Isaiah 9:13-17

9:13 The people did not return to the one who struck them,

they did not seek reconciliation ¹  with the Lord who commands armies.

9:14 So the Lord cut off Israel’s head and tail,

both the shoots and stalk ²  in one day.

9:15 The leaders and the highly respected people ³  are the head,

the prophets who teach lies are the tail.

9:16 The leaders of this nation were misleading people,

and the people being led were destroyed. ⁴ 

9:17 So the sovereign master was not pleased ⁵  with their young men,

he took no pity ⁶  on their orphans and widows;

for the whole nation was godless ⁷  and did wicked things, ⁸ 

every mouth was speaking disgraceful words. ⁹ 

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 24:2

24:2 Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people, ¹¹ 

the master as well as the servant, ¹² 

the elegant lady as well as the female attendant, ¹³ 

the seller as well as the buyer, ¹⁴ 

the borrower as well as the lender, ¹⁵ 

the creditor as well as the debtor. ¹⁶ 

Ezekiel 22:25-31

22:25 Her princes ¹⁷  within her are like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they have devoured lives. They take away riches and valuable things; they have made many women widows ¹⁸  within it. 22:26 Her priests abuse my law and have desecrated my holy things. They do not distinguish between the holy and the profane, ¹⁹  or recognize any distinction between the unclean and the clean. They ignore ²⁰  my Sabbaths and I am profaned in their midst. 22:27 Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey – shedding blood and destroying lives – so they can get dishonest profit. 22:28 Her prophets coat their messages with whitewash. ²¹  They see false visions and announce lying omens for them, saying, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. 22:29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have wronged the poor and needy; they have oppressed the foreigner who lives among them and denied them justice. ²² 

22:30 “I looked for a man from among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. ²³  22:31 So I have poured my anger on them, and destroyed them with the fire of my fury. I hereby repay them for what they have done, ²⁴  declares the sovereign Lord.”

Hosea 4:5-6

4:5 You stumble day and night,

and the false prophets stumble with you;

You have destroyed your own people! ²⁵ 

4:6 You have destroyed ²⁶  my people

by failing to acknowledge me!

Because you refuse to acknowledge me, ²⁷ 

I will reject you as my priests.

Because you reject ²⁸  the law of your God,

I will reject ²⁹  your descendants.

[9:13]  ¹ tn This verse describes the people’s response to the judgment described in vv. 11-12. The perfects are understood as indicating simple past.

[9:14]  ² sn The metaphor in this line is that of a reed being cut down.

[9:15]  ³ tn Heb “the elder and the one lifted up with respect to the face.” For another example of the Hebrew idiom, see 2 Kgs 5:1.

[9:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the ones being led were swallowed up.” Instead of taking מְבֻלָּעִים (mÿbulla’im) from בָּלַע (bala’, “to swallow”), HALOT 134 s.v. בלע proposes a rare homonymic root בלע (“confuse”) here.

[9:17]  ⁵ tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has לא יחמול (“he did not spare”) which is an obvious attempt to tighten the parallelism (note “he took no pity” in the next line). Instead of taking שָׂמַח (samakh) in one of its well attested senses (“rejoice over, be pleased with”), some propose, with support from Arabic, a rare homonymic root meaning “be merciful.”

[9:17]  ⁶ tn The translation understands the prefixed verbs יִשְׂמַח (yismakh) and יְרַחֵם (yÿrakhem) as preterites without vav (ו) consecutive. (See v. 11 and the note on “he stirred up.”)

[9:17]  ⁷ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “profaned”; NIV “ungodly.”

[9:17]  ⁸ tn מֵרַע (mera’) is a Hiphil participle from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil”). The intransitive Hiphil has an exhibitive force here, indicating that they exhibited outwardly the evidence of an inward condition by committing evil deeds.

[9:17]  ⁹ tn Or “foolishness” (NASB), here in a moral-ethical sense.

[9:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.”

[24:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and it will be like the people, like the priest.”

[24:2]  ¹² tn Heb “like the servant, like his master.”

[24:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “like the female servant, like her mistress.”

[24:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “like the buyer, like the seller.”

[24:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “like the lender, like the borrower.”

[24:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “like the creditor, just as the one to whom he lends.”

[22:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “a conspiracy of her prophets is in her midst.” The LXX reads “whose princes” rather than “a conspiracy of prophets.” The prophets are mentioned later in the paragraph (v. 28). If one follows the LXX in verse 25, then five distinct groups are mentioned in vv. 25-29: princes, priests, officials, prophets, and the people of the land. For a defense of the Septuagintal reading, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:720, n. 4.

[22:25]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “her widows they have multiplied.” The statement alludes to their murderous acts.

[22:26]  ¹⁹ tn Or “between the consecrated and the common.”

[22:26]  ²⁰ tn Heb “hide their eyes from.” The idiom means to disregard or ignore something or someone (see Lev 20:4; 1 Sam 12:3; Prov 28:27; Isa 1:15).

[22:28]  ²¹ tn Heb “her prophets coat for themselves with whitewash.” The expression may be based on Ezek 13:10-15.

[22:29]  ²² tn Heb “and the foreigner they have oppressed without justice.”

[22:30]  ²³ tn Heb “I did not find.”

[22:31]  ²⁴ tn Heb “their way on their head I have placed.”

[4:5]  ²⁵ tc The MT reads וְדָמִיתִי אִמֶּךָ (vÿdamiti ’immekha, “and I will destroy your mother”), and is followed by most English versions; however, the text should probably be emended to וְדָמִית עַמֶּךָ (vÿdamit ’ammekha, “and you have destroyed your own people”). The 2nd person masculine singular form וְדָמִית (vÿdamit, “and you have destroyed”) is preserved in several medieval Hebrew mss and reflected in Jerome’s Vulgate. For discussion in favor of the MT reading, see D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:232.

[4:6]  ²⁶ tn Heb “they have destroyed” or “my people are destroyed” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[4:6]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Because you reject knowledge”; NLT “because they don’t know me.”

[4:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “have forgotten”; NAB, NIV “have ignored.”

[4:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “forget” (so KJV, NRSV); NLT “forget to bless.”