32:17 Fairness will produce peace 1
and result in lasting security. 2
32:1 Look, a king will promote fairness; 3
officials will promote justice. 4
1:5 5 Why do you insist on being battered?
Why do you continue to rebel? 6
Your head has a massive wound, 7
your whole body is weak. 8
1:10 And,
“You founded the earth in the beginning, Lord, 12
and the heavens are the works of your hands.
1:1 After God spoke long ago 13 in various portions 14 and in various ways 15 to our ancestors 16 through the prophets,
1 tn Heb “and the product of fairness will be peace.”
2 tn Heb “and the work of fairness [will be] calmness and security forever.”
3 tn Heb “will reign according to fairness.”
4 tn Heb “will rule according to justice.”
5 sn In vv. 5-9 Isaiah addresses the battered nation (5-8) and speaks as their representative (9).
6 tn Heb “Why are you still beaten? [Why] do you continue rebellion?” The rhetorical questions express the prophet’s disbelief over Israel’s apparent masochism and obsession with sin. The interrogative construction in the first line does double duty in the parallelism. H. Wildberger (Isaiah, 1:18) offers another alternative by translating the two statements with one question: “Why do you still wish to be struck that you persist in revolt?”
7 tn Heb “all the head is ill”; NRSV “the whole head is sick”; CEV “Your head is badly bruised.”
8 tn Heb “and all the heart is faint.” The “heart” here stands for bodily strength and energy, as suggested by the context and usage elsewhere (see Jer 8:18; Lam 1:22).
9 tn Grk “in assurance of faith.”
10 sn The phrase our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience combines the OT imagery of the sprinkling with blood to give ritual purity with the emphasis on the interior cleansing provided by the new covenant: It is the heart that is cleansed and the conscience made perfect (cf. Heb 8:10; 9:9, 14; 10:2, 16).
11 tn Grk “the worshipers, having been purified once for all, would have.”
12 sn You founded the earth…your years will never run out. In its original setting Ps 102:25-27 refers to the work of God in creation, but here in Hebrews 1:10-12 the writer employs it in reference to Christ, the Lord, making a strong argument for the essential deity of the Son.
13 tn Or “spoke formerly.”
14 tn Or “parts.” The idea is that God’s previous revelation came in many parts and was therefore fragmentary or partial (L&N 63.19), in comparison with the final and complete revelation contained in God’s Son. However, some interpret πολυμερῶς (polumerw") in Heb 1:1 to mean “on many different occasions” and would thus translate “many times” (L&N 67.11). This is the option followed by the NIV: “at many times and in various ways.” Finally, this word is also understood to refer to the different manners in which something may be done, and would then be translated “in many different ways” (L&N 89.81). In this last case, the two words πολυμερῶς and πολυτρόπως (polutropw") mutually reinforce one another (“in many and various ways,” NRSV).
15 tn These two phrases are emphasized in Greek by being placed at the beginning of the sentence and by alliteration.
16 tn Grk “to the fathers.”
17 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “So” to indicate a summary or conclusion to the argument of the preceding paragraph.