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Isaiah 9:13,21
For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts…

Jeremiah 2:30
In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

Jeremiah 5:3
O LORD,are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them,but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

ye will

2 Chronicles 28:22
And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: thisis that king Ahaz.

Jeremiah 9:3
And they bend their tongueslike their bowfor lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.

Revelation 16:8-11
And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire…

revolt more and more.

Isaiah 1:23
Thy princesare rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

Nehemiah 9:34
Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy testimonies, wherewith thou didst testify against them.

Jeremiah 5:5,31
I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD,and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke,and burst the bonds…

Why do you keep rebelling?
The continual rebellion of Israel is a central theme in the prophetic literature. This phrase highlights the stubbornness and hard-heartedness of the people. In the broader biblical narrative, rebellion against God is seen as a rejection of His authority and love. The prophets often called Israel to repentance, urging them to return to the covenant relationship with God. This rebellion is not just a political or social issue but a spiritual one, reflecting a deeper problem of the heart. The question implies that the people have not learned from their past mistakes and continue to choose a path that leads to destruction.

Your head has a massive wound,
The imagery of a "massive wound" on the head suggests severe and critical injury, symbolizing the nation's dire spiritual and moral condition. In ancient Near Eastern culture, the head often represented leadership and authority. Thus, this could imply that the leaders of Israel are particularly corrupt or that the nation as a whole is suffering from a lack of wise and godly leadership. The wound indicates a need for healing and restoration, which can only come through repentance and turning back to God. This imagery is consistent with other prophetic writings that describe Israel's spiritual sickness (e.g.,Jeremiah 30:12-13).

and your whole heart is afflicted.
The heart in biblical terms often represents the center of one's being, including emotions, will, and intellect. An "afflicted" heart suggests deep-seated issues affecting the entire person or nation. This affliction is not merely physical but spiritual, indicating a pervasive corruption and departure from God's ways. The heart's condition is crucial because it determines one's actions and relationship with God. In the New Testament, Jesus emphasizes the importance of the heart in passages likeMatthew 15:18-19, where He teaches that evil actions stem from the heart. The affliction of Israel's heart underscores the need for inner transformation and renewal, which is a theme that runs throughout the prophetic books and finds fulfillment in the New Covenant promise of a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26).

God’s voice in this question exposes how Judah’s stubborn sin invites further chastening. The phrase assumes prior discipline has already fallen, yet the nation seems unfazed.

•Leviticus 26:18 shows the covenant pattern: continued disobedience brings multiplied punishment.

•Proverbs 3:11-12 andHebrews 12:6 remind us that discipline is an act of love, meant to correct, not to destroy.

• Like Pharaoh hardening his heart under the plagues (Exodus 9:34-35), Judah’s persistence only guarantees additional blows. The question therefore underscores the needless pain of persistent sin.

Here the Lord identifies the root, not just the symptom: rebellion against His revealed will.

•Deuteronomy 9:7 recalls Israel’s long history of provocation “from the day you left Egypt until you arrived here.”

•Jeremiah 5:23 describes a “rebellious and defiant heart” that refuses to return.

• Isaiah’s contemporaries kept worship rituals (Isaiah 1:11-15) but their hearts were far from God. Ongoing revolt after repeated warnings is irrational, yet sin darkens reason (Ephesians 4:18-19).

The head pictures leadership, intellect, and the governing faculties. A “massive wound” means pervasive damage.

•Deuteronomy 28:27-28 forewarned that covenant breakers would suffer “confusion of mind.”

•Micah 1:9 says of Judah, “Her wound is incurable; it has reached even Judah.”

• Spiritual rebellion produces moral insanity: people call evil good (Isaiah 5:20), ignoring obvious consequences, just as a head injury clouds judgment.

The heart is the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23). When it is diseased, everything else falters.

•Jeremiah 17:9 describes the heart as “deceitful above all things and beyond cure” apart from God’s intervention.

•Psalm 51:17 shows that a broken, contrite heart is the sacrifice God desires, yet Judah’s heart is broken in another sense—sick with unrepentant sin.

•Ezekiel 36:26 promises a new heart, hinting that only divine surgery can heal such deep affliction.

Isaiah 1:5 pictures a people determined to rebel despite mounting discipline. Their refusal multiplies their own wounds: the mind (head) is battered, and the inner being (heart) is diseased. God’s probing questions reveal the madness of sin and prepare the way for His merciful offer of cleansing (Isaiah 1:18).

The whole head is sick. . . .--Better,every head. . . .every heart.The sin of the people is painted as a deadly epidemic, spreading everywhere, affecting the noblest organs of the body (see Note onJeremiah 17:9), and defying all the resources of the healing art. The description that follows is one of the natural parables of ethics, and reminds us of Plato's description of the souls of tyrants as being full of ulcerous sores (Gorg.,c. 80). The description may have connected itself with the prophet's personal experience or training in the medicine and surgery of his time, or with the diseases which came as judgments on Jehoram (2Chronicles 21:18) and Uzziah (2Chronicles 26:20). We find him inIsaiah 38:21 prescribing for Hezekiah's boil. It would seem, indeed, from2Chronicles 16:12, that the prophets, as an order, practised the art of healing, and so were rivals of the "physicians," who depended chiefly on idolatrous charms and incantations. The picture of the disease reminds us of the language ofDeuteronomy 28:22-35;Job 2:7, and of the descriptions of like pestilences in the history of Florence, and of England. Every part of the body is tainted by the poison. "We note a certain technical precision in the three terms used: "wounds" (literally,cuts,as inflicted by a sword or knife); "bruises," orweals,marks of the scourge or rod; "putrifying sores," wounds that have festered into ulcers. As the diagnosis is technical, so also are the therapeutic agencies. To "close" or "press" the festering wound was the process tried at first to get rid of the purulent discharge; then, as in Hezekiah's case (Isaiah 38:21), it was "bound up," with a poultice, then some stimulating oil or unguent, probably, as inLuke 10:34, oil and wine were used, to cleanse the ulcer. No such remedies, the prophet says, had been applied to the spiritual disease of Israel. . . .