Charles Spurgeon Commentary Isaiah 1:5

"Why will ye be still stricken, that ye revolt more and more? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint." — Isaiah 1:5 (ASV)

Why should you be stricken any more?

What is the use of chastisement to such people? It is supposed that punishment is always healthful, and that we grow better for it; but God says, Why should you be stricken any more?

Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

One of God's ways of bringing people to himself is by chastisement and sad affliction. He had tried that method upon Judah; he had used his rod so long that, at last, he exclaimed, "Why should ye be stricken any more?" What is the good of my sending any more affliction upon you? Now, whenever the rod is of no more use, there will be a sharper instrument to follow. When men can no longer be chastened for their good, the axe of execution is ready to be brought forth. What a sorrowful description is here given of the people of Judah and their land!

Why should you be stricken any more? You will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

It was of no use chastising these people. They only sinned the worse for all the afflictions that were sent, and when the fire of affliction does not melt the iron heart, what can do it? Why waste the fuel upon them?

You will revolt more and more; the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. They had been smitten, they had been afflicted, until the whole nation through and through had been brought low. Their head and heart had been made faint. And, oh!

There are some that have passed through many trials and are none the better. They have seen poverty, and yet they go again to the sin that first brought them to it. They feel in their very bones the result of their transgressions, and yet they hug in their bosoms the serpent that has stung them.