Isaiah 30:9

30:9 For these are rebellious people –

they are lying children,

children unwilling to obey the Lord’s law. ¹ 

Isaiah 51:18

51:18 There was no one to lead her

among all the children she bore;

there was no one to take her by the hand

among all the children she raised.

Isaiah 13:18

13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; ² 

they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, ³ 

they will not ⁴  look with pity on children.

Isaiah 63:8

63:8 He said, “Certainly they will be my people,

children who are not disloyal.” ⁵ 

He became their deliverer.

Isaiah 1:2

Obedience, not Sacrifice

1:2 Listen, O heavens,

pay attention, O earth! ⁶ 

For the Lord speaks:

“I raised children, ⁷  I brought them up, ⁸ 

but ⁹  they have rebelled ¹⁰  against me!

Isaiah 30:1

Egypt Will Prove Unreliable

30:1 “The rebellious ¹¹  children are as good as dead,” ¹²  says the Lord,

“those who make plans without consulting me, ¹³ 

who form alliances without consulting my Spirit, ¹⁴ 

and thereby compound their sin. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 1:4

1:4 ¹⁶ The sinful nation is as good as dead, ¹⁷ 

the people weighed down by evil deeds.

They are offspring who do wrong,

children ¹⁸  who do wicked things.

They have abandoned the Lord,

and rejected the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁹ 

They are alienated from him. ²⁰ 

Isaiah 37:3

37:3 “This is what Hezekiah says: ²¹  ‘This is a day of distress, insults, ²²  and humiliation, ²³  as when a baby is ready to leave the birth canal, but the mother lacks the strength to push it through. ²⁴ 

[30:9]  ¹ tn Or perhaps, “instruction” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); NCV, TEV “teachings.”

[13:18]  ² tn Heb “and bows cut to bits young men.” “Bows” stands by metonymy for arrows.

[13:18]  ³ tn Heb “the fruit of the womb.”

[13:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “their eye does not.” Here “eye” is a metonymy for the whole person.

[63:8]  ³ tn Heb “children [who] do not act deceitfully.” Here the verb refers to covenantal loyalty.

[1:2]  ⁴ sn The personified heavens and earth are summoned to God’s courtroom as witnesses against God’s covenant people. Long before this Moses warned the people that the heavens and earth would be watching their actions (see Deut 4:26; 30:19; 31:28; 32:1).

[1:2]  ⁵ tn Or “sons” (NAB, NASB).

[1:2]  ⁶ sn The normal word pair for giving birth to and raising children is יָלַד (yalad, “to give birth to”) and גָּדַל (gadal, “to grow, raise”). The pair גָּדַל and רוּם (rum, “to raise up”) probably occur here to highlight the fact that Yahweh made something important of Israel (cf. R. Mosis, TDOT 2:403).

[1:2]  ⁷ sn Against the backdrop of Yahweh’s care for his chosen people, Israel’s rebellion represents abhorrent treachery. The conjunction prefixed to a nonverbal element highlights the sad contrast between Yahweh’s compassionate care for His people and Israel’s thankless rebellion.

[1:2]  ⁸ sn To rebel carries the idea of “covenant treachery.” Although an act of פֶּשַׁע (pesha’, “rebellion”) often signifies a breach of the law, the legal offense also represents a violation of an existing covenantal relationship (E. Carpenter and M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 3:707).

[30:1]  ⁵ tn Or “stubborn” (NCV); cf. NIV “obstinate.”

[30:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “Woe [to] rebellious children.”

[30:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “making a plan, but not from me.”

[30:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “and pouring out a libation, but not [from] my spirit.” This translation assumes that the verb נָסַךְ (nasakh) means “pour out,” and that the cognate noun מַסֵּכָה (massekhah) means “libation.” In this case “pouring out a libation” alludes to a ceremony that formally ratifies an alliance. Another option is to understand the verb נָסַךְ as a homonym meaning “weave,” and the cognate noun מַסֵּכָה as a homonym meaning “covering.” In this case forming an alliance is likened to weaving a garment.

[30:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “consequently adding sin to sin.”

[1:4]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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.

[37:3]  ⁷ tn In the Hebrew text this verse begins with “they said to him” (cf. NRSV).

[37:3]  ⁸ tn Or “rebuke” (KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV), or “correction.”

[37:3]  ⁹ tn Or “contempt”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “disgrace.”

[37:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “when sons come to the cervical opening and there is no strength to give birth.”