Isaiah 26:10 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 26:10
Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.
properly · verb, hophal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
wicked
רָשָׁע֙ra.Sha'
H7563
morally wrong · noun, common masculine singular absolute
not
בַּלbal-
H1077
properly · negative particle
learn
לָמַ֣דla.Mad
H3925
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
righteousness
צֶ֔דֶקTze.dek
H6664
the right (natural · noun, common masculine singular absolute
land
בְּאֶ֥רֶץbe.'E.retz
H776
the earth (at large · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
uprightness
נְכֹח֖וֹתne.kho.Chot
H5229
properly · adjective, feminine plural absolute
unjustly
יְעַוֵּ֑לye.'a.Vel
H5765
to distort (morally) · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
not
וּבַלu.val-
H1077
properly · conjunction + negative particle
behold
יִרְאֶ֖הyir.'Eh
H7200
to see · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
majesty
גֵּא֥וּתge.'Ut
H1348
arrogance or majesty · noun, common feminine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָֽהYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
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
Hosea 11:7 And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.
John 5:37-38 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
Romans 2:4-5 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repenta…
Exodus 8:15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.
Exodus 8:31-32 And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; th…
Exodus 9:34 And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servant…
Deuteronomy 32:15 But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made…
Psalms 106:43 Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 26:5-11
Here the prophet further encourages us to trust in the Lord for ever, and to continue waiting on him; for,
I. He will make humble souls that trust in him to triumph over their proud enemies, Isa 26:5, Isa 26:6. Those that exalt themselves shall be abased: For he brings down those that dwell on high; and wherein they deal proudly he is, and will be, above them. Even the lofty city Babylon itself, or Nineveh, he lays it low, Isa 25:12. He can do it, be it ever so well fortified. He has often done it. He will do it, for he resists the proud. It is his glory to do it, for he proves himself to be God by looking on the proud and abasing them, Job 40:12. But, on the contrary, those that humble them…
uprightness--rather, as in Isa 26:7, "prosperity," answering to "favor" in the parallelism, and in antithesis to "judgments in the earth" (Isa 26:9); where prosperity attends the wicked as well as the just, "he will not learn righteousness," therefore judgments must be sent that he may "learn" it [MAURER].
John Gill on Isaiah 26:10
Let favour be showed to the wicked,.... As it often is in a providential way; they have the good things of this life, and sometimes more than heart could wish for; nor are they in trouble as other men; they have many mercies, and many deliverances; they have their portion here, and are filled with hidden treasure, and are spared when others are cut off; and, besides sparing mercy and providential goodness, sometimes enjoy the means of grace, have the word and ordinances:
yet will ye not learn righteousness; neither repent of sin, nor reform from it; though "the goodness of God" should, yet it does not, "lead" him "to repentance"; he neither learns the righteousness of God, nor of Christ, no…
The wicked man will obtain favour. [167] Isaiah contrasts this statement with the former. He had said that the godly, even when they are afflicted, or see others afflicted, still rely on the love of God, and trust in him. But now he declares, on the other hand, that the wicked cannot be brought in any way to love God, though he endeavor, by every sort of kindness, to draw and gain them over; and that, whatever aspect the Lord assume towards them, they do not become better.
This verse appears, at first view, to contradict the former, in which the Prophet said, that the justice of God is acknowledged in the earth, when he executes his judgments, and shews that he is the Judge, and punishes th…
The Church Fathers
In this human form the good will see him in whom they have believed; the wicked, him whom they have despised. But the wicked will not see him in the form of God in which he is equal to the Father, for as the prophet says, "The wicked shall be taken off that he may not see the glory of the Lord," and, on the other hand, "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God."
When, by such faith and knowledge, the Lord's people have embraced this true life, they surely receive the joy of heaven. The wicked, on the other hand, since they don't care about the Lord's life, are rightly deprived of its blessings. For, "let the wicked be taken away so that he shall not see the glory of the Lord." In the end they, like everyone else, shall hear the universal proclamation of the promise, "Awake, sleeper, and rise up from the dead." They shall rise and knock on the doors of heaven, saying, "Open to us." The Lord, however, will rebuke them for rejecting knowledge of him and will tell them, "I do not know you."
His coming means his return from the judgment to his kingdom. The Lord comes to us after the judgment, because he lifts us up from his human appearance in the contemplation of his divinity; his coming means that he leads us to the vision of his glory. We see in his divinity after the judgment the one we beheld in his humanity at the judgment. At the judgment he comes in the form of a servant and appears to everyone, since it is written, "They will look on him whom they pierced." When the condemned fall down to their punishment, the righteous are led to the brightness of his glory, as is written: "The wicked is taken away, so that he will [not] see the glory of the Lord."
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
Blindness · 21:14;22:13,14; — 21:14;22:13,14;
Character Of The Wicked · Unjust — Unjust
Favour Of God, The · The wicked: Uninfluenced by — The wicked: Uninfluenced by
Impenitence · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Injustice · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Righteousness · The wicked: Though favoured, will not learn — The wicked: Though favoured, will not learn
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).
Here again the shiir has struck the note of a mâshâl. And proceeding in this tone, it pauses here once more to reflect as at the close of a strophe. "If favour is shown to the wicked man, he does not learn righteousness; in the most upright land he acts wickedly, and has no eye for the majesty of Jehovah." רשׁע יחן is a hypothetical clause, which is left to be indicated by the emphasis, like Neh 1:8 (Ewald, 357, b): granting that favour (chēn = "goodness," Rom 2:4) is constantly shown to the wicked man. "The most upright land:" 'eretz necochoth is a land in which everything is right, and all goes honourably. A worthless man, supposing he were in such a land, would still act knavishly; and…
God has shown kindness to the wicked. Although they deserve judgment (see also Rom 2:4; 2 Pet 3:9), he has been patient and forbearing and has blessed them. However, time will run out one day.
Rashi on Isaiah 26:10
Shall the wicked be favored who did not learn righteousness Should you favor the wicked Esau, who lived between two righteous men and did not learn righteousness?
in the land of uprightness Jerusalem and the Temple, he will deal unjustly, to pillage and spoil and to destroy.
and he does not see the pride of the Lord He did not regard Your pride and greatness. The expression, וּבַל יִרְאֶה, (lit., he shall not see,) is an expression of a habitual act, meaning: he did not see, he did not regard. Comp. (Job 1:5) “In this manner, Job was wont to do (יַעֲשֶׂה).”
