Keluaran 32:9

32:9 Then the Lord said to Moses: “I have seen this people. ¹  Look ²  what a stiff-necked people they are! ³ 

Yesaya 9:8

God’s Judgment Intensifies

9:8 ⁴ The sovereign master ⁵  decreed judgment ⁶  on Jacob,

and it fell on Israel. ⁷ 

Yehezkiel 3:7

3:7 But the house of Israel is unwilling to listen to you, ⁸  because they are not willing to listen to me, ⁹  for the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted. ¹⁰ 

¹ sn This is a bold anthropomorphism; it is as if God has now had a chance to get to know these people and has discovered how rebellious they are. The point of the figure is that there has been discernible evidence of their nature.

² tn Heb “and behold” or “and look.” The expression directs attention in order to persuade the hearer.

³ sn B. Jacob says the image is that of the people walking before God, and when he called to them the directions, they would not bend their neck to listen; they were resolute in doing what they intended to do (Exodus, 943). The figure describes them as refusing to submit, but resisting in pride.

⁴ sn The following speech (9:8-10:4) assumes that God has already sent judgment (see v. 9), but it also announces that further judgment is around the corner (10:1-4). The speech seems to describe a series of past judgments on the northern kingdom which is ready to intensify further in the devastation announced in 10:1-4. It may have been written prior to the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom in 734-733 b.c., or sometime between that invasion and the downfall of Samaria in 722 b.c. The structure of the speech displays four panels, each of which ends with the refrain, “Through all this, his anger did not subside; his hand remained outstretched” (9:12b; 17b; 21b; 10:4b): Panel I: (A) Description of past judgment (9:8); (B) Description of the people’s attitude toward past judgment (9:9-10); (C) Description of past judgment (9:11-12a); (D) Refrain (9:12b); Panel II: (A) Description of the people’s attitude toward past judgment (9:13); (B) Description of past judgment (9:14-17a); (C) Refrain (9:17b); Panel III: (A) Description of past judgment (9:18-21a); (B) Refrain (9:21b); Panel IV: (A) Woe oracle announcing future judgment (10:1-4a); (B) Refrain (10:4b).

⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in v. 17 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

⁶ tn Heb “sent a word” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV); NASB “sends a message.”

⁷ tn The present translation assumes that this verse refers to judgment that had already fallen. Both verbs (perfects) are taken as indicating simple past; the vav (ו) on the second verb is understood as a simple vav conjunctive. Another option is to understand the verse as describing a future judgment (see 10:1-4). In this case the first verb is a perfect of certitude; the vav on the second verb is a vav consecutive.

⁸ sn Moses (Exod 3:19) and Isaiah (Isa 6:9-10) were also told that their messages would not be received.

⁹ sn A similar description of Israel’s disobedience is given in 1 Sam 8:7.

¹⁰ tn Heb “hard of forehead and stiff of heart.”