Isaiah 1:4

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

Ah sinful nation - Hebrew, goi: the term for the Gentiles. Israel has now by sin become paganized, people-the special designation of God's elect nation (). That they should be laden with iniquity is therefore the more monstrous. Sin is an overwhelming load (; ).

A seed - another appellation God's elect (; "a right seed," ; designed to be a "holy seed," ), but, awful to say, evil-doers, children-by adoption (), "yet evil-doers;" not only so, but corrupters of others (): the climax. So 'a nation-people-seed-children' form an ascending climax. Corruptio optimi pessima-That which ought to be best is, when corrupted, the worst of all ().

They have provoked - (; ; ; .) Piscator translates, despised-namely, so as to provoke (). I prefer the English version, 'They seemed to make it their set aim to provoke God, who had adopted them as His children' (; ). The Holy One of Israel - the special heinousnses of their sin, that it was against their God ().

They are gone away backward - literally, estranged ().