Isaiah 1:4

4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden^[a] 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.

Isaiah 1:4 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 1:4

Ah sinful nation
. Or "sinning nation" ^F25; that was continually sinning, doing nothing else but sin, the reverse of what they were chosen to be, ( Deuteronomy 7:6 ) . These words are said, either as calling and crying to them, to cause them to hear and hearken to what is said, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi observe, and as (ywh) is used in ( Isaiah 55:1 ) ( Zechariah 2:6 Zechariah 2:7 ) or by way of complaint and lamentation, as Jarchi thinks, because of their general and continued wickedness, see ( 1 Kings 13:30 ) , or by way of threatening, as in ( Isaiah 1:24 ) and so the Targum paraphrases it,

``woe to them who are called a holy people, and have sinned:''

and so the Vulgate Latin and Arabic versions render it, "woe to the sinning nation"; their ruin is at hand: a people laden with iniquity;
full of sin; they multiplied offences, as in the Chaldee paraphrase: they were "heavy" with them, as the word ^F26 signifies, yet felt not, nor complained of, the burden of them: a seed of evil doers;
this is not said of their fathers, but of themselves, as Jarchi observes; they had been planted a right seed, but now were degenerate, a wicked generation of men. Children that are corrupters;
of themselves and others, by their words and actions; who had corrupted their ways, as the Targum adds; and so Kimchi and Aben Ezra. They have forsaken the Lord;
the worship of the Lord, as the Targum interprets it; the ways and ordinances of God, forsook the assembling of themselves together, neglected the hearing of the word, and attendance on the worship of the Lord's house: they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger;
by their numerous sins, both of omission and commission: they are gone away backward;
were become backsliders and revolters, had apostatized from God and his worship, turned their backs on him, and cast his law behind them. The characters here given not only agree with the Jews in the times of Isaiah, but also with those in the times of Christ and his apostles, ( Matthew 12:39 ) ( 23:33 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 (ajx ywg) "gens peccatrix", Sept. V. L. Syr. Ar.
F26 (Nye dbk) "gravi iniquitate", V. L.

Isaiah 1:4 In-Context

2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

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.

5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

Footnotes

• [a]. laden: Heb. of heaviness