12 For our evil doings are increased before you, and our sins give witness against us: for our evil doings are with us, and we have knowledge of our sins:
I said, O my God, shame keeps me from lifting up my face to you, my God: for our sins are increased higher than our heads and our evil-doing has come up to heaven.
And the pride of Israel gives an answer to his face; and Ephraim will have a fall through his sins, and the fall of Judah will be the same as theirs.
And you, son of man, will you be a judge, will you be a judge of the town of blood? then make clear to her all her disgusting ways. And you are to say, This is what the Lord has said: A town causing blood to be drained out in her streets so that her time may come, and making images in her to make her unclean! You are responsible for the blood drained out by you, and you are unclean through the images which you have made; and you have made your day come near, and the time of your judging has come; for this cause I have made you a name of shame to the nations and a cause of laughing to all countries. Those who are near and those who are far from you will make sport of you; your name is unclean, you are full of sounds of fear. See, the rulers of Israel, every one in his family, have been causing death in you. In you they have had no respect for father and mother; in you they have been cruel to the man from a strange land; in you they have done wrong to the child without a father and to the widow. You have made little of my holy things, and have made my Sabbaths unclean. In you there are men who say evil of others, causing death; in you they have taken the flesh with the blood for food; in your streets they have put evil designs into effect. In you they have let the shame of their fathers be seen; in you they have done wrong to a woman at the time when she was unclean. And in you one man has done what was disgusting with his neighbour's wife; and another has made his daughter-in-law unclean; and another has done wrong to his sister, his father's daughter. In you they have taken rewards as the price of blood; you have taken interest and great profits, and you have taken away your neighbours' goods by force, and have not kept me in mind, says the Lord.
Who put to death the Lord Jesus and the prophets, violently driving us out; who are unpleasing to God and against all men; Who, to make the measure of their sins complete, kept us from giving the word of salvation to the Gentiles: but the wrath of God is about to come on them in the fullest degree.
Now, we have knowledge that what the law says is for those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and all men may be judged by God: Because by the works of the law no man is able to have righteousness in his eyes, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
Make full, then, the measure of your fathers. You snakes, offspring of snakes, how will you be kept from the punishment of hell?
And the pride of Israel gives an answer to his face; but for all this, they have not gone back to the Lord their God, or made search for him.
We are sinners, acting wrongly and doing evil; we have gone against you, turning away from your orders and from your laws: We have not given ear to your servants the prophets, who said words in your name to our kings and our rulers and our fathers and all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness is yours, but shame is on us, even to this day; and on the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, and on all Israel, those who are near and those who are far off, in all the countries where you have sent them because of the sin which they have done against you. O Lord, shame is on us, on our kings and our rulers and our fathers, because of our sin against you.
For this is what the Lord has said: A curse is on the town of blood, the cooking-pot which is unclean inside, which has never been made clean! take out its bits; its fate is still to come on it. For her blood is in her; she has put it on the open rock not draining it on to the earth so that it might be covered with dust; In order that it might make wrath come up to give punishment, she has put her blood on the open rock, so that it may not be covered. For this cause the Lord has said: A curse is on the town of blood! and I will make great the burning mass. Put on much wood, heating up the fire, boiling the flesh well, and making the soup thick, and let the bones be burned. And I will put her on the coals so that she may be heated and her brass burned, so that what is unclean in her may become soft and her waste be completely taken away. I have made myself tired to no purpose: still all the waste which is in her has not come out, it has an evil smell. As for your unclean purpose: because I have been attempting to make you clean, but you have not been made clean from it, you will not be made clean till I have let loose my passion on you in full measure. I the Lord have said the word and I will do it; I will not go back or have mercy, and my purpose will not be changed; in the measure of your ways and of your evil doings you will be judged, says the Lord.
Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother: They were acting like loose women in Egypt; when they were young their behaviour was loose: there their breasts were crushed, even the points of their young breasts were crushed. Their names were Oholah, the older, and Oholibah, her sister: and they became mine, and gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem, Oholibah. And Oholah was untrue to me when she was mine; she was full of desire for her lovers, even for the Assyrians, her neighbours, Who were clothed in blue, captains and rulers, all of them young men to be desired, horsemen seated on horses. And she gave her unclean love to them, all of them the noblest men of Assyria: and she made herself unclean with the images of all who were desired by her. And she has not given up her loose ways from the time when she was in Egypt; for when she was young they were her lovers, and by them her young breasts were crushed, and they let loose on her their unclean desire. For this cause I gave her up into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians on whom her desire was fixed. By these her shame was uncovered: they took her sons and daughters and put her to death with the sword: and she became a cause of wonder to women; for they gave her the punishment which was right. And her sister Oholibah saw this, but her desire was even more unmeasured, and her loose behaviour was worse than that of her sister. She was full of desire for the Assyrians, captains and rulers, her neighbours, clothed in blue, horsemen going on horses, all of them young men to be desired. And I saw that she had become unclean; the two of them went the same way. And her loose behaviour became worse; for she saw men pictured on a wall, pictures of the Chaldaeans painted in bright red, With bands round their bodies and with head-dresses hanging round their heads, all of them looking like rulers, like the Babylonians, the land of whose birth is Chaldaea. And when she saw them she was full of desire for them, and sent servants to them in Chaldaea. And the Babylonians came to her, into the bed of love, and made her unclean with their loose desire, and she became unclean with them, and her soul was turned from them. So her loose behaviour was clearly seen and her shame uncovered: then my soul was turned from her as it had been turned from her sister. But still she went on the more with her loose behaviour, keeping in mind the early days when she had been a loose woman in the land of Egypt. And she was full of desire for her lovers, whose flesh is like the flesh of asses and whose seed is like the seed of horses. And she made the memory of the loose ways of her early years come back to mind, when her young breasts were crushed by the Egyptians. For this cause, O Oholibah, this is what the Lord has said: See, I will make your lovers come up against you, even those from whom your soul is turned away in disgust; and I will make them come up against you on every side; The Babylonians and all the Chaldaeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: young men to be desired, captains and rulers all of them, and chiefs, her neighbours, all of them on horseback. And they will come against you from the north on horseback, with war-carriages and a great band of peoples; they will put themselves in order against you with breastplate and body-cover and metal head-dress round about you: and I will make them your judges, and they will give their decision against you as seems right to them. And my bitter feeling will be working against you, and they will take you in hand with passion; they will take away your nose and your ears, and the rest of you will be put to the sword: they will take your sons and daughters, and the rest of you will be burned up in the fire. And they will take all your clothing off you and take away your ornaments. So I will put an end to your evil ways and your loose behaviour which came from the land of Egypt: and your eyes will never be lifted up to them again, and you will have no more memory of Egypt. For this is what the Lord has said: See, I will give you up into the hands of those who are hated by you, into the hands of those from whom your soul is turned away in disgust: And they will take you in hand with hate, and take away all the fruit of your work, and let you be unveiled and without clothing: and the shame of your loose behaviour will be uncovered, your evil designs and your loose ways. They will do these things to you because you have been untrue to me, and have gone after the nations, and have become unclean with their images. You have gone in the way of your sister; and I will give her cup into your hand. This is what the Lord has said: You will take a drink from your sister's cup, which is deep and wide: you will be laughed at and looked down on, more than you are able to undergo. You will be broken and full of sorrow, with the cup of wonder and destruction, with the cup of your sister Samaria. And after drinking it and draining it out, you will take the last drops of it to the end, pulling off your breasts: for I have said it, says the Lord. So this is what the Lord has said: Because you have not kept me in your memory, and because your back has been turned to me, you will even undergo the punishment of your evil designs and your loose ways. Then the Lord said to me: Son of man, will you be the judge of Oholibah? then make clear to her the disgusting things she has done. For she has been false to me, and blood is on her hands, and with her images she has been untrue; and more than this, she made her sons, whom she had by me, go through the fire to them to be burned up. Further, this is what she has done to me: she has made my holy place unclean and has made my Sabbaths unclean. For when she had made an offering of her children to her images, she came into my holy place to make it unclean; see, this is what she has done inside my house. And she even sent for men to come from far away, to whom a servant was sent, and they came: for whom she was washing her body and painting her eyes and making herself fair with ornaments. And she took her seat on a great bed, with a table put ready before it on which she put my perfume and my oil. ... and they put jewels on her hands and beautiful crowns on her head. Then I said ... now she will go on with her loose ways. And they went in to her, as men go to a loose woman: so they went in to Oholibah, the loose woman. And upright men will be her judges, judging her as false wives and women who take lives are judged; because she has been untrue to me and blood is on her hands. For this is what the Lord has said: I will make a great meeting of the people come together against her, and will send on her shaking fear and take everything from her. And the meeting, after stoning her with stones, will put an end to her with their swords; they will put her sons and daughters to death and have her house burned up with fire. And I will put an end to evil in all the land, teaching all women not to do as you have done. And I will send on you the punishment of your evil ways, and you will be rewarded for your sins with your images: and you will be certain that I am the Lord.
Son of man, say to her, You are a land on which no rain or thunderstorm has come in the day of wrath. Her rulers in her are like a loud-voiced lion violently taking his food; they have made a meal of souls; they have taken wealth and valued property; they have made great the number of widows in her. Her priests have been acting violently against my law; they have made my holy things unclean: they have made no division between what is holy and what is common, and they have not made it clear that the unclean is different from the clean, and their eyes have been shut to my Sabbaths, and I am not honoured among them. Her rulers in her are like wolves violently taking their food; putting men to death and causing the destruction of souls, so that they may get their profit. And her prophets have been using whitewash, seeing foolish visions and making false use of secret arts, saying, This is what the Lord has said, when the Lord has said nothing. The people of the land have been acting cruelly, taking men's goods by force; they have been hard on the poor and those in need, and have done wrong to the man from a strange land. And I was looking for a man among them who would make up the wall and take his station in the broken place before me for the land, so that I might not send destruction on it: but there was no one.
And after everything which has come on us because of our evil-doing and our great sin, and seeing that the punishment which you, O God, have given us, is less than the measure of our sins, and that you have kept from death those of us who are here;
And Samaria has not done half your sins; but you have made the number of your disgusting acts greater than theirs, making your sisters seem more upright than you by all the disgusting things which you have done. And you yourself will be put to shame, in that you have given the decision for your sisters; through your sins, which are more disgusting than theirs, they are more upright than you: truly, you will be shamed and made low, for you have made your sisters seem upright.
And he said to me, Son of man, make a hole in the wall: and after making a hole in the wall I saw a door. And he said to me, Go in and see the evil and disgusting things which they are doing here. So I went in and saw; and there every sort of living thing which goes flat on the earth, and unclean beasts, and all the images of the children of Israel, were pictured round about on the wall. And before them seventy of the responsible men of the children of Israel had taken their places, every man with a vessel for burning perfumes in his hand, and in the middle of them was Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan; and a cloud of smoke went up from the burning perfume. And he said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the responsible men of the children of Israel do in the dark, every man in his room of pictured images? for they say, The Lord does not see us; the Lord has gone away from the land. Then he said to me, You will see even more disgusting things which they do. Then he took me to the door of the way into the Lord's house looking to the north; and there women were seated weeping for Tammuz. Then he said to me, Have you seen this, O son of man? you will see even more disgusting things than these. And he took me into the inner square of the Lord's house, and at the door of the Temple of the Lord, between the covered way and the altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs turned to the Temple of the Lord and their faces turned to the east; and they were worshipping the sun, turning to the east.
Make the chain: for the land is full of crimes of blood, and the town is full of violent acts.
See, you put your faith in false words which are of no profit. Will you take the goods of others, put men to death, and be untrue to your wives, and take false oaths, and have perfumes burned to the Baal, and go after other gods which are strange to you; And come and take your place before me in this house, which is named by my name, and say, We have been made safe; so that you may do all these disgusting things?
Through your evil-doing these things have been turned away, and your sins have kept back good from you. For there are sinners among my people: they keep watch, like men watching for birds; they put a net and take men in it. As the fowl-house is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: for this reason they have become great and have got wealth. They have become fat and strong: they have gone far in works of evil: they give no support to the cause of the child without a father, so that they may do well; they do not see that the poor man gets his rights. Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?
O Lord, do not your eyes see good faith? you have given them punishment, but they were not troubled; you have sent destruction on them, but they did not take your teaching to heart: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they would not come back. Then I said, But these are the poor: they are foolish, for they have no knowledge of the way of the Lord or of the behaviour desired by their God. I will go to the great men and have talk with them; for they have knowledge of the way of the Lord and of the behaviour desired by their God. But as for these, their one purpose is a broken yoke and burst bands. And so a lion from the woods will put them to death, a wolf of the waste land will make them waste, a leopard will keep watch on their towns, and everyone who goes out from them will be food for the beasts; because of the great number of their sins and the increase of their wrongdoing. How is it possible for you to have my forgiveness for this? your children have given me up, taking their oaths by those who are no gods: when I had given them food in full measure, they were false to their wives, taking their pleasure in the houses of loose women. They were full of desire, like horses after a meal of grain: everyone went after his neighbour's wife. Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?
Let your eyes be lifted up to the open hilltops, and see; where have you not been taken by your lovers? You have been seated waiting for them by the wayside like an Arabian in the waste land; you have made the land unclean with your loose ways and your evil-doing.
Their respect for a man's position is a witness against them; and their sin is open to the view of all; like that of Sodom, it is not covered. A curse on their soul! for the measure of their sin is full.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Isaiah 59
Commentary on Isaiah 59 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 59
Isa 59:1-21. The People's Sin the Cause of Judgments: They at Last Own It Themselves: the Redeemer's Future Interposition in Their Extremity.
The reason why Jehovah does not deliver His people, notwithstanding their religious services (Isa 58:3), is not want of power on His part, but because of their sins (Isa 59:1-8); Isa 59:9-15 contain their confession; Isa 59:16-21, the consequent promise of the Messiah.
1. hand … shortened—(See on Isa 50:2).
ear heavy—(Isa 6:10).
2. hid—Hebrew, "caused Him to hide" (La 3:44).
3. (Isa 1:15; Ro 3:13-15).
hands … fingers—Not merely the "hands" perpetrate deeds of grosser enormity ("blood"), but the "fingers" commit more minute acts of "iniquity."
lips … tongue—The lips "speak" openly "lies," the tongue "mutters" malicious insinuations ("perverseness"; perverse misrepresentations of others) (Jer 6:28; 9:4).
4. 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; Ps 7:14).
5. cockatrice—probably the basilisk serpent, cerastes. Instead of crushing evil in the egg, they foster it.
spider's web—This refers not to the spider's web being made to entrap, but to its thinness, as contrasted with substantial "garments," as Isa 59:6 shows. Their works are vain and transitory (Job 8:14; Pr 11:18).
eateth … their eggs—he who partakes in their plans, or has anything to do with them, finds them pestiferous.
that which is crushed—The egg, when it is broken, breaketh out as a viper; their plans, however specious in their undeveloped form like the egg, when developed, are found pernicious. Though the viper is viviparous (from which "vi-per" is derived), yet during gestation, the young are included in eggs, which break at the birth [Bochart]; however, metaphors often combine things without representing everything to the life.
6. not … garments—like the "fig leaves" wherewith Adam and Eve vainly tried to cover their shame, as contrasted with "the coats of skins" which the Lord God made to clothe them with (Isa 64:6; Ro 13:14; Ga 3:27; Php 3:9). The artificial self-deceiving sophisms of human philosophy (1Ti 6:5; 2Ti 2:16, 23).
7. feet—All their members are active in evil; in Isa 59:3, the "hands, fingers, lips, and tongue," are specified.
run … haste—(Ro 3:15). Contrast David's "running and hasting" in the ways of God (Ps 119:32, 60).
thoughts—not merely their acts, but their whole thoughts.
8. peace—whether in relation to God, to their own conscience, or to their fellow men (Isa 57:20, 21).
judgment—justice.
crooked—the opposite of "straightforward" (Pr 2:15; 28:18).
9. judgment far—retribution in kind because they had shown "no judgment in their goings" (Isa 59:8). "The vindication of our just rights by God is withheld by Him from us."
us—In Isa 59:8 and previous verses, it was "they," the third person; here, "us … we," the first person. The nation here speaks: God thus making them out of their own mouth condemn themselves; just as He by His prophet had condemned them before. Isaiah includes himself with his people and speaks in their name.
justice—God's justice bringing salvation (Isa 46:13).
light—the dawn of returning prosperity.
obscurity—adversity (Jer 8:15).
10. grope—fulfilling Moses' threat (De 28:29).
stumble at noon … as … night—There is no relaxation of our evils; at the time when we might look for the noon of relief, there is still the night of our calamity.
in desolate places—rather, to suit the parallel words "at noonday," in fertile (literally, "fat"; Ge 27:28) fields [Gesenius] (where all is promising) we are like the dead (who have no hope left them); or, where others are prosperous, we wander about as dead men; true of all unbelievers (Isa 26:10; Lu 15:17).
11. roar—moan plaintively, like a hungry bear which growls for food.
doves—(Isa 38:14; Eze 7:16).
salvation—retribution in kind: because not salvation, but "destruction" was "in their paths" (Isa 59:7).
12. (Da 9:5, &c.).
thee … us—antithesis.
with us—that is, we are conscious of them (Job 12:3, Margin; Job 15:9).
know—acknowledge they are our iniquities.
13. The particulars of the sins generally confessed in Isa 59:12 (Isa 48:8; Jer 2:19, 20). The act, the word, and the thought of apostasy, are all here marked: transgression and departing, &c.; lying (compare Isa 59:4), and speaking, &c.; conceiving and uttering from the heart.
14. Justice and righteousness are put away from our legal courts.
in the street—in the forum, the place of judicature, usually at the gate of the city (Zec 8:16).
cannot enter—is shut out from the forum, or courts of justice.
15. faileth—is not to be found.
he that departeth … prey—He that will not fall in with the prevailing iniquity exposes himself as a prey to the wicked (Ps 10:8, 9).
Lord saw it—The iniquity of Israel, so desperate as to require nothing short of Jehovah's interposition to mend it, typifies the same necessity for a Divine Mediator existing in the deep corruption of man; Israel, the model nation, was chosen to illustrate his awful fact.
16. no man—namely, to atone by his righteousness for the unrighteousness of the people. "Man" is emphatic, as in 1Ki 2:2; no representative man able to retrieve the cause of fallen men (Isa 41:28; 63:5, 6; Jer 5:1; Eze 22:30).
no intercessor—no one to interpose, "to help … uphold" (Isa 63:5).
his arm—(Isa 40:10; 51:5). Not man's arm, but His alone (Ps 98:1; 44:3).
his righteousness—the "arm" of Messiah. He won the victory for us, not by mere might as God, but by His invincible righteousness, as man having "the Spirit without measure" (Isa 11:5; 42:6, 21; 51:8; 53:11; 1Jo 2:1).
17. Messiah is represented as a warrior armed at all points, going forth to vindicate His people. Owing to the unity of Christ and His people, their armor is like His, except that they have no "garments of vengeance" (which is God's prerogative, Ro 12:19), or "cloak of zeal" (in the sense of judicial fury punishing the wicked; this zeal belongs properly to God, 2Ki 10:16; Ro 10:2; Php 3:6; "zeal," in the sense of anxiety for the Lord's honor, they have, Nu 25:11, 13; Ps 69:9; 2Co 7:11; 9:2); and for "salvation," which is of God alone (Ps 3:8), they have as their helmet, "the hope of salvation" (1Th 5:8). The "helmet of salvation" is attributed to them (Eph 6:14, 17) in a secondary sense; namely, derived from Him, and as yet only in hope, not fruition (Ro 8:24). The second coming here, as often, is included in this representation of Messiah. His "zeal" (Joh 2:15-17) at His first coming was but a type of His zeal and vengeance against the foes of God at His second coming (2Th 1:8-10; Re 19:11-21).
18. deeds—Hebrew, "recompenses"; "according as their deeds demand" [Maurer]. This verse predicts the judgments at the Lord's second coming, which shall precede the final redemption of His people (Isa 66:18, 15, 16).
islands—(See on Isa 41:1). Distant countries.
19. (Isa 45:6; Mal 1:11). The result of God's judgments (Isa 26:9; 66:18-20).
like a flood—(Jer 46:7, 8; Re 12:15).
lift up a standard—rather, from a different Hebrew root, "shall put him to flight," "drive him away" [Maurer]. Lowth, giving a different sense to the Hebrew for "enemy" from that in Isa 59:18, and a forced meaning to the Hebrew for "Spirit of the Lord," translates, "When He shall come as a river straitened in its course, which a mighty wind drives along."
20. to Zion—Ro 11:26 quotes it, "out of Zion." Thus Paul, by inspiration, supplements the sense from Ps 14:7: He was, and is come to Zion, first with redemption, being sprung as man out of Zion. The Septuagint translates "for the sake of Zion." Paul applies this verse to the coming restoration of Israel spiritually.
them that turn from—(Ro 11:26). "shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob"; so the Septuagint, Paul herein gives the full sense under inspiration. They turn from transgression, because He first turns them from it, and it from them (Ps 130:4; La 5:21).
21. covenant with them … thee—The covenant is with Christ, and with them only as united to Him (Heb 2:13). Jehovah addresses Messiah the representative and ideal Israel. The literal and spiritual Israel are His seed, to whom the promise is to be fulfilled (Ps 22:30).
spirit … not depart … for ever—(Jer 31:31-37; Mt 28:20).