translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: ISA

label: NET study note

text: The personified heavens and earth are summoned to God’s courtroom as witnesses against God’s covenant people. Long before this Moses warned the people that the heavens and earth would be watching their actions (see Deut 4:26; 30:19; 31:28; 32:1 ).


text: The normal word pair for giving birth to and raising children is יָלַד ( yalad , “to give birth to”) and גָּדַל ( gadal , “to grow, raise”). The pair גָּדַל and רוּם ( rum , “to raise up”) probably occur here to highlight the fact that Yahweh made something important of Israel (cf. R. Mosis, TDOT 2:403).


text: Against the backdrop of Yahweh’s care for his chosen people, Israel’s rebellion represents abhorrent treachery. The conjunction prefixed to a nonverbal element highlights the sad contrast between Yahweh’s compassionate care for His people and Israel’s thankless rebellion.


text: To rebel carries the idea of “covenant treachery.” Although an act of פֶּשַׁע ( pesha ’, “rebellion”) often signifies a breach of the law, the legal offense also represents a violation of an existing covenantal relationship (E. Carpenter and M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 3:707).


text: 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.


text: 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.


text: In vv. 5-9 Isaiah addresses the battered nation (5-8) and speaks as their representative (9).


text: This verse describes wounds like those one would receive in battle. These wounds are comprehensive and without remedy.


text: Building on the simile of v. 9 , the prophet sarcastically addresses the leaders and people of Jerusalem as if they were leaders and residents of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah. The sarcasm is appropriate, for if the judgment is comparable to Sodom’s, that must mean that the sin which prompted the judgment is comparable as well.


text: 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.


text: Notice some of the other practices that Yahweh regards as “detestable”: homosexuality ( Lev 18:22-30; 20:13 ), idolatry ( Deut 7:25; 13:15 ), human sacrifice ( Deut 12:31 ), eating ritually unclean animals ( Deut 14:3-8 ), sacrificing defective animals ( Deut 17:1 ), engaging in occult activities ( Deut 18:9-14 ), and practicing ritual prostitution ( 1 Kgs 14:23 ).


text: 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.


text: Having demonstrated the people’s guilt, the Lord calls them to repentance, which will involve concrete action in the socio-economic realm, not mere emotion.


text: This phrase refers to Israel’s covenant treachery (cf. Deut 28:10 ; Jer 4:4; 21:12; 23:2, 22; 25:5; 26:3; 44:22 ; Hos 9:15 ; Ps 28:4 ). In general, the noun ַמעַלְלֵיכֶם ( ma ’ alleykhem ) can simply be a reference to deeds, whether good or bad. However, Isaiah always uses it with a negative connotation (cf. 3:8, 10 ).


text: The Lord concludes his case against Israel by offering them the opportunity to be forgiven and by setting before them the alternatives of renewed blessing (as a reward for repentance) and final judgment (as punishment for persistence in sin).


text: The wordplay in the Hebrew draws attention to the options. The people can obey, in which case they will “eat” v. 19 ( תֹּאכֵלוּ [ to ’ khelu ], Qal active participle of אָכַל ) God’s blessing, or they can disobey, in which case they will be devoured ( Heb “eaten,” תְּאֻכְּלוּ , [ tÿ ’ ukkÿlu ], Qal passive/Pual of אָכַל ) by God’s judgment.


text: The metaphors of silver becoming impure and beer being watered down picture the moral and ethical degeneration that had occurred in Jerusalem.


text: Isaiah may have chosen the word for gifts ( שַׁלְמוֹנִים , shalmonim ; a hapax legomena here), as a sarcastic pun on what these rulers should have been doing. Instead of attending to peace and wholeness ( שָׁלוֹם , shalom ), they sought after payoffs ( שַׁלְמוֹנִים ).


text: See the note at v. 17 .


text: The rich oppressors referred to in Isaiah and the other eighth century prophets were not rich capitalists in the modern sense of the word. They were members of the royal military and judicial bureaucracies in Israel and Judah. As these bureaucracies grew, they acquired more and more land and gradually commandeered the economy and legal system. At various administrative levels bribery and graft become commonplace. The common people outside the urban administrative centers were vulnerable to exploitation in such a system, especially those, like widows and orphans, who had lost their family provider through death. Through confiscatory taxation, conscription, excessive interest rates, and other oppressive governmental measures and policies, they were gradually disenfranchised and lost their landed property, and with it, their rights as citizens. The socio-economic equilibrium envisioned in the law of Moses was radically disturbed.


text: The Lord here identifies with the oppressed and comes as their defender and vindicator.


text: The metaphor comes from metallurgy; slag is the substance left over after the metallic ore has been refined.


text: The third person reference to the Lord in v. 28 indicates that the prophet is again (see vv. 21-24 a) speaking. Since v. 27 is connected to v. 28 by a conjunction, it is likely that the prophet’s words begin with v. 27 .