Isaiah 59

Look: the LORD's arm is not too short to save, and his ear is not too dull to hear.

1Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

Note"The LORD" printed in capitals stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters (YHWH) that Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud; the King James translators replaced it with "the LORD" throughout. "His arm is not too short" is a Hebrew idiom: a short arm means limited reach and so limited power, as an outstretched arm means power in action. The same image returns in verse 16.

2But your wrongdoing has built a wall between you and your God. Your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he does not hear.

2But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

Note"Hidden his face" is a standard Hebrew idiom for withdrawing attention and favor, the opposite of turning your face toward someone. It describes a deliberate refusal to engage, not a change in God's location.

3Your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with wrongdoing. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters what is twisted.

3For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.

Note"Hands stained with blood" is legal language for bloodguilt, being answerable for a death, whether or not you personally struck the blow. In Israelite law bloodguilt clung to a person and to a community until it was dealt with.

4No one calls for justice; no one argues his case honestly. They rely on empty words and tell lies. They plan trouble and give birth to evil.

4None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

NoteThis verse and much of the chapter use the vocabulary of a lawcourt: "calls for justice" and "argues his case" describe bringing and pleading a suit. The picture is of a legal system where no one will state a true case. "Conceive" and "give birth to" are a deliberate pair, the metaphor is pregnancy: what they plan privately they eventually deliver into the open.

5They hatch snake eggs and weave a spider's web. Whoever eats one of their eggs dies, and if you crush an egg, a poisonous snake comes out.

5They 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.

NoteThe King James "cockatrice" is a mythical serpent from medieval lore that the 1611 translators used for a Hebrew word meaning some kind of venomous snake; the Hebrew names an ordinary poisonous snake, not a monster. The point of the image is that the eggs look harmless and edible, and either way, eaten or crushed, they kill.

6Their webs cannot be made into clothing; they cannot cover themselves with what they make. What they do is evil, and violence is in their hands.

6Their 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.

7Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to kill innocent people. Their thoughts are evil thoughts. Ruin and destruction lie along the roads they take.

7Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.

8They do not know the way of peace, and there is no justice in the paths they walk. They have made their own roads crooked. No one who walks on them will know peace.

8The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.

9So justice stays far from us, and fair treatment never catches up to us. We wait for light, but there is only gloom; we wait for brightness, but we walk in the dark.

9Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.

NoteThe King James "judgment" here does not mean condemnation or a verdict against someone. It renders the Hebrew *mishpat*, which means justice: the right ordering of things, cases decided correctly, wrongs put right. It is paired throughout the chapter with *tsedaqah*, "righteousness," which in a social setting means acting rightly toward others, hence "fair treatment." Wherever the King James says "judgment" in this chapter, read "justice."

10We feel along the wall like blind people; we grope as if we had no eyes. At noon we stumble as if it were night. In desolate places we are like dead men.

10We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.

NoteThe last line is genuinely uncertain in Hebrew. The word rendered "in desolate places" can also mean "among the vigorous" or "the healthy," giving the sense "among the strong we are like the dead." Both readings are defended; the King James takes the first, many modern translations the second.

11We all growl like bears and moan sadly like doves. We look for justice, but there is none; we look for rescue, but it stays far from us.

11We 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.

NoteBoth animals are chosen for their sound, not their character. A bear's low growl and a dove's repeated cooing were conventional images in Hebrew for the noises of grief, one loud and angry, the other soft and unending.

12Our rebellious acts pile up in front of you, and our sins speak against us. Our rebellion stays with us, and we know exactly what we have done wrong.

12For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;

NoteThe courtroom image continues: the sins are cast as witnesses taking the stand for the prosecution. "Pile up in front of you" is the language of evidence heaped before a judge.

13We have rebelled against the LORD and denied him, and we have turned away from our God. We have spoken of crushing others and of revolt; we have thought up lies and spoken them from the heart.

13In 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.

14So justice is pushed back, and fair treatment stands far off. Truth has fallen down in the public square, and honesty cannot get in.

14And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

NoteThe "public square" is the open space just inside a city gate. This was where elders heard legal cases, deals were witnessed, and public business was done, so truth falling there means the collapse of justice at the exact place it was supposed to be administered.

15Truth is nowhere to be found, and anyone who turns away from evil becomes a target. The LORD saw this, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

15Yea, 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.

16He saw that there was no one at all, and he was amazed that no one stepped in to plead for them. So his own arm brought rescue, and his own righteousness held him up.

16And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.

Note"Intercessor" in the King James does not mean a person who prays. It renders a Hebrew word for someone who steps in between parties, intervening, interposing, pressing a case on another's behalf. The complaint is that no one at all would take that role.

17He put on doing right like a breastplate, and rescue like a helmet on his head. He put on payback like clothing, and wrapped himself in burning determination like a cloak.

17For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, 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 cloak.

NoteThis is the picture of a warrior arming for battle, piece by piece: body armor over the chest, helmet on the head, cloak over everything. "Vengeance" translates a Hebrew word for judicial retribution, a penalty imposed to settle an outstanding wrong, rather than personal spite. "Zeal" renders *qin'ah*, a word covering fierce, burning commitment and also jealousy, the heat a person feels over something that is rightfully theirs.

18He will pay people back according to what they have done: anger to those who oppose him, payback to his enemies. He will pay back the far-off coastlands too.

18According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.

NoteThe King James "islands" and the rendering's "coastlands" translate a Hebrew word for the shores and islands of the Mediterranean, the far edges of the known world as seen from Israel. It is a standard way of saying "the most distant nations."

19Then people will fear the name of the LORD in the west, and his glory where the sun rises. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will raise a battle flag against him.

19So shall they fear the name 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 Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.

Note"From the west... where the sun rises" is a merism: naming the two extremes to mean everything between them, i.e. the whole earth. The second half of the verse is disputed in Hebrew. The same consonants can be read as the King James takes them, the enemy comes like a flood and the LORD's Spirit raises a banner against him, or as many modern translations take them, with the LORD himself coming like a pent-up flood driven by his breath. Hebrew *ruach* means breath, wind and spirit alike, which is why the two readings diverge so far. A "standard" is a battle banner raised on a pole to rally troops.

20"The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn away from their rebellion," says the LORD.

20And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.

Note"Redeemer" translates *go'el*, a specific role in Israelite family law: the nearest male relative, who was obliged to buy back a kinsman's land that had been sold, to purchase a relative out of debt-slavery, and to pursue the killer of a murdered family member. The word carries that family obligation, not merely rescue. "Zion" was originally the fortified hill of Jerusalem and came to stand for the city and its people. "Jacob" is the ancestor whose descendants made up Israel; his name is used here for the nation itself.

21"As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "My Spirit, who rests on you, and my words, which I have put in your mouth, will not leave your mouth, or the mouths of your children, or the mouths of your children's children, from now on and forever," says the LORD.

21As for me, this is my covenant 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.

NoteA "covenant" is a formal binding agreement with stated terms and obligations, of the kind made between a ruler and a people or between two parties before witnesses (closer to a treaty or contract than to a promise casually given. Note that "you" here is singular in Hebrew while "them" at the start of the verse is plural; who the single addressee is) the prophet, the nation spoken of as one person, or the coming Redeemer, is left unresolved by the text.