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.
Parallel Translations
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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.
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We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
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We all growl like bears, and mourn sore like doves; we look for right, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
Cross-references (12)
Passages linked to Isaiah 59:11 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 38:14 I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.”
- Ezekiel 7:16 But those of those who escape, they will escape and will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, everyone in his iniquity.
- Job 30:28-29 I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help. I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.
- Psalms 32:3-4 When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer.
- Psalms 38:8 I am faint and severely bruised. I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart.
- Psalms 85:9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.
- Psalms 119:155 Salvation is far from the wicked, for they don’t seek your statutes.
- Isaiah 51:20 Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net. They are full of Yahweh’s wrath, the rebuke of your God.
- Isaiah 59:9 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.
- Jeremiah 8:15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!
- Jeremiah 9:1 Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
- Hosea 7:14 They haven’t cried to me with their heart, but they howl on their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and new wine. They turn away from me.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain We express our sorrows by outward signs, some more,…
We express our sorrows by outward signs, some more, some less.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 59:11 We roar all like bears, and mourn…
Isa 59:11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but [there is] none; for salvation, [but] it is far off from us.
Ver. 11. We roar all like bears.] Fremimus, ac gemimus. The bear, when hurt or robbed, runs into his den and roareth; doves, when bereft of their mates, sit solitary and groan; so do we, indesinenter et intime gemimus, make pitiful moan; and that is all we can do.
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 We roar: this signifies the greatness of their anguish,…
We roar: this signifies the greatness of their anguish, that forced from them these loud outcries.
And mourn: this notes some sense of their condition, that wrought in them these sorrowful lamentations; or it may relate to the condition that both sorts of people were in under their oppressing governors. It made the wicked roar like bears, and the godly mourn like doves. It is thus expressed because these properties are peculiar to these creatures. The bear, when robbed, goes into his den and roars; the dove, when absent from her mate, sits solitary and mourns.
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For salvation, but it is far off from us: see the exposition of this last part of the verse Isa 59:9.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like…
We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves,.... Some in a more noisy and clamorous, others in a stiller way, yet all in private: for the bear, when robbed of its whelps, goes to its den and roars; and the dove, when it has lost its mate, mourns in solitude: this expresses the secret groanings of the saints under a sense of sin, and the forlorn state of religion. The Targum paraphrases it thus,
"we roar because of our enemies, who are gathered against us as bears; all of us indeed mourn sore as doves:''
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we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us; we expect that God will take vengeance on our enemies, and save us; look for judgment on antichrist, and the antichristian states, and for the salvation of the church of God; for the vials of divine wrath on the one, and for happy times to the other; but neither of them as yet come; the reason of which is as follows.
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 Mourn - Their oppressing governors made the wicked roar…
Mourn - Their oppressing governors made the wicked roar like bears, and the good mourn like doves.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 11. But it is far off from us…
Verse 11. But it is far off from us - "And it is far distant from us."] The conjunction ו vau must necessarily be prefixed to the verb, as the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate found it in their copies; ורחקה verachakah, "and far off."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain We roar all like bears - This is designed…
We roar all like bears - This is designed still further to describe the heavy judgments which had come upon them for their sins. The word rendered here ‘roar’ (from המה hâmâh, like English, to hum, German, hummen, spoken of bees), is applied to any murmuring, or confused noise or sound. It sometimes means to snarl, as a dog Psa 59:7, Psa 59:15; to coo, as a dove Eze 7:16; it is also applied to waves that roar Psa 46:4; Isa 51:15; to a crowd or tumultuous assemblage Psa 46:7; and to music Isa 16:11; Jer 48:36. Here it is applied to the low growl or groan of a bear. Bochart (Hieroz. i. 3. 9), says, that a bear produces a melancholy sound; and Horace (Epod. xvi. 51), speaks of its low groan:
Nee vespertinus circumgemit ursus ovile.
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Here it is emblematic of mourning, and is designed to denote that they were suffering under heavy and long-continued calamity. Or, according to Gesenius (Commentary in loc.), it refers to a bear which is hungry, and which growls, impatient for food, and refers here to the complaining, dissatisfaction, and murmuring of the people, because God did not come to vindicate and relieve them.
And mourn sore like doves - The cooing of the dove, a plaintive sound, is often used to denote grief (see Eze 7:16; compare the notes at Isa 38:14).
We look for judgment ... - (See the notes at Isa 59:9.)
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 Judgment, that God would avenge us, (ver. 9.) and…
Judgment, that God would avenge us, (ver. 9.) and regard our fasts, chap. lviii. 3.
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain roar--moan plaintively, like a hungry bear which growls for…
roar--moan plaintively, like a hungry bear which growls for food.
doves-- (Isa 38:14; Eze 7:16).
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salvation--retribution in kind: because not salvation, but "destruction" was "in their paths" (Isa 59:7).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 11. We roar (better groan) all like bears] Comp.…
11. We roar (better groan) all like bears] Comp. (with Gesenius) Horace, Epod. 16. 51:
“Nec vespertinus circumgemit ursus ovile.”
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The comparison would no doubt gain in force if we could suppose, as Duhm hesitatingly suggests, that captive animals, pining for liberty, are meant. But this is not indicated.
On the “mourning” of the dove, cf. ch. Isa_38:14; Eze_7:16; Nah_2:7; and see Davidson’s Ezekiel (Cambridge Bible), p. 49.
we look for judgment, &c.] returning to the thought of Isa_59:9.
12–15a. Confession of the sins previously denounced, the prophet speaking in the name of the people.
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 (11) We roar all like bears . . .—The…
(11) We roar all like bears . . .—The comparison is not found elsewhere in Scripture, but Horace (Epp. xvi. 51) gives “circumgemit ursus ovile.” For the dove, comp. Isa_38:14; Eze_7:16.
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 We roar all like bears; rather, we growl. The…
We roar all like bears; rather, we growl. The verb is used commonly of the "roaring" of the sea; (Isa_17:12 Isa_51:15 Jer_6:23 Jer_31:4-5 Jer_50:42 Jer_51:55) but is applied also to the noise made by a dog. (Psa_59:6, Psa_59:14) Here it represents the deep murmur of discontent, which alternates with the mournful tones of Israel"s despondency the latter being compared to the melancholy cooing of the dove. (see Isa_38:14) We look for judgment, but there is none, etc. The same complaint as in ver. 9, clause 1.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Isaiah continues speaking to the people of Israel.
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We growl like bears and moan like doves
These refer to the sounds the people made because they were distressed and mourning. (See: Simile)
translationWords
dove
just
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 59:11-14 The people growl and moan with longing for…
59:11-14 The people growl and moan with longing for redemption, finally coming to terms with their sinfulness.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.