Isaiah 1:5
Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
Study Note
Study Note
Isaiah's ironic appeal — 'why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint' — opens the book with a diagnostic image of a body politic so thoroughly diseased that continued punishment serves no corrective purpose. The medical metaphor of total infection (head to foot, verses 5-6) presents Judah's condition as systemic rather than partial, requiring healing of a different order than the disciplinary wounds already inflicted. The question 'why will you still be struck down?' is both compassionate and indignant: it identifies the self-defeating logic of rebellion that invites continued suffering while receiving no therapeutic benefit. The passage provides the opening framing for Isaiah's entire prophetic ministry as addressed to a people whose sickness is complete and whose only remedy is the divine healing announced later in the book.
Other Translations
Why will ye be still stricken, that ye revolt more and more? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
Wherefore are ye stricken any more? Ye do add apostasy! Every head is become diseased, and every heart <FI>is<Fi> sick.
Why will you have more and more punishment? why keep on in your evil ways? Every head is tired and every heart is feeble.
Cross References
And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord: this is that king Ahaz.
Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and …
Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the …
For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts.
Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned …
Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.
And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.
In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a …
O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast …
I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of …