The (a) vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw (b) concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of (c) Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah. The Argument - God, according to his promise in (Deuteronomy 18:15) that he would never leave his Church destitute of a prophet, has from... [ Continue Reading ]
Hear, O (d) heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up (e) children, and they have rebelled against me. (d) Because men were obstinate and insensible, he calls to the dumb creatures, who were more prompt to obey God's word, as in (Deuteronomy 32:1). ... [ Continue Reading ]
The (f) ox knoweth his owner, and the donkey his master's crib: [but] Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. (f) The most dull and brute beasts acknowledge their duty more toward their masters, than my people do toward me, of whom they have received benefits without comparison.... [ Continue Reading ]
Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a (g) seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the (h) Holy One of Israel to anger, they are gone away backward. (g) They were not only wicked as were their fathers, but utterly corrupt and by th... [ Continue Reading ]
Why should ye be (i) stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole (k) head is sick, and the whole heart faint. (i) What good is it to seek to mend you by punishment, seeing that the more I correct you, the more you rebel? (k) By naming the chief parts of the body, he signifies that t... [ Continue Reading ]
From the (l) sole of the foot even to the head [there is] no soundness in it; [but] wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, (m) neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. (l) Every part of the body, the least as well as the chiefest was plagued. (m) Their plag... [ Continue Reading ]
Your country [is] desolate, your cities [are] burned with fire: your land, foreigners devour it in your presence, and [it is] desolate, as overthrown by (n) foreigners. (n) Meaning, of them who dwell far off, who because they look for no advantage of that which remains destroy all before them.... [ Continue Reading ]
And the daughter of (o) Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. (o) That is, Jerusalem.... [ Continue Reading ]
Except the LORD of hosts (p) had left to us a very small remnant, we should have been (q) as Sodom, we should have been like Gomorrah. (p) Because he will always have a Church to call on his Name. (q) That is, all destroyed.... [ Continue Reading ]
Hear the word of the LORD, ye (r) rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. (r) You who for your vices deserved to be destroyed, as they of Sodom, save that God from his mercy reserved a little number, (Lamentations 3:22).... [ Continue Reading ]
To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices to me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I (s) delight not in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats. (s) Although God commanded these sacrifices for a time, as aids and exercises... [ Continue Reading ]
(t) Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination to me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure; [it is] iniquity, even the solemn meeting. (t) Without faith and repentance.... [ Continue Reading ]
Your (u) new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble to me; I am weary of bearing [them]. (u) Your sacrifices offered in the new moons and feasts: he condemns by this hypocrites who think to please God with ceremonies and they themselves are void of faith and mercy.... [ Continue Reading ]
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full (x) of blood. (x) He shows that where men are given to evil, deceit, cruelty and extortion, which is meant by blood, there God will show his anger and not accept t... [ Continue Reading ]
(y) Wash ye, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil; (y) By this outward washing, he means the spiritual: exhorting the Jews to repent and amend their lives.... [ Continue Reading ]
Learn to (z) do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. (z) This kind of reasoning by the second table, the scriptures use in many places against the hypocrites who pretend holiness and religion in word, but when charity and love for their brethren sho... [ Continue Reading ]
Come now, (a) and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be (b) white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (a) To know if I accuse you without cause. (b) Lest sinners should pretend any rigour on God's part, he only wills th... [ Continue Reading ]
If ye (c) are willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: (c) He shows that whatever adversity man endures, it ought to be attributed to his own incredulity and disobedience.... [ Continue Reading ]
How is the (d) faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now (e) murderers. (d) That is, Jerusalem, which had promised happiness to me, as a wife to her husband. (e) Given to covetousness and extortion, which he signified before by blood, (Isaiah 1:15... [ Continue Reading ]
Thy (f) silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: (f) Whatever was pure in you before, is now corrupt, though you have an outward show.... [ Continue Reading ]
Thy princes [are] rebellious, and companions of (g) thieves: every one loveth bribes, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come to them. (g) That is, they maintain the wicked and the extortioners: and not only do not punish them, but are th... [ Continue Reading ]
Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the (h) mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will (i) rid myself of my adversaries, and avenge me of my enemies: (h) When God will show himself merciful to his Church, he calls himself the Holy one of Israel, but when he has to do with his enemies, he is called M... [ Continue Reading ]
And I will turn my hand upon thee, and thoroughly purge away thy dross, (k) and take away all thy tin: (k) Lest the faithful among them should be overcome with his threatening he adds this consolation.... [ Continue Reading ]
(l) And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. (l) It is once the work of God to purify the heart of man, which he does because of his promise, made concerning the salvation of... [ Continue Reading ]
Zion shall be redeemed with (m) judgment, and her converts with righteousness. (m) By justice is meant God's faithful promise, which is the reason for the deliverance of his Church.... [ Continue Reading ]
And the (n) destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners [shall be] together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed. (n) The wicked will not be partakers of God's promise, (Psalms 92:9).... [ Continue Reading ]
For they shall be ashamed of the (o) oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. (o) That is, the trees and pleasant places where you commit idolatry which was forbidden (Deuteronomy 16:22).... [ Continue Reading ]
And the strong shall be as a (p) wick, and its maker as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench [them]. (p) The false god's in which you put your confidence will be consumed as easily as a piece of wick.... [ Continue Reading ]