Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
Parallel translations
- WEB Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
- BSB Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted.
- NKJV Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, And the whole heart faints.
- NASB ¶Where will you be stricken again, As you continue in your rebellion? The entire head is sick And the entire heart is faint.
- NLT Why do you continue to invite punishment? Must you rebel forever? Your head is injured, and your heart is sick.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God asks why they keep inviting further chastening by persistent rebellion, picturing the nation as a body sick from head to heart. It shows that judgment has not yet produced repentance.
Overview
The rhetorical question implies that more blows are pointless if the people will not turn. The whole-body sickness depicts the totality of the nation's moral and spiritual decay. It anticipates the need for a healing that human discipline cannot supply, which Christ alone gives.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Dan 9:8–11O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
- Ezek 24:13In thy filthiness is lewdness: because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee.
- Rev 16:8–11And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
- Jer 5:3O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
- Isa 31:6Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.
- Jer 5:31The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?
- Zeph 3:1–4Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!
- Jer 2:30In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
- Jer 9:3And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.
- Isa 33:24And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.
- Jer 6:28–30They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.
- Heb 12:5–8And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
- 2 Chr 28:22And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: this is that king Ahaz.
- Isa 1:23Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
- Isa 9:13For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.
- Jer 5:5I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
- Neh 9:34Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy testimonies, wherewith thou didst testify against them.
- Isa 9:21Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 1:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.