Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, on Isa 1:4

“Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a wicked seed, ungracious children: they have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they are gone away backwards.”

“people--the peculiar designation of God's elect nation (Hos 1:10), that they should be "laden with iniquity" is therefore the more monstrous. Sin is a load (Psa 38:4; Mat 11:28). seed--another appellation of God's elect (Gen 12:7; Jer 2:21), designed to be a "holy seed" (Isa 6:13), but, awful to say, "evildoers!" children--by adoption (Hos 11:1), yet "evildoers"; not only so, but "corrupters" of others (Gen 6:12); the climax. So "nation--people--seed children." provoked--literally, "despised," namely, so as to provoke (Pro 1:30-31). Holy One of Israel--the peculiar heinousness of their sin, that it was against their God (Amo 3:2). gone . . . backward--literally, "estranged" (Psa 58:3).”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.