Isaiah 48:10

48:10 Look, I have refined you, but not as silver;

I have purified you ¹  in the furnace of misery.

Isaiah 52:3

52:3 For this is what the Lord says:

“You were sold for nothing,

and you will not be redeemed for money.”

Isaiah 43:24

43:24 You did not buy me aromatic reeds; ² 

you did not present to me ³  the fat of your sacrifices.

Yet you burdened me with your sins;

you made me weary with your evil deeds. ⁴ 

[48:10]  ¹ tc The Hebrew text has בְּחַרְתִּיךָ (bÿkhartikha, “I have chosen you”), but the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a reads correctly בחנתיכה (“I have tested you”). The metallurgical background of the imagery suggests that purification through testing is the idea.

[43:24]  ² tn That is, “calamus” (so NIV); NCV, TEV, NLT “incense”; CEV “spices.”

[43:24]  ³ tn Heb “you did not saturate me”; NASB “Neither have you filled Me.”

[43:24]  ⁴ sn In vv. 22-24 the Lord appears to be condemning his people for failure to bring the proper sacrifices. However, this is problematic. If this refers to the nation’s behavior while in exile, such cultic service was impossible and could hardly be expected by the Lord. If this refers to the nation’s conduct before the exile, it contradicts other passages that depict Israel as bringing excessive sacrifices (see, e.g., Isa 1:11-14; Jer 6:20; Amos 4:4-5, 5:21-23). Rather than being a condemnation of Israel’s failure to bring sacrifices, these verses are better taken as a highly rhetorical comment on the worthlessness of Israel’s religious ritual. They may have brought sacrifices, but not to the Lord, for he did not accept them or even want them. See C. R. North, Second Isaiah, 127, and R. Whybray, Isaiah 40-66 (NCBC), 91.