John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 43:28

"Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; and I will make Jacob a curse, and Israel a reviling." — Isaiah 43:28 (ASV)

Therefore I will pollute. The copulative ו (vau) here means therefore, and the preterite tense, I have polluted, should have a future meaning, though it may also be rendered in the past tense. However, I have preferred the future, in order to apply it to the time of the captivity, for He directly addresses those who were to live under the captivity.

If it is considered preferable to extend it to various calamities by which God had covered His people with disgrace, and at the same time to connect with it their exile in Babylon, there will be nothing improper. Indeed, it will be more appropriate to view it as a description of what frequently happened to them in earlier times, so that they may be warned for the future that they have no privilege which can defend them from receiving again, with the deepest disgrace, the punishment of their ingratitude.

He shows, therefore, the cause of this destruction: it was because the transgressions of the fathers and of the children must be punished—that is, when there was no end to sinning, but when they daily kindled the wrath of God against them, until He finally punished them.

The Lord is said to “pollute” or “profane” His Church when He despises and throws it aside as a thing of no value. In this sense the word is used in Psalm 89:39 and in many other passages. Having been set apart and sanctified by Him, we dwell under His protection and guardianship as long as we are holy. Similarly, when we are deprived of it, we are said to be “profaned,” because we cease to be sacred and are made unworthy of His protection. And He exposes as a prey to enemies those whom He formerly called his anointed and forbade men to touch (Psalms 105:15). But it may seem strange that the priests, who were Christ’s representatives, should be “profaned;” and the reason is that they transgressed, when they should have been “teachers” of others.

And I will make Jacob a curse. The Hebrew word הרם, (herem,) which we have translated a curse, signifies “destruction,” but also signifies “a curse;” and I have thought that the latter meaning is more appropriate to this passage, because what follows is a reproach.

The Prophet borrows these statements from Moses, whose description he follows so closely that it is easy to perceive the style of Moses in these words and to see that the prophets present nothing new or strange. The words of Moses are:

And thou shalt be an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among all the nations to which the Lord shall lead thee (Deuteronomy 28:37).

He therefore threatens that He will afflict the people in such a way as to make them “accursed” by all, so that whoever wishes to pronounce a “curse” may use them as an example, and that they may become a form of “cursing.” He threatens that He will expose them to the ridicule of men, so that they will serve as a proverb in the speech of all who wish to utter scorn.

Just as, at that time, one could observe that the name 'Jew,' though in itself honorable, was in the highest degree ignominious and disgraceful.

The Lord pronounced these dreadful threatenings through Isaiah so that they might know that a punishment truly adequate to the enormity of their transgressions could scarcely be inflicted. Thus, when the Lord chastised them, they would not complain that the punishments they endured were too severe, or think that the Prophet’s rebukes were too sharp.