Chapter One
1. Inscription of the book. 2–3. The ingratitude of Israel toward the Almighty. 4–9. The disastrous condition of the people of Israel. 10–20. The means of salvation – repentance from sins. 21–31. A prophecy about the future fate of Israel.
Isaiah 1:1. The vision of Isaiah, son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah – kings of Judah. 1–3. The Almighty, as faithful to His promises and a loving Father to Israel, complains of the unfaithfulness and ingratitude of His people, who are obligated to Him for their position in the world. “Vision.” This is what is called a special state of the prophet in which he received a revelation from God (see the introduction to the prophetic books). But here this expression has the general meaning of revelation – concerning Judah and Jerusalem. This inscription belongs to the whole book, because then it is added that the prophet wishes to communicate all the revelations that came to him during the reign of four Judean kings. Judah and its capital city Jerusalem are especially mentioned because all the other prophecies relate to Judah and the fate of the Judean kingdom.
Isaiah 1:2. Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth, for the Lord says: I have nurtured and raised sons, but they have rebelled against Me. The speech of the prophet contained in the first chapter was probably spoken during the reign of the Judean king Ahaz, when unlawful worship was being performed in Jerusalem (cf. verse 21, 29 and 2 Sam 16:3) and when for this reason the Lord punished the kingdom of Judah by the invasion of the kings of Syria and Israel (verses 5–9 cf. 2 Sam 15:37; 2 Sam 16:5; 2 Chr 28:5-8). The collectors of the speeches of the prophet Isaiah placed this speech first, probably because of its general content, whereby it indeed serves as an excellent introduction to all the subsequent speeches of the prophet. The appeal to heaven and earth as witnesses of the accusation of Israel’s sins gives the idea of the publicity and importance of this accusation or judgment over Israel (cf. Deut 32:1). Moreover, as the blessed Theodoret notes in his commentary on the book of Isaiah, heaven and earth were instruments for communicating various divine mercies to the Jews – heaven sent manna, earth gave fruits – and they indeed bore witness to Israel’s ingratitude at the time when Christ gave up His spirit on Golgotha. The Lord “nurtured” Israel by means of the laws, both religious and civil, given to him, as well as by sending him everything necessary for physical existence. He “raised” Israel among the other nations by drawing him especially near to Himself and especially by performing great miracles for him (cf. Deut 4:7; Deut 26:19). The Jews “rebelled” against the Almighty by worshipping other gods alongside the Lord (under Ahaz) and also by not listening to the prophets sent by Him (2 Chr 36:15-16).
Isaiah 1:3. An ox knows its owner, and a donkey knows its master’s manger; but Israel does not know [Me], My people do not understand. Animals, even the most foolish (“an ox... and a donkey”), feel gratitude toward their master who feeds them, but Israel treats the Lord as though He were a completely foreign, unfamiliar being. In this way the prophet recognizes unfaithfulness to the Almighty as the first cause of all the misfortunes of Israel described further.
Isaiah 1:4. Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children bent on destruction! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel – they have turned away. Now the prophet on his part is amazed at such behavior of Israel, which it seems can scarcely be brought to the awareness of the impropriety of its actions. The land of Judea was subjected to terrible devastation and soon perhaps will become like those pagan countries that were struck by God’s wrath. If not for the Lord, even Jerusalem would completely disappear from the face of the earth like Sodom and Gomorrah. Despite all God’s care for Israel, this people did not become holy. Children bent on destruction are those who direct all their thoughts toward evil, thinking about how to destroy others and in doing so bring spiritual destruction upon themselves.
Isaiah 1:5. Why do you continue to be struck if you persist in your stubbornness? The whole head is covered with sores, and the whole heart is wasted away. Isaiah 1:6. From the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is no healthy place: sores, welts, open sores that are infected and not cleansed and not bound and not soothed with oil. The society of Israel appears to the prophet under the image of a sick body. The “head” of this body (that is, the government) is covered with sores; the “heart” (that is, the priests and Levites) does not feel the disease of the body and is wasted away; and finally, in the entire state organism there is not a single healthy place: “Sores” – such that they cannot even be cleaned (literally, their pus squeezed out), “wounds” – cannot be bound up, “welts” (that is, bruises, blood clots) – cannot be soothed, smoothed with oil, which was ordinarily used for healing bruises and wounds. All this is metaphor indicating the extremely disastrous condition of the Judean kingdom under Ahaz.
Isaiah 1:7. Your land is desolate; your cities are burned with fire; your fields before your eyes are consumed by foreigners; all is desolate, as it is devastated by strangers. The preceding metaphor is here resolved into direct speech. “Land” – literally fields and cultivated land. “All is desolate” is better translated as: all is devastated by us, as might be the devastation of the land of some wicked pagans (cf. Isa 13:19).
Isaiah 1:8. And the daughter of Zion remains like a hut in a vineyard, like a shelter in a field, like a besieged city. “The daughter of Zion” – the chief city of the Judean kingdom, Jerusalem. The population of the city is represented in the form of a daughter or daughters to show its defenselessness and weakness. “A hut in a vineyard.” A watchman’s shelter in a vineyard, both now and in former times, consisted only of a small wooden hut covered with branches (Geikie. The Holy Land and the Bible, vol. 1, p. 141). “Like a besieged city.” The difficulty of a siege lies in the fact that all communication routes to the besieged city are cut off and it must suffer from hunger and thirst. From this comparison, it is evident, however, that the speech was pronounced at a time when an actual siege, in the full sense of the word, had not yet been established.
Isaiah 1:9. If the Lord of hosts had not left us a small remnant, we would be like Sodom, we would be similar to Gomorrah. “Lord of hosts.” This name first appears in the First Book of Samuel (1 Sam 1:3). Sabaoth is a Hebrew word (zebaoth, plural of zoba) which can mean: a) military units (Num 1:3; Judg 8:6; 1 Sam 2:5); b) with the addition of hashamaim – heavenly host, that is, either heavenly bodies (Deut 4:19; 2 Sam 17:16) or angelic hosts (1 Sam 22:19). Therefore some interpreters in the phrase “the Existing One – host” see an indication of the Lord as the national God of the Hebrews of war, others understand by “hosts” the totality of God’s creatures as a manifestation of divine power, and regard the expression “the Existing One – host” as a synonym for “the Almighty.” The second interpretation better corresponds to the general concept of God that the prophet Isaiah gives in the present chapter: God appears here, in verse 9, as the Sustainer of Israel, leaving some remnant of it, not as the “god of war.” Therefore, it is better to interpret the phrase “the Existing One – host” in the sense of the Almighty, having in His possession all beings of the universe, even angelic hosts, and directing these “hosts” to serve His lofty purposes (Glagolev, A. Old Testament biblical teaching about Angels. Kiev 1900, p. 238–256). A small remnant, in the eyes of the prophet, probably consisted of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and other Jews saved from the invasion of enemies. But, moreover, the prophet here undoubtedly had in mind the remnant of the holy seed on account of which the Lord spared the transgressing Hebrew people. This remnant – a small community of truly faithful people – was grouped around the prophet Isaiah (Isa 8:16).
Isaiah 1:10. Hear the word of the Lord, rulers of Sodom; listen to the law of our God, people of Gomorrah! God instructs the transgressing Jews, who have sunk to the level of the Sodomites, that they could again obtain God’s mercy. However, for this not sacrifices, not festivals are required, but a transformation of their entire life, a turning to the path of righteousness and justice in their relations with their neighbors. “Rulers” or leaders and governors of the chosen people, by their sins resemble the Sodomites, while the people resemble the inhabitants of Gomorrah. The prophet Ezekiel characterizes Sodom as full of pride, excess, idleness, and every injustice toward the poor (Ezek 16:49). The same sins burdened the Judean rulers. The people for their part were worthy of such rulers, because their impiety resembled the impiety of Gomorrah. “The law of God” – this is not only the law of God given through Moses, but also all the revelations of God communicated by the prophets.
Isaiah 1:11. Why are there so many sacrifices of yours to Me? says the Lord. I am satiated with burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened cattle, and the blood of calves and lambs and goats I do not desire. God ordained the offering of sacrifices not because they were necessary for Him, but in order to turn the Jews away from attraction to pagan sacrifices and, moreover, as the blessed Jerome says, with the goal of elevating the mind of man to the awareness of the necessity of a “spiritual sacrifice.” The Hebrews, in abundance, made offerings of either whole animals (burnt offering) or certain best parts of animals (fat or grease) or, finally, only the blood of animals. But in the hearts of the Hebrews there was no corresponding sacred devotion to the rite, and for this the prophet rebukes them. But the prophet himself recognized sacrifice as a necessary expression of religious feeling (Isa 19:21; cf. Isa 29 and following; Isa 34 and following). More details on this can be read in A. Spassky: – the attitude of the prophets toward the ritual law of Moses (Readings in the Society of the Lovers of Russian Learning. 1886, March).
Isaiah 1:12. When you come to appear before My face, who requires from you that you trample the courts of My temple? To come into the temple, before God’s face, with gifts and at the same time to nurture evil feelings in the heart toward neighbors (see verse 16 and 17) – this means to trample the court of God’s temple in vain.
Isaiah 1:13. Do not bring any more futile gifts: incense is an abomination to Me; new moons and sabbaths, festival assemblies I cannot endure: iniquity – and celebration together! “Gifts” – from Hebrew mincha, in distinction from zebach, means grain offerings (Lev 2). “Futile” – more accurately, false, not expressing the true disposition of those who offer them. Such a gift, more accurately translated from the Hebrew, is an abominable incense to God. Here mincha is called incense because part of the grain offering was burned together with frankincense on the altar (Lev 2:2). “New moons.” The beginning of each month or each new moon was accompanied by an addition to the daily burnt offering of a festival offering consisting of two bulls, one ram and seven yearling lambs, with corresponding grain offerings. Moreover, a sin offering was made, consisting of one goat; at this time the priests blew on sacred trumpets (Num 28:11-15; Num 10:10). In later times of Hebrew history, during the new moons, business and trades ceased (Amos 8:5) and pious Israelites sought instruction from the prophets. In celebrating the new moon, Israel sought a blessing from the Lord for the labors of the beginning month (Keil. Manual of biblical archaeology, part 1, § 73. Kiev, 1871).
Isaiah 1:14. Your new moons and your festivals My soul hates: they are a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. Hatred is attributed to God in a figurative sense. This means that God withdraws from the festivals of the Jews, which were not at all an expression of genuine joy in God. – I am weary of bearing them. In depicting God as wearied by these festivals, the prophet is clearly alluding to the weariness that any person experiences when he must concern himself with matters that bring no benefit to anyone.
Isaiah 1:15. And when you stretch out your hands, I turn away My eyes from you; and when you multiply your prayers, I do not hear: your hands are full of blood. “The stretching out of hands” or the raising of hands to heaven served among all peoples as the outward expression of prayers of yearning to God (1 Sam 8:22; Ps 140:2). “Full of blood.” Here in Hebrew the word blood is placed in the plural, which indicates abundance of blood. The prophet presents the Jews coming to pray in the temple as criminals and murderers who have not yet had time to wash their hands after the murder they committed.
Isaiah 1:16. Wash yourselves, cleanse yourselves; remove your evil deeds from My sight; stop doing evil; Isaiah 1:17. learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, take up the cause of the widow. The prophet invites these people, stained with crimes, to wash themselves completely (“Wash yourselves, cleanse yourselves”!), that is, by means of repentance to cleanse their soul, of course with the help of the Almighty (Ps 50:9), and henceforth do no more evil. This is the negative side of repentance. But in addition they must also positively demonstrate the spiritual renewal that has occurred in them: they must begin to do good deeds – to protect all the oppressed, especially orphans and widows, who are defenseless.
Isaiah 1:18. Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall become white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. Isaiah 1:19. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land; Isaiah 1:20. but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Only with such active and sincere repentance can the Lord allow the sinful Jews to approach Him and judge their case. Their conscience will certainly torment them terribly at this time; they will reach the point of despair, remembering the crimes they have committed, and God therefore comforts them with the hope of the possibility of obtaining forgiveness for any, even the most grievous, sin. “Scarlet” – from Hebrew schani from the word schani. This was the name among the Hebrews for the thick red dye obtained from the eggs of a shellfish that lived in abundance along the coasts of Phoenicia and generally in the Mediterranean Sea. Only the Phoenicians knew the secret of manufacturing this dye. “Crimson” – from Hebrew tofe also designates a red dye. Both these synonymous expressions serve as symbols of blood, with which, as stated above, the hands of the Jews were stained, and at the same time they indicate their strong sinfulness, which cannot be healed any more than crimson or scarlet dye can be washed from fabric.
Psalm 50:9. “Snow and wool” (cleansed sheep’s fleece, completely white) – symbols of purity, which among all peoples was symbolically represented by white color of garments (cf. Psalm 50:9; Dan 7). “You will eat... – the sword will devour.” There is a clear play on words here: either the Hebrews will eat the fruits of the land or they themselves will be devoured by the sword, which, as the saying goes, cuts into the body of the one upon whom it falls (Deut 32:42).
Isaiah 1:21. How has the faithful city become a harlot! She was full of justice; righteousness dwelled in her – but now murderers. Isaiah 1:22. Your silver has become dross, your wine is mixed with water; Isaiah 1:23. your rulers are lawbreakers and companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts; they do not defend the orphans, and the widow’s cause does not come before them. Again mentioning briefly the destruction of Jerusalem, the prophet foretells for it the judgment of the Lord, in which the chosen people will be cleansed from their sinfulness and Jerusalem will again become a city of righteousness. Those who remain stubborn in their sins will perish like dry branches in fire, from the wrath of God. “A harlot” – Jerusalem is called this as one who betrayed the Lord, whom the prophets depict as the Spouse of the Old Testament church or the chosen people (Ezek 16:15; Hos 1:2). The inhabitants of Jerusalem violated their faithfulness to the Almighty and His laws, do not fulfill the requirements of divine justice, and even divide their devotion between the true God and other gods (Ahaz and other Jews who performed worship of foreign gods as well). “Silver” – a symbolic designation of the aristocratic, ruling classes of Jewish society. This “silver” has lost all its nobility and now contains only dross. “Wine” – (from Hebrew sobe, the best, strong wine) or, that is, the highest class of society has lost its valor, as good wine is spoiled by the addition of water to it. “Rulers” – these are judges, whom the prophet accuses of venality and hard-heartedness toward unfortunate people.
Isaiah 1:24. Therefore says the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah, I will vent My fury on My adversaries and avenge Myself on My enemies! Here the Lord Himself begins to speak. “The Mighty One of Israel” – thus the patriarch Jacob called God, wishing to indicate that God would be the protector of all his tribe (Gen 49:24). Now this Protector of Israel will rise up against the children of Israel, who have become enemies of God. “I will vent My fury” – an anthropomorphic expression meaning the severity and inevitability of God’s judgment awaiting the disobedient Jews.
Isaiah 1:25. And I will turn My hand against you and will thoroughly purge away your dross, as with lye, and will remove all your impurities; The people of Israel is compared to silver which is mixed with a base metal – lead. To separate the latter, the silver must be remelted in fire and then placed in a caustic lye – a special ash obtained from a plant. The Lord in a similar manner, by means of various severe punishments (captivity, etc.) will separate from the society of Israel all elements that corrupt its purity.
Isaiah 1:26. And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as in the beginning; then you will be called the City of Righteousness, a Faithful City. Jeremiah 33:16. “Judges as before.” Since the discourse here concerns Jerusalem, by judges of the former kind the prophet means the best rulers from the dynasty of David and their ministers (cf. Jeremiah 33:16 and following). “A Faithful City,” that is, the true capital city of the theocratic state, where the law of the true King – the Lord – is precisely observed. Such a capital city Jerusalem, of course, must become in the last times of the world: this is the New Jerusalem, which the saint and Apostle John the Theologian saw in the Revelation (Rev 21:2).
Isaiah 1:27. Zion will be redeemed with justice, and those in her who repent, with righteousness; Romans 3:25. “Zion” or Jerusalem of the future will be saved, on the one hand, through the revelation of God’s Justice (the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Representative, was indeed an act of God’s Justice (Romans 3:25)), and on the other hand, through the righteousness or justification that God will offer to humanity as soon as it repents or believes in Christ and His saving merits (cf. Isa 59:20-21). Isaiah 1:28. But rebels and sinners will be destroyed together, and those who forsake the Lord will be consumed. Isaiah 1:29. For they will be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you will blush for the gardens which you have chosen; Isaiah 1:30. for you will be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water. Isaiah 1:31. And the strong will become like tow, and his work like a spark; both will burn together, and no one will quench them. The prophet in brief words depicts the fate awaiting all stubborn sinners, but clothes his thoughts on this question in a form most comprehensible to the people of his time. “Oaks” – from Hebrew elim – oaks or in general tall and shady trees, which still enjoy special superstitious reverence in the East. “Gardens” – more precisely, sacred groves in which the Jews performed worship of idols (2 Sam 16:4). The Jews, worshippers of oaks, themselves will become like oaks, but only dried up, or like gardens lacking all water. The strong man, the Jew, even if he is strong like an oak (cf. Amos 2:9), will become dry, limp tow, and his work or creation, that is, idols – a spark. The latter expression indicates that idol worship will destroy the Jews, as one spark falling into dry tow produces fire. Some critics reject the authenticity of several verses of the first chapter, others reject its unity, saying that it represents a composition of prophecies spoken at different times by the prophet Isaiah. But the entire speech of the prophet contained in this chapter in no way differs from other speeches he has given. The course of ideas in the speeches of Isaiah, as in those of the other prophets, is usually as follows: the prophet first accuses the people of departure from God’s law, then threatens them with punishment, calls them to repentance, announces the coming day of judgment and promises the righteous messianic blessings. All of this and in such a sequence is found also in the first speech of the prophet Isaiah. Its peculiarity lies only in the division of thoughts according to stanzas, which creates some unexpectedness in the transition from one idea to another. This speech is a poem, perfect both in form and in content. It observes the law of symmetry, as the stanzas proceed with a certain number of verses: in the first stanza (verses 2–4), depicting the transgression of the people, there are 2+2+3 verses; in the second stanza or antistrophe, devoted to a picture of punishment, there are also 2+2+3 verses (verses 5–8). Shortly after, the following stanza (verses 11–14) depicts the Lord wearied by the abundant offerings of the Jews. The corresponding stanza verse 15–17 changes the reason for this displeasure of the Almighty: He desires first of all justice from the Jews. Here too the same number of verses is observed, the same grouping, although the movement of the antistrophe is more rapid and the verses become shorter. The two final stanzas – verses 21–23 and verses 24–27 – contain two opposite thoughts: defilement and purification. As for the form, in these stanzas six words repeat symmetrically and one of them – dross (from Hebrew sigga), quite rarely found in the Bible, is placed in the 3rd verse of both stanzas. The intermediate or mediating stanzas, namely verses 9–10 and verses 18–20, are also constructed symmetrically: the thought is expressed by means of oppositions or alternatives, the name of the Lord is repeated at the beginning and end of the stanzas, the particle “if” (im) is repeated in each part twice. As for verses 28–31, they belong to the following poem. It is clear from all this that in the first chapter we have before us the integral work of one and the same author. Here are the stanzas contained in this speech-poem. verses 2–4 – 2, 2, 3 verses (or more correctly, hemistichs) verses 5–8 – 2, 2, 3 verses verses 9–10 – 2, 2 verses (transitional stanza) verses 11–14 – 3, 2, 2 verses verses 15–17 – 3, 2, 2 verses verses 18–20 – 2, 2 verses (transitional stanza) verses 21–23 – 2, 2, 2 verses verses 24–27 – 2, 2, 2 verses On the eve of the Epiphany, verses 16–21 of chapter 1 of Isaiah are read, which contain God’s promise to cleanse, in case of the repentance of the Jewish people, all of their sins. In this promise the Holy Church sees a prefiguration of the most perfect cleansing of sins given to all people who receive Holy Baptism. And the feast of the Epiphany or Baptism of the Lord reminds us of the event through which Christian baptism received its power.