Isaiah 1:5

1:5 ¹ Why 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 26:11

26:11 O Lord, you are ready to act, ⁵ 

but they don’t even notice.

They will see and be put to shame by your angry judgment against humankind, ⁶ 

yes, fire will consume your enemies. ⁷ 

Isaiah 57:17

57:17 I was angry because of their sinful greed;

I attacked them and angrily rejected them, ⁸ 

yet they remained disobedient and stubborn. ⁹ 

Isaiah 57:2

57:2 Those who live uprightly enter a place of peace;

they rest on their beds. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 28:22

28:22 So now, do not mock,

or your chains will become heavier!

For I have heard a message about decreed destruction,

from the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, against the entire land. ¹¹ 

Job 36:13

36:13 The godless at heart ¹²  nourish anger, ¹³ 

they do not cry out even when he binds them.

Jeremiah 5:3

5:3 Lord, I know you look for faithfulness. ¹⁴ 

But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. ¹⁵ 

Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected.

They have become as hardheaded as a rock. ¹⁶ 

They refuse to change their ways. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 31:18-20

31:18 I have indeed ¹⁸  heard the people of Israel ¹⁹  say mournfully,

‘We were like a calf untrained to the yoke. ²⁰ 

You disciplined us and we learned from it. ²¹ 

Let us come back to you and we will do so, ²² 

for you are the Lord our God.

31:19 For after we turned away from you we repented.

After we came to our senses ²³  we beat our breasts in sorrow. ²⁴ 

We are ashamed and humiliated

because of the disgraceful things we did previously.’ ²⁵ 

31:20 Indeed, the people of Israel are my dear children.

They are the children I take delight in. ²⁶ 

For even though I must often rebuke them,

I still remember them with fondness.

So I am deeply moved with pity for them ²⁷ 

and will surely have compassion on them.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ²⁸ 

Ezekiel 24:13

24:13 You mix uncleanness with obscene conduct. ²⁹ 

I tried to cleanse you, ³⁰  but you are not clean.

You will not be cleansed from your uncleanness ³¹ 

until I have exhausted my anger on you.

Hosea 5:15

5:15 Then I will return again to my lair

until they have suffered their punishment. ³² 

Then they will seek me; ³³ 

in their distress they will earnestly seek me.

Hosea 7:10

7:10 The arrogance of Israel testifies against him,

yet they refuse to return to the Lord their God!

In spite of all this they refuse to seek him!

Hosea 7:16

7:16 They turn to Baal; ³⁴ 

they are like an unreliable bow.

Their leaders will fall by the sword

because their prayers to Baal ³⁵  have made me angry.

So people will disdain them in the land of Egypt. ³⁶ 

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

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

[1:5]  ⁴ 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).

[26:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “O Lord, your hand is lifted up.”

[26:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “They will see and be ashamed of zeal of people.” Some take the prefixed verbs as jussives and translate the statement as a prayer, “Let them see and be put to shame.” The meaning of the phrase קִנְאַת־עָם (qin’at-’am, “zeal of people”) is unclear. The translation assumes that this refers to God’s angry judgment upon people. Another option is to understand the phrase as referring to God’s zealous, protective love of his covenant people. In this case one might translate, “by your zealous devotion to your people.”

[26:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “yes, fire, your enemies, will consume them.” Many understand the prefixed verb form to be jussive and translate, “let [fire] consume” (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV). The mem suffixed to the verb may be enclitic; if a pronominal suffix, it refers back to “your enemies.”

[57:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “and I struck him, hiding, and I was angry.” פָּנַיִם (panayim, “face”) is the implied object of “hiding.”

[57:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “and he walked [as an] apostate in the way of his heart.”

[57:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he enters peace, they rest on their beds, the one who walks straight ahead of himself.” The tomb is here viewed in a fairly positive way as a place where the dead are at peace and sleep undisturbed.

[28:22]  ¹¹ tn Or “the whole earth” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NCV).

[36:13]  ¹² tn The expression “godless [or hypocrite] in heart” is an intensification of the description. It conveys that they are intentionally godless. See Matt 23:28.

[36:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “they put anger.” This is usually interpreted to mean they lay up anger, or put anger in their hearts.

[5:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “O Lord, are your eyes not to faithfulness?” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[5:3]  ¹⁵ tn Commentaries and lexicons debate the meaning of the verb here. The MT is pointed as though from a verb meaning “to writhe in anguish or contrition” (חוּל [khul]; see, e.g., BDB 297 s.v. חוּל 2.c), but some commentaries and lexicons repoint the text as though from a verb meaning “to be sick,” thus “to feel pain” (חָלָה [khalah]; see, e.g., HALOT 304 s.v. חָלָה 3). The former appears more appropriate to the context.

[5:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “They made their faces as hard as a rock.”

[5:3]  ¹⁷ tn Or “to repent”; Heb “to turn back.”

[31:18]  ¹⁸ tn The use of “indeed” is intended to reflect the infinitive absolute which precedes the verb for emphasis (see IBHS 585-86 §35.3.1f).

[31:18]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Ephraim.” See the study note on 31:9. The more familiar term is used, the term “people” added to it, and plural pronouns used throughout the verse to aid in understanding.

[31:18]  ²⁰ tn Heb “like an untrained calf.” The metaphor is that of a calf who has never been broken to bear the yoke (cf. Hos 4:16; 10:11).

[31:18]  ²¹ tn The verb here is from the same root as the preceding and is probably an example of the “tolerative Niphal,” i.e., “I let myself be disciplined/I responded to it.” See IBHS 389-90 §23.4g and note the translation of some of the examples there, especially Isa 19:22; 65:1.

[31:18]  ²² tn Heb “Bring me back in order that I may come back.” For the use of the plural pronouns see the marginal note at the beginning of the verse. The verb “bring back” and “come back” are from the same root in two different verbal stems and in the context express the idea of spiritual repentance and restoration of relationship not physical return to the land. (See BDB 999 s.v. שׁוּב Hiph.2.a for the first verb and 997 s.v. Qal.6.c for the second.) For the use of the cohortative to express purpose after the imperative see GKC 320 §108.d or IBHS 575 §34.5.2b.

[31:19]  ²³ tn For this meaning of the verb see HAL 374 s.v. יָדַע Nif 5 or W. L. Holladay, Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 129. REB translates “Now that I am submissive” relating the verb to a second root meaning “be submissive.” (See HALOT 375 s.v. II יָדַע and J. Barr, Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament, 19-21, for evidence for this verb. Other passages cited with this nuance are Judg 8:16; Prov 10:9; Job 20:20.)

[31:19]  ²⁴ tn Heb “I struck my thigh.” This was a gesture of grief and anguish (cf. Ezek 21:12 [21:17 HT]). The modern equivalent is “to beat the breast.”

[31:19]  ²⁵ tn Heb “because I bear the reproach of my youth.” For the plural referents see the note at the beginning of v. 18.

[31:20]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Is Ephraim a dear son to me or a child of delight?” For the substitution of Israel for Ephraim and the plural pronouns for the singular see the note on v. 18. According to BDB 210 s.v. הֲ 1.c the question is rhetorical having the force of an impassioned affirmation. See 1 Sam 2:27; Job 41:9 (41:1 HT) for parallel usage.

[31:20]  ²⁷ tn Heb “my stomach churns for him.” The parallelism shows that this refers to pity or compassion.

[31:20]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[24:13]  ²⁹ tn Heb “in your uncleanness (is) obscene conduct.”

[24:13]  ³⁰ tn Heb “because I cleansed you.” In this context (see especially the very next statement), the statement must refer to divine intention and purpose. Despite God’s efforts to cleanse his people, they resisted him and remained morally impure.

[24:13]  ³¹ tn The Hebrew text adds the word “again.”

[5:15]  ³² tn The verb יֶאְשְׁמוּ (ye’shÿmu, Qal imperfect 3rd person masculine plural from אָשַׁם, ’asham, “to be guilty”) means “to bear their punishment” (Ps 34:22-23; Prov 30:10; Isa 24:6; Jer 2:3; Hos 5:15; 10:2; 14:1; Zech 11:5; Ezek 6:6; BDB 79 s.v. אָשַׁם 3). Many English versions translate this as “admit their guilt” (NIV, NLT) or “acknowledge their guilt” (NASB, NRSV), but cf. NAB “pay for their guilt” and TEV “have suffered enough for their sins.”

[5:15]  ³³ tn Heb “seek my face” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “seek my presence.”

[7:16]  ³⁴ tc The MT reads the enigmatic יָשׁוּבוּ לֹא עָל (yashuvu lo’ ’al) which is taken variously: “they turn, but not upward” (NASB); “they do not turn to the Most High” (NIV); “they return, but not to the most High” (KJV). The BHS editors suggest יָשׁוּבוּ לַבַּעַל (yashuvu labba’al, “they turn to Baal”; so RSV) or יָשׁוּבוּ לַבְּלִיַּעַל (yashuvu labbÿliyya’al, “they turn to Belial”) which is reflected by the LXX.

[7:16]  ³⁵ tn Heb “because their tongue.” The term “tongue” is used figuratively, as a metonymy of cause (tongue) for the effect (prayers to Baal).

[7:16]  ³⁶ tn Heb “this [will] be for scorn in the land of Egypt”; NIV “they will be ridiculed (NAB shall be mocked) in the land of Egypt.”