Isaiah 1 Study Notes

1:15 This pronouncement has delayed the problem with the people’s ritual practice until the last line. Their sacrifices, times of worship, and even prayers were not acceptable because their hands were covered with blood. That is, they sinned and did not repent but still participated in worship. God did not tolerate such hypocritical behavior.

1:16-17 The pronouncement gives a prescription for change—repent. The metaphor for transformation here is a good washing. Transformation involves a cessation of evil activities as well as the requirement of good deeds. The good deeds are defined as pursuing social justice, particularly resisting oppressors and promoting the interests of the vulnerable (the fatherless and the widow).

1:18-20 The Lord presented two options to the people. One was to repent and obey. A remarkable transformation would result. Now they were blood red as a result of their sin, but repentance would turn them a glorious white. They could be cleansed (v. 16) with the result that life would be good. The second option was continued rebellion, a course of action that would end with their destruction.

1:21-22 God’s people were not always corrupt. A formerly faithful town—Jerusalem—had gone bad. The worship of false gods, idolatry, is often described as a form of adultery. Dross and watered-down beer are symbols of impurity.

1:23 The rulers of Judah were corrupt. They sought their own financial advantage and neglected the rights and needs of the socially vulnerable (the widow and the fatherless).

1:24 Therefore marks the transition from indictment (vv. 21-23) to judgment. God will not let the guilty escape their punishment.

1:25-26 The judgment is not just punitive; it purifies. The people started a faithful city (v. 21) and after their cleansing, they will again be a Faithful Town.

1:27-28 It is probably God’s justice and righteousness that are the redemptive agents here.

1:29 The people of God sinned by their idolatry that often took the form of worshiping false gods with foreign rituals. One common form of this false worship involved sacred trees that were probably connected with worship of a Canaanite fertility goddess called Asherah, the mother of Baal.

1:30-31 The pronouncement charged that Judah (you) would become like an oak. Here the tree image stands for the pride and resistance of God’s people. But such apparent strength is undermined by the fact that the tree was not watered and therefore would quickly burn when set on fire.