Isaiah 34:3

34:3 Their slain will be left unburied, ¹ 

their corpses will stink; ² 

the hills will soak up their blood. ³ 

Isaiah 34:7

34:7 Wild oxen will be slaughtered ⁴  along with them,

as well as strong bulls. ⁵ 

Their land is drenched with blood,

their soil is covered with fat.

Isaiah 59:3

59:3 For your hands are stained with blood

and your fingers with sin;

your lips speak lies,

your tongue utters malicious words.

Isaiah 34:6

34:6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,

it is covered ⁶  with fat;

it drips ⁷  with the blood of young rams and goats

and is covered ⁸  with the fat of rams’ kidneys.

For the Lord is holding a sacrifice ⁹  in Bozrah, ¹⁰ 

a bloody ¹¹  slaughter in the land of Edom.

Isaiah 1:11

1:11 “Of what importance to me are your many sacrifices?” ¹² 

says the Lord.

“I am stuffed with ¹³  burnt sacrifices

of rams and the fat from steers.

The blood of bulls, lambs, and goats

I do not want. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 1:15

1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I look the other way; ¹⁵ 

when you offer your many prayers,

I do not listen,

because your hands are covered with blood. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 4:4

4:4 At that time ¹⁷  the sovereign master ¹⁸  will wash the excrement ¹⁹  from Zion’s women,

he will rinse the bloodstains from Jerusalem’s midst, ²⁰ 

as he comes to judge

and to bring devastation. ²¹ 

Isaiah 9:5

9:5 Indeed every boot that marches and shakes the earth ²² 

and every garment dragged through blood

is used as fuel for the fire.

Isaiah 15:9

15:9 Indeed, the waters of Dimon ²³  are full of blood!

Indeed, I will heap even more trouble on Dimon. ²⁴ 

A lion will attack ²⁵  the Moabite fugitives

and the people left in the land.

Isaiah 49:26

49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;

they will get drunk on their own blood, as if it were wine. ²⁶ 

Then all humankind ²⁷  will recognize that

I am the Lord, your deliverer,

your protector, ²⁸  the powerful ruler of Jacob.” ²⁹ 

Isaiah 59:7

59:7 They are eager to do evil, ³⁰ 

quick to shed innocent blood. ³¹ 

Their thoughts are sinful;

they crush and destroy. ³² 

Isaiah 26:21

26:21 For look, the Lord is coming out of the place where he lives, ³³ 

to punish the sin of those who live on the earth.

The earth will display the blood shed on it;

it will no longer cover up its slain. ³⁴ 

Isaiah 33:15

33:15 The one who lives ³⁵  uprightly ³⁶ 

and speaks honestly;

the one who refuses to profit from oppressive measures

and rejects a bribe; ³⁷ 

the one who does not plot violent crimes ³⁸ 

and does not seek to harm others ³⁹  –

Isaiah 66:3

66:3 The one who slaughters a bull also strikes down a man; ⁴⁰ 

the one who sacrifices a lamb also breaks a dog’s neck; ⁴¹ 

the one who presents an offering includes pig’s blood with it; ⁴² 

the one who offers incense also praises an idol. ⁴³ 

They have decided to behave this way; ⁴⁴ 

they enjoy these disgusting practices. ⁴⁵ 

[34:3]  ¹ tn Heb “will be cast aside”; NASB, NIV “thrown out.”

[34:3]  ² tn Heb “[as for] their corpses, their stench will arise.”

[34:3]  ³ tn Heb “hills will dissolve from their blood.”

[34:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “will go down”; NAB “shall be struck down.”

[34:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “and bulls along with strong ones.” Perhaps this refers to the leaders.

[34:6]  ⁷ tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.

[34:6]  ⁸ tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ⁹ tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”

[34:6]  ¹¹ sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.

[34:6]  ¹² tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[1:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Why to me the multitude of your sacrifices?” The sarcastic rhetorical question suggests that their many sacrifices are of no importance to the Lord. This phrase answers the possible objection that an Israelite could raise in response to God’s indictment: “But we are offering the sacrifices you commanded!”

[1:11]  ¹¹ tn The verb שָׂבַע (sava’, “be satisfied, full”) is often used of eating and/or drinking one’s fill. See BDB 959 s.v. שָׂבַע. Here sacrifices are viewed, in typical ancient Near Eastern fashion, as food for the deity. God here declares that he has eaten and drunk, as it were, his fill.

[1:11]  ¹² sn In the chiastic structure of the verse, the verbs at the beginning and end highlight God’s displeasure, while the heaping up of references to animals, fat, and blood in the middle lines hints at why God wants no more of their sacrifices. They have, as it were, piled the food on his table and he needs no more.

[1:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”

[1:15]  ¹⁴ sn This does not just refer to the blood of sacrificial animals, but also the blood, as it were, of their innocent victims. By depriving the poor and destitute of proper legal recourse and adequate access to the economic system, the oppressors have, for all intents and purposes, “killed” their victims.

[4:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “when” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); CEV “after”; NRSV “once.”

[4:4]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).

[4:4]  ¹⁸ tn The word refers elsewhere to vomit (Isa 28:8) and fecal material (Isa 36:12). Many English versions render this somewhat euphemistically as “filth” (e.g., NAB, NIV, NRSV). Ironically in God’s sight the beautiful jewelry described earlier is nothing but vomit and feces, for it symbolizes the moral decay of the city’s residents (cf. NLT “moral filth”).

[4:4]  ¹⁹ sn See 1:21 for a related concept.

[4:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.” The precise meaning of the second half of the verse is uncertain. רוּחַ (ruakh) can be understood as “wind” in which case the passage pictures the Lord using a destructive wind as an instrument of judgment. However, this would create a mixed metaphor, for the first half of the verse uses the imagery of washing and rinsing to depict judgment. Perhaps the image would be that of a windstorm accompanied by heavy rain. רוּחַ can also mean “spirit,” in which case the verse may be referring to the Lord’s Spirit or, more likely, to a disposition that the Lord brings to the task of judgment. It is also uncertain if בָּעַר (ba’ar) here means “burning” or “sweeping away, devastating.”

[9:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Indeed every boot marching with shaking.” On the meaning of סְאוֹן (sÿ’on, “boot”) and the related denominative verb, both of which occur only here, see HALOT 738 s.v. סְאוֹן.

[15:9]  ²² tc The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a reads “Dibon” instead of “Dimon” in this verse.

[15:9]  ²³ tn Heb “Indeed I will place on Dimon added things.” Apparently the Lord is speaking.

[15:9]  ²⁴ tn The words “will attack” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[49:26]  ²⁵ sn Verse 26a depicts siege warfare and bloody defeat. The besieged enemy will be so starved they will their own flesh. The bloodstained bodies lying on the blood-soaked battle site will look as if they collapsed in drunkenness.

[49:26]  ²⁶ tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB).

[49:26]  ²⁷ tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:26]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the powerful [one] of Jacob.” See 1:24.

[59:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “their feet run to evil.”

[59:7]  ²⁹ tn Heb “they quickly pour out innocent blood.”

[59:7]  ³⁰ tn Heb “their thoughts are thoughts of sin, destruction and crushing [are] in their roadways.”

[26:21]  ³¹ tn Heb “out of his place” (so KJV, ASV).

[26:21]  ³² sn This implies that rampant bloodshed is one of the reasons for divine judgment. See the note at 24:5.

[33:15]  ³⁴ tn Heb “walks” (so NASB, NIV).

[33:15]  ³⁵ tn Or, possibly, “justly”; NAB “who practices virtue.”

[33:15]  ³⁶ tn Heb “[who] shakes off his hands from grabbing hold of a bribe.”

[33:15]  ³⁷ tn Heb “[who] shuts his ear from listening to bloodshed.”

[33:15]  ³⁸ tn Heb “[who] closes his eyes from seeing evil.”

[66:3]  ³⁷ tn Heb “one who slaughters a bull, one who strikes down a man.” Some understand a comparison here and in the following lines. In God’s sight the one who sacrifices is like (i.e., regarded as) a murderer or one whose worship is ritually defiled or idolatrous. The translation above assumes that the language is not metaphorical, but descriptive of the sinners’ hypocritical behavior. (Note the last two lines of the verse, which suggests they are guilty of abominable practices.) On the one hand, they act pious and offer sacrifices; but at the same time they commit violent crimes against men, defile their sacrifices, and worship other gods.

[66:3]  ³⁸ tn Heb “one who sacrifices a lamb, one who breaks a dog’s neck.” Some understand a comparison, but see the previous note.

[66:3]  ³⁹ tn Heb “one who offers an offering, pig’s blood.” Some understand a comparison, but see the note at the end of the first line.

[66:3]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “one who offers incense as a memorial offering, one who blesses something false.” Some understand a comparison, but see the note at the end of the first line. אָוֶן (’aven), which has a wide variety of attested nuances, here refers metonymically to an idol. See HALOT 22 s.v. and BDB 20 s.v. 2.

[66:3]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “also they have chosen their ways.”

[66:3]  ⁴² tn Heb “their being [or “soul”] takes delight in their disgusting [things].”