78:8 Then they will not be like their ancestors,
who were a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation that was not committed
and faithful to God. 2
1:4 3 The sinful nation is as good as dead, 4
the people weighed down by evil deeds.
They are offspring who do wrong,
children 5 who do wicked things.
They have abandoned the Lord,
and rejected the Holy One of Israel. 6
They are alienated from him. 7
3:7 But when he saw many Pharisees 8 and Sadducees 9 coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
7:51 “You stubborn 23 people, with uncircumcised 24 hearts and ears! 25 You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, like your ancestors 26 did!
1 tn Heb “the
2 tn Heb “a generation that did not make firm its heart and whose spirit was not faithful with God.” The expression “make firm the heart” means “to be committed, devoted” (see 1 Sam 7:3).
3 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.
4 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.
5 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).
6 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.
7 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.
8 sn Pharisees were members of one of the most important and influential religious and political parties of Judaism in the time of Jesus. There were more Pharisees than Sadducees (according to Josephus, Ant. 17.2.4 [17.42] there were more than 6,000 Pharisees at about this time). Pharisees differed with Sadducees on certain doctrines and patterns of behavior. The Pharisees were strict and zealous adherents to the laws of the OT and to numerous additional traditions such as angels and bodily resurrection.
9 sn The Sadducees controlled the official political structures of Judaism at this time, being the majority members of the Sanhedrin. They were known as extremely strict on law and order issues (Josephus, J. W. 2.8.2 [2.119], 2.8.14 [2.164-166]; Ant. 13.5.9 [13.171-173], 13.10.6 [13.293-298], 18.1.2 [18.11], 18.1.4 [18.16-17], 20.9.1 [20.199]; Life 2 [10-11]). See also Matt 16:1-12; 22:23-34; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-38; Acts 5:17; 23:6-8.
10 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
11 tn Grk “And answering, Jesus said.” This is somewhat redundant and has been simplified in the translation.
12 tn Grk “O.” The marker of direct address, ὦ (w), is functionally equivalent to a vocative and is represented in the translation by “you.”
13 tn Or “faithless.”
14 tn Grk “how long.”
15 tn Or “put up with.” See Num 11:12; Isa 46:4.
16 sn The pronouns you…you are plural, indicating that Jesus is speaking to a group rather than an individual.
17 tn Grk “And answering, Jesus said.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “Jesus answered.” Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
18 tn Grk “O.” The marker of direct address, ὦ (w), is functionally equivalent to a vocative and is represented in the translation by “you.”
19 tn Or “faithless.”
20 tn Grk “how long.”
21 tn Or “and put up with.” See Num 11:12; Isa 46:4.
22 sn The pronouns you…you are plural, indicating that Jesus is speaking to a group rather than an individual.
23 sn Traditionally, “stiff-necked people.” Now the critique begins in earnest.
24 tn The term ἀπερίτμητοι (aperitmhtoi, “uncircumcised”) is a NT hapax legomenon (occurs only once). See BDAG 101-2 s.v. ἀπερίτμητος and Isa 52:1.
25 tn Or “You stubborn and obstinate people!” (The phrase “uncircumcised hearts and ears” is another figure for stubbornness.)
26 tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”
27 tn Or “as stars in the universe.”