Isaiah 64:5-6

64:5 You assist ¹  those who delight in doing what is right, ² 

who observe your commandments. ³ 

Look, you were angry because we violated them continually.

How then can we be saved? ⁴ 

64:6 We are all like one who is unclean,

all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight. ⁵ 

We all wither like a leaf;

our sins carry us away like the wind.

[64:5]  ¹ tn Heb “meet [with kindness].”

[64:5]  ² tn Heb “the one who rejoices and does righteousness.”

[64:5]  ³ tn Heb “in your ways they remember you.”

[64:5]  ⁴ 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).

[64:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “and like a garment of menstruation [are] all our righteous acts”; KJV, NIV “filthy rags”; ASV “a polluted garment.”