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Commentary to Book of Isaiah, by John Schultz (c) 2007 Bible-Commentaries.Com5/405The Hebrew word rendered “vision” is chazown, which as the English word implies, meanssomething that is seen or perceived, in this case particularly mentally. It speaks of insight as well as sight.The word is less common than one would expect in the Bible. In The Book of Second Chronicles it is used todesignate the whole Book of Isaiah. We read: “The other events of Hezekiah’s reign and his acts of devotionare written in the vision of the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.”1Bible scholars have argued about the question whether the title pertains to the whole book or onlyto the first chapter, whether part of it was added later by Isaiah or by another person or was in the originaltext. It is obvious that Isaiah addressed more than Judah and Jerusalem alone. As The Jamieson, Fausset,and Brown Commentary observes: “Other nations also are the subjects of his prophecies, but only in theirrelation to the Jews (Isa 13-23); so also the Ten tribes of Israel are introduced only in the same relation (Isa7-9).” The Adam Clarke’s Commentary states: “The prophecy contained in this first chapter stands singleand unconnected, making an entire piece of itself. It contains a severe remonstrance against the corruptionsprevailing among the Jews of that time, powerful exhortations to repentance, grievous threatenings to theimpenitent, and gracious promises of better times, when the nation shall have been reformed by the justjudgments of God. The expression, upon the whole, is clear; the connection of the several parts easy; and inregard to the images, sentiments, and style, it gives a beautiful example of the prophet’s elegant manner ofwriting; though perhaps it may not be equal in these respects to many of the following prophecies.”J. Alec Motyer, in his commentary on Isaiah, writes: “As the book of Isaiah has come to us,chapters 1-5 form a distinct section – like a ‘preface’ to Isaiah’s collected prophecies. This is apparent forfour reasons. (a) The precise dating of chapter 6 contrasts with the undated oracles in 1:2 – 5:30. Specificevents must, of course, have prompted these oracles, but Isaiah did not find it necessary to state them. (b)What we call ‘chapter 6,’ the prophet’s call, is well suited to form chapter 1 of the book, following the‘author’s preface’ (cf. Je. 1:4–19; Ezk. 1:1 – 3:27; although, since the call of Amos is not noted until Amos7:10–17, this is not a decisive factor. (c) Apart from the illustrative reference to the Philistines in 2:6, noforeign nations are named – not even the threatened super-conqueror of 5:25–30 – and this increases thesense that these chapters offer general truths designed to form a backdrop to the ‘main’ content of the book.(d) Chapters 1 – 5 are coherently structured with a progressive message. The unexpected heading at 2:1indicates a fresh beginning, and the matching passages 2:2–4 and 4:2–6 form a bracket or inclusio making them a distinct section. In this way 1:2–31 and 5:1–30 are also marked off as separate divisions ofthe prefatory chapters.”About the period covered by Isaiah’s prophecy, J. Alec Motyer, in Isaiah, states: “Isaiah ministeredwithin the fifty-year period between the death of Uzziah (1:1; 6:1, probably 739 BC), and that of Hezekiah(1:1, 686 BC). This was also the great period of Assyrian imperialism initiated by Tiglath-Pileser III (Pul, 2Ki. 15:19) in 745 BC.”b. A comprehensive failure (1:2–31)i.The national situation (1:2– 9)2 Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: "I reared children and brought them up,but they have rebelled against me.3 The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do notunderstand."4 Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! Theyhave forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.5 Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, yourwhole heart afflicted.1.II Chron. 32:32

Commentary to Book of Isaiah, by John Schultz (c) 2007 Bible-Commentaries.Com6/4056 From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness — only wounds and welts andopen sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil.7 Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners rightbefore you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.8 The Daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a city undersiege.9 Unless the LORD Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we wouldhave been like Gomorrah.Isaiah opens his prophecy with the words Moses used in his grand final address to the nation ofIsrael before they entered Canaan: “Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of mymouth.”1 But the words are not Isaiah’s; they are spoken by God, whom Isaiah calls “the Holy One ofIsrael.” This is the main title Isaiah uses for God throughout the book. It occurs twenty-five times.J. Alec Motyer, in Isaiah, comments: “Isaiah sets this three-part analysis of the contemporary sceneas if in a court of law. In verse 2ab the witnesses are called, in verses 2c–23 the charges are laid and in verses24–30 sentence is pronounced. Behind the observable facts Isaiah discerns the hidden causes: rebellionagainst the Lord (2d) as the root of national calamity (5); personal guilt vitiating religious practice (15);social degeneration through abandonment of revealed norms of justice and righteousness (21). All this givescolor to a comparison with Sodom (9–10) and builds a case for divine punitive action (5, 20, 24, 29, 29–31),but typically of Isaiah, there is also a surprise: hope is affirmed. The Lord has not left his people (9); whenhe acts it will also be to purge and restore (25–26), and the very justice and righteousness they abandoned(21) will be affirmed in a divine work of redemption (27).”Heaven and earth are addressed, rather than Israel itself, but the words are spoken in Israel’shearing for the purpose of making them understand the gravity of the accusation. Heaven and earth, taken inthis context, are impersonal entities. God calls them up as witnesses. They are the ones that reveal the gloryof the Creator. The Apostle Paul wrote: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — hiseternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, sothat men are without excuse.”2 Even fallen creation testifies to God’s glory.Israel had been chosen to manifest a different facet of God’s glory, the glory of God’s character asLord and Redeemer. When God revealed His glory to Moses and passed by him, He revealed Himself withthe words: “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loveand faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does notleave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the thirdand fourth generation.”3 That was the aspect of the divine character Israel had been chosen to reveal in thisworld and that is what they had failed to do.As children inherit their features from their parents, so Israel had been chosen to inherit God’sfeatures for the redemption of this world. In rebelling against God they rebelled against their own nature.In the examples of the ox and the donkey, the point of comparison is the manger. The lower part ofcreation recognizes the source of its sustenance. The domesticated animal knows where to find its food. Godhad fed and reared Israel, but they failed to recognize the most important element that secured theirexistence. They had been taught “that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes fromthe mouth of the LORD.”4 As bread feeds the body so the Word of the Lord is man’s soul food. Failure to1.2.3.4.Deut. 32:1Rom. 1:20Ex. 34:6,7Deut. 8:3

Commentary to Book of Isaiah, by John Schultz (c) 2007 Bible-Commentaries.Com7/405recognize this leads to spiritual starvation. In the New Testament this truth is expounded more deeply. It isnot by accident that Isaiah uses the word “manger” in his illustration. We read that when Mary gave birth tothe Son of God, “She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger.”1 In preaching to the Jews, Jesusspoke words that reveal to us the importance of Isaiah’s statement: “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses whohas given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For thebread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. I am the bread of life. He whocomes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. I am the living bread thatcame down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which Iwill give for the life of the world.”2 If we reject this truth we side with Israel in going against the very natureof our being.J. Alec Motyer, in Isaiah, comments on this section: “Thus, the ‘preface’ can be summarized asfollows. First is the heading (1:1). Then 1:2-31 is roundly condemnatory of what the Lord’s sons havebecome: rebellious (2), corrupt (4), chastened (5-6), shattered (7-8), religiously unacceptable (10-15) anddegenerated (21-23). This is not, however, the whole story: for the Lord had not abandoned (9) and will notabandon (25-28) his people. Nevertheless, the beginning of the preface is effectively a declaration that ‘Youare not what you ought to have been.”We may assume that the first five chapters of Isaiah’s prophecy were given during the reign ofKing Uzziah3 who reigned from approximately 783-731 BC. His reign was marked by prosperity andpower. Judah experienced its greatest affluence since the days of King Solomon during Uzziah’s regime. Aslong as the king was under the influence of the priest Zechariah, he followed the Lord. After the death of hismentor Uzziah became proud and decided to enter the temple to burn incense himself, acting as a priest. Godstruck him with leprosy and he spent the last twelve years of his life in confinement. It was probably duringthis period that Isaiah prophesied the words we find in the first five chapters of his book.During this period of affluence and political power Judah disregarded the call God had placed uponthem as a nation. It was at this time that a very severe earthquake hit Palestine. This earthquake was sodevastating that the people still knew about it in Zechariah’s time, about 200 years later.4 The InternationalStandard Bible Encyclopaedia notes: “Josephus likewise embodies a tradition that the earthquake occurredat the moment of the king’s entry into the temple (Ant. IX, x, 4). Indubitably the name of Uzziah wasassociated in the popular mind with this earthquake. If the prophecy of Amos was uttered a year or twobefore Jeroboam’s death, and this is placed in 759 BC, we are brought near to the date already given forUzziah’s leprosy.”Isaiah’s words in v.5 “Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion?”could very well refer to this earthquake, but we can only speculate about this.In Israel’s history books, Uzziah’s reign may have been marked as one of the golden ages, but inGod’s annals it was the time during which “they have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy Oneof Israel and turned their backs on him” (v.4b). In the Netherlands where I grew up, I learned in school thatHolland’s golden age was the eighteenth century, when Holland knew its greatest prosperity. In reality itwas the age of fool’s gold. It was the time in which Dutch ships brought spices and other exotic items fromthe Indies and the basis of colonialism was laid; the age the slave trade with the Americas began. Holland’sgolden age was in sixteenth century when people were burned at the stake because they read the Bible.Israel’s golden age was in the days of Joshua and David, who were men after God’s own heart.1.2.3.4.Luke 2:7John 6:32,33,35,51II Kings 15:1-8 and II Chron. 26See Zech. 14:5.

Commentary to Book of Isaiah, by John Schultz (c) 2007 Bible-Commentaries.Com8/405Isaiah describes Israel as Jesus depicted the man who was attacked by robbers on the way to1Jericho. Israel resembled the Christians in Laodicea about whom Jesus would say centuries later: “You say,‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched,pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”2We note that the prophet describes the whole nation as one single person, as a whole body. Judah issick from top to toe, in the head as well as in the heart. From the beginning of creation, God has treatedmankind as being one person, as either being “in Adam,” or “in Christ.” God administered corporalpunishment to those He loved so they would be saved from spiritual destruction. As The Book of Proverbsstates: “Wounds from a friend can be trusted”3 and: “Blows and wounds cleanse away evil, and beatingspurge the inmost being.”4If vv.2-5 describe the moral condition of the people, vv.6-9 speak of the landscape. There is noindication that Judah was attacked and devastated at that time in the way Isaiah portrays here. Some Biblescholars, however, believe that Judah may, at that point, not yet have recovered from the attacks of Syria andIsrael under Uzziah’s predecessors Joash and Amaziah. But it seems more likely that Isaiah places himselfprophetically in the future and speaks about what the country will look like during the Babylonian captivity.In painting a picture of what will happen to their country if the people do not turn to the Lord in time, Isaiahissues a warning and a call for repentance. If this supposition is correct, the people may have reacted toIsaiah’s picture with unbelief and scorn, much like Noah’s contemporaries who could not understand whyNoah built a ship on dry land, or Lot’s sons-in-law who thought their father-in-law was joking when heannounced the destruction of Sodom.5 Isaiah’s painting makes us think of Germany at the end of World WarII: bombed-out cities and scorched earth.The shelter in a vineyard and the hut in a field of melons paint a dismal picture of Judah’s futurecondition. The Pulpit Commentary explains: “Vineyards required to be watched for a few weeks only as thefruit began to ripen; and the watchers, or keepers, built themselves, therefore, mere ‘booths’ for theirprotection These were frail, solitary dwellings — very forlorn, very helpless. Such was now Jerusalem Cucumber-gardens required watching throughout the season, i.e. from spring to autumn, and their watcherneeded a more solid edifice than a booth.” The sad part of the image is that the harvest is destroyed and thebooth that was erected to protect it, that ramshackle little structure, is the only thing remaining as a symbolof futility. The booth does not depict Jerusalem, as The Pulpit Commentary suggests, but The Daughter ofZion, that is the people. People who do not put God at the center of their lives reduce themselves tomeaninglessness and futility.In v.9 the prophet reminds us, not only of the story of destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but ofAbraham’s intercession. The “survivors” are the ten righteous that were lacking in Abraham’s day. In hisintercessory prayer for Sodom, Abraham said: “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more.What if only ten can be found there? And God answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”6Isaiah calls for intercessors, people who are the spiritual army to defend the land. When Elisha sawhis mentor Elijah go to heaven, he cried: “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!”7Elijah’s ascension left Israel without defense. After World War I, which people believed to be “the war to1.2.3.Luke 20:30Rev. 3:17Prov. 27:64.5.6.7.Prov. 20:30See Gen. 19:14.Gen. 18:32II Kings 2:12

Commentary to Book of Isaiah, by John Schultz (c) 2007 Bible-Commentaries.Com9/405end all wars,” some people formed a group called “Spiritual and Moral Rearmament.” In these verses Isaiahcalls for that kind of mobilization.ii.The religious situation (1:10– 20)10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the law of our God, you people ofGomorrah!11 "The multitude of your sacrifices — what are they to me?" says the LORD. "I have more than enoughof burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls andlambs and goats.12 When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths andconvocations — I cannot bear your evil assemblies.14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me;I am weary of bearing them.15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer manyprayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood;16 wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong,17 learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead thecase of the widow.18 "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall beas white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land;20 but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword." For the mouth of the LORD hasspoken.In the previous verse, Isaiah had compared the people to Sodom and Gomorrah after theirdestruction; here he compares them to those cities before the Lord turned them upside-down. The sin ofSodom and Gomorrah demonstrated itself in sexual perversion. The sin of Judah was perversion on adifferent level. Scripture consistently calls spiritual infidelity adultery. What Sodom did sexually, Judah didspiritually: they maintained an outward resemblance of piety without communion with God. Judah treatedGod as the heathen people treated their idols, as deities against which they had to defend themselves, whohad to be pacified with blood. They were like husbands who buy expensive jewelry for their wives whilehaving affairs with other women.Some Bible scholars have drawn the wrong conclusion of what Isaiah says in these verses. J. AlecMotyer, in Isaiah, comments: “These verses have been the center of a difference of opinion. Some note howin verse 11 the Lord denies the significance of sacrifices, in verse 12 their divine authorization, and in verse13 issues commands to end them. On this view, Isaiah is calling for ‘morality without religion,’ an ethicallyfocused walk with God devoid of ritual observance. But it can be questioned whether this understanding istrue to Isaiah. Is it likely that he was so revolutionary as to repudiate the tradition in which he had beennurtured and which he would have traced back to Moses? Such a conclusion would require more than the‘say so’ of a brief passage like this! Furthermore, if the passage repudiated temple rites, then it repudiatesequally the Sabbath (13) and prayer (15)! Rather, Isaiah invites us to recall that in the Mosaic systemredeeming grace (Ex. 6:6-7; 12:13), the gift of the law (Ex. 20) and the forms of religious observance (Ex.25 – Lv. 27) followed one another in that order as parts of a single whole. The law was given so that thosewho had already been redeemed by the blood of the lamb would know how

About the period of his prophetic ministry, Easton’s Bible Dictionary states: “He exercised the functions of his office during the reigns of Uzziah (or Azariah), Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (1:1). Uzziah reigned fifty-two years (810 BC - 759 BC), and Isaiah must have begun his c