Isa 1:1 The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
The Wickedness of Judah
Isa 1:2 Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the LORD has spoken: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3 The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”
Isa 1:4 Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.
Isa 1:5 Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted.
Isa 1:6 From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness— only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with olive oil.
Isa 1:7 Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.
Isa 1:8 Daughter Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, like a city under siege.
Isa 1:9 Unless the LORD Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.
Isa 1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
Isa 1:11 “The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the LORD. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
Isa 1:12 When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?
Isa 1:13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
Isa 1:14 Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
Isa 1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!
Isa 1:16 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.
Isa 1:17 Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
Isa 1:18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
Isa 1:19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land;
Isa 1:20 but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
The Unfaithful City
Isa 1:21 See how the faithful city has become a prostitute! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her— but now murderers!
Isa 1:22 Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water.
Isa 1:23 Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them.
Isa 1:24 Therefore the Lord, the LORD Almighty, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: “Ah! I will vent my wrath on my foes and avenge myself on my enemies.
Isa 1:25 I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities.
Isa 1:26 I will restore your leaders as in days of old, your rulers as at the beginning. Afterward you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.”
Isa 1:27 Zion will be delivered with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness.
Isa 1:28 But rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake the LORD will perish.
Isa 1:29 “You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted; you will be disgraced because of the gardens that you have chosen.
Isa 1:30 You will be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water.
Isa 1:31 The mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the fire.”
1 Isaiah complains of Judah for her rebellion. 5 He laments her judgments. 10 He upbraids their whole service. 16 He exhorts to repentance, with promises and threatenings. 21 Bewailing their wickedness, he denounces God’s judgments. 25 He promises grace, 28 and threatens destruction to the wicked.
Isa 1:1 The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
The term “vision” here denotes the revelation itself rather than the process by which it was imparted. In earlier times a prophet was called a “seer” (1 Sam. 9:9), but the term eventually fell into disuse.
Prophets, nevertheless, continued to be seers in the sense that, with inspired insight, they were able to see things not revealed to common men. In vision the eyes of the prophet pierce the veil that separates this world from the world of the spirit, and see such things as the Lord sees fit to reveal to him.
The Lord might reveal the significance of current events, the shape of things to come, or the divine purpose concerning individuals or nations. Warning, admonition, and instruction were frequently given. All of these are found in Isaiah’s “vision.” In the “vision of Obadiah” (Obadiah 1) and “the book of the vision of Nahum” (Nahum 1:1) the Lord revealed to those prophets His purpose concerning Edom and Nineveh.
Isaiah’s visions were chiefly concerned with Judah and Jerusalem, but also dealt with the surrounding nations and with the world. In “the vision of Isaiah” it is our privilege to see things as God sees them and chose to reveal them to us through His prophet.
The son of Amoz. The only occurrence of this name in the Bible. Nothing further is known of Isaiah’s father. The name Amoz should not be confused with Amos. In Hebrew the two are distinctly different.
Concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
See chs. 2:1; 3:1; 4:3; 5:3; 40:2; 52:1; 62:1; 65:9, 19. Isaiah’s messages were addressed primarily to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, and were intended for their benefit. Many of the messages were probably spoken directly to the people in the form of sermons.
In the days. According to the chronology employed in this commentary, Uzziah died in 740/739 b.c., and Hezekiah in 687/686.
Isa 1:2 Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the LORD has spoken: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.
Hear me, you heavens.
The first speech delivered by Isaiah begins with a critique of the self-proclaimed God’s people.
Their utter failure to appreciate and profit by the unprecedented opportunities afforded them as a nation is amazing beyond words. As it were, Isaiah calls upon the inhabitants of heaven to witness the extraordinary spectacle—a literary device similar in purpose to that of Joel (ch. 1:2, 3), designed to impress the dull senses of the people with the enormity of their transgression.
The inhabitants of other worlds are acquainted with God’s law and know of the rebellion of the inhabitants of this world against Heaven. They understand the plan of salvation and know of the opportunities granted to Israel as the chosen people of God. As it were, God calls upon them as witnesses to the astounding situation among those for whom He has done so much and who have been so utterly unmindful of Him. Before the universe the rebellious people of God stand guilty, and God is justified in the course He is about to take against the rebels.
I have reared.
The relationship between God and His people has been that of father and son. Everything a father could do for his children, God has done for His people. Being the recipients of His fatherly care, God’s people should have accepted the responsibilities of sonship along with its privileges.
Rebelled.
They renounced the authority of their Father in heaven and ignored the requirements He made of them.
Isa 1:3 The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”
The ox. Domestic animals know who supplies them their daily provender. Even unthinking brutes know where to find their food, and consequently acquire a certain attachment for the one who provides for them.
But not so the people of God! They have been guilty of the most ungrateful stupidity, unmindful and unappreciative of their heavenly Father’s tender care. They have not even shown the intelligence of dumb animals.
Israel does not know. The term “Israel” here refers specifically to Judah in the sense that, as descendants of Jacob, they are heirs to the promises made to the fathers of the nation (see on vs. 1, 8).
Isa 1:4 Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.
Alas sinful nation.
The very ones God had chosen to be “an holy people” unto Him (Deut. 14:2) had become a sinful nation. Ingratitude for the blessings bestowed upon them was the cause of their unholy state (see on Deut. 8:10–20; Hosea 2:8, 9; Rom. 1:21, 22). Forgetting God as the giver of the good things they enjoyed, they became openly apostate and flagrantly disobedient. Negative forgetfulness developed into positive rebellion.
A brood of evildoers. See on ch. 5:4. They who might have been an “holy seed” (ch. 6:13) became an evil plant producing worthless fruit.
Forsaken the Lord. That is, in preference for another master, the prince of evil (see on John 8:44).
Provoked. Divine love “is not easily provoked” (Cor. 13:5; cf. Eze. 18:23, 31, 32; 2 Peter 3:9), but Israel had so spurned Gods’s grace and so disregarded His precepts that He could no longer bear with them without denying His own character and confirming them in their evil ways.
The Holy One of Israel. A favourite expression of Isaiah. He uses it altogether 25 times, as compared with only 6 by all other OT writers. When Isaiah first saw God in vision, seated upon His throne, he also heard the angelic choir singing, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts” (ch. 6:3).
The holy character of God made a deep impression upon the prophet. He recognized God as, above all else, a holy being, and aspired to be like Him. Henceforth, Isaiah’s great task in life was to keep before Israel a picture of the holiness of God and the importance of putting away sin and striving earnestly for holiness of life.
Turned their backs on Him.
Instead of drawing ever closer to God and walking with Him, they were estranged from Him. They kept straying more and farther from the path of righteousness. Isaiah’s contemporary Hosea lamented, “Israel slides back as a backsliding heifer” (Hosea 4:16).
Isa 1:5 Why should you be beaten anymore?
By their sins the professed people of God had brought woe upon themselves. The deeper they went into sin, the greater the weight of woe they took upon themselves (see ch. 5:18). Isaiah endeavoured to reason with them, asking why they chose to pursue so foolish a course of action.
The picture is of a persistently rebellious son who has suffered beating after beating for his misdeeds until his entire body is lacerated.
Why should you be beaten anymore? Isaiah was not predicting rebellion, but commenting on the fact that persistence in evil had occasioned the continuing strokes of corrective punishment from which they suffered.
Isa 1:6 From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness— only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with olive oil.
No soundness.
The entire body suffers. Wherever Isaiah looked in Jerusalem and Judah he saw evidences of the results of transgression.
Putrifying sores.
That is, open, festering, and bleeding sores. Sin is a loathsome thing that defies human remedies. It essentially results in a mass of infected, open sores that are filled with pus and aren’t bandaged or treated with “ointment,” which is olive oil in Palestine.
Not only is Israel inwardly sick, but outwardly it reveals the fearful effects of the poison that has been at work. The nation is in a critical, disordered state; the patient is about to perish in his loathsome condition.
Isa 1:7 Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.
From his figurative description of the land (vs. 2–6) the prophet turns to a literal description. The picture here given aptly represents the situation of Judah at the time of the Assyrian invasions. With their customary ruthless cruelty the Assyrians had swept through the country, burning, pillaging, and killing.
Many of the strong cities had been taken, countless small villages had been smitten, and much of the land had been reduced to a desolate waste. It appeared that the end was not far away.
It is desolate.
A scroll from Qumrân Dead Sea scroll 1QIsa reads “its desolation is over it.”
Isa 1:8 Daughter Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, like a city under siege.
Cities with their inhabitants, thought of in a poetical sense, are frequently referred to as women (see Isa. 47:1; Ps. 45:12; Lam. 2:15).
A hut. In which the keeper of the vineyard or members of his family dwelt during the vintage season. Those dwelling in such structures were, of course, isolated from the rest of the community and unprotected. Thus it was with Jerusalem during the period in question.
A besieged city. At the time of Sennacherib’s invasion Jerusalem was literally surrounded by the Assyrian armies. It alone stood when all the rest of the land of Judah had fallen into enemy hands.
Isa 1:9 Unless the LORD Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.
Small remnant. All of Judea, except Jerusalem, fell into enemy hands. The capital alone stood, seemingly insecure and in desperate peril. Except for this “small remnant” the nation of Judah would have met its doom as certainly as Sodom and Gomorrah.
Isa 1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the law of our God, You people of Gomorrah:
Given that same circumstances were now present in Judah, the term “Sodom,” which is used to refer to Judah symbolically, is a damning indictment, accusation of the people who claimed to rule in God’s name.
The rulers of the country had strayed so far from the Lord that, in policy and practice, they differed but little from the rulers of the most sinful nations on earth. Accordingly, a most solemn summons was now addressed to them, a message from God that involved the doom of the entire nation unless it repented.
Isa 1:11 “The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the LORD. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
Throughout the ages God’s spokesmen have endeavored to make clear that what God requires is obedience rather than sacrifice, righteousness rather than ritualism (see 1 Sam. 15:22; Ps. 40:6; 51:16–19; Jer. 6:20; 7:3–12; 14:12; Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21–24; Micah 6:6–8).
Isa 1:12 When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?
Isa 1:13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.
The formalities of religion mean nothing when its true spirit is lacking. God has made it clear that where obedience is lacking, even prayer is an abomination to Him (Prov. 28:9). My visits to the church?
At the time of Isaiah the Hebrews were “long” on the forms of religion but “short” on righteousness. Their course was a mockery of religion and a disgrace in the sight of God.
Isa 1:14 Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
They were actually defying God by refusing to walk in His ways, and no cloak of religious formalism could cover their sins. What about you and I?
Isa 1:15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.
Full of blood. The recently discovered Dead Sea scroll 1QIsa adds, “and your fingers, of guilt,” thus making a couplet whose first member is, “your hands are full of blood.”
Isa 1:16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil,
Evil must be put out of the life of every child of God. Sin will not exist in the pure atmosphere of heaven, and all who enter there will wear the garments of righteousness.
Isa 1:17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.
Those who love the right will champion the cause of the fatherless and see that justice is done them.
Isa 1:18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
God here assures us that however guilty we may have been in the past, however deep dyed our sin may have been, it is possible to be restored to purity and holiness. This promise deals not only with the results of sin but with sin itself. It can be eradicated and completely put out of the life. With the help of God the sinner may secure complete mastery over his every besetment (see on 1 John 1:9).
Isa 1:19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land;
A life of joy and blessedness is the natural result of obedience to the laws of God.
Isaiah points out that these blessings had not been realized because of Israel’s failure to obey the commands of the Lord, God now assures them that these blessings may still be theirs if they will repent and walk in the ways of righteousness.
Isa 1:20 but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
If you refuse.
It is not an arbitrary decree of God that condemns the sinner. He only reaps what he himself has sown. As blessings accompany right living, so woe does wickedness. When men transgress the commandments of God the inevitable result is death. This is simply the outworking of the natural law of cause and effect. In a very real sense sinners are self-destroyed.
Isa 1:21 See how the faithful city has become a prostitute! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her— but now murderers!
Hosea uses the same figure (ch. 2), as do also Jeremiah (ch. 2:20, 21) and Ezekiel (ch. 16). The experience of Israel shows the depths to which men may fall. Once pure and upright, chosen of God and loved by Him, Israel departed far from God and from the ways of righteousness. Once true and obedient, holy and upright, Israel became vile and corrupt, a startling example of the terrible fruitage of unfaithfulness to God.
Isa 1:22 Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water.
By two apt figures Isaiah contrasts the present with the past. The character of the people had degenerated from precious silver to worthless dross. The pure wine of righteousness and holiness had become diluted. Jesus employed a similar figure when He spoke of the salt that had lost its savor (Matt. 5:13).
Isa 1:23 Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them.
Judges turned a deaf ear to orphans and widows, who were usually not in a position to offer rewards like those given by their oppressors. It was easy for a judge to postpone indefinitely the hearing of the cases of the poor (see Luke 18:2–5).
Isa 1:24 Therefore the Lord, the LORD Almighty, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: “Ah! I will vent my wrath on my foes and avenge myself on my enemies.
Those who take advantage of their fellows are setting themselves up as adversaries of God. Accordingly, the leaders of Israel were rapidly placing themselves in a position where God would be forced to take action against them.
Isa 1:25 I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities.
With threats of judgement God always offers promises of deliverance. Jerusalem must be judged, but she will also be saved. Though the faithful city had become a harlot (v. 21), she may yet become a holy city, a “new” Jerusalem, “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:2; cf. Isa. 62:4). The Lord would “turn” His “hand” upon His people to redeem and to restore them.
The fires of affliction would remove the dross, and only the pure gold of holy character would remain (Job 23:10).
Isa 1:26 I will restore your leaders as in days of old, your rulers as at the beginning. Afterward you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.”
The prophet looks forward to a time when there would again be faithful judges like Samuel, David, and Solomon. Israel would be an ideal state with ideal rulers.
Isa 1:27 Zion will be delivered with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness.
Thus man will be fully restored to the image of God, in which he was originally created (Gen. 1:27).
Isa 1:28 But rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake the LORD will perish.
“They shall be as though they had not been” (Obadiah 16). “For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be” (Ps. 37:10).
Isa 1:29 “You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted; you will be disgraced because of the gardens that you have chosen.
Isa 1:30 You will be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water.
Without water no garden can prosper. With the Lord is the fountain of life (Ps. 36:9), and those who forsake Him forsake the fountain of living waters (Jer. 2:13). As a garden without water becomes an arid waste, so, without God, Israel would degenerate into a desolate field. By forsaking the Lord, the Source of life, Israel sealed its own doom.
Isa 1:31 The mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the fire.”
Both the wicked and their works will perish in the consuming fire of the last days (Peter. 3:7, 10) Fortunately we have a choice. Repent or perish.