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James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary

Isaiah 64:6

THE FADING LEAF

‘We all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.’

Isaiah 64:6

I. Lessons of the falling leaf.

(a) It is a picture of man’s insignificance on the face of God’s world.

(b) It is a picture of the inherent decay of man.

(c) It is a picture of the inevitable fate of man.

(d) It is a picture of the universal fate of man.

II. Look at the figure of the falling leaf as solemnised by the thought of sin.

(a) Sin has made the departure of man premature.

(b) Sin has made man’s departure from this world a violent one.

(c) Sin has given to man’s departure from this world a dark and terrible fear for the future.

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See also Isaiah 64:6 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Isaiah 64:6. _AS FILTHY RAGS_] עדים _iddim_. Rab. Mosheh ben Maimon interpretatur עדים _iddim_, vestes quibus mulier se abstergit post congressum cum marito suo. _Alii_ pannus menstruatus. _Ali...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    BUT WE ARE ALL AS AN UNCLEAN THING - We are all polluted and defiled. The word used here (טמא _ṭâmē'_), means properly that which is polluted and defiled in a Levitical sense; that is, which was re...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER 63:7-19-64:12 The Great Intercessory Prayer 1. _Jehovah's loving kindness and power in the past remembered (Isaiah 63:7) _ 2. _Their deepest need (Isaiah 63:15) _ 3. The cry of faith, Thou ar...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    ISAIAH 63:15 TO ISAIAH 64:9. A FERVENT PRAYER TO YAHWEH TO INTERVENE AGAIN FOR HIS CHILDREN. The appeal rings like a litany, reminding Yahweh, who has withdrawn into His glorious heavenly palace, of H...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    WIND. Hebrew. _ruach._ App-9....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    Isaiah 63:7 to Isaiah 64:12. A Prayer of the People for the Renewal of Jehovah's former Lovingkindness (1) Isaiah 63:7. The prayer begins with thankful commemoration of Jehovah's goodness to the nati...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    This difficult passage contains (1) an appeal to that which distinguishes Jehovah from all other deities: He is the only God who works for them that wait for Him in the way of righteousness; (2) a con...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    AND WE ARE ALL BECOME AS ONE UNCLEAN in a ceremonial sense, like the leper. _and all our righteousnesses &c._ our righteous deeds, our best efforts after the fulfilment of the divine will, are stain...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    A pathetic description of the degeneracy and spiritual lethargy of the people, caused by the divine wrath....

  • Charles Simeon's Horae Homileticae

    DISCOURSE: 1018 IMPERFECTION OF OUR BEST SERVICES Isaiah 64:6. _We are all as an unclean thing; and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags._ HUMILITY is that grace which is most suited to our con...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    THOU MEETEST HIM THAT REJOICETH, &C.— Thou meetest with joy those who work righteousness; who in thy ways remember thee. Lo! thou art angry; for we have sinned; because of our deeds; for we have been...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    D. RESTLESSNESS OF ZION (cont-'d), Chapter S 63 - 64 4. PENITENTLY VEXED TEXT: Isaiah 64:1-7 1 Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might quake a...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. BUT WE ARE ALL AS AN UNCLEAN...

  • Darby's translation notes (1890)

    64:6 rags; (h-17) Or 'like a menstruous garment.' Cf. ch. 30.22....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    AN UNCLEAN _thing_] RV 'one that is unclean.' FILTHY RAGS] RV 'a polluted garment': such as was ceremonially unclean....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    1-3. The imagery is taken from the account of the divine manifestation at Sinai (Exodus 19:18)....

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

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  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

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  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    WE ARE ALL AS AN UNCLEAN THING... — Better, _as he who is unclean, scil.,_ like the leper of Leviticus 13:45. FILTHY RAGS point to that which to the Israelite was the other extremest form of ceremoni...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

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  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    CHAPTER XXV A LAST INTERCESSION AND THE JUDGMENT Isaiah 63:7 through Isaiah 66:1 WE might well have thought, that with the section we have been considering the prophecy of Israel's Redemption had re...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    A CRY FOR PARDON Isaiah 64:1-12 _The great past_, Isaiah 64:1-5. We are introduced to the prophet's oratory and hear the outpourings of his heart. As he recalls the story of bygone days, he asks that...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    The praise and confession merge into a prayer in which the sore need of the people is first described, and then a cry full of intense anguish is lifted for the dawning of the day when Jehovah will act...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    But we are all as an unclean [thing], and all our (h) righteousnesses [are] as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (h) We are justly puni...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    Unclean: leper. (Grotius) (Leviticus xiii. 45.) --- Justices. That is, the works by which we pretended to make ourselves just. This is spoken particularly of the sacrifices, sacraments, and ceremonies...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    To the earnest cry of the soul, that went up in the preceding supplication, the humbling of the soul, in the deepest self abasement of spirit, which here follows, becomes a most suited addition, in pr...

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    6._We have all been as the unclean. _The believers go on in their complaint; for they deplore their condition, because God appears to take no account of them. Hebrew writers are not agreed as to the m...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 64 AND 65. The next two Chapter s give us a full revelation of the dealings of God in answer to this appeal. First of all, God, through His grace, had been so...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    BUT WE ARE ALL AS AN UNCLEAN THING,.... Or "we have been" t; so all men are in a state of nature: man was made pure and holy, but by sinning became impure; and this impurity is propagated by natural g...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    But we are all as an unclean [thing], and all our righteousnesses [are] as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. Ver. 6. _But we are all as...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _We are all as an unclean thing_ Or, _unclean person_, as שׂמא equally signifies. He seems to allude to persons unclean through the leprosy, which was the highest degree of uncleanness among the Jews....

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    But, or in consequence of this sad situation, WE ARE ALL AS AN UNCLEAN THING, like the uncleanness of leprosy, AND ALL OUR RIGHTEOUSNESSES, all the deeds which men might consider righteous and laudabl...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    AN APPEAL TO JEHOVAH TO FORSAKE HIS WRATH...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    6-12 The people of God, in affliction, confess and bewail their sins, owning themselves unworthy of his mercy. Sin is that abominable thing which the Lord hates. Our deeds, whatever they may seem to...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    WE ARE ALL AS AN UNCLEAN THING: he alludes either to things unclean under the ceremonial law, wherein the leprosy was found, and was to be burnt, LEVITICUS 13:55; or rather to persons unclean. They co...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Isaiah 64:6 unclean H2931 righteousnesses H6666 filthy H5708 rags H899 fade H5034 (H8799) (H8676) H1101 ...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    ISAIAH ADMITS THE UTTER UNWORTHINESS OF THOSE WHOM HE REPRESENTS (ISAIAH 64:5). Isaiah 64:5 ‘You meet him who rejoices and works righteousness, Those who remember you in your ways, Behold you were...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    Isaiah 64:6 I. Notice, first, the very pernicious fact of our inaptitude to feel and reflect that our mortal condition is fading. (1) We are very unapt to recognise the common lot and destiny of all h...

  • Spurgeon's Bible Commentary

    Isaiah 64:1. _Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth,_ Or, much better, «as when th...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Fear and hope of remnant of Israel in day of vengeance. CHARACTERS: God, Christ. CONCLUSION: The remnant of Israel in the day of Christ's vengeance will bewail their sins, thereby justifyi...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Isaiah 64:1. A new scene of prophetic events opens here, where the prophet in time of trouble cries the more in spirit to the Messiah. _Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens and come down._ It is str...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _But we are all as an unclean thing_ ISRAEL’S UNCLEANNESS “And we are all become as one unclean”--in a ceremonial sense, like the leper. (_Prof. Skinner, D. D._) LAMENTATIONS OF ISAIAH You have r...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    ISAIAH—NOTE ON ISAIAH 64:5 With four comparisons, Isaiah laments the long-standing patterns of sin among God’s people. FOR YOU HAVE HIDDEN YOUR FACE. See Isaiah 8:17. Wh

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    AUTUMN LEAVES Isaiah 64:6. _And we all do fade as a leaf._ Men have ever been ready to associate the seasons of the year with the periods of human life: to compare our youth with the spring time, &c....

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION ISAIAH 64:1 ISRAEL'S PRAYER CONTINUED AND CONCLUDED. Not content with praying God to look upon them once more with favour (Isaiah 63:15), Israel now asks for a theophany, or manifesta

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, and that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, As when the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil, and makes thy...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    1 Peter 1:24; 1 Peter 1:25; Ephesians 2:1; Ephesians 2:2; Hosea 4:19;...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    Unclean — Formerly there were some that feared thee; but now we are all as one polluted mass, nothing of good left in us by reason of an universal degeneracy. And all — The very best of us all are no...

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