Charles Spurgeon Commentary Isaiah 1:2-3

"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for Jehovah hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master`s crib; [but] Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." — Isaiah 1:2-3 (ASV)

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD has spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel does not know, my people do not consider.

God's own people were worse than the brutes that perish; they had no gratitude towards their Maker and Preserver. Am I not addressing many persons of the same kind, who have little or no thought concerning him who made them, and who supplies all their needs? God seems here as if he were tired of appealing to his people, so he speaks to the heavens and the earth, as if he knew that even inanimate things would be more capable of feeling than hardened Judah was.

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord has spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel does not know, my people do not consider.

Heaven and earth might well be called to witness such strange ingratitude as this of which the Lord had to complain.