“Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.”
The prophet shifts abruptly from eschatological hope to present judgment, addressing the house of Jacob (Israel) forsaken by God and filled with practices and diviners of the east (foreign religious practices) and sorcerers. The abandonment of Israel stands in stark contrast to the vision of nations gathering to God's house; Israel, unlike the future gentiles, has rejected God's ways and embraced foreign spiritual practices. The specificity of divination, sorcery, and eastern religious practices indicates syncretistic contamination where Israel incorporates pagan religion into their spiritual life, abandoning exclusive covenantal relationship with the Lord. The contrast between Jacob (Israel's original covenant name) and present apostasy emphasizes covenant violation and loss of identity; Israel, chosen and named by God, has become practically indistinguishable from pagan nations. This verse returns the prophecy to historical Isaiah, addressing his contemporaries and explaining why they cannot presently claim the eschatological vision of verses 2-4.
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