Isaiah 1:21

Purifying Judgment

1:21 How tragic that the once-faithful city

has become a prostitute! ¹ 

She was once a center of ²  justice,

fairness resided in her,

but now only murderers. ³ 

Isaiah 5:3

5:3 So now, residents of Jerusalem, ⁴ 

people ⁵  of Judah,

you decide between me and my vineyard!

Isaiah 48:6-7

48:6 You have heard; now look at all the evidence! ⁶ 

Will you not admit that what I say is true? ⁷ 

From this point on I am announcing to you new events

that are previously unrevealed and you do not know about. ⁸ 

48:7 Now they come into being, ⁹  not in the past;

before today you did not hear about them,

so you could not say,

‘Yes, ¹⁰  I know about them.’

Isaiah 49:19

49:19 Yes, your land lies in ruins;

it is desolate and devastated. ¹¹ 

But now you will be too small to hold your residents,

and those who devoured you will be far away.

Isaiah 64:8

64:8 Yet, ¹²  Lord, you are our father.

We are the clay, and you are our potter;

we are all the product of your labor. ¹³ 

[1:21]  ¹ tn Heb “How she has become a prostitute, the faithful city!” The exclamatory אֵיכָה (’ekhah, “how!”) is used several times as the beginning of a lament (see Lam 1:1; 2;1; 4:1-2). Unlike a number of other OT passages that link references to Israel’s harlotry to idolatry, Isaiah here makes the connection with social and moral violations.

[1:21]  ² tn Heb “filled with.”

[1:21]  ³ tn Or “assassins.” This refers to the oppressive rich and/or their henchmen. R. Ortlund (Whoredom, 78) posits that it serves as a synecdoche for all varieties of criminals, the worst being mentioned to imply all lesser ones. Since Isaiah often addressed his strongest rebuke to the rulers and leaders of Israel, he may have in mind the officials who bore the responsibility to uphold justice and righteousness.

[5:3]  ⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “men,” but in a generic sense.

[48:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “gaze [at] all of it”; KJV “see all this.”

[48:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “[as for] you, will you not declare?”

[48:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “and hidden things, and you do not know them.”

[48:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “are created” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “They are brand new.”

[48:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “look”; KJV, NASB “Behold.”

[49:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “Indeed your ruins and your desolate places, and the land of your destruction.” This statement is abruptly terminated in the Hebrew text and left incomplete.

[64:8]  ¹⁶ tn On the force of וְעַתָּה (vÿ’attah) here, see HALOT 902 s.v. עַתָּה.

[64:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the work of your hand.”