CHAPTER I.

THE design of this chapter is to show the connection between the sins and sufferings of God's people, and the necessity of further judgments, as means of purification and deliverance.

The popular corruption is first exhibited as the effect of alienation from God, and as the cause of national calamities, vs. 2-9. It is then exhibited as coexisting with punctilious exactness in religious duties, and as rendering them worthless, vs. 10-20. It is finally exhibited in twofold contrast, first with a former state of things, and then with one still future, to be brought about by the destruction of the wicked, and especially of wicked rulers, vs. 21-31.

The first part of the chapter describes the sin and then the suffering of the people. The former is characterized as filial ingratitude, stupid inconsideration, habitual transgression, contempt of God, and alienation from him, vs. 2-4. The suffering is first represented by the figure of disease and wounds, and then in literal terms as the effect of an invasion, by which the nation was left desolate, and only saved by God's regard for his elect from the total destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, vs. 5–9.

The second part is connected with the first by the double allusion to Sodom and Gomorrah, with which one closes and the other opens. In this part the Prophet shows the utter inefficacy of religious rites to counteract the natural effect of their iniquities, and then exhorts them to the use of the true remedy.

Under the former head, addressing them as similar in character to Sodom and Gomorrah, he describes their sacrifices as abundant and exact, but not acceptable; their attendance at the temple as punctual, and yet insulting; their bloodless offerings as abhorrent, and their holy days as wearisome and hateful on account of their iniquities; their very prayers as useless, because their hands were stained with blood, vs. 10-15. As a necessary means of restoration to God's favor, he exhorts them to forsake their evil courses and to exercise benevolence and justice, as-suring them that God was willing to forgive them and restore the advantages which they had forfeited by sin, but at the same time resolved to punish the impenitent transgressor, vs. 16-20.

The transition from the second to the third part is abrupt, and introduced by a pathetic exclamation. In this part the Prophet compares Israel as it is with what it has been and with what it shall be. In the former comparison, he employs two metaphors, each followed by a literal explanation of its meaning; that of a faithful wife become a harlot, and that of adulterated wine and silver, both expressive of a moral deterioration, with special reference to magistrates and rulers, vs. 21-23. the other comparison, the coming judgments are presented in the twofold aspect of purification and deliverance to the church, and of destruction to its wicked members. The Prophet sees the leading men of Israel destroyed, first as oppres sors, to make room for righteous rulers and thus save the state, then as idolaters consumed by that in which they trusted for protection, vs. 24–31.

In

It is probable, that this prophecy belongs to the class already mentioned (in the Introduction) as exhibiting a sequence of events, or providential scheme, which might be realized in more than one emergency; not so much a prediction as a prophetic lesson with respect to the effects which certain causes must infallibly produce. Such a discourse would be peculiarly appropriate as an introduction to the prophecies which follow; and

its seeming inconsistencies are all accounted for, by simply supposing that it was written for this purpose about the time of Sennacherib's invasion in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign, and that in it the Prophet takes a general survey of the changes which the church had undergone since the beginning of his public ministry.

1. This is a general title of the whole book or one of its larger divisions, (ch. i-xxxix. or i-xii.) defining its character, author, subject, and date. The Vision (supernatural perception, inspiration, revelation, prophecy, here put collectively for Prophecies) of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw (perceived, received by inspiration) concerning Judah (the kingdom of the two tribes which adhered to the theocracy after the revolt of Jeroboam) and Jerusalem (its capital, the chosen seat of the true religion), in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah. The prophecies relating to the ten tribes and to foreign powers. owe their place in this collection to their bearing, more or less direct, upon the interests of Judah. With respect to the names Isaiah and Amoz, and the chronology of this verse, see the Introduction.

2. The Prophet first describes the moral state of Judah, vs. 2-4, and then the miseries arising from it, vs. 5–9. To the former he invites attention by summoning the universe to hear the Lord's complaint against his people, who are first charged with filial ingratitude. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, as witnesses and judges, and as being less insensible yourselves than men, for Jehovah speaks, not man. Sons I have reared and brought up, literally made great and made high, and they, with emphasis on the pronoun which is otherwise superfluous, even they have revolted from me, or rebelled against me, not merely in a general sense by sinning, but in a special sense by violating that peculiar covenant which bound God to his people. It is

in reference to this bond and to the conjugal relation which the Scriptures represent God as sustaining to his church or people, that its constituent members are here called his children. The English Bible and many other versions read Jehovah has spoken, which seems to refer to a previous revelation, or to indicate a mere repetition of his words, whereas he is himself introduced as speaking. The preterite may be here used to express. the present for the purpose of suggesting that he did not thus speak for the first time. Compare Heb. 1: 1.

3. Having tacitly compared the insensible Jews with the inanimate creation, he now explicitly compares them with the brutes, selecting for that purpose two which were especially familiar as domesticated animals, subjected to man's power and dependent on him for subsistence, and at the same time as proverbially stupid, inferiority to which must therefore be peculiarly disgraceful. The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master's crib or feeding place. Israel, the chosen people, as a whole, without regard to those who had seceded from it, doth not know, my people doth not consider, pay attention or take notice. Like the ox and the ass, Israel had a master, upon whom he was dependent, and to whom he owed obedience; but, unlike hem, he did not recognize and would not serve his rightful sovereign and the author of his mercies.

4. As the foregoing verses render prominent the false position. of Israel with respect to God, considered first as a father and then as a master (comp. Mal. 1 : 6), so this brings into view their moral state in general, resulting from that alienation, and still represented as inseparable from it. The Prophet speaks again in his own person, and expresses wonder, pity, and indignation at the state to which his people had reduced themselves. Ah, sinful nation, literally nation sinning, i. e. habitually, which is the force here of the active participle, people heavy with iniquity,

weighed down by guilt as an oppressive burden, a seed of evildoers, i. e. the offspring of wicked parents, sons corrupting themselves, i. e. doing worse than their fathers, in which sense the same verb isused, Judges. 2: 19. The evil-doers are of course not the Patriarchs or Fathers of the nation, but the intervening wicked generations. As the first clause tells us what they were, so the second tells us what they did, by what acts they had merited the character just given. They have forsaken Jehovah, a phrase descriptive of iniquity in general, but peculiarly expressive of the breach of covenant obligations. They have treated with contempt the Holy One of Israel, a title almost peculiar to Isaiah, and expressing a twofold aggravation of their sin; first that he was infinitely excellent; and then, that he was theirs, their own peculiar God. They are alienated back again. The verb denotes estrangement from God, the adverb retrocession or backsliding into a former state.

5. To the description of their moral state, beginning and ending with apostasy from God, the Prophet now adds a description of the consequences, vs. 5-9. This he introduces by an expostulation on their mad perseverance in transgression, notwithstanding the extremities to which it had reduced them. Whereupon, i. e. on what part of the body, can ye be stricken, smitten, punished, any more, that ye add revolt, departure or apostasy from God, i. e. revolt more and more? Already the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint.—The same sense is attained, but in a less striking form, by reading why, to what purpose, will ye be smitten any more? why continue to revolt? If their object was to make themselves miserable, it was already accomplished.--Calvin, followed by the English version and others, gives a different turn to the interrogation: Why should ye be smitten any more? of what use is it? ye will revolt more and more. But the reason thus assigned for their ceasing to be smitten is wholly different from that given in the last clause