Isaiah 43:27,28 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Thy first father hath sinned Some think that Urijah, who was high-priest in the time of Ahaz, is here especially meant: see 2 Kings 16:10-11. But it is more probable that the expression is put for their forefathers collectively; and so he tells them, that as they were sinners, so also were all their progenitors, yea, even the best of them. Thus Lowth: “Your ancestors, reckoning from Adam downward, have been sinners, and you have trod in their steps:” see Ezekiel 2:3; Ezekiel 16:2, &c.; Ezra 9:7. And thy teachers have transgressed, &c. Your prophets, priests, and teachers, who ought to have been guides to you, and intercessors for you with God, have led you into sin and error, and therefore you have no reason to fancy yourselves innocent. Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary The highest and best of your priests, whose persons were most sacred, and therefore were supposed, by themselves and others, to be the farthest from danger. As they had made themselves profane, so have I dealt with them as such, without any regard to the sacredness and dignity of their functions. Have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches Have exposed them to contempt and destruction, and made them a proverb of execration and reproach to all the neighbouring nations.