4:6 Is not your piety 4 your confidence, 5
and your blameless ways your hope? 6
4:7 Call to mind now: 7
Who, 8 being innocent, ever perished? 9
And where were upright people 10 ever destroyed? 11
21:14 So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us!
We do not want to 12 know your ways. 13
21:15 Who is the Almighty, that 14 we should serve him?
What would we gain
if we were to pray 15 to him?’ 16
16:17 although 17 there is no violence in my hands
and my prayer is pure.
26:5 I hate the mob 18 of evil men,
and do not associate 19 with the wicked.
26:6 I maintain a pure lifestyle, 20
so I can appear before your altar, 21 O Lord,
15:8 The Lord abhors 22 the sacrifices 23 of the wicked, 24
but the prayer 25 of the upright pleases him. 26
1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I look the other way; 27
when you offer your many prayers,
I do not listen,
because your hands are covered with blood. 28
1:1 Here is the message about Judah and Jerusalem 29 that was revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz during the time when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah reigned over Judah. 30
2:8 Their land is full of worthless idols;
they worship 31 the product of their own hands,
what their own fingers have fashioned.
2:1 Here is the message about Judah and Jerusalem 32 that was revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz. 33
1 tn The Hebrew has “have you placed your heart on Job?” This means “direct your mind to” (cf. BDB 963 s.v. I שׂוּם 2.b).
2 tn The Hebrew conjunction כִּי (ki) need not be translated in this case or it might be taken as emphatic (cf. IBHS 665 §39.3.4e): “Certainly there is no one like him.”
3 tn The same expressions that appeared at the beginning of the chapter appear here in the words of God. In contrast to that narrative report about Job, the emphasis here is on Job’s present character, and so the participle form is translated here asa gnomic or characteristic present (“turns”). It modifies “man” as one who is turning from evil.
4 tn The word יִרְאָה (yir’ah, “fear”) in this passage refers to Job’s fear of the
5 tn The word כִּסְלָתֶךָ (kislatekha, “your confidence”) is rendered in the LXX by “founded in folly.” The word כֶּסֶל (kesel) is “confidence” (see 8:14) and elsewhere “folly.” Since it is parallel to “your hope” it must mean confidence here.
6 tn This second half of the verse simply has “your hope and the integrity of your ways.” The expression “the perfection of your ways” is parallel to “your fear,” and “your hope” is parallel to “your confidence.” This sentence is an example of casus pendens or extraposition: “as for your hope, it is the integrity of your ways” (see GKC 458 §143.d).
7 sn Eliphaz will put his thesis forward first negatively and then positively (vv. 8ff). He will argue that the suffering of the righteous is disciplinary and not for their destruction. He next will argue that it is the wicked who deserve judgment.
8 tn The use of the independent personal pronoun is emphatic, almost as an enclitic to emphasize interrogatives: “who indeed….” (GKC 442 §136.c).
9 tn The perfect verb in this line has the nuance of the past tense to express the unique past – the uniqueness of the action is expressed with “ever” (“who has ever perished”).
10 tn The adjective is used here substantivally. Without the article the word stresses the meaning of “uprightness.” Job will use “innocent” and “upright” together in 17:8.
11 tn The Niphal means “to be hidden” (see the Piel in 6:10; 15:18; and 27:11); the connotation here is “destroyed” or “annihilated.”
12 tn The absence of the preposition before the complement adds greater vividness to the statement: “and knowing your ways – we do not desire.”
13 sn Contrast Ps 25:4, which affirms that walking in God’s ways means to obey God’s will – the Torah.
14 tn The interrogative clause is followed by ki, similar to Exod 5:2, “Who is Yahweh, that I should obey him?”
15 tn The verb פָּגַע (paga’) means “to encounter; to meet,” but also “to meet with request; to intercede; to interpose.” The latter meaning is a derived meaning by usage.
16 tn The verse is not present in the LXX. It may be that it was considered too blasphemous and therefore omitted.
17 tn For the use of the preposition עַל (’al) to introduce concessive clauses, see GKC 499 §160.c.
18 tn Heb “assembly, company.”
19 tn Heb “sit.” The psalmist uses the imperfect form of the verb to emphasize that he does not make a practice of associating with such people.
20 tn Heb “I wash my hands in innocence.” The psalmist uses an image from cultic ritual to picture his moral lifestyle. The imperfect verbal emphasizes that this is his habit.
21 tn Heb “so I can go around your altar” (probably in ritual procession). Following the imperfect of the preceding line, the cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose or result.
22 tn Heb “an abomination of the
23 tn Heb “sacrifice” (so many English versions).
24 sn The sacrifices of the wicked are hated by the
25 sn J. H. Greenstone notes that if God will accept the prayers of the upright, he will accept their sacrifices; for sacrifice is an outer ritual and easily performed even by the wicked, but prayer is a private and inward act and not usually fabricated by unbelievers (Proverbs, 162).
26 tn Heb “[is] his pleasure.” The 3rd person masculine singular suffix functions as a subjective genitive: “he is pleased.” God is pleased with the prayers of the upright.
27 tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”
28 sn This does not just refer to the blood of sacrificial animals, but also the blood, as it were, of their innocent victims. By depriving the poor and destitute of proper legal recourse and adequate access to the economic system, the oppressors have, for all intents and purposes, “killed” their victims.
29 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
30 tn Heb “The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah.”
31 tn Or “bow down to” (NIV, NRSV).
32 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
33 tn Heb “the word which Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.”
34 tn Heb “houses of breath.” HALOT 124 s.v. בַּיִת defines them as “scent-bottles”; cf. NAB, NRSV “perfume boxes.”