Translation: The phrase “please themselves in the children of strangers” is problematic. It contains a verb (translated here as “please”) that occurs only once in the Hebrew text, and its translation is not precisely known. This ambiguity leads to disparate translations of this verse:
The New American Standard: “For Thou (O Lord), hast abandoned thy people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with influences from the east, And they (hearken unto) soothsayers like the Philistines, And they strike bargains with the children of foreigners.”
Avraham Gileadi: “For thou, O Lord, has forsaken thy people, the house of Jacob, because, like the Philistines, they provide themselves with mystics from the East and are content with the infantile heathen.”
Joseph Blenkinsopp, the Anchor Bible: “For you have rejected your people, the household of Jacob, for they are full (of sorcerers) from the east and soothsayers like the Philistines. They teem with the children of foreigners.”
Blenkinsopp’s “teem” comes from word forms that are similar to the unique Hebrew word that appears in this location.
Scripture: Isaiah charges Judah with two important sins: listening to soothsayers and “taking pleasure” in people whom the KJV calls “the children of foreigners.” Both problems represent accepting foreign cultural elements into Judahite worship. Soothsaying is sinful because it counterfeits Yahweh’s revelation to prophets. The soothsayers are not in contact with the God of Israel and they provide only an imitation of true communication from the divine. Thus, Judah has found a substitute for Yahweh—a grievous sin and a violation of the first of the Ten Commandments.
The matter of taking pleasure in the children of foreigners is more complex because the phrase can be translated in so many ways. Both Gileadi and the NAS seem to see the sin as commerce, but why would commerce violate God’s will? Blenkinsopp’s translation of “teeming” is much more likely.
George M. Lamsa, lecturer and author specializing in viewing the Bible from an Eastern and Aramaic perspective, offers this interpretation:
Alien children were taken captive during the wars and some of them were brought up as members of the family. It was against the law to mix thus with pagan people. The Israelites tried to keep their race holy and pure, but, at times, owing to marriages with alien women and the adoption of children, this was impossible.… The rearing of strange children was discouraged by the Mosaic law. During the wars they were permitted to spare some of the virgin females, but they were told to destroy all the males.
“Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves” (Num. 31:17–18).
The Israelites were to remain a pure race. Marriages with women of other races were discouraged. They were prohibited from giving their daughters to the uncircumcised (Gen. 34:14). Even after the captivity they were not permitted to marry Gentile women (Ezra 9:1–2).
The commandments to maintain racial purity seem more significant than business interactions with foreigners, which may be “dangerous,” but do not carry such heavy prohibitions as the violation of the racial boundaries. Therefore, this meaning seems more probable. Yahweh charges Judah with sin by accepting influences from the East (soothsayers and foreigners).
Likening: The dual issue of accepting religion from foreign nations and mixing with prohibited outsiders have a direct relevance for the early Nephites. They have absorbed natives from the region who certainly had a different religion prior to becoming Nephites and it is certain that it would have been considered a dangerous possibility that some of the previous ideas might be imported into the Nephite community. The Nephites have also been prohibited from marrying with the Lamanites (2 Nephi 5:23 and following commentary). That injunction may provide the context in which Nephi’s people would see this second admonition of Isaiah.