We’ve said that this rebellion and, ultimately, sin is the cause of all of the problems, in the cases of all men everywhere, in all times. Men’s souls are sick with sin and that sin drives them to reject and rebel against the Lord God of heaven. Modern man is no different than ancient Israel. They rebel against God at every turn. God seeks to turn them to godliness, calling them again and again in His mercy.
He weeps over them in His love for them as He watches them spurn Him in their hardness and rebellion. But note that, in the case of the Israelites, this was not so much because of the affliction, but in spite of it! So it is with men in all ages and in all places, and so it ought to be with us!
Isaiah goes on and begins to draw for us a picture of just God has done, to what extent God has gone to seek to bring Israel to repentance.
From the sole of the foot even to the head, There is no soundness in it, But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; They have not been closed or bound up, Or soothed with ointment. (Isaiah 1:6)
From the sole of the foot … - Or is we say, ‘from head to foot,’ that is, in every part of the body. There may be included also the idea that this extended from the lowest to the highest among the people. The Chaldee paraphrase is, ‘from the lowest of the people even to the princes - all are contumacious (resistant to authority) and rebellious.’ Now if that is a paraphrase, I’m purple and can float near the ceiling!
The language is somewhat similar to Deuteronomy 28:35.
The Lord will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
The description begun in the preceding verse is now continued in more detail. The verse begins with a common description of the body of the nation in its entire extent. The purpose of the verse is to show that the sad condition has spread throughout the whole nation, and this is done by continuing the figure previously introduced. The sole of the foot is, of course, the lowest part of the body. In contrast, however, merely the head is mentioned. There is no need to mention the top of the head, for if the head itself is not sound, the whole being is affected. [1]
No soundness – The word is a noun, singular and masculine. It has two basic uses in the OT [2]. First it can refer to the general health of the body of a state of physical soundness of the body. David uses it like this in Ps 38:3, & 7:
There is no soundness in my flesh Because of Your anger, Nor any health in my bones Because of my sin. For my loins are full of inflammation, And there is no soundness in my flesh.
This is speaking of one’s general health and has no specific reference to any specific part of the body or any specific ailment. It can and does, however speak of the overall health and welfare.
Secondly, it is used to speak of the totality, the whole, all, i.e., the entirety of a collection or mass. Judges 20:48 and following uses it in this fashion:
48 And the men of Israel turned back against the children of Benjamin, and struck them down with the edge of the sword—from every city, men and beasts, all who were found. They also set fire to all the cities they came to.
Obviously, the two uses are related, the second relating to the first. The first is the use that we see here. Isaiah is saying that the whole of their “body”, the entirety of the nation has felt the effect of the chastening, the severe chastening of God and is, in effect, a mass of welts, bruises and sores.
The is actually a word meaning to be perfect, sound, uninjured, here used in a negative sense. The noun actually signifies a place of soundness. A striking contrast is introduced. The body has wounds, stripes and fresh sores; the one thing that it does not possess is a place of soundness. There is no part unaffected; no part that is sound. It is all smitten and sore. Nothing, no part of the Israelite being works as it should. There is nothing healthy left.
But wounds - Wounds which have cut into the flesh, such as those made by a sword. The precise shade of difference between this and the two following words may not be apparent. Together, they mean such wounds and contusions as are inflicted upon man by scourging, or beating him. This mode of punishment was common among the Jews; as it is at the East at this time. One writer says that the word rendered here “wounds” (to wound, to mutilate), means an open wound, or a cut from which blood flows. The degree of chastening has been so very extensive that there is literally no place on the body where there was not a wound. The image here is that of one who has been publically flogged with the resulting mutilation of the body.
The description is startlingly similar to what comes to mind when we think of what happened to the Lord Jesus at the hands of Pilate just before the crucifixion.
Bruises - This word means a contusion, or the effect of a blow where the skin is not broken; such a contusion as to produce a swelling, and livid appearance; or to make it, as we say, black and blue. The wound or sore made by the stripes (Prov. 20:30).
Blows that hurt cleanse away evil, As do stripes the inner depths of the heart.
Putrefying sores - The Hebrew rather means recent, or fresh wounds; or rather, perhaps, a running wound, which continues fresh and open; which cannot be cicatrized, or dried up. The Septuagint renders it elegantly, a swelling, or tumefying wound. The expression is applied usually to inflammations, as of boils, or to the swelling of the tonsils, etc. The idea is of an ongoing and unhealable wound, one that is chronic and has little prospect for healing.
Literally, a fresh smiting. The word has collective force, and would designate raw and untreated wounds, which needed to be softened and cleansed. The language shows that God’s punishment was a bitter, cutting one, and that by it the nation had almost been destroyed. As long as such blows fall, there can be no cure. The chastisement is not necessarily that of the exile (Kissane), but every punishment which had come from the hand of God including also the low moral condition brought on by the nation’s sin.
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[1] Young, E. (1965). The Book of Isaiah: Volume 1, Chapters 1-18 (51). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
[2] Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.) (DBLH 5507, #2). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
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