Isaiah 1:10-17

This connects admirably with Isaiah 1:9. By a fine transition Isaiah intimates that it is no merit in the rulers which has averted Sodom's fate. Let these lawless and shameless administrators listen to the teaching (mg.) of their outraged God. What end, He asks, do their sacrifices serve? He loathes them, has not demanded them, bids the worshippers trample His courts no more to send up the reek of their oblations, hates their new moons (p. 101) and sacred seasons, and will not listen to their prayers. For on their palms, uplifted in the customary attitude of prayer, beneath the blood of sacrifice, He sees a darker stain, the blood of their fellows. Yet they may cleanse themselves from guilt of the past by amendment for the future, especially by restraint of the oppressor (mg.) and succour of the defenceless. The desperate outlook had probably led to multiplied sacrifices; to those who were thronging the Temple to offer them Isaiah seems to have uttered these scathing words (cf. Amos 5:21; Micah 6:6; Hosea 6:6; Jeremiah 6:20; Jeremiah 7:21). The prophets do not attack sacrifice in itself so much as sacrifice divorced from morality; yet their tone suggests that they attached very little intrinsic value to the sacrificial ritual.

Isaiah 1:10. law: a most unfortunate rendering, as the Pentateuchal Law is not intended, since it demands many sacrifices. Torah means instruction (p. 121, Deuteronomy 1:5 *, Proverbs 3:1 *); here, like the word of the Lord it is equivalent to the utterance which follows

Isaiah 1:11. Burnt-offerings (Leviticus 1*) were totally consumed on the altar, the fat of peace offerings (Leviticus 3*) was burnt, the blood of all sacrifices was sacred to God. He rejects it all.

Isaiah 1:12 f. Perhaps we should render: When ye come to see my face, who hath required this at your hand? No more shall ye trample my courts to bring vain oblations, reek of sacrifice is abomination to me; new moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with, fasting (LXX) and festal assembly. Fasting is, among many peoples, a preliminary to the taking of sacred food.