Isaiah 1–5
The Holy Bible interpreted through Divine Principle insight and the words of True Father.
This study page begins Isaiah with chapters 1 through 5. Commentary is attached where the text strongly reflects Divine Principle themes such as rebellion against Heaven, the failure of the chosen people, judgment as restoration through indemnity, the remnant, the latter-days mountain vision, and the vineyard image of God’s disappointed heart toward Israel.
1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem... 1:2 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. 1:3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers... they have forsaken the LORD... 1:5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more... 1:6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it...
1:9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom... 1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom... 1:11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?... 1:13 Bring no more vain oblations... 1:15 when ye make many prayers, I will not hear...
1:16 Wash you, make you clean... cease to do evil; 1:17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together... though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow... 1:19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 1:20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword...
1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot!... 1:24 Therefore saith the Lord... I will ease me of mine adversaries... 1:25 And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross... 1:26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first... afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness...
2:1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2:2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains... and all nations shall flow unto it. 2:3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD... for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 2:4 And he shall judge among the nations... and they shall beat their swords into plowshares...
2:5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD. 2:6 Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people... because they be replenished from the east... 2:7 Their land also is full of silver and gold... 2:8 Their land also is full of idols...
2:10 Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD... 2:11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled... 2:12 For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty... 2:17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down... and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. 2:18 And the idols he shall utterly abolish.
This is one of the great latter-days mountain passages. Divine Principle strongly resonates because the providence moves toward a central place from which God’s word goes out to the nations. The final goal is not endless war, but one God-centered world where swords become plowshares.
Jacob is told to walk in the light, yet the people are full of wealth and idols. True Father often emphasized that material fullness can coexist with spiritual emptiness if the center is not God.
The proud are humbled and the LORD alone exalted. This is a major reversal principle. Fallen history is built on self-exaltation, but the day of the LORD strips away false glory and abolishes idols so Heaven’s true order may stand.
3:1 For, behold, the Lord... doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff... 3:2 The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet... 3:4 And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. 3:5 And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another...
3:8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD... 3:9 The shew of their countenance doth witness against them... 3:10 Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him... 3:11 Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him...
3:12 As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them... 3:14 The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof... 3:16 Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty... 3:24 And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink... instead of beauty burning.
Isaiah 3 shows the collapse of right order in society. When Heaven’s center is rejected, support, leadership, and stability are withdrawn. Divine Principle strongly resonates because fallen order eventually reveals its own disorder when it is cut off from God’s principle.
Jerusalem falls because tongue and deeds are against the LORD. This is significant. The fall pattern involves both corrupted word and corrupted action. Yet the chapter still distinguishes the righteous from the wicked, showing Heaven’s moral separation even in social collapse.
The judgment on haughtiness and outward display reflects the problem of self-centered beauty divorced from Heaven. True Father often warned that beauty, power, or position without God become the instruments of decline rather than glory.
4:1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man... only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach. 4:2 In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. 4:3 And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion... shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:
4:4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem... by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. 4:5 And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion... a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night... 4:6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge...
The chapter opens with reproach and imbalance, but quickly shifts to restoration. This contrast reflects how fallen disorder sets the stage for Heaven’s purifying intervention.
The “branch of the LORD” and the escaped remnant strongly resonate with restoration hope. Divine Principle strongly values the remnant and the central figure or central line through which God brings renewed holiness after judgment and purging.
The cloud and flaming fire recall God’s protective presence in the wilderness. True Father often emphasized that when a purified people stand in the right order, Heaven’s covering and guidance return in living form.
5:1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 5:2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof... and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. 5:3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem... judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 5:4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?... 5:5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard...
5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel... and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
5:8 Woe unto them that join house to house... 5:11 Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink... 5:18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity... 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil... 5:21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes... 5:22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine...
5:24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble... because they have cast away the law of the LORD... 5:26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far... 5:30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea...
The vineyard song is one of the clearest expressions of God’s disappointed heart in Scripture. Divine Principle strongly resonates because Heaven did everything needed for fruitfulness, yet the chosen people produced wild grapes. This parallels the providential tragedy in which those prepared to receive Heaven fail their responsibility.
“What could have been done more to my vineyard?” reveals the grief of God. True Father often spoke of Heaven’s sorrow after investing everything and still not receiving the expected response from central figures or prepared people.
The woes expose the fruits of fallen nature: greed, indulgence, dragging iniquity, reversing good and evil, pride in one’s own eyes, and corrupted leadership. This is what wild grapes look like in history and society.
Judgment comes because they cast away the law of the LORD. Divine Principle strongly resonates because once the word is rejected, protection is lost and larger historical forces are permitted to strike. The chapter closes not in sentiment but in the seriousness of providential consequence.
Isaiah opens with God’s parental lament: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.” Divine Principle strongly resonates because restoration history is the history of God’s heart suffering over children who do not know their Father. The fall is not just law-breaking, but filial rebellion.
The nation is wounded from head to foot, yet a small remnant remains. True Father often emphasized that even when the larger field fails, Heaven preserves a remnant through whom the providence can continue.
External sacrifice without heart and righteousness is rejected. Divine Principle strongly resonates because God never desired empty ritual separated from true love, justice, and obedience.
“Wash you, make you clean” is a call to actual change, not symbolic religion only. Heaven asks for cleansing, justice, and willing obedience. This matches the Principle idea that restoration requires responsibility and real reversal of evil.
The faithful city became a harlot, but God promises to purge away dross and restore judges as at the first. This strongly matches the pattern of restoration through indemnity: purification is painful, but it aims at the recovery of the original standard.