Isaiah 1:6

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.

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 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.
7 Your land is ruined; your cities have been burned with fire. While you watch, your enemies are stealing everything from your land; it is ruined like a country destroyed by enemies.
8 Jerusalem is left alone like an empty shelter in a vineyard, like a hut left in a field of melons, like a city surrounded by enemies.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.