Isaiah 1:4

4 How terrible! Israel is a nation of sin, a people loaded down with guilt, a group of children doing evil, children who are full of evil. They have left the Lord; they hate God, the Holy One of Israel, and have turned away from him as if he were a stranger.

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 ) .
FOOTNOTES:

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

Isaiah 1:4 In-Context

2 Heaven and earth, listen, because the Lord is speaking: "I raised my children and helped them grow up, but they have turned against me.
3 An ox knows its master, and a donkey knows where its owner feeds it, but the people of Israel do not know me; my people do not understand."
4 How terrible! Israel is a nation of sin, a people loaded down with guilt, a group of children doing evil, children who are full of evil. They have left the Lord; they hate God, the Holy One of Israel, and have turned away from him as if he were a stranger.
5 Why should you continue to be punished? Why do you continue to turn against him? Your whole head is hurt, and your whole heart is sick.
6 There is no healthy spot from the bottom of your foot to the top of your head; you are covered with wounds, hurts, and open sores that are not cleaned and covered, and no medicine takes away the pain.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.