Isaiah 1:24-31
The Message
24-31 This Decree, therefore, of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
the Strong One of Israel:
“This is it! I’ll get my oppressors off my back.
I’ll get back at my enemies.
I’ll give you the back of my hand,
purge the junk from your life, clean you up.
I’ll set honest judges and wise counselors among you
just like it was back in the beginning.
Then you’ll be renamed
City-That-Treats-People-Right, the True-Blue City.”
God’s right ways will put Zion right again.
God’s right actions will restore her prodigals.
But it’s curtains for rebels and God-traitors,
a dead end for those who walk out on God.
“Your dalliances in those oak grove shrines
will leave you looking mighty foolish,
All that fooling around in god and goddess gardens
that you thought was the latest thing.
You’ll end up like an oak tree
with all its leaves falling off,
Like an unwatered garden,
withered and brown.
‘The Strong Man’ will turn out to be dead bark and twigs,
and his ‘work,’ the spark that starts the fire
That exposes man and work both
as nothing but cinders and smoke.”
Isaiah 1:24-26
New English Translation
24 Therefore, the Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies,[a]
the Powerful One of Israel,[b] says this:
“Ah, I will seek vengeance[c] against my adversaries,
I will take revenge against my enemies.[d]
25 I will attack you;[e]
I will purify your metal with flux.[f]
I will remove all your slag.[g]
26 I will reestablish honest judges as in former times,
wise advisers as in earlier days.[h]
Then you will be called, ‘The Just City,
Faithful Town.’”
Footnotes
- Isaiah 1:24 tn Heb “the master, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, “the Lord of hosts”].” On the title “the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,” see the note at v. 9.
- Isaiah 1:24 tn Or “the Mighty One of Israel.”
- Isaiah 1:24 tn Heb “console myself” (i.e., by getting revenge); NRSV “pour out my wrath on.”
- Isaiah 1:24 sn The Lord here identifies with the oppressed and comes as their defender and vindicator.
- Isaiah 1:25 tn Heb “turn my hand against you.” The second person pronouns in vv. 25-26 are feminine singular. Personified Jerusalem is addressed. The idiom “turn the hand against” has the nuance of “strike with the hand, attack,” in Ps 81:15 HT (81:14 ET); Ezek 38:12; Amos 1:8; Zech 13:7. In Jer 6:9 it is used of gleaning grapes.
- Isaiah 1:25 tn Heb “I will purify your dross as [with] flux.” “Flux” refers here to minerals added to the metals in a furnace to prevent oxides from forming. For this interpretation of II בֹּר (bor), see HALOT 153 s.v. II בֹּר and 750 s.v. סִיג.
- Isaiah 1:25 sn The metaphor comes from metallurgy; slag is the substance left over after the metallic ore has been refined.
- Isaiah 1:26 tn Heb “I will restore your judges as in the beginning, and your counselors as in the beginning.” In this context, where social injustice and legal corruption are denounced (see v. 23), the “judges” are probably government officials responsible for making legal decisions, while the “advisers” are probably officials who helped the king establish policies. Both offices are also mentioned in 3:2.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
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