Introduction (Ch. 1). 

        This chapter is not merely an introduction to chs. 2-12, but serves in that capacity for the whole book. It consists in all probability of a number of short, originally unconnected prophecies of varying date, but in the main probably from Hezekiah’s reign, so arranged as to present God’s “Great Arraignment” of Judah.

        We find the assessors, heaven and earth, in ver. 2a — for God Himself is the judge; the charge is unnatural ingratitude (vers. 2b, 3) — the ox and the ass of the traditional Nativity pictures come from here. In vers. 4-9 we have the evidence for the prosecution; as the unchangeable character of God is assured, the blame for Judah’s sufferings must rest on herself the scene of utter desolation suggests the time of Hezekiah. Judah is imagined as pleading her regular and large-scale temple worship in her defence, but this is rebutted in vers. 10-17. As there is no other defence, the Judge makes a con­ditional offer of mercy in vers. 18-20; but vers. 21-23 imply that the offer has been rejected. The sentence, present judgment leading to purification and the restoration of a remnant, closes the chapter.

        This chapter contains two of Isaiah’s key thoughts, that of holiness and the remnant; these should be noted whenever they occur in the prophecy — see vers. 4 and 27 (her converts) and comments on ch. 6 below.

        The condemnation of the Jerusalem temple-worship in vers. 10-17 almost certainly dates from the time after Hezekiah’s reformation. Note that so far from commending Hezekiah’s action, Isaiah does not even mention it. Isaiah was fully aware that the reformation was purely external, and judged it accordingly. It is a painful thought to a certain type of “high churchman “that the main prophets from Amos to  Jeremiah are unanimous that correct worship without corres­ponding morality of life only angers God, and is a sin. In­deed, the very correctness only magnifies the offence. It should be noted that the demand is for correct behaviour toward one’s neighbour (cf. I John 4:20).

        This section is most instructive for the principles underlying the recording of the prophetic message. We may be certain that Isaiah repeatedly attacked the mockery of a purely external worship, but it is recorded only here and in 29:13f. Once the message had been clearly given in the introduction, posterity did not need its further repetition.