Discovery BoxIsaiah 1:2 
Context1:2 Listen, O heavens,
pay attention, O earth! 1
For the Lord speaks:
“I raised children, 2 I brought them up, 3
but 4 they have rebelled 5 against me!
Isaiah 1:10
Context1:10 Listen to the Lord’s word,
you leaders of Sodom! 6
Pay attention to our God’s rebuke, 7
people of Gomorrah!
Isaiah 6:9
Context6:9 He said, “Go and tell these people:
‘Listen continually, but don’t understand!
Look continually, but don’t perceive!’
Isaiah 19:22
Context19:22 The Lord will strike Egypt, striking and then healing them. They will turn to the Lord and he will listen to their prayers 8 and heal them.
Isaiah 36:13
Context36:13 The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect, 9 “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria.
Isaiah 37:17
Context37:17 Pay attention, Lord, and hear! Open your eyes, Lord, and observe! Listen to this entire message Sennacherib sent and how he taunts the living God! 10
Isaiah 41:1
Context41:1 “Listen to me in silence, you coastlands! 11
Let the nations find renewed strength!
Let them approach and then speak;
let us come together for debate! 12
Isaiah 48:12
Context48:12 Listen to me, O Jacob,
Israel, whom I summoned!
I am the one;
I am present at the very beginning
and at the very end. 13
Isaiah 51:1
Context51:1 “Listen to me, you who pursue godliness, 14
who seek the Lord!
Look at the rock from which you were chiseled,
at the quarry 15 from which you were dug! 16
Isaiah 51:4
Context51:4 Pay attention to me, my people!
Listen to me, my people!
For 17 I will issue a decree, 18
I will make my justice a light to the nations. 19
Isaiah 52:8
Context52:8 Listen, 20 your watchmen shout;
in unison they shout for joy,
for they see with their very own eyes 21
the Lord’s return to Zion.
Isaiah 59:2
Context59:2 But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God;
your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers. 22
1 sn 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).
2 tn Or “sons” (NAB, NASB).
sn “Father” and “son” occur as common terms in ancient Near Eastern treaties and covenants, delineating the suzerain and vassal as participants in the covenant relationship. The prophet uses these terms, the reference to heavens and earth as witnesses, and allusions to deuteronomic covenant curses (1:7-9, 19-20) to set his prophecy firmly against the backdrop of Israel’s covenantal relationship with Yahweh.
3 sn 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).
4 sn 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.
5 sn 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).
6 sn 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.
7 tn Heb “to the instruction of our God.” In this context, which is highly accusatory and threatening, תּוֹרָה (torah, “law, instruction”) does not refer to mere teaching, but to corrective teaching and rebuke.
8 tn Heb “he will be entreated.” The Niphal has a tolerative sense here, “he will allow himself to be entreated.”
9 tn The Hebrew text includes “and he said.”
10 tn Heb “Hear all the words of Sennacherib which he sent to taunt the living God.”
11 tn Or “islands” (KJV, NIV, CEV); TEV “distant lands”; NLT “lands beyond the sea.”
12 tn The Hebrew term מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) could be translated “judgment,” but here it seems to refer to the dispute or debate between the Lord and the nations.
13 tn Heb “I [am] he, I [am the] first, also I [am the] last.”
14 tn Or “righteousness” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “justice”; NLT “hope for deliverance.”
15 tn Heb “the excavation of the hole.”
16 sn The “rock” and “quarry” refer here to Abraham and Sarah, the progenitors of the nation.
17 tn Or “certainly.”
18 tn Heb “instruction [or “a law”] will go out from me.”
19 tn Heb “and my justice for a light to the nations I will cause to rest.”
20 tn קוֹל (qol, “voice”) is used at the beginning of the verse as an interjection.
21 tn Heb “eye in eye”; KJV, ASV “eye to eye”; NAB “directly, before their eyes.”
22 tn Heb “and your sins have caused [his] face to be hidden from you so as not to hear.”
