Isaiah 24:5

24:5 The earth is defiled by ¹  its inhabitants, ² 

for they have violated laws,

disregarded the regulation, ³ 

and broken the permanent treaty. ⁴ 

Isaiah 31:6

31:6 You Israelites! Return to the one against whom you have so blatantly rebelled! ⁵ 

[24:5]  ¹ tn Heb “beneath”; cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV “under”; NAB “because of.”

[24:5]  ² sn Isa 26:21 suggests that the earth’s inhabitants defiled the earth by shedding the blood of their fellow human beings. See also Num 35:33-34, which assumes that bloodshed defiles a land.

[24:5]  ³ tn Heb “moved past [the?] regulation.”

[24:5]  ⁴ tn Or “everlasting covenant” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the ancient covenant”; CEV “their agreement that was to last forever.”

[31:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “Return to the one [against] whom the sons of Israel made deep rebellion.” The syntax is awkward here. A preposition is omitted by ellipsis after the verb (see GKC 446 §138.f, n. 2), and there is a shift from direct address (note the second plural imperative “return”) to the third person (note “they made deep”). For other examples of abrupt shifts in person in poetic style, see GKC 462 §144.p.