to approach (causatively · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
sons
בְּנֵ֣יbe.Nei
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
sorceress
עֹנְנָ֑ה'o.ne.Nah
H6049
figuratively · verb, piel active participle, feminine singular absolute
seed
זֶ֥רַעZe.ra'
H2233
seed · noun, common masculine singular absolute
adulterer
מְנָאֵ֖ףme.na.'Ef
H5003
to commit adultery · verb, piel active participle, masculine singular absolute
whore
וַתִּזְנֶֽהva.tiz.Neh
H2181
to commit adultery (usually of the female · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person feminine 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
Matthew 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he…
1 John 3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that lo…
Hosea 1:2 The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms…
James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the…
Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his hee…
Isaiah 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Isaiah 45:20 Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their g…
Joel 3:9-11 Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 57:3-12
We have here a high charge, but a just one no doubt, drawn up against that wicked generation out of which God's righteous ones were removed, because the world was not worthy of them. Observe,
I. The general character here given of them, or the name and title by which they stand indicted, Isa 57:3. They are told to draw near and hear the charge, are set to the bar, and arraigned there as sons of the sorceress, or of a witch, the seed of an adulterer and a whore, that is, they were such themselves, they were strongly inclined to be such, and their ancestors were such before them. Sin is sorcery and adultery, for it is departing from God and dealing with the devil. They were children of disobed…
But . . . ye--In contrast to "the righteous" and their end, he announces to the unbelieving Jews their doom.
sons of the sorceress--that is, ye that are addicted to sorcery: this was connected with the worship of false gods (Kg2 21:6). No insult is greater to an Oriental than any slur cast on his mother (Sa1 20:30; Job 30:8).
seed of the adulterer--Spiritual adultery is meant: idolatry and apostasy (Mat 16:4).
Adam Clarke on Isaiah 57:2
He shalt enter into peace "He shall go in peace" - יבוא שלום yabo shalom; the expression is elliptical, such as the prophet frequently uses. The same sense is expressed at large and in full terms, Gen 15:15 : ואתה תבא אל אבותיך בשלום veattah libbo al abotheycha beshalom, "and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace."
They shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness "He shall rest in his bed; even the perfect man" - This obscure sentence is reduced to a perfectly good sense, and easy construction by an ingenious remark of Dr. Durell. He reads ינוח על משכבו תם yanuach al mishcabo tam, "the perfect man shall rest in his bed." Two MSS. (one of them ancient) have ינוח yanuach, sin…
(Vers. 3, 4.) But you come here, sons of a fortune teller: whose seed have you played with? Whose mouth have you opened wide, and whose tongue have you cast out? LXX: But you come here, wicked sons, seed of adulterers and prostitutes, with whom have you played? Whose mouth have you opened: and whose tongue have you cast out? By removing the just one, whose burial is in peace, indeed by removing from the midst, you who are sons of wickedness, come to me, and hear what I say (John 8). For just as he who does wickedness is called a servant of wickedness, so anyone who betrays like Judas, is called a son of perdition, and can be called a son of wickedness. Finally, it is written about the Lord and Savior: And a son of wickedness shall not be able to afflict him (Ps. LXXXVIII, 23). For wickedness, or the wicked, which the LXX translated, Theodotion put the Hebrew word 'Onena' (Ps. LXXXVIII, 23), which according to Symmachus, we translate as an augur, meaning that Jerusalem, which is always the mother of those who listen, has been devoted to idolatry. Therefore, He calls them offspring of adulterers, or adulterers themselves (of whom it is said: They committed adultery with wood and stone (Jeremiah III, 9))) and prostitutes: there is no doubt that it signifies the same, of whom we read above: How the faithful city Sion has become a prostitute (Isaiah I, 21) ? Whom, he says, have you mocked, spitting in His face and pulling His beard; and whom have you enlarged your mouth at and opened your lips against, saying to Him: You are a Samaritan, and have a demon (John VIII, 48) ? And again: He does not cast out demons, except by Beelzebub the prince of demons (Matt. XII, 24). And then during the Passion: Crucify, crucify him (Luke XXIII, 21). And again: His blood be upon us and our children (Matt. XXVII, 25). And elsewhere: Woe to you who destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. He saved others, but he cannot save himself. Come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him (Ibid. 40).
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Scorning And Mocking · Idolaters addicted to — Idolaters addicted to
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).
But draw near hither,.... The death of the righteous, and their happiness after it, being observed: the wicked, who thought themselves safe from danger, and the happier that they were rid of the righteous, those witnesses and prophets which had tormented them, and therefore rejoiced on that account, are here summoned to the divine tribunal, to hear their character, and receive their doom, as follows:
ye sons of the sorceress; the children of Jezebel, the witch, and the prophetess that taught the servants of the Lord to commit fornication, and bewitched with her witchcrafts the sons of the apostate church of Rome; by whose sorceries all nations have been deceived, and of which she repents no…
And draw near, ye sons of the sorceress. After having spoken of the happy and peaceful death of good men, he breaks out with very great vehemence against the wicked, who did not cease to lead a base and shameful life, and were not moved by the death of believers. As he had said that good men enjoy peace, so he threatens that the wicked shall have ceaseless war. He taught that to the holy servants of God death shall even be like a hiding-place, to shelter them from the whirlwind, and storm, and other tempests, that he might threaten the worst of evils against the obstinate despisers of God. Here we ought to observe the contrast, between good men who walk before God, and the wicked, who cease…
The reproachful language of the prophet is now directed against the mass of the nation, who have occasioned the "evil" from which the righteous is swept away, i.e., the generation that is hostile to the servants of Jehovah, and by whom those sins of idolatry are still so shamelessly carried on, which first led to the captivity. "And ye, draw nearer hither, children of the sorceress, seed of the adulterer, and of her that committed whoredom! Over whom do ye make yourselves merry? Over whom do ye open the mouth wide, and put the tongue out long? Are ye not the brook of apostasy, seed of lying?" They are to draw nearer hither (hēnnâh as in Gen 15:16), to the place where God is speaking throug…
witches’ children . . . adulterers and prostitutes: Baal religion, which flourished in Israel before the Exile (see 1:21-23), included lewd sexual practices.
Rashi on Isaiah 57:3
And you, draw near hither The survivors after the righteous have departed, and receive your sentences.
children of sorcery Heb. בְּנֵי עֹנְנָה, children of sorcery.
children who commit adultery That the male commits adultery.
and played the whore the female.