"On what place can you yet be smitten since you continue rebelling?
The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint,
From the sole of the foot to the head there is no soundness,
Only wounds and bruises and fresh sores,
Which have not been dressed nor bound up nor softened with oil."
With words of this kind, and in similar speeches, Isaiah tried to describe the condition of Judah to its people. The cowardice of Ahaz in throwing himself at the feet of the Assyrian had, indeed, smitten the land and the people very sore. The large tribute to Tiglath-Pileser had to be collected and paid. The burden was terrible to bear. In the meantime, Judah's enemies from the south and along the Mediterranean coast took advantage of the weakened condition of Judah and attacked the country from many points.
Isaiah tried, with all his might, to bring the people, as a whole, to an understanding of Judah's condition. He wanted them to join "The Remnant" and to live their lives in accordance with his teaching, which were really not his, but God's. Only in this way, Isaiah said, could a country that had fallen deeply into sin and unrighteousness, and was at the mercy of its enemies, be saved:
"Your land is a desolation, your cities are burned with fire,
Your tilled land—before your eyes strangers devour it;
And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard,
Like a lodge in a field of cucumbers, like a watchtower.
Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a remnant,
We should almost be as Sodom,
We would have been like Gomorrah."
This simile, comparing Jerusalem to these ancient cities of evil repute, was answered by Isaiah's opponents with the statement that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were idol worshipers, but that the people of Judah brought their sacrifices to the Temple and observed the holydays in accordance with the ancient laws. This was the same kind of an argument as the citizens in Samaria gave to Amos and Hosea.
Isaiah, however, who knew, and had taught "The Remnant" that sacrificing animals was not the true manner of worshipping God, replied as follows:
"Hear the word of the Lord, ye Rulers of Sodom;
Give heed to the instruction of our God, ye people of Gomorrah!
What care I for the great number of your sacrifices? saith the Lord.
I am sated with the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of
fed beasts,
And in the blood of bullocks and lambs and he-goats I take
no pleasure.
When ye appear before me—who has required this of you?
Trample no more my courts, bring no more offerings,
Vain is the odor of incense—it is an abomination to me;
I am not able to endure a fast and a solemn assembly.
Your new moons and your appointed days my soul hateth.
I am tired of bearing it.
When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you.
Also, if ye make many prayers, I will not hear."
Then Isaiah launched forth into one of the most beautiful speeches that he delivered in his whole career. In it he brought home to the people the true idea of the religion which God had commanded to Israel, and through which Judah could be regenerated, strengthened and saved:
"Your hands are stained with blood;
Wash, that ye may be clean;
Remove the evil of your deeds from before mine eyes.
Cease to do evil; learn to do good;
Seek justice; relieve the oppressed;
Vindicate the orphan; plead for the widow."
In one of the sublimest passages that any prophet ever uttered, Isaiah promised the people God's forgiveness in the following wonderful appeal: