Isaiah 14:20

14:20 You will not be buried with them, ¹ 

because you destroyed your land

and killed your people.

The offspring of the wicked

will never be mentioned again.

Isaiah 31:2

31:2 Yet he too is wise ²  and he will bring disaster;

he does not retract his decree. ³ 

He will attack the wicked nation, ⁴ 

and the nation that helps ⁵  those who commit sin. ⁶ 

Isaiah 1:4

1:4 ⁷ The sinful nation is as good as dead, ⁸ 

the people weighed down by evil deeds.

They are offspring who do wrong,

children ⁹  who do wicked things.

They have abandoned the Lord,

and rejected the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁰ 

They are alienated from him. ¹¹ 

[14:20]  ¹ tn Heb “you will not be united with them in burial” (so NASB).

[31:2]  ² sn This statement appears to have a sarcastic tone. The royal advisers who are advocating an alliance with Egypt think they are wise, but the Lord possesses wisdom as well and will thwart their efforts.

[31:2]  ³ tn Heb “and he does not turn aside [i.e., “retract”] his words”; NIV “does not take back his words.”

[31:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he will arise against the house of the wicked.”

[31:2]  ⁵ sn That is, Egypt.

[31:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “and against the help of the doers of sin.”

[1:4]  ³ sn Having summoned the witnesses and announced the Lord’s accusation against Israel, Isaiah mourns the nation’s impending doom. The third person references to the Lord in the second half of the verse suggest that the quotation from the Lord (cf. vv. 2-3) has concluded.

[1:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “Woe [to the] sinful nation.” The Hebrew term הוֹי, (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death. In highly dramatic fashion the prophet acts out Israel’s funeral in advance, emphasizing that their demise is inevitable if they do not repent soon.

[1:4]  ⁵ tn Or “sons” (NASB). The prophet contrasts four terms of privilege – nation, people, offspring, children – with four terms that depict Israel’s sinful condition in Isaiah’s day – sinful, evil, wrong, wicked (see J. A. Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 43).

[1:4]  ⁶ sn Holy One of Israel is one of Isaiah’s favorite divine titles for God. It pictures the Lord as the sovereign king who rules over his covenant people and exercises moral authority over them.

[1:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “they are estranged backward.” The LXX omits this statement, which presents syntactical problems and seems to be outside the synonymous parallelistic structure of the verse.