Isaiah 1:4
New International Version
Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.

New Living Translation
Oh, what a sinful nation they are— loaded down with a burden of guilt. They are evil people, corrupt children who have rejected the LORD. They have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.

English Standard Version
Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.

Berean Standard Bible
Alas, O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children of depravity! They have forsaken the LORD; they have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him.

King James Bible
Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

New King James Version
Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward.

New American Standard Bible
Oh, sinful nation, People weighed down with guilt, Offspring of evildoers, Sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the LORD, They have despised the Holy One of Israel, They have turned away from Him.

NASB 1995
Alas, sinful nation, People weighed down with iniquity, Offspring of evildoers, Sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the LORD, They have despised the Holy One of Israel, They have turned away from Him.

NASB 1977
Alas, sinful nation, People weighed down with iniquity, Offspring of evildoers, Sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the LORD, They have despised the Holy One of Israel, They have turned away from Him.

Legacy Standard Bible
Alas, sinful nation, People heavy with iniquity, Seed of evildoers, Sons who act corruptly! They have forsaken Yahweh; They have spurned the Holy One of Israel; They have become estranged from Him.

Amplified Bible
Ah, sinful nation, A people loaded down with wickedness [with sin, with injustice, with wrongdoing], Offspring of evildoers, Sons who behave corruptly! They have abandoned (rejected) the LORD, They have despised the Holy One of Israel [provoking Him to anger], They have turned away from Him.

Christian Standard Bible
Oh sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, brood of evildoers, depraved children! They have abandoned the LORD; they have despised the Holy One of Israel; they have turned their backs on him.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Oh sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, brood of evildoers, depraved children! They have abandoned the LORD; they have despised the Holy One of Israel; they have turned their backs on Him.

American Standard Version
Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that deal corruptly! they have forsaken Jehovah, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are estranged and gone backward.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Woe to the sinner nation! The nation grows an evil seed doing evil, corrupt children. You have forsaken LORD JEHOVAH and you have angered the Holy One of Israel, and you have turned your back

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Ah sinful nation, a people full of sins, an evil seed, lawless children: ye have forsaken the Lord, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

Contemporary English Version
Israel, you are a sinful nation loaded down with guilt. You are wicked and corrupt and have turned from the LORD, the holy God of Israel.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a wicked seed, ungracious children: they have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they are gone away backwards.

English Revised Version
Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that deal corruptly: they have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are estranged and gone backward.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
"How horrible it will be for a nation that sins. [Its] people are loaded down with guilt. They are descendants of evildoers and destructive children. They have abandoned the LORD. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They have turned their backs on him.

Good News Translation
You are doomed, you sinful nation, you corrupt and evil people! Your sins drag you down! You have rejected the LORD, the holy God of Israel, and have turned your backs on him.

International Standard Version
"Oh, you sinful nation! You people burdened down by iniquity! You offspring of those who keep practicing what is evil! You corrupt children! "They've abandoned the LORD; they've despised the Holy One of Israel; in their estrangement, they've walked away from me.

JPS Tanakh 1917
Ah sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A seed of evil-doers, Children that deal corruptly; They have forsaken the LORD, They have contemned the Holy One of Israel, They are turned away backward.

Literal Standard Version
Oh, sinning nation, a people heavy [with] iniquity, | A seed of evildoers, sons—corrupters! They have forsaken YHWH, | They have despised the Holy One of Israel, | They have gone away backward.

Majority Standard Bible
Alas, O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children of depravity! They have forsaken the LORD; they have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him.

New American Bible
Ah! Sinful nation, people laden with wickedness, evil offspring, corrupt children! They have forsaken the LORD, spurned the Holy One of Israel, apostatized,

NET Bible
The sinful nation is as good as dead, the people weighed down by evil deeds. They are offspring who do wrong, children who do wicked things. They have abandoned the LORD, and rejected the Holy One of Israel. They are alienated from him.

New Revised Standard Version
Ah, sinful nation, people laden with iniquity, offspring who do evil, children who deal corruptly, who have forsaken the LORD, who have despised the Holy One of Israel, who are utterly estranged!

New Heart English Bible
Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly. They have forsaken the LORD. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged and backward.

Webster's Bible Translation
Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they are gone away backward.

World English Bible
Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken Yahweh. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged and backward.

Young's Literal Translation
Ah, sinning nation, a people heavy with iniquity, A seed of evil doers, sons -- corrupters! They have forsaken Jehovah, They have despised the Holy One of Israel, They have gone away backward.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Judah's Rebellion
3The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.” 4Alas, O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children of depravity! They have forsaken the LORD; they have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him. 5Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted.…

Cross References
Nehemiah 1:7
We have behaved corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that You gave Your servant Moses.

Psalm 71:22
So I will praise You with the harp for Your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praise to You with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 1:28
But rebels and sinners will together be shattered, and those who forsake the LORD will perish.

Isaiah 5:24
Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw, and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will decay and their blossoms will blow away like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 9:17
Therefore the Lord takes no pleasure in their young men; He has no compassion on their fatherless and widows. For every one of them is godless and wicked, and every mouth speaks folly. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

Isaiah 14:20
You will not join them in burial, since you have destroyed your land and slaughtered your own people. The offspring of the wicked will never again be mentioned.

Isaiah 31:2
Yet He too is wise and brings disaster; He does not call back His words. He will rise up against the house of the wicked and against the allies of evildoers.


Treasury of Scripture

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they are gone away backward.

ah sinful

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.

Isaiah 10:6
I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

Isaiah 30:9
That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:

laden with iniquity.

Isaiah 57:3,4
But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore…

Numbers 32:14
And, behold, ye are risen up in your fathers' stead, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of the LORD toward Israel.

Psalm 78:8
And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

children

Jeremiah 2:33
Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.

Ezekiel 16:33
They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom.

forsaken

Deuteronomy 29:25
Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:

Deuteronomy 31:16
And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.

Judges 10:10
And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.

provoked

Isaiah 3:8
For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.

Isaiah 65:3
A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick;

Deuteronomy 32:19
And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.

the Holy

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Act Ah Alas Anger Backward Children Contemned Corrupters Corruptly Deal Despised Estranged Evildoers Forsaken Holy Iniquity Israel Loaded Nation Offspring Provoked Seed Sinful Turned Weighed
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Act Ah Alas Anger Backward Children Contemned Corrupters Corruptly Deal Despised Estranged Evildoers Forsaken Holy Iniquity Israel Loaded Nation Offspring Provoked Seed Sinful Turned Weighed
Isaiah 1
1. Isaiah complains of Judah for her rebellion
5. He laments her judgments
10. He upbraids their whole service
16. He exhorts to repentance, with promises and threats
21. Bewailing their wickedness, he denounces God's judgments
25. He promises grace
28. And threatens destruction to the wicked














(4) Ah, sinful nation . . .--The Hebrew interjection is, like our English "Ha!" the expression of indignation rather than of pity.

A seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters.--The first phrase in the Hebrew idiom does not mean "the progeny of evil-doers," but those who, as a seed or brood, are made up of such. (Comp. Isaiah 14:20; Isaiah 65:23.) The word "children" (better, as in Isaiah 1:2, sons) once more emphasises the guilt of those who ought to have been obedient.

They have forsaken the Lord . . .--The three verbs paint the several stages of the growth in evil. Men first forsake, then spurn, then openly apostatise. (Comp. Luke 16:13). In the "Holy One of Israel" we have the Divine name on which Isaiah most delights to dwell, and which had been impressed on his mind by the Trisagion, which accompanied his first call to the office of a prophet (Isaiah 6:3). The thought expressed by the name is that all ideas of consecration, purity, and holiness are gathered up in God. The term occurs fourteen times in the first part of Isaiah, and sixteen times in the second. A corrupt people needed to be reminded ever more and more of the truth which the name asserted. . . .

Verse 4. - Ah sinful nation. These are the words of Isaiah, not of Jehovah. The prophet, having delivered God's message in vers. 2 and 3, proceeds to impress and enforce it on the people by remarks of his own. He begins with a lamentation over their wickedness and impenitence; "Ah sinful nation!" or "Alas for the sinful nation! "the nation called to be holy (Exodus 19:6; Leviticus 20:26, etc.), but sunk in sin and wickedness. How sad their condition! How almost hopeless! Laden with iniquity; literally, heavy with guilt. But our version well expresses the sense. As the psalmist says, "My sins have gone up over my head, and are like a sore burden, toe heavy for me to bear" (Psalm 38:4; cf. Matthew 11:28). A seed of evil-doers. Not descendants of evil-doors, but "an evil-doing seed, "or "race" (σπέρμα πονηρόν, LXX.; comp. Isaiah 14:20; Isaiah 61:9; Isaiah 65:23). Children that are corrupters; literally, sons that do corruptly. It is not their corrupting of others, though that might follow, but the corruption that was in themselves, which is spoken cf. The corruption was both moral and doctrinal (see ver. 21). In corroboration of the fact, see 2 Chronicles 27:2. They have forsaken the Lord. Not by renouncing his worship, which they still continued (see vers. 11-15), but by reducing it to a formality. The people "honored him with their lips, while their hearts were far from him" (Isaiah 29:13). They have provoked to anger; rather, despised (Revised Version), or scorched (Kay, Cheyne), or rejected with disdain (Lowth), in allusion to their disobeying his commandments (see vers. 21-23). The Holy One of Israel. This title of God is a favorite one with Isaiah (see Isaiah 5:19, 24; Isaiah 10:17, 20; Isaiah 12:6; Isaiah 17:7; Isaiah 29:19, 23; Isaiah 30:11, 12, 15; Isaiah 31:1; Isaiah 37:23; Isaiah 41:14, 16, 20; Isaiah 43:3, 14; Isaiah 45:11; Isaiah 49:7; Isaiah 54:5; Isaiah 55:5; Isaiah 60:9, 14), and is very rarely used by the other sacred writers. We find it thrice in the Psalms (Psalm 71:22; Psalm 78:41; Psalm 89:18); once in Kings (2 Kings 19:22), but then in the mouth of Isaiah; twice in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:29; 51:5); and once in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 39:7). According to Isaiah's conception of God, holiness is the most essential element of his nature (see Isaiah 6:3, 5, 7). They are gone away backward; literally, they are estranged backwards; or, as Bishop Lowth paraphrases, "they are estranged from him; they have turned their back upon him." Instead of looking to God, and following after him, they "followed a multitude to do evil (Exodus 23:2)."

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Alas,
ה֣וֹי ׀ (hō·w)
Interjection
Strong's 1945: Ah! alas! ha!

O sinful
חֹטֵ֗א (ḥō·ṭê)
Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 2398: To miss, to sin, to forfeit, lack, expiate, repent, lead astray, condemn

nation,
גּ֣וֹי (gō·w)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1471: A foreign nation, a Gentile, a troop of animals, a flight of locusts

a people
עַ֚ם (‘am)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 5971: A people, a tribe, troops, attendants, a flock

laden
כֶּ֣בֶד (ke·ḇeḏ)
Adjective - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3515: Heavy

with iniquity,
עָוֺ֔ן (‘ā·wōn)
Noun - common singular
Strong's 5771: Iniquity, guilt, punishment for iniquity

a brood
זֶ֣רַע (ze·ra‘)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 2233: Seed, fruit, plant, sowing-time, posterity

of evildoers,
מְרֵעִ֔ים (mə·rê·‘îm)
Verb - Hifil - Participle - masculine plural
Strong's 7489: To spoil, to make, good for, nothing, bad

children
בָּנִ֖ים (bā·nîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 1121: A son

of depravity!
מַשְׁחִיתִ֑ים (maš·ḥî·ṯîm)
Verb - Hifil - Participle - masculine plural
Strong's 7843: Perhaps to go to ruin

They have forsaken
עָזְב֣וּ (‘ā·zə·ḇū)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 5800: To loosen, relinquish, permit

the LORD;
יְהוָ֗ה (Yah·weh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel

they have despised
נִֽאֲצ֛וּ (ni·’ă·ṣū)
Verb - Piel - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 5006: To spurn, treat with contempt

the Holy
קְד֥וֹשׁ (qə·ḏō·wōš)
Adjective - masculine singular construct
Strong's 6918: Sacred, God, an angel, a saint, a sanctuary

One of Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל (yiś·rā·’êl)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3478: Israel -- 'God strives', another name of Jacob and his desc

[and] turned
נָזֹ֥רוּ (nā·zō·rū)
Verb - Nifal - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 2114: To turn aside, to be a, foreigner, strange, profane, to commit adultery

their backs on Him.
אָחֽוֹר׃ (’ā·ḥō·wr)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 268: The hinder part, behind, backward, the West


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OT Prophets: Isaiah 1:4 Ah sinful nation a people loaded (Isa Isi Is)
Isaiah 1:3
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