Yesaya 1:10-15

1:10 Listen to the Lord’s word,

you leaders of Sodom! ¹ 

Pay attention to our God’s rebuke, ² 

people of Gomorrah!

1:11 “Of what importance to me are your many sacrifices?” ³ 

says the Lord.

“I am stuffed with ⁴  burnt sacrifices

of rams and the fat from steers.

The blood of bulls, lambs, and goats

I do not want. ⁵ 

1:12 When you enter my presence,

do you actually think I want this –

animals trampling on my courtyards? ⁶ 

1:13 Do not bring any more meaningless ⁷  offerings;

I consider your incense detestable! ⁸ 

You observe new moon festivals, Sabbaths, and convocations,

but I cannot tolerate sin-stained celebrations! ⁹ 

1:14 I hate your new moon festivals and assemblies;

they are a burden

that I am tired of carrying.

1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I look the other way; ¹⁰ 

when you offer your many prayers,

I do not listen,

because your hands are covered with blood. ¹¹ 

Yesaya 26:8-9

26:8 Yes, as your judgments unfold, ¹² 

O Lord, we wait for you.

We desire your fame and reputation to grow. ¹³ 

26:9 I ¹⁴  look for ¹⁵  you during the night,

my spirit within me seeks you at dawn,

for when your judgments come upon the earth,

those who live in the world learn about justice. ¹⁶ 

Yesaya 29:13

29:13 The sovereign master ¹⁷  says,

“These people say they are loyal to me; ¹⁸ 

they say wonderful things about me, ¹⁹ 

but they are not really loyal to me. ²⁰ 

Their worship consists of

nothing but man-made ritual. ²¹ 

Yesaya 48:1-2

The Lord Appeals to the Exiles

48:1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob, ²² 

you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’

and are descended from Judah, ²³ 

who take oaths in the name of the Lord,

and invoke ²⁴  the God of Israel –

but not in an honest and just manner. ²⁵ 

48:2 Indeed, they live in the holy city; ²⁶ 

they trust in ²⁷  the God of Israel,

whose name is the Lord who commands armies.

Yesaya 58:2

58:2 They seek me day after day;

they want to know my requirements, ²⁸ 

like a nation that does what is right

and does not reject the law of their God.

They ask me for just decrees;

they want to be near God.

Yesaya 58:8-14

58:8 Then your light will shine like the sunrise; ²⁹ 

your restoration will quickly arrive; ³⁰ 

your godly behavior ³¹  will go before you,

and the Lord’s splendor will be your rear guard. ³² 

58:9 Then you will call out, and the Lord will respond;

you will cry out, and he will reply, ‘Here I am.’

You must ³³  remove the burdensome yoke from among you

and stop pointing fingers and speaking sinfully.

58:10 You must ³⁴  actively help the hungry

and feed the oppressed. ³⁵ 

Then your light will dispel the darkness, ³⁶ 

and your darkness will be transformed into noonday. ³⁷ 

58:11 The Lord will continually lead you;

he will feed you even in parched regions. ³⁸ 

He will give you renewed strength, ³⁹ 

and you will be like a well-watered garden,

like a spring that continually produces water.

58:12 Your perpetual ruins will be rebuilt; ⁴⁰ 

you will reestablish the ancient foundations.

You will be called, ‘The one who repairs broken walls,

the one who makes the streets inhabitable again.’ ⁴¹ 

58:13 You must ⁴²  observe the Sabbath ⁴³ 

rather than doing anything you please on my holy day. ⁴⁴ 

You must look forward to the Sabbath ⁴⁵ 

and treat the Lord’s holy day with respect. ⁴⁶ 

You must treat it with respect by refraining from your normal activities,

and by refraining from your selfish pursuits and from making business deals. ⁴⁷ 

58:14 Then you will find joy in your relationship to the Lord, ⁴⁸ 

and I will give you great prosperity, ⁴⁹ 

and cause crops to grow on the land I gave to your ancestor Jacob.” ⁵⁰ 

Know for certain that the Lord has spoken. ⁵¹ 

Yesaya 66:1-2

66:1 This is what the Lord says:

“The heavens are my throne

and the earth is my footstool.

Where then is the house you will build for me?

Where is the place where I will rest?

66:2 My hand made them; ⁵² 

that is how they came to be,” ⁵³  says the Lord.

I show special favor ⁵⁴  to the humble and contrite,

who respect what I have to say. ⁵⁵ 

Yeremia 7:7-12

7:7 If you stop doing these things, ⁵⁶  I will allow you to continue to live in this land ⁵⁷  which I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession. ⁵⁸ 

7:8 “‘But just look at you! ⁵⁹  You are putting your confidence in a false belief ⁶⁰  that will not deliver you. ⁶¹  7:9 You steal. ⁶²  You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to ⁶³  other gods whom you have not previously known. 7:10 Then you come and stand in my presence in this temple I have claimed as my own ⁶⁴  and say, “We are safe!” You think you are so safe that you go on doing all those hateful sins! ⁶⁵  7:11 Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own ⁶⁶  is to be a hideout for robbers? ⁶⁷  You had better take note! ⁶⁸  I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord. 7:12 So, go to the place in Shiloh where I allowed myself to be worshiped ⁶⁹  in the early days. See what I did to it ⁷⁰  because of the wicked things my people Israel did.

Matius 15:7-9

15:7 Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said,

15:8 ‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart ⁷¹  is far from me,

15:9 and they worship me in vain,

teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” ⁷² 

Lukas 18:11-13

18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ⁷³  ‘God, I thank ⁷⁴  you that I am not like other people: ⁷⁵  extortionists, ⁷⁶  unrighteous people, ⁷⁷  adulterers – or even like this tax collector. ⁷⁸  18:12 I fast twice ⁷⁹  a week; I give a tenth ⁸⁰  of everything I get.’ 18:13 The tax collector, however, stood ⁸¹  far off and would not even look up ⁸²  to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful ⁸³  to me, sinner that I am!’ ⁸⁴ 

[1:10]  ¹ sn Building on the simile of v. 9, the prophet sarcastically addresses the leaders and people of Jerusalem as if they were leaders and residents of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah. The sarcasm is appropriate, for if the judgment is comparable to Sodom’s, that must mean that the sin which prompted the judgment is comparable as well.

[1:10]  ² tn Heb “to the instruction of our God.” In this context, which is highly accusatory and threatening, תּוֹרָה (torah, “law, instruction”) does not refer to mere teaching, but to corrective teaching and rebuke.

[1:11]  ³ tn Heb “Why to me the multitude of your sacrifices?” The sarcastic rhetorical question suggests that their many sacrifices are of no importance to the Lord. This phrase answers the possible objection that an Israelite could raise in response to God’s indictment: “But we are offering the sacrifices you commanded!”

[1:11]  sn In this section the Lord refutes a potential objection that his sinful people might offer in their defense. He has charged them with rebellion (vv. 2-3), but they might respond that they have brought him many sacrifices. So he points out that he requires social justice first and foremost, not empty ritual.

[1:11]  ⁴ tn The verb שָׂבַע (sava’, “be satisfied, full”) is often used of eating and/or drinking one’s fill. See BDB 959 s.v. שָׂבַע. Here sacrifices are viewed, in typical ancient Near Eastern fashion, as food for the deity. God here declares that he has eaten and drunk, as it were, his fill.

[1:11]  ⁵ sn In the chiastic structure of the verse, the verbs at the beginning and end highlight God’s displeasure, while the heaping up of references to animals, fat, and blood in the middle lines hints at why God wants no more of their sacrifices. They have, as it were, piled the food on his table and he needs no more.

[1:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “When you come to appear before me, who requires this from your hand, trampling of my courtyards?” The rhetorical question sarcastically makes the point that God does not require this parade of livestock. The verb “trample” probably refers to the eager worshipers and their sacrificial animals walking around in the temple area.

[1:13]  ⁷ tn Or “worthless” (NASB, NCV, CEV); KJV, ASV “vain.”

[1:13]  ⁸ sn Notice some of the other practices that Yahweh regards as “detestable”: homosexuality (Lev 18:22-30; 20:13), idolatry (Deut 7:25; 13:15), human sacrifice (Deut 12:31), eating ritually unclean animals (Deut 14:3-8), sacrificing defective animals (Deut 17:1), engaging in occult activities (Deut 18:9-14), and practicing ritual prostitution (1 Kgs 14:23).

[1:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “sin and assembly” (these two nouns probably represent a hendiadys). The point is that their attempts at worship are unacceptable to God because the people’s everyday actions in the socio-economic realm prove they have no genuine devotion to God (see vv. 16-17).

[1:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”

[1:15]  ¹¹ sn This does not just refer to the blood of sacrificial animals, but also the blood, as it were, of their innocent victims. By depriving the poor and destitute of proper legal recourse and adequate access to the economic system, the oppressors have, for all intents and purposes, “killed” their victims.

[26:8]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text has, “yes, the way of your judgments.” The translation assumes that “way” is related to the verb “we wait” as an adverbial accusative (“in the way of your judgments we wait”). מִשְׁפָּטֶיךָ (mishpatekha, “your judgments”) could refer to the Lord’s commandments, in which case one might translate, “as we obey your commands.” However, in verse 9 the same form refers to divine acts of judgment on evildoers.

[26:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “your name and your remembrance [is] the desire of [our?] being.”

[26:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “with my soul I.” This is a figure for the speaker himself (“I”).

[26:9]  ¹⁵ tn Or “long for, desire.” The speaker acknowledges that he is eager to see God come in judgment (see vv. 8, 9b).

[26:9]  ¹⁶ tn The translation understands צֶדֶק (tsedeq) in the sense of “justice,” but it is possible that it carries the nuance “righteousness,” in which case one might translate, “those who live in the world learn to live in a righteous manner” (cf. NCV).

[29:13]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).

[29:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Because these people draw near to me with their mouth.”

[29:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and with their lips they honor me.”

[29:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “but their heart is far from me.” The heart is viewed here as the seat of the will, from which genuine loyalty derives.

[29:13]  ²¹ tn Heb “their fear of me is a commandment of men that has been taught.”

[48:1]  ²² tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV, CEV “people of Israel.”

[48:1]  ²³ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “and from the waters of Judah came out.” מִמֵּי (mimme) could be a corruption of מִמְּעֵי (mimmÿ’e, “from the inner parts of”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT, NRSV) as suggested in the above translation. Some translations (ESV, NKJV) retain the MT reading because the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, which corrects a similar form to “from inner parts of” in 39:7, does not do it here.

[48:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “cause to remember”; KJV, ASV “make mention of.”

[48:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “not in truth and not in righteousness.”

[48:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “they call themselves [or “are called”] from the holy city.” The precise meaning of the statement is uncertain. The Niphal of קָרָא (qara’) is combined with the preposition מִן (min) only here. When the Qal of קָרָא is used with מִן, the preposition often indicates the place from which one is summoned (see 46:11). So one could translate, “from the holy city they are summoned,” meaning that they reside there.

[48:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “lean on” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB, NIV “rely on.”

[58:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “ways” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV); NLT “my laws.”

[58:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “will burst out like the dawn.”

[58:8]  sn Light here symbolizes God’s favor and restored blessing, as the immediately following context makes clear.

[58:8]  ³⁰ tn Heb “prosper”; KJV “spring forth speedily.”

[58:8]  ³¹ tn Or “righteousness.” Their godly behavior will be on display for all to see.

[58:8]  ³² sn The nation will experience God’s protective presence.

[58:9]  ³³ tn Heb “if you.” In the Hebrew text vv. 9b-10 are one long conditional sentence. The protasis (“if” clauses appear in vv. 9b-10a), with the apodosis (“then” clause) appearing in v. 10b.

[58:10]  ³⁴ tn Heb “if you.” See the note on “you must” in v. 9b.

[58:10]  ³⁵ tn Heb “If you furnish for the hungry [with] your being, and the appetite of the oppressed you satisfy.”

[58:10]  ³⁶ tn Heb “will rise in the darkness.”

[58:10]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and your darkness [will be] like noonday.”

[58:11]  ³⁸ tn Heb “he will satisfy in parched regions your appetite.”

[58:11]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and your bones he will strengthen.”

[58:12]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and they will build from you ancient ruins.”

[58:12]  ⁴¹ tc The Hebrew text has “the one who restores paths for dwelling.” The idea of “paths to dwell in” is not a common notion. Some have proposed emending נְתִיבוֹת (nÿtivot, “paths”) to נְתִיצוֹת (nÿtitsot, “ruins”), a passive participle from נָתַץ (natats, “tear down”; see HALOT 732 s.v. *נְתִיצָה), because tighter parallelism with the preceding line is achieved. However, none of the textual sources support this emendation. The line may mean that paths must be repaired in order to dwell in the land.

[58:13]  ⁴² tn Lit., “if you.” In the Hebrew text vv. 13-14 are one long conditional sentence. The protasis (“if” clauses appear in v. 13), with the apodosis (“then” clause) appearing in v. 14.

[58:13]  ⁴³ tn Heb “if you turn from the Sabbath your feet.”

[58:13]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “[from] doing your desires on my holy day.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a supplies the preposition מִן (min) on “doing.”

[58:13]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “and call the Sabbath a pleasure”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “a delight.”

[58:13]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “and [call] the holy [day] of the Lord honored.” On קָדוֹשׁ (qadosh, “holy”) as indicating a time period, see BDB 872 s.v. 2.e (cf. also Neh 8:9-11).

[58:13]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “and you honor it [by refraining] from accomplishing your ways, from finding your desire and speaking a word.” It is unlikely that the last phrase (“speaking a word”) is a prohibition against talking on the Sabbath; instead it probably refers to making transactions or plans (see Hos 10:4). Some see here a reference to idle talk (cf. 2 Sam 19:30).

[58:14]  ⁴⁸ tn For a parallel use of the phrase “find joy in” (Hitpael of עָנַג [’anag] followed by the preposition עַל [’al]), see Ps 37:4.

[58:14]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “and I will cause you to ride upon the heights of the land.” The statement seems to be an allusion to Deut 32:13, where it is associated, as here, with God’s abundant provision of food.

[58:14]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “and I will cause you to eat the inheritance of Jacob your father.” The Hebrew term נַחֲלָה (nakhalah) likely stands by metonymy for the crops that grow on Jacob’s “inheritance” (i.e., the land he inherited as a result of God’s promise).

[58:14]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” The introductory כִּי (ki) may be asseverative (as reflected in the translation) or causal/explanatory, explaining why the preceding promise will become reality (because it is guaranteed by the divine word).

[66:2]  ⁵² tn Heb “all these.” The phrase refers to the heavens and earth, mentioned in the previous verse.

[66:2]  ⁵³ tn Heb “and all these were.” Some prefer to emend וַיִּהְיוּ (vayyihyu, “and they were”) to וְלִי הָיוּ (vÿli hayu, “and to me they were”), i.e., “and they belong to me.”

[66:2]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “and to this one I look” (KJV and NASB both similar).

[66:2]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “to the humble and the lowly in spirit and the one who trembles at my words.”

[7:7]  ⁵⁶ tn The translation uses imperatives in vv. 5-6 followed by the phrase, “If you do all this,” to avoid the long and complex sentence structure of the Hebrew sentence which has a series of conditional clauses in vv. 5-6 followed by a main clause in v. 7.

[7:7]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “live in this place, in this land.”

[7:7]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “gave to your fathers [with reference to] from ancient times even unto forever.”

[7:8]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “Behold!”

[7:8]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “You are trusting in lying words.” See the similar phrase in v. 4 and the note there.

[7:8]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “not profit [you].”

[7:9]  ⁶² tn Heb “Will you steal…then say, ‘We are safe’?” Verses 9-10 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text.

[7:9]  ⁶³ tn Heb “You go/follow after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[7:10]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

[7:10]  ⁶⁵ tn Or “‘We are safe!’ – safe, you think, to go on doing all those hateful things.” Verses 9-10 are all one long sentence in the Hebrew text. It has been broken up for English stylistic reasons. Somewhat literally it reads “Will you steal…then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe’ so as to/in order to do…” The Hebrew of v. 9 has a series of infinitives which emphasize the bare action of the verb without the idea of time or agent. The effect is to place a kind of staccato like emphasis on the multitude of their sins all of which are violations of one of the Ten Commandments. The final clause in v. 8 expresses purpose or result (probably result) through another infinitive. This long sentence is introduced by a marker (ה interrogative in Hebrew) introducing a rhetorical question in which God expresses his incredulity that they could do these sins, come into the temple and claim the safety of his protection, and then go right back out and commit the same sins. J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 52) catches the force nicely: “What? You think you can steal, murder…and then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe…’ just so that you can go right on…”

[7:11]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

[7:11]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “Is this house…a den/cave of robbers in your eyes?”

[7:11]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “Behold!”

[7:12]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “where I caused my name to dwell.” The translation does not adequately represent the theology of the Lord’s deliberate identification with a place where he chose to manifest his presence and desired to be worshiped (cf. Exod 20:25; Deut 16:2, 6, 11).

[7:12]  ⁷⁰ sn The place in Shiloh…see what I did to it. This refers to the destruction of Shiloh by the Philistines circa 1050 b.c. (cf. Ps 78:60). The destruction of Shiloh is pertinent to the argument. The presence of the tabernacle and ark of the covenant did not prevent Shiloh from being destroyed when Israel sinned. The people of Israel used the ark as a magic charm but it did not prevent them from being defeated or the ark being captured (1 Sam 4:3, 11, 21-22).

[15:8]  ⁷¹ tn The term “heart” is a collective singular in the Greek text.

[15:9]  ⁷² sn A quotation from Isa 29:13.

[18:11]  ⁷³ tn Or “stood by himself and prayed like this.” The prepositional phrase πρὸς ἑαυτόν (pros eauton, “to/about himself”) could go with either the aorist participle σταθείς (staqeis, “stood”) or with the imperfect verb προσηύχετο (proshuceto, “he prayed”). If taken with the participle, then the meaning would seem at first glance to be: “stood ‘by himself’,” or “stood ‘alone’.” Now it is true that πρός can mean “by” or “with” when used with intransitive verbs such as ἵστημι ({isthmi, “I stand”; cf. BDAG 874 s.v. πρός 2.a), but πρὸς ἑαυτόν together never means “by himself” or “alone” in biblical Greek. On the other hand, if πρὸς ἑαυτόν is taken with the verb, then two different nuances emerge, both of which highlight in different ways the principal point Jesus seems to be making about the arrogance of this religious leader: (1) “prayed to himself,” but not necessarily silently, or (2) “prayed about himself,” with the connotation that he prayed out loud, for all to hear. Since his prayer is really a review of his moral résumé, directed both at advertising his own righteousness and exposing the perversion of the tax collector, whom he actually mentions in his prayer, the latter option seems preferable. If this is the case, then the Pharisee’s mention of God is really nothing more than a formality.

[18:11]  ⁷⁴ sn The Pharisee’s prayer started out as a thanksgiving psalm to God, but the praise ended up not being about God.

[18:11]  ⁷⁵ tn Here the plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) is used as a generic and can refer to both men and women (NASB, NRSV, “people”; NLT, “everyone else”; NAB, “the rest of humanity”).

[18:11]  ⁷⁶ tn Or “swindlers” (BDAG 134 s.v. ἅρπαξ 2); see also Isa 10:2; Josephus, J. W. 6.3.4 [6.203].

[18:11]  ⁷⁷ sn A general category for “sinners” (1 Cor 6:9; Lev 19:3).

[18:11]  ⁷⁸ sn Note what the Pharisee assumes about the righteousness of this tax collector by grouping him with extortionists, unrighteous people, and adulterers.

[18:12]  ⁷⁹ sn The law only required fasting on the Day of Atonement. Such voluntary fasting as this practiced twice a week by the Pharisee normally took place on Monday and Thursday.

[18:12]  ⁸⁰ tn Or “I tithe.”

[18:13]  ⁸¹ tn Grk “standing”; the Greek participle has been translated as a finite verb.

[18:13]  ⁸² tn Grk “even lift up his eyes” (an idiom).

[18:13]  ⁸³ tn The prayer is a humble call for forgiveness. The term for mercy (ἱλάσκομαι, Jilaskomai) is associated with the concept of a request for atonement (BDAG 473-74 s.v. 1; Ps 51:1, 3; 25:11; 34:6, 18).

[18:13]  ⁸⁴ tn Grk “the sinner.” The tax collector views himself not just as any sinner but as the worst of all sinners. See ExSyn 222-23.