3 For your hands have been polluted with blood, And your fingers with iniquity, Your lips have spoken falsehood, Your tongue perverseness doth mutter.
And in your spreading forth your hands, I hide mine eyes from you, Also when ye increase prayer, I do not hear, Your hands of blood have been full.
Swearing, and lying, and murdering, And stealing, and committing adultery -- have increased, And blood against blood hath touched.
Also in thy skirts hath been found the blood of innocent needy souls, Not by digging have I found them, but upon all these.
In vain I have smitten your sons, Instruction they have not accepted, Devoured hath your sword your prophets, As a destroying lion.
Whose rich ones have been full of violence, And its inhabitants have spoken falsehood, And their tongue `is' deceitful in their mouth.
in hypocrisy speaking lies, being seared in their own conscience,
Perished hath the kind out of the land, And upright among men -- there are none, All of them for blood lie in wait, Each his brother they hunt `with' a net.
Lo, ye are trusting for yourselves On the words of falsehood, so as not to profit.
Building up Zion with blood, And Jerusalem with iniquity. Her heads for a bribe do judge, And her priests for hire do teach, And her prophets for silver divine, And on Jehovah they lean, saying, `Is not Jehovah in our midst? Evil doth not come in upon us.' Therefore, for your sake, Zion is ploughed a field, and Jerusalem is heaps, And the mount of the house `is' for high places of a forest!
Wo to them, for they wandered from Me, Destruction to them, for they transgressed against Me, And I -- I ransom them, and they have spoken lies against Me,
With their wickedness they make glad a king, And with their lies -- princes.
`And thou, son of man, dost thou judge? dost thou judge the city of blood? then thou hast caused it to know all its abominations,
Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen a lie, Therefore, lo, I `am' against you, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.
But thine eyes and thy heart are not, Except on thy dishonest gain, And on shedding of innocent blood, And on oppression, and on doing of violence.
And they bend their tongue, their bow `is' a lie, And not for stedfastness have they been mighty in the land, For from evil unto evil they have gone forth, And Me they have not known, An affirmation of Jehovah! Each of his friend -- beware ye, And on any brother, do not trust, For every brother doth utterly supplant, For every friend slanderously doth walk, And each at his friend they mock, And truth they do not speak, They taught their tongue to speak falsehood, To commit iniquity they have laboured. thy dwelling `is' in the midst of deceit, Through deceit they refused to know Me, An affirmation of Jehovah.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 59
Commentary on Isaiah 59 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 59
In this chapter we have sin appearing exceedingly sinful, and grace appearing exceedingly gracious; and, as what is here said of the sinner's sin (v. 7, 8) is applied to the general corruption of mankind (Rom. 3:15), so what is here said of a Redeemer (v. 20) is applied to Christ, Rom. 11:26.
Isa 59:1-8
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, ch. 58:3. Now here he shows,
Isa 59:9-15
The scope of this paragraph is the same with that of the last, to show that sin is the great mischief-maker; as it is that which keeps good things from us, so it is that which brings evil things upon us. But as there it is spoken by the prophet, in God's name, to the people, for their conviction and humiliation, and that God might be justified when he speaks and clear when he judges, so here it seems to be spoken by the people to God, as an acknowledgment of that which was there told them and an expression of their humble submission and subscription to the justice and equity of God's proceedings against them. Their uncircumcised hearts here seem to be humbled in some measure, and they are brought to confess (the confession is at least extorted from them), that God had justly walked contrary to them, because they had walked contrary to him.
Isa 59:16-21
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 of the commandment to appear more exceedingly gracious. Observe,