Old Testament Commentary - Isaiah 59

by Don R. Hender


Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
Commentary & Explanation
Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
                   CHAPTER 59                    

Israel is separated from their God by iniquity—Their sins testify against them—Messiah shall intercede, come to Zion, and redeem the repentant.

  1 BEHOLD, the LORD's ahand is not bshortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot chear:
  2 But your iniquities have aseparated between you and your God, and your bsins chave hid his face from you, that he will not dhear.
  3 For your hands are defiled with ablood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
  4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they atrust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive bmischief, and bring forth iniquity.
  5 They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
  6 Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
  7 Their feet arun to bevil, and they make chaste to dshed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
  8 The way of apeace they know not; and there is no bjudgment in their goings: they have made them ccrooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
  9 ¶ Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth ajustice overtake us: we wait for blight, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we cwalk in darkness.
  10 We agrope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
  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.
  12 For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins atestify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we bknow them;
  13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
  14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and aequity cannot enter.
  15 Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
  16 ¶ And he saw that there was ano man, and wondered that there was no bintercessor: therefore his carm dbrought esalvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
  17 For he put on arighteousness as a bbreastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.
  18 According to their adeeds, accordingly he will brepay, fury to his adversaries, crecompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.
  19 So shall they afear the bname of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the cSpirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against hima.
 19a When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him The Spirit of the LORD is that Spirit of Revelation which has supported the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ unto the world to be a standard or Ensign of righteousness unto the world, which world was in a fallen and apostate state of corrupt and unacceptable religion and of wickedness. Is it any wonder that the process of the lefting up of this standard was so opposed by the inspiration of Satan upon the hearts of men to so persecute and even murder the Saints of God. And so on goes the battle as the Ensign marches forth it is still opposed upon all fronts by the forces of evil. And even the elite of God are mislead as to obligation and purpose in the support of the kingdom.
  20 ¶ And the aRedeemer shall bcome to cZion, and unto them that dturn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.
  21 As for me, this is my acovenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.