Behold, Yahweh’s hand is not shortened, that it can’t save; nor his ear dull, that it can’t hear.
But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.
No one sues in righteousness, and no one pleads in truth. They trust in vanity, and speak lies. They conceive mischief, and give birth to iniquity.
They hatch adders’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web. He who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
Their webs won’t become garments. They won’t cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and acts of violence are in their hands.
Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their paths.
They don’t know the way of peace; and there is no justice in their ways. They have made crooked paths for themselves; whoever goes in them doesn’t know peace.
Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness doesn’t overtake us. We look for light, but see darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.
We grope for the wall like the blind. Yes, we grope as those who have no eyes. We stumble at noon as if it were twilight. Among those who are strong, we are like dead men.
We all roar like bears and moan bitterly like doves. We look for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far off from us.
For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:
transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has fallen in the street, and uprightness can’t enter.
Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 Read Isa. 1:15.
Read Isa. 1:15.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–15 Isa 59:1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened,…
Isa 59:1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
Ver. 1. Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened.] That their fasts were not regarded, their Sabbath keeping rewarded, {Isa 58:3; Isa 58:14} their prayers answered, {Isa 59:1-2} according to expectation, the fault is not at all in God, saith the prophet, as if he were now grown old, impotent, deafish, or bison, as they were apt to conceit it, but merely in themselves, as appeareth by the following catalogue of sins, which he therefore also, in his own and their names, confesseth to God, and assigneth for the cause of their so long lasting calamity.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–15 The Lord’s hand is not shortened; he is not…
The Lord’s hand is not shortened; he is not grown weaker than in former times, as omnipotent as ever he was: hand is here by a synecdoche put for arm, and so for strength, because the strength of a man doth generally put forth itself in his arm; and thus it is applied to God in his bringing Israel out of Egypt, Psa 136:12.
Neither his ear heavy; or thick of hearing; he is not like your idol gods, that have hands, and cannot help, and ears, and cannot hear. The phrases are much to the same purpose, save only that they seem to be appropriated to the double cavil, or quarrel, that the Jews might have with God; as,
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1. Surely if God were not heavy or hard of hearing, he could not but hear those strong cries that we put up in the days of our fast; or,
2. If he did hear, certainly he could not help us; and thus it may have respect to the beginning of the 58th chapter. Or the words may be by way of confirmation and establishment, and so may relate to the close of it, to let them know that if they sought him as they ought, and was before prescribed, he was not inexorable, but willing to hear, and able to make good all those promises that he had made from verse 8 to the end. The sum is, to show that the fault was not in God, that their fasts and cries were not regarded, for his ear was as quick to hear as ever; nor their services rewarded, for his hand was as able to help as ever; but the obstruction lay in their sins, which is positively asserted, Isa 59:2, and a more particular account given of them in the sequel.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 9 The prophet here rectifies the mistake of those who…
The prophet here rectifies the mistake of those who had been quarrelling with God because they had not the deliverances wrought for them which they had been often fasting and praying for, Isa 58:3. Now here he shows,
I. That it was not owing to God. They had no reason to lay the fault upon him that they were not saved out of the hands of their enemies; for, 1. He was still as able to help as ever: His hand is not shortened, his power is not at all lessened, straitened, or abridged. Whether we consider the extent of his power or the efficacy of it, God can reach as far as ever and with as strong a hand as ever. Note, The church's salvation comes from the hand of God, and that has not waxed weak nor is it at all shortened. Has the Lord's hand waxed short? (says God to Moses, Num 11:23). No, it has not; he will not have it thought so. Neither length of time nor strength of enemies, no, nor weakness of instruments, can shorten or straiten the power of God, with which it is all one to save by many or by few. 2. He was still as ready and willing to help as ever in answer to prayer: His ear is not heavy, that it cannot hear. Though he has many prayers to hear and answer, and though he has been long hearing prayer, yet he is still as ready to hear prayer as ever. The prayer of the upright is as much his delight as ever it was, and the promises which are pleaded and put in suit in prayer are still yea and amen, inviolably sure. More is implied than is expressed; not only his ear is not heavy, but he is quick of hearing. Even before they call he answers, Isa 65:24. If your prayers be not answered, and the salvation we wait for be not wrought for us, it is not because God is weary of hearing prayer, but because we are weary of praying, not because his ear is heavy when we speak to him, but because our ears are heavy when he speaks to us.
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II. That it was owing to themselves; they stood in their own light and put a bar in their own door. God was coming towards them in ways of mercy and they hindered him. Your iniquities have kept good things from you, Jer 5:25.
1. See what mischief sin does. (1.) It hinders God's mercies from coming down upon us; it is a partition wall that separates between us and God. Notwithstanding the infinite distance that is between God and man by nature, there was a correspondence settled between them, till sin set them at variance, justly provoked God against man and unjustly alienated man from God; thus it separates between them and God. "He is your God, yours in profession, and therefore there is so much the more malignity and mischievousness in sin, which separates between you and him." Sin hides his face from us (which denotes great displeasure, Deu 31:17); it provokes him in anger to withdraw his gracious presence, to suspend the tokens of his favour and the instances of his help; he hides his face, as refusing to be seen or spoken with. See here sin in its colours, sin exceedingly sinful, withdrawing the creature from his allegiance to his Creator; and see sin in its consequences, sin exceedingly hurtful, separating us from God, and so separating us not only from all good, but to all evil (Deu 29:21), which is the very quintessence of the curse. (2.) It hinders our prayers from coming up unto God; it provokes him to hide his face, that he will not hear, as he has said, Isa 1:15. If we regard iniquity in our heart, if we indulge it and allow ourselves in it, God will not hear our prayers, Psa 66:18. We cannot expect that he should countenance us while we go on to affront him.
2. Now, to justify God in hiding his face from them, and proceeding in his controversy with them, the prophet shows very largely, in the following verses, how many and great their iniquities were, according to the charge given him (Isa 58:1), to show God's people their transgressions; and it is a black bill of indictment that is here drawn up against them, consisting of many particulars, any one of which was enough to separate between them and a just and a holy God. Let us endeavour to reduce these articles of impeachment to proper heads.
(1.) We must begin with their thoughts, for there all sin begins, and thence it takes its rise: Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, Isa 59:7. Their imaginations are so, only evil continually. Their projects and designs are so; they are continually contriving some mischief or other, and how to compass the gratification of some base lust (Isa 59:4): They conceive mischief in their fancy, purpose, counsel, and resolution (thus the embryo receives its shape and life), and then they bring forth iniquity, put it in execution when it is ripened for it. Though it is in pain perhaps that the iniquity is brought forth, through the oppositions of Providences and the checks of their own consciences, yet, when they have compassed their wicked purpose, they look upon it with as much pride and pleasure as if it were a man-child born into the world; thus, when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin, Jam 1:15. This is called (Isa 59:5) hatching the cockatrice' egg and weaving the spider's web. See how the thoughts and contrivances of wicked men are employed, and about what they set their wits on work. [1.] At the best it is about that which is foolish and frivolous. Their thoughts are vain, like weaving the spider's web, which the poor silly animal takes a great deal of pains about, and, when all is done, it is a weak insignificant thing, a reproach to the place where it is, and which the besom sweeps away in an instant: such are the thoughts which worldly men entertain themselves with, building castles in the air, and pleasing themselves with imaginary satisfaction, like the spider, which takes hold with her hands very finely (Pro 30:28), but cannot keep her hold. [2.] Too often it is about that which is malicious and spiteful. They hatch the eggs of the cockatrice or adder, which are poisonous and produce venomous creatures; such are the thoughts of the wicked who delight in doing mischief. He that eats of their eggs (that is, he is in danger of having some mischief or other done him), and that which is crushed in order to be eaten of, or which begins to be hatched and you promise yourself some useful fowl from it, breaks out into a viper, which you meddle with at your peril. Happy are those that have least to do with such men. Even the spider's web which they wove was woven with a spiteful design to catch flies in and make a prey of them; for, rather than not be doing mischief, they will play at small game.
(2.) Out of this abundance of wickedness in the heart their mouth speaks, and yet it does not always speak out the wickedness that is within, but, for the more effectually compassing the mischievous design, it is dissembled and covered with much fair speech (Isa 59:3): Your lips have spoken lies; and again (Isa 59:4), They speak lies, pretending kindness where they intend the greatest mischief; or by slanders and false accusations they blasted the credit and reputation of those they had a spite to and so did them a real mischief unseen, and perhaps by suborning witnesses against them took from them their estates and lives; for a false tongue is sharp arrows, and coals of juniper, and every thing that is mischievous. Your tongue has muttered perverseness. When they could not, for shame, speak their malice against their neighbours aloud, or durst not, for fear of being disproved and put to confusion, they muttered it secretly. Backbiters are called whisperers.
(3.) Their actions were all of a piece with their thoughts and words. They were guilty of shedding innocent blood, a crime of the most heinous nature: Your hands are defiled with blood (Isa 59:3); for blood is defiling; it leaves an indelible stain of guilt upon the conscience, which nothing but the blood of Christ can cleanse it from. Now was this a case of surprise, or one that occurred when there was something of a force put upon them; but (Isa 59:7) their feet ran to this evil, naturally and eagerly, and, hurried on by the impetus of their malice and revenge, they made haste to shed innocent blood, as if they were afraid of losing an opportunity to do a barbarous thing, Pro 1:16; Jer 22:17. Wasting and destruction are in their paths. Wherever they go they carry mischief along with them, and the tendency of their way is to lay waste and destroy, nor do they care what havoc they make. Nor do they only thirst after blood, but with other iniquities are their fingers defiled (Isa 59:3); they wrong people in their estates and make every thing their own that they can lay their hands on. They trust in vanity (Isa 59:4); they depend upon their arts of cozenage to enrich themselves with, which will prove vanity to them, and their deceiving others will but deceive themselves. Their works, which they take so much pains about and have their hearts so much upon, are all works of iniquity; their whole business is one continued course of oppressions and vexations, and the act of violence is in their hands, according to the arts of violence that are in their heads and the thoughts of violence in their hearts.
(4.) No methods are taken to redress these grievances, and reform these abuses (Isa 59:4): None calls for justice, none complains of the violation of the sacred laws of justice, nor seeks to right those that suffer wrong or to get the laws put in execution against vice and profaneness, and those lewd practices which are the shame, and threaten to be the bane, of the nation. Note, When justice is not done there is blame to be laid not only upon the magistrates that should administer justice, but upon the people that should call for it. Private persons ought to contribute to the public good by discovering secret wickedness, and giving those an opportunity to punish it that have the power of doing so in their hands; but it is ill with a state when princes rule ill and the people love to have it so. Truth is opposed, and there is not any that pleads for it, not any that has the conscience and courage to appear in defence of an honest cause, and confront a prosperous fraud and wrong. The way of peace is as little regarded as the way of truth; they know it not, that is, they never study the things that make for peace, no care is taken to prevent or punish the breaches of the peace and to accommodate matters in difference among neighbours; they are utter strangers to every thing that looks quiet and peaceable, and affect that which is blustering and turbulent. There is no judgment in their goings; they have not any sense of justice in their dealings; it is a thing they make no account of at all, but can easily break through all its fences if they stand in the way of their malicious covetous designs.
(5.) In all this they act foolishly, very foolishly, and as much against their interest as against reason and equity. Those that practise iniquity trust in vanity, which will certainly deceive them, Isa 59:4. Their webs, which they weave with so much art and industry, shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves, either for shelter or for ornament, with their works, Isa 59:6. They may do hurt to others with their projects, but can never do any real service or kindness to themselves by them. There is nothing to be got by sin, and so it will appear when profit and loss come to be compared. Those paths of iniquity are crooked paths (Isa 59:8), which will perplex them, but will never bring them to their journey's end; whoever go therein, though they say that they shall have peace notwithstanding they go on, deceive themselves; for they shall not know peace, as appears by the following verses.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–15 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it…
Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,.... It is not for want of power in the Lord, that he has not as yet destroyed the enemies of his people, antichrist, and the antichristian states, and saved them out of their hands, and made them to triumph over them; or brought on the glorious state of the church, and fulfilled the promises of good things, suggested in the latter part of the preceding chapter. His hand is as long as ever, and as able to reach his and their enemies in the greatest height of power, or at the greatest distance, and to do every good thing for them; his power is as great as ever, and not in the least abridged or curtailed.
Neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: the prayers of his people, their cries unto him on their fast days, of which he seemed to take no notice, complained of Isa 58:3, this is not owing to any want of attention in him, or of readiness to hear prayer made unto him; for he is a God hearing and answering prayer, and is ready to help his people in every time of need, who apply to him in a proper and suitable manner; his eyes are upon them, and his ears are open to their cries. And this is introduced with a "behold", as requiring attention, and deserving the notice and consideration of his people. The Targum is,
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"behold, not through defect of hand (or power) from the Lord ye are not saved; nor because it is heavy to him to hear, that your prayer is not received.''
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 Sin separates between God and us, ver. 1, 2.…
Sin separates between God and us, ver. 1, 2. Murder, theft, falsehood, injustice, cruelty, ver. 3-8. Calamity for sin, ver. 9-15. Salvation only of God, ver. 16-19. The covenant of the redeemer, ver. 20, 21
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, 11, 14, 15 This chapter contains a more general reproof of the…
CHAPTER LIX
This chapter contains a more general reproof of the wickedness
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of the Jews, 1-8.
After this they are represented confessing their sins, and
deploring the unhappy consequences of them, 9-15.
On this act of humiliation God, ever ready to pardon the
penitent, promises that he will have mercy on them; that the
Redeemer will come, mighty to save; and that he will deliver
his people, subdue his enemies and establish a new and
everlasting covenant, 16-21.
The foregoing elegant chapter contained a severe reproof of the Jews, in particular for their hypocrisy in pretending to make themselves accepted with God by fasting and outward humiliation without true repentance; while they still continued to oppress the poor, and indulge their own passions and vices; with great promises however of God's favour on condition of their reformation. This chapter contains a more general reproof of their wickedness, bloodshed, violence, falsehood, injustice. At Isa 59:9 they are introduced as making, themselves, an ample confession of their sins, and deploring their wretched state in consequence of them. On this act of humiliation a promise is given that God, in his mercy and zeal for his people, will rescue them from this miserable condition, that the Redeemer will come like a mighty hero to deliver them; he will destroy his enemies, convert both Jews and Gentiles to himself, and give them a new covenant, and a law which shall never be abolished.
As this chapter is remarkable for the beauty, strength, and variety of the images with which it abounds; so is it peculiarly distinguished by the elegance of the composition, and the exact construction of the sentences. From the first verse to the two last it falls regularly into stanzas of four lines, (see Prelim. Dissert. p. xxi.,) which I have endeavoured to express as nearly as possible in the form of the original. - L.
NOTES ON CHAP. LIX
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 14 Isa 59:1-2. Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened…
Isa 59:1-2. Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened — He is not grown weaker than informer times, but is as omnipotent as ever he was; neither his ear heavy — Or dull of hearing: he is not like your idol gods, that have hands and cannot help, and ears and cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated — Have been as a thick wall, between you and your God — And have set him at a distance from you, Pro 15:29. “The reason of the continuance of your calamities is not any want either of power in God to deliver you, or of goodness to hear your prayers: but your own iniquities make him a stranger to you, interrupt the correspondence that used to be between God and his people, and stop the course of his blessings.” — Lowth.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–15 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened - On…
Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened - On the meaning of this phrase, see the notes at Isa 50:2.
Neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear - On the meaning of this phrase, see the notes at Isa 6:10.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14 Iniquities. The history of Susanna shews that the captives…
Iniquities. The history of Susanna shews that the captives were not all free from sin, which alone prevented their liberation, Lamentations iii. 44. (Calmet) [Daniel xiii.] --- God is willing and able to save. He punishes for sin, to cause us to repent, ver. 20. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv1, 9 b) To the complaint of the people concerning Jehovah’s…
b) To the complaint of the people concerning Jehovah’s inability is opposed the charge of moral corruption
Isa_59:1-8
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1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not 1shortened, 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 2have hid His face from you, 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 3hath muttered perverseness.
4 None 4calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth:
They trust in vanity, and speak lies;
They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch 56cockatrice’ eggs
And weave the spider’s web:
He that eateth of their eggs dieth,
And 7that 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;
Wasting and 8destruction are in their paths.
8 The way of peace they know not;
And there is no 9judgment in their 10goings:
They have made them crooked paths:
Whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Ver.8. מבדילים direct causative Hiph. with בֵּין־לְ as e. g., in Gen_1:6; Eze_22:26; Eze_42:20.——הִסְתִּיר also direct causative Hiph.; comp. moreover, as regards the expression, Isa_54:8.
Ver.3. The word נְגֹאַל is found only here and Lam_4:14, where the words נְגֹאֲלוּ בַדָּם are evidently taken from our text. The form נְּגאַל is irregular. The prefix נ denotes a Niphal form, whereas גְֹאַל appears as a Pual or passive of Poel. The root גָּאַל (kindred to גָּעַל fastidivit) occurs again in the sense of “impurum, profanum esse,” in the Hiph. in Isa_63:3, on the other hand often in later writers: Zep_3:1; Mal_1:7; Mal_1:12; Ezr_2:62; Neh_7:64; Dan_1:8.——Thus נְגֹאַל is bad Hebrew both materially and formally. It seems to me that the expression was purposely taken by the Prophet from popular language, in order, by the bad word, to designate the more graphically the bad thing. The root, which originally belongs more to the Aramaic dialect, only penetrated into the Hebrew Scripture language at a later date, as the passages quoted show.——one may not render תהגה “to murmur,” which would make nonsense where the same word occurs in Psa_35:28; Psa_71:24; Job_27:4; Pro_8:9. The tongue (or palate) in all these passages is personified, and treated as the inner source of what the lips outwardly express aloud. Gesenius (Thes. p. 364) quotes with approval the words of Gussetius, that “הָנָה non reperitur cum parte magis extrinseca, nompe שָׂפָה, et sic aliquam servat intrinsecitatem.” And that is correct. By הָנָה לָשׁוֹן the same thing is affirmed of the tongue that is elsewhere ascribed to it when it is said of it, that a high song of praise רוֹמָמ Psa_66:17), honey and milk (Son_4:11), malignity (Job_20:12), pain and wickedness (Psa_10:7) are under the tongue, or that pleasant doctrine is on the tongue (Pro_31:26), or that wickedness is in the tongue (Job_6:30). All these expressions must be regarded as metaphors, because in all of them the outward, irrational organ is substituted for the inward rational organ.
Ver.5. הַזּוּרֶה ἅπ.λεγ., comp. זֹרוּ Isa_1:6,’ from זוּר “to press together;” it is a passive participial form, as e. g. סוּרָה ,עוּל with the rare feminine ending ־ֶה.
Isa_59:8.בָּהּ the totality of the ways, comp. e. g., Isa_22:11; Isa_37:4.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Behold——not hear.
Vers.1, 2. Ver.1 implies a double reproach which Israel lets fall beside that in Isa_52:2-3. In the latter they had reproached Him with injustice. Here they let it be understood that Jehovah either lacks the necessary strength of hand (קצרה יד־י׳ comp. on Isa_50:2) or else hearing. The expression כבדה אזן does not signify unwillingness to hear, but inability to hear, deafness, as in Gen_48:10 “the eyes of Israel were heavy from age” signifies the physical weakness of the eyes, wherefore it is added “he could not see.” The expression כָּכֵד used of the ear occurs again only Isa_6:10;and in Zec_7:11 as a quotation from our text (comp. on Isa_58:6 sqq.). In ver.2 is given the real reason for Israel’s mournful fate. It is their sins that raise a partition-wall between them and their God, and make Him hide His face from them so that He does not hear.
2. For your hands——not know peace.
Vers.3–8. In this section the Prophet specifies the sins of Israel, showing that it is wholly penetrated by sin, and that the outward manifestation exactly corresponds to the corrupt interior. He first points to the hands spotted with blood. Then he says that guilt, offence clings to their fingers, by which he would only express, that this blood came not on their fingers by accident, but by actual trespass. He distributes the notion ‘ ‘blood-guiltiness” to the palms and fingers according to the law of parallelism. The lips speak lies loud and audibly, while the tongue devises wickedness, which is set in operation by means of the lies. There prevails here, too, the antithesis between what is outward and what is inward. In ver.4 there underlies the same antithesis. I have no doubt that קרא בצדק designates the judicial invocatio (in jus vocare, καλεῖν ἐπὶ δίκην); so Coccejus, Gesen., Maurer, Knobel. For first, in this way the two clauses of the half of the verse most beautifully correspond. The first treats of the complainant, and the second of the fate his complaint has with the Judge. Moreover Job_13:22 seems to me to prove that the general sense “to call” may, according to the context, acquire the meaning of a forensic act, as that of the call proceeding from the complainant to appear at the bar of judgment and to justification. If we takeקרא in the sense of κηρύσσειν, as Delitzsch does (“no one gives public testimony with righteousness”), it would be giving too much meaning to קרא and to κηρύσσειν. If one were to take it with Stier in the sense “no one calls (appeals) to righteousness, raises his voice for it, i.e., in order to it and for it,” that would be to attach too much meaning to the prefix בְּ. I translate: there is no one that appeals with righteousness, and there is no one that is judged with faithfulness (impartially). One could, as most do, translate נשׁפט also by “who conducts his cause.” But the Niph. primarily means “to be judged” (Psa_9:20; Psa_37:33; Psa_109:7); and this meaning seems to me to suit better here, since עֹנֶה (as in Job_13:28) would better answer to קרא in the sense denoted before, and נשׁפט does not mean “to defend one’s self” but “to go to law, litigare,” and thus includes the complainant. According to our meaning the complainant’s aim at wrong is judged, but also the judges treat the cause with no fidelity or love of truth. אמונה answers here to the idea צֶדֶק as, e. g., Psa_96:13; Pro_12:17; 1Sa_26:23 etc. Now where such things come to light, there must be something lacking within. There, instead of the living God, emptiness, vanity, nothingness must be the refuge in which trust is placed; there, too, lies must serve as indispensable aids (דכר־שׁוא see Isa_58:9). In general the natural law is observed: as the seed, so the fruit. What is conceived within as the germ of the עָמָל (weary trouble with the secondary notion of what is baneful, a curse, especially in Ecc_1:3; Ecc_2:10 sqq., etc., comp. Job_5:6-7; Psa_7:17) comes to light in an aggravated form as אָוֶן (vanum, malum in the double sense of the word). The notion און is stronger than עָמָל, since it expresses more strongly both the idea of vanity, illusiveness, as well as that of moral wickedness. Moreover both conceptions (עמל and און) are often conjoined, not only in passages that more or less literally coincide with ours (Job_15:35; Psa_7:15), but elsewhere also (Psa_10:7; Psa_90:10; Psa_55:11).
In vers.5, 6, by a double image, the Prophet expresses the thought that the inward corruption of the people reveals itself outwardly by corresponding works. He compares the Israelites to poisonous serpents that produce poisonous eggs, and to poisonous spiders that draw out of their body a baneful web. In Isa_59:5 a the comparisons stand side by side in their general import. But Isa_59:5 b there is mentioned first a double destructive use of the basilisk’s egg. Either one eats it, and dies of it; or the broken egg divides itself as an adder, i. e., lets slip out through the crack the poisonous adder, that is dangerous to the foot of him that treads on it (Gen_3:15). Thus the works of the Israelites are on the one hand positively ruinous, on the other hand they appear as useless, unreliable, consequently also as indirectly ruinous. That is, so far as the Israelites are thought of as spiders that produce a web, there their products prove useless for protecting garments. Consequently the conduct of the Israelites is altogether the product of an inward corruption, and in every respect, in part useless and thus indirectly pernicious (מעשי־און), in part directly and positively ruinous (פעל חמם).
Isa_59:7-8 continue the effort to hold up to Israel the manifoldness of its sinful ways. It is as if the Prophet, having in Isa_59:6 spoken of the sinful works of the hands, would now describe the participation of the feet in these works. This he does by means of a citation. For the entire first half of Isa_59:7 is taken from Pro_1:16 (as on the other hand Paul in Rom_3:15-17 gives a free citation of our Isa_59:7-8 a). Also the words their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity are the more to be regarded as a reminiscence of Pro_6:18 since the expression מחשׁבות און occurs only in these two passages, and also the second half of Pro_6:18 is only a variation of the first half of Isa_1:16. In the last number of Isa_59:7 as also in Isa_59:8, the Prophet appears to have intended to show how Israel had by its sins polluted everything even that was called a way. Hence it is said at the close of Isa_59:7 that wasting and destruction (Isa_51:19; Isa_60:18) is in their paths (מְסִלָּה the beaten road; notice the antithesis to שׁד ושׁבר); then Isa_59:8דרך “the way” and מעגלות “the wagon tracks, orbitae,” are described as devoid of peace and judgment, and the נתיבות “the footpaths” are made crooked by them (in their interest לָהֶם). “The way of peace” is an expression that occurs only here, and as a citation from this text in Luk_1:79 and Rom_3:17. Also in writing these clauses the Prophet had undoubtedly in mind passages in Proverbs like Pro_2:8-9; Pro_2:15. The concluding clause of Isa_59:8 : whosoever goeth therein,etc., corresponds to the beginning of the verse, and is a sort of recapitulation of all that was said concerning the ways of the Israelites. That is, the result is that every one that goes thereon learns not to know peace (viz. practically, Isa_47:8; Jer. 20:20).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_58:2-3. There are also to-day many men that hold up their good works to God (Luk_18:11 sqq.), and who, out aloud or silently, reproach Him for not adequately rewarding them for them. But one can distinguish here two classes: those that boast of having done works of undoubted moral worth; and such as found their pretensions essentially on works that are morally indifferent, as ceremonies of worship and the like. Of course there is a difference between these, for the former can, under some circumstances, really deserve praise; whereas the latter under all circumstances accomplish something more or less morally worthless, yea, possibly, as miserable hypocrites, directly provoke the wrath of God. But never has the creature the right to accuse God. It may be debated whether such accusation is more folly or wickedness. It is tinder all circumstances a presumptuous judgment. For, as long as we live, results are not assured, and we lack ability to see all. Only the day will make it clear what is the relation between God’s doing and ours, and that He has not let the just recompense be wanting (Isa_1:18; Isa_43:26).
2. On Isa_58:4 sqq. The Prophet finds fault with the fasting of the Jews in two respects. First, because they combined them with works of unrighteousness. Second, because they held the “bodily exercise” to be the chief thing. Perhaps in the Sermon on the mount our Lord had our text in mind when He said: “When ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance.” Mat_6:11. He makes prominent one particular that probably hovered before our Prophet also. For it is possible that he saw in the “hanging the head” an artificial, affected, and so hypocritical expression of a piety that did not exist inwardly; although it is not absolutely necessary that this letting the head hang and making one’s bed in sand and ashes took place with hypocritical intent. But our Lord expressly demands that one do not let appear the harassed, sickly look, that was the perhaps quite natural consequence of fasting. He says (Mat_6:17): “but thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father, which is in secret.” One sees, therefore, that in the Sermon on the mount the Lord by no means rejects corporeal fasting. He only shows abhorrence of men’s hypocritically abusing fasting for the gratification of pride. But the Prophet also does not reject fasting. But he would have corporeal fasting be the faithful expression of a simultaneous moral doing of penitent self-denial and compassionating love.
3. On Isa_58:6-9. As the apostle James pressingly urges against dead works, that even Abraham’s faith was in itself a grand moral act, so here, too, the Prophet insists on right works as opposed to false works. But neither declares essentially anything concerning the true ground and origin of the works that they mean, because the context of their discourses does not call for it. We are to supply this from passages that professedly speak to this point, which they silently take for granted, according to the measure of intelligence given to them. For even Isaiah knows right well that that which satisfies and strengthens is not to be obtained by one’s own labor and effort (55).
4. On Isa_58:7. “Flesh denotes here in this context something more still, which J. von Mueller has remarked: “The remembrance of universal brotherhood, and how we are all exposed to like things”—as ἅνθρωποι ὁμοιοπαθεῖς. Verily flesh has need of covering. When therefore thou seest the naked, then see and feel therein the need of thine own flesh, and do not, proudly selfish, conceal or cover only thyself with thy garment that belongs to the other as also being thy flesh.” Stier.
5. On Isa_58:7. Concerning the expression כָּרֹם לֶחֶם see Doctrinal and Ethical on Jer_16:7.
6. [On Isa_58:13-14. “From the closing portion of this chapter we may derive the following important inferences respecting the Sabbath. (1) It is to be of perpetual obligation. The whole chapter occurs in the midst of statements that relate to the times of the Messiah. There is no intimation that the Sabbath was to be abolished, but it is fairly implied that its observance was to be attended with most happy results in those future times.... (2) We may see the manner in which the Sabbath is to be observed. In no place in the Bible is there a more full account of the proper mode of keeping that holy day. We are to refrain from ordinary travelling and employments; we are not to engage in doing our own pleasure; we are to regard it with delight, and to esteem it a day worthy to be honored. And we are to show respect to it by not performing our own ordinary works, or pursuing pleasures, or engaging in the common topics of conversation. In this description there occurs nothing of peculiar Jewish ceremony, and nothing which indicates that it is not to be observed in this manner at all times. Under the gospel assuredly, it is as proper to celebrate the Sabbath in this way as it was in the times of Isaiah, and God doubtless intended that it should be perpetually observed in this manner. (3) Important benefits result from the right observance of the Sabbath. In the passage before us these are said to be, that they who thus observed it would find pleasure in Jehovah, and would be signally prospered and be safe. But those benefits are by no means confined to the Jewish people. It is as true now as it was then, and they who observe the Sabbath in a proper manner find happiness in the Lord—in His existence, perfections, promises, law, and in communion with Him—which is to be found no where else... And it is as true that the proper observance of the Sabbath contributes to the prosperity and safety of a nation now as it ever did among the Jewish people. It is not merely from the fact that God promises to bless the people who keep His holy day—though this is of more value to a nation than all its armies and fleets; but it is that there is in the institution itself much that tends to the welfare and prosperity of a country.... Any one may be convinced of this who will be at the pains to compare a neighborhood, a village, or a city where the Sabbath is not observed with one where it is; and the difference will convince him at once that society owes more to the Sabbath than to any single institution beside.” Barnes.]
7. On Isa_59:2. “Quia quotidie apud nos crescit culpa, cur non et simul crescat poena?” Augustine. “The public sins are compared to a thick cloud, that sets itself between heaven and earth, and as it were hinders prayers from passing through (Lam_3:44).” Starke. “There is great power in sin, for it separates God and us from one another.” Cramer. “There are times when the hand of the Lord lies long and heavy on His children. One feels that God has withdrawn from him and hidden His countenance. But one does not sufficiently investigate the cause. One seeks it in God, and it lies in us, who, by sins unacknowledged and not repented of, make it impossible to God to turn to us in grace.” Weber.
8. On Isa_59:3-8. The register of sins that Isaiah here holds up to the Jews is a mirror in which many a Christian, many a nation, many a time may recognize its own image. The Prophet declares here very plainly the poison nature, the serpent origin of sin. Sin is the poison that the old serpent knew how to bring into our nature. He that has stolen a taste of a product of this poison, as Eve did of the tree of knowledge, supposing that he will thereby receive some good, will go to ruin by it. But he that would be no lover of sin, but would stand forth as its opponent, may count upon it that the reptile will press its malignant fang in his heel, as was even held in prospect to the great trampler of the serpent’s head Himself (Gen_3:15).
9. On Isa_59:9-15 a. Here is for once an honest and thorough confession of sins. Nothing is palliated here, nothing excused. It is freely confessed that Israel is itself to blame for all its wretchedness, and this guilt is acknowledged to be the consequence of the apostacy from Jehovah and of the workings of a depraved heart, whose malignant fruits have become manifest in words and works. Comp. Jer_3:21 sqq.—Here therefore is given a model for all who would know wherein true repentance must consist.
10. On Isa_59:15 b sqq. “Si tu recordaberis peccatorum tuorum, Dominus non recordabitur.” Augustine. “God wonders that men let sin become so great and His righteousness so small.” Oetinger in Stier.—It is a divine privilege to need no helper. With God there is no difference between willing and being able. With Him the being able follows the willing ad nutum. And there is nothing to which God, when He wills, has not also the right. We men, when we have the will and the power, are often without the right, and this takes the foundation from under our feet.
Isa_59:17. This is the original source of the Apostle Paul’s extended description of the spiritual armor, Eph_6:14; Eph_6:17. Also in 1Th_5:8 there underlies the same representation of the equipment required by Christians. On the other hand God is conceived of as an equipped warrior, e.g., Psa_7:13-14; Psa_35:2-3. In Exo_15:4 He is directly called “a man of war.”
11. On Isa_59:18-20. Regarding the time of the fulfilment of this prophecy, the honorable and thorough confession of sin in Isa_59:9-15 a, assumes the conclusion of the judgments against Israel and the conversion of the Gentiles. So Paul understood our passage, who cites it, Rom_11:26, to prove that only then will the Jews partake of the salvation when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come in. Therefore the Prophet distinguishes three great periods of time. The first comprehends all the stages of time in which Israel will be impenitent, and hence deprived of its theocratic rights. This period will conclude with a condition wherein Israel’s scale, as too light, hurries upwards to the highest elevation, while the scale of the Gentiles, by reason of its weight, will sink deep down. Just this situation will bring about the turning of the scale. Israel will repent; but those Gentiles and those Israelites that will not have repented will be overtaken by the judgment (Isa_59:18; Isa_59:20 שׁבי כשׁע ביעקב). For neither the “fulness of the Gentiles,” nor “all Israel” excludes there being still unconverted Gentiles and Jews. The third period is then the period of salvation, when the Goel [“Redeemer”] will come to Zion and raise up the covenant (Isa_59:21).
12. On Isa_59:21 “Does the Spirit of God remain, then does also His word; does the word remain, then preachers also remain; do preachers remain, then also hearers do; do hearers remain, then there remain also believers, and therefore the Christian church remains also, to which ever some still will be gathered out of the Jews (Rom_11:26).”—“Although in general God has promised that His word and Spirit shall not depart from the church of God, still no one must become so secure about that (comp. Jer_18:18) as if it were impossible that this or that particular church (and even the Romish church is nothing more) could err.” Cramer.
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. On Isa_58:1. Penitential Sermon. The text teaches us two things: 1) What one ought to preach on a day of repentance [fast-day]; viz., hold up to the people their sins. 2) How one should preach: a. boldly, b. without sparing, loud as a trumpet.
2. On Isa_58:2-9 This text contains the outlines of a popular theodicy. First we hear, Isa_58:2-3 a, the popular complaint that the divine Providence that guides the affairs of the world is unjust, and that He is not fair to the claims of reward that each individual fancies he has. Then in Isa_58:3 b–9, we hear the divine justification. It consists of two parts. In the first part God shows that the claims of men are unfounded in two respects. First for this reason, because they do not do good purely, but along with the good have still room in their hearts for evil, consequently imagine that they can serve two masters (Isa_58:3 a., 4). Second, their claims are unfounded, because founded in the illusion that it is sufficient to fulfil the divine commands in a rude, outward manner. Thus men suppose, e.g., that they can satisfy the divine command to fast by harassing the body by hunger, and lying on sack-cloth and ashes (Isa_58:5). In the second part God shows what must be the nature of the performances that would satisfy the demand of His holiness, and give a claim on His righteousness for reward. That is to say, men must first of all, by practical repentance, make restoration for all injustice done by them, and make manifest by works of mercy their love to God and their neighbor (Isa_58:7). Then divine salvation and divine blessing will be constantly with them, and in every necessity their prayer for help will find certain hearing (Isa_58:8-9 a).
3. [On Isa_58:3. “Having gone about to put a cheat on God by their external services, here they go about to pick a quarrel with God for not being pleased with their services, as if He had not done justly or fairly by them.” M. Henry.]
4. [On Isa_58:4. “Behold, you fast for strife and debate. When they proclaimed a fast to deprecate God’s judgments, they pretended to search for those sins that provoked God to threaten them with His judgments, and under that pretence, perhaps, particular persons were falsely accused, as Naboth in the day of Jezebel’s fast, 1Ki_21:12. Or the contending parties among them upon those occasions were bitter and severe in their reflections one upon another, one side crying out, ‘It is owing to you,’ and the other, “It is owing to you, that our deliverance is not wrought.’ Thus, instead of judging themselves, which is the proper work of a fast-day, they condemned one another.” M. Henry.]
5. [On Isa_58:5; Isa_58:7. “Plain instructions given concerning the true nature of a religious fast. 1. In general a fast is intended: (1) For the honoring and pleasing of God (Isa_58:5, a fast that I have chosen, an acceptable day to the Lord). (2) For the humbling and abasing of ourselves, Lev_16:29. That must be done on a fast-day which is a real affliction to the soul, as far as it is unregenerate and unsanctified, though a real pleasure and advantage to the soul as far as it is itself. II. What will be acceptable to God and afflict our corrupt nature to its mortification. (1) Negatively, what does neither of these, a. To look demure, put on a melancholy aspect and bow the head like a bulrush, Mat_6:16. Though that were well enough so far, Luk_18:13. b. It is not enough to mortify the body a little, while the body of sin is untouched. (2) Positively, a. That we be just to those with whom we have dealt hardly (Isa_58:6). b. That we be charitable to those that stand in need of charity (Isa_58:7).” After M. Henry.]
6. On Isa_58:7. The compassionate love of the Samaritan. 1) What does it give? a. food, b. housing, c. clothing. 2) To whom does it give? To its flesh, i. e., to its neighbor in the sense of Luk_10:29 sqq.
7. On Isa_58:9. “What if the Lord were to make us priests, and if He were to give us the light and righteousness that Aaron bore on his heart as often as he went in unto the Lord, and by which the Lord gave him answer when He inquired,—if He were to give all of us that in our hearts, who are priests of the new covenant? And assuredly I believe that He will also do this. What He has already promised by the Prophets, He will much more fulfil in us: Thou shalt call, and the Lord shall answer thee; when thou shalt cry, He will say: here I am.” Tholuck.
8. On Isa_58:7-9. “O God, our great, sore, horrible blindness, that we so disregard such a glorious promise! To whom are we harsh, when we do not help poor people? Are they not our flesh and blood? As in heaven and earth there is no creature so nearly related to us, it ought to be our way: what we would that men should do to us in like case, that let us do to others. But there that detestable Satan holds our eyes, so that we withdraw from our own flesh and become tyrants and blood-hounds to our neighbors. But what do we accomplish by that? What do we enjoy? We load ourselves with God’s disfavor, curse and all misfortune, who might otherwise have temporal and eternal blessing. For he that takes on him the distress of his neighbor, his light shall break forth like the morning dawn, i.e., he shall find consolation and help in time of need. His recovery shall progress rapidly, i.e., God will again bless him, and replace what he has given away. His righteousness shall go before him, i.e., he shall not only have a good name with every one, but God will shelter him from evil, and ward off from him temporal misfortune, as one may see that God wonderfully protects His own when common punishments go about. And the glory of the Lord will take him to itself, i. e., God will interest Himself for him, [as follows Isa_58:9]. Lo, of such great mercy as this does greed rob us, when we do not gladly and kindly help the poor!” Veit Dietrich.
9. [On Isa_58:12. Thou shalt be called (and it shall be to thy honor) the repairer of the breach, the breach made by the enemy in the wall of a besieged city, which whoso has courage and dexterity to make up, or make good, gains great applause. Happy are those who make up the breach at which virtue is running out, and judgments are breaking in. M. Henry].
10. On Isa_59:1-2. It is often in human life as if heaven were shut up. No prayer seems to penetrate through to it. To all our cries, no answer. Then people murmur (Isa_8:21 sq.; Lam_3:39) and accuse God, as if He were lame or deaf. But they ought rather to seek the blame in themselves. There still exists a wall of partition between them and God, a guilt unatoned for, the sight of which still continuously provokes the anger of God, and hinders the appearance of His mercy (Isa_1:15 sqq.; Isa_64:5 sqq.; Dan_9:5 sqq.: Pro_1:24 sqq.). Hence Christians must be pointed to what they must guard against in seasons of long-continued visitation and what they should strive after at such times before all things. As they would avoid great harm to soul and body, they must beware of laying any blame on God, as if He were wanting in willingness or ability. Rather, by sincere repentance, their endeavor should be that heaven may be pure and clear, that their guilt may be forgiven for Christ’s sake, and that, as children of God, with the testimony of the Holy Spirit (Rom_8:16) in their hearts, they may have free access to the heart of their heavenly Father.
11. On Isa_59:3-8. The description the Prophet gives here of the depraved moral condition of Israel is also a description of human sinfulness generally. And the Apostle Paul has adopted parts of it in the portrait he gives of the condition of the natural man (comp. Isa_59:7 with Rom_3:15). Therefore, where one would draw the picture of the natural man, he may make good use of this text.
12. [On Isa_59:13. Conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. “They were words of falsehood, and yet they were said to be uttered from the heart, because though they differed from the real sentiments of the heart, and therefore were words of falsehood, yet they agreed with the malice and wickedness of the heart, and were the natural language of that; it was a double heart, Psa_12:2.” M. Henry.]
13. On Isa_59:15 b–21. One may preach on this text in times of great distress and conflict for the Church. The Lord the protection of His Church. 1) The distress of the Church does not remain concealed from Him, for He sees: a. that the Church encounters injustice (Isa_59:15 b), b. that no one on earth takes its part (Isa_59:16) 2) He stirs Himself (Isa_59:16 b; Isa_59:17 a, Isa_59:19 b): a. to judgment against the enemy (Isa_59:17 b, Isa_59:18), b. to salvation for the Church (Isa_59:17 helmet of salvation): a. with reference to its deliverance from outward distress (Isa_59:20), β. with reference to inward preservation and quickening of the Church (Isa_59:20 b, 21), c. to rescue the honor of His own name (Isa_59:19 a), because the Church is even His kingdom, the theatre for the realization of His decrees of salvation. Comp. Homil. Hints on Isa_49:1-6.
14. [On Isa_59:16 sqq. “How sin abounded we have read, to our great amazement, in the former part of the chapter; how grace does much more abound we read in these verses. And as sin took occasion from the commandment to become more exceedingly sinful, so grace took occasion from the transgression to appear more exceedingly gracious.” M. Henry.]
Footnotes:
[1]too short to save, too dull to hear.
[2]Or, have made him hide.
[3]deviseth wickedness.
[4]appeals with justice, there is no one that would judge impartially.
[5]Or adders
[6]basilisk.
[7]Or, that which is sprinkled is as if there brake out a viper,
[8]Heb. breaking.
[9]Or right.
[10]tracks.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–15 hid--Hebrew, "caused Him to hide" (Lam 3:44).
hid--Hebrew, "caused Him to hide" (Lam 3:44).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15 1, 2. Behold — An ellipsis, as if omitting…
1, 2. Behold — An ellipsis, as if omitting a short parley. And the prophet impliedly answers with emphasis, “No! Far from it.”
The Lord’s hand is not shortened… ear heavy — The shortening the hand is here a figure indicative of the loss of vital energy, as heaviness of the ear is of lessening in quickness of mental perception. Neither of these can apply to “the Lord,” who is the same “yesterday, to-day, and forever,” in the perfection of all his attributes. The fault, if any, must therefore be elsewhere. Your iniquities… your sins, have made it impossible for Jehovah to save you.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–15 1. Behold the hand of Jehovah is not too…
1. Behold the hand of Jehovah is not too short (cf. ch. Isa_50:2) to save,
Nor His ear too heavy (ch. Isa_6:10) to hear.
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1, 2. These verses state briefly and forcibly the argument of which the whole chapter is the expansion: not the powerlessness or the indifference of Jehovah, but the sin of the people, is the hindrance to the promised redemption.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (1) Behold, the Lord’s hand . . .—The declaration…
LIX.
(1) Behold, the Lord’s hand . . .—The declaration is an implied answer to the complaint, like that of Isa_58:3, that the glorious promises had not as yet been fulfilled. The murmurera are told that the hindrance is on their side.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–15 Vers. 1-8. A GENERAL REBUKE OF ISRAEL FOR ITS…
Vers. 1-8. A GENERAL REBUKE OF ISRAEL FOR ITS MANIFOLD SINS, The command given to the prophet in Isa_58:1 to "show God"s people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins partly executed in Isa_58:4-7, 13 is now further carried out by a scathing denunciation of various forms of wickedness, more or less prevalent in Israel, the effect of which has been to separate between Israel and God, to "shorten God"s hand" and "make his ears heavy." The passage has many analogies with Isa_1:2-23.
The Lord"s hand is not shortened; i.e. God is not less able to help than of old; his "hand" has lost none of its power. That he does not help is owing to the iniquities of his people, which have separated between him and them (ver. 2). It is the same fact which has made his ear heavy. He cannot hear prayers that are not sincere not from the heart.
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HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-15. The separation of the soul from God.
Why in the hour of need is there no deliverance? Why are prayers for aid unanswered? A theory might obtain, or an objection might be raised, that Divine power was not sufficient, that the Divine sensibility was dulled. And yet this cannot be. The simplest knowledge of what God is must contradict an assumption so foolish. There must be another explanation; and that, the conscience says, is to be found on the human side of the relation.
I THE CHANNEL OF DIVINE COMMUNICATION CLOSED. Only to the upright does Jehovah show himself upright, only pure to the pure. There is a state of the soul in which men see God, because his face is therein reflected; but those addressed have long been "belying their professions by their acts, and thus precluding an answer to their prayers". (Isa_58:2-4) The face is "the self-manifesting side of the Divine nature". (cf. Isa_63:9 Isa_1:12 Isa_40:10) Where that is not given, there must be darkness in the mind, and bitterness in the heart.
II SINFUL OBSTACLES TO BE BEHOVED. The defilement of the hands. With the guilt of blood. But probably this stands, by a strong figure, for sin in general. The lips are lying, and the tongue depraved. Here the organs of the body, ministers of the mind, express and set forth the state of the latter. There is a certain correspondence between cleanliness of the person and truthfulness and honesty of the soul. And it is just this which is wanting. Society is resting on a foundation of chaos. Men weave their schemes, vain and brittle as spiders" webs, or hatch policies pernicious as the eggs of basilisks. They tread with swiftness the paths of mischief; their thoughts are full of hate and destruction. They ignore the way of peace and the track of justice, and follow crooked paths of their own. (Pro_10:9 Pro_28:18 Pro_2:15) It is a picture of extreme social demoralization.
III PENITENCE AND CONFESSION OF SINS. The prophet speaks in the name of the people. And here all the true elements of repentance and confession may be found.
1. The connection of sin with Divine disfavour. The first thing is to see that the curse does not "causeless come;" the next to fix upon the true cause. It is not because of want of will or want of power in God (ver. 12). They were entitled to expect his help, according to the covenant, but not apart from conditions on their side to be fulfilled. If, then, the judicial interference of Jehovah on their behalf was not witnessed, the cause must lie in the breach of those conditions in "our sins.
2. Human darkness and bewilderment without God. "Jehovah shall be thy Light and thy Salvation." That light withdrawn, what can there be groping and stumbling in the thick darkness? (Deu_28:29) How extreme the contrast of the "way which Jehovah knows," of the path of the just, shining to the perfect day;" and the "knowing not whither he goeth," the "staggering as at noonday," the groping and stumbling of the man God-abandoned and left to himself.
3. Human sorrow and despair without God. Compared to the growling or moaning of beast or bird. Men long to have their own will and way, and find that to be "lords of themselves" is a "heritage of woe." Sooner or later they must find that their passionate autonomy means "rebellion" before God and in their own consciousness. And peace cannot be where they know that they are thus "kicking against the goads." The passage strongly shows how a violated conscience must be a tormenting conscience. God will not let us sin and forget. "As for our iniquities, we know them.
4. Human shame and self-contempt without God. It is contempt that "pierces through the shell of the tortoise;" above all, one"s own contempt. The worst is when we look into the mirror held up, not by hand of enemy or critic, but by our own, and see the lineaments of the traitor, the expression of the infidel at heart, the base attitude of the deserter and backslider from the Holy One, the downcast mien of the convicted liar. There has been no truth, no rectitude, no justice. These, as fair spirits, have been banished from a polluted earth. And if one would live an innocent life, he is but game for any rude spoiler. In all this there is the deepest sense of the evil of sin, and of the need of humiliation. It is felt that humiliation cannot remove the evil, unless it first remove the sin. Misery is the natural effect of iniquity; and he that seeks to rid himself of the one before he is freed from the other would hinder the stream before he has stopped the fountain. your hearts, and not your garments." If the heart be not torn off from sin, to rend only the garment further provokes God, and makes the breach wider. There is no religious duty attains its end, but when it weakens our sin." True fasting draws down, as here seen, the pity and invites the help of the Almighty. J.
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM Ver. 1. The Divine ability.
"Behold, the Lord"s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save." We note here something that awakens surprise. Behold!" Let Israel know where her help lies. There has been wrong looking, viz. to self.
I GOD STILL WORKS IN THE WORLD. It is "his hand." He "formed" us, and he "redeems" us.
II WE MAY MAKE MISTAKES CONCERNING HUMAN HISTORY. His "hand is not shortened." It can always reach to every length, and raise from every depth. The future must be, therefore, in ourselves.
III SALVATION IS ALWAYS POSSIBLE ON EARTH.
1. In all forms of sin.
2. In all degrees of sin.
3. In all depths of distress and despair, human as well as spiritual. W.M.S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 14 Behold, the Lords hand is not shortened
Isa_59:1-9
Behold, the Lords hand is not shortened
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Isa_57:1-21.
and 59.
In the former address, to the dead works on which the people founded their claim to redemption, there were set in contrast the virtues well-pleasing of God, and for which Jehovah promises redemption as a gracious reward; in this discourse, the sins which hinder the accomplishment of redemption are still more directly laid bare. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
Sin and grace
In this chapter we have sin appearing exceeding sinful, and grace appearing exceeding gracious. (M. Henry.)
Why some seekers are not saved
I. THE FACT CONFESSED.
1. The people of whom I am specially thinking have been hearers of the Gospel, and diligent hearers too.
2. They have become men of prayer, after a fashion (Isa_58:2).
3. These people are greatly disappointed with themselves: not altogether so, for they know to a great extent where the blame lies, but yet they had hoped better things of themselves.
II. THE IMPUTATION IMPLIED AND MET. Notice the first word of our text: Behold! This is like our nots bene; mark well, turn your eye this way. If you are not saved, it is not because God is unable to save you, nor is it because He is unwilling to hear your prayers.
III. THE ACCUSATION PRESSED AND EXPLAINED. Your accusation may be turned against you. You thought that Gods hand was shortened, that it could not save; but it is your hand that is shortened, for you have not laid hold upon Christ. The real reason why you have not found peace is sin. It may be--
1. Sin unconfessed.
2. Sin unforsaken.
3. Sin hankered after.
4. Sin of which you are unaware.
5. Some sin of omission.
6. An ugly temper.
7. An intellectual sin.
8. Gross or secret sin. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Hindrances to the conversion of all nations
1. The lack of deep, earnest sympathy with Christ on the part of His people.
2. An evil heart of unbelief.
3. The unconsecrated wealth of the Church. (J. M. Sherwood, D. D.)
The sad issues of sin
I. IT BRINGS SEPARATION. Instead of running to God, we flee from Him. His dazzling majesty appals us. His righteousness and purity compel us to hide from Him.
II. IT BRINGS DISENCHANTMENT AND DISILLUSIONMENT. For a little we arc fascinated, beguiled, befooled; but soon there is a rude awakening. Their webs shall not become garments, etc. (Isa_59:6). The mirage fades await and we discover to our dismay that there is nothing around or within us but a desert of sand and thorns.
III. IT BRINGS BEWILDERMENT AND PERPLEXITY (Isa_59:9). We are in doubt regarding the most elementary matters of belief and behaviour. (A. Smellie, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 9 Isa_59:1-2. Behold the Lord’s hand is not shortened, &c.
THE SUPPOSED AND THE REAL CAUSE OF FAILURE IN THE CHURCH
Isa_59:1-2. Behold the Lord’s hand is not shortened, &c.
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As the Church is essentially an aggressive institution, at some periods her success has been most marked; at other times her energies have seemed paralysed. It behoves us not only to inquire into the conditions of the Church’s growth and expansion, but to be most careful as to our spirit and conduct, lest we by any means should prevent her development. In certain conditions, on the testimony of God’s Word, we may be sure of her growth; in certain others we may be as sure of her failure. Her expansion depends upon her purity, &c.; while her failure is as inseparably associated with her sins. The excuses that are often made for the Church’s non-success would be amusing had they not reference to so very solemn a subject. To us we confess they appear alarming, as they seem in many instances to indicate ignorance in regard to the very fundamental conditions of growth and prosperity. If she does not accomplish her soul-saving work something must be wrong. Excuses for her failure generally reflect more or less on the Divine Being and government, an issue from which thoughtful and devout minds ought at once to recoil. The text rebukes those who would so think or speak. Israel in the days of Isaiah attended to the outward forms of religion; and yet tokens of the Divine favour were withheld; and when these favours did not come as in the olden time, the people blamed God, instead of charging it to their own sins. The text is an answer to their utterances (ch. 58.). Consider—
I. THE SUPPOSED CAUSE OF THE CHURCH’S NON-SUCCESS. This has reference to the work of the Spirit, and to unanswered prayer. Dwell—
1. On the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Upon His grace all prosperity in the Church depends. In some periods God has been pleased to pour out very abundantly His Holy Spirit. At other times He seems strangely to withhold this necessary gift. The all-important question then is: Why is the Divine Spirit withheld? Some affirm—
(1.) Because it is God’s will. Is this true? It is contradicted by experience. Church history and observation teach that every great revival in the Church has been preceded by the action of the Church herself. Prayer has become more ferment and constant, &c. It is also contradicted by the clear teaching of Holy Scripture. We are not directed to wait till God shall in His sovereign wisdom determine to send us the Holy Ghost; but we are taught distinctly to pray for Him (Luk_11:13, with Mat_7:7; Jas_4:3).
(2.) We are not to expect any extraordinary manifestations of spiritual power in these days. Though we do not need the “cloven tongues,” &c., we know of no scripture that would discourage the expectation of the conversion of even three thousand in one day. Pentecost was the type and pledge of something greater and better. We are living in the “latter days,” and there are many plain indications that we ought now to expect the fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy. Plainly, then, if the Spirit is withheld it is not because the “Lord’s arm is shortened.”
2. The efficacy of prayer in the Church. God is moved by the prayers of His people. Witness Moses, Elijah, &c. (Jas_5:16). Why then so many prayers unanswered? For the cause we must look into the Church rather than up to God.
II. THE REAL CAUSE. As of old—our sins. Look at this matter of sin in the Church. Though the Church in this age may be innocent of those more flagrant transgressions (ch. 58.), yet are we not guilty before heaven, for stopping in some measure the spread and growth of the Church. Let us particularise a few of the Church’s sins. Think of—
1. Her worldly spirit.
2. Her formalism.
3. Her apathy in reference to the masses. It but remains, now that we see the cause of the Church’s small success, that we humble ourselves before God, &c.—F. Crozier: The Methodist Recorder, July 14, 1871.
GOD’S POWER UNDIMINISHED
By the Lord’s hand His power is intended. By the hand of His power He is in contact with the object on which He designs to operate. The question proposed is this: Is His power diminished? Its present extent is considered in relation to some previously recognised extent of it. It was previously recognised as without limit. Is it now less? The text is really an affirmation in the form of an interrogation. The Lord’s hand is not shortened: His power is not diminished. This is the answer to the question in Num_11:23 and Isa_1:2. Let us consider the truth and some applications of it.
I. THE TRUTH ITSELF (see p. 365).
It is that the Lord’s power was and is unlimited, and therefore equal to anything it becomes Him to do or which He has undertaken to do.
In creation, providence, and redemption, the Divine power has been displayed, &c.
Omnipotence, then, is an attribute of the Divine nature. We probably regard this as a settled point. But the river of our faith does not exhibit an uninterrupted flow. It encounters obstacles at many points. It sometimes suffers loss. When a new difficulty occurs we debate the whole question. Notwithstanding our clear perception of the greatness of God’s power, the temptation is to measure it by our own. We catch the infection of the world’s atmosphere. We are told that if science declares a thing impossible, and revelation declares it possible, science must win the victory. We lack the courage to reply that science is only the human knowledge of the day, which is continually undergoing change. The wonders of the past were pronounced impossible by the science of the past. And as the divine science of the past has shown itself in advance of the human, it will show its superiority in the future. God is unchangeable. Human power, after being used a given time, becomes feeble, and eventually incapable of exertion. There is no cause of decay or diminution in God. He can neither increase nor diminish; because He is infinite and immutable. Let us mention—
II. SOME OF ITS APPLICATIONS (see pp. 365, 366):—
1. It should be applied to our temporal anxieties. Moses and the children of Israel (Numbers 11). The disciples and the five thousand people. How frequently in the experience of believers has there been some pressing difficulty, from which extrication seemed impossible, and their customary faith staggered under its weight, when an unexpected way was made by some new turn of affairs, and the difficulty disappeared. It may have happened to some of you. God seemed to ask an answer to the question: “Is my hand shortened?”
2. It should be applied to spiritual difficulties. Many things clearly revealed in the Gospel as things that may happen. We do not see how they can. Falling into the snare of the devil we measure the Divine power by our own. “How can these things be?” &c. Do some of you say the difficulty in the way of your salvation is insuperable because of your extreme sinfulness and hardness? You are measuring the Lord by yourself. You are putting a limit to the power of His Spirit and the efficacy of the Saviour’s blood.
3. It should be applied to the world’s conversion. You look abroad on the world with something like the prophet’s hopeless scepticism. Can these bones live? It is beyond you. But it is not beyond Him.
4. It should be applied to our intellectual doubts. There are many questions in respect to which we are driven upon the simplest trust in the Divine character. Take only the resurrection from the dead. The apostle throws the whole question back on the Divine power by the analogy of the sowing and the reaping, which to man is impossible and inexplicable (1Co_15:36; 1Co_15:38).
The grand lesson from this subject is the cheerful acceptance of our Divinely appointed lot. Cease to measure Him by ourselves. Simply trust.—J. Rawlinson.
Isaiah condemns the sins of ancient Israel, and justifies the judgments of God. Observe—
I. WHAT SIN HAS DONE.
1. Mark its tendency to separate the soul from God. It estranged man from God at the very beginning. It does the same still, and if unforgiven will separate from Him to all eternity.
2. It has obscured and withdrawn from us the tokens of His favour.
3. It fearfully indisposes you to return: you refuse His overtures, &c.
II. WHAT GRACE CAN DO.
1. There is no deficiency in God’s power to save. We are prone to limit the Holy One of Israel. Satan, who labours to diminish the evil of sin before its commission, equally loves to aggravate and enhance the difficulties of reconciliation. All obstacles to the sinner’s restoration removed by Christ.
2. There is an infinite willingness in the heart of God to rescue and to save (Isa_55:6-9), &c. God has shown His mercy to the chief of sinners. Heaven itself is a colony of saved souls. Christ describes Himself as more deeply wounded by the rejection of His mercy than He was by the agonies of the cross.
III. THE VAST IMPORTANCE OF SEEKING MERCY—mercy to pardon sin, and grace to subdue it.
1. Seek Him in the full faith of His unbounded grace.
2. Labour to acquire a just sense and apprehension of the magnitude and aggravation of your rebellion. You cannot be united to Christ unless you be divorced from sin.
3. Own and accept Christ in all His relations and offices.
4. Be diligent and earnest in prayer.
5. Honour the work of the Spirit.
6. Keep Heaven and Eternity full in view.—Samuel Thodey.
I. A lamentable state—separation from God. Loss of His favour. No access to Him. II. The cause of it. Much of all knowledge lies in the knowledge of causes.
1. Not in God—He is able and willing to save.
2. But in ourselves—our sins.—Archbishop Leighton: Works (1868 edition), pp. 428–432.
Man’s miseries—I. May not be charged upon God. He is able to save. Willing to save. II. Must be referred to man’s wickedness. Actual—in thought, word, deed; negligent; infatuated.—Dr. Lyth.
SIN SEPARATING FROM GOD
Isa_59:2. But your iniquities have separated, &c.
Present separation supposes previous union and capacity for it. Man is capable of communion with God. God is capable of communion with man. There was a time when they were in full communion—when man was pure. When he fell he lost, not the capacity, but the privilege. How great a loss it was! Why are these two, so fitted to each other, one of them absolutely needing the other, separated? Sin has effected the separation. It produced it at first It is the only hindrance in the way of friendly intercourse. This is the doctrine of our text.
I. Sin unfits man for communion with God
Unrepented, unforsaken, unforgiven sin. Such sin is utterly contrary to God’s holy nature. If you have been at any time guilty of sin which you are unwilling to renounce, you have felt that intercourse between God and you was incongruous and presumptuous. Do we not all know this by experience?
II. Sin disinclines man for communion with God
It is “enmity against God.” He who wrongs another will avoid his society if he thinks the wrong is known. The presence of the victim is a rebuke to his conscience and an excitement of his fears. The passage to dislike and hatred will probably not be slow. Is not this the course of the human heart in relation to God? Why do the great majority of men around us seem to live without any conscious thought of God, &c.? He is avoided because there is a deep consciousness of sin. God, instead of being the object of supreme love, has become, through man’s conduct toward Him, the object of fear. Examine your own experience. Does a life of willing sin incline you to pray?
III. Sin excludes man from communion with God
It is possible not only for us to separate ourselves from God, but for Him to separate Himself from us. It is conceivable that a man, while unwilling to forsake his sin, might desire the advantage of intercourse with God in prayer and religious services. Many have imagined that by these they would compensate the Divine Being for sin. This notion seems to have been entertained in the time of Isaiah. The religious services and the flagrant iniquities of the Jewish people are described together. God declines to accept the services because of the iniquities (ch. 58, 59.). No multitude of prayers or religious observances can be set against the holiness of heart and life which are required in those that come into any association with God. The spotless holiness of His nature forbids. Thus then the case stands.
CONCLUSION.—What, then, have God and man cut each other off from all possibility of happy intercourse, &c.? We owe it to God’s mercy that the breach can be repaired. A qualified Mediator has appeared, &c., has bridged over the distance sin had made between God and man. Repenting of your sins, casting yourselves at the footstool of mercy through the cross, friendship is restored. He becomes accessible. The call is addressed to every sinner. His Spirit will be given to help.
This subject teaches the great evil and danger of sin as the separater.—J. Rawlinson.
Isa_59:3-4. A sad picture of depravity. I. In the bauds and fingers. II. The lips and tongue. III. Desires and motives. IV. Heart and imagination. V. Life and conduct.
Isa_59:4. I. Actions proceed from thoughts. II. Correspond to the thoughts which produce them. III. Hence, when mischief is conceived iniquity is the produce.—J. Lyth, D.D.
Isa_59:5-6. I. The devices of the wicked. Like eggs—productive. Like cockatrices’ eggs—injurious, (α.) Like spiders’ webs—frail, useless. (β.) II. Their effect. Upon others—mischief, death. Upon themselves—disappointment, retribution.—Dr. Lyth.
See the spider’s web, behold in it a most suggestive picture of the hypocrite’s religion.
1. It is meant to catch his prey; the spider fattens himself on flies, and the Pharisee has his reward. Foolish persons are easily entrapped by the loud professions of pretenders, and even the more judicious cannot always escape. Philip baptized Simon Magus, whose guileful declaration of faith was so soon exploded by the stern rebuke of Peter. Custom, reputation, praise, advancement, and other flies, are the small game which hypocrites take in their nets.
2. A spider’s web is a marvel of skill; look at it and admire the cunning hunter’s wiles. Is not a deceiver’s religion equally wonderful. How does he make so barefaced a lie appear to be a truth? How can he make his tinsel answer so well the purpose of gold?
3. A spider’s web comes all from the creature’s own bowels. The bee gathers her wax from flowers; the spider sucks no flowers, and yet she spins out her material to any length. Even so hypocrites find their hope and trust within themselves; their anchor was forged on their own anvil, and their cable twisted by their own hands. They lay their own foundation, and hew out the pillars of their own house, disdaining to be debtors to the sovereign grace of God.
4. But a spider’s web is very frail. It is curiously wrought, but not enduringly manufactured. It is no match for the servant’s broom, or the traveller’s staff. The hypocrite needs no battery of Armstrongs to blow his hopes to pieces, a mere puff of wind will do it. Hypocritical cobwebs will soon come down when the broom of destruction begins its purifying work.
5. Which reminds us of one more thought, viz., that such cobwebs are not to be endured in the Lord’s house. He will see to it that they and those who spin them shall be destroyed for ever. O my soul, be thou resting on something better than a spider’s web. Be the Lord Jesus thine eternal hiding-place.—C. H. Spurgeon.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 I. The case of the Jews, to whom these…
Isa 59:1
I. The case of the Jews, to whom these words were first addressed, does not shake our confidence in God’s willingness or power to save. They have been oppressed, persecuted, trodden under foot; and, like the grass which grows thickest when trodden on, they have thriven under oppression—bearing a charmed life—the true sons of their fathers in the land of Egypt; of whom it was said, the more they were afflicted, the more they grew. Living, multiplying, flourishing, amid circumstances that by all the common laws of existence should have been fatal to their existence, they illustrate my text—proving the unchanging and unchangeable power of God as plainly as Daniel safe among hungry lions, or the bush that burned and, burning, was not consumed.
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II. Consider the truths expressed in these words. (1) God’s power to save is neither lost nor lessened. (2) The Lord’s power to hear and answer prayer is neither lost nor lessened; His ear is not heavy, that it cannot hear.
III. This truth is full of comfort and encouragement (1) to God’s people; (2) to sinners.
T. Guthrie, Speaking to the Heart, p. 38.
References: Isa 59:1, Isa 59:2.—Bishop Walsham How, Plain Words, 2nd series, p. 57. Isa 59:2.—J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 4th series, p. 6; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 66. Isa 59:5.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 221. Isa 59:9.—Ibid., Sermons, vol. xv., No. 884. Isa 59:15, Isa 59:16.—R. Tuck, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 344. Isa 59:17.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 832. Isa 59:19.—Ibid., vol. xii., No. 718.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v6 Isa 59:6. - Rev 3:18.
Isaiah
FLIMSY GARMENTS
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Isa 59:6. - Rev 3:18.
The force of these words of the prophet is very obvious. He has been pouring out swift, indignant denunciation on the evil-doers in Israel; and, says he, ‘they hatch cockatrice’s eggs and spin spiders’ webs,’ pointing, as I suppose, to the patient perseverance, worthy of a better cause, which bad men will exercise in working out their plans. Then with a flash of bitter irony, led on by his imagination to say more than he had meant, he adds this scathing parenthesis, as if he said, ‘Yes, they spin spiders’ webs, elaborate toil and creeping contrivance, and what comes of it all! The flimsy foul thing is swept away by God’s besom sooner or later. A web indeed! but they will never make a garment out of it. It looks like cloth, but it is useless.’ That is the old lesson that all sin is profitless and comes to nothing.
I venture to connect with that strongly figurative declaration of the essential futility of godless living, our second text, in which Jesus uses a similar figure to express one aspect of His gifts to the believing soul. He is ready to clothe it, so that ‘being clothed, it will not be found naked.’
I. Sin clothes no man even here.
Notice in passing what a hint there is of the toil and trouble that men are so willing to take in a wrong course. Hatching and spinning both suggest protracted, sedulous labour. And then the issue of it all is- nothing.
Take the plainest illustrations of this truth first-the breach of common laws of morality, the indulgence, for instance, in dissipation. A man gets a certain coarse delight out of it, but what does he get besides? A weakened body, a tyrannous craving, ruined prospects, oftenest poverty and shame, the loss of self-respect and love; of moral excellences, of tastes for what is better. He is not a beast, and he cannot live for pure animalism without injuring himself.
Then take actual breaches of human laws. How seldom these ‘pay,’ even in the lowest sense. Thieves are always poor. The same experience of futility dogs all coarse and palpable breaches of morality. It is always true that ‘He that breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him.’
The reasons are not far to seek. This is, on the whole, God’s world, a world of retribution. Things are, on the whole, on the side of goodness. God is in the world, and that is an element not to be left out in the calculation. Society is on the side of goodness to a large extent. The constitution of a man’s own soul, which God made, works in the same direction. Young men who are trembling on the verge of youthful yieldings to passion, are tempted to fancy that they can sow sin and not reap suffering or harm. Would that they settled it in their thoughts that he who fires a fuse must expect an explosion!
But the same rule applies to every godless form of life. Take our Manchester temptation, money or success in business. Take ambition. Take culture, literary fame. Take love and friendship. What do they all come to, if godless? I do not point to the many failures, but suppose success: would that make you a happy man? If you won what you wanted, would it be enough? What ‘garments’ for your conscience, for your sense of sin, for your infinite longings would success in any godless course provide? You would have what you wanted, and what would it bring with it? Cares and troubles and swift satiety, and not seldom incapacity to enjoy what you had won with so much toil. If you gained the prize, you would find clinging to it something that you did not bargain for, and that took most of the dazzle away from it.
II. The rags are all stripped off some day.
Death is a becoming naked as to the body, and as to all the occupations that terminate with bodily life. It necessarily involves the loss of possessions, the cessation of activities, the stripping off of self-deceptions, and exposure to the gaze of the Judge, without defence. The godless soul will ‘be found naked’ and ashamed. All ‘works of darkness,’ laden with rich blossom or juicy fruit though they have seemed to be, will then be seen to be in tragic truth ‘fruitless.’ A life’s spinning and weaving, and not a rag to cover the toiler after all! Is that ‘productive labour’?
III. Christ will clothe you.
‘White raiment.’ Pure character. Covering before the Judge. Festal robe of Victory.
‘Buy’-how? By giving up self.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 1, 2. An answer to the implied objection that…
1, 2. An answer to the implied objection that the promises of restoration have not yet been fulfilled.
3. Cp. 1:15.4. RV 'None sueth in righteousness.. in truth.' The allusion is to unjust prosecutions.
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5. Cockatrice]
RM 'adder.' He that eateth, etc.] i.e. the man who falls in with their plans is ruined thereby, and he who opposes them is confronted with a still greater danger.
6. Their schemes cannot even benefit themselves.
9. The prophet and the people confess their sins. Light] i.e. deliverance.
10. Grope.. wall] seeking guidance: cp. Deu_28:29. We are .. dead men] RV 'among them that are lusty we are as dead men.'
11. Mourn] i.e. moan (Isa_38:14).
12. With us] i.e. present in our thoughts.
14. The street] the open space in the city where business is done, and cases are brought before the judges.
15. Injustice arouses God's indignation.
Faileth] RV 'is lacking.' Judgment] justice.
16f. Cp. Isa_63:5.;
17. The attributes of Jehovah, which come out clearly in His interposition, are figured as His armour. St. Paul's imagery (Eph_6:14.) is based on this passage.
18. Islands] put for distant lands generally. The judgment affects the world at large as well as Israel.
19. When.. against him] RV 'for he shall come as a rushing stream, which the breath of the Lord' (i.e. a strong wind) 'driveth.'
20. Redeemer] i.e. Jehovah, who is so called elsewhere: cp. Isa_41:14; Isa_43:1. This was fulfilled at Christ's first coming, when He was accepted by the faithful few in Israel. But St. Paul (Rom_11:26) applies the promise to the time when Israel, which did not accept the gospel, shall be restored again to God's Church, so that its final fulfilment is yet in the future. Zion] i.e. the faithful remnant of the nation, as the next clause explains.
21. My spirit, etc.] The faithful remnant is to be the inspired organ of Jehovah's revelation.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v4 (See Scofield "Psa 2:12").
trust
(See Scofield "Psa 2:12").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Apostasy and Confession, Jehovah’s Intervention and the Coming of…
CHAPTER 59
Apostasy and Confession, Jehovah’s Intervention and the Coming of the Redeemer
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1. The deplorable condition of the people (Isa 59:1-8) 2. The confession (Isa 59:9-15) 3. Jehovah’s intervention (Isa 59:16-19) 4. The coming of the Redeemer (Isa 59:20-21) The corruption of the people during the end time is first described. But grace is at work and a part of the people confess their sins. They confess that they are in darkness, that they are blind, that they stumble and are like dead men. They confess that salvation is far from them. They confess their lying, their departure from God and their revolt. It is their future repentance. Then Jehovah sees and intervenes. He answers the confession in person. He comes to repay the adversaries. He comes in mighty judgment power. As a result they will fear His name. The Redeemer then comes to Zion and appears for the salvation of them that turn from transgression. Compare this with Rom 11:25-32.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 9 Iniquities Separate from God
Iniquities Separate from God
v. 1. Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, it was not want of power on His part which delayed deliverance; neither His ear heavy that it cannot hear, it was not unwillingness on His part to hear the people’s prayer for help;
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v. 2. but your iniquities, the sins by which they loaded guilt upon themselves, have separated between you and your God, erecting a barrier which made it impossible for the Lord to come to their aid, and your sins have hid His face from you that He will not hear, that His wrath over their disobedience will keep Him from granting their request.
v. 3. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity, on account of the oppression practiced against their own neighbors, against the people of their own nation; your lips have spoken lies, in giving voice to the falseness and wickedness of their hearts, your tongue hath muttered perverseness, the intention to commit knavery appearing in their very mumbling, in their whispered comments.
v. 4. None calleth for justice, praying to the Lord in truth and righteousness, nor any pleadeth for truth, literally, "in faithfulness," in reliance upon the sound condition of heart and mind, that is, there is none who is sincere in faith and life; they trust in vanity, in a perfection of self which they imagine, and speak lies, believing that they can impress the Lord and hide their hypocrisy before Him; they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity, the evil plans which they have laid serving to bring about their own destruction.
v. 5. They hatch cockatrice’s eggs, those of the basilisk serpent, whose venom was deadly, and weave the spider’s web, to entrap their victims; he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed, namely, any one of these poisonous eggs, breaketh out into a viper, splitting open to emit the venomous reptile.
v. 6. Their webs shall not become garments, they cannot be woven like the threads of the silk-worm, neither shall they cover themselves with their works, with the fabrications of their wickedness; their works are works of iniquity, bringing destruction wherever they are found, and the act of violence is in their hands, that is what their hands are engaged in, what they love to perform.
v. 7. Their feet, as instruments of sin, run to evil, to deeds which result in mischief, and they make haste to shed innocent blood, the crime of murder being the chief wickedness in which they delight; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, seeking evil as their object, making it their purpose; wasting and destruction are in their paths, as the result of their wicked counsel.
v. 8. The way of peace they know not, they have no idea of what really pertains to their peace, and there is no judgment in their goings, they can expect no sentence granting them deliverance and salvation on the part of God; they have made them crooked paths, so that they are bound to lead to destruction, whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace, shall not enjoy the salvation which will be given to the faithful believers. St. Paul uses this section to describe the unbelievers in general, and the description fits the great mass of people to this day. Rom 3:14-18.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14 "Behold!" or "You should know!" Yahweh tells the people…
Look
"Behold!" or "You should know!" Yahweh tells the people to pay attention.
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Yahweh's hand is not so short
"Hand" represents power and ability. A "short" hand does not have power and ability. AT: "Yahweh is fully able" (See: Metonymy and Metaphor)
your ... you
These plural pronouns refer to the people of Israel as a single group. (See: Forms of You)
your sins have made him hide his face from you
"Face" represents being present and looking upon. AT: "your sins have made him turn away from you" (See: Personification)
translationWords
Yahweh
hand
save
sin
God
face
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 15 59:1-20 The Lord alone can and will usher in…
59:1-20 The Lord alone can and will usher in his salvation. Like a warrior, he will break into the world to avenge himself on his enemies and to vindicate his holy people.
59:1-8 The people complained that the Lord could not rescue them, but the real problem was that they had not repented (59:20) and were still living in sin.
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59:1 not too weak: The delay in their rescue could not be attributed to an inherent weakness in the Lord.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.