Isaiah 1:2

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth,.... To what the Lord was about to say of his controversy with his people, which was to be managed openly and publicly before them as spectators and witnesses;

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. Hear, O heavens. The very words of Moses, Deuteronomy 32:1.

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: he directeth his speech to these senseless creatures, that thereby he might more awaken and affect the Israelites, whom he hereby proclaimeth to be so dull and stupid that they were past hearing, and therefore gives them over as desperate; and calleth in the whole creation Of God to bear witness against them. The Lord hath spoken: this is his plea against them, of the equity whereof he is willing that all the creatures should be judges. I have nourished and brought up children; I first made them a people, and until this time I have sustained and blessed them above all other nations.

Isaiah 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.Ver. 2. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth.] Exordium patheticum! Moses-like, he calleth heaven and earth, brutas illas mutasque creaturas, to record against God’ s rebels, whose stupendous stupidity is hereby taxed. Heaven and earth do hear and obey God’ s voice, for "they are all his servants," keeping their constant course. Only man, that great heteroclite, breaketh order, and is therefore worse than other creatures, because he should be better. For the Lord hath spoken it.] So Jeremiah 13:15, "Hear and give ear; be not proud: for the Lord hath spoken it." Jehovah, whose voice "shaketh not the earth only, but the heavens also," at whose dreadful presence mountains melt, rocks rend asunder, and the whole fabric of heaven and earth is astonished, horribly afraid, and very desolate; this great Jehovah - whose name is great among the heathen. The Pythagoreans used to swear by τετρακτην, Quaternity, the name Jehovah consisting of four letters in the Hebrew, which also they called πηγηναεναουφυσεως, the fountain of eternity - Aphihu, even he hath spoken, or ‘ is about to speak’ - scil., by my mouth and ministry. "Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: fear ye not me? saith Jehovah. Will ye not tremble at my presence?" &c. "Hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind, that ye may see." Thus must ministers preach to the conscience, cut to the quick, rouse up themselves and wrestle with their hearers, goring their very souls with smarting pain, while they speak "as the oracles of God," with all gravity and authority. I have nourished and brought up children.] Or, Advanced, exalted them. Brevicula verba, sed causa querulandi maxima; a short but sharp contest. God had adopted, educated, and advanced the people of Israel; but "Jesurun waxed fat, and kicked," as young mulets, when they have sucked, lift up the heel and kick the dam’ s dugs, as hawks when fully fed forget their master. And they have rebelled against me.] Or, Transgressed, blasphemed. Rebellion is a kind of blasphemy, and unthankfulness is, as one saith, an accumulative sin, a voluminous wickedness. Many sins are bound up in it, as Cicero saith of parricide. Solon would make no law against parricide, because he thought none would be so vile as to commit it. Lycurgus would make no law against ingratitude for like reason. A person that deviates from the ordinary rule; an ‘ anomaly’ . Lingua mea est calamus S.S. et guttur meum est tuba divino inflata et clangens anhelitu. - Deut. xxxii. 15. Plato Aristotelem vocabat mulum.

(2) Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth.—The prophet opens the great indictment by calling the universe to listen to it. The words remind us of Deu 30:19; Deuteronomy 32:1, but the thought was the common inheritance of Hebrew poets (Psalms 50:4; Jeremiah 6:19; Jeremiah 22:29), and we can draw no inference from the parallelism as to the date of either book. I have nourished and brought up children. The last word has in the Hebrew the emphasis of position: Sons I have reared and brought up. From those who had thus grown up under a father’s care filial duty might have been expected; but it was not so. The sons had rebelled against their father’s control. It is significant that the prophet starts from the thought of the fatherhood of God in His relation to Israel. The people might be unworthy of their election, but He had chosen them (Exodus 4:22; Deuteronomy 14:1; Hosea 11:1).

Verse 2. Hear, O heavens - "Hear, O ye heavens"] God is introduced as entering into a public action, or pleading, before the whole world, against his disobedient people. The prophet, as herald or officer to proclaim the summons to the court, calls upon all created beings, celestial and terrestrial, to attend and bear witness to the truth of his plea and the justice of his cause. The same scene is more fully displayed in the noble exordium of Ps 50:1, where God summons all mankind, from east to west, to be present to hear his appeal; and the solemnity is held on Sion, where he is attended with the same terrible pomp that accompanied him on Mount Sinai: - "A consuming fire goes before him And round him rages a violent tempest: He calleth the heavens from above. And the earth, that he may contend in judgment with his people." Psalms 50:3-4. By the same bold figure, Micah calls upon the mountains, that is, the whole country of Judea, to attend to him, Isaiah 6:1-2: - "Arise, plead thou before the mountains, And let the hills hear thy voice. Hear, O ye mountains, the controversy of JEHOVAH; And ye, O ye strong foundations of the earth: For JEHOVAH hath a controversy with his people, And he will plead his cause against Israel." With the like invocation, Moses introduces his sublime song, the design of which was the same as that of this prophecy, "to testify as a witness, against the Israelites," for their disobedience, Deuteronomy 31:21: - "Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; And let the earth hear the words of my mouth." Deuteronomy 32:1. This, in the simple yet strong oratorical style of Moses, is, "I call heaven and earth to witness against thee this day; life and death have I set before thee; the blessing and the curse: choose now life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed." Deuteronomy 30:19. The poetical style, by an apostrophe, sets the personification in a much stronger light. Hath spoken - "That speaketh"] I render it in the present time, pointing it דבר dober. There seems to be an impropriety in demanding attention to a speech already delivered. But the present reading may stand, as the prophet may be here understood to declare to the people what the Lord had first spoken to him. I have nourished] The Septuagint have εγεννησα, "I have begotten." Instead of גדלתי giddalti, they read ילדתי yaladti; the word little differing from the other, and perhaps more proper; which the Chaldee likewise seems to favour; "vocavi eos filios." See Exodus 4:22; Jeremiah 31:9.

2, 3. The heart-rending complaint of Jehovah.

Hear, O heavens - This is properly the beginning of the prophecy. It is a sublime commencement; and is of a highly poetic character.

2. Hear, O heavens… give ear, O earth — Here begins a solemn reprehensory appeal against Judah and Jerusalem, filled with digressive yet relevant points, and ending with the fifth chapter.