Isaiah 1

The Lord Takes His People to Court

A rebellious people, a devastated land, a religion full of ritual and empty of mercy, and a Judge who offers to wash them clean.

Isaiah’s ministry c. 740–700 BC; verses 7–9 likely reflect the Assyrian invasion of 701 BC Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Isaiah son of Amoz prophesied in Jerusalem for about forty years, under four kings of Judah (Isa. 1:1).

Isaiah son of Amoz prophesied in Jerusalem for about forty years, under four kings of Judah (Isa. 1:1). Uzziah’s long, prosperous reign was ending. Ahaz panicked and bought protection from Assyria. Hezekiah tried to lead the nation back to the Lord. Hanging over all of it was Assyria, the superpower of the day, which swallowed the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC and then turned toward Judah.

Chapter 1 probably isn’t the first sermon Isaiah preached. It is the overture to the whole book, placed first because it sounds nearly every theme that follows: rebellion, judgment, a surviving remnant, empty worship, social justice, cleansing, and the redemption of Zion. The Bible Dictionary calls it “a prologue to the rest of the book.” If you understand Isaiah 1, you have a map for the next sixty-five chapters.

The thread through the chapter

The best way into Isaiah 1 is to notice that it’s a courtroom scene. Biblical scholars call this form a covenant lawsuit.

The best way into Isaiah 1 is to notice that it’s a courtroom scene. Biblical scholars call this form a covenant lawsuit. The Lord summons witnesses, reads the charges, hears the defense, and pronounces a verdict. The witnesses are “heavens” and “earth” (verse 2), the same two Moses called to witness Israel’s covenant (Deut. 30:19; Deut. 32:1). So from the first line we know what this is about: Israel has broken a covenant, and the covenant’s own witnesses have been called to testify.

The charges come in layers. First, Israel doesn’t know its Father; even livestock know who feeds them (verses 2–4). Second, the nation is a beaten body, bruised from head to foot, and still won’t stop rebelling (verses 5–6). Third, the land lies in ruins, with Jerusalem left standing alone like a flimsy hut in a stripped field (verses 7–9).

Then comes the surprise. If you expect the defendants to be irreligious, you’d be wrong. Verses 10–15 describe a nation full of worship: sacrifices, incense, Sabbaths, holy days, crowded temple courts, many prayers. And the Lord says He is sick of all of it. The reason comes at the end of verse 15: “your hands are full of blood.” Their religion has become a performance that sits comfortably beside injustice. What He wants appears in verses 16–17, and it is almost startlingly concrete: stop doing evil, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.

At this point in a lawsuit we expect a sentence. Instead the Judge makes an offer: “Come now, and let us reason together” (verse 18). The phrase is legal language, something like let’s settle this case. His terms are astonishing: scarlet sins made white as snow. The chapter still ends with fire, but even that fire is a refiner’s fire (verse 25). He means to burn away the dross, not destroy the silver, until Jerusalem is once again “the city of righteousness, the faithful city” (verse 26).

So Isaiah 1 moves from courtroom to temple to city street to smelting furnace, and the question underneath every stage is the same: Will you let Me make you clean? That question runs through the whole book of Isaiah, and through the gospel.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verse 1

The vision of Isaiah

In plain words

This is what Isaiah saw about Judah and Jerusalem during the reigns of four kings.

1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

History & Setting #

Four kings, forty years

These four reigns span roughly 790–686 BC, and Isaiah’s ministry fits in the latter part (about 740–700 BC, according to the Bible Dictionary).

These four reigns span roughly 790–686 BC, and Isaiah’s ministry fits in the latter part (about 740–700 BC, according to the Bible Dictionary). Each king gives a different backdrop to his words:

Uzziah (also called Azariah) brought prosperity but grew proud and was struck with leprosy (2 Chr. 26:16–21). Isaiah’s temple vision came “in the year that king Uzziah died” (Isa. 6:1).
Jotham was a mostly good king who did not remove the high places (2 Kgs. 15:32–35).
Ahaz was faithless. He sacrificed his own son and bought Assyria’s help instead of trusting the Lord (2 Kgs. 16). Isaiah 7 is Isaiah’s confrontation with him.
Hezekiah was a reformer who trusted the Lord when Assyria surrounded Jerusalem (2 Kgs. 18–20; Isa. 36–39). Isaiah was his chief counselor.

Knowing which king is on the throne often unlocks a chapter.

Sources: “Uzziah”, Bible Dictionary. “Ahaz”, Bible Dictionary. “Hezekiah”, Bible Dictionary. Enrichment F: The World of Isaiah, Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

Verses 2–9

Children who don’t know their Father

In plain words

Heaven and earth, listen! The Lord raised children and they rebelled. Even an ox knows its owner, but My people don’t know Me. The nation is like a body beaten from head to foot, and still it keeps rebelling. The land is burned and occupied. Jerusalem is left standing alone like a shed in an abandoned field. If the Lord hadn’t spared a few survivors, we would have been wiped out like Sodom.

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.

Imagery & Symbol #

Calling the witnesses

In the ancient Near East, treaties between a great king and a subject people were witnessed by the gods of heaven and earth.

In the ancient Near East, treaties between a great king and a subject people were witnessed by the gods of heaven and earth. Israel’s covenant with Jehovah borrowed the form but not the theology: there were no other gods, so Moses called the heavens and the earth themselves as witnesses (Deut. 30:19; Deut. 32:1).

When Isaiah opens with the same words, every Israelite who knew Deuteronomy would recognize what was happening: the covenant witnesses are being summoned to court. The Lord opens the Doctrine and Covenants the same way, summoning “ye people from afar; and ye that are upon the islands of the sea” to listen to His voice of warning (D&C 1:1–4).

Sources: John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986–1998. Donald W. Parry, Jay A. Parry, and Tina M. Peterson, Understanding Isaiah, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1998.

3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

Imagery & Symbol #

Even the livestock know

A crib in 1611 English is a feeding trough, a manger. Isaiah’s point is almost comic: an ox knows who owns it, and a donkey knows where its dinner comes from.

A crib in 1611 English is a feeding trough, a manger. Isaiah’s point is almost comic: an ox knows who owns it, and a donkey knows where its dinner comes from. Israel, supposedly wiser than livestock, doesn’t recognize the One who feeds it.

A delightful footnote from church history: the ox and donkey that appear in nearly every Christmas nativity scene aren’t mentioned in Luke’s account at all. Early Christians put them there because of this verse. They saw a fulfillment in the animals gathered around the manger where the Master of Israel lay, whom “his own received him not” (John 1:11).

Word & Language #

“Know” is covenant language

In Hebrew, to know (yadaʿ) is more than having information. It means intimate, loyal, covenant relationship.

In Hebrew, to know (yadaʿ) is more than having information. It means intimate, loyal, covenant relationship. The Lord “knew” Abraham in the sense of choosing him (Gen. 18:19, where the KJV translates it “I know him”). Hosea says the Lord desired “the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6).

So “Israel doth not know” doesn’t mean Israel lacks facts about God. It means Israel has stopped living in relationship with Him. The Savior used the same idea: “this is life eternal, that they might know thee” (John 17:3); and He warned of those He would dismiss with “I never knew you” (Matt. 7:23).

4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

Witness of Christ #

Isaiah’s signature name for God

This title appears about twenty-five times in Isaiah and only a handful of times in the rest of the Old Testament.

This title appears about twenty-five times in Isaiah and only a handful of times in the rest of the Old Testament. Isaiah seems to have taken it from his temple vision, where the seraphim cried “Holy, holy, holy” (Isa. 6:3). It holds two ideas together: God is utterly holy, set apart and unlike us, and yet He is of Israel, bound to a people by covenant.

The Book of Mormon makes clear who the Holy One of Israel is. Nephi calls Him the one who would be crucified, and the Savior Himself says, “I am the God of Israel” (1 Ne. 19:13–14; 2 Ne. 9:41; 3 Ne. 11:14). When you read “Holy One of Israel” in Isaiah, you can read it as a name of Jesus Christ.

Sources: “Holy One of Israel”, Bible Dictionary. “Holy One of Israel”, Guide to the Scriptures.

5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Imagery & Symbol #

A body beaten from head to foot

Isaiah switches metaphors. The nation is now a body that has been beaten so badly there’s no healthy spot left: open wounds, welts, and sores that no one has cleaned, bandaged, or…

Isaiah switches metaphors. The nation is now a body that has been beaten so badly there’s no healthy spot left: open wounds, welts, and sores that no one has cleaned, bandaged, or soothed with oil (verse 6).

The haunting question in verse 5 is “Why should ye be stricken any more?” In other words, what more discipline could possibly help? They have been hit again and again and have only rebelled more. The point is that punishment by itself doesn’t heal. The body needs a physician, and verse 18 will introduce one. Isaiah will later describe a Servant who takes the stripes on Himself so that “with his stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:5).

6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

History & Setting #

Judah after the Assyrian invasion

This description fits Judah after 701 BC almost exactly. In that year the Assyrian king Sennacherib swept through the countryside.

This description fits Judah after 701 BC almost exactly. In that year the Assyrian king Sennacherib swept through the countryside. His own royal inscription, preserved on a clay prism now in the British Museum, boasts that he captured forty-six of Hezekiah’s fortified cities and shut Hezekiah up in Jerusalem “like a bird in a cage.”

That is the picture in verses 7–8: every town burned and occupied by foreigners, and Jerusalem, still standing, alone in a ravaged land. Isaiah tells the rest of the story, how the Lord delivered Jerusalem, in chapters 36–37.

Sources: Sennacherib’s Prism (the “Taylor Prism”), British Museum, London, museum no. 91032. “Sennacherib”, Bible Dictionary.

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.

Imagery & Symbol #

A shed in an empty field

During harvest, Israelite farmers built temporary booths of branches in their vineyards and melon patches so a watchman could guard the crop day and night.

During harvest, Israelite farmers built temporary booths of branches in their vineyards and melon patches so a watchman could guard the crop day and night. After the harvest they were abandoned, and a flimsy shelter stood alone in a stripped field.

That is Jerusalem, “the daughter of Zion”: still standing, but only just, fragile and isolated, with everything around it gone. It’s a humbling image for a proud capital. (A cottage in 1611 English was any small hut, and a lodge was a watchman’s shelter.)

Sources: Donald W. Parry, Visualizing Isaiah, Provo, UT: FARMS, 2001.

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.

Restoration Insight #

The remnant, one of Isaiah’s great themes

Here is the first appearance of one of Isaiah’s most important ideas: the remnant.

Here is the first appearance of one of Isaiah’s most important ideas: the remnant. Judgment falls, but the Lord always preserves a few, and from those few He rebuilds. Isaiah even named one of his sons Shear-jashub, meaning a remnant shall return (Isa. 7:3; Isa. 10:20–22).

Paul quoted this verse to explain why only some of Israel accepted Christ (Rom. 9:27–29). The Book of Mormon applies the same idea to Lehi’s descendants, a “remnant of the house of Israel” whom the Lord would gather in the last days (1 Ne. 13:34; 3 Ne. 20:16; 3 Ne. 21:12). The gathering of Israel, which President Russell M. Nelson has called “the most important thing taking place on earth today,” is in Isaiah’s terms the return of the remnant.

Sources: Russell M. Nelson and Wendy W. Nelson, “Hope of Israel”, worldwide youth devotional, June 3, 2018. Russell M. Nelson, “The Gathering of Scattered Israel”, general conference, Oct. 2006.

Verses 10–17

Worship without righteousness

In plain words

Listen, you leaders who are no better than Sodom! What good are all your sacrifices? I’m sick of them. Your holy days and meetings mean nothing while you keep sinning. When you raise your hands to pray, I won’t look, because your hands are covered in blood. Wash yourselves. Stop doing evil. Learn to do good: seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend orphans, and plead for widows.

10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

History & Setting #

A deliberate insult

Verse 9 said, we were almost destroyed like Sodom. Verse 10 turns the word into an accusation: you are Sodom.

Verse 9 said, we were almost destroyed like Sodom. Verse 10 turns the word into an accusation: you are Sodom. Imagine the rulers of Jerusalem, proud of their temple and their lineage from Abraham, hearing themselves addressed as the leaders of the most notorious city in their history.

Why Sodom? Ezekiel later explains that Sodom’s sins included pride, “fulness of bread,” and ignoring “the poor and needy” (Ezek. 16:49). That is exactly the charge Isaiah is about to level: comfortable religious people who do nothing for the fatherless and the widow (verses 17, 23).

Sources: “Sodom”, Bible Dictionary.

11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

Imagery & Symbol #

Did God reject sacrifice?

The Lord Himself commanded these sacrifices through Moses, so He isn’t rejecting the ordinances.

The Lord Himself commanded these sacrifices through Moses, so He isn’t rejecting the ordinances. He is rejecting ordinances performed by people who aren’t trying to live what the ordinances mean. Sacrifice pointed to the Lamb of God and required a “broken heart and a contrite spirit” (Ps. 51:16–17; 3 Ne. 9:19–20). When the offering becomes a substitute for righteousness instead of an expression of it, God calls it “vain.”

Samuel said something similar: “to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Sam. 15:22). So did Hosea, Amos, Micah, and Jesus (Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21–24; Micah 6:6–8; Matt. 9:13).

Sources: “Sacrifices”, Bible Dictionary.

12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

Word & Language #

Iniquity and the solemn meeting

The Hebrew here is compressed: literally, “I cannot bear iniquity and solemn assembly.”

The Hebrew here is compressed: literally, “I cannot bear iniquity and solemn assembly.” The Lord isn’t objecting to meetings. He is objecting to the combination, sin on Monday and a sacred assembly on the Sabbath, as though the one covered the other.

New moons (monthly festivals), sabbaths, and appointed feasts were all commanded holy days (Num. 28–29). Latter-day Saints still hold “solemn assemblies” to sustain a new First Presidency. The warning applies to us: the Lord’s own appointed meetings can become “a trouble unto me” (verse 14) if we bring an unchanged heart to them.

Sources: “New Moon”, Bible Dictionary. “Sabbath”, Bible Dictionary.

14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.

15 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.

16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Liken It #

What God actually asks for

After all the talk of sacrifices and feasts, the cure is very ordinary: learn to do good.

After all the talk of sacrifices and feasts, the cure is very ordinary: learn to do good. Seek justice. Set right the oppressed. Take up the orphan’s case. Argue on behalf of the widow. In Israel, orphans and widows had no male protector in a legal system run by men; they were the easiest people to ignore and to cheat.

James called caring for “the fatherless and widows” a mark of “pure religion” (James 1:27). King Benjamin taught that we retain a remission of our sins by imparting to the poor (Mosiah 4:26). Isaiah is saying the same thing seven centuries earlier: worship that doesn’t make us kinder is not the worship God asked for.

Verses 18–20

“Let us reason together”

In plain words

Come, let’s settle this. Though your sins are deep red, they can become white as snow. If you are willing and obey, you’ll eat the best of the land. If you refuse and rebel, the sword will eat you.

18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Word & Language #

“Let’s settle this case”

The Hebrew verb (yakach) is a courtroom word: to argue a case, reach a verdict, settle a dispute.

The Hebrew verb (yakach) is a courtroom word: to argue a case, reach a verdict, settle a dispute. We’re still in the lawsuit that began in verse 2. The Judge has laid out the evidence, and it is damning. Now, instead of sentencing, He invites the defendants to come and settle.

That changes how we hear the verse. “Let us reason together” isn’t a polite invitation to discussion. It is a plea bargain offered by the Judge Himself, on terms entirely in the defendant’s favor. He supplies the cleansing, and the defendant supplies willingness (verse 19).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986–1998.

Witness of Christ #

Scarlet made white

Scarlet and crimson dyes in the ancient world came from the crushed bodies of a small insect.

Scarlet and crimson dyes in the ancient world came from the crushed bodies of a small insect. The color was prized because it was colorfast: it did not wash out. That is Isaiah’s point. These sins are not surface stains. They are dyed into the fabric, and no human scrubbing will get them out.

Yet the Lord promises they can become white as snow, like undyed wool. Only one thing does that. John saw the redeemed who “washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14; see Alma 5:21; 1 Ne. 12:10–11). Notice the paradox: something red makes the scarlet white.

President Boyd K. Packer quoted this verse to reassure those burdened by past sins that the Atonement can bring “the brilliant morning of forgiveness.”

Sources: Boyd K. Packer, “The Brilliant Morning of Forgiveness”, general conference, Oct. 1995.

19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:

20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Word & Language #

Eat, or be eaten

English hides a sharp piece of Hebrew wordplay. Verse 19 promises “ye shall eat (tokelu) the good of the land.”

English hides a sharp piece of Hebrew wordplay. Verse 19 promises “ye shall eat (tokelu) the good of the land.” Verse 20 warns “ye shall be devoured (teʾukkelu) with the sword,” which uses the same verb, ʾakal, in the passive. Literally: if you are willing, you will eat; if you rebel, you will be eaten.

The Lord repeated the promise of verse 19 to the early Saints: “the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days” (D&C 64:34). The next verse in that revelation also echoes Isaiah: “the rebellious shall be cut off” (D&C 64:35).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.

Verses 21–31

The faithful city refined

In plain words

How the faithful city has become unfaithful! It was full of justice; now it’s full of murderers. Its silver has turned to slag and its wine is watered down. Its leaders take bribes and ignore orphans and widows. So the Lord will act. He will melt down the city and burn away its impurities. He will give it honest judges again, and it will be called the city of righteousness. Zion will be redeemed through justice. Those who cling to idols will be burned up like dry fiber touched by a spark.

21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

22 Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:

23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

24 Therefore saith the LORD, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:

25 And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:

Witness of Christ #

The Refiner’s fire

This is the language of a silversmith. Ore was melted in a furnace, often with lye (the Hebrew behind “purely” may mean “as with lye”), and the impurities, dross and base metal…

This is the language of a silversmith. Ore was melted in a furnace, often with lye (the Hebrew behind “purely” may mean “as with lye”), and the impurities, dross and base metal (the Hebrew bedil, translated “tin”), were skimmed away until pure silver remained.

Notice that the fire is for the silver, not against it. The Lord’s judgment here is purification. Malachi uses the same image for the Savior: “he is like a refiner’s fire… and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver” (Mal. 3:2–3; 3 Ne. 24:2–3). Isaiah later hears the Lord say, “I have refined thee… in the furnace of affliction” (Isa. 48:10). The heat is real, but the goal is to recover something precious.

26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.

Restoration Insight #

A restoration promised

This is a restoration promise: not something new, but a return to what was at the beginning.

This is a restoration promise: not something new, but a return to what was at the beginning. After the refining, Jerusalem gets back honest judges and counselors and a new name, “The city of righteousness, the faithful city.” In Isaiah, a new name marks a new identity (Isa. 62:2–4).

Latter-day Saints will hear an echo of the Restoration here: the Lord restoring what had been lost, including authorized servants to judge and counsel His people. Verse 27 states the principle behind it: “Zion shall be redeemed with judgment,” that is, with justice. The Lord told the early Saints the same thing: “Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom” (D&C 105:5).

27 Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.

28 And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed.

29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.

History & Setting #

Sacred trees and garden shrines

The “oaks” (large sacred trees, perhaps terebinths) and “gardens” refer to outdoor shrines where Israelites worshipped fertility gods, often associated with the goddess Asherah.

The “oaks” (large sacred trees, perhaps terebinths) and “gardens” refer to outdoor shrines where Israelites worshipped fertility gods, often associated with the goddess Asherah. The Bible Dictionary’s entry for Grove explains that the “groves” of the KJV are mostly cult objects of this kind. People went there hoping for rain, crops, and children.

Verse 30 then turns the idols into the punishment: you will become like the tree you worshipped, a withered oak, a garden with no water. The Psalms state the principle: those who make idols “are like unto them” (Ps. 115:4–8). We become like what we worship.

Sources: “Grove”, Bible Dictionary. “High places”, Bible Dictionary.

30 For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.

31 And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

Seeing Christ in Isaiah 1

Isaiah 1 introduces Jesus Christ under His Old Testament name and title, Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel (verse 4). Then it shows what kind of God He is. He is a Father grieving over children who don’t know Him (verse 2). He is a Judge who, with the evidence overwhelming, steps down from the bench to offer a settlement no defendant could deserve (verse 18). He is a Refiner whose fire is meant to recover silver, not destroy it (verse 25).

Above all, He is the one who makes scarlet white. The Book of Mormon tells us how: “the blood of the Lamb” (1 Ne. 12:10–11; Alma 5:21). Isaiah will spend the rest of his book explaining how that cleansing is possible, most unforgettably in chapter 53. Chapter 1 gives the invitation: Come now.

Liken it to yourself

Isaiah’s original audience was not openly irreligious. They were busy with worship. That makes the chapter uncomfortable for faithful Latter-day Saints in a helpful way. A few questions worth sitting with:

Where could my religious activity be substituting for righteousness instead of expressing it? Is there a “widow” or “fatherless” person in my ward, my family, or my neighborhood whose cause hasn’t “come unto” me (verse 23)?
Verse 3 asks whether I know my Master. Could the ox and the donkey teach me anything about recognizing who has been feeding me?
The Lord’s offer in verse 18 has one condition in verse 19: willing and obedient. Which do I find harder: the willingness or the obedience?
When my life feels like a refiner’s fire, can I trust that the heat is meant for the silver?

Worth exploring next

Bookends. Read Isaiah 1 and Isaiah 66 side by side. Look for rebellion (1:2; 66:24), gardens (1:29; 66:17), empty sacrifices (1:11; 66:3), new moons and sabbaths (1:13; 66:23), and unquenchable fire (1:31; 66:24). The book opens and closes with the same themes, but chapter 66 ends with “all flesh” coming to worship.
Malachi 3. Malachi closes the Old Testament where Isaiah 1 opens it: a people doing religious things while God asks them to return, and a Refiner who comes to purify the sons of Levi (Mal. 3:1–7). Reading them together is illuminating.
Alma 5. Alma’s great sermon on whether we have received His image in our countenances is full of Isaiah 1’s language of cleansing, garments washed white, and the invitation to come (Alma 5:14–33; Alma 5:62).

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

Rom. 9:29 — Paul quotes verse 9 on the remnant.
D&C 64:34–35 — The Lord repeats verses 19–20 to the Saints in Kirtland (1831).
Alma 5:21–24 — Alma echoes the imagery of garments washed white.

Sources & further reading

“Isaiah”, Bible Dictionary.
Bruce R. McConkie, “Ten Keys to Understanding Isaiah”, Ensign, Oct. 1973.
Donald W. Parry, Jay A. Parry, and Tina M. Peterson, Understanding Isaiah, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1998.
Terry B. Ball and Nathan Winn, Making Sense of Isaiah: Insights and Modern Applications, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2009.
John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986–1998.
Chapter 13: The Establishment of Zion (Isaiah 1–12), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

I’ve studied Isaiah 1