⁵ “‘For here Jehovah himself comes as a very fire, and his chariots are like a storm wind, in order to pay back his anger with sheer rage and his rebuke with flames of fire.

6. So how were the Israelites of Isaiah’s day breaking their covenant and befouling themselves?

⁶ In the days when Isaiah wrote those words, over a century before the destruction of Jerusalem in 607 BCE, the Israelites were grossly violating their national covenant with Jehovah, the law covenant mediated by the prophet Moses. They were sanctifying themselves and cleansing themselves for idolatrous worship in special gardens and were breaking God’s laws forbidding them to eat certain things. They defiled themselves and befouled themselves before the God of their covenant and did nothing for his glory.

7. (a) How did Jehovah act in line with his covenant terms to settle the controversy? (b) With whom does God have a like controversy today?

⁷ So he brought upon those covenant breakers his fiery, stormy judgments, in proper harmony with his covenant terms.