English · ASV

Isaiah 59

Listen to this chapter
0:00 0:00

God Is Able, But Sin Separates 1–8

1
Behold, Jehovah’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: ​
2
but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, so that he will not hear. ​
3
For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue muttereth wickedness. ​
4
None sueth in righteousness, and none pleadeth in truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5
They hatch adders’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth; and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. ​
6
Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
7
Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their paths.
8
The way of peace they know not; and there is no justice in their goings: they have made them crooked paths; whosoever goeth therein doth not know peace.

The People Confess Their Corporate Guilt 9–15

9
Therefore is justice far from us, neither doth righteousness overtake us: we look for light, but, behold, darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity. ​
10
We grope for the wall like the blind; yea, we grope as they that have no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the twilight; among them that are lusty we are as dead men.
11
We roar all like bears, and moan sore like doves: we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
12
For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them: ​
13
transgressing and denying Jehovah, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14
And justice is turned away backward, and righteousness standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness cannot enter.
15
Yea, truth is lacking; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey. And Jehovah saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. ​

The Lord Prepares for Intervention 16–19

16
And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his own arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it upheld him. ​
17
And he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle. ​
18
According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense.
19
So shall they fear the name of Jehovah from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which the breath of Jehovah driveth. ​

The Covenant of the Redeemer 20–21

20
And a Redeemer will come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith Jehovah. ​
21
And as for me, this is my covenant with them, saith Jehovah: my Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith Jehovah, from henceforth and for ever. ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Isaiah 59

Verse 1

the LORD'S hand is not shortened — Qatsar, the verb of 'Is my hand shortened at all?' (Isa 50:2) and 'Is the LORD'S hand waxed short?' (Num 11:23). The verse answers the complaint that he cannot save or hear; the hindrance is named in v.2. 'Heavy' (kabad) describes an ear grown dull.

Verse 2

separated between you and your God — Badal, to divide, the verb of 'God divided the light from the darkness' (Gen 1:4). In Isa 56:3 the stranger feared that the LORD had 'utterly separated' him from his people; here the division is made by the people's own iniquities. Compare 'I will hide mine eyes from you' (Isa 1:15).

Verse 3

hands are defiled with blood — The prophet names the hands, fingers, lips and tongue in turn. 'Muttered' is hagah, the verb of 'in his law doth he meditate day and night' (Ps 1:2), here turned to 'perverseness' (avlah, injustice). Compare 'your hands are full of blood' (Isa 1:15).

Verse 5

weave the spider's web — Akkavish, the spider, occurs only here and in Job 8:14, 'whose trust shall be a spider's web'; v.6 says the same, 'Their webs shall not become garments'. The eggs hatch 'cockatrice' (tsepha) and 'viper' (eph'eh); John the Baptist called the Pharisees a 'generation of vipers' (Matt 3:7).

Verse 9

we wait for light, but behold obscurity — The speaker now says 'we'. The two words for darkness, choshek and aphelah, are those of Isa 58:10, 'thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday'; the light promised there has not come. Compare 'when I waited for light, there came darkness' (Job 30:26).

Verse 12

our sins testify against us — Anah, to answer, the verb for giving testimony, so the sins stand as witnesses; compare 'though our iniquities testify against us' (Jer 14:7). The verse uses the three words of Ex 34:7, 'iniquity and transgression and sin' (avon, pesha', chatta'ah), and ends with 'we know them'.

Verse 15

maketh himself a prey — The one who leaves evil becomes the victim: 'The good man is perished out of the earth' (Mic 7:2). 'Truth' (emet) 'faileth' as it has 'fallen in the street' (v.14). 'It displeased him' is literally 'it was evil in his eyes' that there was no mishpat, justice.

Verse 16

no intercessor — Paga', the verb of the Servant's intercession in Isa 53:12, 'made intercession for the transgressors'. When no one stood in the gap (Ezek 22:30), 'his arm brought salvation unto him', as in 'mine own arm brought salvation unto me' (Isa 63:5). Christ 'ever liveth to make intercession' (Heb 7:25).

Verse 17

put on righteousness as a breastplate — The LORD wears the armour Paul gives to believers: 'the breastplate of righteousness' and 'the helmet of salvation' (Eph 6:14, 17); compare 1 Thess 5:8. 'Zeal' (qin'ah) is the word of 'The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this' (Isa 9:7).

Verse 19

from the west… from the rising of the sun — The fear of the name reaches from west to east: 'from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD'S name is to be praised' (Ps 113:3); 'my name shall be great among the Gentiles' (Mal 1:11). The enemy comes 'like a flood' (nahar, river); the Spirit raises a 'standard' (nus).

Verse 20

the Redeemer shall come to Zion — Go'el, the kinsman who buys back, the title in 'thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel' (Isa 54:5). Paul quotes the verse: 'There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob' (Rom 11:26), and adds 'this is my covenant unto them' (Rom 11:27).

Verse 21

my spirit that is upon thee — The covenant is the Spirit with the LORD's words, kept by 'thy seed' and 'thy seed's seed'. 'I have put my words in thy mouth' is what the LORD said to Jeremiah (Jer 1:9). The Spirit 'upon' the Servant is named in Isa 42:1 and 61:1, and the 'everlasting covenant' in Isa 55:3.