Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 1:8

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Isaiah 1:8. As a cottage in a vineyard - "As a shed in a vineyard"] 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 the fruit was ripening, (see Job 27:18,) and presently removed when it had served that purpose. See Harmer's Observ. i. 454. They were probably obliged to have such a constant watch to defend the fruit from the jackals. "The jackal," (chical of the Turks,) says Hasselquist, (Travels, p. 227,) "is a species of mustela which is very common in Palestine, especially during the vintage; and often destroys whole vineyards, and gardens of cucumbers." "There is also plenty of the canis vulpes, the fox, near the convent of St. John in the desert, about vintage time; for they destroy all the vines unless they are strictly watched." Ibid. p. 184. See Isaiah 2:15.

Fruits of the gourd kind, melons, watermelons, cucumbers, c., are much used and in great request in the Levant, on account of their cooling quality. The Israelites in the wilderness regretted the loss of the cucumbers and melons among the other good things of Egypt, Numbers 11:5. In Egypt the season of watermelons, which are most in request, and which the common people then chiefly live upon, lasts but three weeks. See Hasselquist, p. 256. Tavernier makes it of longer continuance:

L'on y void de grands carreaux de melons et de concombres, mais beaucoup plus de derniers, dont les Levantins font leur delices. Le plus souvent, ils les mangent sans les peter, apres quoi ils vont boire une verre d'eau. Dans toute l'Asie c'est la nourriture ordinaire du petit peuple pendant trois ou quatre mois toute la famine en vit, et quand un enfant demand a manger, au lieu qu'en France ou aillieurs nous luy donnerions du pain, dans le Levant on luy presente un concombre, qu'il mange cru comme on le vient de cueillir. Les concombres dans le Levant ont une bonte particuliere; et quoiqu' on les mange crus, ils ne font jamais de mal;

"There are to he seen great beds of melons and cucumbers, but a greater number of the latter, of which the Levantines are particularly fond. In general they eat them without taking off the rind, after which they drink a glass of water. In every part of Asia this is the aliment of the common people for three or four months; the whole family live on them; and when a child asks something to eat, instead of giving it a piece of bread, as is done in France and other countries, they present it with a cucumber, which it eats raw, as gathered. Cucumbers in the Levant are peculiarly excellent; and although eaten raw, they are seldom injurious." Tavernier, Relat. du Serrail, cap. xix.

As a lodge, c. — That is, after the fruit was gathered the lodge being then permitted to fall into decay. Such was the desolate, ruined state of the city.

As a beseiged city - "A city taken by seige"] So the ὡς πολις πολιορκουμενη; Septuagint: see also the Vulgate.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

1:1-6:13

JUDAH AN UNCLEAN PEOPLE

God judges Judah (1:1-9)

The opening chapter introduces most of the main issues that the prophet is to deal with, and therefore is a summary of the overall message of the book. The scene is one of judgment. God is the judge, his people the accused, heaven and earth the witnesses. The charge is that Judah has rebelled against God. Even animals are grateful for what their masters do for them, but the people of Judah show no gratitude to their heavenly Father (1:1-3).
Isaiah declares that the sinful people are more than ungrateful to God; they despise him (4). God has punished them repeatedly by sending enemy armies to attack them, with the aim that they see their sin and return to him. His punishment has been so consistent that Judah is likened to a person who has been beaten and flogged till he is bruised and cut from head to toe. But Judah is still stubbornly unrepentant (5-8). It would have been destroyed long ago, had not God shown mercy on account of the few faithful believers scattered throughout the nation (9).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that deal corruptly! they have forsaken Jehovah, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are estranged and gone backward. Why will ye be still stricken, that ye revolt more and more? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and fresh stripes: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oil. Your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah.”

One of the interesting things in this passage is the number of different words used to describe the sins of Israel. They are called rebellion (Isaiah 1:2), ignorance, lack of consideration (Isaiah 1:3), sin, iniquity, evil-doing, corruption, forsaking God, estrangement from God, backsliding (Isaiah 1:4), revolt, transgression, disobedience, sickness, (Isaiah 1:5) and unsoundness (Isaiah 1:6). The wounds and bruises of Israel mentioned here should not be viewed as resulting from the hostile attacks of her enemies but as the result of the stripes of punishment laid upon the sinful nation by the hand of her God.

The picture in Isaiah 1:5-6 is not of a sick man but of someone who has been flogged in an inch of his life, yet asking for more. Therefore sores in Isaiah 1:6 are actually weals.Derek Kidner, The New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 591.

The mention of the ox and the ass (Isaiah 1:3) stresses the truth that even domesticated animals of the type usually cited for their lack of intelligence exhibited desirable qualities that were absent in the behavior of Israel, which seemed to be totally ignorant of the signal blessings they had received from God and his amazing deliverance of them from slavery and oppression.

We entertain a strong objection to receiving the desolation depicted in these verses as an actual historical picture of conditions in Palestine following some invasion, either that of the earlier reign .of Josiah or, of that when Sennacherib shut up Hezekiah “like a bird in a cage”. We are aware that many commentators offer this explanation; but to us it seems clear enough that what we have here is a master prophecy outlining the whole history of Israel in advance, not only covering the invasions mentioned here but the final overthrow of Israel by Babylon with the resulting captivity, and the return of “the remnant,” significantly mentioned here as all that would be left of the chosen people. Rawlinson believed that the “remnant” here was “the few godly people left in Jerusalem!”G. Rawlinson, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 10, p. 4. However, such interpretations of this prophecy would make it necessary to accept the godless Manasseh as a part of that “righteous remnant.” No! The very fact of the “remnant” being introduced in this opening passage unerringly points to the remnant of Israel that would form the nucleus of the “New Israel” of God. that is, the church, or kingdom, of Messiah! Furthermore, is not this chapter introduced as a part of the vision of Isaiah? The very word means a supernatural revelation of events to take place in the future from the time of the vision; and if this chapter is nothing more than Isaiah’s observations on the current state of the land of Palestine, it is not entitled to any place whatever in Isaiah’s prophecy. No! The commentators are merely deceived by the liberal canard that predictive prophecy is not found in the Bible. As we shall see, this chapter is really a summary of the whole Book of Isaiah.

There is no agreement whatever among scholars as to which of two principal invasions Isaiah referred to in this description of the devastated land. Archer stated that some scholars understand the whole passage as a description of Sennacherib’s invasion of 701 B.C.,Gleason L. Archer, op. cit., p. 610. rather than the usual habit of applying it to the invasion of the Edomites and the Philistines in 734-733 B.C. All of the uncertainty is cleared up by understanding the passage as an extended prophecy of what was in store for Israel in a far more general sense. No other understanding of the place takes care of the question about who constituted that “righteous remnant.”

Isaiah 1:8 refers to Jerusalem, “the daughter of Zion,” as totally deserted like a “booth in a vineyard,” or a “lodge in a garden of cucumbers.” Jerusalem was never deserted throughout the life of Isaiah, nor until more than half a century later; therefore, this passage simply cannot be a description of conditions that Isaiah saw. This is a prophecy of the going of Israel into the Babylonian captivity.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

And the daughter of Zion - Zion, or Sion, was the name of one of the hills on which the city of Jerusalem was built. On this hill formerly stood the city of the Jebusites, and when David took it from them he transferred to it his court, and it was called the city of David, or the holy hill. It was in the southern part of the city. As Zion became the residence of the court, and was the most important part of the city, the name was often used to denote the city itself, and is often applied to the whole of Jerusalem. The phrase ‘daughter of Zion’ here means Zion itself, or Jerusalem. The name daughter is given to it by a personification in accordance with a common custom in Eastern writers, by which beautiful towns and cities are likened to young females. The name mother is also applied in the same way. Perhaps the custom arose from the fact that when a city was built, towns and villages would spring up round it - and the first would be called the mother-city (hence, the word metropolis). The expression was also employed as an image of beauty, from a fancied resemblance between a beautiful town and a beautiful and well-dressed woman. Thus Psalms 45:13, the phrase daughter of Tyre, means Tyre itself; Psalms 137:8, daughter of Babylon, that is, Babylon; Isaiah 37:22, ‘The virgin, the daughter of Zion;’ Jeremiah 46:2; Isaiah 23:12; Jeremiah 14:17; Numbers 21:23, Numbers 21:32, (Hebrew); Judges 11:26. Is left. נותרה nôth^erâh. The word used here denotes left as a part or remnant is left - not left entire, or complete, but in a weakened or divided state.

As a cottage - literally, “a shade,” or “shelter” - כסכה k^esûkkâh, a temporary habitation erected in vineyards to give shelter to the grape gatherers, and to those who were uppointed to watch the vineyard to guard it from depredations; compare the note at Matthew 21:33. The following passage from Mr. Jowett’s ‘Christian Researches,’ describing what he himself saw, will throw light on this verse. ‘Extensive fields of ripe melons and cucumbers adorned the sides of the river (the Nile). They grew in such abundance that the sailors freely helped themselves. Some guard, however, is placed upon them. Occasionally, but at long and desolate intervals, we may observe a little hut, made of reeds, just capable of containing one man; being in fact little more than a fence against a north wind. In these I have observed, sometimes, a poor old man, perhaps lame, protecting the property. It exactly illustrates Isaiah 1:8.’ ‘Gardens were often probably unfenced, and formerly, as now, esculent vegetables were planted in some fertile spot in the open field. A custom prevails in Hindostan, as travelers inform us, of planting in the commencement of the rainy season, in the extensive plains, an abundance of melons, cucumbers, gourds, etc. In the center of the field is an artificial mound with a hut on the top, just large enough to shelter a person from the storm and the heat;’ Bib. Dic. A.S.U. The sketch in the book will convey a clear idea of such a cottage. Such a cottage would be designed only for a temporary habitation. So Jerusalem seemed to be left amidst the surrounding desolation as a temporary abode, soon to be destroyed.

As a lodge - The word lodge here properly denotes a place for passing the night, but it means also a temporary abode. It was erected to afford a shelter to those who guarded the enclosure from thieves, or from jackals, and small foxes. ‘The jackal,’ says Hasselquist, ‘is a species of mustela, which is very common in Palestine, especially during the vintage, and often destroys whole vineyards, and gardens of cucumbers.’

A garden of cucumbers - The word cucumbers here probably includes every thing of the melon kind, as well as the cucumber. They are in great request in that region on account of their cooling qualities, and are produced in great abundance and perfection. These things are particularly mentioned among the luxuries which the Israelites enjoyed in Egypt, and for which they sighed when they were in the wilderness. Numbers 11:5 : ‘We remember - the cucumbers and the melons,’ etc. The cucumber which is produced in Egypt and Palestine is large - usually a foot in length, soft, tender, sweet, and easy of digestion (Gesenius), and being of a cooling nature, was especially delicious in their hot climate. The meaning here is, that Jerusalem seemed to be left as a temporary, lonely habitation, soon to be forsaken and destroyed.

As a besieged city - נצוּרה כעיר k^e‛ı̂yr n^etsôrâh. Lowth. ‘As a city taken by siege.’ Noyes. “‘So is the delivered city.’ This translation was first proposed by Arnoldi of Marburg. It avoids the incongruity of comparing a city with a city, and requires no alteration of the text except a change of the vowel points. According to this translation, the meaning will be, that all things round about the city lay desolate, like the withered vines of a cucumber garden around the watchman’s hut; in other words, that the city alone stood safe amidst the ruins caused by the enemy, like the hut in a gathered garden of cucumber.” Noyes. According to this interpretation, the word נצוּרה n^etsôrâh is derived not from צור tsûr, to besiege, to press, to straiten; but from נצר nâtsar, to preserve, keep, defend; compare Ezekiel 6:12. The Hebrew will bear this translation; and the concinnity of the comparison will thus be preserved. I rather prefer, however, the common interpretation, as being more obviously the sense of the Hebrew, and as being sufficiently in accordance with the design of the prophet. The idea then is, that of a city straitened by a siege, yet standing as a temporary habitation, while all the country around was lying in ruins. Jerusalem, alone preserved amidst the desolation spreading throughout the land, will resemble a temporary lodge in the garden - itself soon to be removed or destroyed. The essential idea, whatever translation is adopted, is that of the solitude, loneliness, and temporary continuance of even Jerusalem, while all around was involved in desolation and ruin.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

8.And the daughter of Zion shall be left ⁽²⁰⁾ as a cottage in a vineyard He alludes to a custom which exists in France, that the vinekeepers rear a cottage for themselves when the grapes begin to ripen. His next comparison, which is closely allied to the former, is taken from a custom of that nation of protecting also gardens of cucumbers ⁽²¹⁾ by means of men who kept watch during the night. He next explains what he intended to convey by both comparisons.

Like a besieged city This may be explained in two ways; either that the whole country will be wasted, with the solitary exception of the city, which shall be left standing like a cottage, or that the city itself will be destroyed. The former interpretation is adopted by the Jews, and they understand this passage to relate to the siege of Sennacherib; but I think that it has a wider signification, and embraces other calamities which followed afterwards. This may indeed refer to the neighboring country, from the misery and devastation of which it was impossible but that the city should sustain much damage; but I consider the Prophet’s meaning to be, that the evils of which he speaks shall reach even to the city itself, until, broken and ruined, it shall wear the aspect of a mean cottage

The daughter of Zion is the name here given to Jerusalem, in accordance with what is customary in Scripture to give the designation of daughter to any nation, in the same manner as the daughter of Babylon (Isaiah 47:1) and the daughter of Tyre (Psalms 45:12) are names given to the Tyrians and Babylonians. Zion is the name here employed rather than Jerusalem, on account of the dignity of the temple; and this figure of speech, by which a part is taken for the whole, is frequently employed.

(20) Residua manebit.

(21) A lively French traveler, Tavernier, who flourished about the middle of the seventeenth century, in describing the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, gives the following account: — “There we see large beds of melons and of cucumbers, but especially of the latter, of which the inhabitants of the Levant are particularly fond. Most frequently they eat them without peeling, and afterwards drink a glass of water. Throughout the whole of Asia this is the ordinary food of the common people for three or four months. The whole family lives on it; and when a child asks for something to eat, instead of giving it bread, as in France and other places is the custom, in the Levant they offer it a cucumber, which it eats raw just as it has been fresh pulled. Cucumbers in the Levant have a peculiarly excellent flavour, and though they are eaten raw they never do any injury.” — Ed.

Smith's Bible Commentary

The book of Isaiah is a marvelous book of prophecy. Of course, it is the longest book of prophecy in the Bible, and it would seem that God gave to Isaiah a clearer vision of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ than any other of the Old Testament prophets. He writes much concerning the Messiah that is to come.

In the first verse he tells us the historical time of his prophecies, beginning when Uzziah was king of Judah, which puts it about 760 BC. And he lived through the succeeding reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and into Hezekiah's reign. And there is some conjecture that he lived through Hezekiah's reign until the reign of Hezekiah's son Manasseh, who was an extremely wicked king. And there are some stories that Manasseh the son of Hezekiah ordered Isaiah to be sawed in two, and that in the New Testament the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, where it tells us about the Old Testament heroes.

It's interesting the New Testament in Hebrews calls them men of faith, but some modern evangelists today would tell you they lacked faith, because it tells you how they suffered. And it's amazing that the men of greatest faith were marked by their suffering. And it tells how they were imprisoned, how they were stoned, and it does say how they were sawed asunder, or sawed in two. And there are those that believe that that is a reference to the fate of Isaiah under the king Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah.

But Isaiah names these kings through Hezekiah as the kings under which he served. In the Old Testament, if you go back to II Chronicles beginning with chapter 26 and on through to chapter 32, you will get the historic background for Isaiah's prophesies. Because in II Chronicles, chapter 26-32, these kings, their reigns are listed, and for special credit for the course, you'll go back and read 2 Chronicles 26:1-23; 2 Chronicles 27:1-9; 2 Chronicles 28:1-27; 2Ch 29:1-36; 2 Chronicles 30:1-27; 2 Chronicles 31:1-21; 2Ch 32:1-33 in order to best understand the prophecies of Isaiah as they fit in their historic setting.

There is always a tremendous value in understanding the message of the prophet to read in the contextual historic background the things that were happening to the nation at the time that he was prophesying. It would appear that the first five chapters of Isaiah are during the reign of Uzziah. Uzziah was a very popular king. In chapter 6, Isaiah records the death of Uzziah and the resulted effect that it had upon his own life. So the first five chapters are probably written during the time of the reign of Uzziah who was a very popular king, a very prosperous king over Judah.

So it is,

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz ( Isaiah 1:1 ),

Which is not the same as the prophet Amos--different Hebrew word.

that he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, the kings of Judah ( Isaiah 1:1 ).

Now it's as though man isn't listening anymore. It's as though Israel isn't giving heed to the word of the prophet, so he calls unto the heavens and unto the earth to hear. Have you ever sat in a conversation and you're talking and you look up and no one is paying attention to what you're saying? They're in conversation and you discover that you've just been talking and no one is paying any attention. Quite often in a restaurant I'll be talking and I'll look up and no one is paying any attention to what I say. So I pick up the vase of flowers in the middle and I say, "Now as I was saying, I really think that... " And it's like people aren't listening anymore, so he says,

Hear, O heavens, give ear, O eaRuth ( Isaiah 1:2 ):

Man isn't listening to the word of God, so he's calling the heavens and the earth to bear witness to what the Lord hath spoken. And God gives here His indictment against the nation of Judah. Now it's interesting that as you read it in it's historic context, Uzziah was a fairly good king. It would seem that under his reign there was an outward revival among the people. They were going to temple, they were observing the Sabbath, and under Uzziah's reign they were also observing the feast days, the Passovers and all. And though there was an outward form of religion, yet the Lord is calling out to the nation because underneath of it God had this indictment against Judah at the time.

I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me ( Isaiah 1:2 ).

So God's first indictment is that His own children have rebelled against Him. It is interesting that God gives this figure of father and children to the nation of Judah at this time, even as we still see the same figure, as we are children of God. But God said He has nourished these children, but they have rebelled against Him. "I've brought forth these children, I've nourished them, and now they are rebelling against Me." They have become worse than animals for,

The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel does not know, my people doth not consider ( Isaiah 1:3 ).

In other words, at least an animal has enough innate sense. An ox, and we say a dumb ox, but an ox has enough sense to know his owner, and a donkey has enough sense to know his master's crib.

A few years ago in Jerusalem a crime was committed and the criminal in escaping left his donkey at the scene of the crime. And the detective, who happened to know a little bit of scripture who was examining the case, came and said, "Well, just turn the donkey loose," and they followed him and led them to his master's crib. And the man was apprehended.

The donkey has enough sense to know his master's crib. But God said, "But Israel doesn't know. My people do not consider." They have not taken God into consideration that God has been providing for them. "They don't know Me," God is complaining.

As I said this morning, how long would you keep a dog if it would attack you viciously every time you went into your backyard? He didn't know his owner, he didn't know who was buying the dog food. You'd have to throw his food out the window. Where every time you went out in the back yard he'd come attacking you viciously, biting at you. But yet, if strangers, or a burglar would come into the yard, he'd go up wagging his tail and greeting him. How long do you think you'd keep a dog like that? I'd get rid of a dog like that in a hurry.

Think how patient God has been with some of you. Think of how long-suffering God is. Even an animal has enough sense to know his owner, to know his master's crib. To know where his provisions are coming from. But God says, "My people haven't considered; Israel doesn't know Me."

The third indictment that God has against them is they have become

A sinful nation, a people who are loaded down with iniquity, they are a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, and they have gone away backwards ( Isaiah 1:4 ).

Or they have backslidden. They have gone away backwards from God. They're not going forward towards God, going backwards from God. What a heavy indictment God lays upon them here.

And then God questions,

Why should you be stricken any more? ( Isaiah 1:5 )

Now they had already been suffering. The condition of the nation was vastly deteriorating, weakening. Their enemies had been coming in. They had lost a vast amount of their treasures. They had lost a vast amount of their cities. They were in a period of decline. And God said, "Why should you receive any more strife? Why should you be stricken anymore?"

[Why is it that] you revolt still more and more: for the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot to the top of the head there is no soundness in it; but there are wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment ( Isaiah 1:5-6 ).

Here's the nation battered, bruised, bleeding because they have turned their backs on God. And God has allowed the judgment, the chastisement to come to His children, but still they're not learning the lesson, still they are not turning to God. "Why should you be stricken still? Why should it have to go on?" And the whole idea is turn to God.

Now I've always said that you can make it easy on yourself, or make it hard on yourself. And some people just make it hard on themselves. In a few chapters we are going to read, "Woe unto those who strive with their Maker." Whenever you strive with God you're making it hard on yourself. You're gonna hurt, you're gonna come out the loser. "Why should you be stricken any more?" God said. Covered with bruises.

Now God turns and He speaks of the desolation of the land. He deals, first of all, with the people as the result of their sin the land has been ravished.

Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire ( Isaiah 1:7 ):

Now this is equivalent to the wounds and the bruises and the putrefying sores. He is just talking about how the nation has been ravished.

your land, the strangers devour it in your presence, it is desolate, it is overthrown by strangers. The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in the garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city ( Isaiah 1:7-8 ).

Become isolated and just alone like a city that is under siege.

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

Unless God had spared the small remnant that was left, they would have totally been wiped out as was Sodom and Gomorrah. They would have been devastated.

Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah ( Isaiah 1:10 ).

So God, here He brings up the reference of Sodom and Gomorrah, the destruction by God's judgment, and now He speaks of Jerusalem as a present Sodom and Gomorrah, as we in a figurative sense would speak of San Francisco as a modern Sodom and Gomorrah. Where the same openness of the same sin, the parading and the flaunting of that sin that brought the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is being flaunted in San Francisco. So God then talks about Jerusalem as being Sodom and Gomorrah. In Revelation, John picks up the same figure and uses, "which is spiritually Sodom," he said concerning Jerusalem, where the bodies of the prophets are slain.

To what purpose, [God said,] is the multitude of your sacrifice? ( Isaiah 1:11 )

Now He gets into the religious aspect of their lives. And getting into the religious aspects, God shows that the outward form of religion is without value. God isn't interested in religious forms; God is interested in your heart. The attitude of your heart is far more important to God than the actions. There are many people who are going through the right actions but have the wrong attitudes. And that's a sad condition. God is interested in the attitude of your heart. And, of course, this is certainly manifested in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus speaks of the importance of attitude.

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I'm full of burnt offerings of rams, the fat of fed beasts; I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or in lambs, or of he goats. When you come to appear before me, who's required this at your hand to tread in my courts? ( Isaiah 1:11-12 )

I didn't ask you to come, God said. Who invited you into My courts? They were coming; they were still going through the religious exercises. They were still observing the Sabbaths and the new moons and the feast days, but God said, "Hey, I'm full up with your sacrifices. That's not what I want." David said, "Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not, else I wouldst give it. But a contrite heart, O Lord, that You will not turn away." This after his sin with Bathsheba and his fifty-first Psalm, a prayer of forgiveness. "Sacrifices and offerings, Lord, You're not really interested in, but the contrite, broken and contrite heart, Lord, You're not going to turn away." God is interested in the broken and contrite heart much more than your bringing some sacrifice to Him.

We look at the evil of the church and the church history that gave the impression to man that he could buy the forgiveness of his sins. "That's all right, just as long as you can make a healthy contribution." We'll pat you on the back and say, "Fine fellow. Sit down here in the front row. We got your name with a gold star on the window, crystal. We've got your name here. You've donated. You're in good standing." It's been the curse of the church. To make men feel comfortable thinking that because of their contributions and all that they're well accepted and God has an open-door policy. God is interested in the heart. God says, "Hey, I've had it up to here with your sacrifices. I didn't ask you to come in. Who invited you into My courts? Who required you to come along?"

Don't bring me any more of these vain oblations; your incense is an abomination unto me; and the new moons and the sabbaths, and the calling of the assemblies, I cannot away with it; it's iniquity, even in your solemn meetings ( Isaiah 1:13 ).

Even in your sacred services are just filled with iniquity.

Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates: they are a trouble; I am weary to bear them ( Isaiah 1:14 ).

Oh how God is just so sick of the religious forms if your heart isn't in it.

And when you spread forth your hands ( Isaiah 1:15 ),

Now, of course, this is in their prayer, as they would come to the time of the solemn assembly to pray, they would stretch forth their hands to heaven. And God said, "When you stretch forth your hands that is in prayer,"

I will hide my eyes from you: yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear: for your hands are full of blood ( Isaiah 1:15 ).

The president of the Southern Baptist Association got into a lot trouble recently for a careless statement that he made concerning whose prayers God hears. But here God Himself declares that there are certain prayers He's not gonna listen to. People that are spreading their hands towards God, but God said, "Hey, I'm not gonna hear." Why? Because your hands are full of blood.

God does answer prayer that's the basic thrust of prayer. That's why we continue to pray and that's our encouragement for prayer. But it is true that there are prayers that God doesn't hear. David said, "If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord does not hear me when I pray." In the fifty-ninth chapter of Isaiah it says, "God's hand is not short that He cannot save, neither is His ear heavy that He cannot hear, but your sins have separated between you and God." Here God is saying, "When you stretch forth your hands to pray and you offer your prayers, I'm not gonna hear them, for your hands are full of blood."

Wash yourselves, make yourself clean; put away the evildoings from before my eyes; and cease doing evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, and plead for the widow ( Isaiah 1:16-17 ).

So the things that God was really concerned about is that they would really seek an honest judgment, that they would relieve the oppressed people, that they would give a true judgment to the fatherless and to the widow. After this indictment against them for their sins declaring the desolation that has come to their nation as a result of it and of God's total abhorrence to their formal religious exercises without any heart behind it, He calls for them really to repent to cease doing their evil, learn to do well, learn to do the things that God wants. It is interesting that God didn't want the sacrifices. God didn't want the offerings or whatever that were being brought to Him. He wanted them to start living right, to deliver the oppressed. So God said,

Come now, let us reason together, saith the LORD ( Isaiah 1:18 ):

God never challenges a person to take a leap of blind faith. The concept and idea of blind faith has been invented by those outside the church. It is not a scriptural term, nor is it something God has challenged any man to do. It is something that man is being challenged to do by the existential philosophers today. For the philosophy of existentialism has concluded that truth, good, evil do not exist on a universal base, that they only exist in the experience of an individual, and because we are all different, we must all then experience for ourselves what is good. And that if you live in reality, real honesty or reality is hopeless and despairing. And their net result of their search for truth has led them to hopelessness and despair. It doesn't exist. It is only relative as it relates to you. Therefore, because we as human beings cannot exist in hopelessness and despair, we must take our leap of faith, blind faith, hoping that we might find something to sustain us when we land. No guarantees, but you've got to take your leap of faith. And they start talking about the ultimate experience, the search for that ultimate experience. Take your leap of faith; maybe you can discover it.

One of the professors in Germany had so many students commit suicide that were taking his course started interjecting into his lessons, "We don't know that suicide is the ultimate experience. Now it may be, but we're not sure of that." Of course, Huxley thought the ultimate experience would be to die on a wild LSD trip. So as he was dying, he took a large dose of LSD. He thought that was the ultimate experience. It probably was. Hopelessness and despair, but you can't live in that, so you've got to take a leap of faith into a non-reasoned religious experience. Now that is why the Eastern religions, the mystics, the occultists, and so forth are so popular today. That's why some little guru with a high whiny voice can say, "I have flowers, I love me... "and all this and everybody starts contemplating their navels and start chanting their ohmmmms. Because somehow as they get into this transcendental meditation, they get into an altered conscious state that they can not explain, but they have a sense of well being and a sense of peace and tranquility. "Can't give you any reason for it, it's just that I felt in oneness with the great creative force of the universe," or something. And that's why you see these kids with their shaved heads and finger symbols and their white robes and they're dancing and chanting, because they are discovering some kind of a feeling that they cannot explain. It's a non-reasoned religious experience, a state of altered consciousness. And that's what philosophy says we must experience, you've got to experience it for yourself and thus you might discover what to you is relevant or meaningful or true.

But God doesn't say, "Take a leap of blind faith." God says, "Hey, come, let's reason together." God wants you to be reasonable. "Let us reason together, saith the Lord." Not a non-reasoned religious experience. God will give you a reason and a base for your peace. God gives you a reason why you're upset, a reason why there is the inner turmoil, a reason why there is that emptiness within. And God will give you a reason for believing and trusting.

One of the areas where we have strong evidence that God wrote the book and that God knew what He was talking about is in the area of prophecy. God challenged the false gods in Isaiah 41:1-29 to bring forth their strong reasons by telling us something before it happens. So that after it happens we really know you're a god. Show us a sign, a miracle, and wonder in heaven or on the earth that we might wonder at it and know that you are god. Prove yourself, give some evidence. Don't demand that we blindly follow you. Give some evidence. "That you might know," He said, "that I am God, I'm going to tell you things before they ever transpire."

Jesus said to His disciples, "Now I've told you those things before they come to pass so that when they come to pass you might believe." It's to give you a basis for your faith. Not blind faith. To give you a reason to believe. So I tell you in advance the things that are going to take place so that after these things take place you will believe. A reason for it. "Come now, let us reason together saith the Lord."

Then God makes a challenging offer to these rebellious children who have sunk lower than the animals, who are covered with bruises, whose hands are filled with blood. He said,

Though your sins be as scarlet ( Isaiah 1:18 ),

The word scarlet has as its background, double-died, soaked in the die so long, dried and soaked again until the die has permeated the very fibers of the fabric and it is impossible to remove. And some people are so steeped in sin that it has penetrated the very fibers of their being and sin has become second nature to them. You by nature are a sinner, but when it has become second nature, you are in big trouble. You are a rank sinner. Second nature, you do it without thinking. It's just second nature to you, but even though your sins be double-died, even though your sins have permeated the very fiber of your being,

though they be as scarlet, they may be as white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they may be as wool ( Isaiah 1:18 ).

Again, very white. What a marvelous offer by God to sinning man. And this, of course, is an offer of grace. You can't do it yourself. You can't bring it about by sacrifice, by offering; God is sick of those. You can only do it by receiving the grace of God. Come now, let us reason together, though you are in this terrible, hopeless state, I'll wash you, I'll cleanse you, I'll make you over again--if you be willing. That's the key, if you are willing. It has to be your choice. God is not going to force His will upon any man, for God has created you with a capacity of choice and that would be totally meaningless unless He respected the choices that you made. So,

If you are willing and obedient [God said], you can eat of the good of the land ( Isaiah 1:19 ):

The land that is wasted and desolate and taken over by your enemies, you can eat of it again, the good of it again.

But if you refuse and you rebel, then you will be devoured with a sword: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it ( Isaiah 1:20 ).

That's it. You've got your choice. Come, let's reason together. If you're willing, if you'll be obedient, you can have the best. If you continue to rebel, you're gonna get cut off.

Hey, with those kind of terms it would be reasonable to accept God's offer of grace and forgiveness. That would be the only reasonable thing under those terms. It would be very unreasonable to continue in your rebellion at that rate, to be cut off. So God speaks of Jerusalem,

How is the faithful city become as a harlot! ( Isaiah 1:21 )

Speaking, of course, in spiritual terms. The city that God had chosen, the city that God had selected from all the cities of the earth to place His name there that the people might come to it to worship Him, and yet, they had established within the city the various groves, and high places and the worship of false gods and Mammon and Molech and Baal.

It's interesting some recent archeological excavations that have been done above the springs of Gihon, going up from the Pool of Siloam and the Spring of Gihon, just above the two and heading on up towards the temple mount, recent archeological excavations have uncovered the ruins of the ancient city of Jerusalem, some of the houses that were there in Isaiah's day and on up to the fall of Jerusalem. They have found the ruins of the houses that were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar when he did come in and level the city. And there are marvelous interesting artifacts that they have discovered in these houses that were torn down and broken down by Nebuchadnezzar's army. And within the houses they have found multitudes of little idols to the various pagan gods. Confirming what the prophets were saying to the nation of Judah as they were warning of the impending destruction, even as Isaiah said here, "The faithful city has become a harlot!" Because they've turned from the love of God, the true God, the living God. And as Jeremiah said, "You've forsaken the fountain of living waters and you've hewn out cisterns that can't hold water." And so they're turning to these idols and to these other gods. They've turned, as God would say, spiritually, unto harlotry. They've become a harlot.

the city is full of judgment; righteousness once lodged in it; but now murderers. Thy silver has become dross, thy wine is mixed with water: Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves ( Isaiah 1:21-23 ):

Bribery was rampant.

and every one loves gifts, and they follow after rewards ( Isaiah 1:23 ):

And thus, their judgment is perverted.

they do not really judge the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them ( Isaiah 1:23 ).

Because they are receiving bribes, the total breakdown of the judicial system.

Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies ( Isaiah 1:24 ):

And what a tragic thing when the people of God have become His enemy.

I will turn my hand upon thee, I will purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counselors as at the beginning: and afterwards thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city ( Isaiah 1:25-26 ).

Now, of course, we got to about as dark as you can get. God had painted a black, black background for the nation of Judah, the city of Jerusalem. Get your blackest paint; paint the background using nothing but black, slate black. Now God takes... and in this black background He begins to bring a shaft of light, the shaft of hope for the future. For God is going to cleanse their dross and He will restore their judges as at the first and your counselors as at the beginning. And afterwards, after the restoration, thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Now she's a harlot, she's turned from God, but she shall become once again faithful unto her husband.

Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens which ye have chosen ( Isaiah 1:27-29 ).

The oaks and the gardens were a couple of the different cultish religions that they had embraced there in Jerusalem. They are referred to by other prophets also. Worshipping under the trees, and planting these gardens and using them for a form of worship of other gods.

The strong shall be as a tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them ( Isaiah 1:31 ).

So God will wipe out the iniquity. He'll destroy those who are guilty of iniquity and the strong will be as a tow, which is sort of a... the Hebrew word is to be cast off as a flax. The residue that is cast off, actually. So it is a broken rope or a strand that is broken and the maker as a spark and burning it, destroying it. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

2. Israel’s condition 1:2-9

Israel was guilty of forsaking her God and, as a result, she had become broken and desolate.

Dr. Constable's Expository 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’ [Isaiah 1:4] (the Hebrew word [hoy] is sometimes translated ’woe’) was a cry of mourning heard at funerals (see 1 Kings 13:30; Jeremiah 22:18-19; Amos 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 (Isaiah 1:5-6; cf. Isaiah 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 (Isaiah 1:7-9; cf. Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28-29). The description "daughter of Zion" (Isaiah 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 (Isaiah 1:10; cf. Genesis 19; Romans 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. 2 Kings 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.

Gann's Commentary on the Bible

1:8 Zion -- Another name for Jerusalem, “Zion” symbolized God’s choice of the city as His dwelling.

the daughter of Zion -- Refers to Jerusalem. The city surrounded Zion and the temple—Yahweh’s dwelling place in their midst.

a booth in a vineyard -- The image of a temporary structure alone in the middle of a field emphasizes Jerusalem’s precarious position: after Assyria’s campaign against Judah in 701 bc, Jerusalem was weakened—but still standing.

like a city that is besieged -- In his annals, Sennacherib claims that he left Hezekiah trapped “like a bird in a cage.”

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in the vineyard,.... The Targum is,

"after they have got in the vintage.''

A cottage in the vineyard was a booth, as the word e signifies, which was erected in the middle of the vineyard for the keeper of the vineyard to watch in night and day, that the fruit might not be hurt by birds, or stolen by thieves, and was a very, lonely place; and when the clusters of the vine were gathered, this cottage or booth was left by the keeper himself: and such it is suggested Jerusalem should be, not only stand alone, the cities all around being destroyed by the besiegers, but empty of inhabitants itself, when taken.

As a lodge in a garden of cucumbers: the Targum adds here also,

"after they have gathered them out of it.''

A lodge in a garden of cucumbers was built up for the gardener to watch in at night, that nobody came and stole away the cucumbers, and this was also a lonely place; but when the cucumbers were gathered, the gardener left his lodge entirely; and such a forsaken place would Jerusalem be at the time of its destruction; see Luke 19:43

as a besieged city; which is in great distress, and none care to come near it, and as many as can make their escape out of it; or "as a city kept"; so Gussetius f, who understands this, and all the above clauses, of some places preserved from the sword in the common desolation.

e כסכה ως σκηνη, Sept. f כעיר נצורה "ut urbs custodita", Gusset. Comment. Ling. Ebr. p. 529. "Observata vel observanda", Forerius.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.   3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.   4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.   5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.   6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.   7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.   8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.   9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

      We will hope to meet with a brighter and more pleasant scene before we come to the end of this book; but truly here, in the beginning of it, every thing looks very bad, very black, with Judah and Jerusalem. What is the wilderness of the world, if the church, the vineyard, has such a dismal aspect as this?

      I. The prophet, though he speaks in God's name, yet, despairing to gain audience with the children of his people, addresses himself to the heavens and the earth, and bespeaks their attention (Isaiah 1:2; Isaiah 1:2): Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O earth! Sooner will the inanimate creatures hear, who observe the law and answer the end of their creation, than this stupid senseless people. Let the lights of the heaven shame their darkness, and the fruitfulness of the earth their barrenness, and the strictness of each to its time their irregularity. Moses begins thus in Deuteronomy 32:1, to which the prophet here refers, intimating that now those times had come which Moses there foretold, Deuteronomy 31:29. Or this is an appeal to heaven and earth, to angels and then to the inhabitants of the upper and lower world. Let them judge between God and his vineyard; can either produce such an instance of ingratitude? Note, God will be justified when he speaks, and both heaven and earth shall declare his righteousness, Micah 6:1; Micah 6:2; Psalms 50:6.

      II. He charges them with base ingratitude, a crime of the highest nature. Call a man ungrateful, and you can call him no worse. Let heaven and earth hear and wonder at, 1. God's gracious dealings with such a peevish provoking people as they were: "I have nourished and brought them up as children; they have been well fed and well taught" (Deuteronomy 32:6); "I have magnified and exalted them" (so some), "not only made them grow, but made them great--not only maintained them, but preferred them--not only trained them up, but raised them high." Note, We owe the continuance of our lives and comforts, and all our advancements, to God's fatherly care of us and kindness to us. 2. Their ill-natured conduct towards him, who was so tender of them: "They have rebelled against me," or (as some read it) "they have revolted from me; they have been deserters, nay traitors, against my crown and dignity." Note, All the instances of God's favour to us, as the God both of our nature and of our nurture, aggravate our treacherous departures from him and all our presumptuous oppositions to him--children, and yet rebels!

      III. He attributes this to their ignorance and inconsideration (Isaiah 1:3; Isaiah 1:3): The ox knows, but Israel does not. Observe, 1. The sagacity of the ox and the ass, which are not only brute creatures, but of the dullest sort; yet the ox has such a sense of duty as to know his owner and to serve him, to submit to his yoke and to draw in it; the ass has such a sense of interest as to know has master's crib, or manger, where he is fed, and to abide by it; he will go to that of himself if he be turned loose. A fine pass man has come to when he is shamed even in knowledge and understanding by these silly animals, and is not only sent to school to them (Proverbs 6:6; Proverbs 6:7), but set in a form below them (Jeremiah 8:7), taught more than the beasts of the earth (Job 35:11) and yet knowing less. 2. The sottishness and stupidity of Israel. God is their owner and proprietor. He made us, and his we are more than our cattle are ours; he has provided well for us; providence is our Master's crib; yet many that are called the people of God do not know and will not consider this, but ask, "What is the Almighty that we should serve him? He is not our owner; and what profit shall we have if we pray unto him? He has no crib for us to feed at." He had complained (Isaiah 1:2; Isaiah 1:2) of the obstinacy of their wills; They have rebelled against me. Here he runs it up to its cause: "Therefore they have rebelled because they do not know, they do not consider." The understanding is darkened, and therefore the whole soul is alienated from the life of God, Ephesians 4:18. "Israel does not know, though their land is a land of light and knowledge; in Judah is God known, yet, because they do not live up to what they know, it is in effect as if they did not know. They know; but their knowledge does them no good, because they do not consider what they know; they do not apply it to their case, nor their minds to it." Note, (1.) Even among those that profess themselves God's people, that have the advantages and lie under the engagements of his people, there are many that are very careless in the affairs of their souls. (2.) Inconsideration of what we do know is as great an enemy to us in religion as ignorance of what we should know. (3.) Therefore men revolt from God, and rebel against him, because they do not know and consider their obligations to God in duty, gratitude, and interest.

      IV. He laments the universal pravity and corruption of their church and kingdom. The disease of sin was epidemic, and all orders and degrees of men were infected with it; Ah sinful nation!Isaiah 1:4; Isaiah 1:4. The prophet bemoans those that would not bemoan themselves: Alas for them! Woe to them! He speaks with holy indignation at their degeneracy, and a dread of the consequences of it. See here,

      1. How he aggravates their sin, and shows the malignity that there was in it, Isaiah 1:4; Isaiah 1:4. (1.) The wickedness was universal. They were a sinful nation; the generality of the people were vicious and profane. They were so in their national capacity. In the management of their public treaties abroad, and in the administration of public justice at home, they were corrupt. Note, It is ill with a people when sin becomes national. (2.) It was very great and heinous in its nature. They were laden with iniquity; the guilt of it, and the curse incurred by that guilt, lay very heavily upon them. It was a heavy charge that was exhibited against them, and one which they could never clear themselves from; their wickedness was upon them as a talent of lead,Zechariah 5:7; Zechariah 5:8. Their sin, as it did easily beset them and they were prone to it, was a weight upon them, Hebrews 12:1. (3.) They came of a bad stock, were a seed of evil-doers. Treachery ran in their blood; they had it by kind, which made the matter so much the worse, more provoking and less curable. They rose up in their fathers' stead, and trod in their fathers' steps, to fill up the measure of their iniquity,Numbers 32:14. They were a race and family of rebels. (4.) Those that were themselves debauched did what they could to debauch others. They were not only corrupt children, born tainted, but children that were corrupters, that propagated vice, and infected others with it--not only sinners, but tempters--not only actuated by Satan, but agents for him. If those that are called children, God's children, that are looked upon as belonging to his family, be wicked and vile, their example is of the most malignant influence. (5.) Their sin was a treacherous departure from God. They were deserters from their allegiance: "They have forsaken the Lord, to whom they had joined themselves; they have gone away backward, are alienated or separated from God, have turned their back upon him, deserted their colours, and quitted their service." When they were urged forward, they ran backward, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, as a backsliding heifer,Hosea 4:16. (6.) It was an impudent and daring defiance of him: They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger wilfully and designedly; they knew what would anger him, and that they did. Note, The backslidings of those that have professed religion and relation to God are in a special manner provoking to him.

      2. How he illustrates it by a comparison taken from a sick and diseased body, all overspread with leprosy, or, like Job's, with sore boils, Isaiah 1:5; Isaiah 1:6. (1.) The distemper has seized the vitals, and so threatens to be mortal. Diseases in the head and heart are most dangerous; now the head, the whole head, is sick--the heart, the whole heart, is faint. They had become corrupt in their judgment: the leprosy was in their head. They were utterly unclean; their affection to God and religion was cold and gone; the things which remained were ready to die away, Revelation 3:2. (2.) It has overspread the whole body, and so becomes exceedingly noisome; From the sole of the foot even to the head, from the meanest peasant to the greatest peer, there is no soundness, no good principles, no religion (for that is the health of the soul), nothing but wounds and bruises, guilt and corruption, the sad effects of Adam's fall, noisome to the holy God, painful to the sensible soul; they were so to David when he complained (Psalms 38:5), My wounds stink, and are corrupt, because of my foolishness. See Psalms 32:3; Psalms 32:4. No attempts were made for reformation, or, if they were, they proved ineffectual: The wounds have not been closed, not bound up, nor mollified with ointment. While sin remains unrepented of the wounds are unsearched, unwashed, the proud flesh in them not cut out, and while, consequently, it remains unpardoned, the wounds are not mollified or closed up, nor any thing done towards the healing of them and the preventing of their fatal consequences.

      V. He sadly bewails the judgments of God which they had brought upon themselves by their sins, and their incorrigibleness under those judgments. 1. Their kingdom was almost ruined, Isaiah 1:7; Isaiah 1:7. So miserable were they that both their towns and their lands were wasted, and yet so stupid that they needed to be told this, to have it shown to them. "Look and see how it is; your country is desolate; the ground is not cultivated, for want of inhabitants, the villages being deserted, Judges 5:7. And thus the fields and vineyards become like deserts, all grown over with thorns,Proverbs 24:31. Your cities are burned with fire, by the enemies that invade you" (fire and sword commonly go together); "as for the fruits of your land, which should be food for your families, strangers devour them; and, to your greater vexation, it is before your eyes, and you cannot prevent it; you starve while your enemies surfeit on that which should be your maintenance. The overthrow of your country is as the overthrow of strangers; it is used by the invaders, as one might expect it should be used by strangers." Jerusalem itself, which was as the daughter of Zion (the temple built on Zion was a mother, a nursing mother, to Jerusalem), or Zion itself, the holy mountain, which had been dear to God as a daughter, was now lost, deserted, and exposed as a cottage in a vineyard, which, when the vintage is over, nobody dwells in or takes any care of, and looks as mean and despicable as a lodge or hut, in a garden of cucumbers; and every person is afraid of coming near it, and solicitous to remove his effects out of it, as if it were a besieged city,Isaiah 1:8; Isaiah 1:8. And some think, it is a calamitous state of the kingdom that is represented by a diseased body, Isaiah 1:6; Isaiah 1:6. Probably this sermon was preached in the reign of Ahaz, when Judah was invaded by the kings of Syria and Israel, the Edomites and the Philistines, who slew many, and carried many away into captivity, 2 Chronicles 28:5; 2 Chronicles 28:17; 2 Chronicles 28:18. Note, National impiety and immorality bring national desolation. Canaan, the glory of all lands, Mount Zion, the joy of the whole earth, both became a reproach and a ruin; and sin made them so, that great mischief-maker. 2. Yet they were not all reformed, and therefore God threatens to take another course with them (Isaiah 1:5; Isaiah 1:5): "Why should you be stricken any more, with any expectation of doing you good by it, when you increase revolts as your rebukes are increased? You will revolt more and more, as you have done," as Ahaz particularly did, who, in his distress, trespassed yet more against the Lord,2 Chronicles 28:22. Thus the physician, when he sees the patient's case desperate, troubles him no more with physic; and the father resolves to correct his child no more when, finding him hardened, he determines to disinherit him. Note, (1.) There are those who are made worse by the methods God takes to make them better; the more they are stricken the more they revolt; their corruptions, instead of being mortified, are irritated and exasperated by their afflictions, and their hearts more hardened. (2.) God, sometimes, in a way of righteous judgment, ceases to correct those who have been long incorrigible, and whom therefore he designs to destroy. The reprobate silver shall be cast, not into the furnace, but to the dunghill, Jeremiah 6:29; Jeremiah 6:30. See Ezekiel 24:13; Hosea 4:14. He that is filthy, let him be filthy still.

      VI. He comforts himself with the consideration of a remnant that should be the monuments of divine grace and mercy, notwithstanding this general corruption and desolation, Isaiah 1:9; Isaiah 1:9. See here, 1. How near they were to an utter extirpation. They were almost like Sodom and Gomorrah in respect both of sin and ruin, had grown almost so bad that there could not have been found ten righteous men among them, and almost as miserable as if none had been left alive, but their country turned into a sulphureous lake. Divine Justice said, Make them as Admah; set them as Zeboim; but Mercy said, How shall I do it?Hosea 11:8; Hosea 11:9. 2. What it was that saved them from it: The Lord of hosts left unto them a very small remnant, that were kept pure from the common apostasy and kept safe and alive from the common calamity. This is quoted by the apostle (Romans 9:27), and applied to those few of the Jewish nation who in his time embraced Christianity, when the body of the people rejected it, and in whom the promises made to the fathers were accomplished. Note, (1.) In the worst of times there is a remnant preserved from iniquity and reserved for mercy, as Noah and his family in the deluge, Lot and his in the destruction of Sodom. Divine grace triumphs in distinguishing by an act of sovereignty. (2.) This remnant is often a very small one in comparison with the vast number of revolting ruined sinners. Multitude is no mark of the true church. Christ's is a little flock. (3.) It is God's work to sanctify and save some, when others are left to perish in their impurity. It is the work of his power as the Lord of hosts. Except he had left us that remnant, there would have been none left; the corrupters (Isaiah 1:4; Isaiah 1:4) did what they could to debauch all, and the devourers (Isaiah 1:7; Isaiah 1:7) to destroy all, and they would have prevailed of God himself had not interposed to secure to himself a remnant, who are bound to give him all the glory. (4.) It is good for a people that have been saved from utter ruin to look back and see how near they were to it, just upon the brink of it, to see how much they owed to a few good men that stood in the gap, and that that was owing to a good God, who left them these good men. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed.