Isaiah 1:5

¹ Why do you insist on being battered? Why do you continue to rebel? ²  Your head has a massive wound, ³  your whole body is weak. ⁴ 

Why should you be beaten any more? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted.

Where will you be stricken again, As you continue in your rebellion? The whole head is sick And the whole heart is faint.

Why do you continue to invite punishment? Must you rebel forever? Your head is injured, and your heart is sick.

"Why bother even trying to do anything with you when you just keep to your bullheaded ways? You keep beating your heads against brick walls. Everything within you protests against you.

Why will you have more and more punishment? why keep on in your evil ways? Every head is tired and every heart is feeble.

Why do you seek further beatings? Why do you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, And the whole heart faints.

¹ Why do you insist on being battered? Why do you continue to rebel? ²  Your head has a massive wound, ³  your whole body is weak. ⁴ 

¹ sn In vv. 5-9 Isaiah addresses the battered nation (5-8) and speaks as their representative (9).

² tn Heb “Why are you still beaten? [Why] do you continue rebellion?” The rhetorical questions express the prophet’s disbelief over Israel’s apparent masochism and obsession with sin. The interrogative construction in the first line does double duty in the parallelism. H. Wildberger (Isaiah, 1:18) offers another alternative by translating the two statements with one question: “Why do you still wish to be struck that you persist in revolt?”

³ tn Heb “all the head is ill”; NRSV “the whole head is sick”; CEV “Your head is badly bruised.”

⁴ tn Heb “and all the heart is faint.” The “heart” here stands for bodily strength and energy, as suggested by the context and usage elsewhere (see Jer 8:18; Lam 1:22).