Isaiah 56:9-12

Isaiah 56:9 to Isaiah 57:21. A Protest against the Unworthy Shepherds of God's Flock, and the arrogant Heathenism by which it is threatened; followed by a Message of Consolation to True Israelites

This sombre and impassioned discourse is composed of three parts:

i. ch. Isaiah 56:9 to Isaiah 57:2. The defenceless condition of the community, due to the incompetence of its spiritual leaders.

(1) All the wild beasts of the field and the forest are invited to come and devour the unprotected flock (Isaiah 56:9). (2) For its rulers neglect their duty; they are inefficient as dumb dogs, they are slothful, greedy and sensual (Isaiah 56:10). (3) In consequence of their incapacity the righteous perish, none regarding their fate (Isaiah 57:1-2).

ii. Isa 57:3-13 a. A bitter tirade against an insolent and aggressive paganising party, animated by a contemptuous hostility towards the true religion.

(1) This party, which is characterised as a bastard and hybrid race, the illegitimate offspring of an adulterer and a harlot, is summoned to the bar to hear the Divine sentence on their career of flagrant idolatry (Isaiah 57:3). (2) The indictment follows, in the form of a recital of the varied heathen rites to which they were addicted (Isaiah 57:5), and in which with infatuated perversity they still persist in spite of all the teachings of experience (Isaiah 57:10). (3) Judgement is then pronounced; Jehovah will unmask the hypocrisy of their pretended righteousness, and leave them to the protection of the false deities whom they have so diligently served, but who shall be unable to save them (Isaiah 57:12-13).

iii. Isa 57:14-21. The prophet now turns with a message of comfort to the depressed and contrite people of God. The obstacles in the way of their salvation shall be removed (Isaiah 57:14); Jehovah, whose condescension brings Him near to the lowly in heart, will at length avert His anger, and bring healing and peace (Isaiah 57:15); only the wicked who persist in their impenitence are excluded from the promised blessing (Isaiah 57:20).

Isaiah 56:9 to Isaiah 57:2. Denunciation of the worthless rulers of the Jewish community. The difficulty of supposing that this passage refers to the state of things in the Exile is obvious. Israel is compared to a flock in charge of its own shepherds; and these shepherds are responsible both for the internal disorders from which it suffers, and the outward dangers which threaten it. An invitation to the wild beasts (the heathen nations) to come and devour a people already "robbed and spoiled" (Isaiah 42:22) by foreign conquest, is almost inconceivable. It is of course possible, as many scholars hold, that the verses are extracted from a pre-exilic prophecy; but the description is at least as applicable to the conditions which existed after the return from Babylon. The books of Malachi and Nehemiah reveal incidentally a state of affairs which would go far to account for the dark picture here presented of the ruling classes in the restored community.