Bird's-eye view
Isaiah 59 is a blunt and devastating diagnosis of a society that has come apart at the seams. The prophet begins by answering a question that must have been lingering in the minds of the faithful remnant. Why does God seem so distant? Why are our prayers seemingly unanswered? Is God unable to save? Isaiah’s answer is a thunderous no. The problem is not with God’s ability, but with Israel’s iniquity. Their sin has created a chasm, a separation, between them and their holy God.
What follows is a detailed and poetic indictment of the nation’s moral and spiritual collapse. From the top down, the entire social fabric is rotten. The courts are corrupt, truth is a casualty in the public square, and violence is rampant. The imagery is potent: they hatch viper’s eggs and weave spider’s webs. Their endeavors are not only useless for any righteous purpose, like a spider’s web for clothing, but they are also deadly. This is a society that has turned in on itself, and the result is chaos and destruction. The way of peace is utterly foreign to them because they have abandoned the God of peace. This passage serves as a stark reminder that sin is not just a private matter; it has profound and destructive public consequences.
Outline
- 1. The Problem is Not God's Power but Man's Sin (Isa 59:1-2)
- a. God's Hand is Not Short (Isa 59:1a)
- b. God's Ear is Not Dull (Isa 59:1b)
- c. The Great Separation (Isa 59:2)
- 2. A Detailed Indictment of National Corruption (Isa 59:3-8)
- a. The Guilt of Blood and Deceit (Isa 59:3)
- b. The Collapse of Justice and Truth (Isa 59:4)
- c. The Fruit of Wickedness: Death and Deception (Isa 59:5)
- d. The Uselessness and Violence of Their Works (Isa 59:6)
- e. A Culture of Eager Wickedness (Isa 59:7)
- f. The Absence of Peace and Justice (Isa 59:8)
Context In Isaiah
This chapter is situated in the third major section of Isaiah (chapters 56-66), which deals with the glorious future of Zion after the exile. However, before the promised glory can be realized, the reality of Israel’s sin must be confronted head-on. Chapters 56-59 form a unit that describes the moral condition of the people. While chapter 58 diagnosed their hypocritical worship, chapter 59 broadens the scope to the complete breakdown of social and civil life. The people are wondering why the promised salvation has not arrived, and Isaiah here provides the unvarnished answer.
The stark diagnosis of sin in this chapter sets the stage for the glorious intervention of God as the Divine Warrior in the subsequent verses (59:15b-21). The situation is so dire, so completely hopeless from a human perspective, that only a direct, powerful, and gracious act of God can remedy it. This chapter shows us the depth of the disease so that we might marvel all the more at the glory of the cure, which is ultimately found in the Messiah.
Key Issues
- The Nature of Sin as Separation
- Corporate and Social Sin
- The Inability of Human Works to Cover Sin
- The Connection Between Justice and Peace
- The Necessity of Divine Intervention
The Great Separation
The central theological point of this opening section is found in verse 2. Sin is not merely the breaking of an abstract moral code; it is a relational rupture. The prophet says their iniquities have "made a separation between you and your God." This is the biblical definition of death: separation. Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body. Spiritual death, which is the root of all our miseries, is the separation of the soul from God, the fountain of life.
Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the day. They had fellowship, communion. When they sinned, they hid from His presence. That hiding, that separation, is the essence of the curse. All the subsequent social chaos that Isaiah describes flows from this foundational alienation from God. When a society is cut off from the source of all truth, justice, and peace, it is no surprise that their highways are filled with devastation and destruction. The problem is vertical before it is horizontal.
Clause-by-Clause Commentary
v. 1 Behold, the hand of Yahweh is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear.
Isaiah begins by dismantling a false and blasphemous assumption. When things go wrong, our first temptation is to question God’s character or capability. Perhaps God is not powerful enough. Perhaps He is not paying attention. The prophet cuts this off at the knees. The problem is never a deficiency in God. His arm, a metaphor for His active power in the world, is not shrunken or limited. His ear is not heavy or deaf to the cries of His people. God is always and eternally omnipotent and attentive. If there is a problem in the covenant relationship, we must look elsewhere for the cause.
v. 2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
Here is the true diagnosis. The word "but" is the pivot. The problem isn’t God’s ability; it is your iniquity. Sin is the great separator. It erects a barrier, a dividing wall. Think of it as a thick cloud that hides the sun. The sun is still shining, its power undiminished, but the cloud blocks its light and warmth. Your sins, Isaiah says, have hidden God’s face. This is covenantal language. For God to show His face is to grant favor and blessing (Num. 6:25-26). To hide His face is to withdraw that favor, to enact covenant curses. God is not refusing to hear out of spite; He is acting in perfect justice. The lines of communication are down, and it is our sin that cut the wire.
v. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken a lie; Your tongue mutters unrighteousness.
The prophet now provides the bill of particulars. The sin is pervasive, affecting every part of them. Their hands, the instruments of action, are stained with bloodshed, indicating both literal violence and the guilt of oppressing the innocent. Their fingers, used for more detailed work, are polluted with iniquity. Their lips and tongue, the instruments of communication, are dedicated to falsehood and wickedness. This is a total-body corruption. It is not just that they do bad things; they are corrupt from the inside out. Their very speech is a low muttering of unrighteousness.
v. 4 No one calls in righteousness, and no one seeks justice in truth. They trust in confusion and speak worthlessness; They conceive trouble and give birth to wickedness.
The corruption has now poisoned the entire civil and judicial system. The courts, which should be the bedrock of a stable society, are a sham. No one files a lawsuit with a righteous cause ("calls in righteousness"). No one pleads their case in truth. Instead of trusting in God and His law, they trust in "confusion" or emptiness. Their arguments are worthless vanity. The metaphor of conception and birth is striking. They think up trouble and the inevitable result is the birth of wickedness. The whole process, from thought to speech to deed, is corrupt.
v. 5 They break open vipers’ eggs and weave the spider’s web; He who eats of their eggs dies, And from that which is crushed a snake breaks forth.
The imagery here is brilliant and chilling. Their activities are like hatching poisonous snakes. To partake in their schemes ("eats of their eggs") is to invite death. Even if you try to stop them, to crush the egg, another viper emerges. This points to the self-perpetuating nature of sin. Their other activity is weaving a spider’s web. This speaks of intricate, deceptive, and ultimately flimsy and useless plotting. They are masters of entrapment and deceit, but what they produce has no substance.
v. 6 Their webs will not become a garment, Nor will they cover themselves with their works; Their works are works of wickedness, And a deed of violence is in their hands.
The spider’s web metaphor is now explained. You cannot make clothing out of a spider’s web. It is useless for covering. In the same way, their elaborate schemes and works cannot cover their sin or provide any real security. Adam and Eve tried to cover their shame with fig leaves, and it was a pathetic failure. So are these works of wickedness. They are trying to build a covering, a self-justification, but their materials are rotten. Their works cannot save them; they only reveal them to be violent and wicked.
v. 7 Their feet run to evil, And they are quick to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of wickedness; Devastation and destruction are in their highways.
The corruption is not passive; it is active and energetic. Their feet don't just wander into evil; they run to it. They are eager to commit violence. The apostle Paul quotes this section in Romans 3 to demonstrate the universal depravity of man. The internal corruption ("their thoughts are thoughts of wickedness") manifests in external chaos. The public square, the "highways," are not places of commerce and peace, but of devastation and destruction. When a nation abandons God's law, the roads become unsafe. This is the inevitable outworking of a society that has been separated from God.
v. 8 They do not know the way of peace, And there is no justice in their tracks; They have made their paths crooked, Whoever treads on them does not know peace.
The final summary is bleak. Peace is a path, a way of life, and they are completely ignorant of it. There can be no peace where there is no justice. Their paths, their ways of conducting business and life, are crooked and perverse. And this crookedness is contagious. Whoever follows their lead, whoever walks in their ways, will also be a stranger to peace. Peace is not just the absence of conflict; it is the positive blessing of shalom, of wholeness and well-being, that comes from walking in covenant with God. They have rejected the Prince of Peace, and so peace has fled from their land.