This is described more particularly in Isaiah 1:7, which commences with the most general view, and returns to it again at the close."Your land ... a desert; your cities ... burned with fire; your field ... foreigners consuming it before your eyes, and a desert like overthrowing by strangers." Caspari has pointed out, in his Introduction to the Book of Isaiah, how nearly every word corresponds to the curses threatened in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 (29); Micah 6:13-16 and Jeremiah 5:15. stand in the very same relation to these sections of the Pentateuch. From the time of Isaiah downwards, the state of Israel was a perfect realization of the curses of the law. The prophet intentionally employs the words of the law to describe his own times; he designates the enemy, who devastated the land, reduced its towers to ashes, and took possession of its crops, by the simple term zarim, foreigners or barbarians (a word which would have the very same meaning if it were really the reduplication of the Aramaean bar; compare the Syriac barōye, a foreigner), without mentioning their particular nationality. He abstracts himself from the definite historical present, in order that he may point out all the more emphatically how thoroughly it bears the character of the fore-ordained curse. The most emphatic indication of this was to be found in the fact, which the clause at the close of Isaiah 1:7 palindromically affirms, that a desolation had been brought about "like the overthrow of foreigners." The repetition of a catchword like zarim (foreigners) at the close of the v. in this emphatic manner, is a figure of speech, called epanaphora, peculiar to the two halves of our collection. The question arises, however, whether zarim is to be regarded as the genitive of the subject, as Caspari, Knobel, and others suppose, "such an overthrow as is commonly produced by barbarians" (cf., 2 Samuel 10:3, where the verb occurs), or as the genitive of the object, "such an overthrow as comes upon barbarians." As mahpechâh (overthrow) is used in other places in which it occurs to denote the destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, etc., according to the primary passage, Deuteronomy 29:22, and Isaiah had evidently also this catastrophe in his mind, as Isaiah 1:8 clearly shows; we decide in favour of the conclusion that zârim is the genitive of the object (cf., Amos 4:11). The force of the comparison is also more obvious, if we understand the words in this sense. The desolation which had fallen upon the land of the people of God resembled that thorough desolation (subversio) with which God visited the nations outside the covenant, who, like the people of the Pentapolis, were swept from off the earth without leaving a trace behind. But although there was similarity, there was not sameness, as Isaiah 1:8, Isaiah 1:9 distinctly affirm. Jerusalem itself was still preserved; but in how pitiable a condition! There can be no doubt that bath-Zion ("daughter of Zion," Eng. ver.) in Isaiah 1:8 signifies Jerusalem. The genitive in this case is a genitive of apposition: "daughter Zion," not "daughter of Zion" (cf., Isaiah 37:22 : see Ges. 116, 5). Zion itself is represented as a daughter, i.e., as a woman. The expression applied primarily to the community dwelling around the fortress of Zion, to which the individual inhabitants stood in the same relation as children to a mother, inasmuch as the community sees its members for the time being come into existence and grow: they are born within her, and, as it were, born and brought up by her. It was then applied secondarily to the city itself, with or without the inhabitants (cf., Jeremiah 46:19; Jeremiah 48:18; Zechariah 2:11). In this instance the latter are included, as Isaiah 1:9 clearly shows. This is precisely the point in the first two comparisons.

Isaiah 1:13 Parallel Commentaries

vain

Ezekiel 20:39 As for you, O house of Israel, thus said the Lord GOD; Go you, serve you every one his idols, and hereafter also...

Malachi 1:10 Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nothing? neither do you kindle fire on my altar for nothing...

Matthew 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

Luke 11:42 But woe to you, Pharisees! for you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God...

incense

Isaiah 66:3 He that kills an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrifices a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offers an oblation...

Proverbs 21:27 The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind?

the new

Leviticus 23:1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

Numbers 28:1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

Numbers 29:1 And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have an holy convocation; you shall do no servile work...

Deuteronomy 16:1 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover to the LORD your God...

Lamentations 2:6 And he has violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he has destroyed his places of the assembly...

Joel 1:14 Sanctify you a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God...

Joel 2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:

it is

1 Corinthians 11:17 Now in this that I declare to you I praise you not, that you come together not for the better, but for the worse.

Philippians 1:15 Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:

iniquity. or, grief

Psalm 78:40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption.