The calamities of the Jews not owing to lack of saving power in God, but to their own enormous sins, 1-15. Salvation is only of God, 16-19. The covenant of the Redeemer, 20, 21.
1 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened/
so that it cannot save,/
neither his ear heavy/
so that it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have come between/
and separated you and your God,/
and your sins have hid his face from you/
so that he will not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood/
and your fingers with iniquity./
Your lips have spoken lies,/
your tongue has uttered perverseness.
4 No one calls for justice,/
nor any pleads for truth./
They trust in vanity and speak lies./
They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch adders' eggs/
and weave the spider's web./
He who eats of their eggs dies,/
and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
6 Their 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.
7 Their 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.
8 The way of peace they do not know,/
and there is no judgment in their goings./
They have made themselves crooked paths./
Whoever goes therein shall not know peace.
9 Therefore, judgment is far from us,/
neither does justice overtake us./
We wait for light, but behold obscurity,/
for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
10 We 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.
11 We all roar like bears/
and mourn bitterly like doves./
We look for judgment, but there is none,/
for salvation, but it is far from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you/
and our sins testify against us,/
for our transgressions are with us,/
and as for our iniquities, we know them,
13 In 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.
14 And judgment is turned away backward,/
and justice stands afar off./
For truth has fallen in the street,/
and equity cannot enter.
15 Indeed, truth fails./
And he who departs from evil makes himself plunder./
And the LORD saw it, and it displeased him/
that there was no judgment.
16 And he saw that there was no man,/
and wondered that there was no intercessor;/
therefore, his arm brought salvation to him,/
and his righteousness, it sustained him.
17 For he put on righteousness as a breast-plate,/
and a helmet of salvation upon his head./
And he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing,/
and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay:/
fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies./
To the coastlands he will repay recompense.
19 So they shall fear the name of the LORD from the west,/
and his glory from the rising of the sun./
When the enemy comes in like a flood,/
the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.
20 "And the Redeemer will come to Zion/
and to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,"/
says the LORD.
21 "As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "My Spirit who is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your children, nor out of the mouth of your children's children," says the LORD, "from now on and forever."
Matthew Henry Commentary - Isaiah, Chapter 59[➚]
[v.5a] - "hatch adders' eggs" - This is a proverbial saying, for adders give live birth. The KJV renders the text, "cockatrice eggs." (A cockatrice is a serpent imagined to proceed from a chicken egg.) The expression simply means that whatever comes from them is poison and brings death (Geneva Bible study notes).
[v.5b] - "weave the spider's web" - This is another proverbial saying meaning that they are profitable to no purpose (Geneva Bible study notes).
[v.7] - Quoted in Romans 3:15-16.
[v.8] - Quoted in Romans 3:17.
[v.17] - Quoted in Ephesians 6:14, 17.
[v.20-21] - Quoted in Romans 11:26-27.