Isaiah 1:23 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 1:23
Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
a head person (of any rank or class) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
rebellious
סוֹרְרִ֗יםso.Rim
H5637
to turn away · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
companions
וְחַבְרֵי֙ve.chav.Rei
H2270
an associate · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct
thieves
גַּנָּבִ֔יםga.na.Vim
H1590
a stealer · noun, common masculine plural absolute
loveth
אֹהֵ֣ב'o.Hev
H157
to have affection for (sexually or otherwise) · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
gifts
שֹׁ֔חַדSho.chad
H7810
a donation (venal or redemptive) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
followeth
וְרֹדֵ֖ףve.ro.Def
H7291
to run after (usually with hostile intent · conjunction + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
rewards
שַׁלְמֹנִ֑יםshal.mo.Nim
H8021
a bribe · noun, common masculine plural absolute
judge
יִשְׁפֹּ֔טוּyish.Po.tu
H8199
to judge · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
fatherless
יָתוֹם֙ya.tOm
H3490
a bereaved person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
cause
וְרִ֥יבve.Riv
H7379
a contest (personal or legal) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
widow
אַלְמָנָ֖ה'al.ma.Nah
H490
a widow · noun, common feminine singular absolute
come
יָב֥וֹאya.Vo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Micah 7:3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mi…
Exodus 23:8 And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.
Zechariah 7:10 And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your hear…
Luke 18:2-5 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:
Acts 4:5-11 And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes,
Isaiah 3:14 The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of…
Isaiah 10:1-2 Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;
Jeremiah 5:28-29 They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 1:21–end
Here, I. The woeful degeneracy of Judah and Jerusalem is sadly lamented. See, 1. What the royal city had been, a faithful city, faithful to God and the interests of his kingdom among men, faithful to the nation and its public interests. It was full of judgment; justice was duly administered upon the thrones of judgment which were set there, the thrones of the house of David, Psa 122:5. Men were generally honest in their dealings, and abhorred to do an unjust thing. Righteousness lodged in it, was constantly resident in their palaces and in all their dwellings, not called in now and then to serve a turn, but at home there. Note, Neither holy cities nor royal ones, neither places where religio…
companions of thieves--by connivance (Pro 29:24).
gifts-- (Eze 22:12). A nation's corruption begins with its rulers.
John Gill on Isaiah 1:23
Thy princes are rebellious,.... Stubborn and obstinate, refused to receive and acknowledge the Messiah; such were the Jewish rulers, civil and ecclesiastical, in the times of Christ.
And companions of thieves: who devoured widows' houses; made the temple, which was a house of prayer, a den of thieves; and took away the key of knowledge from the people, and would not suffer them to attend the ministry of the Gospel, Matthew 21:13.
everyone loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards. The Targum paraphrases it,
"everyone says to his neighbour, do me a favour in my cause, I will return "it" to thee in thy cause;''
and so justice was perverted:
they judge not the fatherless; that is, either t…
Thy princes are rebellious There is here an elegant allusion or play on words. [28] He does not speak of princes in such a manner as if the common people were holy and needed no reproof, but he points out the source of the evil; for as no disease is more injurious than that which spreads from the head into the whole body, so no evil is more destructive in a commonwealth than a wicked and depraved prince, who conveys his corruptions into the whole body both by his example and by the liberty which he allows. Hence, too, comes the proverb, hopoia he despoina, toiai kai hai therapainides, like mistress, like maids. The meaning, therefore, is as if the Prophet had said that there was no one vice…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 23.) Your leaders were disobedient, partners of thieves. Aquila, departing from the disobedient, interpreted for Symmachus, who turned aside. But the leaders called the scribes and the Pharisees, who departed from the Lord, indeed, abandoning the path of truth, they walked in a crooked way, and became accomplices of the traitor and the thieves of Judah. Indeed, we must be careful not to be called thieves ourselves, but rather partners of thieves, by accepting gifts from the people of the world who accumulate riches through the tears of the poor and through robberies. And it is said to us, You saw a thief, and you ran with him, and with adulterers you set your portion (Ps. 49:18). Everyone loves gifts, they pursue rewards. Even those who love gifts are counted among the vices. It is not said about those who receive: for this often happens out of necessity; but about those who do not consider friends unless they have received gifts from them: they do not consider their friends' faces, but their hands; and they judge as holy those whose purse they empty; about whom Ecclesiastes also speaks: Whoever loves money will not be satisfied with money (Eccles. V, 9). Such are the following retaliations, that they praise those from whom they have received something, or certainly they give nothing unless they think they will receive it from whom. As for retaliations, Symmachus interpreted them as vicissitudes or vengeance, so that those who repay evil for evil and tooth for tooth, eye for eye (Exod. XXI) are also at fault; and they do not imitate that of David: If I have repaid those who repay me with evil (Psal. VII, 5); and of Jeremiah saying of the just man: He will give his cheek to the striker, he will be filled with reproaches (Lam. III, 30): to fulfill the Evangelical man, about whom it is said: If someone strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other cheek also (Matth. V, 39).
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Isaiah, The Book of — Consists of prophecies delivered (Isa. 1) in the reign of Uzziah (1-5), (2) of Jotham (6), (3) Ahaz (7-14:28), (4) the first half of Hezekiah’s reign (14:28-35), (5) the second half of Hezekiah’s…
Alliance And Society With The Enemies Of God · Are degrading — Are degrading
Bribery · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Company · EVIL — EVIL
Court · CORRUPT — CORRUPT
Covetousness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Fatherless · The wicked: Judge not for — The wicked: Judge not for
Orphan · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Rebellion Against God · Connected with: Injustice and corruption — Connected with: Injustice and corruption
Silver · Illustrative: Of good rulers — Illustrative: Of good rulers
Theft · The wicked: Associate with those who commit — The wicked: Associate with those who commit
In Isa 1:23 the prophet says this without a figure: "Thy rulers are rebellious, and companions of thieves; every one loveth presents, and hunteth after payment; the orphan they right not, and the cause of the widow has no access to them." In two words the prophet depicts the contemptible baseness of the national rulers (sârim). He describes first of all their baseness in relation to God, with the alliterative sorerim: rebellious, refractory; and then, in relation to men, companions of thieves, inasmuch as they allowed themselves to be bribed by presents of stolen goods to acts of injustice towards those who had been robbed. They not only willingly accepted such bribes, and that not merely a…
The image of Jerusalem as a prostitute represents Judah’s unfaithfulness to God (see Jer 3:6-14; Ezek 16:25-26; Hos 1–3).
Rashi on Isaiah 1:23
rebellious Deviating from the straight path.
and runs after payments This word is similar to the Talmudic תַּשְׁלוּמִין. Jonathan paraphrases: One man says to another, Do me a favor in my case, and I will repay you in your case. This refers to a judge who was a robber, and the robbery victim complains about him before another judge. This one says to him, Declare me innocent today, and I will repay you when they complain about you before me. This is the meaning of running after payments.
and the quarrel of the widow does not come to them The widow comes to complain, and the orphan is coming out, when this one meets him and asks him, What did you accomplish in your case? He replies, All day…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
