"Hear, O heavens, and give heed, O earth, for the Lord speaketh: Sons have I brought up and placed on high, but they have proved false to me. The ox knows its owner and the ass its master's crib, But Israel has no knowledge; my people have no insight; Ah! Sinful nation, people deep laden with guilt, Race of evil-doers, perverse children! They have forsaken the Lord; They have spurned the Holy One of Israel; They have become rebellious. "On what place can you yet be smitten since you continue rebelling? The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint, From the sole of the foot to the head there is no soundness, Only wounds and bruises and fresh sores, Which have not been dressed nor bound up nor softened with oil." With words of this kind, and in similar speeches, Isaiah tried to describe the condition of Judah to its people. The cowardice of Ahaz in throwing himself at the feet of the Assyrian had, indeed, smitten the land and the people very sore. The large tribute to Tiglath-Pileser had to be collected and paid. The burden was terrible to bear. In the meantime, Judah's enemies from the south and along the Mediterranean coast took advantage of the weakened condition of Judah and attacked the country from many points. Isaiah tried, with all his might, to bring the people, as a whole, to an understanding of Judah's condition. He wanted them to join "The Remnant" and to live their lives in accordance with his teaching, which were really not his, but God's. Only in this way, Isaiah said, could a country that had fallen deeply into sin and unrighteousness, and was at the mercy of its enemies, be saved: "Your land is a desolation, your cities are burned with fire, Your tilled land--before your eyes strangers devour it; And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, Like a lodge in a field of cucumbers, like a watchtower. Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a remnant, We should almost be as Sodom, We would have been like Gomorrah." This simile, comparing Jerusalem to these ancient cities of evil repute, was answered by Isaiah's opponents with the statement that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were idol worshipers, but that the people of Judah brought their sacrifices to the Temple and observed the holydays in accordance with the ancient laws. This was the same kind of an argument as the citizens in Samaria gave to Amos and Hosea. Isaiah, however, who knew, and had taught "The Remnant" that sacrificing animals was not the true manner of worshipping God, replied as follows: