Over against the prophetic view of religion sprawls and reeks in this same chapter the popular--religion as smoky sacrifice, assiduous worship, and ritual. The people to whom the chapter was addressed were not idolaters.[2] Hezekiah's reformation was over. Judah worshipped her own God, whom the prophet introduces not as for the first time, but by Judah's own familiar names for Him--Jehovah, Jehovah of Hosts, the Holy One of Israel, the Mighty One, or Hero, of Israel. In this hour of extreme danger the people are waiting on Jehovah with great pains and cost of sacrifice. They pray, they sacrifice, they solemnize to perfection. But they do not _know_, they do not _consider_; this is the burden of their offence. To use a better word, they do not _think_. They are God's grown-up children (ver. 2)--_children_, that is to say, like the son of the parable, with native instincts for their God, and _grown up_--that is to say, with reason and conscience developed. But they use neither, stupider than very beasts. _Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider._ In all their worship conscience is asleep, and they are drenched in wickedness. Isaiah puts their life in an epigram--_wickedness and worship: I cannot away_, saith the Lord, _with wickedness and worship_ (ver. 13). [2] At least those to whom the first twenty-three verses were addressed. There is distinct blame of worshipping in the groves of Asherah in the appended oracle (vv. 24-31), which is proof that this oracle was given at an earlier period than the rest of the chapter--a fair instance of the very great difficulty we have in determining the dates of the various prophecies of Isaiah. But the pressure and stimulus of the prophecy lie in this, that although the people have silenced conscience and are steeped in a stupidity worse than ox or ass, God will not leave them alone. He forces Himself upon them; He compels them to think. In the order and calmness of nature (ver. 2), apart from catastrophe nor seeking to influence by any miracle, God speaks to men by the reasonable words of His prophet. Before He will publish salvation or intimate disaster He must rouse and startle conscience. His controversy precedes alike His peace and His judgements. An awakened conscience is His prophet's first demand. Before religion can be prayer, or sacrifice, or any acceptable worship, it must be a _reasoning together_ with God.