Discovery BoxIsaiah 1:1-7
Context1:1 Here is the message about Judah and Jerusalem 1 that was revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz during the time when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah reigned over Judah. 2
1:2 Listen, O heavens,
pay attention, O earth! 3
For the Lord speaks:
“I raised children, 4 I brought them up, 5
but 6 they have rebelled 7 against me!
1:3 An ox recognizes its owner,
a donkey recognizes where its owner puts its food; 8
but Israel does not recognize me, 9
my people do not understand.”
1:4 10 The sinful nation is as good as dead, 11
the people weighed down by evil deeds.
They are offspring who do wrong,
children 12 who do wicked things.
They have abandoned the Lord,
and rejected the Holy One of Israel. 13
They are alienated from him. 14
1:5 15 Why do you insist on being battered?
Why do you continue to rebel? 16
Your head has a massive wound, 17
your whole body is weak. 18
1:6 From the soles of your feet to your head,
there is no spot that is unharmed. 19
There are only bruises, cuts,
and open wounds.
They have not been cleansed 20 or bandaged,
nor have they been treated 21 with olive oil. 22
1:7 Your land is devastated,
your cities burned with fire.
Right before your eyes your crops
are being destroyed by foreign invaders. 23
They leave behind devastation and destruction. 24
[1:1] 1 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[1:1] 2 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.”
[1:2] 3 sn The personified heavens and earth are summoned to God’s courtroom as witnesses against God’s covenant people. Long before this Moses warned the people that the heavens and earth would be watching their actions (see Deut 4:26; 30:19; 31:28; 32:1).
[1:2] 4 tn Or “sons” (NAB, NASB).
[1:2] 5 sn The normal word pair for giving birth to and raising children is יָלַד (yalad, “to give birth to”) and גָּדַל (gadal, “to grow, raise”). The pair גָּדַל and רוּם (rum, “to raise up”) probably occur here to highlight the fact that Yahweh made something important of Israel (cf. R. Mosis, TDOT 2:403).
[1:2] 6 sn Against the backdrop of Yahweh’s care for his chosen people, Israel’s rebellion represents abhorrent treachery. The conjunction prefixed to a nonverbal element highlights the sad contrast between Yahweh’s compassionate care for His people and Israel’s thankless rebellion.
[1:2] 7 sn To rebel carries the idea of “covenant treachery.” Although an act of פֶּשַׁע (pesha’, “rebellion”) often signifies a breach of the law, the legal offense also represents a violation of an existing covenantal relationship (E. Carpenter and M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 3:707).
[1:3] 8 tn Heb “and the donkey the feeding trough of its owner.” The verb in the first line does double duty in the parallelism.
[1:3] 9 tn Although both verbs have no object, the parallelism suggests that Israel fails to recognize the Lord as the one who provides for their needs. In both clauses, the placement of “Israel” and “my people” at the head of the clause focuses the reader’s attention on the rebellious nation (C. van der Merwe, J. Naudé, J. Kroeze, A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar, 346-47).
[1:4] 10 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.
[1:4] 11 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.
[1:4] 12 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).
[1:4] 13 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.
[1:4] 14 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.
[1:5] 15 sn In vv. 5-9 Isaiah addresses the battered nation (5-8) and speaks as their representative (9).
[1:5] 16 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?”
[1:5] 17 tn Heb “all the head is ill”; NRSV “the whole head is sick”; CEV “Your head is badly bruised.”
[1:5] 18 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).
[1:6] 19 tn Heb “there is not in it health”; NAB “there is no sound spot.”
[1:6] 20 tn Heb “pressed out.”
[1:6] 21 tn Heb “softened” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “soothed.”
[1:6] 22 sn This verse describes wounds like those one would receive in battle. These wounds are comprehensive and without remedy.
[1:7] 23 tn Heb “As for your land, before you foreigners are devouring it.”
[1:7] 24 tn Heb “and [there is] devastation like an overthrow by foreigners.” The comparative preposition כְּ (kÿ, “like, as”) has here the rhetorical nuance, “in every way like.” The point is that the land has all the earmarks of a destructive foreign invasion because that is what has indeed happened. One could paraphrase, “it is desolate as it can only be when foreigners destroy.” On this use of the preposition in general, see GKC 376 §118.x. Many also prefer to emend “foreigners” here to “Sodom,” though there is no external attestation for such a reading in the
