Let's begin.
The first word (two words in English) -"The Vision" - is significant. Isaiah son of Amoz is telling us what he saw. It isn't what he thought or imagined, it isn't his opinion, he reaches for objectivity right from the start. Through the reigns of four kings, he has seen things that aren't pretty, adn he wants to tell us about them.
So what has he seen? He's seen a nation that is sick. Uzziah was famously ill - stricken by leprosy for disobeying God by forcing his way into the sanctuary in the Temple, and daring to offer incense to God, which was the priest's role. Because of his leprosy he loved alone, and his son Jotham ran the day to day business of the kingdom.
A sick king, and a sick nation. Riddled with sores and bruises, but not doing anything to heal itself. No bandages, no medicines. Wounds gaping open for all to see. Little Judah is the last part of once mighty Israel left standing, after the fall of the northern kingdom. Isaiah compares them to a little patch of unharvested crops, once the rest of the field has been cut down. Fearfully vulnerable.
And yet not seeming to care.
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