Bible Commentary

Isaiah 1:5

Isaiah 1:5

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public Domain

Why should ye, etc.? Translate, Why will ye be still smitten, revolting more and more? or, Why will ye persist in rebellion, and so be smitten yet more? The Authorized Version does not express the sense, which is that suffering must follow sin—that if they still revolt, they must still be smitten for it—why, then, will they do so?

Compare Ezekiel's "Why will ye die, O house of Israel?" (). The whole head … the whole heart. Mr. Cheyne translates, "Every head … every heart;" but Lowth, Gesenius, and Ewald agree with the Authorized Version.

The prophet personifies Israel, and means to say that the whole head of the nation is diseased, its whole heart faint, or "prostrate with languor" (Kay). The head and heart represent respectively the intellectual and moral natures.

The Daily Devotional

One devotional. Every morning.

The full reading, the passage behind it, and where to go deeper — in your inbox before the day starts. No ads, ever.

We'll send one email to confirm it's really you. Unsubscribe in one tap, any time.

Continue tomorrow

Turn Bible study into a daily habit

Read today's devotional, save your progress, and receive a gentle daily reminder.

Recommended reading

More for Isaiah 1:5

Continue with other commentaries and DiscipleDeck content connected to this verse, chapter, or topic.

Other commentaries

Isaiah 1 — OverviewIsaiah 1 · Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole BibleThe first verse of this chapter is intended for a title to the whole book, and it is probable that this was the first sermon that this prophet was appointed to publish and to affix in writing (as Calvin thinks…Isaiah 1 — OverviewIsaiah 1 · Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeIsaiah 1:1, Isaiah complains of Judah for her rebellion; Isaiah 1:5, He laments her judgments; Isaiah 1:10, He upbraids their whole service; Isaiah 1:16, He exhorts to repentance, with promises and threatenings; Isaiah…Isaiah 1 — OverviewIsaiah 1 · John Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleThis book is called, in the New Testament, sometimes "the Book of the Words of the Prophet Esaias", Lu 3:4 sometimes only the "Prophet Esaias", Ac 8:28 and sometimes, as here, the "Book of the Prophet Esaias", Lu 4:17.…Isaiah 1:1-9Isaiah 1:1-9 · The Pulpit CommentaryJehovah arraigns his people. I. INGRATITUDE THE BASEST OF SINS. He, the Father, has been faithlessly forsaken by ungrateful sons. This is the worst form of ingratitude. "Filial ingratitude! Is it not as this mouth…Isaiah 1:1-31Isaiah 1:1-31 · The Pulpit CommentaryPART I.—EARLIER PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH (CH. 1-35.) SECTION I.—THE GREAT ARRAIGNMENT (Isaiah 1:1-31.). EXPOSITIONIsaiah 1:2-9Isaiah 1:2-9 · Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole BibleWe will hope to meet with a brighter and more pleasant scene before we come to the end of this book; but truly here, in the beginning of it, every thing looks very bad, very black, with Judah and Jerusalem. What…