Isaiah 42:24 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 42:24
Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law.
to give · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Jacob
יַעֲקֹ֛בya.'a.Ko
H3290
Jaakob · proper noun, a man's name
spoil
לִמְשִׁסָּ֧הlim.sho.seh
H4933
plunder · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Israel
וְיִשְׂרָאֵ֥לve.Yis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · conjunction + proper noun, a place name
robbers
לְבֹזְזִ֖יםle.vo.ze.Zim
H962
to plunder · preposition + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
LORD
יְהוָ֑הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
whom
ז֚וּzu
H2098
this or that · relative particle
sinned
חָטָ֣אנוּcha.Ta.nu
H2398
properly · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common plural
would
אָב֤וּ'a.Vu
H14
to breathe after · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
walk
הָל֔וֹךְha.Lokh
H1980
to walk (in a great variety of applications · verb, qal infinitive absolute
ways
בִדְרָכָיו֙vid.ra.Khav
H1870
a road (as trodden) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
obedient
שָׁמְע֖וּsha.me.'U
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
law
בְּתוֹרָתֽוֹbe.to.ra.To
H8451
a precept or statute · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 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
Deuteronomy 28:49 The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou sha…
Deuteronomy 32:30 How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?
Judges 2:14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into…
Judges 3:8 Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the ch…
Judges 10:7 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of…
2 Chronicles 15:6 And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity.
2 Chronicles 36:17 Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no…
Nehemiah 9:26-27 Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which testified ag…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 42:18–end
The prophet, having spoken by way of comfort and encouragement to the believing Jews who waited for the consolation of Israel, here turns to those among them who were unbelieving, for their conviction and humiliation. Among those who were in captivity in Babylon there were some who were as the evil figs in Jeremiah's vision, who were sent thither for their hurt, to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth, for a reproach and a proverb, Jer 24:9. In them there was a type of the Jews who rejected Christ and were rejected by him, and then fell more than ever under the curse, when those who believed were inheriting the blessing; for they were broken, and ruined, and remain dispersed unto th…
Who--Their calamity was not the work of chance, but God's immediate act for their sins.
Jacob . . . Israel . . . we--change from the third to the first person; Isaiah first speaking to them as a prophet, distinct from them; then identifying himself with them, and acknowledging His share in the nation's sins (compare Jos 5:1).
John Gill on Isaiah 42:24
Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers?.... To the Roman soldiers, to be spoiled and robbed by them? this was not owing to chance and fortune, or to the superior skill and power of the Roman army:
did not the Lord, he against whom we have sinned? he did, but not without cause; he was justly provoked to it by the sins of the Jews, which were the meritorious and procuring causes of it; yet the Roman army could not have taken their city and plundered it had it not been the will of God, who for their sins, delivered it up to them; even Titus, the Heathen emperor, himself saw the hand of God in it, and acknowledged it;
"God favouring us (says he (c)) we have made war; it is God t…
Who gave Jacob for a prey? These are the matters which Isaiah complains that the Jews did not observe; for they thought either that the sufferings which they endured happened by chance, or that they had not the same strength to resist as their fathers had, and that this was the reason why they were conquered by their enemies. In short, having their minds fully occupied with external causes, they did not at the same time observe the threatenings which had been so frequently denounced by the prophets, nor attend to the judgments of God; and therefore the Prophet drags them before the heavenly throne, by declaring that God is the author of these judgments.
Hath not Jehovah? They could not beli…
The Church Fathers
Since God had been addressing people who could not hear him, he now speaks of them as helpless and weak.… For the outcome of the matter was no longer an issue but would be accomplished very soon.… He sent on them the fury of his anger, and battle overtook them. Those who were already wearied by war once more took it on themselves so as to hold on to Jerusalem and their rule over it. But war was unleashed on them, and not only in an external sense but also in that which afflicted their souls.
But Scripture declares that these evils are not by nature made by God but rather come from causes dwelling within humans. Sins against the Lord are the source of trials and pressures of various persecutions that with God's permission rise up against those sinning, as it is written, "who gives Israel up to the spoil." Is it not the Lord against whom they sinned and his ways in which they did not want to walk? For Scripture elsewhere states that God did not make evil things. In the book of Genesis, which speaks of the creation of the world, it states that all God made was very good.… So evils are not naturally caused by God's creating but by human will.
In this part of the Lord's Prayer, [Christ] shows that the enemy is powerless against us without God's prior permission. During temptation, consequently, all our fear and devotion and attention should be focused on God, since evil has only such force as he himself permits. … Moreover, evil is given power over us according to our [willful] sins. As Isaiah writes, "Who gave Jacob up to the looters and Israel to the ponderers." It was the Lord, against whom we sinned, in whose ways we would not walk and whose law we refused to obey. So he unleashed the fury of his anger against us. And again, when Solomon strayed from the precepts and paths of the Lord, it was recorded, "The Lord stirred up Satan against Solomon himself."
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
Anger Of God, The · Should lead to repentance — Should lead to repentance
Disobedience To God · Shall be punished — Shall be punished
Impenitence · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Obedience To God · Includes: Obeying his law — Includes: Obeying his law
Self-Will · .Refusing to walk in the ways of God — .Refusing to walk in the ways of God
Self-Will And Stubbornness · Exhibited in: Refusing to walk in the ways of God — Exhibited in: Refusing to walk in the ways of God
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).
When they ceased to be deaf to this crying contradiction, they would recognise with penitence that it was but the merited punishment of God. "Who among you will give ear to this, attend, and hear afar off? Who has give up Jacob to plundering, and Israel to the spoilers? Is it not Jehovah, against whom we have sinned? and they would not walk in His ways, and hearkened not to His law. Then He poured upon it in burning heat His wrath, and the strength of the fury of war: and this set it in flames round about, and it did not come to be recognised; it set it on fire, and it did not lay it to heart." The question in Isa 42:23 has not the force of a negative sentence, "No one does this," but of a w…
Throughout its history, Israel’s sin (42:24) made Israel fair game for foreign oppressors. Many nations, Assyria and Babylon in particular, became instruments God used to pour out his fury (42:25) on his rebellious people.
Rashi on Isaiah 42:24
This, that we sinned against Him This is what caused the plunder and the spoiling, what we sinned against Him.
and they did not want Our forefathers did not want to go in His ways.
