Bible Strands
Isaiah 31:6
Return to the One against whom you have so blatantly rebelled, O children of Israel.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet Isaiah addresses the children of Israel immediately after describing God's impending protection over Jerusalem. The command is issued as a direct appeal to a nation in crisis, just before the promised day of idolatrous rejection.
The words — The verse opens with שׁוּבוּ (shuvu), meaning "return," followed by לַ/אֲשֶׁר הֶעֲמִיקוּ סָרָה, literally "to the one whom you have made deep rebellion." These terms frame the call as a reversal of a deliberate, entrenched turning away.
The thread — This imperative appears alongside similar appeals in Jeremiah 3:14, Jeremiah 3:22, and Isaiah 55:7, where the same command urges faithless or wicked people to turn back to Yahweh. The repeated phrasing establishes a consistent prophetic pattern of calling for covenant restoration.
Why it lands — The text demands a concrete reversal of allegiance from rebellion to the One against whom it was committed. It requires the reader to acknowledge the depth of their rebellion and initiate a direct return without mediation.
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
Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 3:22 “Return, O faithless children, and I will heal your faithlessness.” “Here we are. We come to You, for You are the LORD our God.
- Jeremiah 3:14 “Return, O faithless children,” declares the LORD, “for I am your master, and I will take you—one from a city and two from a family—and bring you to Zion.
- Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.
- Jeremiah 3:10 Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the LORD.
- 2 Chronicles 33:9 So Manasseh led the people of Judah and Jerusalem astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.
- Isaiah 1:4 Alas, O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who act corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD; they have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him.
- Jeremiah 5:23 But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned aside and gone away.
- Jeremiah 31:18 I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning: ‘You disciplined me severely, like an untrained calf. Restore me, that I may return, for You are the LORD my God.
- Hosea 9:9 They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their guilt; He will punish their sins.
- Joel 2:12 “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”