Isaiah 1:22 “Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: 23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.”
When “the faithful city” becomes “an harlot” (Isaiah 1:21), her “silver” becomes “dross”; that is, her wealth becomes worthless. Her “wine” is “mixed with water”; that is, her pleasant things have become undesirable and repulsive. This means that her (“princes”) leaders “are rebellious” against God and all that is good and moral. Her leaders sustain themselves with bribes and do not sincerely care for the “fatherless” and “widow”; that is, their feigned care of the poor and needy is just a façade’ to further satisfy their vain lusts. This is the state of the “nation” (Isaiah 1:4) when the “people” (Isaiah 1:3) and their leaders forsake the Word of God and begin to hungerly feed their greed, their lust, and most base carnal desires instead of worshiping and serving and obeying God. In just such a time as this, Jeremiah exhorted and warned the “people” and “nation”: “If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.” (Jeremiah 4:1)!