Isaiah 1:5

Context

1:5 ¹Why do you insist on being battered?

Why do you continue to rebel?²

Your head has a massive wound,³

your whole body is weak.⁴

Isaiah 14:6

Context

14:6 It⁵ furiously struck down nations

with unceasing blows.⁶

It angrily ruled over nations,

oppressing them without restraint.⁷

Isaiah 59:13

Context

59:13 We have rebelled and tried to deceive the Lord;

we turned back from following our God.

We stir up⁸ oppression and rebellion;

we tell lies we concocted in our minds.⁹

[1:5] ¹sn In vv. 5-9 Isaiah addresses the battered nation (5-8) and speaks as their representative (9).

[1:5] ²tn 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] ³tn Heb “all the head is ill”; NRSV “the whole head is sick”; CEV “Your head is badly bruised.”

[1:5] ⁴tn 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).

[14:6] ⁵tn Or perhaps, “he” (cf. KJV; NCV “the king of Babylon”). The present translation understands the referent of the pronoun (“it”) to be the “club/scepter” of the preceding line.

[14:6] ⁶tn Heb “it was striking down nations in fury [with] a blow without ceasing.” The participle (“striking down”) suggests repeated or continuous action in past time.

[14:6] ⁷tn Heb “it was ruling in anger nations [with] oppression without restraint.” The participle (“ruling”) suggests repeated or continuous action in past time.

[59:13] ⁹tn Heb “speaking.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[59:13] ¹⁰tn Heb “conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.”