properly · verb, niphal active participle, feminine singular absolute
city
קִרְיָ֖הkir.Yah
H7151
building · noun, common feminine singular absolute
harlot
לְזוֹנָ֔הle.zo.Nah
H2181
to commit adultery (usually of the female · preposition + verb, qal active participle, feminine singular absolute
full
מְלֵאֲתִ֣יme.le.'a.Ti
H4392
full (literally or figuratively) or filling (literally) · adjective, feminine singular construct
judgment
מִשְׁפָּ֗טmish.Pat
H4941
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
righteousness
צֶ֛דֶקTze.dek
H6664
the right (natural · noun, common masculine singular absolute
lodged
יָלִ֥יןya.Lin
H3885
to stop (usually over night) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
murderers
מְרַצְּחִֽיםme.ra.tze.Chim
H7523
properly · verb, piel active participle, masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Ezekiel 22:1-23 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Zephaniah 3:1-3 Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!
Zechariah 8:3 Thus saith the LORD; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and t…
2 Samuel 8:15 And David reigned over all Israel; and David executed judgment and justice unto all his people.
2 Chronicles 19:9 And he charged them, saying, Thus shall ye do in the fear of the LORD, faithfully, and with a perfect heart.
Nehemiah 11:1 And the rulers of the people dwelt at Jerusalem: the rest of the people also cast lots, to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem the holy c…
Psalms 46:4 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
Psalms 48:1 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 1:21–end
Here, I. The woeful degeneracy of Judah and Jerusalem is sadly lamented. See, 1. What the royal city had been, a faithful city, faithful to God and the interests of his kingdom among men, faithful to the nation and its public interests. It was full of judgment; justice was duly administered upon the thrones of judgment which were set there, the thrones of the house of David, Psa 122:5. Men were generally honest in their dealings, and abhorred to do an unjust thing. Righteousness lodged in it, was constantly resident in their palaces and in all their dwellings, not called in now and then to serve a turn, but at home there. Note, Neither holy cities nor royal ones, neither places where religio…
faithful--as a wife (Isa 54:5; Isa 62:5; Hos 2:19-20).
harlot-- (Eze 16:28-35).
righteousness lodged-- (Pe2 3:13).
murderers--murderous oppressors, as the antithesis requires (see on Isa 1:15; Jo1 3:15).
John Gill on Isaiah 1:21
How is the faithful city become a harlot!.... The city of Jerusalem, in which were the temple, and the pure worship of God, and was in the tribe of Judah, which ruled with God, and was very faithful with the saints when the ten tribes revolted, and fell in with the sin of Jeroboam; but now, in Isaiah's time, was become like a treacherous wife to her husband, unfaithful to the Lord, went after other lovers, committed spiritual adultery, that is, idolatry, with stocks and stones; and in the times of Christ were a wicked and an adulterous generation, corrupting the word and worship of God; see Matthew 12:39.
it was full of judgment; strict justice was exercised privately between man and man, a…
How is the faithful city become an harlot! In order to make the rebuke more forcible, and the crime of the people more shocking, in having thus departed from God and from all uprightness, he cries aloud as if he had seen some monstrous thing; and certainly it was a change fitted to awaken horror, that a nation devoted to God, and chosen to a royal priesthood, (Exodus 19:6,) had fallen from lofty piety to the lowest sink of wickedness. More especially he speaks of the city of Jerusalem, which was God's sanctuary and royal abode. He complains that the city which had formerly been a guardian of justice is a den of robbers; that she who formerly was a chaste and pure virgin hath become a harlot,…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 21) How has the faithful city become a harlot, full of judgment: justice dwelled in it but now murderers. The Hebrew word Jalin (), which the LXX translated, means slept; and it rested, and it will rest, that is, it signifies the past and future tense. Hence, both Aquila and Theodotio say it as if in the future. But the Prophet marvels in a prophetic spirit that the city which was once faithful, or a refuge for the faithful, has suddenly become a harlot. Which indeed can be understood even in the time of Isaiah: but it is more fully referred to the passion of Christ, when all turned away, together became useless (Ps. XIII, 3). And although in Hebrew there is no Zion: yet the Seventy, in order to make the meaning more evident, added it. But Zion is a mountain on which the city of Jerusalem was founded: which, after being captured by David, was called the city of David. Nor do I doubt that there were holy men in it when it had the tabernacle of God, and afterwards the Temple was built: when Nathan and Gad prophesied: and over the choirs (which are more fully described in the book of Chronicles) Asaph, and Idithun, and Eman, and the sons of Kore were appointed, so that religion might gradually transition from the sacrifices of victims to the praises of the Lord (I Chr. XXV). Therefore, the city of the faithful, which was once full of judgment and justice, now is full of murderers: those who killed the prophets and the Lord Himself, the Savior. But Jerusalem's fornication, how she spread her legs to everyone passing by, is depicted by the name Oolibah in the book of Ezekiel, which means 'my tent is in her,' which is now expressed in different words as 'justice has rested in her.' For 'justice' in Hebrew is written as Sedec (), which sounds more like 'just' than 'justice,' so that we may understand that the Lord dwelled in her first, as it is said elsewhere: 'But what has the just one done?' The Lord is in his holy temple: the Lord's throne is in heaven. (Psalm 11:4) We can interpret all these things allegorically in reference to the soul of a once holy man, in which God's righteousness resided before he sinned, and in which demonic murderers dwelled as guests of God.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Adultery — Conjugal infidelity. An adulterer was a man who had illicit intercourse with a married or a betrothed woman, and such a woman was an adulteress. Intercourse between a married man and an unmarried…
Harlot — (1.) Heb. zonah (Gen. 34:31; 38:15). In verses 21, 22 the Hebrew word used in kedeshah, i.e., a woman consecrated or devoted to prostitution in connection with the abominable worship of Asherah or…
Isaiah, The Book of — Consists of prophecies delivered (Isa. 1) in the reign of Uzziah (1-5), (2) of Jotham (6), (3) Ahaz (7-14:28), (4) the first half of Hezekiah’s reign (14:28-35), (5) the second half of Hezekiah’s…
Jerusalem · Called: Faithful city — Called: Faithful city
Murder · The Jews often guilty of — The Jews often guilty of
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
"How is she become a harlot, the faithful citadel! she, full of right, lodged in righteousness, and now-murderers." It is the keynote of an elegy (kinah) which is sounded here. איכה, and but rarely איך, which is an abbreviated form, is expressive of complaint and amazement. This longer form, like a long-drawn sigh, is a characteristic of the kinah. The kinoth (Lamentations) of Jeremiah commence with it, and receive their title from it; whereas the shorter form is indicative of scornful complaining, and is characteristic of the mâshōl (e.g., Isa 14:4, Isa 14:12; Mic 2:4). From this word, which gives the keynote, the rest all follows, soft, full, monotonous, long drawn out and slow, just in…
The image of Jerusalem as a prostitute represents Judah’s unfaithfulness to God (see Jer 3:6-14; Ezek 16:25-26; Hos 1–3).
Rashi on Isaiah 1:21
a harlot Astray from her God.
city which was faithful and full of justice, and righteousness would lodge therein, but now murderers.
full of justice Heb. מְלֵאֲתִי מִשְׁפָּט [equivalent to מְלֵאַתמִשְׁפָּט, the ‘yud’ being superfluous,] as in (Lamentations 1:1) רַבָּתִי עָם, “great in population” [equivalent to רַבַּתעָם].
in which righteousness would lodge The daily dawn sacrifice would atone for the sins [committed] at night, and the daily afternoon [sacrifice] would atone for those of the day. Another explanation is that they would allow capital cases to rest overnight when they could find no merit for him, [i.e., for the defendant;] they would not conclude his verdict until the morrow…
