Isaiah 42:24

מִֽי־נָתַ֨ן לִמְשִׁ֯וסָּ֧ה יַעֲקֹ֛ב וְיִשְׂרָאֵ֥ל לְבֹזְזִ֖ים הֲל֣וֹא יְהוָה֑ ז֚וּ חָטָא֣נוּ ל֔וֹ וְלֽא־אָב֤וּ בִדְרָכָיו֨ הָל֔וֹךְ וְלֺ֥א שָׁמְע֖וּ בְּתוֹרָתֽוֹ׃

Qere: לִמְשִׁסָּה

24 Who has given Jacob to plunderers and Israel to robbers? Wasn't it the LORD? Against him we have sinned. They were unwilling to walk in his ways. They would not listen to his law.

מִי־נָתַן למשוסה יַעֲקֹב וְיִשְׂרָאֵל לְבֹזְזִים Who has given Jacob to plunderers and Israel to robbers? Although the lexicons identify both the qere and ketib of לִמְשִׁסָּה as nouns ("booty, plunder"), the word looks like a poal or pual participle of either שָׁסָה or שָׁסַס, both meaning "to plunder." Since the synonymous parallel term is בֹזְזִים a qal participle "plunderers," it seems appropriate to take the first term as meaning something similar (the clear parts of Scripture explain the less clear parts). An Mp note tells us that וְיִשְׂרָאֵל occurs thirty-three times (no Mm list, but see the note below).

הֲלוֹא יְהוָה Wasn't it the LORD? There is no such thing in the Bible as a predestination to damnation. But there is what we might cautiously term a "post-destination" to damnation, once a person has hardened his heart to God, the Lord might also harden his heart even more, as his did with Pharaoh in Exodus. We can never know whether this has been done in our lifetime with the people we meet, so we never behave as if it is an accomplished fact. We always hold out the call to repentance. Perhaps they will hear the gospel and a spark of faith will ignite, however weak and mixed with other things it might be, as it seems to have done for Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:34), and perhaps even for Pilate's wife (Matthew 27:19).

זוּ חָטָאנוּ לוֹ Against him we have sinned. זוּ is an indeclinable demonstrative adjective, related to the pronouns זֶה and זֺאת. Although the qal perfect חָטָאנוּ is in the first person plural ("we'), the following verbs flip to the third person plural ("they...").

וְלֹא־אָבוּ בִדְרָכָיו הָלוֹךְ וְלֹא שָׁמְעוּ בְּתוֹרָתוֹ They were unwilling to walk in his ways. They would not listen to his law. אָבוּ is the qal 3rd plural perfect of אָבָה "be willing." It is usually followed as it is here by a complementary infinitive: הָלוֹךְ "to walk." Here "way" and "law" are parallel terms as they are so often in Psalm 119, reminding us that the "way" of the Lord, the "will" of the Lord and the "law" of the Lord are all known to us; they are written in his word. We don't need to wonder about what God wants from us. He has told us, again and again.

The 33 are: Gen 37:3; Num 24:18; Josh 22:22; 1 Sam 17:3; 29:1; 2 Sam 11:11; 19:9; 1 Kg 4:20; 5:5; 18:36; 1 Chr 1:34; 29:18; 2 Chr 16:11; 25:26; 28:26; 30:6; 32:32; 35:18; Psalm 81:12; Isaiah 42:24; 43:28; 44:1; 44:21; 45:4; 48:12; 49:5; 63:16; Jer 10:16; 23:6; Hos 5:3; 5:5; Amos 7:11 and 7:17.