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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Isaiah 59:1 - 59:8
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Iniquities Separate from God
v. 1. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, it was not want of power on His part which delayed deliverance; neither His ear heavy that it cannot hear, it was not unwillingness on His part to hear the people's prayer for help;
v. 2. but your iniquities, the sins by which they loaded guilt upon themselves, have separated between you and your God, erecting a barrier which made it impossible for the Lord to come to their aid, and your sins have hid His face from you that He will not hear, that His wrath over their disobedience will keep Him from granting their request.
v. 3. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity, on account of the oppression practiced against their own neighbors, against the people of their own nation; your lips have spoken lies, in giving voice to the falseness and wickedness of their hearts, your tongue hath muttered perverseness, the intention to commit knavery appearing in their very mumbling, in their whispered comments.
v. 4. None calleth for justice, praying to the Lord in truth and righteousness, nor any pleadeth for truth, literally, "in faithfulness," in reliance upon the sound condition of heart and mind, that is, there is none who is sincere in faith and life; they trust in vanity, in a perfection of self which they imagine, and speak lies, believing that they can impress the Lord and hide their hypocrisy before Him; they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity, the evil plans which they have laid serving to bring about their own destruction.
v. 5. They hatch cockatrice's eggs, those of the basilisk serpent, whose venom was deadly, and weave the spider's web, to entrap their victims; he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed, namely, any one of these poisonous eggs, breaketh out into a viper, splitting open to emit the venomous reptile.
v. 6. Their webs shall not become garments, they cannot be woven like the threads of the silk-worm, neither shall they cover themselves with their works, with the fabrications of their wickedness; their works are works of iniquity, bringing destruction wherever they are found, and the act of violence is in their hands, that is what their hands are engaged in, what they love to perform.
v. 7. Their feet, as instruments of sin, run to evil, to deeds which result in mischief, and they make haste to shed innocent blood, the crime of murder being the chief wickedness in which they delight; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, seeking evil as their object, making it their purpose; wasting and destruction are in their paths, as the result of their wicked counsel.
v. 8. The way of peace they know not, they have no idea of what really pertains to their peace, and there is no judgment in their goings, they can expect no sentence granting them deliverance and salvation on the part of God; they have made them crooked paths, so that they are bound to lead to destruction, whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace, shall not enjoy the salvation which will be given to the faithful believers. St. Paul uses this section to describe the unbelievers in general, and the description fits the great mass of people to this day. Rom_3:14-18.