Isaiah 10:2

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Isaiah

Isaiah 10

2 to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.

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Isaiah 10:2 in Other Translations

KJV

2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!

ESV

2 to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

NLT

2 They deprive the poor of justice and deny the rights of the needy among my people. They prey on widows and take advantage of orphans.

MSG

2 Laws that make misery for the poor, that rob my destitute people of dignity, Exploiting defenseless widows, taking advantage of homeless children.

CSB

2 to keep the poor from getting a fair trial and to deprive the afflicted among my people of justice, so that widows can be their spoil and they can plunder the fatherless.

Isaiah 10:2 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 10:2

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 Psalms 94:21 ) .

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Isaiah 10:2 In-Context

1 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees,

2 to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.

3 What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches?

4 Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives or fall among the slain. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.

5 “Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath!