Jesaja 10:1

Schlachter Bibel

Wehe den Gesetzgebern, die liederliche Gesetze erlassen, und den Schreibern, welche Plackereien schreiben,

Parallel Translations

Lutherbible (1912)
Weh den Schriftgelehrten, die ungerechte Gesetze machen und die unrechtes Urteil schreiben,

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

am 3291, bc 713

Woe: Isaiah 3:11, Isaiah 5:8, Isaiah 5:11, Isaiah 5:18, Isaiah 5:20-22, Jeremiah 22:13, Habakkuk 2:6, Habakkuk 2:9, Habakkuk 2:12, Habakkuk 2:15, Habakkuk 2:19, Matthew 11:21, Matthew 23:13-16, Matthew 23:23, Matthew 23:27, Matthew 23:29, Matthew 26:24, Luke 11:42-44, Luke 11:46, Luke 11:47, Luke 11:52, Jude 1:11

them: 1 Kings 21:13, Esther 3:10-13, Psalms 58:2, Psalms 94:20, Psalms 94:21, Daniel 6:8, Daniel 6:9, Micah 3:1-4, Micah 3:9-11, Micah 6:16, John 9:22, John 19:6

that write grievousness: or, to the writers that write grievousness

Reciprocal: Exodus 23:6 - General Psalms 10:5 - His Isaiah 1:23 - they judge Isaiah 59:14 - General Jeremiah 8:8 - in vain Daniel 2:13 - the decree Daniel 3:10 - hast made Amos 5:7 - turn Zephaniah 3:6 - cut Acts 26:12 - with 1 Corinthians 6:9 - unrighteous

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees,.... Or, "O ye that decree", c. הוי being a sign of the vocative case, and an interjection of calling, as Aben Ezra observes though the Targum and other versions understand it of a threatening denounced; and is to be understood as lying against lawgivers and judges, political rulers and governors of the people, that made unrighteous laws; laws which were not agreeable to the law of God, nor right reason; and were injurious to the persons and properties of men; and which were calculated for the oppression of good men, especially the poor, and for the protection of wicked men, who made no conscience of spoiling them:

and that write grievousness [which] they have prescribed; laws grievous and intolerable being made by them, they wrote them, or ordered them to be written, to be engrossed and promulgated, published them, and obliged the people to be subject to them. This some understand of the scribes of judges, who sat in court, and wrote out the decrees and sentences made by them; but it rather intends the same persons as before; and not ecclesiastical but political governors are meant, and such as lived before the Babylonish captivity; or otherwise the whole is applicable to the Scribes and Pharisees, to the Misnic doctors, the authors of the oral law, the fathers of tradition, whose decisions and decrees were unrighteous and injurious, and contrary to the commands of God; heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and very oppressive of the poor, the fatherless, and the widow; for which they are reproved by Christ, Matthew 15:3 Jarchi says it is an Arabic g word, which signifies scribes.

g So and Scriba, Golius, col. 1999; so the word is used in the Chaldee and Syriac languages. See Castel. col. 1828, 1829.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wo unto them that decree unrighteous decrees - To those who frame statutes that are oppressive and iniquitous. The prophet here refers, doubtless, to the rulers and judges of the land of Judea. A similar description he had before given; Isaiah 1:10, Isaiah 1:23, ...

And that write ... - Hebrew, ‘And to the writers who write violence.’ The word translated “grievousness,” עמל ‛âmâl, denotes properly “wearisome labor, trouble, oppression, injustice.” Here, it evidently refers to the judges who declared oppressive and unjust sentences, and caused them to be recorded. It does not refer to the mere scribes, or recorders of the judicial opinions, but to the judges themselves, who pronounced the sentence, and caused it to be recorded. The manner of making Eastern decrees differs from ours: they are first written, and then the magistrate authenticates them, or annuls them. This, I remember, is the Arab manner, according to D’Arvieux. When an Arab wanted a favor of the emir, the way was to apply to the secretary, who drew up a decree according to the request of the party; if the emir granted the favor, he printed his seal upon it; if not, he returned it torn to the petitioner. Sir John Chardin confirms this account, and applies it, with great propriety, to the illustration of a passage which I never thought of when I read over D’Arvieux. After citing Isaiah 10:1, ‘Wo unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers that write grievousness,’ for so our translators have rendered the latter part of the verse in the margin, much more agreeably than in the body of the version, Sir John goes on, ‘The manner of making the royal acts and ordinances hath a relation to this; they are always drawn up according to the request; the first minister, or he whose office it is, writes on the side of it, “according to the king’s will,” and from thence it is sent to the secretary of state, who draws up the order in form.’ - Harmer.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER X

God's judgments against oppressive rulers, 1-4.

The prophet foretells the invasion of Sennacherib, and the

destruction of his army. That mighty monarch is represented as

a rod in the hand of God to correct his people for their sins;

and his ambitious purposes, contrary to his own intentions, are

made subservient to the great desires of Providence, 5-11.

Having accomplished this work, the Almighty takes account of

his impious vauntings, 12-14;

and threatens utter destruction to the small and great of his

army, represented by the thorns, and the glory of the forest,

15-19.

This leads the prophet to comfort his countrymen with the

promise of the signal interposition of God in their favour,

24-27.

Brief description of the march of Sennarherib towards

Jerusalem, and of the alarm and terror which he spread every

where as he hastened forward, 28-32.

The spirit and rapidity of the description is admirably suited

to the subject. The affrighted people are seen fleeing, and

the eager invader pursuing; the cries of one city are heard by

those of another; and groan swiftly succeeds to groan, till at

length the rod is lifted over the last citadel. In this

critical situation, however, the promise of a Divine

interposition is seasonably renewed. The scene instantly

changes; the uplifted arm of this mighty conqueror is at once

arrested and laid low by the hand of heaven; the forest of

Lebanon, (a figure by which the immense Assyrian host is

elegantly pointed out, is hewn down by the axe of the Divine

vengeance; and the mind is equally pleased with the equity of

the judgment, and the beauty and majesty of the description,

33, 34.

NOTES ON CHAP. X