Hear the word of Jehovah, rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, people of Gomorrah!
God gives Judah's leaders the names of two cities He had wiped out, then tells them to listen. The rest of the chapter answers the question this raises: how can God call a people busy with sacrifices and feasts Sodom?
The name is not about where they came from. It describes what they had become. One commentator explains a similar charge in Ezekiel:
The chosen people were meant and bound to displace the nations that the land spat out because of their abominations. So no figure could cut deeper than the one that traces the origin and birth of Jerusalem to Canaan, with the Amorite for a father and the Hittite for a mother. It is of course moral, not historical: so Isaiah branded the rulers as "of Sodom," and the people as "of Gomorrah."
The name carries a warning with it:
Scripture treats Sodom as a symbol of wickedness. Isaiah calls the heads of Judah the "rulers of Sodom." … The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah stands as a warning to sinners of judgments to come. It was both sudden and complete.
They were not merely close to Sodom's fate. This verse says they already shared Sodom's character. The shift is from the punishment to the behaviour:
As to Israel, they were more guilty than the heathen, as bad as the worst. So it is no longer the doom, but the abominations of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Mercy had held back the fire; it had not changed the men.
Only the mercy of the LORD kept them from the doom of Sodom. In character they were already Sodom. So their sacrifices, feasts and assemblies were all the more hateful to Him. He felt that their feet profaned His courts, and He refused to hear their many prayers.
God is not addressing pagans or careless people here. The verses that follow show who is standing there:
Verse 10 has a solemn voice for us. The prophet compares the religious leaders of his day to the rulers and people of those wicked cities God destroyed centuries before. We say religious leaders because of the verses that follow. There they and the people keep the ritual of Judaism with zeal and exact care. What were they doing? They were offering sacrifices and burnt offerings. They brought offerings and incense. They kept new moons, sabbaths, appointed feasts and assemblies, and spread out their hands with many prayers. Were these things not right, as ordered through Moses? Yes, they were. Yet God declared all of it a weariness to Him and detestable in His sight. As verses 16 and 17 show, their careful ritual was only a decent outside covering a mass of moral evil and uncleanness. This state of things later grew into the religion of the Pharisees, which our Lord denounced so sharply.
Their worship looked right from the outside. The fault lay in the worshippers:
There was much piety according to the world. They kept up a round of religious forms to worship God. They never noticed the lack of life, faithfulness and purity that marked them (v. 10–13). Having a form of godliness, they had denied its power. … The multitude of sacrifices did not make their ways true in relation to God. So the very things God had set up or commanded became things He hated in their hands. The reason was that the conscience of His people did not match His mind.
He calls them Sodom — and then asks them to hear. That is not the end of the conversation but the start of one:
Yet the LORD stoops to call them to repentance and to the fruits that suit it. … God can tolerate iniquity nowhere, least of all in His people. They must therefore stop doing evil and learn to do good, showing it in the ways of ordinary life. But He adds with it a gracious invitation that He and they should reason together. They would soon find where the fault lay, and who has the grace that is willing to wash the foulest clean.
(ESV reads "the teaching of our God" here. Older translations have "law," and the commentators quote it that way.)
- Named. God names Judah's leaders after two destroyed cities. The name describes their character, not their family line, and it is meant to cut.
- Spared. Mercy had kept them from Sodom's doom, yet they had Sodom's ways already. Escaping the fire had not changed them.
- Exposed. God addressed the men who kept the ritual most carefully. Their offerings, feasts and long prayers became the evidence against them.
- Covered. Their careful ritual was a decent outside over moral evil. So God came to hate what He Himself had commanded, because the conscience behind it was wrong.
- Summoned. Even here He tells them to listen. He calls for repentance shown in ordinary life and invites them to reason with Him — with grace that washes the foulest clean.
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith Jehovah. I am sated with burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and in the blood of bullocks, and of lambs, and of he-goats I take no pleasure.
These offerings were God's own. He commanded them through Moses. Now He says He has had enough of them. So the question is not whether ritual is right. It is what makes ritual worthless in God's eyes, and what He wants instead.
These people were not careless about religion. They were exact about it. That is what makes God's rejection so startling.
Verse 10 has a solemn voice to us. The prophet compares the religious leaders of his day to the rulers and people of wicked cities long since destroyed. We say "religious leaders" because of the verses that follow. There the leaders and the people keep the ritual of Judaism with zeal and exactness. What were they doing? They were offering sacrifices and burnt offerings. They brought offerings and incense. They kept new moons, sabbaths, appointed feasts and assemblies, and spread out their hands with many prayers. Were not these things right, as ordered through Moses? Yes, they were. Yet God called all this a weariness to Him, and hateful in His sight. Verses 16 and 17 show why. Their ceremonial exactness was only a decent outside, covering a mass of moral evil and uncleanness.
The animals named are not chosen at random. Isaiah's wording follows the law of Moses exactly.
Isaiah names the animals — rams, bulls, lambs and goats. In the original Hebrew all these names are masculine. Under the Mosaic Law, only the males were lawful for burnt offerings.
The fault was not in the ceremony but in the people carrying it out.
God says the same thing again and again in the prophets — the negative side. In Isaiah we have the added thought of a mere empty ritual, an outward form with no piety or devotedness in it. He says, "I do not delight in the blood of bulls." That was because those who brought them had no faith or piety.
Their standing before God did not soften the verdict; it sharpened it.
They did not lack religious zeal. They did look for a remedy for the obvious troubles of their day. But their remedies were worse than useless. Divine privileges only made their moral state more alarming and unbearable. Only the LORD's mercy kept them back from the doom of Sodom. In moral character they were already Sodom. So their sacrifices, feasts and assemblies were all the more hateful to Him. He felt that their feet profaned His courts, and He refused to hear their many prayers. There was no real repentance and no trembling at His word. Their religion was only a veil over utter, shameless wickedness.
One writer points to a second reason, deeper than the failure of the worshippers. It lies in the sacrifices themselves.
Yet in those countless altars and sacrifices God had no pleasure. He had no pleasure in Israel's offerings because of the character of those who brought them. Their hearts were not sincere. But the great, the basic reason for God's displeasure was this: the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin… Then why were they offered? They were a shadow of good things to come, and they filled up the period of waiting until the Substance appeared. The substance is Christ; it was to Him that all these ancient sacrifices pointed.
God rejects their offerings, but He does not walk away.
Yet the LORD stoops to call them to repentance, and to the fruit that fits it… God will put up with evil nowhere, least of all in His people. They must therefore stop doing evil and learn to do good, proving it in the ways of ordinary life. But He adds a gracious invitation that He and they should reason together. Soon they would find where the fault lay, and with whom is the grace that is willing to wash the foulest clean.
This is not only about the past. It tests any worship offered today.
Does the Lord like a correct form and fine outward worship any better, if the heart is away from God? What if the hands are unclean with sin and the feet are not walking in the truth? The Lord says plainly, "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams" (1 Sam. 15:22).
- Commanded. The rams, bulls, lambs and goats were God's own appointed offerings. Isaiah names them with the law's exact precision. The ritual was right.
- Corrupted. God took no pleasure in them, because of the character of those who brought them. It was an empty form with no faith behind it.
- Rejected. Privilege made it worse, not better. Their zeal became a veil over open wrongdoing, and God refused to hear their prayers.
- Repentance. What He asked for was moral reality — stop doing evil, learn to do good — with the invitation to come and reason with Him.
- Christ. Look past the worshippers to the sacrifices themselves. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. They were a shadow until the Substance came — and the Substance is Christ.
When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this from your hand -- to tread my courts?
Isaiah's opening chapter shows a busy temple. The courts are full, the sacrifices keep coming, and God asks who asked for any of it. The worship itself was correct. The problem was the worshippers, whose lives said the opposite of their offerings.
The phrase about coming "to appear before me" is not general religious language. Isaiah is quoting the law's own wording for the three great feasts. His exact knowledge of the law runs through the whole passage.
When Isaiah says, "I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats" — in the original the names of the animals are all masculine. That is because the law of Moses allowed only males for burnt offerings. In the next verse, "When you come to appear before me," he uses the language of Exodus 34:24, about the three great feasts.
So they kept the right feasts at the right times, just as the law required. (The quotation above follows an older translation, which keeps the writer's point about the masculine names.)
God's complaint is not about the ritual but about the feet that bring it in.
They did not lack religious zeal. They even looked for a remedy for the obvious troubles of their day. But their remedies were worse than useless. Their divine privileges only made their moral state more shocking and unbearable. Only the Lord's mercy kept them from the doom of Sodom; morally they were Sodom already. So their sacrifices, feasts, and assemblies were all the more hateful to Him. He felt that their feet profaned His courts, and He refused to hear their many prayers. There was no real repentance, no trembling at His word, but a religious veil thrown over utter and shameless wickedness.
The hardest part is that God rejects a service He Himself set up.
The verses that follow show that the religious leaders and the people were zealous and exact observers of the ritual of Judaism. What were they doing? They were offering sacrifices and burnt offerings. They brought grain offerings and incense. They kept new moons, sabbaths, appointed feasts and assemblies, and spread out their hands in many prayers. Were not these things right, as ordered through Moses? Yes, they were. Yet God declared all of it a weariness to Him and an abomination in His sight. As verses 16 and 17 reveal, their exact ritual was only a decent outside covering a mass of moral evil and uncleanness.
Why did nobody in those crowded courts notice? Because the routine itself hid the problem from them.
There was much piety of a worldly kind. They kept up a round of religious forms to render worship to God, without noticing the lack of life, of faithfulness, and of purity that marked them. Having a show of godliness they had denied its power. They made long prayers at the street corners, but their conscience was not right with God. There was a moral blindness before the judicial blindness. Their many sacrifices did not make their ways true before God. So the very things God had set up and commanded became, in their hands, things He hated, because the conscience of His people was not in line with His mind.
What, then, does God want from a worshipper first?
Right ways in practical life are the garments that must first clothe those who are to be worshippers. The removal of evil and the pursuit of righteousness must mark those who offer their gifts to God. The fine white linen the priests wear for service is the symbol of this. Where obedience and practical righteousness are missing, God takes no pleasure in outward observance and lip worship. He desires mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Correct form is no safer now than it was then.
Do you think the Lord likes a correct form and fine outward worship any better, if the heart is away from God? What if the hands are defiled with sin, and the feet are not walking in the truth? The Lord says plainly, "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams." We hear people say, "You worship your way, and I worship mine; we all have a right to our own opinions." This is exactly what we do not have.
- Required. Isaiah borrows the law's own words for the great feasts. These people were keeping the calendar God gave them.
- Unrequired. God asks who asked for it. Feet that trample His courts profane them, and He refuses the offering along with the offerer.
- Hated. The very things God set up became hateful in their hands. The exact ritual was only a decent cover over moral evil.
- Unnoticed. Moral blindness came before judicial blindness. The round of forms hid their own lack of life and purity from them.
- Reordered. Right living is the clothing a worshipper puts on first. Without obedience, outward worship gives God no pleasure.
Bring no more vain oblations! Incense is an abomination unto me, -- new moon and sabbath, the calling of convocations -- wickedness and the solemn meeting I cannot bear.
God Himself commanded the offerings, the incense, the sabbaths and the assemblies — and here He calls them worthless. Can religious activity reach God while the lives behind it go on in evil?
Everything listed in this verse came out of the law of Moses. God is not rejecting worship people invented. He is rejecting the worship He set up Himself, because of the lives behind it.
They were offering sacrifices and burnt offerings. They were bringing grain offerings and incense. They were keeping new moons, sabbaths, appointed feasts and assemblies, and spreading out their hands in many prayers. Were not these things right, as ordered through Moses? Yes, they were. Yet God called all of it a weariness to Him and an abomination in His sight. The reason was simple: their exact ritual was only a respectable outside, covering a mass of moral evil and uncleanness.
Isaiah's list is not a random pile of religious words. Where the ESV has "vain offerings," older translations read "vain oblations." That is the grain offering, and Isaiah pairs each item exactly as the law does.
Isaiah not only refers to several Mosaic precepts, but shows the same exact knowledge. He puts the grain offering together with incense, because the grain offering required incense. See Leviticus 2:1, 16, and Leviticus 6:14-15. Next to new moons and sabbaths he mentions the calling of assemblies, or holy convocations. These convocations took place at those times, and at the great feasts too. See the whole of the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus.
Isaiah says God finds the incense an abomination. That word has a settled use in the Old Testament, and two things can pull God's own service into it.
The word "abomination" is used in the Old Testament for any iniquity as a holy God sees it. It also marks out what was unfit to be brought into the service of God — an animal with any kind of blemish offered as a sacrifice, for example. The service God had appointed became an abomination to Him when it sank into mere outward observance, or when it went along with iniquity. Isaiah 1:13; Proverbs 28:9.
The people were not careless. They were busy in religion — and that made their worship more offensive to God, not less.
Only Jehovah's mercy kept them back from the doom of Sodom. Morally they were already Sodom. So their sacrifices, feasts, and assemblies were all the more hateful to Jehovah. He felt that their feet profaned His courts, and He refused to hear their many prayers. There was no real repentance, no trembling at His word, only a religious veil over utter and shameless iniquity.
Translations differ on the last clause. An older reading runs, "It is iniquity, even the solemn day of assembly" — the gathering itself is the sin. The ESV reads, "I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly" — God will not hold the two together.
A settled round of religious forms can hide a person's real condition from himself.
They kept up a round of religious forms to worship God, and never saw how little life, faithfulness, and purity marked them. They had a show of godliness, but they had denied its power... There was a moral blindness before the judicial blindness... The very things God had set up or commanded became, in their hands, things He hated. The reason: the conscience of His people did not match His mind.
God rejects their worship, but He does not walk away. He asks for a changed life, and then makes an offer.
God can tolerate iniquity nowhere, least of all in His people. They must therefore cease from evil and learn to do well, proving it in ways of ordinary life. But He adds a gracious invitation that He and they should reason together. They would soon find where the fault lay, and with whom is the grace that is willing to wash the foulest clean.
The warning is not stuck in Isaiah's day. Our meetings, hymns and prayers can carry as little heart as their incense did.
We go, no doubt, week by week to the meetings. We sing our hymns, we read out of the Bible, we say our "Amen" at the end of each prayer — but is there any more heart in it than in the time of Malachi? "Bring no more vain oblations," although addressed to Judah in the days of Isaiah, could well be the message to many of us today.
- Commanded — God had ordered every item on this list through Moses. The fault was never in the form.
- Covered — Exact ritual became a cover for moral evil, a religious veil over shameless sin.
- Corrupted — Worship God appointed turns into an abomination when it sinks into outward form, or keeps company with sin.
- Concealed — Moral blindness came before judicial blindness. A full religious routine hid their own lack of life and purity from them.
- Cleansed — God's answer is not better ceremony. It is to stop the evil and learn to do good — and then His own invitation to reason together with the One willing to wash the foulest clean.
Your new moons and your set feasts my soul hateth they are a burden to me; I am wearied of bearing [them].
Judah's religious calendar was full — new moons, feasts, assemblies. God says He hates the whole round of it, and He is tired of carrying it. The shock is that these feasts were not pagan inventions. They were His own appointments.
Moses had commanded these observances, and the people kept them with care. That is what makes God's verdict so startling.
The religious leaders and the people were zealous and exact observers of the ritual of Judaism. What were they doing? They were offering sacrifices and burnt offerings, bringing offerings and incense, observing new moons, sabbaths, appointed feasts and assemblies, spreading out their hands with many prayers. Were not these things right, as ordered through Moses? Yes, they were. Yet God declared all this a weariness to Him and hateful in His sight. As verses 16 and 17 show, their exact ceremony was only a decent exterior covering a mass of moral evil and uncleanness.
If God ordered the feasts, how can He hate them? The answer lies in the conscience of the people, not in the ceremony.
There was much piety of a worldly kind. They kept up a round of religious forms to worship God. They never noticed the lack of life, faithfulness and purity that marked them (v. 10-13). Having a show of godliness they had denied its power... There was a moral blindness before the judicial blindness... The multitude of sacrifices did not make their ways true in relation to God. So (v. 14, 15) the very things God had set up or commanded became in their hands things He hated, because the conscience in His people was not according to His mind.
Their zeal did not soften the case against them; it sharpened it. Being God's people, with God's courts and God's ordinances, made their state worse, not better.
There was no lack of zeal in religion. They did look for a remedy for the obvious troubles of their day, but their remedies were worse than useless. Divine privileges only made their moral state more alarming and intolerable... their sacrifices, feasts, and assemblies were all the more hateful to Jehovah. He felt that their tread defiled His courts, and He refused to hear their many prayers. There was no real repentance, no trembling at His word. There was only a religious veil over open, shameless wickedness.
God does not call them My feasts here. He calls them yours. The same change of name shows up again later in Scripture.
In the Gospel of John, chapter 2:13, we read of the Passover, the first of "the feasts of Jehovah." But here it is not called the "Feast of Jehovah." It is "the Jews' Passover." In chapter 7:2 we read, "The Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand." "The Feasts of Jehovah" have become the "Feasts of the Jews." The outward form was there, but the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, had been rejected. What joy could God have in empty forms?
The same test falls on worship today. The question is not whether the form is correct, but whether heart, hands and feet match it.
Why was this? Was it not because the people kept the feasts in a formal, empty way, while they were defiled with sin and going on with evil?... Does the Lord like a correct form and fine outward worship any better, if the heart is away from God, the hands are defiled with sin, and the feet are not walking in the truth? The Lord says plainly, "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams" (1 Sam. 15:22).
God does not end at hatred. Two verses later He gives the cure, and its order matters.
"Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good." There is the weighty matter. Have a good conscience before God: if not, you make yourselves blind before God blinds you. God distinguishes between actions. One cannot learn to do good before ceasing from evil. One cannot have the light in the conscience without first leaving what wounds the conscience.
- Commanded — the new moons, sabbaths and feasts were God's own arrangements through Moses. Isaiah's hearers kept them with care.
- Corrupted — the ritual was only a decent outside covering moral evil. They had a show of godliness, but denied its power.
- Hated — because the conscience was wrong, the things God Himself set up became hateful in their hands. They defiled His courts, and He closed His ear to their prayers.
- Disowned — God calls them your feasts, not His. In the Gospel of John the feasts of the LORD have become the feasts of the Jews.
- Cleansed — the cure follows at once: stop doing evil, then learn to do good. Obedience comes before sacrifice, and a clear conscience before acceptable worship.
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear your hands are full of blood.
Judah kept the whole religious calendar — sacrifices, incense, new moons, feasts — and then lifted their hands to pray. God's answer is to look away, which raises two questions: why does He refuse to hear, and can that refusal ever end?
God Himself had commanded the worship listed in these verses. That is what makes His refusal so startling.
They were offering sacrifices and burnt offerings. They brought offerings and incense. They observed new moons, sabbaths, appointed feasts and assemblies, and spread out their hands with many prayers. Were not these things right, as ordered through Moses? Yes, they were. Yet God called all of it a weariness to Him and an abomination in His sight. The reason appears in verses 16 and 17: their ceremonial exactness was only a decent exterior covering a mass of moral evil and uncleanness.
Zeal was not their problem, and more praying did not help.
They did not lack zeal in religion. They did look for a remedy for the clear problems of their day, but their remedies were worse than useless. Divine privileges only made their moral state more alarming and intolerable. Only Jehovah's mercy kept them from the doom of Sodom; morally they were Sodom already. So their sacrifices, feasts, and assemblies were all the more offensive to Him. He felt that their tread profaned His courts, and He refused to hear their many prayers. There was no real repentance, no trembling at His word, but a religious veil over utter and shameless wickedness.
The reason God gives is not vague displeasure. He names what those hands had done.
Jehovah called the leaders of the people "rulers of Sodom," because of the corruption among them. Because of the violence He said, "your hands are full of blood."
Isaiah later returns to the same charge and states the principle behind the hidden face. God's silence is never weakness on His side.
"Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear." And what a picture follows in the verses just after! "For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity..."
The verse turns from history into self-examination the moment we ask God to act in our own day.
And can God not intervene again in answer to the cries of His people? He can, blessed be His name... He has set a limit to the tides of evil, and it is our part to pray. And yet the question ought to be raised in many of our hearts as to whether we are ready and fit to pray.
The New Testament sets the same standard for lifted hands. The ESV reads "lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling"; the older wording quoted below says "doubting."
But right moral condition still stands — "raising up holy hands, without anger and doubting," or perhaps "reasoning." The holiness meant here is godly integrity, not the holiness of a person set apart... A man who knew of evil in himself that he had not judged should not take so solemn a part, or any part, in the assembly.
The warning is not only for ancient Israel.
Let us never forget one thing. With God, right moral condition matters far more than ceremonial exactness in Judaism, or even correct church procedure in Christianity. If careful church correctness encourages moral carelessness, it becomes an abomination to God.
The hidden face is not the last word. The next verses call for a washing that is real, not ritual.
Yet Jehovah stoops to call them to repentance and to the fruits that suit it. The language draws on the ceremonial washings so familiar to the Jews, but moral reality is the point... God can tolerate evil nowhere, least of all in His people. They must therefore stop doing evil and learn to do good, proving it in ordinary daily life. But He adds a gracious invitation that He and they should reason together. Soon they would find where the fault lay, and with whom is the grace that is willing to wash the foulest clean.
- Hands raised. God Himself had commanded Judah's worship, yet He calls it weariness. Their exactness was only a decent exterior over a mass of moral evil.
- Hands stained. The charge is specific: violence and blood. Privilege did not soften the verdict; it made the state more alarming.
- Eyes hidden. God's ear is not dull and His hand is not short — sins made the separation and hid His face.
- Hands examined. Before we ask God to act, we must ask if we are fit to pray. Holy hands mean godly integrity: evil judged, not carried into the assembly.
- Hands washed. The washing God asks for is moral, not ritual: stop the evil, learn to do good. Then comes His invitation to reason together — His grace washes the foulest clean.