Isaiah 1

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:7

Your country is desolate. Metaphor is now dropped, and the prophet describes in strong but simple language the judgments of God, which have already followed the sins of the nation. First of all, their land is "a desolation." It has been recently ravaged by an enemy; the towns have been burnt, the crops devoured. There is nothing to determine who the enemy had been. Knobel supposes the Edomites and Philistines, who invaded Judaea in the time of Ahaz ( 2 Chronicles 28:17 , 2 Chronicles... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:8

The daughter of Zion. Not "the faithful Church" (Kay), but the city of Jerusalem, which is thus personified. Comp. Isaiah 47:1 , Isaiah 47:5 , where Babylon is called the "daughter of the Chaldeans;" and Lamentations 1:6 ; Lamentations 2:1 , Lamentations 2:4 , Lamentations 2:8 , Lamentations 2:10 , where the phrase here used is repeated in the same sense. More commonly it designates the people without the city ( Lamentations 2:13 ; Lamentations 4:22 ; Micah 3:8 , Micah... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:9

Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom. Lowth and Cheyne prefer to divide the two clauses differently, and to translate, "Except the Lord of hosts had left us a remnant, within a little we should have been like Sodom." The "remnant" is that of the few godly men who still inhabit Jerusalem. The comparison of Jerusalem with Sodom is made again in Isaiah 3:9 , and is carried out at some length by Ezekiel ( Ezekiel 16:44-57 ). It implies... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:9

The faithful remnant. 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." This is as music of hope amid a strain of grief. And it is the first note of an evangelic prophecy, which is to merge into the "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people," of a later chapter. Where there is life there is hope in national calamity as well as in personal sickness. " A cottage in a vineyard" is a cottage that speaks of home ( ... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:10

Hear the word of the Lord ; i.e. "Do not speak to no purpose, but hear." The rulers are supposed to have begun their plea, but the prophet stops them. Ye rulers of Sodom. Having said in the preceding verse how nearly Jerusalem had suffered the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, the writer grows more bold, and proceeds to give Jerusalem the obnoxious names. Her "rulers, "literally, judges ( katsin in Hebrew corresponding to kadi in Arabic), are "rulers of Sodom;" her people are the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:10-15

THE PEOPLE 'S PLEA NO EXCUSE , BUT AN AGGRAVATION OF THEIR GUILT . The prophet supposes the people, by the mouth of their rulers, to meet the charge of rebellion with an appeal to the fact that they maintain all the outward ordinances of religion, as required by the Lawn and are therefore blameless. This draws from him a burst of indignant eloquence, which the Holy Spirit directs him to put, mainly, into the mouth of God ( Isaiah 1:11-15 ), denouncing such a pretence of... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:10-17

The people's plea considered. The leading men of Jerusalem are supposed to reply to the charge of Jehovah, pointing to the elaborate manner in which his worship is kept up. And Jehovah rejects their plea with scorn. I. THE DIVINE INDIGNATION AGAINST WICKEDNESS . No more scathing denunciation could there be than to term the rulers of the holy city "chiefs of Sodom," and the people in general "people of Gomorrah." Those were names of horror and shame. Christ used them in the same... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:10-20

The prophetic strain. Isaiah had gone only a very little way in his testimony when he broke into the true prophetic strain. The prophets were God's witnesses against the mere shows and semblances of piety, and for the reality of godliness and virtue; they lived to expose the false and to expound the true, to pierce with keen edged sword that which was hollow and rotten, and to commend with glowing zeal that which was sound and good. Here we have a deliverance which evidently came hot from a... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:11

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? Cui bono? What good end do they serve? "Thinkest thou that I will eat the flesh of bulls, and drink the blood of goats? "( Psalms 1:1-6 :13). God "delights not in burnt offerings." From the time of Samuel he had declared, "Behold, to obey is better then sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams" ( 1 Samuel 15:22 ). David had said of him, "Sacrifice and meat offering thou wouldest not; burnt offerings and sacrifice for... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:11-13

Mere ceremonial an offense to God. What a painful sight it would be to see some of our houses with the fronts off!—to look into the abodes of vice; to witness the impurity and profanity, and wretchedness and wild license, and seething corruption of our large towns! That sight we may escape, but we must see ourselves with the fronts off—those false fronts with which self-worship hides the truth from view. We must look behind the gaily painted scenes of a decent moral life and conformity with... read more

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:7

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:8

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:9

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:9

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:10

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:10-15

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:10-17

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:10-20

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:11

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 1:11-13

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