1:17 Learn to do what is right!
Promote justice!
Give the oppressed reason to celebrate! 1
Take up the cause of the orphan!
Defend the rights of the widow! 2
1:21 How tragic that the once-faithful city
has become a prostitute! 3
She was once a center of 4 justice,
fairness resided in her,
but now only murderers. 5
28:17 I will make justice the measuring line,
fairness the plumb line;
hail will sweep away the unreliable refuge, 6
the floodwaters will overwhelm the hiding place.
29:21 those who bear false testimony against a person, 7
who entrap the one who arbitrates at the city gate 8
and deprive the innocent of justice by making false charges. 9
42:4 He will not grow dim or be crushed 10
before establishing justice on the earth;
the coastlands 11 will wait in anticipation for his decrees.” 12
51:4 Pay attention to me, my people!
Listen to me, my people!
For 13 I will issue a decree, 14
I will make my justice a light to the nations. 15
56:1 This is what the Lord says,
“Promote 16 justice! Do what is right!
For I am ready to deliver you;
I am ready to vindicate you openly. 17
59:14 Justice is driven back;
godliness 18 stands far off.
Indeed, 19 honesty stumbles in the city square
and morality is not even able to enter.
59:15 Honesty has disappeared;
the one who tries to avoid evil is robbed.
The Lord watches and is displeased, 20
for there is no justice.
59:16 He sees there is no advocate; 21
he is shocked 22 that no one intervenes.
So he takes matters into his own hands; 23
his desire for justice drives him on. 24
61:8 For I, the Lord, love justice
and hate robbery and sin.
I will repay them because of my faithfulness; 25
I will make a permanent covenant with them.
1 tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. The translation assumes an emendation of חָמוֹץ (khamots, “oppressor [?]”) to חָמוּץ (khamuts, “oppressed”), a passive participle from II חָמַץ (khamats, “oppress”; HALOT 329 s.v. II חמץ) and takes the verb II אָשַׁר (’ashar) in the sense of “make happy” (the delocutive Piel, meaning “call/pronounce happy,” is metonymic here, referring to actually effecting happiness). The parallelism favors this interpretation, for the next two lines speak of positive actions on behalf of the destitute. The other option is to retain the MT pointing and translate, “set right the oppressor,” but the nuance “set right” is not clearly attested elsewhere for the verb I אשׁר. This verb does appear as a participle in Isa 3:12 and 9:16 with the meaning “to lead or guide.” If it can mean to “lead” or “rebuke/redirect” in this verse, the prophet could be contrasting this appeal for societal reformation (v. 17c) with a command to reorder their personal lives (v. 17a-b). J. A. Motyer (The Prophecy of Isaiah, 47) suggests that these three statements (v. 17a-c) provide “the contrast between the two ends of imperfect society, the oppressor and the needy, the one inflicting and the other suffering the hurt. Isaiah looks for a transformed society wherever it needs transforming.”
2 tn This word refers to a woman who has lost her husband, by death or divorce. The orphan and widow are often mentioned in the OT as epitomizing the helpless and impoverished who have been left without the necessities of life due to the loss of a family provider.
3 tn Heb “How she has become a prostitute, the faithful city!” The exclamatory אֵיכָה (’ekhah, “how!”) is used several times as the beginning of a lament (see Lam 1:1; 2;1; 4:1-2). Unlike a number of other OT passages that link references to Israel’s harlotry to idolatry, Isaiah here makes the connection with social and moral violations.
4 tn Heb “filled with.”
5 tn Or “assassins.” This refers to the oppressive rich and/or their henchmen. R. Ortlund (Whoredom, 78) posits that it serves as a synecdoche for all varieties of criminals, the worst being mentioned to imply all lesser ones. Since Isaiah often addressed his strongest rebuke to the rulers and leaders of Israel, he may have in mind the officials who bore the responsibility to uphold justice and righteousness.
6 tn Heb “[the] refuge, [the] lie.” See v. 15.
7 tn Heb “the ones who make a man a sinner with a word.” The Hiphil of חָטָא (khata’) here has a delocutive sense: “declare a man sinful/guilty.”
8 sn Legal disputes were resolved at the city gate, where the town elders met. See Amos 5:10.
9 tn Heb “and deprive by emptiness the innocent.”
10 tn For rhetorical effect the terms used to describe the “crushed (רָצַץ, ratsats) reed” and “dim (כָּהָה, kahah) wick” in v. 3 are repeated here.
11 tn Or “islands” (NIV); NLT “distant lands beyond the sea.”
12 tn Or “his law” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV) or “his instruction” (NLT).
13 tn Or “certainly.”
14 tn Heb “instruction [or “a law”] will go out from me.”
15 tn Heb “and my justice for a light to the nations I will cause to rest.”
16 tn Heb “guard”; KJV “Keep”; NAB “Observe”; NASB “Preserve”; NIV, NRSV “Maintain.”
17 tn Heb “for near is my deliverance to enter, and my vindication [or “righteousness”] to be revealed.”
18 tn Or “righteousness” (ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); KJV, NAB “justice.”
19 tn Or “for” (KJV, NRSV).
20 tn Heb “and it is displeasing in his eyes.”
21 tn Heb “man” (so KJV, ASV); TEV “no one to help.”
22 tn Or “appalled” (NAB, NIV, NRSV), or “disgusted.”
23 tn Heb “and his arm delivers for him.”
24 tn Heb “and his justice [or “righteousness”] supports him.”
25 tn Heb “in faithfulness”; NASB, NRSV, NLT “faithfully.”