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.
Parallel Translations
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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.
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None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
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None sueth in righteousness, and none pleadeth in truth; they trust in vanity, and speak lies, they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to Isaiah 59:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Job 15:35 They conceive mischief, and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”
- Micah 7:2-5 The godly man has perished out of the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net. Their hands are on that which is evil to do it diligently. The ruler and judge ask for a bribe; and the powerful man dictates the evil desire of his soul. Thus they conspire together. The best of them is like a brier. The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, even your visitation, has come; now is the time of their confusion. Don’t trust in a neighbor. Don’t put confidence in a friend. With the woman lying in your embrace, be careful of the words of your mouth!
- James 1:15 Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown, produces death.
- Jeremiah 7:4 Don’t trust in lying words, saying, ‘Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, are these.’
- Jeremiah 7:8 Behold, you trust in lying words that can’t profit.
- Proverbs 4:16 For they don’t sleep unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall.
- Isaiah 30:12 Therefore the Holy One of Israel says, “Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on it,
- Isaiah 59:16 He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness sustained him.
- Micah 2:1 Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil on their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand.
- Psalms 7:13-14 He has also prepared for himself the instruments of death. He makes ready his flaming arrows. Behold, he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought out falsehood.
- Psalms 62:10 Don’t trust in oppression. Don’t become vain in robbery. If riches increase, don’t set your heart on them.
- Isaiah 59:3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.
- Isaiah 59:13-14 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.
- Jeremiah 5:4-5 Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know the Yahweh’s way, nor the law of their God. I will go to the great men and will speak to them, for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
- Ezekiel 22:29-31 The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery. Yes, they have troubled the poor and needy, and have oppressed the foreigner wrongfully. “I sought for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I would not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out my indignation on them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have brought their own way on their heads,” says the Lord Yahweh.
- Psalms 62:4 They fully intend to throw him down from his lofty place. They delight in lies. They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly.
- Jeremiah 5:1 “Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its wide places, if you can find a man, if there is anyone who does justly, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her.
- Job 15:31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness will be his reward.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain According to their wicked devices, they hurt their neighbors.
According to their wicked devices, they hurt their neighbors.
All men wink at the injuries and oppressions, and none go about to remedy them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 59:4 None calleth for justice, nor [any] pleadeth…
Isa 59:4 None calleth for justice, nor [any] pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
Ver. 4. None calleth for justice.] Mindeth the judges of their duty, but rather connive, collogue, partake, &c. The Chaldee hath it, ‘There is none that delivereth the poor and needy.’
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They trust in vanity.] As those did; {Jer 7:4} making a bridge of their own shadows, they fall into the brook.
They conceive mischief, &c.] This is taken out of Psa 7:14 Job 15:35; {See Trapp on "Psa 7:14"} {See Trapp on "Job 15:35"} Heb., Going great with grievance, and bringing forth vexation.
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 None calleth for justice, i.e. none seek to redress…
None calleth for justice, i.e. none seek to redress these wrongs and violences; they commit all rapines and frauds under impunity; either,
1. Because the judges are corrupt. Or,
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2. Because none will warn the judges of their duty. Or,
3. Because none seek to bring offenders to justice. Or,
4. Because none will plead a righteous cause, or plead it righteously, or countenance goodness; and this the next expression favours; and so justice suffers, which the Hebrew word mispat, being in the passive voice, seems to intimate: the sense is the same, and whereas it is said none, it is as much as to say very few, as we say few or none; the like Psa 14:3.
Quest. How could this be charged upon them, when in the time of their captivity they had no courts?
Answ. It is probable they had courts among themselves, to judge between one another, by leave of the Babylonish kings.
They trust in vanity; either,
1. Relating to their lies, which are words empty and void of all consistency; and so it is the same with the next expression,
and speak lies. Or,
2. In their idols, which are stocks and stones, and so oft called vanity and nothing, 1Co 8:4. For even in Babylon they worshipped idols, as appears by Jer 16:11,12,18. Or rather,
3. In their power, and craft, and policy, whereby, laying aside justice, they can oppress others; and so he calls it vanity by a metonymy of the adjunct, because it would prove all vain in the end, and either,
1. Frustrate their ends. Or,
2. Not justify them against God’s proceedings with them. Or,
3. Bring all into emptiness and confusion: the word is tohu, whereby the confusion and mingling of all things is expressed, before the world was brought into order and form, Gen 1:2.
Speak lies: it may refer both to the judges, and to the lawyers and false prophets, that tell them they shall not go into captivity; they speak that which they know to be false.
They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity: these two words of conceiving and bringing forth note their whole contrivance, and perfecting their wickedness; the former notes their plotting, the latter their execution of mischief; whatever is in the mind, only out of sight, warmed and formed there by cogitating and meditation, is called conception, which being ripe, and produced to view, is called a birth; intimating that the wicked sin not occasionally and accidentally, but premeditatingly and professedly; they grow big with it. The expression is allegorical, and in the two next verses compared to the cockatrice’ eggs for the wickedness of it, and to a spider’s web for the vanity of it.
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 None calleth for justice,.... Or, "righteousness"; not for civil…
None calleth for justice,.... Or, "righteousness"; not for civil justice in courts of judicature, as if there were no advocates for it there; or that put those in mind of it, to whom the administration of it belongs; or that see to put the laws against sin in execution, and to relieve those that are oppressed; though of this there may be just cause of complaint in some places: but there are none or few that call for evangelical righteousness, either that preach it, proclaim and publish it to others; even the righteousness of Christ, the grand doctrine of the Gospel, which is therein revealed from faith to faith; so the Syriac version, "there is none that preacheth righteously"; or "in", or "of righteousness" (t); and the Septuagint version, "no one speaks righteous things"; the words and doctrines of righteousness and truth: or, "no one calls for righteousness"; desires to hear this doctrine, and have it preached to him; hungers and thirsts after it; but chooses the doctrine of justification by works. The Targum refers it to prayer, paraphrasing it thus,
"there is none that prays in truth;''
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in sincerity and uprightness, in faith and with fervour; but in a cold, formal, and hypocritical way:
nor any pleadeth for truth: for the truth of the Gospel, particularly for the principal one, the justification of a sinner by the righteousness of Christ alone; few or none contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints; they are not valiant for the truth, nor stand fast in it, but drop or conceal it, or deny it: or, "none is judged by", or "according to truth" (u); by the Scriptures of truth, but by carnal reason; or by forms and rules of man's devising, and so are condemned; as Gospel ministers and professors of it are:
they trust in vanity; in nothing, as the Vulgate Latin; that is worth nothing; in their own strength, wisdom, riches, righteousness, especially the latter:
and speak lies; or "vanity"; vain things, false doctrines, as before:
they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity; they "conceive" and contrive "mischief" in their minds against those that differ in doctrine and practice from them: "and bring forth iniquity": do that which is criminal and sinful, by words and actions, by calumnies and reproaches, by violence and persecution. The Targum is,
"they hasten and bring out of their hearts words of violence.''
(t) "in justitia", Montanus, Tigurine version; "sive de justitia". (u) "nemo judicatur scundum veritatem", Munster; "non judicatur in veritate", Montanus.
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 None - None seek to redress these wrongs, and…
None - None seek to redress these wrongs, and violences; they commit all rapines, and frauds with impunity. Bring forth - These two words of conceiving, and bringing forth, denote their whole contrivance, and perfecting their wickedness.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 4. They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.]…
Verse 4. They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.] There is a curious propriety in this mode of expression; a thought or purpose is compared to conception; a word or act, which is the consequence of it, to the birth of a child. From the third to the fifteenth verse inclusive may be considered a true statement of the then moral state of the Jewish people; and that they were, in the most proper sense of the word, guilty of the iniquities with which they are charged.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Isa 59:4. None calleth for justice — None seek…
Isa 59:4. None calleth for justice — None seek to redress these wrongs and violences; they commit all rapines and frauds with impunity; they trust in vanity — In vain and empty words, void of all consistency; or, in vain things, such as their idols were, often called vanity and nothing, 1Co 8:4; or in their own power, craft, and policy, whereby, laying aside justice, they oppressed others. And speak lies — This may refer to the judges, lawyers, and false prophets, who told them they should not go into captivity; as if he had said, They speak that which they know to be false. They conceive mischief and bring forth, &c. — These two words, conceiving and bringing forth, denote the whole contriving and perfecting of their wickedness.
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 None calleth for justice - Or rather, there is…
None calleth for justice - Or rather, there is no one who brings a suit with justice; no one who goes into court for the purpose of obtaining justice. There is a love of litigation; a desire to take all the advantage which the law can give; a desire to appeal to the law, not for the sake of having strict justice done, but for the sake of doing injury to others, and to take some undue advantage.
Nor any pleadeth for truth - Or, no one pleadeth with truth. He does not state the cause as it is. He makes use of cunning and falsehood to gain his cause.
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They trust in vanity - They confide in quirks and evasions rather than in the justice of their cause.
They conceive mischief - They form plans of evil, and they execute them when they are fully ripe. Compare Job 15:35, where the same phrase occurs. The sense is, that they form plans to injure others, and that they expect to execute them by fraud and deceit.
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 Justice. They arraign unjustly. None call upon the just…
Justice. They arraign unjustly. None call upon the just God, but trust in idols. --- Iniquity. They kill themselves, while they strive to injure others, Psalm vii. 15., and Micheas ii. 1.
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 Rather, "No one calleth an adversary into court with…
Rather, "No one calleth an adversary into court with justice," that is, None bringeth a just suit: "No one pleadeth with truth."
they trust . . . iniquity--(So Job 15:35; Psa 7:14).
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 4. The first half of the verse should be…
4. The first half of the verse should be rendered as R.V.
None sueth in righteousness,
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And none pleadeth in truth.
The reference is to the abuse of legal procedure: lawsuits instituted and conducted with absolute disregard of righteousness and truth. Cf. ch. Isa_29:21.
calleth] with the sense of “summon” (in jus vocare), as in Job_9:16; Job_13:22.
pleadeth] i.e. “pleadeth a cause”, litigates; the same word as in Isa_43:26.
The rest of the verse probably continues the same subject, describing the sophistical and mischievous arguments employed by the litigants to make the worse appear the better reason, and subvert the ends of justice. The verbs are infinitives (as in Isa_59:13 and Hos_4:2) and should be translated thus:
Trusting in emptiness (lit. “chaos” as Isa_40:17) and speaking vanity!
Conceiving mischief and bringing forth evil!
The last line occurs almost verbatim in Job_15:35.
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 (4) None calleth for justice.—Better, none preferreth his suit…
(4) None calleth for justice.—Better, none preferreth his suit with truthfulness. The words point chiefly to the guilt of unrighteous prosecutions, but may include that of false witness also.
They trust in vanity.—Literally, in chaos—the characteristic tohu of both parts of Isaiah (Isa_24:10; Isa_29:21; Isa_40:17; Isa_40:23).
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 None calleth for justice; rather, none preferreth his suit…
None calleth for justice; rather, none preferreth his suit in justice (so Lowth, Gesenius, Ewald, Knobel, and Mr. Cheyne). "No one," that is, "who engaged in a suit, limited himself to just pleas and honest courses in his prosecution of it." Nor any pleadeth for truth; rather, none pleadeth in truthfulness. They trust in vanity; literally, in chaos; i.e. "in a mass of false and vain statements." The whole basis of the dealings between man and man was unsound, corrupt, chaotic. Where truth and plain dealing are set aside, all shortly becomes ruin and confusion. They conceive mischief, etc. (comp. Psa_7:14)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain (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.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 59:4 being fair and honest: Israel did not practice…
59:4 being fair and honest: Israel did not practice these qualities that are part of God’s nature and that he expects from people (1:21; see 25:1).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.