ISRAEL HUMBLY CONFESSES ITS SIN 'S TO GOD . Isaiah, anxious to bring the people to confession and amendment, makes humble confession in their name, joining himself with them, as if he had been a participator in their iniquities. read more
Our transgressions are multiplied before thee ; i.e. they are very numerous; and they come "before God," so as to attract his attention and call for his animadversion. Our sins testify against us; i.e. "rise up against us as witnesses, whose evidence we cannot disprove, and have not even the face to dispute." Our transgressions are with us —i.e. "constantly haunt us"—and as for our iniquities, we know them; i.e. we are aware of them, we acknowledge them, we have them continually in... read more
An enumeration of special sins. First, sins of the heart. Transgressing and lying against the Lord ; or rather, treason and unfaithfulness to Jehovah (Cheyne); followed by departing away from God, or the secret act of apostasy. Next, sins of the tongue: Speaking oppression and revolt; or, oppression and wrong— the "wrong," probably, of false accusation (comp. Deuteronomy 19:16 ); and, lastly, conceiving and uttering · words of falsehood generally. read more
Judgment is turned away backward . In conclusion, the crying sin of perversion of justice is admitted with much amplification. (1) Right judgment is exactly inverted—the innocent are condemned, the guilty acquitted. read more
Truth the foundation of morality. Surprise is sometimes expressed at there being no distinct prohibition of all lying in the ten commandments. "False witness" alone is forbidden. But the reason may be that truth is assumed as too fundamentally necessary for any one to suppose that it could possibly be dispensed with. Similarly, piety is assumed as a duty in the commandments, where men are not bidden to worship God, but warned against worshipping more than one God, and against worshipping him... read more
Yea, truth faileth . Truth itself is altogether gone, is missing, not forthcoming. "Tetras Astraea reliquit." This is the worst of all. For truth is the basis of the social fabric, the groundwork of all morality. Once let there be no regard for truth in a state, no discredit attaching to lying, and all virtue is undermined, all soundness is vanished—nothing remains but "wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores" ( Isaiah 1:6 ). He that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey .... read more
And the Lord saw it . The division of the verses here requires alteration. The opening clause of Isaiah 59:15 belongs to what precedes; the second clause to what follows. "The Lord saw" that condition of things in Israel which is described in Isaiah 59:3-15 ; and it displeased him; literally, it was evil in his eyes , especially in that there was no judgment. Justice was not done between man and man; no one thought of pronouncing just judgments. The circumstances were such as to... read more
Salvation by God through man. This text contains, in part, the confession of social iniquity. "Truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil is accounted mad. There is no judgment"—that is, no social righteousness, no sense of the "right" manifestly ruling in the common relations of life. God looked down upon this degenerate and hopeless condition. He knew how far the evil spread, until the whole people was corrupted, and there was no man able to plead against the prevailing evil; no... read more
Human hopelessness and Divine redemption. This vivid picture of the nation's demoralization, and of its incapacity to produce a citizen who could regenerate and reform, may appropriately suggest— I. THE HOPELESS CONDITION OF THE HUMAN RACE UNDER THE LONG TYRANNY OF SIN . Man had fallen so far that there was not the smallest prospect of redemption from anything he could originate. The all-seeing eye of God rested on "no man, no intercessor." Reformer there... read more
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The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 59:1-15
The separation of the soul from God. Why in the hour of need is there no deliverance? Why are prayers for aid unanswered? A theory might obtain, or an objection might be raised, that Divine power was not sufficient, that the Divine sensibility was dulled. And yet this cannot be. The simplest knowledge of what God is must contradict an assumption so foolish. There must be another explanation; and that, the conscience says, is to be found on the human side of the relation. I. THE ... read more