John Trapp on Isaiah 1:4

Ver. 4. Ah ſinful Nation! Hoi goi chote.] He beginneth his complaint with a ſigh, as well he might, when he ſaw that the better God was to them, the worſe they were to him: like Springs of water, which are then coldeſt, when the Sun is hotteſt: like the Thracian flint, which is ſaid to burn with water, and to be quenched with oyl: or like that Countrey where drought maketh dirt, and rain duſt.Siccitas dat lutum, imbres pulverem. Plin. Ah geus peccatrix! Oh thou that art wholly made up of miſchief! as Aaron once ſaid of their Fore-fathers in the Wilderneſs, that they were wholly ſet upon wickedneſs, Exod. 32.22. and as the Prophet ſaith, What is the tranſgreſſion of Jacob?Gens quae non niſi peccare didicit. Scult. ſecura & petulans. Piſeat. Luke 15.30. Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jeruſalem? Mic. 1.5.

A people laden with iniquity] Great and grievous offenders, guilty of many and mighty (or long) ſins, Amos 5.12. quorum amplitudine pragravantur, yet not ſenſible of their burden, not heavy-laden, as Mat. 11.28. nor labouring to be delivered of that hedg-hog that woundeth and teareth them in their tender inſide.

A ſeed of evil-doers] A race of Rebels, a ſeed of Serpents: Mali corvi malum ovum; ſuch as were as good at reſiſting the Holy Ghoſt as ever their Fathers had been, Acts 7.51. generation after generation they held it out, and were no changelings then, neither are to this day.

Children that are corrupters] Or, deſtroyers, ding thrifts, [non-Latin text not transcribed] quaſi [non-Latin text not transcribed], ſtroygoods, ſuch as the Roman Prodigal who gloried that of a large Patrimony left him by his Parents, he had now left himſelf nothing praeter coelum & coenum; or that other in the Goſpel, who had drawn much of his portion through his throat, and ſpent the reſt on harlots. Lo, ſuch ill husbands for their ſouls were theſe Jews here ſpoken of, ſcipſis aſſidue facti deteriores, whileſt they wofully waſted their time and ſtrength in the purſuit of their luſts: curſed children, 2 Pet. 2.14.

They have forſaken the Lord] which is ſuch a foul enormity, as good Jeremy thinks the very Heaven ſweateth at, and the earth groaneth under, Jer. 2.12, 13.

They have provoked unto anger] as if they had a mind to wraſtle a fall, and try maſteries with him. The Vulgar rendreth it, They have blaſphemed. See the Note on ver. 2.

They are gone away backward] Alienaverunt ſeretrorſum, certatim exardeſcentes in Apoſtaſiam: as the Moon when fulleſt of light getteth farther off from the Sun. They had turned upon God the back and not the face, by a ſhameful Apoſtacy, even then when they frequently trod his Courts, ver. 12. and departed not thence, haply, any otherwiſe then the Jews at this day do, out of their Synagogues, with their faces ſtill toward the Ark, like crabs going backward.