Isaiah 10:1
Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees,
2 to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.
3 What 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?
This was said to Israel at a particular time, so it is wise to read it together with the surrounding text. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees,
- KJV
- Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;
- WEB
- Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees
- ASV
- Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers that write perverseness;
- DARBY
- Woe unto them that decree iniquitous decrees, and to the writers that prescribe oppression,
- BLB
- Woe [to] those decreeing decrees of iniquity and writers writing perverseness,
- ÅB
- Ve dem som gir urettferdige lover og utsteder fordervelige skrivelser
- OTB
- Ve dem som lager urettferdige lover og dem som stadig skriver skadelige forordninger,
- B1930
- Ve dem som gir urettferdige lover og utsteder fordervelige skrivelser
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Luke 11:52
Woe to you experts in the law! For you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”
Read in contextMicah 3:1–4
Then I said: “Hear now, O leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice?
Read in contextMatthew 23:23
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
Read in contextPsalms 94:20–21
Can a corrupt throne be Your ally— one devising mischief by decree?
Read in contextHabakkuk 2:6
Will not all of these take up a taunt against him, speaking with mockery and derision: ‘Woe to him who amasses what is not his and makes himself rich with many loans! How long will this go on?’
Read in contextJohn 9:22
His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already determined that anyone who confessed Jesus as the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.
Read in contextJohn 19:6
As soon as the chief priests and officers saw Him, they shouted, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” “You take Him and crucify Him,” Pilate replied, “for I find no basis for a charge against Him.”
Read in contextLuke 11:42–44
Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint, rue, and every herb, but you disregard justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.
Read in context