Isaiah 1:4 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Ah, sinful nation The prophet bemoans those who would not bemoan themselves; and he speaks with a holy indignation at their degeneracy, and with a dread of the consequences of it. A people laden with iniquity Laden, not with the sense of sin, as those described Matthew 11:28, but with the guilt and bondage of sin. A seed of evil- doers The children of wicked parents, whose guilt they inherit, and whose evil example they follow; children that are corrupted Hebrew, משׁחיתים, that corrupt, namely, themselves, or their ways, or others, by their counsel and example: or, that destroy themselves and their land by their wickedness. They have forsaken the Lord Not indeed in profession, but in practice, and therefore in reality, neglecting or corrupting his worship, and refusing to be subject and obedient to him. They have provoked the Holy One, &c. They have lived as if it were their great design and business to provoke him. They are gone away backward Instead of proceeding forward, and growing in grace, which was their duty, they are fallen from their former professions, and have become more wicked than ever.