Too bad for the wicked (râshâʽ, לרשע) sinners (raʽ, רע)! For they will get exactly what they deserve.[1] As I begin to discover just who the wicked are one might argue that wicked sinners are worse than the wicked. I won’t dispute that.
In the Septuagint râshâʽ wasn’t translated ἀσεβῆ (a form of ἀσεβής) here but ἀνόμῳ (a form of ἄνομος); râshâʽ raʽ was ἀνόμῳ πονηρὰ (a form of πονηρός). I’m starting here all the same because this verse is part of a couplet at the end of a description of what the wicked sinners were about to get.
I’ll consider (Isaiah 3:1-3) from the NET, a contemporary translation of contemporary Hebrew by believers in Jesus, the NETS, a contemporary translation of the Septuagint, and the Tanakh, a contemporary translation of contemporary Hebrew by those who reject Jesus as Messiah (and may or may not accept Him as a prophet).
| NET | NETS |
Tanakh |
| Look, the sovereign (ʼâdôn, האדון) Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) who commands armies is about to remove from Jerusalem and Judah every source of security, including all the food and water, | Behold now the Sovereign, the Lord Sabaoth will take away from Judea and from Ierousalem a strong man and a strong woman, strength of bread and strength of water, | For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water. |
| the mighty men and warriors, judges and prophets, omen readers and leaders, | a mighty one and strong one and soldier, both judge and prophet, and diviner and elder | The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, |
| captains of groups of fifty, the respected citizens, advisers and those skilled in magical arts, and those who know incantations. | both officer of fifty and wonderful counselor, both skillful builder and intelligent listener. | The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. |
In verse 2 the Hebrew word translated omen readers in the NET and prudent in the Tanakh was qâsam (וקסם). The Greek στοχαστὴν, translated diviner, is undefined in any source I found, but sounds similar to our word stochastic. The root στοχοσ translates objective in a contemporary Greek news magazine online. Perhaps that lends some credence to translating the guesswork of the omen reader or diviner prudent.
In verse 3 the Hebrew word translated magical arts and artificer is chărâshı̂ym (חרשים). A note (7) in the NET reads: “’and the wise with respect to magic.’ On the meaning of חֲרָשִׁים (kharashim, ‘magic’), see HALOT 358 s.v. III חרשׁ. Some understand here a homonym, meaning ‘craftsmen.’ In this case, one could translate, ‘skilled craftsmen’ (cf. NIV, NASB).” The Septuagint’s ἀρχιτέκτονα translates architect in contemporary Greek.
The Hebrew word translated incantations and orator is lachash (לחש). The Greek word translated listener is ἀκροατήν (a form of ἀκροατής) in the Septuagint. The rabbis it seems were more sensitive to the character of the people carried off into Babylonian captivity or to them who were called the stay and the staff of Jerusalem and Judah. Many of us would prefer to think that the stay and the staff of our security were comprised of people of better character than our pundits portray their enemies.
Why was yehôvâh about to remove from Jerusalem and Judah every source of security? I turn to Isaiah’s indictment (Isaiah 2:6-9):
| NET | NETS |
Tanakh |
| Indeed, O Lord, you have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob. For diviners from the east are everywhere; they consult omen readers like the Philistines do. Plenty of foreigners are around. | For he has abandoned his people, the house of Israel, because their country, like that of the allophyles, was filled with divinations as it had been at the beginning, and many allophyle children were born to them. | Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. |
| Their land is full of gold and silver; there is no end to their wealth. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots. | For their country was filled with silver and gold, and there was no number to their treasures, and the land was filled with horses, and there was no number to their chariots. | Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots: |
| Their land is full of worthless idols; they worship the product of their own hands, what their own fingers have fashioned. | And the land was filled with abominations, the works of their hands, and they did obeisance to the things their own fingers had made. | Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made: |
| Men bow down to them in homage, they lie flat on the ground in worship. Don’t spare them! | And so a person bowed down, and a man was humbled—and I will not forgive them! | And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not. |
A note (17) in the NET acknowledges that the translators added the word diviners in verse 6. The Hebrew word translated omen readers and soothsayers is ʽânan (ועננים). The Greek word κληδονισμῶν translated divinations is quite similar in the Septuagint. The final clause in verse 6 (final sentence in the NET) was yeled (ובילדי) nokrı̂y (נכרים) śâphaq (ישׁפיקו) in Hebrew, translated three different ways above. The Greek words ἀλλοφύλων and ἀλλόφυλα (both forms of ἀλλόφυλος) in the Septuagint mean “of another tribe, foreign.” I don’t know why they weren’t translated in the NETS.
The wicked sinners consulted omen readers, foreigners who did not know yehôvâh, or, perhaps, made their own children like foreigners yehôvâh did not know. They had great wealth and had made provision for war. They worshiped the work of their own hands. It sounds all too familiar. The chapter concludes (Isaiah 2:22):
|
NET |
NETS |
Tanakh |
| Stop trusting in human beings, whose life’s breath (neshâmâh, נשמה) is in their nostrils. For why should they be given special consideration? | [No verse 22 in the Septuagint. Was it omitted or added later?] | Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of? |
This, in a nutshell, is the imperative wicked sinners refuse to believe (πιστεύω) or obey (ὑπακούω). The religious mind trusts religious authorities, human authorities. What they are about to get from yehôvâh continued (Isaiah 3:4-7):
|
NET |
NETS |
Tanakh |
| The Lord says, “I will make youths their officials; malicious young men will rule over them. | And I will set up youths as their rulers, and mockers shall be lords of them. | And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. |
| The people will treat each other harshly; men will oppose each other; neighbors will fight. Youths will proudly defy the elderly and riffraff will challenge those who were once respected. | And the people will fall together, man against man, and a man against his neighbor; the child will stumble against the elder, the dishonored against the honorable. | And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable. |
| Indeed, a man will grab his brother right in his father’s house and say, ‘You own a coat – you be our leader! This heap of ruins will be under your control.’ | Because a man will seize his brother or his father’s kinsman, saying, “You have a cloak; you be our leader, and let my food be under you.” | When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand: |
| At that time the brother will shout, ‘I am no doctor, I have no food or coat in my house; don’t make me a leader of the people!’” | But he will answer and say on that day, “I will not be your leader, for in my house there is neither bread nor cloak; I will not be the leader of this people… | In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people. |
The Hebrew word translated malicious young men or babes is taʽălûl (ותעלולים) in verse 4. The Greek word translated mockers in the Septuagint is ἐμπαῖκται (a form of ἐμπαίκτης). Above all, understand this: In the last days blatant scoffers (ἐμπαῖκται, a form of ἐμπαίκτης) will come, being propelled by their own evil urges (ἐπιθυμίας, a form of ἐπιθυμία)…[2] And, In the end time there will come scoffers (ἐμπαῖκται, a form of ἐμπαίκτης), propelled by their own ungodly (ἀσεβειῶν, a form of ἀσέβεια) desires (ἐπιθυμίας, a form of ἐπιθυμία).[3]
Isaiah continued to clarify why wicked sinners were about to get exactly what they deserve (Isaiah 3:8-11):
| NET | NETS |
Tanakh |
| Jerusalem certainly stumbles, Judah falls, for their words and their actions offend the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה); they rebel against his royal authority. | because Ierousalem has been abandoned and Judea has fallen and their tongues are joined with lawlessness, being disobedient toward the things of the Lord; now therefore their glory has been brought low. | For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory. |
| The look on their faces testifies to their guilt; like the people of Sodom they openly boast of their sin. Too bad for them! For they bring disaster on themselves. | And the shame of their face has risen up against them; they have proclaimed their sin like that of Sodoma, and they have made it plain. Woe to their soul! Because they have given evil counsel against themselves, | The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. |
| Tell the innocent (tsaddı̂yq, צדיק) it will go well with them, for they will be rewarded for what they have done. | saying, “Let us bind the just, for he is a nuisance to us.” Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their works. | Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. |
| Too bad for the wicked sinners! For they will get exactly what they deserve. | Woe to the lawless one! Evil things will happen to him according to the works of his hands. | Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him. |
In verse 8 the Hebrew word translated certainly and for is kı̂y (כי), stumbles and ruined is kâshal (כשלה). In the Septuagint in Greek the word translated because is ὅτι and has been abandoned is ἀνεῖται, which is harder to pin down. It comes up as a form of ἀνίημι (send up) and ἀνέω (definition unavailable). I don’t think it means “send up,” and guessed that it might be a word negated by ἀ, so I tried νεῖται. Here νέω3 is most promising, so ἀνέω might be the negation of “heap, pile up.”
The final two clauses (three in the NETS) of verse 8 are intriguing and frustrating. I don’t know Hebrew but I don’t see two clauses. The word offend (NET) is definitely not in the text; against (Tanakh) may be a way to translate ʼel (אל). It looks to me as if it says, “because their words (tongue) and their actions toward yehôvâh” whatever follows next. Three words, mârâh (למרות) ʽayin (עני) kâbôd (כבודו), “rebellious eyes glory,” follow next in the Hebrew text. I understand why the rabbis wanted to insert lawless (ἀνομίας, a form of ἀνομία) into the mix in the Septuagint. But this isn’t Jesse James or the Wild West. It’s a relatively stable, prosperous and religious nation that yehôvâh is about to turn on its head. They had laws but not yehôvâh’s laws.
The Septuagint in verse 10 doesn’t have what I called the couplet near the beginning of this essay. Rather the indictment of the ἀνόμῳ πονηρὰ (lawless one, NETS) continued. The NET and Tanakh do share the couplet (Isaiah 3:10, 11):
|
NET |
|
| The Innocent |
The Wicked Sinners |
| Tell the innocent (tsaddı̂yq, צדיק) it will go well with them, for they will be rewarded for what they have done. | Too bad for the wicked sinners! For they will get exactly what they deserve. |
|
Tanakh |
|
|
The Righteous |
The Wicked |
| Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. | Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him. |
Though both the innocent, if there were any, and the wicked sinners live under the same consequences—the sovereign Lord who commands armies is about to remove from Jerusalem and Judah every source of security—the innocent will be protected in the midst of it, for they will be rewarded for what they have done, or, they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
This makes perfect sense if we allow that the wicked sinners trusted in human beings, whose life’s breath is in their nostrils.[4] They worship [and rely on] the product of their own hands, what their own fingers have fashioned.[5] They are helpless when these things—the stay and the staff—are removed. The innocent by contrast trust yehôvâh and continue to trust Him through major social upheaval (1 Corinthians 1:4-9 NET).
I always thank my God [e.g., ʼĕlôhı̂ym in Hebrew; translated θεὸς in Greek] for you because of the grace of God that was given to you in Christ Jesus. For you were made rich in every way in him, in all your speech and in every kind of knowledge – just as the testimony about Christ has been confirmed among you – so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful (πιστὸς), by whom you were called into fellowship (κοινωνίαν, a form of κοινωνία) with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord [e.g., yehôvâh in Hebrew; translated κύριος in Greek].[6]
Condemnation or Judgment? – Part 11
[6] In Genesis 2:4 yehôvâh ʼĕlôhı̂ym (יהוה אלהים) is also translated simply θεὸς in the Septuagint.
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