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Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: 18 Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white

as snow;

Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good 19 of the land:

But if ye refuse and rebel,

Ye shall be devoured with the sword:

For the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

always exposed to wrong when the administration of justice is weak or corrupt (cf. v. 23; ch. x. 2). To defend such is specially the duty of the judge, but it is also an obligation lying on every one who has influence in the community. The prophet addresses his hearers ("rulers" and people" v. 10) as members of the state; and his demand is that by seeking judgment " they shall exercise the fundamental virtue of citizenship. The righteousness which he requires is social righteousness, iustitia civilis, a public life so ordered as to secure for each individual his personal rights. The prophet's passion for justice is always inspired by a deep sense of the value of the human personality in the sight of God.

18-20. Jehovah condescends to plead.

18. let us reason together] more accurately, let us implead one another (Acts xix. 38, A.V.). The idea is that of a legal process in which each party maintains his own case (see ch. xliii. 26). It is felt by some comm. that the legal figure is inconsistent with an absolute offer of forgiveness in the two clauses which follow. The difficulty would be obviated by the subtle and attractive rendering (proposed, but now withdrawn, by Cheyne) "let us bring our dispute to an end"; but this is unsupported by grammar or usage. The second member of each sentence might be taken as an indignant question, “If your sins are..... shall they be white... ?"—or as an ironical concession, "Though your sins be...let them be white... !" The idea of pardon, however, may be retained, provided it be understood as conditioned by the alternative of VV. 19, 20.

scarlet and crimson are really synonyms for one colour, properly "crimson." The dye in question was obtained from the dried and powdered bodies of an insect (coccus ilicis, in Hebr. tôla'ath shānî= "bright worm "). There is perhaps no other instance of red used as a general symbol for sin, though white is the natural emblem of innocence (Ps. li. 7).

20. ye shall be devoured with the sword] "Sword" is here taken as an acc. of instrument, a construction of more than doubtful validity in Hebr. A more idiomatic rendering is: ye shall be made to eat the sword. An exactly similar expression is used by the Arabs, although Hebr. analogies are wanting.

20

21

22

23

24.

How is the faithful city become a harlot !

It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it;
But now murderers.

Thy silver is become dross,

Thy wine mixt with water:

Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves:
Every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards:
They judge not the fatherless,

Neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the
mighty One of Israel,

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21 ff. The elegy (qînäh, distinguished by a peculiar rhythm and by the opening word 'ekah, how") is a frequent vehicle of prophetic utterance. This is the clearest instance in the genuine writings of Isaiah, and it is characteristic of the 'city prophet' (Cheyne), that the subject is not the nation but the idealised capital. Isaiah is in a good sense 'laudator temporis acti.' He laments the degeneracy of Jerusalem, looking back probably to the days of David, when it was the abode of judgment and righteousness.

21. a harlot] The idea conveyed is perhaps rather deterioration of character than infidelity to the marriage bond with Jehovah, an image not used by Isaiah (as by Hos.).

righteousness (çédeq) is the principle of right action in individuals or the community; judgment (mishpat) the embodiment of that principle in judicial decisions, use and wont, and the like. These qualities constituted the "faithfulness," trustworthiness, of the city.

22. silver and wine may refer to the great men of the city (v. 23) but more naturally to the "judgment" and "righteousness" of v. 21;— all that was best in her, purity of morals, excellence of character, &c. The word for mixt occurs only here. The phrase is usually illustrated by the Latin "castrare vinum," the verb being taken as connected with that for "circumcise."

wine] better choice drink, found elsewhere only in Hos. iv. 18.

:

23. Thy princes are rebellious] In the Heb. a paronomasia, borrowed from Hos. ix. 15. The "princes" (sârîm) are the civil and military officials of the monarchical constitution, as distinguished from the zěqēnîm (sheikhs or elders) of the old tribal system. The charge brought against them is that as a class they are corrupted by systematic bribery. They are companions of thieves, conniving at extortion and receiving in return a share of the spoil. Hence the fatherless and widows, having no bribes to offer, can obtain no redress; they cannot even find access to the seat of judgment.

24. Such men are adversaries and enemies of Jehovah, thwarting His wishes and purposes for His people. the Lord]"the Master" or the Sovereign. The title, used absolutely as here (ha-'Adôn), is almost peculiar to Isaiah, and is used by him only in introducing a threat (ch. iii. 1, x. 16, 33, xix. 4; cf. Ex. xxiii. 17, xxxiv. 23).

25

26

27

Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries,
And avenge me of mine enemies :
And I will turn my hand upon thee,
And purely purge away thy dross,
And take away all thy tin:

And I will restore thy judges as at the first,
And thy counsellers as at the beginning:
Afterward thou shalt be called,

The city of righteousness, the faithful city.
Zion shall be redeemed with judgment,
And her converts with righteousness.

the mighty One of Israel] Israel's Strong One, a rare word in Hebr., first found in Gen. xlix. 24. See on ch. x. 13. ease me] Better appease myself, and so again, avenge myself. By a bold anthropopathy the divine Being is compared to a man thirsting for vengeance.

25 resumes the first figure of v. 22, the judgment on Zion being likened to the smelting of impure ore. turn (or bring back)

my hand] not in mercy, but, as usual, in judgment.

purely] R.V. throughly, lit. "as with lye," i.e. potash, which was used as a flux to facilitate the separation of the metals. The grammar is still suspicious. Some, by transposing two consonants, obtain the sense "in the furnace."

26. The result will be the establishment of a pure administration in Jerusalem, as in the olden time, Zion once more worthy of her ancient name, citadel of righteousness (Cheyne), faithful city. The last expression, carrying us back to v. 21, marks the close of the strophe.

Two things are noteworthy in this passage. (1) The ideal is political. The salvation of Israel is secured when all public offices are filled with good men ("judges " and "counsellers "). (2) The ideal will be realised by a restoration of the best days of the past. In later prophecies Isaiah looks forward to a state of things far transcending anything that had been achieved in Israel's previous history. Such an anticipation as this is most naturally assigned to an early period of his career, before his eschatological conceptions had assumed a definite form.

27 describes the salutary and 28 the judicial aspect of the chastisement in more abstract terms than those hitherto employed. her converts] lit. "those in her who turn"; cf. "Remnant-shall-turn" in ch. vii. 3.

redeemed] A very rare word with Isaiah (only again in xxix. 22). It is doubtful whether the meaning is that she shall be redeemed from her own sins, or from the troubles they shall have brought upon her. So it is uncertain whether judgment and righteousness (cf. v. 21) are the virtues of the redeemed people, or the attributes of God manifested in the redemption. The former idea is most in accordance with Isaiah's use of the words, but the latter, which is common in the later parts of the book, undoubtedly gives the best sense in this connexion.

28

29

30

31

And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together,

And they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired,

And ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.

For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth,

And as a garden that hath no water.

And the strong shall be as tow,

And the maker of it as a spark,

And they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

28.

And the destruction...together] Better as an exclamation: But destruction of rebels and sinners together! Rebels, sinners, forsakers of Jehovah, as in ʊʊ. 2—4.

29-31. The judgment will also bring about a purification of religion, by revealing the folly of trusting in other deities than Jehovah.

29. they shall be ashamed] Some MSS. and Ancient Versions have the second person, possibly a mere correction.

oaks] terebinths. These and the gardens are emblems not of luxury, but of nature-worship. On "gardens" as seats of heathenish cults, see lxv. 3, lxvi. 17. The worship of sacred trees and sacred wells (which were probably the numina of the gardens [Duhm], see v. 30) are two of the most widely diffused and persistent forms of nature-worship, and are not extinct in Syria at the present day.

30. To the nature worshippers themselves the falling leaf of the terebinth and the failure of the spring in the garden, would mean the decay of the divine life which was supposed to animate these objects. To Isaiah, who recognises no divine life in nature but that of Jehovah, they are simply appropriate images of the collapse of superstition.

31 refers probably (though not certainly) to idolatry in the strict sense of image-worship. the strong] Apparently "the powerful (opulent) man. The word occurs only once again in Am. ii. 9.

and the maker of it] Render with R.V. and his work, i.e. either "his idol," or "his unrighteous work."

they shall both burn...quench them] The "work" is a spark and the worker like tinder. The idea is that the product of sin will become the means of the sinner's destruction.

CH. II.-IV.

In these three chapters we seem to have one of the minor collections of Isaianic oracles from which the present book of Isaiah has been compiled (see Introd., p. lxvii). That they once existed as a separate

The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning 2 Judah and Jerusalem.

volume is strongly suggested by two circumstances. (a) The form of the superscription (ii. 1) as compared with that of ch. i. 1. The repetition of the full designation of the prophet, without any note of time or subject specially applicable to what follows, would seem to indicate that this heading was written independently of the general title in ch. i. (b) The artistic unity and completeness of the section as a whole confirms the impression of its original independence. It contains (1) an introduction (ii. 2—4), describing the future glory of Zion as the religious metropolis of the world; (2) a series of discourses in which the prophet assails the prevalent vices and evils of his own day, and announces the judgment about to fall on the nation (ii. 5 [6]-iv. 1); and (3) a conclusion (iv. 2-6), shewing how through judgment the ideal set forth at the outset shall be realised in the blessings reserved for those who escape the judgment. The enclosing of the oracles of judgment between two passages of Messianic import affords clear evidence of literary design: which is admitted even by critics who (see below) question the Isaianic authorship of the opening and closing sections.

With regard to the date little difference of opinion exists. At least the middle portion (ii. 6—iv. 1) is assigned with hardly a dissentient voice to the very earliest period of Isaiah's prophetic career. In ii. 6-22, the material prosperity attained under Uzziah still exists in undiminished splendour, and (since Isaiah did not receive his prophetic call till the year of that king's death) the passage is most naturally assigned to the succeeding reign, that of Jotham. Ch. iii. may have been written somewhat later. Its picture of anarchy may have been suggested by tendencies which Isaiah saw around him, caused by the removal of a strong hand from the helm; and at all events v. 12 applies to no king so well as to the weak and irresolute Ahaz. On the other hand, the absence of any explicit allusion to the Assyrians shews that the prophecies belong to the very beginning of the reign, prior to the events recorded in ch. vii. The whole passage is thus of great importance as a record of the impressions and ideas with which Isaiah entered on public life.

II. 1. On the scope of the heading see Introd. Note above.-The word.....saw] The combination of the verb " see with the obj. "word" is not uncommon: Jer. xxxviii. 21; Hab. ii. 1; Am. i. 1; Mic. i. 1, and cf. Is. xiii. 1; Hab. i. 1 (burden). In such expressions both words have undergone a certain process of generalisation; "word" denoting the substance of the prophetic revelation, in whatever way received, and "see" (ḥāzāk) describing the spiritual intuition by which the prophet was enabled to apprehend it. (See on ch. i. 1.)

CH. II. 2-4. ZION THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION IN THE LATTER DAYS.

In this striking picture of the Messianic age the following features should be noticed:-(i) The preeminence, amongst the mountains of