Yeremia 18:17

18:17 I will scatter them before their enemies

like dust blowing in front of a burning east wind.

I will turn my back on them and not look favorably on them ¹ 

when disaster strikes them.”

Yeremia 21:10

21:10 For I, the Lord, say that ²  I am determined not to deliver this city but to bring disaster on it. ³  It will be handed over to the king of Babylon and he will destroy it with fire.’” ⁴ 

Ulangan 31:17

31:17 At that time ⁵  my anger will erupt against them ⁶  and I will abandon them and hide my face from them until they are devoured. Many disasters and distresses will overcome ⁷  them ⁸  so that they ⁹  will say at that time, ‘Have not these disasters ¹⁰  overcome us ¹¹  because our ¹²  God is not among us ¹³ ?’

Ulangan 32:20

32:20 He said, “I will reject them, ¹⁴ 

I will see what will happen to them;

for they are a perverse generation,

children ¹⁵  who show no loyalty.

Yesaya 1:15-16

1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I look the other way; ¹⁶ 

when you offer your many prayers,

I do not listen,

because your hands are covered with blood. ¹⁷ 

1:16 ¹⁸ Wash! Cleanse yourselves!

Remove your sinful deeds ¹⁹ 

from my sight.

Stop sinning!

Yesaya 8:17

8:17 I will wait patiently for the Lord,

who has rejected the family of Jacob; ²⁰ 

I will wait for him.

Yesaya 64:7

64:7 No one invokes ²¹  your name,

or makes an effort ²²  to take hold of you.

For you have rejected us ²³ 

and handed us over to our own sins. ²⁴ 

Yehezkiel 39:23-24

39:23 The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile due to their iniquity, ²⁵  for they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies; all of them died by the sword. 39:24 According to their uncleanness and rebellion I have dealt with them, and I hid my face from them.

Yehezkiel 39:29

39:29 I will no longer hide my face from them, when I pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, ²⁶  declares the sovereign Lord.”

Mikha 3:4

3:4 Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help, ²⁷ 

but he will not answer them.

He will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have done such wicked deeds.”

[18:17]  ¹ tc Heb “I will show them [my] back and not [my] face.” This reading follows the suggestion of some of the versions and some of the Masoretes. The MT reads “I will look on their back and not on their faces.”

[18:17]  sn To “turn the back” is universally recognized as a symbol of rejection. The turning of the face toward one is the subject of the beautiful Aaronic blessing in Num 6:24-26.

[21:10]  ² tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[21:10]  ³ tn Heb “I have set my face against this city for evil [i.e., disaster] and not for good [i.e., well-being].” For the use of the idiom “set one’s face against/toward” see, e.g., usage in 1 Kgs 2:15; 2 Kgs 2:17; Jer 42:15, 17 and note the interesting interplay of usage in Jer 44:11-12.

[21:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “he will burn it with fire.”

[31:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “on that day.” This same expression also appears later in the verse and in v. 18.

[31:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “find,” “encounter.”

[31:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “evils.”

[31:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.

[31:17]  ¹² tn Heb “my.”

[31:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.

[32:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I will hide my face from them.”

[32:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “sons” (so NAB, NASB); TEV “unfaithful people.”

[1:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”

[1:15]  ¹⁷ sn This does not just refer to the blood of sacrificial animals, but also the blood, as it were, of their innocent victims. By depriving the poor and destitute of proper legal recourse and adequate access to the economic system, the oppressors have, for all intents and purposes, “killed” their victims.

[1:16]  ¹⁸ sn Having demonstrated the people’s guilt, the Lord calls them to repentance, which will involve concrete action in the socio-economic realm, not mere emotion.

[1:16]  ¹⁹ sn This phrase refers to Israel’s covenant treachery (cf. Deut 28:10; Jer 4:4; 21:12; 23:2, 22; 25:5; 26:3; 44:22; Hos 9:15; Ps 28:4). In general, the noun ַמעַלְלֵיכֶם (ma’alleykhem) can simply be a reference to deeds, whether good or bad. However, Isaiah always uses it with a negative connotation (cf. 3:8, 10).

[8:17]  ²⁰ tn Heb “who hides his face from the house of Jacob.”

[64:7]  ²¹ tn Or “calls out in”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “calls on.”

[64:7]  ²² tn Or “rouses himself”; NASB “arouses himself.”

[64:7]  ²³ tn Heb “for you have hidden your face from us.”

[64:7]  ²⁴ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and you caused us to melt in the hand of our sin.” The verb וַתְּמוּגֵנוּ (vattÿmugenu) is a Qal preterite 2nd person masculine singular with a 1st person common plural suffix from the root מוּג (mug, “melt”). However, elsewhere the Qal of this verb is intransitive. If the verbal root מוּג (mug) is retained here, the form should be emended to a Polel pattern (וַתְּמֹגְגֵנוּ, vattÿmogÿgenu). The translation assumes an emendation to וַתְּמַגְּנֵנוּ (vattÿmaggÿnenu, “and you handed us over”). This form is a Piel preterite 2nd person masculine singular with a 1st person common plural suffix from the verbal root מִגֵּן (miggen, “hand over, surrender”; see HALOT 545 s.v. מגן and BDB 171 s.v. מָגָן). The point is that God has abandoned them to their sinful ways and no longer seeks reconciliation.

[39:23]  ²⁵ tn Or “in their punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity/punishment” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here; 3:18, 19; 4:17; 7:13, 16; 18: 17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment” for iniquity or “guilt” of iniquity.

[39:29]  ²⁶ sn See Ezek 11:19; 37:14.

[3:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “then they will cry out to the Lord.” The words “Someday these sinners” have been supplied in the translation for clarification.