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Text -- Isaiah 1:5 (NET)

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Context
1:5 Why do you insist on being battered? Why do you continue to rebel? Your head has a massive wound, your whole body is weak.
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Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics

Dictionary Themes and Topics: Wicked | Sick | STRIKE | Poetry | Israel | Isaiah, The Book of | God | FAINT | Depravity of Mankind | Church | Backsliders | more
Table of Contents

Word/Phrase Notes
Wesley , JFB , Clarke , Calvin , TSK

Word/Phrase Notes
Barnes , Poole , Haydock , Gill

Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes , Geneva Bible

Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis , Maclaren , MHCC , Matthew Henry , Keil-Delitzsch , Constable , Guzik

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Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Wesley: Isa 1:5 - -- The very head and heart of the body politick, from whence the plague is derived to all the other members.

The very head and heart of the body politick, from whence the plague is derived to all the other members.

JFB: Isa 1:5 - -- Rather, as Vulgate, "On what part." Image from a body covered all over with marks of blows (Psa 38:3). There is no part in which you have not been smi...

Rather, as Vulgate, "On what part." Image from a body covered all over with marks of blows (Psa 38:3). There is no part in which you have not been smitten.

JFB: Isa 1:5 - -- Not referring, as it is commonly quoted, to their sins, but to the universality of their punishment. However, sin, the moral disease of the head or in...

Not referring, as it is commonly quoted, to their sins, but to the universality of their punishment. However, sin, the moral disease of the head or intellect, and the heart, is doubtless made its own punishment (Pro 1:31; Jer 2:19; Hos 8:11). "Sick," literally, "is in a state of sickness" [GESENIUS]; "has passed into sickness" [MAURER].

Clarke: Isa 1:5 - -- Why should ye be stricken any more "On what part,"etc.? - The Vulgate renders על מה al meh , super quo , (see Job 38:6; 2Ch 32:10), upon what p...

Why should ye be stricken any more "On what part,"etc.? - The Vulgate renders על מה al meh , super quo , (see Job 38:6; 2Ch 32:10), upon what part. And so Abendana on Sal. Den Melech: "There are some who explain it thus: Upon what limb shall you be smitten, if you add defection? for already for your sins have you been smitten upon all of them; so that there is not to be found in you a whole limb on which you can be smitten."Which agrees with what follows: "From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it:"and the sentiment and image is exactly the same with that of Ovid, Pont. 2:7, 42: -

Vix habet in nobis jam nova plaga locum

There is no place on you for a new stripe. Or that still more expressive line of Euripides; the great force and effect of which Longinus ascribes to its close and compressed structure, analogous to the sense which it expresses: -

́γεμω κακων δη· κ ουκετ εσθ ὁπη τιθῃ.

I am full of miseries: there’ s no room for more

Herc. Fur. 1245, Long. sec. 40

"On what part will ye strike again? will ye add correction?"This is addressed to the instruments of God’ s vengeance; those that inflicted the punishment, who or whatsoever they were. Ad verbum certae personae intelligendae sunt, quibus ista actio quae per verbum exprimitur competit ; "The words are addressed to the persons who were the agents employed in the work expressed by the original word,"as Glassius says in a similar case, Philippians Sacr. 1:3, 22. See Isa 7:4

As from ידע yada , דעה deah , knowledge; from יעץ yaats , עצה etsah , counsel; from ישן yeshan , שנה shenah , sleep, etc.; so from יסר yasar is regularly derived סרה sarah , correction

Clarke: Isa 1:5 - -- The whole head is sick - The king and the priests are equally gone away from truth and righteousness. Or, The state is oppressed by its enemies, and...

The whole head is sick - The king and the priests are equally gone away from truth and righteousness. Or, The state is oppressed by its enemies, and the Church corrupted in its rulers and in its members.

Calvin: Isa 1:5 - -- 5.Why should ye be stricken any more ? Some render it, Upon what ? or, On what part ? and interpret the passage as if the Lord had said that he h...

5.Why should ye be stricken any more ? Some render it, Upon what ? or, On what part ? and interpret the passage as if the Lord had said that he had not another scourge left; because so various are the methods by which he has attempted to bring them back to the path of duty, that no other way of chastising them remains to be tried. But I prefer to render it Why ? because this corresponds to the Hebrew word, and agrees better with the context. It is equivalent to phrases in daily use, To what purpose? For what object ? 17 He means that the Jews have proceeded to such a pitch of wickedness and crimes, that it is impossible to believe that chastisements will do them any good; for when desperate men have been hardened, we know that they will rather be broken to shreds than submit to correction. He complains of their prodigious obstinacy, like a physician who should declare that every remedy had been tried, and that his skill was now exhausted.

At the same time he charges them with extreme malice; for when ungodly men are not even humbled by punishments, they have arrived at the very height of wickedness; as if the Lord had said, “I see that I should do you no good if I were to chastise you;” for although chastisements and afflictions are the remedies which God employs for curing our vices, yet, when they are found to be of no advantage to us, we are past hope. True, indeed, God does not on that account cease to punish us, but, on the contrary, his wrath against us is the more enflamed; for such obstinacy God abhors above all things else. But he justly says that his labor is lost when he does not succeed in bringing us to repentance, and that it is useless to apply remedies to those who cannot be cured. Thus he does not fail to double their chastisements and afflictions, and to try the very utmost of what can be done, and he is even compelled to take this course until he absolutely ruin and destroy them. But in all this he does not discharge the office of a physician; but what he laments is, that the chastisements which he inflicts will be of no avail to his people.

You will yet grow more faithless It is a confirmation of the former statement, and therefore I separate it from the former clause, though there are some who put them together. It is as if he had said, “Still you will not cease to practice treachery; yea, you will add to your crimes; for I perceive that you rush to the commission of iniquity as if you had leagued and banded yourselves for that purpose, so that we can no longer hope that you will slacken in your course.” The design of God is to exhibit their incorrigible disposition, that they may be left without excuse.

The whole head is sick Others translate it every head, and suppose that those terms denote the princes and nobles of the nation. I rather agree with the opinion of those who render it the whole head; for I consider it to be a plain comparison taken from the human body, to this effect, that the body is so severely afflicted that there is no hope of returning health. He points out two principal parts on which the health of the body depends, and thus shows the extent of the disease which, he tells us, has infected this wretched people to such a degree that they are wasting away; that the disease exists not in a single member, or in the extremities of the body, but that the heart itself has been wounded, and the head is severely afflicted; in short, that the vital parts, as they are called, are so much injured and corrupted that it is impossible to heal them.

But here also commentators differ; for some of them view this state of disease as referring to sins, and others to punishments. Those who view it as referring to sins interpret it thus: “You are like a rotten and stinking body, in which no part is sound or healthy. Crimes of the worst description prevail amongst you, by the infection of which every thing is corrupted and debased.” But I choose rather to interpret it as referring to punishments; for unquestionably God still proceeds with this complaint, that the nation is so obstinate as to be incapable of being cured by any chastisements, because, though it has been beaten almost to death, or at least has been maimed and frightfully torn by repeated blows, still it is not reformed. Such too is the import of —

TSK: Isa 1:5 - -- should : Isa 9:13, Isa 9:21; Jer 2:30, Jer 5:3, Jer 6:28-30; Eze 24:13; Heb 12:5-8 ye will : 2Ch 28:22; Jer 9:3; Rev 16:8-11 revolt more and more : He...

should : Isa 9:13, Isa 9:21; Jer 2:30, Jer 5:3, Jer 6:28-30; Eze 24:13; Heb 12:5-8

ye will : 2Ch 28:22; Jer 9:3; Rev 16:8-11

revolt more and more : Heb. increase revolt

the whole : Isa 1:23; Neh 9:34; Jer 5:5, Jer 5:31; Dan 9:8-11; Zep 3:1-4

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Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Isa 1:5 - -- Why ... - The prophet now, by an abrupt change in the discourse, calls their attention to the effects of their sins. Instead of saving that the...

Why ... - The prophet now, by an abrupt change in the discourse, calls their attention to the effects of their sins. Instead of saving that they had been smitten, or of saying that they had been punished for their sins, he assumes both, and asks why it should be repeated. The Vulgate reads this: ‘ Super quo - on what part - shall I smite you anymore?’ This expresses well the sense of the Hebrew - על־מה ‛al - meh - upon what; and the meaning is, ‘ what part of the body can be found on which blows have not been inflicted? On every part there are traces of the stripes which have been inflicted for your sins.’ The idea is taken from a body that is all covered over with weals or marks of blows, and the idea is, that the whole frame is one continued bruise, and there remains no sound part to be stricken. The particular chastisement to which the prophet refers is specified in Isa 1:7-9. In Isa 1:5-6, he refers to the calamities of the nation, under the image of a person wounded and chastised for crimes. Such a figure of speech is not uncommon in the classic writers. Thus Cicero (de fin. iv. 14) says, ‘ quae hie reipublicae vulnera imponebat hie sanabat.’ See also Tusc. Quaes. iii. 22; Ad Quintum fratrem, ii. 25; Sallust; Cat. 10.

Should ye be stricken - Smitten, or punished. The manner in which they had been punished, he specities in Isa 1:7-8. Jerome says, that the sense is, ‘ there is no medicine which I can administer to your wounds. All your members are full of wounds; and there is no part of your body which has not been smitten before. The more you are afflicted, the more will your impiety and iniquity increase.’ The word here, תכוּ tukû , from נכה nâkâh , means to smite, to beat, to strike down, to slay, or kill. It is applied to the infliction of punishment on an individual; or to the judgments of God by the plague, pestilence, or sickness. Gen 19:2 : ‘ And they smote the men that were at the door with blindness.’ Num 14:12 : ‘ And I will smite them with the pestilence.’ Exo 7:25 : ‘ After that the Lord had smitten the river,’ that is, had changed it into blood; compare Isa 1:20; Zec 10:2. Here it refers to the judgments inflicted on the nation as the punishment of their crimes.

Ye will revolt - Hebrew You will add defection, or revolt. The effect of calamity, and punishment, will be only to increase rebellion. Where the heart is right with God, the tendency of affliction is to humble it, and lead it more and more to God. Where it is evil, the tendency is to make the sinner more obstinate and rebellious. This effect of punishment is seen every where. Sinners revolt more and more. They become sullen, and malignant, and fretful; they plunge into vice to seek temporary relief, and thus they become more and more alienated from God.

The whole head - The prophet proceeds to specify more definitely what he had just said respecting their being stricken. He designates each of the members of the body - thus comparing the Jewish people to the human body when under severe punishment. The word head in the Scriptures is often used to denote the princes, leaders, or chiefs of the nation. But the expression here is used as a figure taken from the human body, and refers solely to the punishment of the people, not to their sins. It means that all had been smitten - all was filled with the effects of punishment - as the human body is when the head and all the members are diseased.

Is sick - Is so smitten - so punished, that it has become sick and painful. Hebrew לחלי lâchŏlı̂y - for sickness, or pain. The preposition ל denotes a state, or condition of anything. Psa 69:21. ‘ And in ( ל )my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.’ The expression is intensive, and denotes that the head was entirely sick.

The whole heart faint - The heart is here put for the whole region of the chest or stomach. As when the head is violently pained, there is also sickness at the heart, or in the stomach, and as these are indications of entire or total prostration of the frame so the expression here denotes the perfect desolation which had come over the nation.

Faint - Sick, feeble, without vigor, attended with nausea. Jer 8:18 : ‘ When I would comfort myself in my sorrow, my heart is faint within me;’ Lam 1:22. When the body is suffering; when severe punishment is inflicted, the effect is to produce landor and faintness at the seat of life. This is the idea here. Their punishment had been so severe for their sins, that the heart was languid and feeble - still keeping up the figure drawn from the human body.

Poole: Isa 1:5 - -- Why should ye be stricken any more? it is to no purpose to seek to reclaim you by one chastisement after another; and therefore I will utterly forsak...

Why should ye be stricken any more? it is to no purpose to seek to reclaim you by one chastisement after another; and therefore I will utterly forsake and destroy you at once.

Ye will revolt more and more I see you are incorrigible, and turn even your afflictions into sin.

The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint your disease is mortal, as being in the most noble and vital parts, the very head and heart of the body politic, from whence the plague is derived to all the other members, as it follows. And this is to be understood either,

1. Of their sins; or rather,

2. Of their miseries. Which best suits,

1. With the foregoing words, this being added as a reason why it was in vain to strike them any more, or to expect any amendment that way, because he had stricken them already, and that very terribly, even in their head and heart, whose wounds are most dangerous, and yet they were not at all better for it.

2. With Isa 1:7,8 , where this metaphor is so explained.

Haydock: Isa 1:5-7 - -- Sad. This was spoken after Ozias had given way to pride, when the Ammonites, &c., began to disturb Juda, (4 Kings xv. 37., and 2 Paralipomenon xxvii...

Sad. This was spoken after Ozias had given way to pride, when the Ammonites, &c., began to disturb Juda, (4 Kings xv. 37., and 2 Paralipomenon xxvii. 7.) under Joathan, who was a good prince, but young. (Calmet) ---

Enemies. At the last siege, (St. Jerome) or rather when Jerusalem was taken by the Chaldeans. (Calmet) ---

Many, from the highest to the lowest, had prevaricated: but God always preserved his Church. (Worthington)

Gill: Isa 1:5 - -- Why should ye be stricken any more? .... Or "for what are ye stricken again" a? with afflictions and chastisements, with which God smites his people b...

Why should ye be stricken any more? .... Or "for what are ye stricken again" a? with afflictions and chastisements, with which God smites his people by way of correction for their sins, Isa 57:17 and the sense is, either that they did not consider what they were afflicted for, that it was for their sins and transgressions; they thought they came by chance, or imputed them to second causes, and so went on in sin, and added sin to sin; to which sense the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi, incline: or the meaning is, that the chastisements that were laid upon them were to no purpose; had produced no good effect, were of no avail, and unprofitable to them; and which is mentioned as an aggravation of their sins, obstinacy, and impenitence; see Jer 5:3.

Ye will revolt more and more, or "add defection" b; go on in sin, and apostatize more and more, and grow more obdurate and resolute in it; unless afflictions are sanctified, men become more hardened by them:

the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint; which may be understood either of their chastisements, which were universal, and had reached all sorts and ranks of men among them, without any reformation, and therefore it was in vain to use more; or of their sins and transgressions which abounded among them, even among the principal of them; their civil rulers and governors, meant by the "head"; and the priests, who should feed the people with knowledge and understanding, designed by the "heart"; but both were corrupted, and in a bad condition.

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Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 1:5 Heb “and all the heart is faint.” The “heart” here stands for bodily strength and energy, as suggested by the context and usag...

Geneva Bible: Isa 1:5 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 i...

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Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Isa 1:1-31 - --1 Isaiah complains of Judah for her rebellion.5 He laments her judgments.10 He upbraids their whole service.16 He exhorts to repentance, with promises...

Maclaren: Isa 1:1-9 - --The Great Suit: Jehovah Versus Judah The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham...

MHCC: Isa 1:1-9 - --Isaiah signifies, " The salvation of the Lord;" a very suitable name for this prophet, who prophesies so much of Jesus the Saviour, and his salvation...

Matthew Henry: Isa 1:2-9 - -- We will hope to meet with a brighter and more pleasant scene before we come to the end of this book; but truly here, in the beginning of it, every t...

Keil-Delitzsch: Isa 1:5 - -- In this v. a disputed question arises as to the words על־מה ( מה , the shorter, sharper form of מה , which is common even before non-gutt...

Constable: Isa 1:1--5:30 - --I. introduction chs. 1--5 The relationship of chapters 1-5 to Isaiah's call in chapter 6 is problematic. Do the ...

Constable: Isa 1:1-31 - --A. Israel's condition and God's solution ch. 1 As chapters 1-5 introduce the whole book, so chapter 1 in...

Constable: Isa 1:2-9 - --2. Israel's condition 1:2-9 Israel was guilty of forsaking her God and, as a result, she had become broken and desolate. 1:2-3 God Himself charged the...

Guzik: Isa 1:1-31 - --Isaiah 1 - Indictment and Invitation A. God states His case and offers a cure. 1. (1) Introduction: The vision of Isaiah, son of Amoz. The vision ...

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Introduction / Outline

JFB: Isaiah (Book Introduction) ISAIAH, son of Amoz (not Amos); contemporary of Jonah, Amos, Hosea, in Israel, but younger than they; and of Micah, in Judah. His call to a higher deg...

JFB: Isaiah (Outline) PARABLE OF JEHOVAH'S VINEYARD. (Isa. 5:1-30) SIX DISTINCT WOES AGAINST CRIMES. (Isa. 5:8-23) (Lev 25:13; Mic 2:2). The jubilee restoration of posses...

TSK: Isaiah (Book Introduction) Isaiah has, with singular propriety, been denominated the Evangelical Prophet, on account of the number and variety of his prophecies concerning the a...

TSK: Isaiah 1 (Chapter Introduction) Overview Isa 1:1, Isaiah complains of Judah for her rebellion; Isa 1:5, He laments her judgments; Isa 1:10, He upbraids their whole service; Isa 1...

Poole: Isaiah (Book Introduction) THE ARGUMENT THE teachers of the ancient church were of two sorts: 1. Ordinary, the priests and Levites. 2. Extraordinary, the prophets. These we...

Poole: Isaiah 1 (Chapter Introduction) ISAIAH CHAPTER 1 Judah’ s sins, Isa 1:1-4 ; her judgments, Isa 1:5-9 ; her worship is rejected, Isa 1:10-15 . Exhortations to repentance; prom...

MHCC: Isaiah (Book Introduction) Isaiah prophesied in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. He has been well called the evangelical prophet, on account of his numerous and...

MHCC: Isaiah 1 (Chapter Introduction) (Isa 1:1-9) The corruptions prevailing among the Jews. (Isa 1:10-15) Severe censures. (Isa 1:16-20) Exhortations to repentance. (Isa 1:21-31) The s...

Matthew Henry: Isaiah (Book Introduction) An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of The Book of the Prophet Isaiah Prophet is a title that sounds very great to those that understand it, t...

Matthew Henry: Isaiah 1 (Chapter Introduction) The first verse of this chapter is intended for a title to the whole book, and it is probable that this was the first sermon that this prophet was ...

Constable: Isaiah (Book Introduction) Introduction Title and writer The title of this book of the Bible, as is true of the o...

Constable: Isaiah (Outline) Outline I. Introduction chs. 1-5 A. Israel's condition and God's solution ch. 1 ...

Constable: Isaiah Isaiah Bibliography Alexander, Joseph Addison. Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah. 1846, 1847. Revised ed. ...

Haydock: Isaiah (Book Introduction) THE PROPHECY OF ISAIAS. INTRODUCTION. This inspired writer is called by the Holy Ghost, (Ecclesiasticus xlviii. 25.) the great prophet; from t...

Gill: Isaiah (Book Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH This book is called, in the New Testament, sometimes "the Book of the Words of the Prophet Esaias", Luk 3:4 sometimes only t...

Gill: Isaiah 1 (Chapter Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 1 This chapter, after the inscription, contains a charge of aggravated sin against the Jews; God's rejection of their ceremo...

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