5:7 Indeed 3 Israel 4 is the vineyard of the Lord who commands armies,
the people 5 of Judah are the cultivated place in which he took delight.
He waited for justice, but look what he got – disobedience! 6
He waited for fairness, but look what he got – cries for help! 7
9:4 For their oppressive yoke
and the club that strikes their shoulders,
the cudgel the oppressor uses on them, 8
you have shattered, as in the day of Midian’s defeat. 9
14:29 Don’t be so happy, all you Philistines,
just because the club that beat you has been broken! 10
For a viper will grow out of the serpent’s root,
and its fruit will be a darting adder. 11
59:6 Their webs cannot be used for clothing;
they cannot cover themselves with what they make.
Their deeds are sinful;
they commit violent crimes. 12
59:7 They are eager to do evil, 13
quick to shed innocent blood. 14
Their thoughts are sinful;
they crush and destroy. 15
59:8 They are unfamiliar with peace;
their deeds are unjust. 16
They use deceitful methods,
and whoever deals with them is unfamiliar with peace. 17
6:7 As a well continually pours out fresh water
so it continually pours out wicked deeds. 18
Sounds of violence and destruction echo throughout it. 19
All I see are sick and wounded people.’ 20
3:10 “They do not know how to do what is right.” (The Lord is speaking.)
“They store up 21 the spoils of destructive violence 22 in their fortresses.
6:3 You refuse to believe a day of disaster will come, 23
but you establish a reign of violence. 24
2:2 They confiscate the fields they desire,
and seize the houses they want. 25
They defraud people of their homes, 26
and deprive people of the land they have inherited. 27
3:3 You 28 devour my people’s flesh,
strip off their skin,
and crush their bones.
You chop them up like flesh in a pot 29 –
like meat in a kettle.
6:12 The city’s rich men think nothing of resorting to violence; 30
her inhabitants lie, 31
their tongues speak deceptive words. 32
1 tc The Hebrew word “the chain” occurs only here in the OT. The reading of the LXX (“and they will make carnage”) seems to imply a Hebrew text of ַהבַּתּוֹק (habbattoq, “disorder, slaughter”) instead of הָרַתּוֹק (haratoq, “the chain”). The LXX is also translating the verb as a third person plural future and taking this as the end of the preceding verse. As M. Greenberg (Ezekiel [AB], 1:154) notes, this may refer to a chain for a train of exiles but “the context does not speak of exile but of the city’s fall. The versions guess desperately and we can do little better.”
2 tn Heb “judgment for blood,” i.e., indictment or accountability for bloodshed. The word for “judgment” does not appear in the similar phrase in 9:9.
3 tn Or “For” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).
4 tn Heb “the house of Israel” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).
5 tn Heb “men,” but in a generic sense.
6 tn Heb “but, look, disobedience.” The precise meaning of מִשְׂפָּח (mishpakh), which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain. Some have suggested a meaning “bloodshed.” The term is obviously chosen for its wordplay value; it sounds very much like מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, “justice”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.
7 tn Heb “but, look, a cry for help.” The verb (“he waited”) does double duty in the parallelism. צְעָקָה (tsa’qah) refers to the cries for help made by the oppressed. It sounds very much like צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “fairness”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.
8 tn Heb “for the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the scepter of the oppressor against him.” The singular pronouns are collective, referring to the people. The oppressed nation is compared to an ox weighed down by a heavy yoke and an animal that is prodded and beaten.
9 sn This alludes to Gideon’s victory over Midian (Judg 7-8), when the Lord delivered Israel from an oppressive foreign invader.
10 sn The identity of this “club” (also referred to as a “serpent” in the next line) is uncertain. It may refer to an Assyrian king, or to Ahaz. For discussion see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:331-32. The viper/adder referred to in the second half of the verse is his successor.
11 tn Heb “flying burning one.” The designation “burning one” may allude to the serpent’s appearance or the effect of its poisonous bite. (See the note at 6:2.) The qualifier “flying” probably refers to the serpent’s quick, darting movements, though one might propose a homonym here, meaning “biting.” (See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:332, n. 18.) Some might think in terms of a mythological flying, fire breathing dragon (cf. NAB “a flying saraph”; CEV “a flying fiery dragon”), but this proposal does not make good sense in 30:6, where the phrase “flying burning one” appears again in a list of desert animals.
12 tn Heb “their deeds are deeds of sin, and the work of violence [is] in their hands.”
13 tn Heb “their feet run to evil.”
14 tn Heb “they quickly pour out innocent blood.”
15 tn Heb “their thoughts are thoughts of sin, destruction and crushing [are] in their roadways.”
16 tn Heb “a way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their pathways.”
17 tn Heb “their paths they make crooked, everyone who walks in it does not know peace.”
18 tc Heb “As a well makes cool/fresh its water, she makes cool/fresh her wickedness.” The translation follows the reading proposed by the Masoretes (Qere) which reads a rare form of the word “well” (בַּיִר [bayir] for בְּאֵר [bÿ’er]) in place of the form written in the text (Kethib, בּוֹר [bor]), which means “cistern.” The latter noun is masculine and the pronoun “its” is feminine. If indeed בַּיִר (bayir) is a byform of בְּאֵר (be’er), which is feminine, it would agree in gender with the pronoun. It also forms a more appropriate comparison since cisterns do not hold fresh water.
19 tn Heb “Violence and destruction are heard in it.”
20 tn Heb “Sickness and wound are continually before my face.”
21 tn Heb “those who.”
22 tn Heb “violence and destruction.” The expression “violence and destruction” stand metonymically for the goods the oppressors have accumulated by their unjust actions.
23 tn Heb “those who push away a day of disaster.”
24 tn Heb “you bring near a seat of violence.” The precise meaning of the Hebrew term שֶׁבֶת (shevet, “seat, sitting”) is unclear in this context. The translation assumes that it refers to a throne from which violence (in the person of the oppressive leaders) reigns. Another option is that the expression refers not to the leaders’ oppressive rule, but to the coming judgment when violence will overtake the nation in the person of enemy invaders.
25 tn Heb “they desire fields and rob [them], and houses and take [them] away.”
26 tn Heb “and they oppress a man and his home.”
27 tn Heb “and a man and his inheritance.” The verb עָשַׁק (’ashaq, “to oppress”; “to wrong”) does double duty in the parallel structure and is understood by ellipsis in the second line.
28 tn Heb “who.”
29 tc The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher, “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר (kish’er, “like flesh”).
30 tn Heb “because her rich are full of violence.”
31 tn Heb “speak lies.”
32 tn Heb “and their tongue is deceptive in their mouth.”
33 tn Grk “boasts against, exults over,” in victory.