Yesaya 1:4

1:4 ¹ The sinful nation is as good as dead, ² 

the people weighed down by evil deeds.

They are offspring who do wrong,

children ³  who do wicked things.

They have abandoned the Lord,

and rejected the Holy One of Israel. ⁴ 

They are alienated from him. ⁵ 

Yesaya 30:1

Egypt Will Prove Unreliable

30:1 “The rebellious ⁶  children are as good as dead,” ⁷  says the Lord,

“those who make plans without consulting me, ⁸ 

who form alliances without consulting my Spirit, ⁹ 

and thereby compound their sin. ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 57:15

57:15 For this is what the high and exalted one says,

the one who rules ¹¹  forever, whose name is holy:

“I dwell in an exalted and holy place,

but also with the discouraged and humiliated, ¹² 

in order to cheer up the humiliated

and to encourage the discouraged. ¹³ 

Yesaya 66:2

66:2 My hand made them; ¹⁴ 

that is how they came to be,” ¹⁵  says the Lord.

I show special favor ¹⁶  to the humble and contrite,

who respect what I have to say. ¹⁷ 

[1:4]  ¹ sn Having summoned the witnesses and announced the Lord’s accusation against Israel, Isaiah mourns the nation’s impending doom. The third person references to the Lord in the second half of the verse suggest that the quotation from the Lord (cf. vv. 2-3) has concluded.

[1:4]  ² tn Heb “Woe [to the] sinful nation.” The Hebrew term הוֹי, (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death. In highly dramatic fashion the prophet acts out Israel’s funeral in advance, emphasizing that their demise is inevitable if they do not repent soon.

[1:4]  ³ tn Or “sons” (NASB). The prophet contrasts four terms of privilege – nation, people, offspring, children – with four terms that depict Israel’s sinful condition in Isaiah’s day – sinful, evil, wrong, wicked (see J. A. Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 43).

[1:4]  ⁴ sn Holy One of Israel is one of Isaiah’s favorite divine titles for God. It pictures the Lord as the sovereign king who rules over his covenant people and exercises moral authority over them.

[1:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “they are estranged backward.” The LXX omits this statement, which presents syntactical problems and seems to be outside the synonymous parallelistic structure of the verse.

[30:1]  ⁶ tn Or “stubborn” (NCV); cf. NIV “obstinate.”

[30:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “Woe [to] rebellious children.”

[30:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “making a plan, but not from me.”

[30:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “and pouring out a libation, but not [from] my spirit.” This translation assumes that the verb נָסַךְ (nasakh) means “pour out,” and that the cognate noun מַסֵּכָה (massekhah) means “libation.” In this case “pouring out a libation” alludes to a ceremony that formally ratifies an alliance. Another option is to understand the verb נָסַךְ as a homonym meaning “weave,” and the cognate noun מַסֵּכָה as a homonym meaning “covering.” In this case forming an alliance is likened to weaving a garment.

[30:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “consequently adding sin to sin.”

[57:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the one who dwells forever.” שֹׁכֵן עַד (shokhen ’ad) is sometimes translated “the one who lives forever,” and understood as a reference to God’s eternal existence. However, the immediately preceding and following descriptions (“high and exalted” and “holy”) emphasize his sovereign rule. In the next line, he declares, “I dwell in an exalted and holy [place],” which refers to the place from which he rules. Therefore it is more likely that שֹׁכֵן עַד (shokhen ’ad) means “I dwell [in my lofty palace] forever” and refers to God’s eternal kingship.

[57:15]  ¹² tn Heb “and also with the crushed and lowly of spirit.” This may refer to the repentant who have humbled themselves (see 66:2) or more generally to the exiles who have experienced discouragement and humiliation.

[57:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “to restore the lowly of spirit and to restore the heart of the crushed.”

[66:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “all these.” The phrase refers to the heavens and earth, mentioned in the previous verse.

[66:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and all these were.” Some prefer to emend וַיִּהְיוּ (vayyihyu, “and they were”) to וְלִי הָיוּ (vÿli hayu, “and to me they were”), i.e., “and they belong to me.”

[66:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and to this one I look” (KJV and NASB both similar).

[66:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to the humble and the lowly in spirit and the one who trembles at my words.”