Isaiah 1:5

Why should ye be stricken any more? .... Or "for what are ye stricken again" (a)?

Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. Why , [ `al (H5921) meh (H4100)] or, as Vulgate, On What part.

Why should ye be stricken any more? it is to no purpose to seek to reclaim you by one chastisement after another; and therefore I will utterly forsake and destroy you at once. Ye will revolt more and more; I see you are incorrigible, and turn even your afflictions into sin. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint; your disease is mortal, as being in the most noble and vital parts, the very head and heart of the body politic, from whence the plague is derived to all the other members, as it follows. And this is to be understood either, 1. Of their sins; or rather, 2. Of their miseries. Which best suits, 1. With the foregoing words, this being added as a reason why it was in vain to strike them any more, or to expect any amendment that way, because he had stricken them already, and that very terribly, even in their head and heart, whose wounds are most dangerous, and yet they were not at all better for it. 2. With ,8, where this metaphor is so explained.

Isaiah 1:5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.Ver. 5. Why should ye be stricken any more?] This was the heaviest stroke that ever Judah felt from the hand of God; like as Ephraim’ s sorest judgment was, "He is joined to idols, let him alone" - q.d., He is incorrigible, irreclaimable, let him go on and perish: I’ ll not any longer foul my fingers with him. Oh fearful sentence! To prosper in sin is a grievous plague, and a sign of one given up by God. To be like the smith’ s dog, whom neither the hammers above him, nor the sparks of fire falling round about him can awaken, is to be in a desperate condition. To wax worse by chastisements, is a sure sign of reprobate silver, of a dead and dedolent disposition. God as a loving father, verba, verbera, beneficia, supplicia miseuerat, had done all that could be done to do them good; but all would not do: such was their obstinace. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint.] Head, heart, feet; princes, priests, and common people, as they had all sinned, so they all had their payment. Sin is a universal sickness, like those diseases which physicians say are corruptio totius substantiae, a corruption of the whole substance. And national sins bring national plagues, wherein all sorts suffer, as they did in the days of Ahaz, de quibus haud dubie loquitur hic propheta, saith Scultetus: though others think the prophet here speaketh rather of those miseries inflicted upon Judah by Hazael king of Syria and by Joash king of Israel, wherein all sorts had their share - none escaped scot free.

(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 (2 Chronicles 21:18) and Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:20). We find him in Isaiah 38:21 prescribing for Hezekiah’s boil. It would seem, indeed, from 2 Chronicles 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 Deu 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 be stricken any more - "On what part," c.?] The Vulgate renders על מה al meh, super quo, (see Job 38:6; 2 Chronicles 32:10,) upon what part. And so Abendana on Sal. ben Melech: "There are some who explain it thus: Upon what limb shall you be smitten, if you add defection? for already for your sins have you been smitten upon all of them; so that there is not to be found in you a whole limb on which you can be smitten." Which agrees with what follows: "From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it:" and the sentiment and image is exactly the same with that of Ovid, Pont. ii. 7, 42: - Vix habet in nobis jam nova plaga locum. There is no place on you for a new stripe. Or that still more expressive line of Euripides; the great force and effect of which Longinus ascribes to its close and compressed structure, analogous to the sense which it expresses: - ́γεμωκακωνδη·κ' ουκετ' εσθ' ὁπητιθῃ. I am full of miseries: there's no room for more. Herc. Fur. 1245, Long. sec. 40. "On what part will ye strike again? will ye add correction?" This is addressed to the instruments of God's vengeance; those that inflicted the punishment, who or whatsoever they were. Ad verbum certae personae intelligendae sunt, quibus ista actio quae per verbum exprimitur competit; "The words are addressed to the persons who were the agents employed in the work expressed by the original word," as Glassius says in a similar case, Phil. Sacr. i. 3, 22. See Isaiah 7:4. As from ידע yada, דעה deah, knowledge; from יעץ yaats, עצה etsah, counsel; from ישן yeshan, שנה shenah, sleep, c. so from יסר yasar is regularly derived סרה sarah, correction. Ver. 5. The whole head is sick] The king and the priests are equally gone away from truth and righteousness. Or, The state is oppressed by its enemies, and the Church corrupted in its rulers and in its members.

5. Why] Many comm., following the Vulg., render “On what (sc. part of the body).” Their meaning is exactly expressed by the line of Ovid (cited by Gesenius), “Vix habet in vobis iam nova plaga locum.” The idea seems somewhat frigid, and hardly suits the clause immediately following. The translation “why” is thoroughly established by Hebrew usage, is supported by most ancient versions, and ought probably to be retained. the whole head … heart] Not “every head” (in spite of the absence of the Hebr. art.). The commonwealth is conceived as a body, sorely wounded and sick unto death: afterwards its calamities are described literally (Isaiah 1:7).

Why ... - The prophet now, by an abrupt change in the discourse, calls their attention to the effects of their sins.

5, 6. Why should… more — It is doubtful whether the question in Hebrew is, “For what reason should ye,” or, “Upon what part will ye,” be stricken any more?