“Hear!
O heavens!
Listen!
O earth!
Yahweh has spoken.
‘I reared children.
I brought them up.
But they have rebelled
Against me.
The ox knows its owner.
The donkey knows its master’s crib.
But Israel does not know.
My people do not understand.’”
Isaiah begins with an oracle that comes from Yahweh. He asks heaven and earth to listen to him. Yahweh says that he reared and brought up his children. However, these children have rebelled against him. As an ox knows its owner and a donkey knows where his home is, the people of Israel are just the opposite. They do not know or understand anything. This is the tone to many of the oracles of Yahweh via Isaiah. It is not clear whether this oracle is against just the northern Israelites or also includes the people of Judah. Sometimes the term “Israel” is used for both and sometimes just for the northern Israelites.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 