Isaiah 1 · a question people ask
Why are Jerusalem's leaders called "rulers of Sodom" (1:10)?
The words come straight after 1:9: "Unless the LORD of Armies had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom. We would have been like Gomorrah" (1:9). Then: "Hear the LORD’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!" (1:10). So the chapter names the two cities twice, first as what the people would have become, then as what it calls them. It doesn't say which of Sodom's sins it means; the verses that follow speak of hands "full of blood" (1:15), and say of the city's princes, "Everyone loves bribes" and "They don’t defend the fatherless" (1:23). Genesis says, "the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great" (Genesis 18:20), and Genesis 19's notes set out how later Scripture names Sodom; these notes don't repeat them. The chapter speaks to Jerusalem and Judah (1:1), and these notes give the name to no city or people today.
The verses
“Unless the LORD of Armies had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom. We would have been like Gomorrah. Hear the LORD’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!”
“When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.”
“Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards. They don’t defend the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.”
“The LORD said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous,”