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Additional Comments |
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| 1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah. |
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| 2 Hear, ye heavens, and give ear, thou earth! for Jehovah hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children; and they have rebelled against me. |
Heavens – The power of spiritual control. - While this prophecy is primarily one concerning Natural Israel, yet it is clear from the overall context that there is a good portion that applies to nominal spiritual Israel.
Earth – Organized society under religious restraint.
Thus this prophecy is directed to the church-nation of natural Israel, and by extension also applies to the church-state systems of Christendom.
I – Jehovah God.
Hath nourished – Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Matt. 4:4.
Brought up thy children – During the Gospel Age, the Lord was blessing the children of nominal spiritual Israel because of the Lord's true people who were held captive in her.
They – These children of mystic Babylon, the tares.
Have rebelled against Me – This they have done by rejecting God's Truth, that which reveals His wonderfull character. |
| 3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; Israel doth not know, my people hath no intelligence. |
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| 4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that corrupt themselves! They have forsaken Jehovah; they have despised the Holy One of Israel; they are turned away backward. |
Sinful nation .. laden with iniquity – This phrase helps us identify the target of this prophecy. ".. for her sins have reached unto heaven .. come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive of her plagues." Rev. 18:4,5.
Seed of evildoers – "An enemy hath shown them" - tares.
Children that are corrupters – "Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of gehenna than yourselves." Matt. 23:15.
Provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger – The Lord's anger is an expression of His fundamental attribute of Justice. This anger or wrath is expressed in the pouring out of the seven last plagues upon the symbolic earth (Rev. 16:1). |
| 5 Why should ye be smitten any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. |
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| 6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in him; wounds, and weals, and open sores: they have not been dressed, nor bound up, nor mollified with oil. |
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| 7 Your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers eat it up in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. |
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| 8 And the daughter of Zion is left, as a booth in a vineyard, as a night-lodge in a cucumber-garden, as a besieged city. |
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| 9 Unless Jehovah of hosts had left us a very small residue, we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah. |
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| 10 Hear the word of Jehovah, rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, people of Gomorrah! |
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| 11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith Jehovah. I am sated with burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and in the blood of bullocks, and of lambs, and of he-goats I take no pleasure. |
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| 12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this from your hand--to tread my courts? |
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| 13 Bring no more vain oblations! Incense is an abomination unto me, --new moon and sabbath, the calling of convocations--wickedness and the solemn meeting I cannot bear. |
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| 14 Your new moons and your set feasts my soul hateth: they are a burden to me; I am wearied of bearing them2. |
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| 15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. |
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| 16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; --cease to do evil, |
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| 17 learn to do well: seek judgment, gladden the oppressed, do justice to the fatherless, plead for the widow. |
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| 18 Come now, let us reason together, saith Jehovah: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. |
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| 19 If ye be willing and hearken, ye shall eat the good of the land; |
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| 20 but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken. |
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| 21 How is the faithful city become a harlot! It was full of judgment; righteousness used to lodge in it, but now murderers. |
The faithful city – The early true church
Become an harlot – Gradually, beginning with 314 A.D. when the Roman emperor Constantine (civil power) convened a church council (August 1, 314) in Arles, France, beginning the union of church and state in Europe.
It was – Prior to 314 A.D.
Full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it – In the early church.
Now – After 314. |
| 22 Thy silver is become dross, thy wine is mixed with water: |
Thy silver – The Bible truth given to the early church.
Become dross -- |
| 23 thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; every one loveth presents, and hunteth after rewards; they judge not the fatherless, and the cause of the widow cometh not unto them. |
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| 24 Therefore saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah! I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies. |
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| 25 And I will turn my hand upon thee, and will thoroughly purge away thy dross, and take away all thine alloy; |
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| 26 and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning. Afterwards thou shalt be called, Town of righteousness, Faithful city. |
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| 27 Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and they that return of her with righteousness. |
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| 28 But the ruin of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together; and they that forsake Jehovah shall be consumed. |
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| 29 For they shall be ashamed of the terebinths that ye have desired, and ye shall blush for the gardens that ye have chosen. |
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| 30 For ye shall be as a terebinth whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. |
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| 31 And the strong shall be for tow, and his work a spark; and they shall both burn together, and there shall be none to quench them2. |
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