myBibleHistory

Journey of a Passage

Isaiah 1:18–20

"Come now, and let us reason together"

God's invitation to settle the case: "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." The Hebrew legal verb (nivvakhechah, "let us argue it out") becomes "come and accuse me" in the library's Greek. The Great Isaiah Scroll has the same words as the Masoretic Text with fuller spellings. Whether the lines are a promise or an ironic question is debated.

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The oracle as first spoken or written8th–6th century BC (by section; debated)
  2. Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1c. 125 BC (palaeography; reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
Greek
  1. Greek Isaiah (library: Giguet's French)Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Isaiah
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. 8th–6th century BC (by section; debated)

    The oracle as first spoken or written

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. The oldest copies of Isaiah are the Qumran scrolls: the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a, about 125 BC, nearly complete), 1QIsa-b (1Q8) and some twenty other fragmentary manuscripts.

  2. c. 125 BC (palaeography; reported)

    Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XXXII not yet checked.

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 1:18–20. Same wording as the Masoretic Text apart from spelling; in v. 18 a letter of tola'at ("crimson") has been erased, and v. 20 reads "by the sword" with a preposition.

  3. Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592

    Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Et venite, et arguite me, dicit Dominus. Si fuerint peccata vestra ut coccinum, quasi nix dealbabuntur; et si fuerint rubra quasi vermiculus, velut lana alba erunt. Si volueritis, et audieritis me, bona terræ comeditis. Quod si nolueritis, et me ad iracundiam provocaveritis, gladius devorabit vos, quia os Domini locutum est.

    Latin numbering: Isaiah 1:18–20. Jerome translated Isaiah from Hebrew (c. AD 400).

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    לְכוּ־נָ֛א וְנִוָּֽכְחָ֖ה יֹאמַ֣ר יְהוָ֑ה אִם־יִֽהְי֨וּ חֲטָאֵיכֶ֤ם כַּשָּׁנִים֙ כַּשֶּׁ֣לֶג יַלְבִּ֔ינוּ אִם־יַאְדִּ֥ימוּ כַתּוֹלָ֖ע כַּצֶּ֥מֶר יִהְיֽוּ׃ אִם־תֹּאב֖וּ וּשְׁמַעְתֶּ֑ם ט֥וּב הָאָ֖רֶץ תֹּאכֵֽלוּ׃ וְאִם־תְּמָאֲנ֖וּ וּמְרִיתֶ֑ם חֶ֣רֶב תְּאֻכְּל֔וּ כִּ֛י פִּ֥י יְהוָ֖ה דִּבֵּֽר׃

    Come, let us argue it out, says the LORD: if your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; if red as crimson, they shall become like wool

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 1:18–20.

  5. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

  6. Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Isaiah (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Isaiah

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Et puis venez m’accuser, dit le Seigneur. Et quand même vos péchés seraient comme la pourpre, je les rendrai blancs comme la neige; et quand ils seraient comme de l’écarlate, je les rendrai blancs comme une toison. Et si vous êtes de bonne volonté, si vous m’écoutez, vous mangerez les biens de la terre. Mais si vous n’êtes point de bonne volonté, si vous ne m’écoutez point, le glaive vous dévorera; car voici ce qu’a dit la bouche du Seigneur:

    Greek (digital file) numbering: Isaiah 1:18–20. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check only); a C check needs Ziegler's Göttingen Isaiah or Rahlfs–Hanhart.

What changed, and why

Classification: a translation difference (Greek), not a manuscript variant. The scroll's differences here are spelling and scribal: yo'mar written with an extra vav, the ordinary (non-final) form of mem at word end, and a letter erased in tola'at.

Scarlet (shani) and crimson (tola, the dye-worm) were the brightest, most permanent dyes known; snow and wool the whitest things. The images promise a complete change.

Vv. 19–20 make the outcome conditional: willing and obedient, or refusing and devoured by the sword (a play on "eat": you will eat the land's good, or the sword will eat you).

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe Great Isaiah Scroll agrees with the Masoretic wording of 1:18 apart from spelling. In the transcription.
  • Independently documentedThe library's Greek reads "come and accuse me."
  • Disputed1:18 is an unconditional promise. Vv. 19–20 attach conditions; some read v. 18b as ironic.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Isaiah 1: Come Now, Let Us Reason Together →The heading dates "the vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz" to the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah (1:1, roughly 740–700 BC). God summons heaven and earth as witnesses: the children he raised have rebelled; even an ox knows its owner (vv. 2–3). The nation is beaten from head to foot; the land is desolate; Jerusalem is left "as a cottage in a vineyard"; only a small remnant spared it from the fate of Sodom (vv. 4–9). Sacrifices, festivals and prayers are rejected while hands are full of blood: "learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow" (vv. 10–17). "Come now, and let us reason together… though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" (vv. 18–20). The faithful city has become a harlot; its rulers love bribes; God will smelt away the dross and restore judges as at the first (vv. 21–31).
    • Investigation: The Great Isaiah Scroll →Found in a cave near the Dead Sea in 1947, the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a) is the only complete book of the Hebrew Bible among the Dead Sea Scrolls, about a thousand years older than the medieval codices behind printed Hebrew Bibles. It agrees with the Masoretic Text in most of its words and differs in thousands of small ways: spelling, grammar, scribal slips, corrections, and a few real variants. This investigation explains what the scroll is, how its differences are classified, and which ones matter.