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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Isaiah 59:12 - 59:12
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The people have already indicated by עַל־כֵּן in Isa 59:9 that this benighted, hopeless state is the consequence of their prevailing sins; they now come back to this, and strike the note of penitence (viddui), which is easily recognised by the recurring rhymes ānu and ênu. The prophet makes the confession (as in Jer 14:19-20, cf., Isa 3:21.), standing at the head of the people as the leader of their prayer (ba‛al tephillâh): “For our transgressions are many before Thee, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are known to us, and our evil deeds well known: apostasy and denial of Jehovah, and turning back from following our God, oppressive and false speaking, receiving and giving out from the heart words of falsehood.” The people acknowledge the multitude and magnitude of their apostate deeds, which are the object of the omniscience of God, and their sins which bear witness against them (עָנְתָה the predicate of a neuter plural; Ges. §146, 3). The second כִּי resumes the first: “our apostate deeds are with us (אֵת as in Job 12:3; cf., עִם, Job 15:9), i.e., we are conscious of them; and our misdeeds, we know them” (יְדַעֲנוּם for ידענון, as in Gen 41:21, cf., Isa 59:8, and with עֲ, as is always the case with verbs ל ע before נ, and with a suffix; Ewald, §§60). The sins are now enumerated in Isa 59:13 in abstract infinitive forms. At the head stands apostasy in thought and deed, which is expressed as a threefold sin. בַּה (of Jehovah) belongs to both the “apostasy” (treachery; e.g., Isa 1:2) and the “denial” (Jer 5:12). נָסוֹג is an inf. abs. (different from Psa 80:19). Then follow sins against the neighbour: viz., such speaking as leads to oppression, and consists of sârâh, that which deviates from or is opposed to the law and truth (Deu 19:16); also the conception (concipere) of lying words, and the utterance of them from the heart in which they are conceived (Mat 15:18; Mat 12:35). הֹרוֹ and הֹגוֹ are the only poel infinitives which occur in the Old Testament, just as שׁוֹשֵׂתיִ (Isa 10:13) is the only example of a poel perfect of a verb ל ה. The poël is suitable throughout this passage, because the action expressed affects others, and is intended to do them harm. According to Ewald, the poel indicates the object or tendency: it is the conjugation employed to denote seeking, attacking, or laying hold of; e.g., לוֹשֵׁן, lingua petere, i.e., to calumniate; עוֹיֵן, oculo petere, i.e., to envy.