EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries
Isaiah 59:21
This repeats the *Lord’s promise of good gifts, at the beginning of Isaiah’s message (see Isaiah 1:19).
Lord ~ God’s name in the Bible. In the original language, God’s names mean ‘head over all’ and ‘God always’.
justice ~ fair judgements.
Jerusalem ~ at the time of David and Solomon, the capital of the country called Israel. During the time of Isaiah, Jerusalem was the capital of the country called Judah.'Old Testament ~ the first part of the Bible. It contains 39 books, all from the time before Jesus was born.'New Testament ~ the final part of the Bible. It contains 27 books from the time of the first Christians.
Isaiah: New *Heavens and a New Earth
God’s *Messiah Beats God’s Enemies
Isaiah Chapter s 56 to 66
Gordon Churchyard
The words in square brackets, […], are not in the *Hebrew Bible. They make the book easier to understand in English. Isaiah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language. The words in round brackets (…) are explanations.Chapter 59
v1 Look! The hand of the *LORD is not too short to save you. Neither is his ear too deaf to hear you.
v2 But the wrong things that you have done have separated you from your God. Your *sins have hidden [his] face from you, so that he will not listen [to you].
v3-4 [This is true] for these reasons.
Blood stains your hands.
The wrong things that you do are [like marks] on your fingers.
Your lips have spoken lies.
Also, your tongue quietly says evil things.
Nobody asks for a fair decision.
Nobody claims honestly for his rights.
People give reasons that mean nothing.
People speak lies.
People *conceive trouble and they give birth to evil [things].
v5 They *hatch the eggs of snakes and they are always making *spider’s webs (silky nets to catch flies). People that eat such eggs will die. And when they break an [egg], a [worse] snake will *hatch out.
v6 They cannot use [*spiders’] webs (silky nets) [to make] clothes. They cannot cover themselves with the things that they make. The things that they do are evil. And they use their hands to hurt people.
v7 Their feet hurry to do bad things. They rush to spill innocent blood. Their thoughts are evil thoughts. They ruin and destroy things wherever they go.
v8 They do not know the way to *peace. Their paths are never honest. They have bent their roads. Nobody that walks on them will know *peace.
v9 So, [God’s] laws are far away from us! Therefore, goodness does not reach us! We look for light, but everything is darkness. [We look] for a glimpse of light, but we walk in dense shadows.
v10 Like blind people, we feel [our way] along the wall. We feel our way like men without eyes. At midday, we fall over as if the light was poor. We are like dead people among strong people.
v11 We all make angry noises, like bears [make]. And we make sad noises, like [birds called] doves make. We look for [people to obey God’s] laws, but we do not find any. [We look] for [people] to help us, but they are far away.
v12 [This is] because we have done many wrong things in your sight, [God]. And our *sins give evidence against us. The wrong things that we have done are always with us. And we know about our *sins.
v13 We have not obeyed the *LORD and we have not been loyal to him. We have turned away from our God. We have spoken about [these things]:
[We could be] cruel [to other people].
[We could] fight against [God].
We have spoken the lies that we have thought about in our hearts.
v14 Therefore, we have sent away [God’s] laws. Good character [is like someone who] stands a long way away. Truth [is like someone who] has fallen over in the streets. And honest character cannot enter [our society].
v15a [People] cannot find truth anywhere. Also, [it is dangerous for] a person to avoid evil [behaviour]. [Whenever someone does that, bad people] hunt that person to kill him.
v15b And the *LORD looked [at his people]. And it did not please him that [people did] not obey [his] laws.
v16 He saw that there was nobody to do anything [about it]. And he considered it terrible that there was nobody to act [in this matter]. So his own arm [brought about] salvation (freedom) for him. And his own very great goodness made him strong.
v17 He put on very great goodness as [a soldier wears] something strong to protect his upper body. And [he put on] salvation (rescue and safety) as [a soldier puts on] something strong to protect his head. He put on clothes [to help him] to fight against his enemies. And he was so eager [to fight them] that it (his eager attitude) was like a coat all round him!
v18 He will give back to people what they deserve.
There will be anger against the people that fight against him.
[There will be] a fair punishment to his enemies.
[There will be] a due payment to the islands.
v19 In the west, people will be afraid of the name of the *LORD. And from where the sun rises [in the east], they will respect his *glory. [This is] because he will rush along like a river. The Spirit of the *LORD will push him along.
v20 ‘The *Redeemer will come to *Zion. [He will come] to the people from Jacob’s [family] who are sorry for their *sins’, declares the *LORD.
v21 ‘Now I, I have this *covenant with them’, says the *LORD. ‘My Spirit is upon you and I have put my words into your mouth. They will not go from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their children. This will be [true], now and always’, says the *LORD.
Notes
Verse 1 ‘Too short’ means ‘too weak’. ‘Too deaf’ means ‘would not listen’.
Verse 2 ‘*Sins’ are the wrong things that we do. They include our evil words and our evil thoughts. These verses tell us that *sins are like a fence between us and God. They separate us from God.
Verses 3-4 These verses contain a list of the *sins that had separated God from his people. ‘The people’ means the leaders and many of the ordinary people. The verses probably mean:
| Blood stains your hands. | They have killed people, perhaps because these people served God. In the *Hebrew Bible, ‘hands’ here means [what you] ‘gripped’. |
| The wrong things that you do are [like marks] on your fingers. | The word ‘fingers’ emphasises that they have involved themselves personally. |
| Your lips have spoken lies. | ‘Lips’ here means ‘mouths’. |
| Your tongue quietly says evil things. | ‘Your tongue’ also means ‘mouth’. Together, lips and tongue mean ‘everything that you say’. |
| Nobody asks for a fair decision. | ‘Nobody’ means the evil people that do these bad things. They do what is unfair. They ask judges to make judgements that are unfair and wicked. |
| Nobody claims honestly for his rights. | Again, ‘nobody’ means the bad people. They do not speak honestly. They tell lies to get what they want. |
| People give reasons that mean nothing. | ‘People’ means the bad people. Their untrue words have no value. In English, we call those ‘empty words’. |
| People speak lies. | Again this means the bad people. The lies are probably the ‘reasons that mean nothing’. |
| People *conceive trouble and they give birth to evil [things]. | ‘*Conceive’ means ‘have sex to make a baby’. Here it means that they do things in order to make trouble for other people. They do not ‘give birth’ to a real baby here. Instead of a baby, the result of their actions is that even more bad things happen. |
Verses 5-6a An egg ‘hatches’ when the baby animal inside it comes out (‘hatches out’). Before that happens, the mother animal sits on the egg. We use the word ‘hatches’ for both actions: the egg hatches out, and the mother hatches the egg. The link with verse 4 is the word ‘*conceive’. Here, the baby animal means something very nasty that happens to the people. A ‘*spider’ is like an insect that cannot fly. Actually, an insect has 6 legs, but a *spider has 8 legs. A *spider catches its food in a net called a web. It makes that out of a very thin silky string that comes from its body. One way to understand these verses is to change the order of the words.
They *hatch the eggs of snakes. People that eat their eggs will die. And when they break one, a [worse] snake will *hatch out.
They are always making *spider’s webs (silky nets to catch flies). They cannot use their webs to make clothes. They cannot cover themselves with the things that they make from them.
‘They’ means the people in verses 3-4. They do two things. One is dangerous, the other has no use.
1) Bible students are not sure what kinds of snakes Isaiah meant. But the snakes poison people when the snakes bite them. The second snake is probably more poisonous than the first snake. Isaiah probably means this. What people do in verses 3-4 will make things go from bad to worse! In other words, the situation is already bad, but it will become even worse.
2) People cannot make clothes with *spider’s webs (silky nets to catch flies). In the same way, what people do in verses 3-4 will be of no use. They will not make things become better!
Verse 6b-7 Everything that they do is bad! ‘Their feet hurry’ and ‘rush’ to do these things. This means that they do these bad things quickly. They do not wait to think about what they are doing. ‘To spill innocent blood’ means ‘to kill people that have done nothing wrong’. So, ‘blood stains their hands’, verse 3.
Verse 8 ‘Way’, ‘path’ and ‘road’ all mean the same. They mean the rules that we use to decide what to do. An English phrase for this is ‘life-style’. The life-style of the leaders (and, probably, many of the people) did not bring them *peace. This does not mean ‘no war’. It means their life-style did not satisfy them. They were never really content.
Verses 9-11 These verses describe how some people feel, including Isaiah. ‘Goodness’ means the good things that God and his people do. Here, it means a fair and honest society. ‘Light’ in verse 9 probably means God, or the leader that God will send. Isaiah often uses ‘light’ to mean God or God’s *Messiah. The ‘*Messiah’ was a special leader that God promised to send to his people. For Christians, Jesus is the *Messiah. Look at number 5 in the section ‘Something to do’. There you can see some verses in Isaiah about light and the *Messiah. Notice four things in these verses:
1) People look for just a glimpse of light, but they see none. The ‘glimpse of light’ probably means ‘a small thing that God does for them’.
2) People feel like people that are blind. They feel as if they can see nothing. The darkness means that the nation is not obeying God’s laws.
3) People feel as weak in the situation as if they were ‘dead’. The people that do not obey God are ‘strong’.
4) That makes people both angry and sad. A bird called a ‘dove’ makes a sound like somebody that is crying quietly.
Verse 12 This verse is like something in a court of law.
| The people agree that they are guilty. | We have done many things that are wrong in your sight. (‘In your sight’ means ‘as God looks at them’.) |
| Their *sin is the lawyer that accuses them. | And our *sins give evidence against us. |
| We know that the lawyer’s words are true. | The wrong things that we have done are always with us. |
| The people know all about their *sins. | And we know about our *sins. |
Verse 13 ‘Turned away’ means that they have not obeyed God. They refused to serve him and they neglected his law. The people thought that they could be cruel to poorer people. ‘Have thought about’ translates the same *Hebrew word as ‘*conceive’ in verse 4. We could translate the last line as: ‘we have spoken the lies that our hearts *conceived.’
Verses 14-15a These verses end this section (verses 9-15a). They say what is wrong with society as a result of people’s *sins. The worst thing is at the end. Society opposes the people that want to obey God’s laws! People have good character when they obey God’s laws continuously.
Verse 15b-16 God does do something to answer the prayer in verses 9-15a. That was the prayer of the few people who are still loyal to God. Only they still love and obey God. ‘Do anything’ really means ‘come between’. There was nobody to ‘come between’ God and his people, in order to give them a right relationship with himself. Or, there was nobody to ‘come between’ them and their enemies, to save (rescue) them. So God decided to do it himself! ‘His own arm’ is a phrase that means: ‘God is doing something.’ For Christians, it often means Jesus Christ, even in the *Old Testament. Read the note on Isaiah 53:1. ‘Salvation’ here means that he ‘makes his people free’. The *Hebrew word for ‘salvation’ is the word from which we get the name ‘Jesus’.
Verse 17 These words describe what God wears in battle. He does not use guns and swords like our soldiers. He uses his *righteousness (very great goodness) to bring salvation (rescue and freedom) to his people.
Verse 18 But those things, *righteousness (very great goodness) and salvation (rescue and freedom), will still punish God’s enemies. That is because God is very, very good. He is so good that he has to punish people for *sin. We do not know exactly how God will do that. But there will be punishment for people that are not sorry for their *sins. The verse compares that to a loan. The punishment is like a payment that God ‘gives back’ to them. The ‘islands’ are the countries outside the boundaries of Judah.
Verse 19 ‘Be afraid of’ means the same here as ‘respect’. God’s *glory is his greatness. The Bible often describes God’s glory as a shining light that is more splendid than anything else. God shines more strongly than the sun! Bible students differ in how they translate verse 19b. They are not sure what the *Hebrew words there really mean. Here are some examples.
| King James Bible | Buksbazen (a writer who is a *Jew) | New International Version |
| When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the *LORD shall lift up a standard against him. | For distress shall come like a pent-up stream, driven by the Spirit of the *LORD. | For he will come like a pent-up flood that the breath of the *LORD drives along. |
|
|
That text has a note that the verse can also be similar to the King James Bible. |
This part of the verse could therefore mean two things:
1) When there is trouble, God will do something to help his people. (King James)
2) The Spirit of God will come like a flood against his enemies in verse 18. (Buksbazen)
The New International Version gives both translations. Both are true! In our translation, ‘he’ and ‘him’ mean ‘the *LORD’.
Verse 20 ‘*Redeemer’ is a name for God and his *Messiah. There are notes on the word ‘*redeem’ at Isaiah 43:1. The ‘people from Jacob’s [family]’ is a name for the *Jews.
Verse 21 A ‘*covenant’ is an agreement. Here, it is a special agreement between God and his people. They agree to love God and to obey him. They will serve him as their God. God agrees to be their God and to protect them. He will show his love to them. Here, the *covenant is probably what God has just said in verse 20.
Something to do
1. Read Isaiah 1:10-20. Compare it with Isaiah chapter 58. Both passages say that religion is not enough. People must also obey God’s laws.
2. Study Isaiah 52:12; Romans 13:12 and 2 Corinthians 6:7. Compare them with Isaiah 58:8b.
3. Read Exodus 13:20-22. Of which verse in Isaiah chapter 58 does that passage remind you?
4. Read Genesis 2:1-3, which tells us about the beginning of the *Sabbath. Also, read Exodus 20:8-11.
5. Find these verses in Isaiah: 2:5; 5:20 and 5:30; 9:2; 10:17; 30:26; 42:6 and 42:16; 45:7; 49:6; 51:4; 58:8 and 58:10; 60:1 and 60:3; 60:19-20. Decide which of these refers to the *Messiah.
6. Pray for your country as Isaiah prayed for his country in 59:9-15a. He did not say that they have done wrong things. Instead he said that we have done wrong things.
heavens ~ another word for ‘skies’. It can also mean the place where God lives and the skies above us.
messiah ~ a leader such as a king. With a capital M (that is, ‘Messiah’), it means Jesus for Christians.
Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
LORD ~ LORD is a special name of God. In the Hebrew language, it is YHWH. It may mean ‘always alive’. So LORD is a sign that the Hebrew word is YHWH.
lord ~ master. When it has a capital L (that is, ‘Lord’), it is a name for God.
Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
sin ~ not to obey God. Or, what you do when you do not obey God.
conceive ~ to have sex so that a baby will be born.
hatch ~ how a bird keeps eggs warm until the young birds leave the eggs.
spider ~ a tiny animal that seems like an insect. However, unlike insects, spiders have 8 legs and they cannot fly.
peace ~ a calm and content attitude. The word often means simply that there is no war. But ‘peace’ especially means the calm and content attitude of a person who has a right relationship with God.
glory ~ something that shines and is wonderful. Especially, it is God’s splendid beauty.
Zion ~ a name for Jerusalem.
covenant ~ the agreement between God and his people. In this agreement God agrees to help and to protect his people. His people agree to love and to serve God. Or, an agreement between nations.
sin ~ not to obey God. Or, what you do when you do not obey God.
conceive ~ to have sex so that a baby will be born.'Old Testament ~ the earlier part of the Bible.
righteousness ~ great goodness.
Jews ~ the people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
redeem ~ a member of your family buys you from an enemy.
Sabbath ~ the 7th day of the week (Saturday), when the Jews worshipped God. It was a day for rest and prayer.
Jews ~ the people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
worship ~ to tell God (or a false god) that he is wonderful; and also, to tell him that you love him.