Isaiah – The fifth Hebrew gospel – Chapter 1b

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Chapter 1 is set in about 701 BCE, the fourteenth year of the reign of King Hezekiah, Assyria had already invaded the Southern Kingdom of Judah  and had been thwarted because of the righteousness of o fate King and his people. 

The word vision is used here in the wide sense of a collection of prophetic oracles (cf. Nah 1:1; Oba 1:1). As the prophet was called a “seer” (ḥôzeh), 

Earlier in 722 BCE Assyria had conquered the Northern Kingdom and taken 10-Israel captive into the nations – “the ten lost tribes.”

7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, foreigners devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, foreigners overthrow it. 8 And the daughter of Tzion is left as a shelter in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

V. 7 ‘fire“, and verse 20 “sword” – synonymous parallels these terms have dual meanings – a person who personifies יהוהs fire and sword-who serve as his instruments for punishing the wicked. 

V. 8 “daughter of Zion,” Israel as woman and יהוה as her husband, yet Israel as a whole has apostatized, yet there are people among them who survive the exile called the “daughter of Zion.”

The daughter of Zion is left, the idea of being “left” signifies the survival of a remnant – like unto the parable of the wheat and the tares at the sickle harvest. Those “left” are those that return from the exile – come back to torah, to Israel, to the covenant life under the right ruling of the High Priest. You are called, “the holy offspring” (Isa. 6:13).

“A shelter in a vineyard” יהוהs vineyard denotes the Promised Land, this was a very well known prophecy – Yahusha and Shaul (Matt 20, 21, 1 Cor. 9). 

The shelter refers to יהוהs cloud of glory at the book of the covenant ratification ceremony – to which Israel is now far removed from its protective covering open to the ravaging forces of evil and destruction.

“A cucumber in a field” The idea of a hut or cottage suggests the presence of a watchman who guards the field against thieves and wild animals – Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country…Matt 21:33…And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another –the “another” is our very prophet himself the prophet of the parable!

9 Except יהוה tzevaoth had left to us a very small remnant, 3 we would have become just like Sedom, and we would have been just like Amorah. 4 10 Hear the word of יהוה, you rulers of Sedom; give ear to the Torah of our Elohim, you people of Amorah. 11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? Says יהוה: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the dahm of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats 12 When you come to appear before Me, who has required this at your hand, to trample My courts?

Matt 24:31 obviously this is taking of an age when the peoples perverse lifestyle causes them to grow so aggressive that they attempt to violate natural law – Isaiah is drawing on an end-time type that looses sight of Elohim and starts to resemble those ancient inhabitants of Sodom and Gemorrah! 

13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to Me; the Rosh Chodashim and the Shabbats, the calling of miqra kedoshim, I cannot put up with; it is iniquity, even the kadosh meetings. 14 Your Rosh Chodashim and your moadim My being hates: 9 they are a trouble to Me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide My eyes from you: even though you make many tefillot, I will not hear: your hands are full of dahm.

Blood doesn’t just include gross injustices, but injustices in general.

16 Wash yourself and make yourself clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes; cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do tov; seek mishpat, relieve the oppressed, defend the fatherless, and plead for the widow. 18 Come now, and let us reason together, says יהוה: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Repenting of our crimes and purifying our lives through the fire of change, re-firing our thoughts and behaviors – refining. 

19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the tov of the land: 20 But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of יהוה has spoken it. 21 How is it that the faithful city became a harlot! It was full of mishpat; tzedakah lodged in it; but now murderers.

22 Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with mayim: 23 Your rulers are rebellious, and are companions of thieves: everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards: they do not defend the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow concern them. 24 Therefore says the Master, יהוה  tzevaoth, the Mighty One of Yisrael, Ah; I will be eased from My adversaries, and avenged of My enemies:

The Master” or the Sovereign. The title, used here (hâ-’Adôn), is specific to Isaiah, and is used by him only in introducing a threat (ch. Isa 3:1, Isa 10:16; Isa 10:33, Isa 19:4. 

Feasts Exo 23:17; Exo 34:23)

A negative response to יהוהs warnings leads to his peoples calamity, a refusal to repent results in יהוה empowering their enemies against them. 

25 And I will turn My hand against you, and purge away the dross of your rebellious men, and take away all your sin: 26 And I will restore your shophtim as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning: afterward you shall be called, The City of Tzedakah, the faithful city. 27 Tzion shall be redeemed with mishpat, and her restored ones with tzedakah. 28 And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and also they that forsake יהוה  shall be consumed. 29 For they shall be ashamed about the oak eytzim which they have desired, and you shall be embarrassed because of the gardens that you have chosen. 30 For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no mayim. 

The Lives of the Prophets is an ancient apocryphal account of the lives of the prophets of the Old Testament written before 106 CE. 

In addition: The Ascension of Isaiah is a pseudepigraphical Judeo-Christian text from 70 AD to 175 AD.[3][4]

Isaiah was of Jerusalem. He met his death at the hands of Manasse, sawed in two, and was buried below the oak of Rogel hard by the passage across the waters which Hezekiah spoiled by blocking their course. 

For the prophet’s sake God wrought the miracle of Siloam; for before his death, when he was beginning to faint, he prayed for water, and it was sent to him from its spring. Hence it was called Siloam which meant ‘sent.’ Also in the time of Hezekiah, before the king made the pools and reservoirs, at the prayer of Isaiah a little water came forth here, lest the city, at the time besieged by the gentiles, should be destroyed by lack of water. For the enemy were seeking a drinking place, and as they invested the city, they encamped near Siloam. If, then, the Hebrews came to the pool, water flowed forth; if the gentiles came, there was none. Hence even to the present day the water issues suddenly to keep the miracle in mind.

Because this was wrought through the prayer of Isaiah, the people in remembrance buried his body near the spot, with care and high honor, in order that through his ravers, even after his death, they might continue to have the benefit of the water. Indeed, a revelation had been given to them concerning him. His tomb, however, is near the tomb of the kings, behind the tomb of the priest, on the side toward the south.

There are basically 5 personality types and being oblivious of them will not serve you well if your path inadvertently crosses with the wrong one. 

1. The devil with a long memory. If you offend or hurt this type they won’t show it to you on the surface…they will calculate and lie in wait. Exacting revenge – coldblooded shrewdness and deception. Crush him totally or flee. 
2. Suspicious minds. They see the worst in others, a wicked imagination. Turn his imagination to another target. 
3. Mr. Unassuming. Tends to tie you up in pettiness, wasting your time energy and resources. Avoidance. 
4. The insecure. His ego is fragile, his hurts simmer, once offended he will nibble you to death slowly, pick you apart like a vulture on roadkill. 
5. The arrogant and proud man. The most dangerous of them all. Vengeance and violence are is MO. There is no reason, no way to de-escalate. Flee.