Yesaya 41:28

41:28 I look, but there is no one,

among them there is no one who serves as an adviser,

that I might ask questions and receive answers.

Yesaya 59:4

59:4 No one is concerned about justice; ¹ 

no one sets forth his case truthfully.

They depend on false words ²  and tell lies;

they conceive of oppression ³ 

and give birth to sin.

Yesaya 63:5

63:5 I looked, but there was no one to help;

I was shocked because there was no one offering support. ⁴ 

So my right arm accomplished deliverance;

my raging anger drove me on. ⁵ 

Yeremia 8:6

8:6 I have listened to them very carefully, ⁶ 

but they do not speak honestly.

None of them regrets the evil he has done.

None of them says, “I have done wrong!” ⁷ 

All of them persist in their own wayward course ⁸ 

like a horse charging recklessly into battle.

Yehezkiel 22:30

22:30 “I looked for a man from among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. ⁹ 

[59:4]  ¹ tn Heb “no one pleads with justice.”

[59:4]  ² tn Heb “nothing”; NAB “emptiness.”

[59:4]  ³ tn Or “trouble” (NIV), or “harm.”

[63:5]  ⁴ sn See Isa 59:16 for similar language.

[63:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “and my anger, it supported me”; NIV “my own wrath sustained me.”

[8:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “I have paid attention and I have listened.” This is another case of two concepts being joined by “and” where one expresses the main idea and the other acts as an adverbial or adjectival modifier (a figure called hendiadys).

[8:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “What have I done?” The addition of the word “wrong” is implicit in the context and is supplied in the translation for clarity. The rhetorical question does not function as a denial of wrongdoing, but rather as contrite shock at one’s own wrongdoing. It is translated as a declaration for the sake of clarity.

[8:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “each one of them turns aside into their own running course.”

[8:6]  sn The wordplay begun in v. 4 is continued here. The word translated “turns aside” in the literal translation and “wayward” in the translation is from the same root as “go the wrong way,” “turn around,” “turn away from me,” “apostasy,” “turn back to me.” What God hoped for were confessions of repentance and change of behavior; what he got was denial of wrongdoing and continued turning away from him.

[22:30]  ⁹ tn Heb “I did not find.”