Table of Contents
Isaiah 59
Isaiah 59
1 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, 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 hath muttered perverseness.
4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5 They 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.
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 know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth 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 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.
12 For 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;
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 standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
15 Yea, 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.
16 And 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.
17 For 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.
18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.
19 So 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.
20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.
21 As 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.
Notes
Cross Reference
Commentary
Rashi
Verse 1
<html><b>Behold, the hand of the Lord is not too short</b> Your failure to be delivered is not due to the shortness of My hand.</html>
Verse 2
<html><b>have caused [Him] to hide [His] face</b> They caused for you that He hid His face from you.</html>
Verse 3
<html><b>were defiled</b> Heb. נְגֹאֲלוּ, an expression of defilement. Comp. (Mal. 1:7) “polluted bread (מְגֹאָל).”</html>
Verse 5
<html><b>vipers</b> a species of harmful snake. <b>hatched</b> Heb. בִּקְּעוּ, eskloterant in O.F. That is to say that they committed ugly deeds, from which they did not benefit. <b>and…spider webs</b> Irajjne in O.F., spider, and קוּרֵי is ordiojjrs in O.F., warp. קוּרֵי are the implements of the weaver, those upon which the warp is mounted. Menahem (Machbereth Menahem p. 158) classifies it in the class of קוֹרוֹת, beams, since the spider mounts the warp of his weavings on beams. <b>and what hatches</b> Heb. וְהַזּוּרֶה. Jonathan renders: וּמְשַׁחְנָן, an expression of warming, called in O.F. kover [couve], hatching when one warms them, it emerges from them when he cracks the shell. The original meaning of וְהַזּוּרֶה is an expression of pressing to extract what is absorbed within. Comp. (Jud. 6:38) “And pressed (וַיָּזַר) the fleece.” The pressing of this one is its hatching. <b>viper</b> Heb. אֶפְעֶה, a species of snake that is harmful, so will nothing result from their deeds but evil.</html>
Verse 8
<html><b>and there is no justice in their paths</b> That is to say that in their paths there is nothing judged truly according to its law. <b>they have made themselves crooked paths</b> They made their road crooked for themselves.</html>
Verse 9
<html><b>justice is far from us</b> For we were crying that we were robbed by our enemies, yet the Holy One, blessed be He, does not judge to avenge us. <b>and righteousness does not overtake us</b> The good consolations that He promised us are not coming to overtake us. <b>for brightness</b> we hope, but we walk in gloom.</html>
Verse 10
<html><b>in dark places</b> Heb. בָּאַשְׁמַנִּים. Menahem (Machbereth, p. 35) interpreted it as an expression of dark places, and most exegetes concur with him. Dunash, however, (Tesuhvoth Dunash, p. 93) interprets it as an expression of fat (שׁוּמָן), with the ‘alef’ prefixed to it like the ‘alef’ that is in (Job 13:17) אַחְוָתִי, “my narrative,” [derived from חוה]; and that is in (Jer. 15:18) אַכְזָב, “a failure,” (derived from כזב ; and (Num. 21:1) “the way of the spies (הָאֲתָרִים),” [derived from תור]. Here, too, among the שְׁמֵנִים, among the lusty living, we are like dead. And Jonathan rendered it as an expression of locking: It is locked before us as the graves are locked before the dead.</html>
Verse 11
<html><b>we moan</b> Heb. הָגֹה נֶהְגֶה, an expression of wailing.</html>
Verse 13
<html><b>speaking oppression</b> Like: to speak oppression. <b>sprouting and giving forth</b> Heb. הֹרוֹ וְהֹגוֹ to shoot and to give forth. הֹרוֹ is an expression of (Ex. 15:4) “He shot (יָרָה) into the sea.” (Another explanation: הֹרוֹ means: the teacher and the disciple, a gerund.) הֹגוֹ is an expression of (II Sam. 20:13) “When he was removed (הֹגָה) from the highway”; (Prov. 25:4) “Take away (הָגוֹ) the dross from the silver.”</html>
Verse 14
<html><b>And justice has turned away backwards</b> Our revenge from our enemies, which depends upon the Holy One, blessed be He, and His righteousness stands from afar. Why? For truth has stumbled in our streets, [and since truth has stumbled from the earth, even from heaven righteousness and justice do not come.]</html>
Verse 15
<html><b>is considered mad</b> Heb. מִשְׁתּוֹלֵל, considered mad by the people. Comp. (Micah 1:8) “I will go as a mad man (שׁוֹלָל).” This is equivalent to שׁוֹגֵג, inadvertent, which the Targum renders: שָׁלוּ. Likewise (II Sam. 6:7), “For his error (הַשַּׁל).” <b>and was displeased for there is no justice</b> Therefore, He brought retribution upon them.</html>
Verse 16
<html><b>And He saw that there was no man</b> And now, when He repents of the evil to His people, He sees that there is no righteous man to stand in the breach. <b>and He was astounded</b> He was silent to see whether there was an intercessor, and there was no intercessor. וַיִּשְׁתּוֹמֵם is an expression of a man who stands and wonders and remains silent in his wonder, and the ‘tav’ of וַיִּשְׁתּוֹמֵם is like the ‘tav’ of מִשְׁתּוֹלֵל, and both of them serve here as the reflexive, and this is the procedure of the word whose first radical is a ‘shin’ or a ‘samech,’ that when it is converted into the form of מִתְפָּעֵל, the present reflexive, נִתְפָּעֵל, the past reflexive, or יִתְפָּעֵל, the future reflexive, the ‘tav’ comes in the middle of the letters of the radical. The result is that וַיִּשְׁתּוֹמֵם is an expression from the same root as (Jer. 2:12) “Be admonished (שֹׁמּוּ), O ye heavens”; (Ezekiel 3:15) “appalled (מַשְׁמִים) among them”; (Job 18:20) “the later ones will be astonished (נָשַׁמּוּ),” an expression of wonder. <b>and His arm saved for Him</b> and He will take revenge from His enemies. <b>and His righteousness, that supported Him</b> to entice Him and to strengthen His hands in His revenge, although we are not worthy of being saved.</html>
Verse 17
<html><b>zeal</b> enprenmant in O.F., to be zealous for His great name.</html>
Verse 18
<html><b>According to their deeds</b> As is fitting to recompense for what the enemies dealt to them. <b>accordingly He shall repay</b> As is fitting to repay them He shall repay.</html>
Verse 19
<html><b>For…shall come like a river</b> distress upon His enemies. <b>is wondrous in it</b> Heb. נֹסְסָה, is wondrous in it, an expression of a miracle (נֵס). Another explanation: נֹסְסָה [means:] eats into him like a worm in wood. Comp. (supra 10:18) “And it shall be as a tree eaten to powder by the worms.”</html>
Verse 20
<html><b>And a redeemer shall come to Zion</b> As long as Zion is in ruins, the redeemer has not yet come.</html>
Verse 21
<html><b>As for Me, this is My covenant with them</b> In this matter, I made a covenant with them, and I will fulfill it, for even in their exile, My Torah shall not be forgotten from them.</html>