Isaiah 1
1:1 On the historical setting for Isaiah’s ministry, see Introduction.
1:2 The opening pronouncement of the book puts Judah on trial. The call goes out to the heavens and the earth to hear the charges against God’s people. In Deuteronomy the heavens and earth are invoked as witnesses to the covenant (Dt 4:26; 30:19). Isaiah called on the witnesses to listen to the charges filed in the following verses and to render judgment. God himself describes the rebellion of his people, referring to them as his children, underlining the scandal of the betrayal.
1:3 God stood amazed at the stupidity of his people. They were dumber than an ox, even dumber than a donkey. The former was smart enough to recognize its owner; the latter might not recognize its owner, but it knew where it got its food. Israel did not even have that level of intelligence as it denied God, its master and sustainer.
1:4 The opening Oh marks the beginning of what is commonly called a “woe oracle.” This literary form derives from funeral processions and often signifies the sense that the object of the Oh—in this case the sinful nation (Judah)—is as good as dead. As in v. 2, the heart of Judah’s transgression is identified as a betrayal of God. Isaiah frequently refers to God as the Holy One of Israel. This title emphasizes God’s separation from and profound aversion toward sin. When Isaiah encountered God in the temple, he experienced this absolute purity as he heard the seraphim cry out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies” (6:3).
1:5-6 Judah’s rebellion had already reaped consequences. They were like a sick man whose injuries stemmed from a beating, perhaps a poetic allusion to Assyrian military threats in 722 BC when the northern kingdom of Israel fell, or perhaps to a later incursion in 701 BC (see Introduction).
1:7-8 Judah’s sin resulted in a foreign military intrusion in the land (see notes at 2:5,6). Daughter Zion is a personification of Zion, the most holy place in Judah, the mountain where the temple was built. It reminds the reader of the intimate relationship God enjoyed with the people he must judge. A shelter in a vineyard or a shack in a cucumber field were both fragile. Without upkeep they would crumble, providing an illuminating analogy for the desolation of Jerusalem.
1:9 God had been gracious. He did not completely destroy his people and make them like Sodom and Gomorrah (Gn 19). Rather, some would survive the judgment; restoration would follow the cleansing of judgment. Paul quotes this verse in Rm 9:29.
1:10-15 In these verses God expressed his revulsion at the religious practices of his people.
1:10 Though God will not punish the people with total annihilation as he did the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (cp. v. 9), it is not as if they did not deserve that fate. Their rulers were like the inhabitants of those depraved cities who denied hospitality to strangers and engaged in perverse sexual acts.
1:11 God commanded his people to offer sacrifices (Lv 1-7; burnt offerings are specifically described in Lv 1), but the sacrifices of his people were reprehensible to him. They were not offered with pure motives of sincere repentance. Rather, they were offered with “hands covered with blood” (Is 1:15).
1:13-14 God also commanded that Israel consecrate holy times on a weekly (Sabbaths) and yearly (New Moons . . . solemn assemblies . . . festivals) cycle, but they had become loathsome to God because of the hypocrisy of his people.
1:15 This pronouncement has delayed the problem with the people’s ritual practice until the last line. Their sacrifices, times of worship, and even prayers were not acceptable because their hands were covered with blood. That is, they sinned and did not repent but still participated in worship. God did not tolerate such hypocritical behavior.
1:16-17 The pronouncement gives a prescription for change—repent. The metaphor for transformation here is a good washing. Transformation involves a cessation of evil activities as well as the requirement of good deeds. The good deeds are defined as pursuing social justice, particularly resisting oppressors and promoting the interests of the vulnerable (the fatherless and the widow).
1:18-20 The Lord presented two options to the people. One was to repent and obey. A remarkable transformation would result. Now they were blood red as a result of their sin, but repentance would turn them a glorious white. They could be cleansed (v. 16) with the result that life would be good. The second option was continued rebellion, a course of action that would end with their destruction.
1:21-22 God’s people were not always corrupt. A formerly faithful town—Jerusalem—had gone bad. The worship of false gods, idolatry, is often described as a form of adultery. Dross and watered-down beer are symbols of impurity.
1:23 The rulers of Judah were corrupt. They sought their own financial advantage and neglected the rights and needs of the socially vulnerable (the widow and the fatherless).
1:24 Therefore marks the transition from indictment (vv. 21-23) to judgment. God will not let the guilty escape their punishment.
1:25-26 The judgment is not just punitive; it purifies. The people started a faithful city (v. 21) and after their cleansing, they will again be a Faithful Town.
1:27-28 It is probably God’s justice and righteousness that are the redemptive agents here.
1:29 The people of God sinned by their idolatry that often took the form of worshiping false gods with foreign rituals. One common form of this false worship involved sacred trees that were probably connected with worship of a Canaanite fertility goddess called Asherah, the mother of Baal.
1:30-31 The pronouncement charged that Judah (you) would become like an oak. Here the tree image stands for the pride and resistance of God’s people. But such apparent strength is undermined by the fact that the tree was not watered and therefore would quickly burn when set on fire.
