Isaiah 10:2

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees, ²to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their spoil and plunder the fatherless.³What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth? ⁴Nothing will remain but to crouch among the captives or fall among the slain. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

turn aside: Isaiah 29:21, Lamentations 3:35, Amos 2:7, Amos 5:11, Amos 5:12, Malachi 3:5

that widows: Isaiah 1:23, Isaiah 3:14, Isaiah 5:7, Jeremiah 7:6, Ezekiel 22:7, Matthew 23:14

Reciprocal: Exodus 22:22 - General Exodus 23:6 - General Job 22:9 - widows Job 24:4 - turn Psalms 94:6 - General Proverbs 10:2 - Treasures Isaiah 5:23 - take Isaiah 9:17 - have no joy Isaiah 59:14 - General Jeremiah 8:8 - in vain Ezekiel 22:29 - people Luke 20:47 - devour Acts 8:33 - judgment 1 Corinthians 6:9 - unrighteous Colossians 3:16 - all

Cross-References

Genesis 10:5
From these, the maritime peoples separated into their territories, according to their languages, by clans within their nations.

Genesis 10:7
The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. And the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.

Genesis 10:12
and Resen, which is between Nineveh and the great city of Calah.

Genesis 10:14
the Pathrusites, the Casluhites, and the Caphtorites (from whom the Philistines came).

Genesis 10:21
And sons were also born to Shem, the older brother of Japheth; Shem was the forefather of all the sons of Eber.

Isaiah 66:19
I will establish a sign among them, and I will send survivors from among them to Tarshish, Put, and Lud the archers, to Tubal, Javan, and the islands far away, and to the nations who have not heard of My fame or seen My glory. So they will proclaim My glory among the nations.

Ezekiel 27:7
Of embroidered fine linen from Egypt, they made your sail, which served as your banner. Of blue and purple from the coasts of Elishah they made your awning.

Ezekiel 27:19
and casks of wine from Izal for your wares. Wrought iron, cassia, and sweet cane were exchanged for your merchandise.

Ezekiel 38:6
Gomer with all its troops; and Beth-togarmah from the far north with all its troops-many nations with you.

Ezekiel 38:15
And you will come from your place out of the far north-you and many peoples with you, all riding horses-a mighty horde, a huge army.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

To turn aside the needy from judgment,.... Such laws being made as discouraged them from any application for justice; and, when they did, were harassed with such long, vexatious, and expensive suits, as obliged them to desist, and the cause being generally given against them, and for the rich:

and to take away the right from the poor of my people; for not to do justice to the poor is the same as to rob and plunder them, and take away by force what of right belongs to them; wherefore it follows:

that widows may be their prey, and [that] they may rob the fatherless; who have none to protect and defend them, and whose protectors judges ought to be, in imitation of God, whom civil magistrates represent, who is the Judge of the widows and the fatherless; and therefore this is observed as an aggravation of their sin, which was very great indeed: it is very wicked in a judge to pervert the judgment of the poor and needy, the widow and the fatherless, contrary to laws that are made by God and men; but to make and prescribe wicked and unrighteous laws, that wickedness may be framed, and mischief committed by a law, that the poor and the needy, the widows and fatherless, may be injured under colour and pretence of law and justice, is the height of injustice. See Psalms 94:20.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

To turn aside - Their sentences have the effect, and are designed to have, to pervert justice, and to oppress the poor, or to deprive them of their rights and just claims; compare Isaiah 29:21; Proverbs 27:5.

The needy - daliym - דלים dalı̂ym. Those of humble rank and circumstances; who have no powerful friends and defenders. “From judgment.” From obtaining justice.

And to take away - To take away by violence and oppression. The word גזל gāzal, is commonly applied to robbery, and to oppression; to the taking away of spoils in battle, etc.

That widows may be their prey - That they may rob widows, or obtain their property. This crime has always been one particularly offensive in the sight of God; see the note at Isaiah 1:23. The widow and the orphan are without protectors. Judges, by their office, are particularly bound to preserve their rights; and it, therefore, evinces special iniquity when they who should be their protectors become, in fact, their oppressors, and do injustice to them without the possibility of redress. Yet this was the character of the Jewish judges; and for this the vengeance of heaven was about to come upon the land.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 10:2. My people — Instead of עמי ammi, my people, many MSS., and one of my own, ancient, read עמו ammo, his people. But this is manifestly a corruption.