Isaiah 1:6

6 From the bottom of your feet to the top of your head, nothing's working right. Wounds and bruises and running sores - untended, unwashed, unbandaged.

Isaiah 1:6 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 1:6

From the sole of the foot even unto the head [there is] no
soundness in it
Every member of the body politic was afflicted in one way or another, or sadly infected with the disease of sin; see ( Psalms 28:3 ) . So the Targum,

``from the rest of the people, even unto the princes, there is none among them who is perfect in my fear;''
see ( Daniel 9:8 ) ( Jeremiah 8:10 ) [but] wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores;
to which either public calamities on a city or nation may be compared, ( Hosea 5:13 ) or the sins and transgressions both of single persons, and of whole bodies of men, ( Psalms 38:5 Psalms 38:7 ) . The Targum is,
``they are all stubborn and rebellious, they are defiled with sins as an ulcerous plaster.''
They have not been closed;
that is, the wounds and sores have not been healed; or "they have not been pressed" or "squeezed" F3, in order to get the purulent matter out of them: neither bound up;
with bands, after the matter is squeezed out, and a plaster laid on: neither mollified with ointment;
which is used for the supplying and healing of wounds; see ( Luke 10:34 ) . The sense either is, that they were not reformed by their afflictions; or that they did not repent of their sins, nor seek to God for healing and pardon, nor make use of any means for their more healthful state and condition. The Targum paraphrases the words thus,
``they do not leave their haughtinesses, nor are they desirous of repentance, nor have they any righteousness to protect them.''

FOOTNOTES:

F3 (wrz al) "non expessa fuere a" (rwz) "exprimere humorem, hoc significari clarum est ex" Jud. vi. 38. Gusset. Comment. Ling. Ebr. p. 227. So Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius.

Isaiah 1:6 In-Context

4 Shame! Misguided God-dropouts, staggering under their guilt-baggage, Gang of miscreants, band of vandals - My people have walked out on me, their God, turned their backs on The Holy of Israel, walked off and never looked back.
5 "Why bother even trying to do anything with you when you just keep to your bullheaded ways? You keep beating your heads against brick walls. Everything within you protests against you.
6 From the bottom of your feet to the top of your head, nothing's working right. Wounds and bruises and running sores - untended, unwashed, unbandaged.
7 Your country is laid waste, your cities burned down. Your land is destroyed by outsiders while you watch, reduced to rubble by barbarians.
8 Daughter Zion is deserted - like a tumbledown shack on a dead-end street, Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks, like a sinking ship abandoned by the rats.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.