Isaiah 43:27
in Isaiah 43Your first father sinned, and your spokesmen rebelled against Me.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thy first father sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.
KJV
Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.
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This verse in Isaiah 43
Commentary
12 notes on this verse[The Lord] has proclaimed these words in addressing those who were in Babylon. It is not I, he says, who am the cause of these misfortunes, but your ancestors, and your priests, who have transgressed my laws. Their iniquity has transformed the renown of Israel …
This site's exposition
He who blots out your transgressions
on Isaiah 43:25-28
I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions answers the accusation with pardon, the doubled I of verse 11 now spent on forgiveness. Remind Me, let us argue the matter together reopens the courtroom. The last verses name failure across generations, Your first father sinned.
This site's exposition
Your first father sinned
Readers differ on the first father who sinned. Gill records that Kimchi names Adam and Jarchi names Abraham, the father Israel trusted and boasted in. Matthew Henry reads the forefathers of Jacob in general, and Theodoret hears the LORD telling Israel that their fathers and priests rebelled against him.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 25, 26 and following) I am, I am myself, who blots out your iniquities for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Bring me to remembrance, let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right. Your first ancestor sinned, and your interpreters transgressed against me. And I profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and delivered Jacob to destruction and Israel to reviling. LXX: I am, I am he who blots out your iniquities, and I will not remember. But remember, and let us argue together.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Your first father sinned. Here he removes a certain way of responding. For they could allege the innocence of their fathers; but against this, he says, your first father, Adam (Gen 3), Abraham, asking for a sign of the promise of God, as though doubting …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Thy first father hath sinned,.... Either Adam, as Kimchi, in whom all have sinned, and from whom all derive a sinful and corrupt nature; or Abraham, as Jarchi, the father of the Jewish nation, of whom they boasted, and in whom they trusted, as being of his seed, and through whose merits and worthiness they expected great things; yet he was but a sinful man, though a good man, and a great believer; of whose infirmity and frailty many instances are on record.
That they were children of disobedience; for their first father (that is, their forefathers) had sinned; and they had not only sinned in their loins, but sinned like them. Ezra confesses this: Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass, ch. ix.
God's goodness takes occasion from man's badness to appear so much the more illustrious. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound ( Rom. v. 20 ), and mercy rejoices against judgment, as having prevailed and carried the day, Jam. ii.
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Thy father - This may be put for their forefathers; and so he tells them, that as they were sinners, so also were their progenitors, yea even the best of them.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Abraham is equally out of place here, as he is everywhere cited as an example of faithfulness, not of "sin." However, taking the passage in its ultimate application to the Church at large, Adam may be meant. teachers--literally, "interpreters" between God and man, the priests (Job 33:23;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Thy first father hath sinned - On this Kimchi speaks well: “How can ye say that ye have not sinned, seeing your first father, Adam, sinned; and man hath sin impressed on him through natural generation?”
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Thy first father hath sinned - This is the argument on the side of God, to show that they were neither unjustly punished, nor punished with undue severity. The argument is, that their rulers and teachers had been guilty of crime, and that therefore it was right to bring all this vengeance upon the nation. Various interpretations have been given of the phrase ‘thy first father.’ A slight notice of them will lead to the correct exposition. 1. Many have supposed that Adam is referred to here.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אָבִ֥יךָ | ʾavikha | ancestor your | H1 → | 1212 times |
| הָרִאשׁ֖וֹן | harishon | <the> first | H7223 → | 182 times |
| חָטָ֑א | chata' | he sinned | H2398 → | 238 times |
| וּמְלִיצֶ֖יךָ | umelitzeikha | and spokesmen your | H3887 → | 28 times |
| פָּ֥שְׁעוּ | pasheu | they transgressed | H6586 → | 41 times |
| בִֽי׃ | vi | against me |
אָבִ֥יךָancestor your
ʾavikhaH1 →1212 times
הָרִאשׁ֖וֹן<the> first
harishonH7223 →182 times
חָטָ֑אhe sinned
chata'H2398 →238 times
וּמְלִיצֶ֖יךָand spokesmen your
umelitzeikhaH3887 →28 times
פָּ֥שְׁעוּthey transgressed
pasheuH6586 →41 times
בִֽי׃against me
vi
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 5:31The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?
it leads to
- Micah 2:11
If a man of wind were to come and say falsely, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be just the preacher for this people!
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ezekiel 13:6
They see false visions and speak lying divinations. They claim, ‘Thus declares the LORD,’ when the LORD did not send them; yet they wait for the fulfillment of their message.
- Jeremiah 14:14
“The prophets are prophesying lies in My name,” replied the LORD. “I did not send them or appoint them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, a worthless divination,…
- Micah 2:11
Through
Ezekiel 16:3and tell her that this is what the Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 16:45
You are the daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and children. You are the sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father…
- Isaiah 51:1–2
“Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were hewn.
- Deuteronomy 20:17
For you must devote them to complete destruction—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you,
- John 8:44
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him.…
- Ezekiel 16:45
Through
Isaiah 28:7These also stagger from wine and stumble from strong drink: Priests and prophets reel from strong drink and are befuddled by wine. They stumble because of strong drink, muddled in their visions and stumbling…
it leads to
- Isaiah 56:10–12
Israel’s watchmen are blind, they are all oblivious; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they are dreamers lying around, loving to slumber.
- Isaiah 56:10–12
Where this verse is studied
On this page
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On this verse
About Isaiah
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Isaiah; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 13:43.27 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.