Isaías 1

ARC · Chapter 1/66

1Visão d'Isaias, filho d'Amós, a qual viu sobre Judah e Jerusalem, nos dias d'Uzias, Jothão, Achaz, e Ezequias, reis de Judah.

2Ouvi, ó céus, e presta ouvido, tu ó terra; porque falla o Senhor: Criei filhos, e exalcei-os; mas elles prevaricaram contra mim.

3O boi conhece o seu possuidor, e o jumento a mangedoura do seu dono; mas Israel não tem conhecimento, o meu povo não entende.

4Ai da nação peccadora, do povo carregado d'iniquidade, da semente de malignos, dos filhos corruptores: deixaram ao Senhor, blasphemaram o Sancto d'Israel, tornaram-se para traz.

5Porque ainda mais serieis castigados? ainda tanto mais vos rebellarieis: toda a cabeça está enferma e todo o coração fraco.

6Desde a planta do pé até á cabeça não ha n'elle coisa inteira, senão feridas, e inchaços, e chagas podres, não espremidas, nem vendadas, nem nenhuma d'ellas amollecida com oleo.

7A vossa terra é uma assolação, as vossas cidades estão abrazadas do fogo: a vossa terra os estranhos a devoram em vossa presença; e é uma assolação, como a subversão por estranhos.

8E a filha de Sião se ficou como a cabana na vinha, como a choupana no pepinal, como a cidade cercada.

9Se o Senhor dos Exercitos nos não deixara algum pouco de resto, já como Sodoma seriamos, e similhantes a Gomorrha.

10Ouvi a palavra do Senhor, vós principes de Sodoma: prestae ouvidos á lei do nosso Deus, vós, ó povo de Gomorrha.

11De que me serve a mim a multidão de vossos sacrificios, diz o Senhor? Já estou farto dos holocaustos de carneiros, e da gordura d'animaes cevados: nem folgo com o sangue de bezerros, nem de cordeiros, nem de bodes.

12Quando vindes a apparecer perante mim, quem requereu isto de vossas mãos, que viesseis a pisar os meus atrios?

13Não me tragaes mais offertas debalde: o incenso é para mim abominação, e as luas novas, e os sabbados, e a convocação das congregações; não posso supportar iniquidade, nem mesmo o ajuntamento solemne.

14As vossas luas novas, e as vossas solemnidades as aborrece a minha alma; já me são pesadas: já estou cançado de as soffrer.

15Pelo que, quando estendeis as vossas mãos, escondo de vós os meus olhos; e até quando multiplicaes a oração não ouço, porque as vossas mãos estão cheias de sangue.

16Lavae-vos, purificae-vos, tirae a maldade de vossos actos de diante dos meus olhos: cessae de fazer mal:

17Aprendei a fazer bem; procurae o juizo; ajudae o oppresso: fazei justiça ao orphão; tratae da causa das viuvas.

18Vinde agora, e argui-me, diz o Senhor: ainda que os vossos peccados sejam como a escarlata, elles se tornarão brancos como a neve: ainda que sejam vermelhos como o carmezim, se tornarão como a branca lã.

19Se quizerdes, e ouvirdes, comereis o bem d'esta terra.

20Mas se recusardes, e fordes rebeldes, sereis devorados á espada; porque a bocca do Senhor o disse.

21Como se fez prostituta a cidade fiel! ella que estava cheia de juizo, justiça habitava n'ella, mas agora homicidas.

22A tua prata se tornou em escorias, o teu vinho se misturou com agua.

23Os teus principes são rebeldes, e companheiros dos ladrões: cada um d'elles ama as peitas, e correm após salarios: não fazem justiça ao orphão, e não chega perante elles a causa das viuvas

24Porquanto diz o Senhor Deus dos Exercitos, o Forte de Israel: Ah, consolar-me-hei ácerca dos meus adversarios, e vingar-me-hei dos meus inimigos:

25E tornarei contra a minha mão, e purificarei inteiramente as tuas escorias; e tirar-te-hei todo o teu estanho.

26E te restituirei os teus juizes, como foram d'antes; e os teus conselheiros, como antigamente; e então te chamarão cidade de justiça, cidade fiel.

27Sião será remida com juizo, e os que voltam para ella com justiça.

28Mas para os transgressores e os peccadores haverá juntamente destruição; e os que deixarem o Senhor serão consumidos.

29Porque vos envergonhareis pelos carvalhos que cubiçastes, e sereis confundidos pelos jardins que escolhestes.

30Porque sereis como o carvalho, ao qual caem as folhas, e como a floresta que não tem agua.

31E o forte se tornará em estopa, e a sua obra em faisca; e ambos arderão juntamente, e não haverá quem os apague.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

God opens the book like a grieving judge: he accuses Judah of rebellion and declares that the people's sacrifices and religious festivals no longer interest him while injustice persists. He calls the nation to wash itself clean of wickedness and promises to turn sins 'red as crimson' into white as snow.

Explanation

Isaiah prophesies in Jerusalem between roughly 740 and 700 BC, during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, when the kingdom of Judah practiced outward religion (sacrifices, festivals, prayers) mixed with social corruption — judges who failed to bring justice to orphans and widows. The chapter functions like a courtroom trial: God lists the evidence against the people and offers them a path to reconciliation. The central message is that ritual without justice and without changed lives means nothing in God's eyes. The practical application today is remembering that genuine faith shows up in care for the most vulnerable, not just in religious gestures.

Fun facts

  • The phrase 'though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow' is one of the most quoted images of forgiveness in the whole Bible.
  • Isaiah compares Jerusalem to Sodom and Gomorrah right at the start of the book — a harsh accusation he will repeat later on to shock his listeners and stir them to repentance.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Isaías 1:1This vision is dated by the reigns of four kings of Judah—Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. It spans almost a century, roughly 740 to 700 BC, crossing the rise of Assyria as the region's great power, and this quartet of names serves as a compass for the whole book.
  2. Isaías 1:2The book opens like a courtroom case, calling heaven and earth to witness—a common format of the time for a formal accusation. God speaks like a father whose children, raised with care, have rebelled against Him.
  3. Isaías 1:3Even the ox and the donkey recognize who feeds and cares for them. The comparison shows the size of the irony: animals are more aware of who sustains them than God's own people are.
  4. Isaías 1:4A string of harsh charges—sinful nation, people loaded with guilt, corrupt children—sums up the whole chapter's diagnosis: they abandoned the LORD and turned their backs on Him.
  5. Isaías 1:5The question is rhetorical: what is the point of punishing a people who will only rebel again? The sick head and faint heart describe the whole nation as one diseased body, not a single person.
  6. Isaías 1:6The wounded-body image continues from head to foot: wounds, bruises, and open sores, without any of the era's basic care—not squeezed out, not bandaged, not soothed with oil. It pictures a society sick through and through.
  7. Isaías 1:7Here the image becomes a concrete description: land laid waste, cities burned, foreigners eating the harvest right in front of the people. It is the portrait of a real invasion, likely one of Assyria's campaigns against Judah.
  8. Isaías 1:8Jerusalem, called the "daughter of Zion," is compared to a lone hut in a vineyard or a watchman's shelter in a field of cucumbers—small, isolated, and surrounded, alone amid the destruction described in the previous verses.
  9. Isaías 1:9"Remnant" here is not just any leftover. It is the idea that a small group survives the destruction and keeps the people from vanishing entirely, as happened to Sodom and Gomorrah—a word that reappears dozens of times in the book as a thread of hope amid warnings of judgment.
  10. Isaías 1:10Calling Judah's leaders "rulers of Sodom" and its people "people of Gomorrah" is a heavy insult: even as God's chosen people, they act with the same corruption as the cities most remembered for destruction in the Bible.
  11. Isaías 1:11Burnt offerings and the blood of bulls, lambs, and goats were the heart of the temple's sacrificial system, the normal way of worship at that time. The text does not attack the ritual itself but says it sickens God when it comes without justice. That is why the following verses call for care for the orphan and the widow, not more sacrifice.
  12. Isaías 1:12A rhetorical question: who required this of you, to tread My courts? The point is that showing up at the temple out of habit, with no change of life, has no value at all in God's eyes.
  13. Isaías 1:13Incense, new moons, sabbaths, and assemblies were normal parts of Israel's religious calendar. The text does not reject these rituals in themselves, but says they became an unbearable burden when practiced alongside social injustice.
  14. Isaías 1:14New moons were monthly feasts celebrated with sacrifices. Here God says He is weary of them—not because they were wrong, but because they had become an empty routine, disconnected from any real change of behavior.
  15. Isaías 1:15Lifting the hands was the common posture of prayer at the time. God says He will close His eyes and refuse to listen, because those same hands raised in prayer are "full of blood"—violence hidden behind the religious gesture.
  16. Isaías 1:16After rejecting empty rituals, the text shifts tone and calls for action: washing and cleansing here are not ritual baths, they are calls for a real change of behavior, an end to doing evil.
  17. Isaías 1:17This is the practical definition of what the previous verses were demanding: doing justice means caring for the orphan and the widow, the two most vulnerable groups with no protection of their own in ancient society.
  18. Isaías 1:18Scarlet and crimson were extremely expensive red dyes drawn from insects and mollusks, a color that practically never washes out of fabric. Turning white as snow speaks of reversing something that seemed permanent. It is a comparison of colors, not a purification recipe.
  19. Isaías 1:19A conditional promise: if the people choose to obey, they will eat the good of the land—a simple way of saying that faithfulness brings food security and prosperity.
  20. Isaías 1:20The contrast of the condition: refusing and rebelling means being "devoured with the sword," that is, destroyed by war. Both outcomes depend on the people's own choice.
  21. Isaías 1:21Jerusalem, once called the "faithful city" full of justice, is now compared to a prostitute—a common image among the prophets for unfaithfulness to God. Where there was once justice, now there is only people willing to kill.
  22. Isaías 1:22Silver turning to dross and wine mixed with water are images of something valuable being watered down until it loses its worth—a way to describe moral corruption hidden behind a still-respectable appearance.
  23. Isaías 1:23The criticism lands directly on the leaders: companions of thieves, lovers of bribes, chasing rewards, but with no time for the orphan's or the widow's case—the same demand for justice from verse 17, now showing exactly who is failing it.
  24. Isaías 1:24God speaks like someone finally about to act against His own adversaries—in this case, the very people who were supposed to represent Him. It is an announcement of vengeance that turns into the promised purification that follows.
  25. Isaías 1:25The image returns to the silver turned to dross from verse 22: now God promises the reverse process, a purification like a metal in a furnace, removing impurities until only what is worthwhile remains.
  26. Isaías 1:26After the purification comes restoration: judges and counselors back as before, and the city once again earning the names it had lost—"city of righteousness," "faithful city," as it was called before everything went wrong.
  27. Isaías 1:27"Redeemed with judgment" sums up the logic of the whole chapter: Zion's salvation does not come through any random rescue, it comes through justice being restored—the same value demanded of the people from the beginning.
  28. Isaías 1:28While Zion is redeemed through justice, the fate is different for those who insist on rebelling: destruction for transgressors, an end for those who abandon the LORD. It is the other side of the same promise.
  29. Isaías 1:29The oaks and gardens coveted here are not just nature—they were sites tied to fertility cults and sacred trees of other religions in the region. The shame comes from having preferred these cults over God Himself.
  30. Isaías 1:30The same tree idolized in the previous verse now becomes a symbol of the people's own ruin: an oak losing its leaves, a garden without water—the idolatry that promised life will wither like any plant without irrigation.
  31. Isaías 1:31"The strong" here is likely the powerful man or the idol they trusted, compared to tow—dry fiber that catches fire easily. The very thing they trusted becomes the fuel of their own downfall, with no one left to put out the fire.

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