4. The date of the prophecy; he prophesied in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. By this it appears, (1.) That he prophesied long: especially if (as the Jews say) he was at last put to death by Manasseh, to a cruel death, being sawn asunder; to which some suppose the apostle refers, Heb. xi. 37. From the year that king Uzziah died, (ch. vi. 1.) to Hezekiah's sickness and recovery, was 47 years; how much before, and after, he prophesied, is not certain; some reckon 60, and others 80 years in all. It was an honour to him, and a happiness to his country, that he was continued so long in his usefulness: and we must suppose both that he began young, and that he held out to old age; for the prophets were not tied, as the priests were, to a certain age, for the beginning or ending of their ministration. (2.) That he passed through a variety of times. Jotham was a good king, and Hezekiah a better, who, no doubt, gave encouragement to, and took advice from, this prophet, were patrons to him, and he privy-counsellor to them; but between them, and when Isaiah was in the prime of his time, the reign of Ahaz was very profane and wicked; then, no doubt, he was frowned upon at court, and, it is likely, forced to abscond; good men and good ministers must expect bad times in this world, and prepare for them. Then religion was run down to that degree, that the doors of the house of the Lord were shut up, and idolatrous altars were erected in every corner of Jerusalem; and Isaiah, with all his divine eloquence and messages immediately from God himself, could not help it. The best men, the best ministers, cannot do the good they would do in the world.
2. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me: 3. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. 4. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters! they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. 5. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. 7. Your country is desolate, your cities are burnt with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. 8. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. 9. Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
We will hope to meet with a brighter and more pleasant scene before we come to the end of this book: but truly here, in the beginning of it, every thing looks very bad, very black, with Judah and Jerusalem. What is the wilderness of the world, if the church, the vineyard, have such a dismal aspect as this?
I. The prophet, though he speaks in God's name, yet, despairing to gain audience with the children of his people, addresses himself to the heavens and the earth, and bespeaks their attention; (v. 2.) Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! Sooner will the inanimate creatures hear, who observe the law, and answer the end of their creation, than this stupid senseless people. Let the lights of heaven shame their darkness, and the fruitfulness of the earth their barrenness, and the strictness of each to its time, their irregularity. Moses begins thus, (Deut. xxxii. 1.) to which the prophet here refers, intimating, that now those times were come, which Moses there foretold, Deut. xxxi. 29. Or this is an appeal to heaven and earth, to angels, and then to the inhabitants of the upper and lower world; let them judge between God and his vineyard: can either produce such an instance of ingratitude? Note, God will be justified when he speaks, and both heaven and earth shall declare his righteousness, Mic. vi. 2. Ps. 1. 6.
II. He charges them with base ingratitude, a crime of the highest nature: call a man ungrateful, and you can call him no worse: let heaven and earth hear, and wonder at, 1. God's gracious dealings with a peevish provoking people as they were; "I have nourished and brought them up as children; they have been well fed and well taught;" (Deut. xxxii. 6.) "I have magnified and exalted them:" (so some;) " not only made them grow, but made them great; not only maintained them, but preferred them; not only trained them up, but raised them high." Note, We owe the continuance of our lives, and comforts, and all our advancements, to God's fatherly care of us and kindness to us. 2. Their ill-natured conduct toward him, who was so tender of them; "They have rebelled against me;" or (as some read it) " they have revolted from me; they have been deserters, nay, traitors, against my crown and dignity." Note, all the instances of God's favour to us, as the God both of our nature and of our nurture, aggravate our treacherous departures from him, and all our presumptuous oppositions to him: children, and yet rebels!
III. He attributes this to their ignorance and inconsideration: (v. 3.) The ox knows, but Israel does not. Observe, 1. The sagacity of the ox and the ass, which are not only brute creatures, but of the dullest sort: yet the ox has such a sense of duty, as to know his owner, and to serve him, to submit to his yoke, and to draw in it; the ass has such a sense of interest, as to know his master's crib or manger, where he is fed, and to abide by it; he will go to that of himself, if he is turned loose. A fine pass man is come to, when he is shamed even in knowledge and understanding by these silly animals; and is not only sent to school to them, (Prov. vi. 6, 7.) but set in a form below them, (Jer. viii. 7.) taught more than the beasts of the earth, (Job xxxv. 11.) and yet knowing less. 2. The sottishness and stupidity of Israel. God is their Owner and Proprietor; he made us, and his we are, more than our cattle are ours; he has provided well for us; providence is our Master's crib: yet many that are called the people of God, do not know, and will not consider this; but ask, "What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? He is not our owner; and what profit shall we have if we pray unto him? He has no crib for us to feed at." He had complained (v. 2.) of the obstinacy of their wills; They have rebelled against me; here he runs it up to its cause; "Therefore they have rebelled, because they do not know, they do not consider." The understanding is dark-
