Isaiah 59:9

"Therefore is justice far from us, neither doth righteousness overtake us: we look for light, but, behold, darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity. We grope for the wall like the blind; yea, we grope as they that have no eyes; we stumble at noonday as in the twilight; among them that are lusty, we are as dead men. We roar all like bears, and moan sore like doves: we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us; our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them: transgressing and denying Jehovah, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. and justice is turned away backward, and righteousness standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness cannot enter. Yea, truth is lacking: and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey."

The meaning of these verses is simple enough. The thrust of the passage is that "We, the Jewish nation, are suffering the wretched consequences of our wickedness." Take it verse by verse. Isaiah 59:9 means `We wait in vain for deliverance from the cruel Romans.' Isaiah 59:10 means that, `We stumble around like blind men, unable to discern truth everyone but us can see.' Isaiah 59:11, `In our misery we groan like suffering animals.' Isaiah 59:12-13, `Our consciences are guilty and they burden us with condemnation.' Isaiah 59:14-15a, `Justice in our land is dead and truth is not available anywhere.'

Isaiah 59:10 is especially interesting, because the blindness of Israel to the reality of Messiah when he came was simply phenomenal. Mark 10:46ff has the story of the physically blind man screaming to high heaven for "Jesus thou Son of David (the True Messiah, properly addressed), (to) have mercy on us!" and the spiritually blind public trying to silence him! Also, the blind man (having then received his sight from Jesus) said, "Herein is the marvel, that ye know not whence he is, and yet he opened my eyes" (John 9:30)! Here are two New Testament examples of truth which blind men saw clearly but which were hidden to Israel. The hopelessness of a people so blinded and hardened and deluded by wickedness was expressed by Wardle: "No gleam of hope brightens our darkness. We grope like blind men along a wall instead of treading firmly; we stumble in broad daylight."[6]

Sin is described with an impressive vocabulary in this chapter. Muilenburg wrote that, "Few chapters in the Bible are so rich and diverse in their vocabulary of sin."[7]