Isaiah 43:28

God would also pollute the priests with guilt since they had for generations polluted His sacrifices with their guilt (cf. 2 Chronicles 24:5). They, of all people, should have been holy since they dealt with the holy things connected with Israel’s worship (cf. Isaiah 65:2-5; Leviticus 10:3). God would consign the whole nation to the ban (Heb. herem), something devoted to destruction. Israel had become like Canaan (cf. Isaiah 1:9-10; Joshua 6:17; 1 Samuel 15:21), and it would become the object of Gentile reviling as Canaan had been for the Israelites.

God would make His people the proof of His deity by delivering them from captivity in Babylon (Isaiah 43:14-21) and from their sins (Isaiah 44:1-5). The next pericope expands the focus of God’s promise from physical to spiritual deliverance, and extends it from an approaching to a more distant fulfillment.