Isaiah 1:13

Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. BRING NO MORE VAIN OBLATIONS - unbloody: "meat (old English sense, not flesh) offerings;" i:e., of flour, fruits, oil, etc. (Leviticus 2:1). Hebrew, minchah (H4503). INCENSE - put upon the sacrifices, and burnt on the altar of incense. Type of prayer (Psalms 141:2; Revelation 8:3). THE NEW MOONS - observed as festivals ...

13._Bring no more vain oblations _This is a useful admonition for restraining the irregular desires of those who do not cease to follow inveterately unmeaning and hypocritical worship, that, warned by God, they may at length repent, if they would listen to any advice. But hence we learn how hard it is to shake the false confidence of hypocrites, when they have once been hardened, since they cannot even endure to hear God plainly warning them not to go on in losing their pains, and in the practice of such madness. _Incense is an abomination to one _To press them more closely, he proceeds farther, and declares that such worship is not only unprofitable, but even that he detests and abhors it; and justly, because the profanation of the worship of God, in which his name is falsely employed, is not free from sacrilege. For as nothing is more dear to God than his own glory, so there is nothing...

10-15 Judea was desolate, and their cities burned. This awakened them to bring sacrifices and offerings, as if they would bribe God to remove the punishment, and give them leave to go on in their sin. Many who will readily part with their sacrifices, will not be persuaded to part with their sins. They relied on the mere form as a service deserving a reward. The most costly devotions of wicked people, without thorough reformation of heart and life, cannot be acceptable to God. He not only did not accept them, but he abhorred them. All this shows that sin is very hateful to God. If we allow ourselves in secret sin, or forbidden indulgences; if we reject the salvation of Christ, our very prayers will become abomination....

Verse Isaiah 1:13. _THE NEW MOONS AND SABBATHS_ - "The fast and the day of restraint"] און ועצרה _aven vaatsarah_. These words are rendered in many different manners by different interpreters, to a good and probable sense by all; but I think by none in such a sense as can arise from the phrase itself, agreeably to the idiom of the Hebrew language. Instead of און _aven_, the _Septuagint_ manifestly read צום _tsom_, νηστειαν, "the fast." This _Houbigant_ has adopted. The prophet could not well have omitted the fast in the enumeration of their _solemnities_, nor the _abuse_ of it among the instances of their _hyprocrisy_, which he has treated at large with such force and elegance in his _fifty-eighth chapter_. Observe, also, that the prophet Joel, (Joel 1:14;...

BRING NO MORE - God does not intend absolutely to forbid this kind of worship, but he expresses his strong abhorrence of the manner in which it was done. He desired a better state of mind; he preferred purity of heart to all this external homage. VAIN - Hebrew “offering of vanity” - שׁוא _shâv'_ - offerings which were hollow, false, deceitful, and hypocritical. OBLATIONS - מנחת _minchath_. This word properly denotes a gift, or present, of any kind Genesis 32:13, and then especially a present or offering to the Deity, Genesis 4:3. It does not denote a bloody offering, but what is improperly rendered in the Old Testament, a mea

PART I.—EARLIER PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH (CH. 1-35.) SECTION I.—THE GREAT ARRAIGNMENT (Isaiah 1:1.). EXPOSITION ISAIAH 1:1 TITLE OF THE WORK. It is questioned whether the title can be regarded as Isaiah's, or as properly belonging to the work, and it is suggested that it is rather a heading invented by a collector who brought together into a volume such prophecies of Isaiah as were known to him, the collection being a much smaller one than that which was made ultimately. In favor of this view it is urged (1) that

BRING NO MORE VAIN OBLATIONS,.... As all such were, which were offered up without faith in Christ, in hypocrisy, and with dependence on them for pardon and atonement, and particularly when put an end to by the sacrifice of Christ; see Matthew 15:9. The Targum renders it, "an oblation of robbery"; see Isaiah 60:8 INCENSE IS AN ABOMINATION TO ME; instead of being of a sweet smell. This was burnt on the altar of incense, and put upon the sacrifices, Exodus 30:1 was typical of prayer, Psalms 141:2 but now under the Gospel dispensation to be disused, and so disagreeable to God, that it is as if an idol was blessed,...

This is a chapter which, I think, teaches an important lesson to those of us who desire the salvation of men, for it shows us how God sets about that work. He begins by exhibiting the sinner's sin to him before he proclaims mercy to him; and if we want to be the means of doing good to men, it will not be by merely crying to them, «Believe, believe, believe;» but there must be a laying of the axe at the root of the tree of self-righteousness, and a cutting away of all trust in self. A man must realize his danger before he will desire to escape from it, and it is a mistaken kindness which refuses to set before him the peril in which he is. God, who is infinitely tender and inconceivably merciful, shows us, in this chapter, how to go to work with sinners. Isaiah 1:1. The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and H

BRING NO MORE (_ See Scofield) - (2 Corinthians 8:1). _...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS The reader will find that every chapter has been analyzed as to its contents. We have not made copious annotations, because the three lectures on the book of Isaiah as found at the close of the analysis cover the contents of this book in such a manner that detailed annotations for a study of the book can be omitted. We suggest that all who desire to study this great prophecy in a closer way read carefully the introduction, and after that the three lectures on “The Scope of Isaiah,” “The Messianic Predictions” and “Future Glories and Blessings.” These lectures should be carefully studied and every passage should be looked up. After this has been done, take up the book section by section and follow the analysis we give and consult the lectures whenever needed. I. THE EARLIER PROPHECIES (1-35) 1. Prophecies under the Reign of Uzziah, Jotham, and Ahaz (1-12) CHAP...