Isaiah 1:29

1:29 Indeed, they ¹  will be ashamed of the sacred trees

you ²  find so desirable;

you will be embarrassed because of the sacred orchards ³ 

where you choose to worship.

Isaiah 42:17

42:17 Those who trust in idols

will turn back and be utterly humiliated, ⁴ 

those who say to metal images, ‘You are our gods.’”

Isaiah 45:16

45:16 They will all be ashamed and embarrassed;

those who fashion idols will all be humiliated. ⁵ 

Isaiah 45:1

45:1 This is what the Lord says to his chosen ⁶  one,

to Cyrus, whose right hand I hold ⁷ 

in order to subdue nations before him,

and disarm kings, ⁸ 

to open doors before him,

so gates remain unclosed:

Isaiah 5:3-7

5:3 So now, residents of Jerusalem, ⁹ 

people ¹⁰  of Judah,

you decide between me and my vineyard!

5:4 What more can I do for my vineyard

beyond what I have already done?

When I waited for it to produce edible grapes,

why did it produce sour ones instead?

5:5 Now I will inform you

what I am about to do to my vineyard:

I will remove its hedge and turn it into pasture, ¹¹ 

I will break its wall and allow animals to graze there. ¹² 

5:6 I will make it a wasteland;

no one will prune its vines or hoe its ground, ¹³ 

and thorns and briers will grow there.

I will order the clouds

not to drop any rain on it.

5:7 Indeed ¹⁴  Israel ¹⁵  is the vineyard of the Lord who commands armies,

the people ¹⁶  of Judah are the cultivated place in which he took delight.

He waited for justice, but look what he got – disobedience! ¹⁷ 

He waited for fairness, but look what he got – cries for help! ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 6:4-5

6:4 The sound of their voices shook the door frames, ¹⁹  and the temple was filled with smoke.

6:5 I said, “Too bad for me! I am destroyed, ²⁰  for my lips are contaminated by sin, ²¹  and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. ²²  My eyes have seen the king, the Lord who commands armies.” ²³ 

Psalms 97:7

97:7 All who worship idols are ashamed,

those who boast about worthless idols.

All the gods bow down before him. ²⁴ 

Jeremiah 2:26-27

2:26 Just as a thief has to suffer dishonor when he is caught,

so the people of Israel ²⁵  will suffer dishonor for what they have done. ²⁶ 

So will their kings and officials,

their priests and their prophets.

2:27 They say to a wooden idol, ²⁷  ‘You are my father.’

They say to a stone image, ‘You gave birth to me.’ ²⁸ 

Yes, they have turned away from me instead of turning to me. ²⁹ 

Yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’

Jeremiah 10:14

10:14 All these idolaters ³⁰  will prove to be stupid and ignorant.

Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.

For the image he forges is merely a sham. ³¹ 

There is no breath in any of those idols. ³² 

Jeremiah 51:17

51:17 All idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant.

Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.

For the image he forges is merely a sham.

There is no breath in any of those idols.

[1:29]  ¹ tc The Hebrew text (and the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a) has the third person here, though a few Hebrew mss (and Targums) read the second person, which is certainly more consistent with the following context. The third person form is the more difficult reading and probably original. This disagreement in person has caused some to emend the first verb (3rd plural) to a 2nd plural form (followed by most English translations). The BHS textual apparatus suggests that the 2nd plural form be read even though there is only sparse textual evidence. LXX, Syriac, and the Vulgate change all the 2nd person verbs in 1:29-31 to 3rd person verbs. It is likely that the change to a 2nd person form represents an attempt at syntactical harmonization (J. de Waard, Isaiah, 10). The abrupt change from 3rd person to 2nd person may have been intentional for rhetorical impact (GKC 462 §144.p). The rapid change from exclamation (they did!) to reproach (you desired!) might be regarded as a rhetorical figure focusing attention on the addressees and their conditions (de Waard, 10; E. König, Stilistik, Rhetorik, Poetik, 239). This use of the 3rd person could also be understood as an impersonal third person: “one will be ashamed” (de Waard, 10). In v. 29 the prophet continues his description of the sinners (v. 28), but then suddenly makes a transition to direct address (switching from 3^rd to 2^nd person) in the middle of his sentence.

[1:29]  ² tn The second person pronouns in vv. 29-30 are masculine plural, indicating that the rebellious sinners (v. 28) are addressed.

[1:29]  ³ tn Or “gardens” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “groves.”

[42:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “be ashamed with shame”; ASV, NASB “be utterly put to shame.”

[45:16]  ⁵ tn “together they will walk in humiliation, the makers of images.”

[45:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “anointed” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NCV “his appointed king.”

[45:1]  ⁷ sn The “right hand” is a symbol of activity and strength; the Lord directs Cyrus’ activities and assures his success.

[45:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the belts of kings I will loosen”; NRSV “strip kings of their robes”; NIV “strip kings of their armor.”

[5:3]  ⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “men,” but in a generic sense.

[5:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and it will become [a place for] grazing.” בָּעַר (ba’ar, “grazing”) is a homonym of the more often used verb “to burn.”

[5:5]  ¹² tn Heb “and it will become a trampled place” (NASB “trampled ground”).

[5:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “it will not be pruned or hoed” (so NASB); ASV and NRSV both similar.

[5:7]  ¹⁴ tn Or “For” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[5:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the house of Israel” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[5:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “men,” but in a generic sense.

[5:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “but, look, disobedience.” The precise meaning of מִשְׂפָּח (mishpakh), which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain. Some have suggested a meaning “bloodshed.” The term is obviously chosen for its wordplay value; it sounds very much like מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, “justice”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.

[5:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “but, look, a cry for help.” The verb (“he waited”) does double duty in the parallelism. צְעָקָה (tsa’qah) refers to the cries for help made by the oppressed. It sounds very much like צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “fairness”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.

[6:4]  ¹⁹ tn On the phrase אַמּוֹת הַסִּפִּים (’ammot hassippim, “pivots of the frames”) see HALOT 763 s.v. סַף.

[6:5]  ²⁰ tn Isaiah uses the suffixed (perfect) form of the verb for rhetorical purposes. In this way his destruction is described as occurring or as already completed. Rather than understanding the verb as derived from דָּמַה (damah, “be destroyed”), some take it from a proposed homonymic root דמה, which would mean “be silent.” In this case, one might translate, “I must be silent.”

[6:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “a man unclean of lips am I.” Isaiah is not qualified to praise the king. His lips (the instruments of praise) are “unclean” because he has been contaminated by sin.

[6:5]  ²² tn Heb “and among a nation unclean of lips I live.”

[6:5]  ²³ tn Perhaps in this context, the title has a less militaristic connotation and pictures the Lord as the ruler of the heavenly assembly. See the note at 1:9.

[97:7]  ²⁴ tn The translation assumes that the prefixed verbal form in the first line is an imperfect (“are ashamed”) and that the ambiguous form in the third line is a perfect (“bow down”) because the psalmist appears to be describing the effect of the Lord’s mighty theophany on those who witness it (see vv. 5, 8). Another option is to take the prefixed form in the first line as a jussive (“let all who worship idols be ashamed”) and the ambiguous form in the third line as an imperative (“All you gods, bow down before him!”; cf. NIV).

[2:26]  ²⁵ tn Heb “house of Israel.”

[2:26]  ²⁶ tn The words “for what they have done” are implicit in the comparison and are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[2:27]  ²⁷ tn Heb “wood…stone…”

[2:27]  ²⁸ sn The reference to wood and stone is, of course, a pejorative reference to idols made by human hands. See the next verse where reference is made to “the gods you have made.”

[2:27]  ²⁹ tn Heb “they have turned [their] backs to me, not [their] faces.”

[10:14]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Every man.” But in the context this is not a reference to all people without exception but to all idolaters. The referent is made explicit for the sake of clarity.

[10:14]  ³¹ tn Or “nothing but a phony god”; Heb “a lie/falsehood.”

[10:14]  ³² tn Heb “There is no breath in them.” The referent is made explicit so that no one will mistakenly take it to refer to the idolaters or goldsmiths.