Texts in Conversation
The Aramaic Targum of Isaiah 5:25 adds a detail, not found in the Hebrew, that despite judgment the people do not repent. This addition resembles the language of Revelation 9:20, where even after catastrophic plagues, humanity continues to sin. Revelation may echo an Aramaic tradition that was later preserved in the Targum.
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Isaiah 5:25
Hebrew Bible
24 Therefore, as flaming fire devours straw and dry grass disintegrates in the flames, so their root will rot, and their flower will blow away like dust. For they have rejected the law of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, they have spurned the commands of the Holy One of Israel. 25 So the Lord is furious with his people; he lifts his hand and strikes them. The mountains shake, and corpses lie like manure in the middle of the streets. Despite all this, his anger does not subside, and his hand is ready to strike again. 26 He lifts a signal flag for a distant nation, he whistles for it to come from the far regions of the earth. Look, they come quickly and swiftly.
Date: 7th-5th Centuries B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Jonathan Isaiah 5:25
Targum
Therefore they shall be devoured as stubble in the fire, and like dry hay in the flame; they are multiplying their strength, it shall be like an ulcer, and the money of their oppression, as the dust that flieth away: because they despised the law of the Lord of hosts, and rejected the Word, the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the anger of the Lord of hosts mighty against His people, and He has lifted the stroke of His power upon them. When He smote them, then the mountains moved, and their carcasses were cast out as dung into the midst of the streets. By all this they turn not away from their sins, that His fury may turn away from them; but until now their rebellion groweth stronger, and His stroke is again to take vengeance on them. And He will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and he will call him from the end of the earth: and, behold, a king with his army shall come swiftly, as light clouds.
Date: 200-300 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Revelation 9:20
New Testament
19 For the power of the horses resides in their mouths and in their tails because their tails are like snakes, having heads that inflict injuries. 20 The rest of humanity, who had not been killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands so that they did not stop worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk about. 21 Furthermore, they did not repent of their murders, of their magic spells, of their sexual immorality, or of their stealing.
Date: 92-96 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... God's “judgment” (verse 16), however, is such that “the righteous” will possess the wealth of the wicked (verse 17). Promise, therefore, balances threat (compare 4:2–4:6). But the threat is still there for those who multiply “sins,” tempting “wonders” from God, and perverting the just order — they will suffer by the same law which the “righteous” enjoy (verses 18–20). Their “possessions” are a particular object of God's wrath (verses 22, 24) as well as their extortion in legal matters (verse 23). (In respect of the phrase “mammon of deceit,” compare Luke 16:9, 11. Yet despite God’s righteous anger (verses 24–25), repentance seems all the further from them (verse 25, compare Revelation 9:20, 21; 16:9, 11) ..."
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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