Isaiah 1

Isaiah 1
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The Great Isaiah Scroll, the best preserved of the biblical scrolls found at Qumran from the second century BC, contains all the verses in this chapter.
Book Book of Isaiah
Bible part Old Testament
Order in the Bible part 23
Category Nevi'im

Isaiah 1 is the first chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Isaiah, and is a part of the Book of the Prophets.[1][2]

Text

Textual versions

Some most ancient manuscripts containing this chapter in Hebrew language:

  • Masoretic Text (10th century)
  • Dead Sea Scrolls: (2nd century BC) [3][4]
    • 1QIsaa: complete
    • 4QIsaa (4Q55): extant: verses 1‑3
    • 4QIsab (4Q56): extant: verses 1‑6
    • 4QIsaf (4Q60): extant: verses 10‑16, 18‑31
    • 4QIsaj (4Q63): extant: verses 1‑6

Ancient translations in Koine Greek:

Structure

The New King James Version organises this chapter as follows:

Verse 1

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.[5]
  • "Vision" (Hebrew: חזון chăzôn, from the verb, חזה châzâh, "to see, to behold"): Introducing the whole book as a vision in the title (see Obadiah 1, Nahum 1:1, Amos 1:1, Micah 1:1, Habakkuk 1:1), as well as in 2 Chronicles 32:32: Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his goodness, behold they are written in the vision of Isaiah.[6]
  • "The son of Amoz": not of Amos the prophet. Jewish tradition has a note that Amoz, the father of Isaiah, was the brother of Amaziah, king of Judah, so that Isaiah was of the royal family.[7]

According to the Pulpit Commentary, the prophecies of Isaiah "concern primarily the kingdom of Judah, not that of Israel".[8] This verse "is probably best understood as the heading of the first great collection of prophecies" in chapters 1-12. Chapter 13 initiates a proclamation against Babylon.[9]

Verses 2-3

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth!

Isaiah's opening words recall those of Moses in Deuteronomy 32:1:

“Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak;
And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.[10]

The New Century Version combines these two exhortations into one:

Heaven and earth, listen, because the Lord is speaking.[11]

Isaiah calls the people of Judah "a thoughtless people".[12]

Verses 4-9: the punishment of Judah

Isaiah uses images of the sick individual (verses 5-6) and the desolate nation (verses 7-8) to portray the sinfulness of his nation. The "daughter of Zion" (i.e. the city of Jerusalem) remained an isolated stronghold when Sennacherib, king of Assyria attacked the fortified cities of Judah in 701 BCE.[13]

Verse 11

I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of fed cattle.
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
Or of lambs or goats.[14]

Anglican bishop Robert Lowth translates as I am cloyed with the burnt offerings of rams ...[15]

According to the Torah, burnt offerings formed a part of the required sacrifice on all great occasions, as at the Passover (Numbers 28:19), at the Feast of Weeks (Numbers 28:27), at the Feast of Tabernacles (Numbers 29:13, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29, 32, 36), at the Feast of Trumpets (Numbers 29:2), and on the great Day of Atonement (Numbers 29:8), as well as being commanded as the sole sacrifice for a trespass offering (Leviticus 5:16, 18).[8]

Verse 18

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord:
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.[16];

The phrase "reason together" has a tone of "legal argument";[6] similar wording appears in Isaiah 43:26.

Verse 26a

I will restore your judges as of old.

The King James Version and American Standard Version speak of "judges" but the New International Version translates Hebrew: שָׁפט‎ (shaphat) as "leaders".

Verses 29-31

You will be ashamed of the terebinths which give you such pleasure ...

The Jerusalem Bible separates out verses 29-31 as an oracle "against tree worship", suggesting that the prophet "possibly has Samaria in mind".[17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ J. D. Davis. 1960. A Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House.
  2. ↑ Theodore Hiebert, et al. 1996. The New Interpreter's Bible: Volume VI. Nashville: Abingdon.
  3. ↑ Timothy A. J. Jull; Douglas J. Donahue; Magen Broshi; Emanuel Tov (1995). "Radiocarbon Dating of Scrolls and Linen Fragments from the Judean Desert". Radiocarbon. 38 (1): 14. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  4. ↑ Ulrich 2010, p. 330-333.
  5. ↑ Isaiah 1:1
  6. 1 2 The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Augmented Third Edition, New Revised Standard Version, Indexed. Michael D. Coogan, Marc Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, Editors. Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2007. pp. 978-980 Hebrew Bible. ISBN 978-0195288810
  7. ↑ T. Bab. Megilla, fol. 10. 2. & Sota, fol. 10. 2. & Seder Olam Zuta, p. 104. Juchasin, fol. 12. 1. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 11. 2.
  8. 1 2 Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 1, accessed 19 February 2018
  9. ↑ Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on Isaiah 1, accessed 19 February 2018
  10. ↑ Deuteronomy 32:1
  11. ↑ Isaiah 1:2
  12. ↑ Jerusalem Bible: sub-title to Isaiah 1:2-3
  13. ↑ 2 Kings 18:13
  14. ↑ Isaiah 1:11
  15. ↑ Lowth, R., Isaiah: a new translation: with a preliminary dissertation, and notes, critical, philological and explanatory, Boston, W. Hilliard; Cambridge, J. Munroe and Company, 1834
  16. ↑ Isaiah 1:18
  17. ↑ Jerusalem Bible, footnote at Isaiah 1:29

Bibliography

  • Ulrich, Eugene, ed. (2010). The Biblical Qumran Scrolls: Transcriptions and Textual Variants. Brill.

Jewish

Christian

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