The Prophets · Old Testament
Isaiah 59
Isaiah 59: iniquities that separate, a confession in the first person plural, and the Lord's own arm
General context
The chapter says the Lord's hand is not too short to save nor his ear too heavy to hear; their iniquities have separated them from God and hidden his face. Their hands are defiled with blood, their lips speak lies, no one pleads for truth; they hatch cockatrice eggs and weave spider webs that cannot become garments. Their feet run to shed innocent blood, and they do not know the way of peace. The voice then changes to we: judgment is far from us, we wait for light and walk in darkness, grope like the blind, roar like bears and mourn like doves. We confess that our transgressions are multiplied and our sins testify against us, lying against the Lord and speaking oppression and revolt. Judgment is turned backward, truth is fallen in the street, and whoever departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it and was displeased that there was no judgment; he saw there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor, so his own arm brought salvation. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, a helmet of salvation, garments of vengeance and zeal as a cloak, and will repay his adversaries. People will fear his name from the west and the east; when the enemy comes like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifts a standard against him. The Redeemer will come to Zion and to those in Jacob who turn from transgression. The Lord's covenant is that his spirit and his words will not depart from the mouth of the one addressed, nor from his seed's mouth, for ever.
Cited passages: Isaiah 59:1, Isaiah 59:2, Isaiah 59:3, Isaiah 59:4, Isaiah 59:5, Isaiah 59:6, Isaiah 59:7, Isaiah 59:8, Isaiah 59:9, Isaiah 59:10, Isaiah 59:11, Isaiah 59:12, Isaiah 59:13, Isaiah 59:14, Isaiah 59:15, Isaiah 59:16, Isaiah 59:17, Isaiah 59:18, Isaiah 59:19, Isaiah 59:20, Isaiah 59:21
Isaiah 59 (KJV)
1Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
3For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
4None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
6Their 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.
7Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
8The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
9Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
10We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
11We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
12For 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;
13In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
15Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
16And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
17For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.
18According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.
19So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.
20And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.
21As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; 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 the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.
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Historical context
The chapter changes voice three times without naming anyone. Verses 1 to 8 address a plural you and describe them in the third person; verses 9 to 15 are spoken by we and our, a confession that includes the speaker among the guilty; from the middle of verse 15 a narrator reports what the Lord saw and did; and verse 21 is marked saith the Lord and addresses a singular thee whose mouth holds the Lord's words, a person the text does not identify. The accused are not named as a city or nation, though Zion and Jacob appear at the end as the destination of the Redeemer. The bloodshed, lies and perverted justice are stated as present conditions, with no date or ruler. The text says the Lord wondered that there was no intercessor and that his own arm brought salvation, presenting the deliverance as his act alone. The enemy who comes like a flood is unnamed. Romans later quotes the lines about feet swift to shed blood, destruction in their ways and the unknown way of peace, and Romans 11 cites the Redeemer's coming as it is written, with the wording There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, which differs from this chapter's to Zion. Those are later citations, noted here only as such.
Cited passages: Isaiah 59:2, Isaiah 59:9, Isaiah 59:12, Isaiah 59:15, Isaiah 59:21, Isaiah 59:20, Isaiah 59:16, Isaiah 59:19, Romans 3:15, Romans 3:16, Romans 3:17, Isaiah 59:7, Isaiah 59:8, Romans 11:26, Romans 11:27
Literary context
The chapter opens by denying a possible explanation, that the Lord's hand is too short or his ear too heavy, and then supplies the real one, your iniquities. The accusation is arranged by the body: hands, fingers, lips, tongue, then feet; and by two images of futile making, the cockatrice egg that kills whoever eats it and the spider's web that cannot be worn. The shift from they to we at verse 9 changes an indictment into a confession, and the confession is full of animals and blindness: groping like the blind, stumbling at noonday, roaring like bears, mourning like doves. Truth is personified as fallen in the street. The turn comes when the Lord sees, twice, and what he sees is absence, no judgment, no man, no intercessor, so that he arms himself, and the armour is listed piece by piece, breastplate, helmet, garments, cloak. The hand that was not shortened in verse 1 becomes the arm that brings salvation in verse 16. The chapter ends with a covenant defined as words in a mouth, passed from thee to thy seed to thy seed's seed, which answers the lying lips and muttering tongues of the opening.
Cited passages: Isaiah 59:1, Isaiah 59:2, Isaiah 59:3, Isaiah 59:5, Isaiah 59:6, Isaiah 59:10, Isaiah 59:11, Isaiah 59:14, Isaiah 59:15, Isaiah 59:16, Isaiah 59:17, Isaiah 59:21
Key moments
- The Lord's hand not shortened (Isaiah 59:1). The chapter denies that the Lord cannot save or hear.
- Iniquities that separate (Isaiah 59:2). The people's sins, not the Lord's weakness, have hidden his face from them.
- Feet that run to shed blood (Isaiah 59:7). The accused hasten to shed innocent blood and leave destruction in their paths.
- Groping like the blind (Isaiah 59:10). The speakers confess that they stumble at noonday and grope as if they had no eyes.
- Truth fallen in the street (Isaiah 59:14). Judgment is turned back and whoever leaves evil becomes a prey.
- No intercessor, so his own arm (Isaiah 59:16). The Lord sees no man to intercede and brings salvation by his own arm.
- The Redeemer comes to Zion (Isaiah 59:20). The Lord promises a Redeemer for those in Jacob who turn from transgression.
For reflection
The speakers say they wait for light and walk in darkness, and in the same breath admit that their own transgressions are with them and they know them. What is the relationship between knowing one's part in a situation and still being unable to see a way out of it?
