Isaiah 59:7 - Exposition

Their feet run to evil. It is, however, only too true that they have a power to work evil. They cannot construct, their devices fall through, their "spinning" is to no purpose; but they can, in a rough and blind way, do enormous mischief. "Their feet run to evil"—rush to it at full speed—brook no delay, but hurry on into act. It is an easy thing to shed innocent blood; and those who are conscious of constructive impotence are very apt to seek compensation by doing destructive work, which at least shows that they have a power of some kind. Hence "Reigns of Terror" when revolutions are at the last gasp. The strong expressions with respect to shedding innocent blood, used here and in 2 Kings 21:16 and 2 Kings 24:4 , seem to imply something like a massacre of the more godly Israelites by the ungodly in Manasseh's time. Wasting and destruction (compare the "destruction and misery" of Romans 3:16 , which is a quotation of the present passage).