Isaiah 1:10

10 Listen to the LORD, you leaders of “Sodom.” Listen to the law of our God, people of “Gomorrah.”

Isaiah 1:10 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 1:10

Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom
Not literally, but mystically, meaning the governors of Judea; they and their people having sinned in like manner, and as openly, as the rulers of Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof; see ( Isaiah 3:9 ) and so the Targum paraphrases the words,

``receive the word of the Lord, ye governors, whose works are evil like the governors of Sodom.''

These are called to attend to the word of the Lord; either the Scriptures, which should be the rule of faith and practice, from which they had swerved; or to the word which now came to them by the prophet, and is contained in the following verses; or rather to the Gospel preached to them by John the Baptist, Christ, and his apostles, see ( Isaiah 2:3 ) which being rejected by them as it was, it is declared that it would be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, in the day of judgment, than for them, ( Matthew 11:24 ) give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah;
the inhabitants of Judea; for as were both the civil and ecclesiastical rulers, so were the people both in Isaiah's time, and in the times of Christ and his apostles. The Targum is,

``hearken to the law of our God, ye people whose works are like to the people of Gomorrah.''

And by "the law of our God" is meant, not so much the law of Moses, which these people had not hearkened to, but had broken it, and cast it away from them, as the doctrine of the grace of God, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our God; which was first sent and preached to this wicked people, for the sake of the small remnant, according to the election of grace left among them; see ( Isaiah 2:3 ) .

Isaiah 1:10 In-Context

8 Beautiful Jerusalem stands abandoned like a watchman’s shelter in a vineyard, like a lean-to in a cucumber field after the harvest, like a helpless city under siege.

9 If the LORD of Heaven’s Armies had not spared a few of us, we would have been wiped out like Sodom, destroyed like Gomorrah.

10 Listen to the LORD, you leaders of “Sodom.” Listen to the law of our God, people of “Gomorrah.”

11 “What makes you think I want all your sacrifices?” says the LORD . “I am sick of your burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened cattle. I get no pleasure from the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

12 When you come to worship me, who asked you to parade through my courts with all your ceremony?