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Isaiah 1 Bible study: Let's reason together
Isaiah opens by calling heaven and earth to listen with the same four Hebrew words as Moses' song (Deuteronomy 32:1). In "let’s reason together" (1:18), reason is yakach, the verb of deciding and proving. And "the faithful city" (1:21) and "a faithful town" (1:26) are the same two Hebrew words, found together nowhere else.
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“Come now, and let’s reason together,” says the LORD: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
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“Isaiah 1 says the city's princes don't defend the fatherless.”
Is that in Isaiah 1, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
"The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz"
The book opens with its own heading: "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" (1:1). In Hebrew its first word is chazon, vision (tap vision). The heading says whose vision it is, what it concerns, and in whose days; it says nothing more about Isaiah, and these notes add nothing to it. The four kings are the kings whose reigns 2 Kings 15-20 and 2 Chronicles 26-32 tell, and 2 Kings names "Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz" in Hezekiah's days (2 Kings 19:2). The next chapter has a heading too: "This is what Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem" (Isaiah 2:1). The book's introduction sets out what the book says of itself; these notes keep to the chapter.
Where it leads to Jesus
"All the prophets testify about him"
Isaiah 1:18leads toActs 10:43
The LORD says, "Come now, and let’s reason together … Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18), and goes on, "If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land" (Isaiah 1:19). In Acts, Peter (Acts 10:34), speaking of "Jesus Christ" (Acts 10:36), ends, "All the prophets testify about him, that through his name everyone who believes in him will receive remission of sins" (Acts 10:43). Peter names no prophet and quotes no verse, and no New Testament verse quotes Isaiah 1:18, so setting the two side by side is a reading. It rests on a shared subject, sins taken away, and on Peter's own words about what the prophets testify, not on the picture of white. Some read Isaiah 1:18 among the words Peter has in mind, and hear its sins made "white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18) kept in the remission of sins through Jesus' name. Others read Isaiah 1:18 in its own setting, the LORD's word to Judah and Jerusalem (Isaiah 1:1) with the If of 1:19-20, and take Peter's "All the prophets" without fixing on any one verse. Neither reading says that Isaiah 1:18 names Jesus.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Isaiah 1
That was a taste
The rest of Isaiah 1 is waiting in Favor
- Heaven and earth called to listen
- Nine commands, and the same words turned round
- The faithful city, at the start and the end
- Two words from 1:7
- "As Isaiah has said before"
- 10 questions as you read
- 13 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Isaiah 1 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
יָכַחyakhachsay ya-KHAKH
Brown-Driver-Briggs gives the verb as "decide, adjudge, prove", and for the form in 1:18 it gives "come now and let us reason together". Strong's: "to be right (i.e. correct); reciprocal, to argue; causatively, to decide, justify or convict". "Come now, and let’s reason together," says the LORD (1:18). The next time Isaiah has the verb, it is the word for settling between peoples: "He will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples" (Isaiah 2:4), where decide is this verb, and again in "decide with equity for the humble of the earth" (Isaiah 11:4). Isaiah has it six times in Hebrew. Psalm 50, where God also speaks of sacrifices, has it for rebuke: "I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes" (Psalm 50:21).
For your group
Isaiah 1 Bible study questions
- 1"The ox knows his owner … but Israel doesn’t know" (1:3). What helps you notice what God has done for you, and what makes it easy to stop noticing?
- 2"Learn to do well. Seek justice" (1:17). The LORD says to *learn* it. What is one way you are still learning to do well, and who has helped you learn?
- 3"Come now, and let’s reason together" (1:18). The LORD says "Come now" to people whose sins are "as scarlet". What difference does it make to you that he calls them to come?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Isaiah 1 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Favor takes the Bible as one story, in order, so you'll reach Isaiah 1 with everything that leads up to it in view. Start from Genesis, or meet Jesus first in the Gospels. You can read the text of any chapter in Favor's Look up whenever you like.
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The World English Bible, a modern, readable translation in the public domain. God's name appears as "the LORD", as in most English Bibles.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home