(5) Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more.--Better, by revolting more and more. The prophet does not predict persistency in rebellion, but pleads against it. (Comp. "Why will ye die?" in Ezekiel 18:31.)

The whole head is sick. . . .--Better, every head. . . . every heart. The sin of the people is painted as a deadly epidemic, spreading everywhere, affecting the noblest organs of the body (see Note on Jeremiah 17:9), and defying all the resources of the healing art. The description that follows is one of the natural parables of ethics, and reminds us of Plato's description of the souls of tyrants as being full of ulcerous sores (Gorg., c. 80). The description may have connected itself with the prophet's personal experience or training in the medicine and surgery of his time, or with the diseases which came as judgments on Jehoram (2Chronicles 21:18) and Uzziah (2Chronicles 26:20). We find him in Isaiah 38:21 prescribing for Hezekiah's boil. It would seem, indeed, from 2Chronicles 16:12, that the prophets, as an order, practised the art of healing, and so were rivals of the "physicians," who depended chiefly on idolatrous charms and incantations. The picture of the disease reminds us of the language of Deuteronomy 28:22-35; Job 2:7, and of the descriptions of like pestilences in the history of Florence, and of England. Every part of the body is tainted by the poison. "We note a certain technical precision in the three terms used: "wounds" (literally, cuts, as inflicted by a sword or knife); "bruises," or weals, marks of the scourge or rod; "putrifying sores," wounds that have festered into ulcers. As the diagnosis is technical, so also are the therapeutic agencies. To "close" or "press" the festering wound was the process tried at first to get rid of the purulent discharge; then, as in Hezekiah's case (Isaiah 38:21), it was "bound up," with a poultice, then some stimulating oil or unguent, probably, as in Luke 10:34, oil and wine were used, to cleanse the ulcer. No such remedies, the prophet says, had been applied to the spiritual disease of Israel.

Verse 5. - Why should ye, etc.? Translate, Why will ye be still smitten, revolting more and more? or, Why will ye persist in re-hellion, and so be smitten yet more? The Authorized Version does not express the sense, which is that suffering must follow sin - that if they still revolt, they must still be smitten for it - why, then, will they do so? Compare Ezekiel's "Why will ye die, O house of Israel?" (Ezekiel 18:31). The whole head... the whole heart. Mr. Cheyne translates, "Every head... every heart;" but Lowth, Gesenius, and Ewald agree with the Authorized Version. The prophet personifies Israel, and means to say that the whole head of the nation is diseased, its whole heart faint, or "prostrate with languor" (Kay). The head and heart represent respectively the intellectual and moral natures.

1:1-9 Isaiah signifies, The salvation of the Lord; a very suitable name for this prophet, who prophesies so much of Jesus the Saviour, and his salvation. God's professing people did not know or consider that they owed their lives and comforts to God's fatherly care and kindness. How many are very careless in the affairs of their souls! Not considering what we do know in religion, does us as much harm, as ignorance of what we should know. The wickedness was universal. Here is a comparison taken from a sick and diseased body. The distemper threatens to be mortal. From the sole of the foot even to the head; from the meanest peasant to the greatest peer, there is no soundness, no good principle, no religion, for that is the health of the soul. Nothing but guilt and corruption; the sad effects of Adam's fall. This passage declares the total depravity of human nature. While sin remains unrepented, nothing is done toward healing these wounds, and preventing fatal effects. Jerusalem was exposed and unprotected, like the huts or sheds built up to guard ripening fruits. These are still to be seen in the East, where fruits form a large part of the summer food of the people. But the Lord had a small remnant of pious servants at Jerusalem. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. The evil nature is in every one of us; only Jesus and his sanctifying Spirit can restore us to spiritual health.Why should ye be stricken any more? .... Or "for what are ye stricken again" (a)? with afflictions and chastisements, with which God smites his people by way of correction for their sins, Isaiah 57:17 and the sense is, either that they did not consider what they were afflicted for, that it was for their sins and transgressions; they thought they came by chance, or imputed them to second causes, and so went on in sin, and added sin to sin; to which sense the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi, incline: or the meaning is, that the chastisements that were laid upon them were to no purpose; had produced no good effect, were of no avail, and unprofitable to them; and which is mentioned as an aggravation of their sins, obstinacy, and impenitence; see Jeremiah 5:3.

Ye will revolt more and more, or "add defection" (b); go on in sin, and apostatize more and more, and grow more obdurate and resolute in it; unless afflictions are sanctified, men become more hardened by them:

the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint; which may be understood either of their chastisements, which were universal, and had reached all sorts and ranks of men among them, without any reformation, and therefore it was in vain to use more; or of their sins and transgressions which abounded among them, even among the principal of them; their civil rulers and governors, meant by the "head"; and the priests, who should feed the people with knowledge and understanding, designed by the "heart"; but both were corrupted, and in a bad condition.

(a) "super quo", V. L. "ad quid", Ar. (b) "addentes prevaricationem", Sept. V. L.