Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth ,.... The Targum is, "my Word abhorreth;' the Messiah, the essential Word. These are the same as before. They are a trouble unto me ; as they were kept and observed, either when they should not, or in a manner unbecoming: I am weary to bear them ; because of the sins with which they made him to serve, Isaiah 43:24 . read more
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
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
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
The outward form of religion, without inward piety, an offence to God. It is strange how deeply ingrained the idea is in man, that formal acts of worship, outward acknowledgment, ritual, ceremonial, pageantry, constitute religion, and will be accepted by God in lieu of the inward devotion of the heart. Heathenism was full of the notion. Plato tells us that the Greeks thought they might commit any number and any kind of sins or crimes, and obtain pardon for them at the hands of the gods, if... read more
Your new moons. (For the ceremonies to be observed at the opening of each month, see Numbers 28:11-15 .) Your appointed feasts. The "appointed feasts" are the great festival-times—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. They do not include the sabbath or the "new moon, "with which they are, both here and elsewhere ( 1 Chronicles 23:31 ; 2 Chronicles 31:3 ), contrasted. They are a trouble unto me; literally, an encumbrance (see Deuteronomy... read more
Your appointed feasts - That is, your assemblies convened on regular set times - מועד mô‛êd, from יעד yâ‛ad, to fix, to appoint. Hengstenberg (Chris. iii. p. 87) has shown that this word (מועדים mô‛ĕdı̂ym) is applied in the Scriptures only to the sabbath, passover, pentecost, day of atonement, and feast of tabernacles. Prof. Alexander, in loc. It is applied to those festivals, because they were fixed by law to certain periods of the year. This verse is a very impressive repetition of the... read more
Religious and moral corruption (1:10-31)No doubt the people thought they were pleasing God by offering sacrifices, attending public worship services, and keeping the special Israelite feasts; but because their everyday lives were full of sin, their religious exercises were hateful to God. No matter how correct the form of worship, God will not accept it unless the people show a corresponding zeal for right behaviour (10-15).The people must turn from their selfishness and treachery, and begin to... read more
Get Bible verse every day in your inbox
Read on Mobile
Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 1:10-15
Here, I. God calls to them (but calls in vain) to hear his word, Isa. 1:10. 1. The title he gives them is very strange; You rulers of Sodom, and people of Gomorrah. This intimates what a righteous thing it would have been with God to make them like Sodom and Gomorrah in respect of ruin (Isa. 1:9), because that had made themselves like Sodom and Gomorrah in respect of sin. The men of Sodom were wicked, and sinners before the Lord exceedingly (Gen. 13:13), and so were the men of Judah. When the... read more