Isaiah 1:15

1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I look the other way; ¹ 

when you offer your many prayers,

I do not listen,

because your hands are covered with blood. ² 

Isaiah 1:23

1:23 Your officials are rebels, ³ 

they associate with ⁴  thieves.

All of them love bribery,

and look for ⁵  payoffs. ⁶ 

They do not take up the cause of the orphan, ⁷ 

or defend the rights of the widow. ⁸ 

Isaiah 19:1

The Lord Will Judge Egypt

19:1 Here is a message about Egypt:

Look, the Lord rides on a swift-moving cloud

and approaches Egypt.

The idols of Egypt tremble before him;

the Egyptians lose their courage. ⁹ 

Isaiah 26:21

26:21 For look, the Lord is coming out of the place where he lives, ¹⁰ 

to punish the sin of those who live on the earth.

The earth will display the blood shed on it;

it will no longer cover up its slain. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 28:16

28:16 Therefore, this is what the sovereign master, the Lord, says:

“Look, I am laying ¹²  a stone in Zion,

an approved ¹³  stone,

set in place as a precious cornerstone for the foundation. ¹⁴ 

The one who maintains his faith will not panic. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 30:18

The Lord Will Not Abandon His People

30:18 For this reason the Lord is ready to show you mercy;

he sits on his throne, ready to have compassion on you. ¹⁶ 

Indeed, the Lord is a just God;

all who wait for him in faith will be blessed. ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 30:27

30:27 Look, the name ¹⁸  of the Lord comes from a distant place

in raging anger and awesome splendor. ¹⁹ 

He speaks angrily

and his word is like destructive fire. ²⁰ 

Isaiah 41:17

41:17 The oppressed and the poor look for water, but there is none;

their tongues are parched from thirst.

I, the Lord, will respond to their prayers; ²¹ 

I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.

Isaiah 44:11

44:11 Look, all his associates ²²  will be put to shame;

the craftsmen are mere humans. ²³ 

Let them all assemble and take their stand!

They will panic and be put to shame.

Isaiah 53:3

53:3 He was despised and rejected by people, ²⁴ 

one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness;

people hid their faces from him; ²⁵ 

he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. ²⁶ 

Isaiah 60:5

60:5 Then you will look and smile, ²⁷ 

you will be excited and your heart will swell with pride. ²⁸ 

For the riches of distant lands ²⁹  will belong to you

and the wealth of nations will come to you.

[1:15]  ¹ tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”

[1:15]  ² 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.

[1:23]  ³ tn Or “stubborn”; CEV “have rejected me.”

[1:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “and companions of” (so KJV, NASB); CEV “friends of crooks.”

[1:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “pursue”; NIV “chase after gifts.”

[1:23]  ⁶ 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).

[1:23]  ⁷ sn See the note at v. 17.

[1:23]  ⁸ 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.

[19:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the heart of Egypt melts within it.”

[26:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “out of his place” (so KJV, ASV).

[26:21]  ⁸ sn This implies that rampant bloodshed is one of the reasons for divine judgment. See the note at 24:5.

[28:16]  ⁹ tc The Hebrew text has a third person verb form, which does not agree with the first person suffix that precedes. The form should be emended to יֹסֵד (yosed), a Qal active participle used in a present progressive or imminent future sense.

[28:16]  ¹⁰ tn Traditionally “tested,” but the implication is that it has passed the test and stands approved.

[28:16]  ¹¹ sn The reality behind the metaphor is not entirely clear from the context. The stone appears to represent someone or something that gives Zion stability. Perhaps the ideal Davidic ruler is in view (see 32:1). Another option is that the image of beginning a building project by laying a precious cornerstone suggests that God is about to transform Zion through judgment and begin a new covenant community that will experience his protection (see 4:3-6; 31:5; 33:20-24; 35:10).

[28:16]  ¹² tn Heb “will not hurry,” i.e., act in panic.

[30:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Therefore the Lord waits to show you mercy, and therefore he is exalted to have compassion on you.” The logical connection between this verse and what precedes is problematic. The point seems to be that Judah’s impending doom does not bring God joy. Rather the prospect of their suffering stirs within him a willingness to show mercy and compassion, if they are willing to seek him on his terms.

[30:18]  ¹² tn Heb “Blessed are all who wait for him.”

[30:27]  ¹³ sn The “name” of the Lord sometimes stands by metonymy for the Lord himself, see Exod 23:21; Lev 24:11; Pss 54:1 (54:3 HT); 124:8. In Isa 30:27 the point is that he reveals that aspect of his character which his name suggests – he comes as Yahweh (“he is present”), the ever present helper of his people who annihilates their enemies and delivers them. The name “Yahweh” originated in a context where God assured a fearful Moses that he would be with him as he confronted Pharaoh and delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt. See Exod 3.

[30:27]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “his anger burns, and heaviness of elevation.” The meaning of the phrase “heaviness of elevation” is unclear, for מַשָּׂאָה (masa’ah, “elevation”) occurs only here. Some understand the term as referring to a cloud (elevated above the earth’s surface), in which case one might translate, “and in heavy clouds” (cf. NAB “with lowering clouds”). Others relate the noun to מָשָׂא (masa’, “burden”) and interpret it as a reference to judgment. In this case one might translate, “and with severe judgment.” The present translation assumes that the noun refers to his glory and that “heaviness” emphasizes its degree.

[30:27]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “his lips are full of anger, and his tongue is like consuming fire.” The Lord’s lips and tongue are used metonymically for his word (or perhaps his battle cry; see v. 31).

[41:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “will answer them” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[44:11]  ¹⁷ tn The pronoun “his” probably refers to the one who forms/casts an idol (v. 10), in which case it refers to the craftsman’s associates in the idol-manufacturing guild.

[44:11]  ¹⁸ sn The point seems to be this: If the idols are the mere products of human hands, then those who trust in them will be disappointed, for man-made gods are incapable of helping their “creators.”

[53:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “lacking of men.” If the genitive is taken as specifying (“lacking with respect to men”), then the idea is that he lacked company because he was rejected by people. Another option is to take the genitive as indicating genus or larger class (i.e., “one lacking among men”). In this case one could translate, “he was a transient” (cf. the use of חָדֵל [khadel] in Ps 39:5 HT [39:4 ET]).

[53:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “like a hiding of the face from him,” i.e., “like one before whom the face is hidden” (see BDB 712 s.v. מַסְתֵּר).

[53:3]  ²¹ sn The servant is likened to a seriously ill person who is shunned by others because of his horrible disease.

[60:5]  ²¹ tn Or “shine,” or “be radiant” (NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[60:5]  ²² tn Heb “and it will tremble and be wide, your heart.”

[60:5]  ²³ tn Heb “the wealth of the sea,” i.e., wealth that is transported from distant lands via the sea.