Commentary to Book of Isaiah

405 Pages·2007·2.31 MB·English

by  John Schultz

Commentary to Book of Isaiah, by John Schultz (c) 2007 Bible-Commentaries.Com 1/405
ISAIAH
The book of the prophet Isaiah is one of the most beautiful pieces of prose in the world of literature.
The beauty of its language overwhelms the reader. The fact that the Word of God is translated into the word
of man is only surpassed by the fact that the Word of God became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, a fact
of which Isaiah testifies. Anyone who approaches a study of this book must do it with fear and trembling. To
study The Book of Isaiah is like tackling the Bible as a whole.
J. Sidlow Baxter, in Exploring the Book, introduces his analysis of Isaiah with the observation:
“What Beethoven is in the realm of music, what Shakespeare is in the realm of literature, what Spurgeon
was among the Victorian preachers, that is Isaiah among the prophets. As a writer he transcends all his
prophet compeers; and it is fitting that the matchless contribution from his pen should stand as leader to the
seventeen prophetical books.” The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia observes: “For versatility of
expression and brilliancy of imagery Isaiah had no superior, not even a rival. His style marks the climax of
Hebrew literary art. Both his periods and Genius and descriptions are most finished and sublime. He is a
perfect artist in words.”
The Hebrew name of Isaiah is yesha’yahu, or yesha’yah, meaning: “Yahweh saves.” He was the
son of Amoz. We know that Isaiah was married and had at least two sons called, Shear-jashub, meaning “a
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remnant shall return,” and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, “hasting to the spoil, hurrying to the prey.”
The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia states about Isaiah: “He seems to have belonged
to a family of some rank, as may be inferred from his easy access to the king (Isa 7:3), and his close intimacy
with the priest (8:2). Tradition says he was the cousin of King Uzziah. He lived in Jerusalem and became
court preacher.”
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 career a few years before
Uzziah’s death, probably 762 BC. He lived till the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, and in all likelihood outlived
that monarch (who died 698 BC), and may have been contemporary for some years with Manasseh. Thus
Isaiah may have prophesied for the long period of at least sixty-four years.”
The Book of Isaiah has been the focus of criticism by the school of Higher Criticism, which
contends that a prophet who lived during the Babylonian exile wrote the chapters 40 through 66. J. Sidlow
Baxter, in Exploring the Book, quotes Archibald McCraig, who writes: “According to the old tradition, the
prophet Isaiah was sawn asunder. Of the truth of the tradition we cannot be sure, but we know that one of the
earliest feats of the Higher Criticism was to perform the like operation upon his prophecy.”
For our study we will follow the outline provided in commentary on Isaiah by J. Alec Motyer, in
the series of Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries.
Outline of Isaiah:
THE BOOK OF THE KING (1–37)
I. BACKDROP TO THE MINISTRY OF ISAIAH: THE AUTHOR’S PREFACE (1 – 5)
a. Heading (1:1)
b. A comprehensive failure (1:2–31)
i. The national situation (1:2–9)
ii. The religious situation (1:10–20)
iii. The social situation and its consequences (1:21–31)
c. The ideal lost and found (2:1 – 4:6)
i. Heading (2:1)
ii. The great ‘might have been’ (2:2–4)
1. See Isa. 7:3; 8:2.
Commentary to Book of Isaiah, by John Schultz (c) 2007 Bible-Commentaries.Com 2/405
iii. The actual Jerusalem – part one (2:5–21)
iv. The actual Jerusalem – part two (2:22–4:1)
v. The greatness that is ‘yet to be’ (4:2–6)
d. Grace exhausted (5:1-30)
i. A total work and a total loss (5:1–7)
ii. The stink-fruit harvest and its consequences (5:8–30)
II. LIGHT BEYOND THE DARKNESS: THE COMING KING (6 – 12)
a. The individual, atonement and commission (6:1–13)
b. Darkness and light in Judah (7:1–9:7)
i. The moment of decision (7:1–17)
ii. Divine judgment (7:18–8:8)
iii. The believing, obeying remnant (8:9–22)
iv. The royal hope (9:1–7)
c. Darkness and light in Israel (9:8–11:16)
i. The moment of decision (9:8–10:4)
ii. Divine judgment (10:5–15)
iii. The believing, obeying remnant (10:16–34)
iv. The royal hope (11:1–16)
d. The individual in the community: salvation, singing and proclamation (12:1–6)
III. THE KINGDOM PANORAMA: THE WHOLE WORLD IN HIS HAND (13 – 27)
a. The first series of oracles: sure promises (13:1–20:6)
i. Babylon: a look behind the scenes (13:1–14:27)
ii. Philistia: the Lord’s sure promises to David (14:28–32)
iii. Moab: salvation refused by pride (15:1–16:14)
iv. Damascus/Ephraim: the way of death and the promise of life (17:1–18:7)
v. Egypt: one world, one people, one God (19:1–20:6)
b. The second series of oracles: the long night and the dawn (21–23)
i. The desert by the sea: the Babylon principle (21:1–10)
ii. Silence: days of darkness (21:11–12)
iii. Desert evening: Gentile needs unsolved (21:13–17)
iv. The Valley of Vision: the unforgivable sin (22:1–25)
v. Tyre: holiness to the Lord (23:1–18)
c. The third series: the world city and the city of God (24:1–27:13)
i. The city of meaninglessness (24:1–20)
ii. Ultimately … the King! (24:21–23)
iii. Salvation and provision: the world on Mount Zion (25:1–12)
iv. The strong city (26:1–21)
v. The universal Israel (27:1–13)
IV. THE LORD OF HISTORY (28 – 37)
a. The six woes (28:1–35:10)
i. The first woe: the word of God and the purposes of God (28:1–29)
ii. The second woe: is anything too hard for the Lord? (29:1–14)
iii. The third woe: spiritual transformation (29:15–24)
iv. The fourth woe: faithlessness and faithfulness (30:1–33)
v. The fifth woe: all things new (31:1–32:20)
vi. The sixth woe: home at last (33:1–35:10)
b. Epilogue: the rock of history (36:1–37:38)
i. The first Assyrian embassy: the helpless king (36:1–37:7)
ii. The second Assyrian embassy: the godly king (37:8–35)
Commentary to Book of Isaiah, by John Schultz (c) 2007 Bible-Commentaries.Com 3/405
iii. The finale: Assyrian overthrow (37:36–38)
THE BOOK OF THE SERVANT (38-55)
V. HEZEKIAH AND THE WAY OF FAITH: THE DECISIVE SIN (38:1 – 8)
a. One prayer, two answers (38:1–8)
b. Death and life (38:9–22)
c. The moment of decision (39:1–8)
VI. UNIVERSAL CONSOLATION (40:1 – 42:17)
a. Consolation for the Lord’s people (40:1–41:20)
i. The message of comfort (40:1–11)
ii. God the Creator, guarantor of his promises (40:12–31)
iii. God the world ruler, guarantor of his promises (41:1–7)
iv. Three pictures: guaranteed consolations (41:8–20)
b. Gentile hope (41:21–42:17)
i. Summoned before the court: the plight of the Gentile world (41:21–29)
ii. The Servant: the great solution (42:1–9)
iii. Singing world, saving Lord (42:10–17)
VII. THE LORD’S PLAN UNFOLDED (42:18 – 44:23)
a. Israel’s bondage and liberation (42:18–42:21)
i. The blind servant (42:18–25)
ii. Unchanged divine care (43:1–7)
iii. No other God: sure promises (43:8–13)
iv. A new exodus: the problem of bondage solved (43:14–21)
b. Israel’s sin and redemption (43:22–44:23)
i. Diagnosis (43:22–24)
ii. Remedy (43:25–44:5)
iii. No other God: sure promises (44: 6–20)
iv. Redemption from sin (44:21–23)
VIII. THE GREAT DELIVERANCE: THE WORK OF CYRUS (44:24 – 48:22)
a. Cyrus: builder and conqueror (44:24–45:8)
i. The Lord and his word (44:24–26b)
ii. The Lord and his purpose (44:26c–28)
iii. The Lord and his anointed (45:1–7)
iv. The Lord and his created resolve (45:8)
b. Rebellion and resolve, quibbling and consolation (45:9–46:13)
i. The potter and the parent (45:9–13)
ii. An unchanged worldwide purpose for Israel (45:14–25)
iii. The unchanging Lord and his stubborn rebels (46:1–13)
c. Free at last (47:1–48:22)
i. Pride before a fall (47:1–15)
ii. Home, yet not home (48:1–22)
IX. THE GREATER DELIVERANCE: THE WORK OF THE SERVANT (49 – 55)
a. The Servant’s double task (49:1–6)
i. The first testimony: Israel as it was meant to be (49:1–3)
ii. The second testimony: the Agent, the task and the result (49:4–6)
b. Divine confirmation: worldwide success (49:7–13)
c. Nation and Servant, a contrast: unresponding and responding (49:14–50:11)
d. Salvation in prospect: the watching remnant (51:1–52:12)
i. Commands to listen: promises of salvation (51:1–8)
Commentary to Book of Isaiah, by John Schultz (c) 2007 Bible-Commentaries.Com 4/405
ii. A dramatic appeal: exodus past and future (51:9–11)
iii. Interlude: a final briefing (51:12–16)
iv. Commands to respond: what the Lord has done (51:17–52:12)
e. Worldwide salvation (52:13–55:13)
i. The triumph of the Servant (52:13–53:12)
ii. The great invitation (54:1–55:13)
THE BOOK OF THE CONQUEROR (56 – 66)
X. THE IDEAL AND THE ACTUAL: THE LORD’S NEEDY, UNDERACHIEVING PEOPLE (56:1 –
59:13)
a. The waiting people (56:1–8)
b. The divided people (56:9–57:21)
i. The failure of the leaders (56:9–57:21)
ii. The prostitute’s brood and the Lord’s household (57:1–21)
c. The Sabbath people (58:1–14)
d. The guilty people (59:1–13)
i. Accusations (59:1–4)
ii. Descriptions (59:5–8)
iii. Confessions (59:9–13)
XI. THE PROMISED CONQUEROR: VENGEANCE AND SALVATION (59:21 – 60:22)
a. Preface: situation and remedy (59:14–20)
b. The Covenant Mediator and his achievement (59:21–60:22)
i. The Covenant Mediator (59:21)
ii. The universal city (60:1–22)
c. The Anointed One and his transforming work (61:1–9)
i. First testimony of the Anointed One: transformation (61:1–4)
ii. Transformation confirmed (61:5–9)
d. The Savior and his gathered people (61:10–62:12)
i. Second testimony: acceptance of the role of Savior (61:10–62:7)
ii. The Lord’s oath, summons and proclamation (62:8–12)
e. The consummation: the Anointed One completes his task (63:1–6)
XII. THE NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH: PRAYERS AND PROMISES (63:7 – 66:24)
a. A ‘remembrancer’ at prayer (63:7–64:12)
i. Remembering (63:7–14)
ii. Asking (63:15–64:12)
b. The Lord responding: sure promises, coming consummation (65:1–66:24)
i. Pleading and provocation (65:1–10)
ii. Contrasting destinies (65:11–16)
iii. All things new (65:17–25)
iv. Judgment and hope (66:1–24)
Analysis of Isaiah:
THE BOOK OF THE KING (1–37)
I. BACKDROP TO THE MINISTRY OF ISAIAH: THE AUTHOR’S PREFACE (1-5)
a. Heading (1:1)

1 The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah,
Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Commentary to Book of Isaiah, by John Schultz (c) 2007 Bible-Commentaries.Com 5/405
The Hebrew word rendered “vision” is chazown, which as the English word implies, means
something 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 to
designate the whole Book of Isaiah. We read: “The other events of Hezekiah’s reign and his acts of devotion
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are written in the vision of the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.”
Bible scholars have argued about the question whether the title pertains to the whole book or only
to the first chapter, whether part of it was added later by Isaiah or by another person or was in the original
text. 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 their
relation to the Jews (Isa 13-23); so also the Ten tribes of Israel are introduced only in the same relation (Isa
7-9).” The Adam Clarke’s Commentary states: “The prophecy contained in this first chapter stands single
and unconnected, making an entire piece of itself. It contains a severe remonstrance against the corruptions
prevailing among the Jews of that time, powerful exhortations to repentance, grievous threatenings to the
impenitent, and gracious promises of better times, when the nation shall have been reformed by the just
judgments of God. The expression, upon the whole, is clear; the connection of the several parts easy; and in
regard to the images, sentiments, and style, it gives a beautiful example of the prophet’s elegant manner of
writing; 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 for
four reasons. (a) The precise dating of chapter 6 contrasts with the undated oracles in 1:2 – 5:30. Specific
events 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 Amos
7:10–17, this is not a decisive factor. (c) Apart from the illustrative reference to the Philistines in 2:6, no
foreign nations are named – not even the threatened super-conqueror of 5:25–30 – and this increases the
sense 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 2:1
indicates 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 of
the prefatory chapters.”
About the period covered by Isaiah’s prophecy, J. Alec Motyer, in Isaiah, states: “Isaiah ministered
within 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, 2
Ki. 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 not
understand."
4 Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They
have 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, your
whole heart afflicted.
1. II Chron. 32:32
Commentary to Book of Isaiah, by John Schultz (c) 2007 Bible-Commentaries.Com 6/405
6 From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness — only wounds and welts and
open 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 right
before 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 under
siege.
9 Unless the LORD Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would
have been like Gomorrah.
Isaiah opens his prophecy with the words Moses used in his grand final address to the nation of
Israel before they entered Canaan: “Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my
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mouth.” But the words are not Isaiah’s; they are spoken by God, whom Isaiah calls “the Holy One of
Israel.” 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 scene
as if in a court of law. In verse 2ab the witnesses are called, in verses 2c–23 the charges are laid and in verses
24–30 sentence is pronounced. Behind the observable facts Isaiah discerns the hidden causes: rebellion
against 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 gives
color 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); when
he 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’s
hearing for the purpose of making them understand the gravity of the accusation. Heaven and earth, taken in
this context, are impersonal entities. God calls them up as witnesses. They are the ones that reveal the glory
of the Creator. The Apostle Paul wrote: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — his
eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so
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that men are without excuse.” 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 as
Lord and Redeemer. When God revealed His glory to Moses and passed by him, He revealed Himself with
the words: “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love
and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not
leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third
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and fourth generation.” That was the aspect of the divine character Israel had been chosen to reveal in this
world 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’s
features 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 of
creation recognizes the source of its sustenance. The domesticated animal knows where to find its food. God
had fed and reared Israel, but they failed to recognize the most important element that secured their
existence. They had been taught “that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from
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the mouth of the LORD.” As bread feeds the body so the Word of the Lord is man’s soul food. Failure to
1. Deut. 32:1
2. Rom. 1:20
3. Ex. 34:6,7
4. Deut. 8:3
Commentary to Book of Isaiah, by John Schultz (c) 2007 Bible-Commentaries.Com 7/405
recognize this leads to spiritual starvation. In the New Testament this truth is expounded more deeply. It is
not by accident that Isaiah uses the word “manger” in his illustration. We read that when Mary gave birth to
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the Son of God, “She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger.” In preaching to the Jews, Jesus
spoke words that reveal to us the importance of Isaiah’s statement: “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who
has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the
bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. I am the bread of life. He who
comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. I am the living bread that
came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I
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will give for the life of the world.” If we reject this truth we side with Israel in going against the very nature
of our being.
J. Alec Motyer, in Isaiah, comments on this section: “Thus, the ‘preface’ can be summarized as
follows. First is the heading (1:1). Then 1:2-31 is roundly condemnatory of what the Lord’s sons have
become: rebellious (2), corrupt (4), chastened (5-6), shattered (7-8), religiously unacceptable (10-15) and
degenerated (21-23). This is not, however, the whole story: for the Lord had not abandoned (9) and will not
abandon (25-28) his people. Nevertheless, the beginning of the preface is effectively a declaration that ‘You
are not what you ought to have been.”
We may assume that the first five chapters of Isaiah’s prophecy were given during the reign of
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King Uzziah who reigned from approximately 783-731 BC. His reign was marked by prosperity and
power. Judah experienced its greatest affluence since the days of King Solomon during Uzziah’s regime. As
long as the king was under the influence of the priest Zechariah, he followed the Lord. After the death of his
mentor Uzziah became proud and decided to enter the temple to burn incense himself, acting as a priest. God
struck him with leprosy and he spent the last twelve years of his life in confinement. It was probably during
this 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 upon
them as a nation. It was at this time that a very severe earthquake hit Palestine. This earthquake was so
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devastating that the people still knew about it in Zechariah’s time, about 200 years later. The International
Standard Bible Encyclopaedia notes: “Josephus likewise embodies a tradition that the earthquake occurred
at the moment of the king’s entry into the temple (Ant. IX, x, 4). Indubitably the name of Uzziah was
associated in the popular mind with this earthquake. If the prophecy of Amos was uttered a year or two
before Jeroboam’s death, and this is placed in 759 BC, we are brought near to the date already given for
Uzziah’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 in
God’s annals it was the time during which “they have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One
of Israel and turned their backs on him” (v.4b). In the Netherlands where I grew up, I learned in school that
Holland’s golden age was the eighteenth century, when Holland knew its greatest prosperity. In reality it
was the age of fool’s gold. It was the time in which Dutch ships brought spices and other exotic items from
the Indies and the basis of colonialism was laid; the age the slave trade with the Americas began. Holland’s
golden 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. Luke 2:7
2. John 6:32,33,35,51
3. II Kings 15:1-8 and II Chron. 26
4. See Zech. 14:5.
Commentary to Book of Isaiah, by John Schultz (c) 2007 Bible-Commentaries.Com 8/405
Isaiah describes Israel as Jesus depicted the man who was attacked by robbers on the way to
Jericho.1 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.”2
We note that the prophet describes the whole nation as one single person, as a whole body. Judah is
sick from top to toe, in the head as well as in the heart. From the beginning of creation, God has treated
mankind as being one person, as either being “in Adam,” or “in Christ.” God administered corporal
punishment to those He loved so they would be saved from spiritual destruction. As The Book of Proverbs
states: “Wounds from a friend can be trusted”3 and: “Blows and wounds cleanse away evil, and beatings
purge the inmost being.”4
If vv.2-5 describe the moral condition of the people, vv.6-9 speak of the landscape. There is no
indication that Judah was attacked and devastated at that time in the way Isaiah portrays here. Some Bible
scholars, however, believe that Judah may, at that point, not yet have recovered from the attacks of Syria and
Israel under Uzziah’s predecessors Joash and Amaziah. But it seems more likely that Isaiah places himself
prophetically 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, Isaiah
issues a warning and a call for repentance. If this supposition is correct, the people may have reacted to
Isaiah’s picture with unbelief and scorn, much like Noah’s contemporaries who could not understand why
Noah built a ship on dry land, or Lot’s sons-in-law who thought their father-in-law was joking when he
announced the destruction of Sodom.5 Isaiah’s painting makes us think of Germany at the end of World War
II: 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 future
condition. The Pulpit Commentary explains: “Vineyards required to be watched for a few weeks only as the
fruit began to ripen; and the watchers, or keepers, built themselves, therefore, mere ‘booths’ for their
protection … 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 watcher
needed a more solid edifice than a booth.” The sad part of the image is that the harvest is destroyed and the
booth that was erected to protect it, that ramshackle little structure, is the only thing remaining as a symbol
of futility. The booth does not depict Jerusalem, as The Pulpit Commentary suggests, but The Daughter of
Zion, that is the people. People who do not put God at the center of their lives reduce themselves to
meaninglessness and futility.
In v.9 the prophet reminds us, not only of the story of destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but of
Abraham’s intercession. The “survivors” are the ten righteous that were lacking in Abraham’s day. In his
intercessory 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.”6
Isaiah calls for intercessors, people who are the spiritual army to defend the land. When Elisha saw
his mentor Elijah go to heaven, he cried: “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!”7
Elijah’s ascension left Israel without defense. After World War I, which people believed to be “the war to
1. Luke 20:30
2. Rev. 3:17
3. Prov. 27:6
4. Prov. 20:30
5. See Gen. 19:14.
6. Gen. 18:32
7. II Kings 2:12
Commentary to Book of Isaiah, by John Schultz (c) 2007 Bible-Commentaries.Com 9/405
end all wars,” some people formed a group called “Spiritual and Moral Rearmament.” In these verses Isaiah
calls 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 of
Gomorrah!
11 "The multitude of your sacrifices — what are they to me?" says the LORD. "I have more than enough
of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and
lambs 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 and
convocations — 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 many
prayers, 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 the
case of the widow.
18 "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be
as 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 has
spoken.

In the previous verse, Isaiah had compared the people to Sodom and Gomorrah after their
destruction; here he compares them to those cities before the Lord turned them upside-down. The sin of
Sodom and Gomorrah demonstrated itself in sexual perversion. The sin of Judah was perversion on a
different level. Scripture consistently calls spiritual infidelity adultery. What Sodom did sexually, Judah did
spiritually: they maintained an outward resemblance of piety without communion with God. Judah treated
God as the heathen people treated their idols, as deities against which they had to defend themselves, who
had to be pacified with blood. They were like husbands who buy expensive jewelry for their wives while
having affairs with other women.
Some Bible scholars have drawn the wrong conclusion of what Isaiah says in these verses. J. Alec
Motyer, in Isaiah, comments: “These verses have been the center of a difference of opinion. Some note how
in verse 11 the Lord denies the significance of sacrifices, in verse 12 their divine authorization, and in verse
13 issues commands to end them. On this view, Isaiah is calling for ‘morality without religion,’ an ethically
focused walk with God devoid of ritual observance. But it can be questioned whether this understanding is
true to Isaiah. Is it likely that he was so revolutionary as to repudiate the tradition in which he had been
nurtured 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 repudiates
equally the Sabbath (13) and prayer (15)! Rather, Isaiah invites us to recall that in the Mosaic system
redeeming 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 those
who had already been redeemed by the blood of the lamb would know how their Redeemer (Ex. 20:2)
wished them to live.”
It is obvious that God, by the mouth of Isaiah, did not repudiate all sacrificial rituals. Isaiah says
here the same that David says in one of his psalms: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears
Commentary to Book of Isaiah, by John Schultz (c) 2007 Bible-Commentaries.Com 10/405
you have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come
— it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.’ ”1
Quoting David’s psalm, the author of The Epistle to the Hebrews adds: “First he said, ‘Sacrifices and
offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them’ (although
the law required them to be made).2 Then he said, ‘Here I am, I have come to do your will.’ He sets aside the
first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of
Jesus Christ once for all.”3 The problem was not in the sacrifices but in the people’s attitude toward them.
The people regarded their sacrifices and observances as bribes, as efforts to soften God’s anger. They did not
identify themselves with the sacrifice they brought. Every person bringing a sacrificial animal had to put his
hand on the animal’s head as if he stated that what happened to the animal happened to him by substitution.
In the ritual he expressed his belief that he ought to die, but the animal took his place on the altar. Without
such identification the sacrifice becomes an abomination.
If that was the case in the Old Testament ritual of sacrifices, how much more is this pertinent in the
New Testament where “we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for
all.” The cross of Jesus Christ remains an abominable instrument of torture unless we confess: “I have been
crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in
the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”4 God hates the cross unless we identify with Jesus
Christ who took our place on it. This means that we confess that God was right when He condemned us to
death, that we accept the verdict and submit to it.
Judah’s failure to identify with the sacrifices also made their prayers meaningless. God says:
“When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I
will not listen.” Without our identification with Jesus’ sacrifice the addition to our prayers of “in Jesus’
Name” becomes an idle ritual. God does not hear our prayers simply because we use the right words. He
only hears us when we take up our cross and follow His Son.
Identification with Jesus’ death also means that we do the right thing. Judah’s wrong concept of the
meaning of sacrifices had brought them in the camp of God’s enemy. They had become murderers and
oppressors. When God said to Noah: “And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will
demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life
of his fellow man”5 He seemed to say that killing of animals, except for sacrifice or food was considered
murder of the same kind as killing man. The blood the men of Judah had on their hands was both human and
animal blood. The only way to clean the blood of their hands was by the blood of the lambs of their
sacrifices. They may not have physically killed orphans and widows, but God considers hatred and lack of
compassion tantamount to murder.
V.18 is one of the most outstanding means of evangelism. God sends sinners a court order, a
summons to appear before Him in order to work matters out. The Hebrew verb translated “reason” is
yakach, which has a wide variety of meanings. It can mean: “to argue,” “to justify or convict,” “to plead,”
“to reason,” “to rebuke,” etc. The first time this verb is used in the Old Testament is in the case of Abraham,
Sarah, and Abimelech. Abraham had said that Sarah was his sister instead of his wife. That was a half-truth
that got Abimelech into serious trouble when he tried to make Sarah one of the ladies in his harem. When
God told Abimelech the full truth, we read: “Then Abimelech brought sheep and cattle and male and female
slaves and gave them to Abraham, and he returned Sarah his wife to him. And Abimelech said, ‘My land is
before you; live wherever you like.’ To Sarah he said, ‘I am giving your brother a thousand shekels of silver.
1. Ps. 40:6-8
2. The italics are mine.
3. Heb. 10:8-10
4. Gal. 2:20
5. Gen. 9:5