Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary
Isaiah 59 · World English Bible
1Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it can’t save; nor his ear dull, that it can’t hear.
2But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
3For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.
4No one sues in righteousness, and no one pleads in truth. They trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
5They 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.
6Their webs won’t become garments. They won’t cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and acts of violence are in their hands.
7Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their paths.
8They don’t know the way of peace; and there is no justice in their ways. They have made crooked paths for themselves; whoever goes in them doesn’t know peace.
9Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness doesn’t overtake us. We look for light, but see darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.
10We grope for the wall like the blind. Yes, we grope as those who have no eyes. We stumble at noon as if it were twilight. Among those who are strong, we are like dead men.
11We all roar like bears and moan sadly like doves. We look for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far off from us.
12For 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:
13transgressing and denying the LORD, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has fallen in the street, and uprightness can’t enter.
15Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.
16He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness sustained him.
17He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle.
18According to their deeds, he will repay as appropriate: wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. He will repay the islands their due.
19So they will fear the LORD’s name from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which the LORD’s breath drives.
20“A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob,” says the LORD.
21“As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit who is on 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 offspring, nor out of the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the LORD, “from now on and forever.”
World English Bible · World English Bible; source eBible.org.
Notes on Isaiah 59
1869 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. lix. 8.
Editorial footnote · The Stromata (Miscellanies), THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / BOOK V. / CHAPTER I. ON FAITH., editorial note Footnote_706 · Original source
1885 (historical English edition; physical printing year uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Because Scripture calls idols “vanities” and “vain things.” See 2 Kings xvii. 15, Ps. xxiv. 4, Isa. lix. 4, Deut. xxxii. 21, etc.
Editorial footnote · On Idolatry, Chapter 20, editorial note cite_note-6 · Original source
1886 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. lix. 1.
Editorial footnote · The Treatises of Cyprian, Chapter uncertain; original source section: An Address to Demetrianus, editorial note cite_note-22 · Original source
1886 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. lix. 1–4.
Editorial footnote · The Treatises of Cyprian, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Part 4, editorial note cite_note-2 · Original source
1887 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. lix. 2.
Editorial footnote · Against Two Letters of the Pelagians, Chapter 8.—Death Passed Upon All by Sin.; original source section: Chapter 8, editorial note cite_note-1 · Original source
1888 (historical English edition; physical printing year uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. lix. 1, 2.
Editorial footnote · Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 41, editorial note cite_note-11 · Original source
Date uncertain | Cyprian of Carthage (historical edition attribution)
In Isaiah: “Is God’s Hand not strong to save? or has He made His ear heavy, that He cannot hear? But your sins separate between you and God; and on account of your sins He turns His face away from you, that He may not pity. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with sins. Moreover, your lips have spoken wickedness, and your tongue meditates unrighteousness. No one speaketh truth, nor is there true judgment: they trust in vanity, and speak emptiness, who conceive sorrow, and bring forth wickedness.” Also in the same place: “Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom is the Arm of God revealed?” Also in the same: “Thus saith the Lord, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is the support of my feet. What house will ye build unto me? or what is the place for my rest? For all these things hath mine hand made.” Also in the same: “O Lord God, Thine Arm is high, and they knew it not; but when they know it, they shall be confounded.” Also in the same: “The Lord hath revealed His Arm, that holy Arm, in the sight of all nations; all nations, even the ends of the earth, shall see salvation from God.” Also in the same place: “Behold, I have made thee as the wheels of a thrashing chariot, new and turned back upon themselves;” and thou shalt thrash the mountains, and shalt beat the hills small, and shalt make them as chaff, and shall winnow them; and the wind shall seize them, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: but thou shalt rejoice in the saints of Israel; and the poor and needy shall exult. For they shall seek water, and there shall be none. For their tongue shall be dry for thirst. I the Lord God, I the God of Israel, will hear them, and will not forsake them; but I will open rivers in the mountains, and fountains in the midst of the fields. I will make the wildernesses watery groves, and a thirsty land into watercourses. I will establish in the land of drought the cedar-tree and the box-tree, and the myrtle and the cypress, and the elm and the poplar, that they may see and acknowledge, and know and believe together, that the Hand of the Lord hath done these things, and the Holy One of Israel hath shown them.”
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · The Treatises of Cyprian, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Part 4, source paragraph 2 · Original source