21 How is the faithful city become a harlot! It was full of judgment; righteousness used to lodge in it, but now murderers.
Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore is she removed as an impurity: all that honoured her despise her because they have seen her nakedness; and she sigheth, and turneth backward. Her impurity was in her skirts, she remembered not her latter end; and she came down wonderfully: she hath no comforter. Jehovah, behold my affliction; for the enemy hath magnified himself.
Woe to her that is rebellious and corrupted, to the oppressing city! She hearkened not to the voice; she received not correction; she confided not in Jehovah; she drew not near her God. Her princes in the midst of her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves, that leave nothing for the morning.
Ye who hate the good, and love evil; who pluck off their skin from them, and their flesh from off their bones; and who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces as for the pot, and as flesh within the cauldron.
And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, And thou, son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? Yea, cause her to know all her abominations, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: A city that sheddeth blood in her midst, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself. Thou art become guilty by thy blood which thou hast shed, and hast defiled thyself with thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come unto thy years: therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the nations, and a mocking unto all countries. Those that are near, and those that are far from thee, shall mock thee, who art infamous [and] full of tumult. Behold, the princes of Israel have been in thee to shed blood, each according to his power. In thee have they made light of father and mother; in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger; in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow. Thou hast despised my holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths. In thee there have been slanderous men to shed blood; and in thee have they eaten upon the mountains; in the midst of thee they have committed lewdness; in thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness; in thee have they humbled her that was unclean in her separation. And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter. In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast overreached thy neighbours by oppression, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord Jehovah. And behold, I have smitten mine hand at thine overreaching which thou hast done, and at thy bloodshed which hath been in the midst of thee. Shall thy heart endure, shall thy hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I Jehovah have spoken, and will do [it]. And I will scatter thee among the nations, and disperse thee through the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee. And thou shalt be polluted through thyself in the sight of the nations, and thou shalt know that I [am] Jehovah. And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, the house of Israel is become dross to me: they are all copper, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace: they are become the dross of silver. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye are all become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. [As] they gather silver, and copper, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it, so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will lay you on and melt you. Yea, I will collect you, and blow upon you the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I Jehovah have poured out my fury upon you. And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto Jerusalem: Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of the Canaanite: thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water for cleansing; thou wast not rubbed with salt at all, nor swaddled at all. No eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, from abhorrence of thy person, in the day that thou wast born. And I passed by thee, and saw thee weltering in thy blood, and I said unto thee, in thy blood, Live! yea, I said unto thee, in thy blood, Live! I caused thee to multiply, as the bud of the field; and thou didst increase and grow great, and thou camest to fulness of beauty; [thy] breasts were fashioned, and thy hair grew: but thou wast naked and bare. And I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, and behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness; and I swore unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord Jehovah, and thou becamest mine. And I washed thee with water, and thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil; and I clothed thee with embroidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I bound thee about with byssus, and covered thee with silk. And I decked thee with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck; and I put a ring on thy nose, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was byssus, and silk, and embroidered work. Thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil; and thou becamest exceedingly beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy fame went forth among the nations for thy beauty; for it was perfect through my magnificence, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord Jehovah. But thou didst confide in thy beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy whoredoms on every one that passed by: his it was. And of thy garments thou didst take, and madest for thyself high places decked with divers colours, and didst play the harlot thereupon: [the like] hath not come to pass, and shall be no more. And thou didst take thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of males, and didst commit fornication with them. And thou tookest thine embroidered garments, and coveredst them; and thou didst set mine oil and mine incense before them. And my bread which I had given thee, the fine flour and the oil and the honey wherewith I fed thee, thou didst even set it before them for a sweet savour: thus it was, saith the Lord Jehovah. And thou didst take thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hadst borne unto me, and these didst thou sacrifice unto them, to be devoured. Were thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou didst slay my children and give them up in passing them over to them? And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, when thou wast weltering in thy blood. And it came to pass after all thy wickedness (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord Jehovah), that thou didst also build unto thee a place of debauchery, and didst make thee a high place in every street: thou didst build thy high place at every head of the way, and madest thy beauty to be abhorred, and thou didst open thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiply thy whoredom. And thou didst commit fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and didst multiply thy whoredom to provoke me to anger. And behold, I stretched out my hand over thee, and diminished thine appointed portion; and I gave thee over unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, who were confounded at thy lewd way. And thou didst commit fornication with the Assyrians, because thou wast insatiable; yea, thou didst commit fornication with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied. And thou didst multiply thy whoredom with the land of merchants, Chaldea, and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith. How weak is thy heart, saith the Lord Jehovah, seeing thou doest all these [things], the work of a whorish woman, under no restraint; in that thou buildest thy place of debauchery at the head of every way, and makest thy high place in every street! And thou hast not been as a harlot, in that thou scornest reward, O adulterous wife, that taketh strangers instead of her husband. They give rewards to all harlots; but thou gavest thy rewards to all thy lovers, and rewardedst them, that they might come unto thee on every side for thy whoredoms. And in thee is the contrary from [other] women, in thy whoredoms, in that none followeth thee to commit fornication; and whereas thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, so art thou contrary. Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of Jehovah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thy money hath been poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy fornications with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thine abominations, and because of the blood of thy children which thou didst give unto them; therefore, behold, I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all that thou hast loved, with all that thou hast hated, -- I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness. And I will judge thee with the judgments of women that commit adultery and shed blood; and I will give thee up to the blood of fury and jealousy; and I will give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thy place of debauchery, and shall break down thy high places; and they shall strip thee of thy garments, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare. And they shall bring up an assemblage against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords. And they shall burn thy houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women; and I will cause thee to cease from being a harlot, and thou also shalt give no more any reward. And I will appease my fury against thee, and my jealousy shall depart from thee; and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry. Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast raged against me in all these [things], behold, therefore, I also will recompense thy way upon [thy] head, saith the Lord Jehovah, and thou shalt not commit this lewdness besides all thine abominations. Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall speak in a proverb against thee, saying, As the mother, [so is] her daughter! Thou art the daughter of thy mother that loathed her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. And thine elder sister is Samaria that dwelleth at thy left hand, she and her daughters; and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. And thou hast not walked in their ways, nor done according to their abominations; but as though that were a very little, thou hast been more corrupt than they in all thy ways. [As] I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters! Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom: pride, fulness of bread, and careless ease was in her and in her daughters, but she did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me, and I took them away when I saw [it]. And Samaria hath not sinned according to the half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters by all thine abominations which thou hast done. Thou also, who hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own confusion, because of thy sins in which thou hast acted more abominably than they: they are more righteous than thou. So be thou ashamed also, and bear thy confusion, in that thou hast justified thy sisters. And I will bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them; that thou mayest bear thy confusion, and mayest be confounded for all that thou hast done, in that thou comfortest them. And thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate; thou also and thy daughters, ye shall return to your former estate. Yea, Sodom thy sister was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride, before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, who despise thee on every side. Thy lewdness and thine abominations, thou bearest them, saith Jehovah. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, who hast despised the oath, and broken the covenant. Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. And thou shalt remember thy ways, and be confounded, when thou shalt receive thy sisters who are older than thou, together with those who are younger than thou; for I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by virtue of thy covenant. And I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I [am] Jehovah; that thou mayest remember, and be ashamed, and no more open thy mouth because of thy confusion, when I forgive thee all that thou hast done, saith the Lord Jehovah.
For of old thou hast broken thy yoke, [and] burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not serve. For upon every high hill, and under every green tree, thou bowest down, playing the harlot. And I, -- I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed; how then art thou turned into the degenerate shoots of a strange vine unto me?
But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the harlot. Against whom do ye sport yourselves? Against whom do ye make a wide mouth, [and] draw out the tongue? Are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood, inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks? Among the smooth [stones] of the torrent is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even to them hast thou poured out a drink-offering, thou hast offered an oblation. Shall I be comforted myself as to these things? Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither didst thou go up to offer sacrifice. Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for apart from me, thou hast uncovered thyself, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and hast made agreement with them; thou lovedst their bed, thou sawest their nakedness. And thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst multiply thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers afar off, and didst debase thyself unto Sheol.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Isaiah 1
Commentary on Isaiah 1 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 1
Isa 1:1-31.
1. The General Title or Program applying to the entire book: this discountenances the Talmud tradition, that he was sawn asunder by Manasseh.
Isaiah—equivalent to "The Lord shall save"; significant of the subject of his prophecies. On "vision," see 1Sa 9:9; Nu 12:6; and see my Introduction.
Judah and Jerusalem—Other nations also are the subjects of his prophecies; but only in their relation to the Jews (Isa 13:1-23:18); so also the ten tribes of Israel are introduced only in the same relation (Isa 7:1-9:21). Jerusalem is particularly specified, being the site of the temple, and the center of the theocracy, and the future throne of Messiah (Ps 48:2, 3, 9; Jer 3:17). Jesus Christ is the "Lion of the tribe of Judah" (Re 5:5).
Uzziah—called also Azariah (2Ki 14:21; 2Ch 26:1, 17, 20). The Old Testament prophecies spiritually interpret the histories, as the New Testament Epistles interpret the Gospels and Acts. Study them together, to see their spiritual relations. Isaiah prophesied for only a few years before Uzziah's death; but his prophecies of that period (Isa 1:1-6:13) apply to Jotham's reign also, in which he probably wrote none; for Isa 7:1-25 enters immediately on Ahaz' reign, after Uzziah in Isa 6:1-13; the prophecies under Hezekiah follow next.
2. The very words of Moses (De 32:1); this implies that the law was the charter and basis of all prophecy (Isa 8:20).
Lord—Jehovah; in Hebrew, "the self-existing and promise-fulfilling, unchangeable One." The Jews never pronounced this holy name, but substituted Adonai. The English Version, Lord in capitals, marks the Hebrew "Jehovah," though Lord is rather equivalent to "Adonai" than "Jehovah."
children—(Ex 4:22).
rebelled—as sons (De 21:18) and as subjects, God being king in the theocracy (Isa 63:10). "Brought up," literally, "elevated," namely, to peculiar privileges (Jer 2:6-8; Ro 9:4, 5).
3. (Jer 8:7).
crib—the stall where it is fed (Pr 14:4). Spiritually the word and ordinances.
Israel—The whole nation, Judah as well as Israel, in the restricted sense. God regards His covenant-people in their designed unity.
not know—namely, his Owner, as the parallelism requires; that is, not recognize Him as such (Ex 19:5, equivalent to "my people," Joh 1:10, 11).
consider—attend to his Master (Isa 41:8), notwithstanding the spiritual food which He provides (answering to "crib" in the parallel clause).
4. people—the peculiar designation of God's elect nation (Ho 1:10), that they should be "laden with iniquity" is therefore the more monstrous. Sin is a load (Ps 38:4; Mt 11:28).
seed—another appellation of God's elect (Ge 12:7; Jer 2:21), designed to be a "holy seed" (Isa 6:13), but, awful to say, "evildoers!"
children—by adoption (Ho 11:1), yet "evildoers"; not only so, but "corrupters" of others (Ge 6:12); the climax. So "nation—people—seed children."
provoked—literally, "despised," namely, so as to provoke (Pr 1:30, 31).
Holy One of Israel—the peculiar heinousness of their sin, that it was against their God (Am 3:2).
gone … backward—literally, "estranged" (Ps 58:3).
5. Why—rather, as Vulgate, "On what part." Image from a body covered all over with marks of blows (Ps 38:3). There is no part in which you have not been smitten.
head … sick, &c.—not referring, as it is commonly quoted, to their sins, but to the universality of their punishment. However, sin, the moral disease of the head or intellect, and the heart, is doubtless made its own punishment (Pr 1:31; Jer 2:19; Ho 8:11). "Sick," literally, "is in a state of sickness" [Gesenius]; "has passed into sickness" [Maurer].
6. From the lowest to the highest of the people; "the ancient and honorable, the head, the prophet that teacheth lies, the tail." See Isa 9:13-16. He first states their wretched condition, obvious to all (Isa 1:6-9); and then, not previously, their irreligious state, the cause of it.
wounds—judicially inflicted (Ho 5:13).
mollified with ointment—The art of medicine in the East consists chiefly in external applications (Lu 10:34; Jas 5:14).
7. Judah had not in Uzziah's reign recovered from the ravages of the Syrians in Joash's reign (2Ch 24:24), and of Israel in Amaziah's reign (2Ch 25:13, 23, &c.). Compare Isaiah's contemporary (Am 4:6-11), where, as here (Isa 1:9, 10), Israel is compared to "Sodom and Gomorrah," because of the judgments on it by "fire."
in your presence—before your eyes: without your being able to prevent them.
desolate, &c.—literally, "there is desolation, such as one might look for from foreign" invaders.
8. daughter of Zion—the city (Ps 9:14), Jerusalem and its inhabitants (2Ki 19:21): "daughter" (feminine, singular being used as a neuter collective noun), equivalent to sons (Isa 12:6, Margin) [Maurer]. Metropolis or "mother-city" is the corresponding term. The idea of youthful beauty is included in "daughter."
left—as a remnant escaping the general destruction.
cottage—a hut, made to give temporary shelter to the caretaker of the vineyard.
lodge—not permanent.
besieged—rather, as "left," and Isa 1:9 require, preserved, namely, from the desolation all round [Maurer].
9. Jehovah of Sabaoth, that is, God of the angelic and starry hosts (Ps 59:5; 147:4; 148:2). The latter were objects of idolatry, called hence Sabaism (2Ki 17:16). God is above even them (1Ch 16:26). "The groves" were symbols of these starry hosts; it was their worship of Sabaoth instead of the Lord of Sabaoth, which had caused the present desolation (2Ch 24:18). It needed no less a power than His, to preserve even a "remnant." Condescending grace for the elect's sake, since He has no need of us, seeing that He has countless hosts to serve Him.
10. Sodom—spiritually (Ge 19:24; Jer 23:14; Eze 16:46; Re 11:8).
11. God does not here absolutely disparage sacrifice, which is as old and universal as sin (Ge 3:21; 4:4), and sin is almost as old as the world; but sacrifice, unaccompanied with obedience of heart and life (1Sa 15:22; Ps 50:9-13; 51:16-19; Ho 6:6). Positive precepts are only means; moral obedience is the end. A foreshadowing of the gospel, when the One real sacrifice was to supersede all the shadowy ones, and "bring in everlasting righteousness" (Ps 40:6, 7; Da 9:24-27; Heb 10:1-14).
full—to satiety; weary of
burnt offerings—burnt whole, except the blood, which was sprinkled about the altar.
fat—not to be eaten by man, but burnt on the altar (Le 3:4, 5, 11, 17).
12. appear before me—in the temple where the Shekinah, resting on the ark, was the symbol of God's presence (Ex 23:15; Ps 42:2).
who hath required this—as if you were doing God a service by such hypocritical offerings (Job 35:7). God did require it (Ex 23:17), but not in this spirit (Mic 6:6, 7).
courts—areas, in which the worshippers were. None but priests entered the temple itself.
13. oblations—unbloody; "meat (old English sense, not flesh) offerings," that is, of flour, fruits, oil, &c. (Le 2:1-13). Hebrew, mincha.
incense—put upon the sacrifices, and burnt on the altar of incense. Type of prayer (Ps 141:2; Re 8:3).
new moons—observed as festivals (Nu 10:10; 28:11, 14) with sacrifices and blowing of silver trumpets.
sabbaths—both the seventh day and the beginning and closing days of the great feasts (Le 23:24-39).
away with—bear, Maurer translates, "I cannot bear iniquity and the solemn meeting," that is, the meeting associated with iniquity—literally, the closing days of the feasts; so the great days (Le 23:36; Joh 7:37).
14. appointed—the sabbath, passover, pentecost, day of atonement, and feast of tabernacles [Hengstenberg]; they alone were fixed to certain times of the year.
weary—(Isa 43:24).
15. (Ps 66:18; Pr 28:9; La 3:43, 44).
spread … hands—in prayer (1Ki 8:22). Hebrew, "bloods," for all heinous sins, persecution of God's servants especially (Mt 23:35). It was the vocation of the prophets to dispel the delusion, so contrary to the law itself (De 10:16), that outward ritualism would satisfy God.
16. God saith to the sinner, "Wash you," &c., that he, finding his inability to "make" himself "clean," may cry to God, Wash me, cleanse me (Ps 51:2, 7, 10).
before mine eyes—not mere outward reformation before man's eyes, who cannot, as God, see into the heart (Jer 32:19).
17. seek judgment—justice, as magistrates, instead of seeking bribes (Jer 22:3, 16).
judge—vindicate (Ps 68:5; Jas 1:27).
18. God deigns to argue the case with us, that all may see the just, nay, loving principle of His dealings with men (Isa 43:26).
scarlet—the color of Jesus Christ's robe when bearing our "sins" (Mt 27:28). So Rahab's thread (Jos 2:18; compare Le 14:4). The rabbins say that when the lot used to be taken, a scarlet fillet was bound on the scapegoat's head, and after the high priest had confessed his and the people's sins over it, the fillet became white: the miracle ceased, according to them, forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, that is, exactly when Jesus Christ was crucified; a remarkable admission of adversaries. Hebrew for "scarlet" radically means double-dyed; so the deep-fixed permanency of sin in the heart, which no mere tears can wash away.
snow—(Ps 51:7). Repentance is presupposed, before sin can be made white as snow (Isa 1:19, 20); it too is God's gift (Jer 31:18, Lam 5:21, Acts 5:31).
red—refers to "blood" (Isa 1:15).
as wool—restored to its original undyed whiteness. This verse shows that the old fathers did not look only for transitory promises (Article VII, Book of Common Prayer). For sins of ignorance, and such like, alone had trespass offerings appointed for them; greater guilt therefore needed a greater sacrifice, for, "without shedding of blood there was no remission"; but none such was appointed, and yet forgiveness was promised and expected; therefore spiritual Jews must have looked for the One Mediator of both Old Testament and New Testament, though dimly understood.
19, 20. Temporal blessings in "the land of their possession" were prominent in the Old Testament promises, as suited to the childhood of the Church (Ex 3:17). New Testament spiritual promises derive their imagery from the former (Mt 5:5).
20. Lord hath spoken it—Isaiah's prophecies rest on the law (Le 26:33). God alters not His word (Numbers 23. 19).
21. faithful—as a wife (Isa 54:5; 62:5; Ho 2:19, 20).
harlot—(Eze 16:28-35).
righteousness lodged—(2Pe 3:13).
murderers—murderous oppressors, as the antithesis requires (see on Isa 1:15; 1Jo 3:15).
22. Thy princes and people are degenerate in "solid worth," equivalent to "silver" (Jer 6:28, 30; Eze 22:18, 19), and in their use of the living Word, equivalent to "wine" (So 7:9).
mixed—literally, "circumcised." So the Arabic, "to murder" wine, equivalent to dilute it.
23. companions of thieves—by connivance (Pr 29:24).
gifts—(Eze 22:12). A nation's corruption begins with its rulers.
24. Lord … Lord—Adonai, Jehovah.
mighty One of Israel—mighty to take vengeance, as before, to save.
Ah—indignation.
ease me—My long tried patience will find relief in at last punishing the guilty (Eze 5:13). God's language condescends to human conceptions.
25. turn … hand—not in wrath, but in grace (Zec 13:7), "upon thee," as Isa 1:26, 27 show; contrasted with the enemies, of whom He will avenge Himself (Isa 1:24).
purely—literally, "as alkali purifies."
thy dross—not thy sins, but the sinful persons (Jer 6:29); "enemies" (Isa 1:24); degenerate princes (see on Isa 1:22), intermingled with the elect "remnant" of grace.
tin—Hebrew, bedil, here the alloy of lead, tin, &c., separated by smelting from the silver. The pious Bishop Bedell took his motto from this.
26. As the degeneracy had shown itself most in the magistrates (Isa 1:17-23), so, at the "restoration," these shall be such as the theocracy "at the first" had contemplated, namely, after the Babylonish restoration in part and typically, but fully and antitypically under Messiah (Isa 32:1; 52:8; Jer 33:7; Mt 19:28).
faithful—no longer "an harlot."
27. redeemed—temporarily, civilly, and morally; type of the spiritual redemption by the price of Jesus Christ's blood (1Pe 1:18, 19), the foundation of "judgment" and "righteousness," and so of pardon. The judgment and righteousness are God's first (Isa 42:21; Ro 3:26); so they become man's when "converted" (Ro 8:3, 4); typified in the display of God's "justice," then exhibited in delivering His covenant-people, whereby justice or "righteousness" was produced in them.
converts—so Maurer. But Margin, "they that return of her," namely the remnant that return from captivity. However, as Isaiah had not yet expressly foretold the Babylonian captivity, the English Version is better.
28. destruction—literally, "breaking into shivers" (Re 2:27). The prophets hasten forward to the final extinction of the ungodly (Ps 37:20; Re 19:20; 20:15); of which antecedent judgments are types.
29. ashamed—(Ro 6:21).
oaks—Others translate the "terebinth" or "turpentine tree." Groves were dedicated to idols. Our Druids took their name from the Greek for "oaks." A sacred tree is often found in Assyrian sculpture; symbol of the starry hosts, Saba.
gardens—planted enclosures for idolatry; the counterpart of the garden of Eden.
30. oak—Ye shall be like the "oaks," the object of your "desire" (Isa 1:29). People become like the gods they worship; they never rise above their level (Ps 135:18). So men's sins become their own scourges (Jer 2:9). The leaf of the idol oak fades by a law of necessary consequence, having no living sap or "water" from God. So "garden" answers to "gardens" (Isa 1:29).
31. strong—powerful rulers (Am 2:9).
maker of it—rather, his work. He shall be at once the fuel, "tow," and the cause of the fire, by kindling the first "spark."
both—the wicked ruler, and "his work," which "is as a spark."