In contrast to the elders and honored men of the community, the young and others in need of the community’s special care are now in focus. However, the prophet brands them all together as evil. After he makes this assessment of the situation in Israel, he ends with the familiar refrain. We need to examine closely the flow of thought in this verse.

Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows: God is not happy with the situation that exists. The opening connector Therefore seems to link the information that follows back to what has been just mentioned, namely, that the leaders are misleaders and the people are confused. There is a slight problem with this view since it is clear that responsibility lies with the leaders and not with those who are led. It is possible that Therefore as a connector points forward rather than backward. In other words, the reason God does not rejoice over the young and others (lines 1-2) is that everyone is godless (lines 3-4). Translators may restructure the verse to make this point clear by placing lines 3-4 at the beginning of it (see the first example below).

For the Lord, see Isa 9.8.

Does not rejoice and has no compassion are parallel. Instead of does not rejoice, Good News Translation has “will not let … escape.” What lies behind the Good News Translation interpretation is an alternative text from Dead Sea Scrolls, which has a verb meaning “to spare.” Although this provides a good parallel to “have compassion,” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project does not recommend it. But neither does Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommend the Masoretic Text reading yismach (“he rejoices”). It gives slight preference to an emended text yishmach, which means “he favors” or “he shows mercy.” Thus de~Waard recommends the Revised English Bible rendering for the first line, which reads “That is why the Lord showed no mercy to their youths” (similarly New Revised Standard Version).

Young men, the fatherless, and widows are people most in need of help and leadership. Normally God cared for these people, but not here. Young men is literally “chosen ones.” The Hebrew word here is a masculine technical term referring to young men who are of an age to fight. For fatherless and widows, see the comments at 1.17.

For every one is godless and an evildoer: This line and the next one give the reason for God’s apparent lack of concern for the community. The double charge that everyone is godless and an evildoer is a serious one. The statement is emphatic. The people are all sinners both toward God and their neighbors. The Hebrew term rendered godless can also mean “profane/hypocritical/irreligious.” New International Version has “ungodly,” and Bible en français courant says “unfaithful” (similarly Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). For evildoer see 1.4.

And every mouth speaks folly does not mean their speech is silly or foolish. Here the Hebrew term for folly refers to something evil (so Good News Translation) or disgraceful (compare 32.6).

For all this his anger is not turned away and his hand is stretched out still: This final sentence is the concluding statement we have seen in 5.25 and 9.12. It should be rendered in the same way here to reinforce the structure of the units.

Translation examples for this verse are:

• Since everyone is godless and evil,
speaking vile things,
therefore my Lord did not show mercy to the young warriors,
nor did he have any compassion on the orphans and widows.
Despite that, God is still angry
and will continue to punish Israel.

• My Lord did not extend mercy to the young soldiers nor have compassion on the orphans and widows for this reason: they all deny him and are evil, speaking vile things. Even so, God’s anger is not complete; he will yet punish Israel.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .