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

Bible Comments

A.M. 3244. B.C. 760.

In this chapter we have Judah's sins, Isaiah 1:1-4. Her judgments, Isaiah 1:5-9. The rejection of her worship, Isaiah 1:10-15. Exhortations to repentance, promises of mercy and grace, threatenings of sore judgments, and complaints by reason of their backsliding, Isaiah 1:16-31. Dr. Taylor, in his Scripture Divinity, observes, that this chapter, “by reason of its grand exordium, might be judged proper to stand at the front of the book; but that it gives such an account of the distressed, desolate state of the land, as agrees much better with the wicked and afflicted reign of Ahaz, than with the flourishing circumstances of the country in the reigns of Uzziah, and of his son and successor Jotham; who were both, in the main, good princes.” Compare Isaiah 1:7-9, with 2 Chronicles 26:1-16; 2 Chronicles 27:1-6.