John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 1:6

"From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; [but] wounds, and bruises, and fresh stripes: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oil." — Isaiah 1:6 (ASV)

From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it. Here he proceeds with the same comparison and repeats the same statement; for certainly those who explain the former part of the verse as referring to punishments do not sufficiently consider the remaining part of the context.

If we admit that a nation corrupted by vices is compared to a diseased body, what is the meaning of the words that immediately follow: the wounds have not been bound up or mollified with ointment? It is plain that the Prophet speaks of afflictions by which the nation had almost wasted away, and that he adduces this prolonged weakness as a proof of hardened impenitence.

He calls it a putrifying sore, from which diseased matter is continually flowing, as if some concealed fountain were perpetually sending forth an additional supply of venom. By this comparison, he shows that the wound is incurable because that supply cannot be stopped. All this is prodigiously heightened by affirming that no remedies have been applied.

For the three metaphors that he joins together—they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment—all have the same meaning: that the nation, without any hope of relief, without comfort, without remedy, is reduced to such a state of distress that in such punishments the utmost severity of God is openly displayed.