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 9:14-17

9:14 So the Lord cut off Israel’s head and tail,

both the shoots and stalk ⁵  in one day.

9:15 The leaders and the highly respected people ⁶  are the head,

the prophets who teach lies are the tail.

9:16 The leaders of this nation were misleading people,

and the people being led were destroyed. ⁷ 

9:17 So the sovereign master was not pleased ⁸  with their young men,

he took no pity ⁹  on their orphans and widows;

for the whole nation was godless ¹⁰  and did wicked things, ¹¹ 

every mouth was speaking disgraceful words. ¹² 

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again. ¹³ 

Isaiah 24:2

24:2 Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people, ¹⁴ 

the master as well as the servant, ¹⁵ 

the elegant lady as well as the female attendant, ¹⁶ 

the seller as well as the buyer, ¹⁷ 

the borrower as well as the lender, ¹⁸ 

the creditor as well as the debtor. ¹⁹ 

[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).

[9:14]  ⁵ sn The metaphor in this line is that of a reed being cut down.

[9:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “the elder and the one lifted up with respect to the face.” For another example of the Hebrew idiom, see 2 Kgs 5:1.

[9:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the ones being led were swallowed up.” Instead of taking מְבֻלָּעִים (mÿbulla’im) from בָּלַע (bala’, “to swallow”), HALOT 134 s.v. בלע proposes a rare homonymic root בלע (“confuse”) here.

[9:17]  ⁸ tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has לא יחמול (“he did not spare”) which is an obvious attempt to tighten the parallelism (note “he took no pity” in the next line). Instead of taking שָׂמַח (samakh) in one of its well attested senses (“rejoice over, be pleased with”), some propose, with support from Arabic, a rare homonymic root meaning “be merciful.”

[9:17]  ⁹ tn The translation understands the prefixed verbs יִשְׂמַח (yismakh) and יְרַחֵם (yÿrakhem) as preterites without vav (ו) consecutive. (See v. 11 and the note on “he stirred up.”)

[9:17]  ¹⁰ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “profaned”; NIV “ungodly.”

[9:17]  ¹¹ tn מֵרַע (mera’) is a Hiphil participle from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil”). The intransitive Hiphil has an exhibitive force here, indicating that they exhibited outwardly the evidence of an inward condition by committing evil deeds.

[9:17]  ¹² tn Or “foolishness” (NASB), here in a moral-ethical sense.

[9:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.”

[24:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and it will be like the people, like the priest.”

[24:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “like the servant, like his master.”

[24:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “like the female servant, like her mistress.”

[24:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “like the buyer, like the seller.”

[24:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “like the lender, like the borrower.”

[24:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “like the creditor, just as the one to whom he lends.”