Worthy.Bible » YLT » Isaiah » Chapter 59 » Verse 16

Isaiah 59:16 Young's Literal Translation (YLT)

16 And He seeth that there is no man, And is astonished that there is no intercessor, And His own arm giveth salvation to Him, And His righteousness -- it sustained Him.

Cross Reference

Psalms 98:1 YLT

A Psalm. Sing ye to Jehovah a new song, For wonders He hath done, Given salvation to Him hath His right hand and His holy arm.

Isaiah 52:10 YLT

Jehovah hath made bare His holy arm Before the eyes of all the nations, And seen have all the ends of the earth, The salvation of our God.

Ezekiel 22:30 YLT

And I seek of them a man making a fence, And standing in the breach before Me, In behalf of the land -- not to destroy it, And I have not found.

Genesis 18:23-32 YLT

And Abraham draweth nigh and saith, `Dost Thou also consume righteous with wicked? peradventure there are fifty righteous in the midst of the city; dost Thou also consume, and not bear with the place for the sake of the fifty -- the righteous who `are' in its midst? Far be it from Thee to do according to this thing, to put to death the righteous with the wicked; that it hath been -- as the righteous so the wicked -- far be it from Thee; doth the Judge of all the earth not do justice?' And Jehovah saith, `If I find in Sodom fifty righteous in the midst of the city, then have I borne with all the place for their sake.' And Abraham answereth and saith, `Lo, I pray thee, I have willed to speak unto the Lord, and I -- dust and ashes; peradventure there are lacking five of the fifty righteous -- dost Thou destroy for five the whole of the city?' and He saith, `I destroy `it' not, if I find there forty and five.' And he addeth again to speak unto Him and saith, `Peradventure there are found there forty?' and He saith, `I do `it' not, because of the forty.' And he saith, `Let it not be, I Pray thee, displeasing to the Lord, and I speak: peradventure there are found there thirty?' and He saith, `I do `it' not, if I find there thirty.' And he saith, `Lo, I pray thee, I have willed to speak unto the Lord: peradventure there are found there twenty?' and He saith, `I do not destroy `it', because of the twenty.' And he saith, `Let it not be, I pray Thee, displeasing to the Lord, and I speak only this time: peradventure there are found there ten?' and He saith, `I do not destroy `it', because of the ten.'

Psalms 106:23 YLT

And He saith to destroy them, Unless Moses, His chosen one, Had stood in the breach before Him, To turn back His wrath from destroying.

Isaiah 41:28 YLT

And I see that there is no man, Yea, of these that there is no counsellor, And I ask them, and they return word:

Isaiah 50:2 YLT

Wherefore have I come, and there is no one? I called, and there is none answering, Hath My hand been at all short of redemption? And is there not in me power to deliver? Lo, by My rebuke I dry up a sea, I make rivers a wilderness, Their fish stinketh, for there is no water, And dieth with thirst.

Isaiah 63:3-5 YLT

-- `A wine-press I have trodden by myself, And of the peoples there is no one with me, And I tread them in mine anger, And I trample them in my fury, Sprinkled is their strength on my garments, And all my clothing I have polluted. For the day of vengeance `is' in my heart, And the year of my redeemed hath come. And I look attentively, and there is none helping, And I am astonished that there is none supporting, And give salvation to me doth mine own arm. And my wrath -- it hath supported me.

Isaiah 64:7 YLT

And there is none calling in Thy name, Stirring up himself to lay hold on Thee, For Thou hast hid Thy face from us, And thou meltest us away by our iniquities.

Jeremiah 5:1 YLT

Go to and fro in streets of Jerusalem, And see, I pray you, and know, And seek in her broad places, if ye find a man, If there be one doing judgment, seeking stedfastness -- Then am I propitious to her.

Mark 6:6 YLT

and he wondered because of their unbelief. And he was going round the villages, in a circle, teaching,

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).