Isaiah 10:1-4
New English Translation
10 Beware, those who enact unjust policies;[a]
those who are always instituting unfair regulations,[b]
2 to keep the poor from getting fair treatment,
and to deprive[c] the oppressed among my people of justice,
so they can steal what widows own,
and loot what belongs to orphans.[d]
3 What will you do on judgment day,[e]
when destruction arrives from a distant place?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your wealth?
4 You will have no place to go, except to kneel with the prisoners,
or to fall among those who have been killed.[f]
Despite all this, his anger does not subside,
and his hand is ready to strike again.[g]
Footnotes
- Isaiah 10:1 tn Heb “Woe [to] those who decree evil decrees.”
- Isaiah 10:1 tn Heb “[to] the writers who write out harm.” The participle and verb are in the Piel, suggesting repetitive action.
- Isaiah 10:2 tn Or “rob” (ASV, NASB, NCV, NRSV); KJV “take away the right from the poor.”
- Isaiah 10:2 tn Heb “so that widows are their plunder, and they can loot orphans.”sn On the socio-economic background of vv. 1-2, see the note at 1:23.
- Isaiah 10:3 tn Heb “the day of visitation” (so KJV, ASV), that is, the day when God arrives to execute justice on the oppressors.
- Isaiah 10:4 tn Heb “except one kneels in the place of the prisoner, and in the place of the slain [who] fall.” On the force of בִּלְתִּי (bilti, “except”) and its logical connection to what precedes, see BDB 116 s.v. בֵלֶת. On the force of תַּחַת (takhat, “in the place of”) here, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:258, n. 6.
- Isaiah 10:4 tn Heb “in all this his anger was not turned, and still his hand was outstretched”; KJV, ASV, NRSV “his hand is stretched out still.”sn See the note at 9:12.
Isaiah 10:1-4
Expanded Bible
10 ·How terrible it will be for [L Woe to] those who make ·unfair [evil; unjust] ·laws [decrees],
and those who ·write [or issue] ·laws that make life hard for people [oppressive regulations/edicts].
2 They ·are not fair [withold justice] to the poor [Ex. 23:6, 11; Deut. 15:4–11],
and they ·rob [deprive] my people of their rights.
They ·allow people to steal from widows [L make widows their plunder/prey; Ex. 22:22]
and ·to take from orphans what really belongs to them [L plunder/loot the fatherless; Deut. 10:18].
3 ·How will you explain the things you have done [L What will you do on the day of accounting/visitation]?
What will you do when your destruction comes from far away?
·Where [or To whom] will you run for help?
Where will you ·hide your riches [or leave your wealth/glory] then?
4 You will have to ·bow down [kneel; cower] among the captives
or fall down among the ·dead bodies [L slain ones].
But the Lord is still angry;
his hand is still ·raised to strike down the people [outstretched].
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