Isaiah 1:6

“From the sole of the foot even unto the head [there is] no soundness in it, &c.] Every member of the body politic was afflicted in one way or another, or sadly infected with the disease of sin; (see <192803>Psalm 28:3). So the Targum, “from the rest of the people, even unto the princes, there is none among them who is perfect in my fear;” (see <270908>Daniel 9:8 <240810>Jeremiah 8:10) [but] wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores; to which either public calamities on a city or nation may be compared, (<280513>Hosea 5:13) or the sins and transgressions both of single persons, and of whole bodies of men, (<193805>Psalm 38:5,7). The Targum is, “they are all stubborn and rebellious, they are…”

“From the lowest to the highest of the people; "the ancient and honorable, the head, the prophet that teacheth lies, the tail." See Isa 9:13-16. He first states their wretched condition, obvious to all (Isa 1:6-9); and then, not previously, their irreligious state, the cause of it. wounds--judicially inflicted (Hos 5:13). mollified with ointment--The art of medicine in the East consists chiefly in external applications (Luk 10:34; Jam 5:14).”

“From the sole of the foot ... - Or is we say, ‘from head to foot,’ that is, in every part of the body. There may be included also the idea that this extended from the lowest to the highest among the people. The Chaldee paraphrase is, ‘from the lowest of the people even to the princes - all are contumacious and rebellious.’ No soundness - מתם methôm, from תמם tâmam, to be perfect, sound, uninjured. There is no part unaffected; no part that is sound. It is all smitten and sore. But wounds - The precise shade of difference between this and the two following words may not be apparent. Together, they mean Such wounds and contusions as are inflicted upon man by scourging, or beating him. This…”

“1:6 without any soothing ointments or bandages: Judah’s national condition was like the body of an injured person who had not received medical care.”

“the sole: Job 2:7, Job 2:8; Luk 16:20, Luk 16:21 bruises: Ch2 6:28, Ch2 6:29; Psa 77:2; Jer 6:14 \*marg. Jer 30:12; Nah 3:19 they have: Job 5:18; Psa 38:3-5; Jer 6:14, Jer 8:21, Jer 8:22, Jer 33:6; Hos 5:12, Hos 5:13; Mal 4:2; Mat 9:12; Luk 10:34 ointment: or, oil Isaiah 1:7”

“This description of the total misery of every individual in the nation is followed by a representation of the whole nation as one miserably diseased body. "From the some of the foot even to the head there is nothing sound in it: cuts, and stripes, and festering wounds; they have not been pressed out, nor bound up, nor has there been any soothing with oil." The body of the nation, to which the expression "in it" applies (i.e., the nation as a whole), was covered with wounds of different kinds; and no means whatever had been applied to heal these many, various wounds, which lay all together, close to one another, and one upon the other, covering the whole body. Cuts (from פּצע to cut) are…”