4 O nation full of sin, a people weighted down with crime, a generation of evil-doers, false-hearted children: they have gone away from the Lord, they have no respect for the Holy One of Israel, their hearts are turned back from him.
For this cause, as the waste of the grain is burned up by tongues of fire, and as the dry grass goes down before the flame, so their root will be like the dry stems of grain, and their flower will go up in dust: because they have gone against the law of the Lord of armies, and have given no honour to the word of the Holy One of Israel.
Has not this come on you because you have given up the Lord your God, who was your guide by the way?
But when he saw a number of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, Offspring of snakes, at whose word are you going in flight from the wrath to come?
Are they moving me to wrath? says the Lord; are they not moving themselves to their shame?
But come near, you sons of her who is wise in secret arts, the seed of her who is false to her husband, and of the loose woman. Of whom do you make sport? against whom is your mouth open wide and your tongue put out? are you not uncontrolled children, a false seed,
So that they may see and be wise and give their mind to it, and that it may be clear to them all that the hand of the Lord has done this, and that the Holy One of Israel has made it.
These are the words of the Lord: What evil have your fathers seen in me that they have gone far from me, and, walking after what is false, have become false?
The evil you yourselves have done will be your punishment, your errors will be your judge: be certain then, and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing to give up the Lord your God, and no longer to be moved by fear of me, says the Lord, the Lord of armies.
With what care are your ways ordered when you are looking for love! so ... your ways.
But still they took no note and would not give ear, but they made their necks stiff, doing worse than their fathers.
Then you will say to them, Because your fathers have given me up, says the Lord, and have gone after other gods and become their servants and their worshippers, and have given me up and have not kept my law; And you have done worse evil than your fathers; for see, every one of you is guided by the pride of his evil heart, so as not to give ear to me:
Send for the archers to come together against Babylon, all the bowmen; put up your tents against her on every side; let no one get away: give her the reward of her work; as she has done, so do to her: for she has been uplifted in pride against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel.
For Israel has not been given up, or Judah, by his God, by the Lord of armies; for their land is full of sin against the Holy One of Israel.
Come to me, all you who are troubled and weighted down with care, and I will give you rest.
You snakes, offspring of snakes, how will you be kept from the punishment of hell?
You whose hearts are hard and whose ears are shut to me; you are ever working against the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets was not cruelly attacked by your fathers? and they put to death those who gave them the news of the coming of the Upright One; whom you have now given up and put to death;
Because the mind of the flesh is opposite to God; it is not under the law of God, and is not able to be:
Or may we be the cause of envy to the Lord? are we stronger than he?
For Jerusalem has become feeble, and destruction has come on Judah, because their words and their acts are against the Lord, moving the eyes of his glory to wrath.
Now the men of Sodom were evil, and great sinners before the Lord.
Then men will say, Because they gave up the agreement of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he took them out of the land of Egypt:
And the Lord said to Moses, Now you are going to rest with your fathers; and this people will be false to me, uniting themselves to the strange gods of the land where they are going; they will be turned away from me and will not keep the agreement I have made with them.
Then the children of Israel, crying out to the Lord, said, Great is our sin against you, for we have given up our God and have been servants to the Baals.
The evil-doers are strange from the first; from the hour of their birth they go out of the true way, saying false words.
How frequently did they go against him in the waste land, and give him cause for grief in the dry places!
For our breastplate is the Lord; and our king is the Holy One of Israel's.
Your chiefs have gone against the Lord, they have become friends of thieves; every one of them is looking for profit and going after rewards; they do not give right decisions for the child who has no father, and they do not let the cause of the widow come before them.
I will send him against a nation of wrongdoers, and against the people of my wrath I will give him orders, to take their wealth in war, crushing them down like the dust in the streets.
Let your voice be sounding in a cry of joy, O daughter of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.
And the poor will have their joy in the Lord increased, and those in need will be glad in the Holy One of Israel.
For they are an uncontrolled people, false-hearted, who will not give ear to the teaching of the Lord:
Get out of the good way, turning from the right road; do not keep the Holy One of Israel before our minds. For this cause the Holy One of Israel says, Because you will not give ear to this word, and are looking for help in ways of deceit and evil, and are putting your hope in them:
For the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, said, In quiet and rest is your salvation: peace and hope are your strength: but you would not have it so.
Against whom have you said evil and bitter things? and against whom has your voice been loud and your eyes lifted up? even against the Holy One of Israel.
You will send the wind over them, and it will take them away; they will go in all directions before the storm-wind: you will have joy in the Lord, and be glad in the Holy One of Israel.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 1
Commentary on Isaiah 1 Matthew Henry Commentary
An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of
The Book of the Prophet Isaiah
Chapter 1
The first verse of this chapter is intended for a title to the whole book, and it is probable that this was the first sermon that this prophet was appointed to publish and to affix in writing (as Calvin thinks the custom of the prophets was) to the door of the temple, as with us proclamations are fixed to public places, that all might read them (Hab. 2:2), and those that would might take out authentic copies of them, the original being, after some time, laid up by the priests among the records of the temple. The sermon which is contained in this chapter has in it,
And all this is to be applied by us, not only to the communities we are members of, in their public interests, but to the state of our own souls.
Isa 1:1
Here is,
Isa 1:2-9
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?
Isa 1:10-15
Here,
Isa 1:16-20
Though God had rejected their services as insufficient to atone for their sins while they persisted in them, yet he does not reject them as in a hopeless condition, but here calls upon them to forsake their sins, which hindered the acceptance of their services, and then all would be well. Let them not say that God picked quarrels with them; no, he proposes a method of reconciliation. Observe here,
"And now life and death, good and evil, are thus set before you. Come, and let us reason together. What have you to object against the equity of this, or against complying with God's terms?'
Isa 1:21-31
Here,
Now all this is applicable,