1:23 Your officials are rebels, 1
they associate with 2 thieves.
All of them love bribery,
and look for 3 payoffs. 4
They do not take up the cause of the orphan, 5
or defend the rights of the widow. 6
5:23 They pronounce the guilty innocent for a payoff,
they ignore the just cause of the innocent. 7
5:26 “Indeed, there are wicked scoundrels among my people.
They lie in wait like bird catchers hiding in ambush. 8
They set deadly traps 9 to catch people.
5:27 Like a cage filled with the birds that have been caught, 10
their houses are filled with the gains of their fraud and deceit. 11
That is how they have gotten so rich and powerful. 12
5:28 That is how 13 they have grown fat and sleek. 14
There is no limit to the evil things they do. 15
They do not plead the cause of the fatherless in such a way as to win it.
They do not defend the rights of the poor.
2:11 If a lying windbag should come and say, 16
‘I’ll promise you blessings of wine and beer,’ 17
he would be just the right preacher for these people! 18
7:3 They are determined to be experts at doing evil; 19
government officials and judges take bribes, 20
prominent men make demands,
and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. 21
26:14 Then one of the twelve, the one named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 26:15 and said, “What will you give me to betray him into your hands?” 22 So they set out thirty silver coins for him. 26:16 From that time 23 on, Judas 24 began looking for an opportunity to betray him.
1 tn Or “stubborn”; CEV “have rejected me.”
2 tn Heb “and companions of” (so KJV, NASB); CEV “friends of crooks.”
3 tn Heb “pursue”; NIV “chase after gifts.”
4 sn Isaiah may have chosen the word for gifts (שַׁלְמוֹנִים, shalmonim; a hapax legomena here), as a sarcastic pun on what these rulers should have been doing. Instead of attending to peace and wholeness (שָׁלוֹם, shalom), they sought after payoffs (שַׁלְמוֹנִים).
5 sn See the note at v. 17.
6 sn The rich oppressors referred to in Isaiah and the other eighth century prophets were not rich capitalists in the modern sense of the word. They were members of the royal military and judicial bureaucracies in Israel and Judah. As these bureaucracies grew, they acquired more and more land and gradually commandeered the economy and legal system. At various administrative levels bribery and graft become commonplace. The common people outside the urban administrative centers were vulnerable to exploitation in such a system, especially those, like widows and orphans, who had lost their family provider through death. Through confiscatory taxation, conscription, excessive interest rates, and other oppressive governmental measures and policies, they were gradually disenfranchised and lost their landed property, and with it, their rights as citizens. The socio-economic equilibrium envisioned in the law of Moses was radically disturbed.
7 tn Heb “and the just cause of the innocent ones they turn aside from him.”
8 tn The meaning of the last three words is uncertain. The pointing and meaning of the Hebrew word rendered “hiding in ambush” is debated. BDB relates the form (כְּשַׁךְ, kÿshakh) to a root שָׁכַךְ (shakhakh), which elsewhere means “decrease, abate” (cf. BDB 1013 s.v. שָׁכַךְ), and notes that this is usually understood as “like the crouching of fowlers,” but they say this meaning is dubious. HALOT 1345 s.v. I שׁוֹר questions the validity of the text and offers three proposals; the second appears to create the least textual modification, i.e., reading כְּשַׂךְ (kesakh, “as in the hiding place of (bird catchers)”; for the word שַׂךְ (sakh) see HALOT 1236 s.v. שׂךְ 4 and compare Lam 2:6 for usage. The versions do not help. The Greek does not translate the first two words of the line. The proposal given in HALOT is accepted with some hesitancy.
9 tn Heb “a destroying thing.”
10 tn The words, “that have been caught” are not in the text but are implicit in the comparison.
11 tn Heb “are filled with deceit.” The translation assumes a figure of speech of cause for effect (metonymy). Compare the same word in the same figure in Zeph 1:9.
12 tn Heb “therefore they have gotten great and rich.”
13 tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to show that this line is parallel with the preceding.
14 tn The meaning of this word is uncertain. This verb occurs only here. The lexicons generally relate it to the word translated “plate” in Song 5:14 and understand it to mean “smooth, shiny” (so BDB 799 s.v. I עֶשֶׁת) or “fat” (so HALOT 850 s.v. II עֶשֶׁת). The word in Song 5:14 more likely means “smooth” than “plate” (so TEV). So “sleek” is most likely here.
15 tn Heb “they cross over/transgress with respect to matters of evil.”
16 tn Heb “if a man, coming [as] wind and falsehood, should lie”; NASB “walking after wind and falsehood”; NIV “a liar and a deceiver.”
17 tn Heb “I will foam at the mouth concerning wine and beer.”
18 tn Heb “he would be the foamer at the mouth for this people.”
19 tn Heb “upon evil [are their] hands to do [it] well.”
20 tn Heb “the official asks – and the judge – for a bribe.”
21 tn More literally, “the great one announces what his appetite desires and they weave it together.” Apparently this means that subordinates plot and maneuver to make sure the prominent man’s desires materialize.
22 tn Grk “What will you give to me, and I will betray him to you?”
23 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.
24 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Judas) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
25 tn Grk “Now the.” Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
26 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.