Isaiah 43:27

43:27 The father of your nation ¹  sinned;

your spokesmen ²  rebelled against me.

Isaiah 29:21

29:21 those who bear false testimony against a person, ³ 

who entrap the one who arbitrates at the city gate ⁴ 

and deprive the innocent of justice by making false charges. ⁵ 

Isaiah 42:24

42:24 Who handed Jacob over to the robber?

Who handed Israel over to the looters? ⁶ 

Was it not the Lord, against whom we sinned?

They refused to follow his commands;

they disobeyed his law. ⁷ 

Isaiah 64:5

64:5 You assist ⁸  those who delight in doing what is right, ⁹ 

who observe your commandments. ¹⁰ 

Look, you were angry because we violated them continually.

How then can we be saved? ¹¹ 

Isaiah 1:4

1:4 ¹² The sinful nation is as good as dead, ¹³ 

the people weighed down by evil deeds.

They are offspring who do wrong,

children ¹⁴  who do wicked things.

They have abandoned the Lord,

and rejected the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁵ 

They are alienated from him. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 65:20

65:20 Never again will one of her infants live just a few days ¹⁷ 

or an old man die before his time. ¹⁸ 

Indeed, no one will die before the age of a hundred, ¹⁹ 

anyone who fails to reach ²⁰  the age of a hundred will be considered cursed.

[43:27]  ¹ tn Heb “your first father.” This could refer to Abraham (see 51:2), but elsewhere in Isaiah he does not appear in a negative light (see 29:22; 41:8; 63:16). A more likely candidate is Jacob/Israel, also referred to as the nation’s “father” elsewhere (see 58:14; 63:16).

[43:27]  ² tn On the meaning of the term לִיץ (lits), see HALOT 590 s.v. מֵלִיץ. This may refer to the nation’s prophets, priests, and/or kings.

[29:21]  ³ tn Heb “the ones who make a man a sinner with a word.” The Hiphil of חָטָא (khata’) here has a delocutive sense: “declare a man sinful/guilty.”

[29:21]  ⁴ sn Legal disputes were resolved at the city gate, where the town elders met. See Amos 5:10.

[29:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “and deprive by emptiness the innocent.”

[42:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “Who gave to the robber Jacob, and Israel to the looters?” In the first line the consonantal text (Kethib) has מְשׁוֹסֶה (mÿshoseh), a Polel participle from שָׁסָה (shasah, “plunder”). The marginal reading (Qere) is מְשִׁיסָּה (mÿshissah), a noun meaning “plunder.” In this case one could translate “Who handed Jacob over as plunder?”

[42:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “they were not willing in his ways to walk, and they did not listen to his law.”

[64:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “meet [with kindness].”

[64:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “the one who rejoices and does righteousness.”

[64:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “in your ways they remember you.”

[64:5]  ¹⁰ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “look, you were angry and we sinned against them continually [or perhaps, “in ancient times”] and we were delivered.” The statement makes little sense as it stands. The first vav [ו] consecutive (“and we sinned”) must introduce an explanatory clause here (see Num 1:48 and Isa 39:1 for other examples of this relatively rare use of the vav [ו] consecutive). The final verb (if rendered positively) makes no sense in this context – God’s anger at their sin resulted in judgment, not deliverance. One of the alternatives involves an emendation to וַנִּרְשָׁע (vannirsha’, “and we were evil”; LXX, NRSV, TEV). The Vulgate and the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a support the MT reading. One can either accept an emendation or cast the statement as a question (as above).

[1:4]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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.

[65:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and there will not be from there again a nursing infant of days,” i.e., one that lives just a few days.

[65:20]  ¹² tn Heb “or an old [man] who does not fill out his days.”

[65:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “for the child as a son of one hundred years will die.” The point seems to be that those who die at the age of a hundred will be considered children, for the average life span will be much longer than that. The category “child” will be redefined in light of the expanded life spans that will characterize this new era.

[65:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the one who misses.” חָטָא (khata’) is used here in its basic sense of “miss the mark.” See HALOT 305 s.v. חטא. Another option is to translate, “and the sinner who reaches the age of a hundred will be cursed.”