b Why will you still be stricken, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, only wounds, and bruises, and festering sores (Isa 1:5-6 a).
c They have not been closed, nor bound up, nor mollified with oil (Isa 1:6 b).
c Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, and as for your land, strangers devour it in your presence (Isa 1:7 a).
b And it is desolate as overthrown by strangers, and the daughter, Zion, is left, like a booth in the wilderness, like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, like a besieged city (Isa 1:7-8).
a Unless Yahweh of hosts had left to us a very small group of survivors, we would have been as Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah (Isa 1:9).
In ‘a’ the sinful state of Judah is described, and in the parallel what the final result has been for them. In ‘b’ they are asked why they allow themselves to be so stricken, and in the parallel their desolation as a result is outlined. In ‘c’ their sores and wounds are seen as unbandaged and untreated, and in the parallel their resulting continual state of devastation is described.
Isa 1:4
‘Ah, sinful nation,
A people laden with iniquity,
A seed of evildoers,
Children who deal corruptly.
They have forsaken Yahweh,
They have despised the Holy One of Israel,
They have estranged themselves,
Backwards.’
In this construction we have four parallel statements followed by another four parallel statements, emphasising both aspects of his words. ‘Sinful, iniquitous, evildoers, corrupt’, followed by ‘have forsaken, have despised, have estranged themselves, (have gone) backwards. It sums up their seemingly hopeless situation.
Indeed these next few verses are all preparing the way for what is to come. In them Isaiah is declaring Yahweh’s verdict on what remains of Israel after the destruction of Samaria, and how, as a result of the vision of the glory and holiness of Yahweh (Isa 6:1), the sinfulness of the people has been brought home to him. It is a declaration of how Isaiah now sees them as a result of the experience of that vision.
They are no longer a ‘holy nation’ (Exo 19:6), no longer His true people, but a ‘sinning nation’ who constantly ‘fall short’ (chata’) of God’s standard as revealed in His Instruction (the Torah, the Law, the first five books of the Bible), they are a people burdened down with (literally ‘heavy with’) their ‘wickedness’, that is, with their corrupted and sinful character and natures. They no longer behave as the seed of Abraham (Psa 105:6) but rather as the seed of their fathers who were evildoers, and it is as their fathers’ children that they deal ‘corruptly’, as those who are similarly ‘marred and ruined’ (shachath).
This manifests itself in their attitudes, lifestyle and behaviour. ‘They have forsaken Yahweh’, that is as the One Who was their Overlord with sole rights to their obedience. Other gods and other things have been allowed a place in their lives and thoughts, and His ways are being ignored and set aside. His ways are seen as being too demanding.
‘They have despised the Holy One of Israel.’ They had uniquely had the privilege of knowing God as the Holy One, as the One ‘set apart’ and lifted high, as unique and majestic both essentially and morally, revealed at Mount Sinai and through His Torah (the first five books of the Bible). He is the glorious One, ‘set apart’ in their worship as unique by the holiest of angelic beings as being alone worthy of worship (Isa 6:1-6). He is the uplifted One, high and lofty, Who inhabits eternity (Isa 57:15). And His presence and intense purity is such that when revealed it makes men deeply aware of their own total sinfulness and unworthiness (Isa 6:5; Job 42:5-6), with the result that they cringe in His presence.
But although they had been privileged to be chosen as His own people, and had behind them all this background, they had not ‘seen’ Him, indeed they had failed to such an extent that they had shown rather that they despised Him by their attitude both to Him and to His Instruction (Law). They had closed their eyes to Him and did not go in awe of Him. This was their condemnation.
They, in fact, would not have seen it in that way. They probably considered that they observed all necessary ritual requirements. They were probably fairly satisfied that they had given Him His due. Did they not indeed carry out the requirements of the cultus? Should He not be satisfied? But Isaiah’s point is that it is the very way in which they do this that demonstrates how much they despise Him (Isa 1:11-12). Their very sacrifices are an insult to Him because they are designed to keep Him satisfied while they themselves ignore what He has commanded. They think that He can be thrust to one side, that once ‘dealt with’ through ritual He can be dismissed, while they proceed to do as they wish. They are totally unaware of the nature of the One with whom they have to do.
‘They have estranged themselves.’ By their actions and attitudes they have withdrawn themselves from Him and have actually chosen in reality to disinherit themselves, to make themselves ‘estranged’ as though they were ‘strangers and aliens’ to Him. By their behaviour they have made themselves no longer an essential part of the covenant relationship with God, and are even satisfied for it to be so. No indictment could be greater than that. All of us must choose. We cannot love God and mammon. Let us make no mistake about it. There is no part in any covenant for those who refuse to obey Him.
‘Backwards.’ The word stands stark and alone (translators sometimes add words such as ‘are gone). They have been on the move, but it has been backwards. Instead of going forward with God, they have gone back to darkness and to idols.
‘Seed of evildoers.’ The idea of the seed is prominent in the book. They prided themselves on being the seed of Abraham and of Jacob (Isa 41:8; Isa 45:19; Isa 45:25; Isa 65:23), some would be the seed of the Servant (Isa 53:10 compare Isa 44:3), but here they are declared rather to be the seed of evildoers, an expression that depicts the most evil of men (compare Isa 14:20).
Isa 1:5-6
‘Why will you still be stricken,
That you revolt more and more?
The whole head is sick,
And the whole heart faint.
From the sole of the foot even to the head,
There is no soundness in it,
Only wounds, and bruises,
And festering sores.
They have not been closed, nor bound up,
Nor mollified with oil.’
He now points out what this has brought them to. He describes Israel as being like someone dreadfully ill, and asks why in that condition they are so foolish as to carry on rebelling when it can only lead to further distress. Their head throbs, their heart faints, their whole body is covered with wounds, bruises and festering sores completely untreated. No one has closed their wounds or bound them up, or applied healing potions to them. They are sickly and untended. Yet by their behaviour they are deliberately asking to be smitten again. He cannot understand why they do it. Why do they not stop, and consider, and listen to God? These ideas were taken from the Torah. For a similar description compare Deu 28:58-62. See also Deu 28:21-22; Deu 28:35; Lev 26:16.
This picture of Judah and Jerusalem as the sick man of the Near East is vivid and descriptive. In their rebellion they are shown as having fared very ill. But they are seen to have brought it on themselves. They have been stricken in order that they might repent. And yet because of their continuing behaviour and refusal to repent they will be further stricken. They are sick indeed. Why do they do it? Why do we do it?
Isa 1:7-8
‘Your country is desolate,
Your cities are burned with fire,
And as for your land,
Strangers devour it in your presence,
And it is desolate as overthrown by strangers,
And the daughter, Zion, is left,
Like a booth in the wilderness,
Like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,
Like a besieged city.’
This now illustrates the illustration. Note again the pattern. First the four parallel descriptions of judgment followed by the fourfold picture of the consequence , with Isa 1:9 then following it up. Part of their sickness is due to the fact that they are under invasion, their country desolated, their cities burned, and Jerusalem stands alone with no one to help. The whole of the land is under the conqueror’s cruel boot. And as he will point out later, this is not so much because their kings were incapable, but because they had failed to trust in Yahweh. Had Ahaz not called on the Assyrians for help, and had Hezekiah not revealed their wealth to the Babylonians, they might have been left alone, with the help of Yahweh, as a small nation under His protection which was not worth troubling. But they had been unwilling to trust Him. Thus they had had to enter into their foolish alliances with foreign nations who would only swallow them up.
‘Your cities are burned with fire.’ This was regularly seen in Israel as indicating a particular retribution (Num 31:10; Deu 13:16; Jos 6:24; Jos 8:8; Jdg 1:8; Jdg 18:27; Jdg 20:48).
‘Strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers.’ Here the partial duplication is deliberate and for emphasis. There is a double emphasis, both actively and passively, on the fact that they are devoured by strangers, by aliens, by the unknown, something far worse and horrific than being invaded by neighbours.
Furthermore the aliens destroy everything in front of their eyes, and they do it as savagely as only aliens would, so that when they look on what has been done, they see that it has indeed been left totally desolate, in such a way as would only be done by strangers. Neighbours might invade but they would not normally cause so much damage, (especially to trees which take so long to grow, contrast Isa 37:24), since they would have more consideration for the future and of the possibility of retaliation and reciprocation. So here they are depicted as first seeing the action of desolation ‘as by strangers’, and then as gazing on the consequences.
‘And the daughter, Zion, is left like a booth in the wilderness, like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, like a besieged city.’ The reference is to Jerusalem, built around Mount Zion, seen as God’s adopted daughter. It is suggesting that she now stood, solitary, and lonely, and vulnerable, a vulnerable young woman with none to support her, like a shepherd’s solitary lean-to in the wilderness, or a lonely watchman’s hut in a cucumber garden, open to the ravages of evil men. The idea includes both solitariness and helplessness, with Jerusalem seen as standing alone, and as flimsy and not strong enough to stand against her attackers.
‘Like a besieged city.’ That is, cut off from all help and communication, solitary and alone. See also Deu 28:52-55.
This possibly reflects the situation described in chapters 37-38 when Judah appeared to be on its last legs. If that is so it is clearly here considered as carrying an important, permanent message for Judah and Jerusalem.
Isa 1:9
‘Unless Yahweh of hosts,
Had left to us a very small group of survivors,
We would have been as Sodom,
We would have been like Gomorrah.’
What they deserved was total destruction, as had happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, but this had not happened because Yahweh of hosts in His mercy had left a few to survive so as to build up the future. Had He not done so there would have been nothing left of Jerusalem. She would have disappeared in the same way as Sodom and Gomorrah had (Gen 19:28).
‘Yahweh of hosts.’ This is the absolute description of power, a title found regularly throughout Isaiah. He is overlord of all heavenly beings, the hosts of heaven (Gen 32:2; Psa 103:21; Psalm 148:20) and especially of the hosts of God (Jos 5:14), overlord of all that is in the heavens (Psa 33:6; Deu 4:19), and overlord of all that is on earth (Gen 1:2), and of all earthly hosts. He is Lord of All. And thus against ‘Yahweh of hosts’ none can stand. And it was He Who had determined that there would be survivors, which is why there were.
While these pictures could be describing any severe invasion they fit best with the Assyrian invasion in 701 BC (2Ki 18:13-17). The Assyrians were truly aliens, and savagely destructive, and it was during their invasion, when city after city was devastated, that Jerusalem was left as a last bastion in Judah.
This description of the moral and religious state of Judah and Jerusalem, and its result, is preparatory to the whole book, revealing their sinful state and explaining why God will act as He will in His judgments. But they also give hint of a future hope through the description of the preservation of a few as a result of the mercy of God, an idea which will recur again and again. The word used here is not, however, the usual one for the remnant. They are not here a spiritual remnant, but merely a group of survivors.
We should learn from this that when troubles come upon us we need to consider whether they are the result of God giving us a warning. Alternately of course they may be the result of the attacks of the Enemy. But either way we should learn from them.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 1:4. Children that are corruptershave provoked, &c. Or, Children that corrupt themselveshave contemptuously treated the Holy One of Israel; &c.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 857
THE SINPULNESS AND INCORRIGIBLENESS OF THE NATION
Isa 1:4-5. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden 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 gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more.
THE end for which God inflicts punishment upon his people, is, to bring them to repentance, and thereby prevent the necessity of punishing them in the eternal world: and when this end is not answered, he leaves them to themselves, to follow the imaginations of their own hearts, and to bring upon themselves an accumulated weight of wrath. But before he utterly abandons them, he sends them many solemn warnings, if that by any means he may prevail upon them to turn unto him. Extremely solemn is the reproof which he gave the Jews in the passage before us: he summons heaven and earth to hear his controversy, and to judge between him and his people: and then, in a way of affectionate expostulation, he threatens to cease from visiting them with parental chastisements, and to leave them to fill up the measure of their iniquities.
The words of our text, accommodated as they may be to our present circumstances [Note: A time of war and of great national calamity.], naturally lead us to set before you,
I.
Our sinfulness
The general description given of the Jews is equally suitable to us
[We are a nation extremely and universally sinful: we are laden with every species of iniquity We are a seed of evil-doers: all ranks and orders of men amongst us are depraved: the transgressions of individuals are indeed exceeding various; but sin of some kind is the delight of all, yea, it is the very element wherein we live Nor are we merely corrupt, but corrupters of each other, laughing religion out of the world, and hardening one another in the commission of sin ]
Nor is the particular charge that is brought against them less applicable to us
[It is lamentable to see what a general dereliction of religious principle obtains amongst us. Men do not indeed formally renounce Christianity; but they forsake the Lord as unworthy of their love or confidence: and, by an inward apostasy of the heart. provoke the Holy One of Israel to anger. We might adduce a great variety of charges in confirmation of this; but we will notice only one, namely, our dependence on our fleets and armies, rather than on God [Note: Instead of this, might be specified, our not seeing and acknowledging the hand of God in his judgments.]. This is peculiarly provoking to the Deity, because it is a virtual denial of his providence, and an excluding of him from the government of the world [Note: See Isa 22:8-11 and Jer 17:1] ]
But besides these things, there is a further charge to be brought against us, on account of,
II.
Our incorrigibleness
What improvement have we made of our late chastisements?
[Almost every kind of plague, as war, famine, and pestilence, has been lately sent us by God [Note: This, of course, must be accommodated to existing circumstances.]; and what are we profited by them? What national sin has been put away? I might almost ask, What unregenerate man has laid to heart his transgressions, and turned to the Lord? Does not sin reign amongst us as much as ever? Are we not like the incorrigible Jews [Note: Jer 5:3-5.]; or rather like King Ahaz, who had a brand of infamy set upon him on this very account, that he trespassed yet more in his distress [Note: 2Ch 28:22.]? ]
What reason then have we to hope that our present troubles will be sanctified to our good?
[From past experience we have reason to fear, that we shall still remain a perverse and rebellious people, and only revolt more and more. And, if God foresee that this will be the case, what can we expect, but that our present troubles should be sent, not for our correction, but for our utter destruction? What can we expect, but that he should execute upon us the vengeance he has threatened [Note: Eze 24:13-14.], and that his wrath should now come upon us to the uttermost?]
Advice
1.
Let us adore our God for the patience he has long exercised towards us [Note: 2Pe 3:15. Rom 2:4.]
2.
Let us tremble at his judgments now impending over us [Note: How soon may we find those threatenings fulfilled! Lev 26:27-28; Lev 26:36-37.]
3.
Let us take encouragement from his present dealings with us, to turn unto him [Note: See Jer 18:7-8 and Jdg 10:15-16.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
How affecting are these verses! It is as if God paused over the state of his church. Their sin, like an epidemic disease, was universal. It did not break out in one or two instances of transgression; but the whole body became virtually all sin. They are laden with it. – And where should they be unladen, but upon Christ, the almighty burden bearer? – Reader! do not fail to remark, in the very opening of the prophecy, how in the view of universal corruption, the Holy Ghost is preaching Christ? And, Reader, do not fail to connect with this view also, another sweet gospel truth; namely, how the Lord, in such deplorable times, had preserved to himself a remnant according to the election of grace. Sodom’s history was well known, and Abraham’s intercession on that occasion could not have been forgotten. When therefore we hear it said, Except the Lord had left a very small remnant, how blessed is it to trace the Lord’s hand, and to give to the Lord all the glory! Gen 18:20-33 ; Rom 9:29 . Then read Rom 11:5 , and bless God for distinguishing mercy! Precious Jesus! to whom but to thee shall the glorious cause be ascribed! Oh how blessed to mark the little flock of thy kingdom, Luk 12:32 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 1:4 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.
Ver. 4. Ah sinflul notion. ] Hoi goi chote. He beginneth his complaint with a sigh, as well he might, when he saw that the better God was to them, the worse they were to him; like springs of water, which are then coldest when the sun is hottest; like the Thracian flint, which is said to burn with water, and to be quenched with oil, or like that country where drought maketh dirt, and rain dust. a Ah gens peccatrix! Oh, thou that art wholly made up of mischief, as Aaron once said of their forefathers in the wilderness, that they were “wholly set upon wickedness,” Exo 32:22 and as the prophet saith, “What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?” Mic 1:5
A people laden with iniquity
A seed of evildoers.
Children that are corrupters.
They have forsaken the Lord.
They have provoked unto anger.
They are gone away backward.
a Siccitas dat lutum, imbres pulverem. – Plin,
b Gens quae non nisi peccare didicit. – Scult. Secura et petulans. – Piscat. Luk 15:30 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah
THE GREAT SUIT: JEHOVAH VERSUS JUDAH
Isa 1:1 – Isa 1:9
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 1:4
4Alas, sinful nation,
People weighed down with iniquity,
Offspring of evildoers,
Sons who act corruptly!
They have abandoned the Lord,
They have despised the Holy One of Israel,
They have turned away from Him.
Isa 1:4 Alas The INTERJECTION (BDB 222) introduces declarations of judgment (cf. Isa 10:5; Isa 17:12; Isa 28:1; Isa 29:15; Isa 31:1; Isa 45:9-10; Amo 5:18; Amo 6:1).
sinful nation The common term sinful (BDB 306, KB 305, Qal ACTIVE PARTICIPLE) means to miss the mark. The term nation is goy (BDB 156). This term is often used for the Gentiles, but it can refer to Israel (cf. Exo 19:5-6). Israel was meant to be a holy nation (cf. Exo 19:5-6), yet she turned out to be a sinful nation. What a reversal of expectations!
People weighed down with iniquity This term to be bent or heavy (BDB 458) is another metaphor to describe sin as a burden on mankind’s back (cf. Mat 11:28). All of the Hebrew words for sin are related to crookedness or being bent (i.e., miss the mark) because the Hebrew term for righteousness used of God means a measuring reed or ruler.
SPECIAL TOPIC: RIGHTEOUSNESS
Offspring of evil-doers,
Sons who act corruptly This seems to relate to Exo 20:5 where the evil lifestyles of the parent are communicated to the children.
Notice the parallelism.
1. sinful nation, Isa 1:4
2. weighed down with iniquity, Isa 1:4
3. offspring of evildoers, Isa 1:4
4. sons who act corruptly, Isa 1:4
Also notice the parallel clauses that follow.
1. they have abandoned (BDB 736, KB 806, Qal PERFECT) the Lord
2. they have despised (BDB 610, KB 658, Piel PERFECT) the Holy One of Israel
3. they have turned away (BDB 266, KB 267, Niphal PERFECT) from Him
All speak of the actions of an informed, but rebellious, covenant people (notice the number of different word pictures for sin). By their actions and choices they are rejecting YHWH! These PERFECT stems denote a settled attitude!
These people were to be the blessed seed (BDB 282) of Abraham (cf. Gen 12:7; Gen 13:15-16; Gen 16:10; Gen 22:17-18; Gen 24:7; Gen 26:3-4; Gen 26:24; Gen 28:13-14; Gen 32:12), but they had become the seed of evildoers! What a tragedy of wasted revelation and opportunity (cf. Luk 12:48)!
the Holy One of Israel This is a favorite title for Deity in Isaiah (cf. Isa 1:4; Isa 5:19; Isa 10:17; Isa 10:20; Isa 12:6; Isa 17:7; Isa 29:19; Isa 29:23; Isa 30:11-12; Isa 30:15; Isa 31:1; Isa 37:23; also in the second part of Isaiah, Isa 40:25; Isa 41:14; Isa 41:16; Isa 41:20; Isa 43:3; Isa 43:14-15; Isa 45:11; Isa 47:4; Isa 48:17; Isa 49:7; Isa 54:5; Isa 55:5; Isa 60:9; Isa 60:14). Because He is holy, His people should be holy (cf. Lev 19:2; Mat 5:48; 1Pe 1:16).
This title, in a sense, expresses the impossible tension of a sinful, fallen people conforming to a holy standard. The Mosaic Covenant was impossible to keep (cf. Acts 15; Galatians 3; Hebrews). The old covenant was a way to show the impossibility of humans to conform to God’s standard, yet He was with them, for them, preparing them for His answer to their fallen condition. He does not lower His standard, but provides it through His Messiah. The new covenant (cf. Jer 31:31-34; Eze 36:22-38) is a covenant of faith and repentance, not human performance, though it issues in Christlikeness (cf. Jas 2:14-26). God wants a people who reflect His character to the nations (cf. Mat 5:48).
SPECIAL TOPIC: NEW TESTAMENT HOLINESS/SANCTIFICATION
They have turned away from Him This literally is turned away backward (BDB 30, cf. Isa 44:25). We would say, they have willfully turned their back on Him (cf. Isa 1:2).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Ah. Figure of speech Ecphonesis. Note the four exclamatory descriptions, and see note on “gone away”, below.
sinful. Hebrew. chata. App-44.
sinful nation. Note the Figures of speech Apostrophe, Synonymia and Anabasis in verses: Isa 1:4, Isa 1:5. Contrast Exo 19:6. Deu 7:6; Deu 14:2, Deu 14:21.
laden = heavily burdened.
iniquity. Hebrew ‘avah. App-44.
of = consisting of. Genitive of Apposition. App-17.
corrupters. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 32:5).
forsaken. Apostasy in disposition. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 28:20; Deu 31:16). App-92. Occurs in the “former” portion here, Isa 1:28; Isa 6:12; Isa 7:16; Isa 10:3 (leave), 14 (left); Isa 17:2, Isa 17:9; Isa 18:6 (left); Isa 27:10; Isa 32:14, and in the “latter” portion, Isa 41:17; Isa 49:14; Isa 54:6; Isa 55:7; Isa 58:2; Isa 60:15; Isa 62:4, Isa 62:12; Isa 65:11. App-79.
the Hebrew. Jehovah.(with ‘eth) = Jehovah Himself (App-4). Not the same as in verses: Isa 1:2, Isa 1:9, Isa 1:10, Isa 1:20.
provoked = despised, blasphemed. Reference to Pentateuch (App-92). An old Mosaic word (Num 14:11, Num 14:23; Num 16:30. Deu 31:20). Apostasy in words (see note above).
the Holy One of Israel. Occurs twenty-five times in Isaiah: twelve times in the “former” portion (Isa 1:4; Isa 5:19, Isa 5:24; Isa 10:20; Isa 12:6; Isa 17:7; Isa 29:19; Isa 30:11, Isa 30:12, Isa 30:15; Isa 31:1; Isa 37:23,:); and thirteen times in the “latter” portion (Isa 41:14, Isa 41:16, Isa 41:20; Isa 43:3, Isa 43:14; Isa 45:11; Isa 47:4; Isa 48:17; Isa 49:7; Isa 54:5; Isa 55:5; Isa 60:9, Isa 60:14). Outside Isaiah it is used by Himself once (2Ki 19:22 first occurrence); three times in the Psalms (Isa 71:22; Isa 89:18).
gone away backward. Apostasy in act. See note on Isa 1:4, and notice the threefold apostasy in this verse.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Ah sinful: Isa 1:23, Isa 10:6, Isa 30:9, Gen 13:13, Mat 11:28, Act 7:51, Act 7:52, Rev 18:5
laden with iniquity: Heb. of heaviness
a seed: Isa 57:3, Isa 57:4, Num 32:14, Psa 78:8, Jer 7:26, Jer 16:11, Jer 16:12, Mat 3:7, Mat 23:33
children: Jer 2:33, Eze 16:33
forsaken: Deu 29:25, Deu 31:16, Jdg 10:10, Jer 2:13, Jer 2:17, Jer 2:19
provoked: Isa 3:8, Isa 65:3, Deu 32:19, Psa 78:40, Jer 7:19, 1Co 10:22
the Holy: Isa 5:19, Isa 5:24, Isa 12:6, Isa 29:19, Isa 30:11, Isa 30:12, Isa 30:15, Isa 37:23, Isa 41:14, Isa 41:16, Isa 41:20, Psa 89:18, Jer 50:29, Jer 51:5
gone away backward: Heb. alienated, or separated, Psa 58:3, Jer 2:5, Jer 2:31, Rom 8:7, Col 1:24
Reciprocal: Deu 31:29 – corrupt yourselves Deu 32:5 – They have corrupted themselves Deu 32:15 – then he Jos 23:12 – go back 1Ki 15:34 – walked 1Ki 19:14 – forsaken 2Ki 2:23 – little children Psa 14:1 – They are Isa 3:5 – child Isa 31:6 – deeply Isa 59:12 – our transgressions Jer 6:28 – corrupters Jer 7:28 – nor Jer 8:19 – Why Jer 15:6 – thou art Jer 30:15 – for the Jer 32:32 – they Eze 9:9 – The iniquity Eze 14:5 – estranged Eze 16:45 – that loatheth Dan 9:11 – all Zep 1:6 – turned Zep 2:1 – O nation Luk 15:13 – and took 2Ti 3:6 – laden
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 1:4. Ah, sinful nation The prophet bemoans those who would not bemoan themselves; and he speaks with a holy indignation at their degeneracy, and with a dread of the consequences of it. A people laden with iniquity Laden, not with the sense of sin, as those described Mat 11:28, but with the guilt and bondage of sin. A seed of evil- doers The children of wicked parents, whose guilt they inherit, and whose evil example they follow; children that are corrupted Hebrew, , that corrupt, namely, themselves, or their ways, or others, by their counsel and example: or, that destroy themselves and their land by their wickedness. They have forsaken the Lord Not indeed in profession, but in practice, and therefore in reality, neglecting or corrupting his worship, and refusing to be subject and obedient to him. They have provoked the Holy One, &c. They have lived as if it were their great design and business to provoke him. They are gone away backward Instead of proceeding forward, and growing in grace, which was their duty, they are fallen from their former professions, and have become more wicked than ever.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a {g} seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the {h} Holy One of Israel to anger, they are gone away backward.
(g) They were not only wicked as were their fathers, but utterly corrupt and by their evil example infected others.
(h) That is, him that sanctifies Israel.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The prophet amplified God’s charge and proved it by referring to Israel’s condition. He lamented that Israel’s state was the logical outcome of her behavior.
"The interjection ’ah’ [Isa 1:4] (the Hebrew word [hoy] is sometimes translated ’woe’) was a cry of mourning heard at funerals (see 1Ki 13:30; Jer 22:18-19; Amo 5:16). When Isaiah’s audience heard this word, images of death must have appeared in their minds." [Note: Robert B. Chisholm Jr., Handbook on the Prophets, p. 15.]
God’s people had forsaken the Holy One of Israel, "the transcendent God, who is wholly separate from the frailty and finiteness of Creation (his majesty-holiness), and wholly separate from the sinfulness and defilement of man (his purity-holiness)." [Note: Gleason L. Archer Jr., "Isaiah," in The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, p. 609.] Israel was consequently experiencing the destructive results of her sin in national disease and in political and social catastrophes (Isa 1:5-6; cf. Isa 53:4-10; Deuteronomy 27-30). It was customary in Isaiah’s day for people to squeeze the puss out of a wound, to pull a cut together with a bandage, and to pour olive oil on sores to aid healing. [Note: Young, 1:51-52.]
Isaiah moved from describing Israel as a sick and injured body to a desolate, conquered land (Isa 1:7-9; cf. Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28-29). The description "daughter of Zion" (Isa 1:8) emphasizes that God feels about His wayward people as a father feels about his daughter. He loves her, has committed himself to protecting her, and takes pains to guard her from all evil and danger.
Many Israelite families lived in villages but built little shelters in their fields and camped there during the harvest season. After the harvest these little shacks looked pitiful, abandoned, useless, and deteriorating. Unless the LORD of armies had preserved a few faithful in Judah, as He preserved Lot and his family, He would have destroyed the nation as He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah (Isa 1:10; cf. Genesis 19; Rom 9:29).
All the writing prophets except Ezekiel, Joel, Obadiah, and Jonah used the title "LORD of Hosts" ("LORD Almighty") to stress that Yahweh has numberless assistants who are ready and able to carry out His bidding (cf. 2Ki 6:15-18). This is also the first reference in Isaiah to the remnant, the faithful few in Israel who formed a distinct group within the apostate nation. This remnant constitutes a significant group and motif in the book.