John Gill Commentary Isaiah 58:1

"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and declare unto my people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins." — Isaiah 58:1 (ASV)

Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet
These words are directed to the prophet; and so the Targum expresses it, ``O prophet, cry with your throat;'' and so it is in the original, "cry with the throat" ^F4 , which is an instrument of speech; and it denotes a loud, strong, vehement cry, when a man exerts his voice, and as it were rends his throat, that he may be heard; as well as it shows the intenseness of his spirit, and the vehemence of his affections, and the importance of what he delivers; and this the prophet is encouraged to do, and "spare not", the voice, throat, or his lungs, nor the people neither he was sent to; or, "cease not", as the Targum, refrain not from speaking, "cease not crying"; so Ben Melech: "lift up your voice like a trumpet"; like the voice or sound of a trumpet, which is heard afar, and gives an alarm; and to which the Gospel ministry is sometimes compared, (Isaiah 27:13) all which shows the manner in which the ministers of the word should deliver it, publicly, boldly, with ardour and affection; and also the deafness and stupidity of the people which require it:

and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their
sins ;
by whom are meant the professing people of God, the present reformed churches, as distinguished from the antichristian ones, spoken of in the preceding chapter; who yet are guilty of many sins and transgressions, which must be showed them, and they must be sharply reproved for; and particularly their coldness and deadness, formality and hypocrisy in religious worship; their "works not being perfect" before God, or sincere and upright, as is said of the Sardian church, which designs the same persons, (Revelation 3:1Revelation 3:2) .

In the Talmud ^F5 the words are thus paraphrased, "show my people their transgression"; these are the disciples of the wise men, whose sins of error or ignorance become to them presumptuous ones; "and the house of Jacob their sins"; these are the people of the earth, or the common people, whose presumptuous sins become to them as sins of ignorance.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F4: (Nwrgb arq) "clama in gutture", Pagninus, Montanus; "exclama gutture", Junius & Tremellius; "exclama pleno gutture", Piscator; "clama pleno gut ture", Cocceius.
• F5: T. Bab. Metzia, fol. 33. 2.