Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 61:8

"For I, Jehovah, love justice, I hate robbery with iniquity; and I will give them their recompense in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them." — Isaiah 61:8 (ASV)

For I the Lord love judgment – That is, ‘I will delight in rendering to my people what is right. It is right that they should enjoy my protection, and be favored with the tokens of my kindness. Loving justice and right, therefore, I will confer on them the privileges and blessings which they ought to enjoy, and which will be a public expression of my favor and love.’

I hate robbery for burnt-offering – There has been great variety in the interpretation of this phrase. Lowth renders it, ‘Who hate rapine and iniquity.’ Noyes, ‘I hate rapine and iniquity.’ Jerome, as in our translation, Et odio habens rapinam in holocausto. The Septuagint, Μισῶν ἁρπάγματα ἐξ ἀδικίας Misōn harpagmata ech adikias – ‘Hating the spoils of injustice.’ The Chaldee, ‘Far from before me be deceit and violence.’ The Syriac, ‘I hate rapine and iniquity.’ This variety of interpretation has arisen from the different views taken of the Hebrew בעולה b^e‛ôlâh.

The Syriac evidently prefixed the conjunction ו (v), meaning “and,” instead of the preposition ב (b), meaning “with” or “for”; and perhaps the Septuagint also read it this way. However, this change, though slight, is not necessary to give a consistent rendering to the passage. The connection does not necessarily lead us to suppose that any reference would be made to ‘burnt-offering’ and the improper manner in which such offerings were made.

Rather, the idea is that God hated rapine and sin; he hates such acts as those by which his people had been removed from their land and subjected to the evils of a long and painful captivity. And this is undoubtedly the sense of the passage.

The Hebrew word עולה ‛ôlâh, usually without the ו, properly means “a holocaust,” or “what is made to ascend” (from עלה ‛âlâh, to ascend) from an altar. But the word here is the construct form for עולה ‛avîlâh, meaning “evil, wickedness,” from which our word “evil” is derived (Psalms 107:42).

And the sense here is, ‘hate rapine or plunder (גזל gāzēl) with iniquity’ – that is, accompanied, as it always is, with iniquity and sin. And hating that as He does, He will vindicate His people who have been plundered in this way, and who have been borne into captivity accompanied with deeds of violence and sin.

And I will direct their work in truth – literally, ‘I will give them work in truth or faithfulness;’ that is, I will give them the reward of their work faithfully. They will be amply recompensed for all that they have done and suffered in my cause.

And I will make – (See the notes at Isaiah 55:3).