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 ) .