NEITHER WARNING NOR PROMISE COMPREHENDED BY THOSE TO WHOM THEY HAVE BEEN ADDRESSED, "Who hath believed our report?" says the prophet in another place (Isaiah 53:1), "and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"
It was among the most painful circumstances attaching to the prophetical office, that scarcely ever was the prophet held in any esteem among his own people, or in his own lifetime. Isaiah knows that his warning will fall dead—that the people and their rulers have neither "eyes to see" nor "ears to hear."
He places on record this knowledge, while at the same time striving if by any means he may arouse some from their condition of dull apathy.