Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 1:1. The vision of Isaiah — “It seems doubtful,” says Bishop Lowth, “whether this title belongs to the whole book, or only to the prophecy contained in this chapter. The former part of the title seems properly to belong to this particular prophecy: the latter part, which enumerates the kings of Judah, under whom Isaiah exercised his prophetical office, seems to appropriate it to the whole collection of prophecies delivered in the course of his ministry. Vitringa, to whom the world is greatly indebted for his learned labours on this prophet, has, I think, very judiciously resolved this doubt. He supposes, that the former part of this title was originally prefixed to this single prophecy; and that when the collection of all Isaiah’s prophecies was made, the enumeration of the kings of Judah was added, to make it, at the same time, a proper title to the whole book. And such it is plainly taken to be, 2 Chronicles 32:32; where the book of Isaiah is cited by this title.” Thus understood, the word vision is used collectively for visions, and the sense is, “This is the book of the visions, or prophecies, of Isaiah.” The reader must observe, the two usual ways, whereby God communicated his will to the prophets, were visions and dreams: see Numbers 12:6. In visions, the inspired persons were awake, but their external senses were bound up, and, as it were, laid asleep in a trance. Thus Balaam describes them as to himself, Numbers 24:16. They are called visions, not from any use made of corporal sight, but because of the clearness and evidence of the things revealed, and the conformity of this kind of inspiration to the information which the mind receives by the sight of the bodily eyes. Hence, also, prophets were called seers, 1 Samuel 9:9. Sometimes, however, visions were accompanied with external representations. See Isaiah 6:1; Ezekiel 40:2; Revelation 21:10. See notes on Isaiah, by Wm. Lowth, B.D. Which he saw — Foresaw and foretold. For he speaks, after the manner of the prophets, of things to come, as if they were either past or present. Concerning Judah — Principally, but not exclusively. For he prophesies also concerning Egypt and Babylon, and divers other countries; yet with respect to Judah. In the days of Uzziah, &c. — In the time of their reign. This, probably, was not the first vision which Isaiah had, but is placed at the beginning of his book, because, together with the four following chapters, it contains a general description of the state of the Jews, under the several judgments which God had brought upon them, and is a fit preface or introduction to the rest of his prophecy.

Isaiah 1:2. Hear, O heavens, &c. — “God is introduced as entering upon a solemn and public action, or pleading, before the whole world, against his disobedient people. The prophet, as herald, or officer, to proclaim the summons to the court, calls upon all created beings, celestial and terrestrial, to attend and bear witness to the truth of his plea, and the justice of his cause.” — Bishop Lowth. See the same scene more fully displayed, Psalm 50:3-4. With the like invocation Moses begins his sublime song, Deuteronomy 32:1; see also Micah 6:1-2. For the Lord hath spoken — Or, It is Jehovah that speaketh, as Bishop Lowth renders it, there seeming to be an impropriety in demanding attention to a speech already delivered. I have nourished, &c. — I first made them a people, and, until this time, I have sustained and blessed them above all other nations: God’s care over them is compared to that of parents in nursing and training up their children. And they have rebelled against me — Or, as פשׁעו ביmay be rendered, have revolted from me — Even they, peculiarly favoured as they have been, have proved deserters, nay, traitors, against my crown and dignity. This is the Lord’s plea against them, of the equity of which he is willing that all the creatures should be judges.

Isaiah 1:3. The ox knoweth his owner, &c. — In these words the prophet amplifies “the gross insensibility of the disobedient Jews, by comparing them with the most heavy and stupid of all animals, yet not so insensible as they. Bochart has well illustrated the comparison, and shown the peculiar force of it. ‘He sets them lower than the beasts, and even than the stupidest of all beasts; for there is scarce any more so than the ox and the ass. Yet these acknowledge their master; they know the manger of their lord; by whom they are fed, not for their own, but his good; neither are they looked upon as children, but as beasts of burden; neither are they advanced to honours, but oppressed with great and daily labours. While the Israelites, chosen by the mere favour of God, adopted as sons, promoted to the highest dignity, yet acknowledged not their Lord and their God, but despised his commandments, though in the highest degree equitable and just.’” See a comparison of Jeremiah 8:7, to the same purpose, equally elegant; but not so forcible and severe as this of Isaiah.

Isaiah 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 Matthew 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, משׁחיתים, 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.

Isaiah 1:5-6. Why should ye be stricken any more — It is to no purpose to seek to reclaim you by one chastisement after another; ye will revolt more and more — I see you are incorrigible, and turn even your afflictions into sin. The whole head is sick, &c. — The disease is mortal, as being in the most noble and vital parts, the very head and heart of the body politic, from whence the plague is derived to all the other members. “The end of God’s judgments, in this world, is men’s reformation; and when people appear to be incorrigible, there is no reason to expect that he should try any further methods of discipline with them, but consume them all at once.” From the sole of the foot, &c. — “The whole frame of the Jewish Church and state is corrupted, and their misery is as universal as their sin which caused it.” — Lowth.

Isaiah 1:7-8. Your country is desolate — “The description of the ruined and desolate state of the country, in these verses,” says Bishop Lowth, “does not suit with any part of the prosperous times of Uzziah and Jotham. It very well agrees with the time of Ahaz, when Judea was ravaged by the joint invasion of the Israelites and Syrians, and by the incursions of the Philistines and Edomites. The date of this prophecy is therefore generally fixed to the time of Ahaz.” Strangers devour it in your presence — Which your eyes see to torment you, when there is no power in your hands to deliver you. As overthrown, &c. — כמהפכת, as the overthrow; of strangers — That is, such as strangers bring upon a land which is not likely to continue in their hands, and therefore they spare no persons; and spoil and destroy all things, which is not usually done in wars between persons of the same or of a neighbouring nation. And the daughter of Zion is left — Is left solitary, all the neighbouring villages and country round about it being laid waste. As a cottage — Or, as a shed in a vineyard, as Bishop Lowth translates it, namely, “a little temporary hut, covered with boughs, straw, turf, or the like materials, for a shelter from the heat by day, and the cold and dews by night, for the watchman that kept the garden, or vineyard, during the short season while the fruit was ripening; see Job 27:18; and presently removed when it had served that purpose.” — See Harmer, Observ. 1:454.

Isaiah 1:9. Except the Lord had left us a remnant — If God, by his infinite power and goodness, had not restrained our enemies, and reserved some of us, we should have been as Sodom — The whole nation of us had been utterly cut off, as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were. So great was the rage and power of our enemies, and so utterly unable were we to deliver ourselves. This remnant was “a type of those few converts among the Jews, who, embracing the gospel, escaped both the temporal and eternal judgments which came upon the rest of the nation for rejecting Christ and his messengers,” Romans 9:2; Romans 11:5. — Lowth.

Isaiah 1:10. Hear the word of the Lord — I bring a message from your Lord and governor, to whom you owe all reverence and obedience; ye rulers of Sodom — So called for their resemblance of them in wickedness. Compare Deuteronomy 32:32; Ezekiel 16:46; Ezekiel 16:48. “The incidental mention of Sodom and Gomorrah in the preceding verse, suggested to the prophet this spirited address to the rulers and inhabitants of Jerusalem, under the character of princes of Sodom and people of Gomorrah. Two examples, of an elegant turn, of the like kind, may be observed in St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans 15:4-5; Romans 15:12-13.” — Bishop Lowth. Give ear unto the law of our God — The message which I am now to deliver to you from God, your great lawgiver.