Bible Strands
Isaiah 1:2
Listen, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the LORD has spoken: “I have raised children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses Israel (Judah and Jerusalem), summoning heavens and earth as witnesses. This is the opening word of Isaiah's prophetic vision, spanning the reigns of Uzziah through Hezekiah (Isaiah 1:1).
The words — בָּנִים (banim, "children") carries the verse's argument: Yahweh's claim of parentage is what makes the rebellion a betrayal rather than a mere violation.
The thread — The same heavenly-and-earthly summons appears in Deuteronomy 32:1 and Deuteronomy 30:19, and Micah 1:2 echoes it with a similar witness formula.
Why it lands — The verse makes the charge relational before it is legal: the offense is not breaking a rule but rebelling against a parent who raised you. It asks the reader to weigh what that claim costs if it is true.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 32:1 Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
- Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live,
- Micah 1:2 Hear, O peoples, all of you; listen, O earth, and everyone in it! May the Lord GOD bear witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple.
- Deuteronomy 4:26 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.
- Psalms 50:4 He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that He may judge His people:
- Micah 6:1 Hear now what the LORD says: “Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.
- Malachi 1:6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?” says the LORD of Hosts to you priests who despise My name. “But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’
- Isaiah 30:1 “Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin.
- Isaiah 30:9 These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to obey the LORD’s instruction.
- Isaiah 46:3 “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been sustained from the womb, carried along since birth.