Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 59:3

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Isaiah 59:3. Your tongue - "And your tongue"] An ancient MS., and the Septuagint and Vulgate, add the conjunction.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Society incapable of reform (59:1-21)

Ungodly society is heading for destruction. The reason for this is not that God is powerless to save people, but that people’s sins have cut them off from God, the only one who can save them. They have filled the land with violence, lies and treachery (59:1-3).
Because of the corruption of the courts, there is no justice in society (4). Wickedness multiplies as evil people spread their poison and trap the innocent in their plots. They try to cover their sin with a show of respectability, but they are not successful (5-6). Because their thoughts are evil, their actions also are evil. Always devious, they are a constant source of trouble to others. They know nothing of such basic virtues as kindness, honesty and justice (7-8).
The prophet then joins with the people in confessing their sin. They would like to see an end to oppression and injustice, but they hope in vain. They live in a society of moral darkness that they themselves have created (9-11). They have turned away from following God and have developed a way of life where honesty and truth are ignored (12-13). Injustice and corruption are everywhere, from the highest law courts down to the market places of the common people. The person who tries to be honest suffers persecution from those who find it more convenient to cooperate with the corrupt system. God sees all this and it displeases him (14-15).
God sees that the human race cannot reform itself. What is needed is the intervention of God. In purity and justice he acts against the sinners, with the result that people worldwide acknowledge his lordship (16-19). Those who repent of their sins enter a new relationship with him. They become his true people and enjoy the spiritual blessings of his covenant with them (20-21).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

Isaiah 59:1-2 here give the Lord’s answer to the complaining Jews; and the next six verses (Isaiah 59:3-8) give Jehovah’s indictment of the hardened nation, then nearing the time of their destruction under the judgment of God.

“Behold, Jehovah’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue muttereth wickedness. None sueth in righteousness, and none pleadeth in truth; they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. They hatch adders’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth; and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. Their web 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. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they know not; and there is no justice in their goings: they have made them crooked paths; whosoever goeth therein doth not know peace.”

No better description was ever written of the Jewish leaders in their devices against the Lord Jesus Christ than is this one. First, the Lord gave Israel the reasons why the nation was not being blessed, why they were under the heel of the Romans, and all the rest of it. It was simply the diabolical wickedness of the Jewish nation itself.

But look at the way they treated Jesus: (1) they told many lies against him; (2) they suborned liars to swear against him in his trials; (3) they made haste to shed the innocent blood of Jesus whom their governor declared to be innocent; (4) they wove a web of intrigue to get Jesus murdered clandestinely (Matthew 26); (5) they bribed the soldiers who witnessed Jesus’ resurrection to lie about it; (6) they pressed false charges against him before Pilate; (7) through their friend Herod Agrippa II, they planned the murder of the apostles (Acts 12); (8) their High Priest (of all people) conspired with forty murderers determined to murder Paul, all of the chief priests and elders taking part in it (Acts 23:11-15); (9) once, they even attempted to stone Jesus. This paragraph is a perfect picture of that wicked generation.

McGuiggan described the condition of the Jewish nation at the time prophesied here: “They think and act swiftly to do evil. The innocent seem to be their special target. They have crooked minds, practice crooked actions on crooked roads of their own crooked making; and anyone foolish enough to walk with them on that crooked path finds only restlessness and destruction (Isaiah 59:7-8).”Jim McGuiggan, p. 297. The apostle Paul’s description of the same people at that same period agrees perfectly with this (Rom. 2:17-29, 3:1:19), the topic sentence of that entire portion of Romans is the declaration that, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you (the Jews)” (Romans 2:24).

The wickedness of the people of Israel had already been frequently mentioned by Isaiah; but God had commanded Isaiah to use a loud voice like a trumpet to reveal the sins of the house of Jacob; and this outline of their gross wickedness goes beyond other references to it. Here the final climax of the judicial hardening prophesied in Isaiah 6:6-12 seems to be in focus. As Henderson said. “The awful picture is applicable to that period of history immediately preceding the destruction of the Jewish polity by the Romans.”E. Henderson, p. 429. This is surely true, but the same conditions had prevailed for a half a millennium already when Vespasian and Titus destroyed the Jewish nation in 70 A.D. God indeed waited an additional forty years, thus giving the hardened Israel a chance to repent; but the nation had deserved that destruction for many years already when the blow finally fell.

Back in Isaiah 53:8, there is the question, “Who can describe his generation?” that is, the generation that crucified the Son of God. Indeed, it was an almost indescribable generation! The total corruption of the people took place; and even the Holy of Holies in the Temple itself was stacked full of dead bodies! Josephus devoted twenty full pages (beginning on p. 744) to a detailed description of the unbelievable wickedness that overwhelmed Judah and Jerusalem prior to the fall of the city to the Romans.Josephus, Wars of the Jews, p. 744.

In the next paragraph Isaiah identified himself with the sinful nation and confessed their sinfulness and depravity, thus, in effect, admitting that all of the hardships and disasters that had come upon Israel were fully deserved by them, due to their excessive wickedness.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

For your hands are defiled with blood - The prophet proceeds here more particularly to specify the sins of which they were guilty; and in order to show the extent and depth of their depravity, he specifies the various members of the body - the hands, the fingers, the lips, the tongue, the feet as the agents by which people commit iniquity. See a similar argument on the subject of depravity in Romans 3:13-15, where a part of the description which the prophet here gives is quoted by Paul, and applied to the Jews in his own time. The phrase ‘your hands are defiled with blood,’ means with the blood of the innocent; that is, they were guilty of murder, oppression, and cruelty. See a similar statement in Isaiah 1:15, where the phrase ‘your hands are full of blood’ occurs. The word rendered here ‘defiled’ (גאל gā'al) means commonly to redeem, to ransom; then to avenge, or to demand and inflict punishment for bloodshed. In the sense of defiling it occurs only in the later Hebrew writers - perhaps used in this sense because those who were avengers became covered, that is, defiled with blood.

And your fingers with iniquity - The fingers in the Scriptures are represented as the agents by which any purpose is executed Isaiah 2:8, ‘Which their own fingers have made’ (compare Isaiah 17:8). Some have supposed that the phrase used here means the same as the preceding, that they were guilty of murder and cruelty. But it seems more probable that the idea suggested by Grotius is the true sense, that it means that they were guilty of rapine and theft. The fingers are the instruments by which theft - especially the lighter and more delicate kinds of theft - is executed. Thus we use the word ‘light-fingered’ to denote anyone who is dexterous in taking and conveying away anything, or anyone who is addicted to petty thefts.

Your lips have spoken lies - The nation is false, and no confidence can be reposed in the declarations which are made.

Your tongue hath muttered - On the word rendered ‘muttered’ (הגה hâgâh), see the notes at Isaiah 8:19. Probably there is included in the word here, the idea that they not only spoke evil, but that they did it with a complaining, discontented, or malicious spirit. It may also mean that they calumniated the government of God, and complained of his laws; or it may mean, as Grotius supposes, that they calumniated others - that is, that slander abounded among them.

Perverseness - Hebrew, עולה ‛avlâh - ‘Evil ‘ - the word from which our word evil is derived.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

3.For your hands. He now brings forward their actions, that they may not practice evasion, or call in question what are those sins which have “caused the separation.” He therefore takes away from them every excuse, by bringing forward particular instances, as if their shameful life were exhibited on an open stage. Now, he speaks in the second person, because, like an advocate, he argues and pleads the cause of God, and therefore speaks of himself as not belonging to the rank of the wicked, with whom he did not wish to be classed, though he was not entirely free from sin, but feared and served God, and enjoyed liberty of conscience. No man could be at liberty to condemn others, who was involved in the guilt of the same vices; and no man could be qualified for pleading the cause of God, who deprived himself of his right by living wickedly. We must be unlike those whom we reprove, if we do not wish to expose our doctrine to ridicule, and to be reckoned impudent; and, on the other band, when we serve God with a pure conscience, our doctrine obtains weight and authority, and holds even adversaries to be more fully convicted.

Are polluted with blood. The picture which he gives of the wicked life of the people is not superfluous; for men seek various subterfuges, and cannot be reduced to a state of obedience, unless they have previously acknowledged their sins. By mentioning blood, he does not mean that murders have been everywhere committed; but by this word he describes the cruelty, extortions, violence, and enormities, which were perpetrated by hypocrites against the poor and defenseless; for they had not to deal with robbers and assassins, but with the king and the nobles, who were highly respected and honored. He calls them manslayers, because they cruelly harassed the innocent, and seized by force and violence the property of others; and so, immediately afterwards he uses the word “iniquity” instead of “blood.”

And your fingers with iniquity. Though he appears to extend the discourse farther, yet it is a repetition, or rather, a reduplication, such as is frequently employed by Hebrew writers, accompanied by amplification; for he expresses more by “fingers” than by “hands;“ as if he had said that not even the smallest part was free from unjust violence. ⁽¹³⁰⁾

Your lips have uttered falsehood. Next, he takes notice of one kind of wickedness, that is, when men deceive each other by tricks, or falsehood, or perjury; for that iniquity by which we wound our neighbors is most frequently defended either by cruelty as a body­guard, or by cheating and falsehood. Here the Prophet takes a rapid view of the second table, and, from the crimes which they commit against it, he shows that they are wicked and destitute of all fear of God; for cruelty and treachery, by which human society is infringed, proceed from contempt of God. Thus from “the hands,” that is, from extortion and violence, he descends to falsehoods and deceitful practices, to perjuries and crafty devices, by which we take advantage of our neighbors.

(130) “Que la moindre partie de leur corps est souillee d’extorsion.” “That the smallest part of their body is tainted with extortion.”

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 59

Now in fifty-nine:

Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither is his ear heavy, that it cannot hear ( Isaiah 59:1 ):

"Lord, why aren't You hearing us when we fast? Why aren't You acknowledging it? Why aren't You recognizing it?" Now the Lord's saying, "Hey, look, there's nothing. I don't have any hearing problem. The Lord's hand is not short that He cannot save; neither is His ear heavy that He cannot hear." If you're not getting answers to prayer, it isn't really God's fault. The fault lies within us. And the Lord declares, "My hand is not short, that I cannot save."

But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear ( Isaiah 59:2 ).

David said, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me when I pray" ( Psalms 66:18 ). God says, "Look, My hand is not short, My ear isn't heavy that I cannot save, I cannot hear." But your sins have broken the connection between you and God. Sin can hinder your prayers. For sin breaks your relationship with God. And at that point, prayer is totally meaningless. In fact, it's perhaps a little worse. Prayer is deceitful, because though you know that you are wrong and you are doing wrong, so many times a person passes it off by saying, "Well, I know that I am not living as I should but I still pray. I know that this is wrong. I know that this is sin and all but I still pray." But wait a minute. Your prayers are totally meaningless. You're being deceived by them because God says that He will not hear. Your sin has separated between you and God. So the fact that you still pray is totally meaningless, because you've allowed this sin in your life. And thus you are deceived by your prayer life itself thinking, "Well, I'm not too bad, I still pray."

God declares,

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness ( Isaiah 59:3 ).

So one of the manners of praying was often to lift up their hands to the Lord. But God says, "You're lifting up your hands to Me but they're full of blood, full of iniquity." In that sense, prayer is an insult to God. If I hold up hands before God that are full of blood, full of iniquity, that's insulting God. Surely God will not honor nor hear.

Now God said,

None is calling for justice, no one is pleading for truth: they are trusting in vanity, they are speaking lies; they conceive mischief, and they bring forth iniquity. They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and they weave the spider's web: and he that eats the eggs will die, and those eggs which are crushed will break out into a viper. 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. 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. 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. Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold there is obscurity; we wait for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. 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. 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; 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. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment ( Isaiah 59:4-15 ).

The tragic condition of man and it is expressed, of course, in an extremely poetic way. And this portion of Isaiah is actually Hebrew poetry. And we see the thoughts are expressed in very picturesque ways: crooked paths, groping like a blind man, like a person with no eyes, stumbling at noontime as though it were midnight, desolate as the grave, men who dwell in the grave or in places as dead men. And God looking on the whole thing, seeing the whole perversity of man, seeing the greed of man. Ruling his heart as no one is really seeking to be fair or honest or just. No one calling for justice. Everybody getting by with whatever they can.

And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor ( Isaiah 59:16 ):

No one to cry out against it. People just allowing it to go on.

therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head ( Isaiah 59:16-17 );

It reminds you of Ephesians chapter 6 where we are told to put on the whole armor of God, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation.

and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; and to the coasts he will pay to recompense ( Isaiah 59:17-18 ).

In Hebrews it says that "it is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God" ( Hebrews 10:31 ). For we know Him who has declared, "Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord" ( Romans 12:19 ). And God here speaks of this day of judgment.

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 ( Isaiah 59:19 ),

And He has spoken of that which has taken place here. The enemy is just come in like a flood. There doesn't seem to be any intercessor, anyone who is really seeking for righteousness, anyone who is really seeking for the right thing. No intercessor, and God wonders at it. And the enemy is just come in like a flood. If a person seeks to live righteous, he is sort of isolated. "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, then the Spirit," because there is no intercessor, there is no man to do it.

the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him ( Isaiah 59:19 ).

God intervenes and begins to work.

And the Redeemer [Jesus Christ] shall come to Zion [to Jerusalem], and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD. 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 ( Isaiah 59:20-21 ).

For God in spite of all things is yet going to show forth His mercy and His grace upon these people. Paul the apostle said, "that blindness is happened to Israel in part until the fullness of the Gentiles come in. But then all of Israel shall be saved, as saith the scripture, for the Lord shall come to Zion" ( Romans 11:25-26 ). And so Paul is making a reference really to this particular prophecy of Isaiah of that glorious day when Jesus comes and establishes His kingdom. And from the covenant of God with the people that shall be a perpetual covenant forever. And so the deliverance of Zion, the glorious day of the Lord. Paul said the cutting off brought salvation to the Gentiles. What do you think the grafting of them back in is going to be? If the cutting off of Israel brought such glory to the world, how much more when God restores them and restores His work with these people will the glory of the Lord fill the earth. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Isaiah’s evidence 59:1-8

"This passage describes the appalling moral breakdown of Jewish society-which perfectly accords with what we know of the degeneracy of Manasseh’s reign." [Note: Archer, p. 650.]

The prophet resumed his accusations against God’s people (cf. Isaiah 58:1-5).

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

What Israel did 59:1-15a

As mentioned above, this second segment of the section dealing with the relationship of righteousness and ritual (chs. 58-59) deals with the inability of God’s redeemed people to produce righteous behavior in their own strength. Chapter 57 dealt with their inability to break with idolatry in their own strength.

"In chapter 57 he [Isaiah] condemned adulterous paganism, in chapter 58 hypocritical fasting, while here it is chiefly injustice that calls forth his condemnation. Each of these chapters speaks about prayer. In chapter 57 it was not answered because it was not addressed to the true God (Isaiah 57:13); in chapter 58 because the petitioners are hypocrites (Isaiah 58:4); while here in Isaiah 59:1-2, it is because of their sins and particularly, as later verses indicate, their injustice." [Note: Grogan, p. 325.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Violence and bloodshed among God’s people were signs of their sinfulness. Lies and deception were others.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity,.... From a general charge, the prophet proceeds to a particular enumeration of sins they were guilty of; and idolatry not being mentioned, as Jerom observes, shows that the prophecy belongs to other times than Isaiah's, when that sin greatly prevailed. He begins the account with the sin of shedding blood; the blood of innocents, as the Targum; designing either the sin of murder, now frequently committed in Christian nations; or wars between Christian princes, by means of which much blood is shed; or persecutions of Christian brethren, by casting them into prisons, which have issued in their death; and at least want of brotherly love, or, the hatred of brethren, which is called murder, 1 John 3:15 a prevailing sin in the present Sardian state; and which will not be removed till the spiritual reign or Philadelphian state takes place: and this sin is of a defiling nature; it "defiles" the "hands" or actions; and without love all works signify nothing,

1 Corinthians 13:1: yea, even their "fingers" are said to be defiled "with iniquity"; meaning either their lesser actions; or rather those more curiously and nicely performed, and seemingly more agreeable to the divine will; and yet defiled with some sin or other, as hypocrisy, vain glory, or the like: or it may be this may design the same as putting forth the fingers, and smiting with the fist, Isaiah 58:4, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe; and so may have respect to some sort of persecution of their brethren for conscience sake, as there.

Your lips have spoken lies: or "falsehood" q; that is, false doctrines, so called because contrary to the word of truth, and which deceive men:

your tongue hath muttered perverseness: that which is a perversion of the Gospel of Christ, and of the souls of men; what is contrary to the sacred Scriptures, the standard of faith and practice, and that premeditated, as the word r signifies; done with design, and on purpose: the abounding of errors and heresies in the present day, openly taught and divulged, to the ruin of souls, seems here to be pointed at. In the Talmud s these are explained of the several sorts of men in a court of judicature; the "hands" of the judges; the "fingers" of, the Scribes; the "lips" of advocates and solicitors; and the "tongue" of adversaries, or the contending parties.

q שקר "falsitatem", Montanus, Cocceius; "falsum", Junius Tremeliius, Piscator. r תהגה, μελετα, Sept. "meditabitur", Montanus; "meditatur", Piscator; "meditatam effert", Junius & Tremellius. s T. Bab. Sabbat. fol. 139. 1.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      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.

      The prophet here rectifies the mistake of those who had been quarrelling with God because they had not the deliverances wrought for them which they had been often fasting and praying for, Isaiah 58:3; Isaiah 58:3. Now here he shows,

      I. That it was not owing to God. They had no reason to lay the fault upon him that they were not saved out of the hands of their enemies; for, 1. He was still as able to help as ever: His hand is not shortened, his power is not at all lessened, straitened, or abridged. Whether we consider the extent of his power or the efficacy of it, God can reach as far as ever and with as strong a hand as ever. Note, The church's salvation comes from the hand of God, and that has not waxed weak nor is it at all shortened. Has the Lord's hand waxed short? (says God to Moses, Numbers 11:23). No, it has not; he will not have it thought so. Neither length of time nor strength of enemies, no, nor weakness of instruments, can shorten or straiten the power of God, with which it is all one to save by many or by few. 2. He was still as ready and willing to help as ever in answer to prayer: His ear is not heavy, that it cannot hear. Though he has many prayers to hear and answer, and though he has been long hearing prayer, yet he is still as ready to hear prayer as ever. The prayer of the upright is as much his delight as ever it was, and the promises which are pleaded and put in suit in prayer are still yea and amen, inviolably sure. More is implied than is expressed; not only his ear is not heavy, but he is quick of hearing. Even before they call he answers,Isaiah 65:24; Isaiah 65:24. If your prayers be not answered, and the salvation we wait for be not wrought for us, it is not because God is weary of hearing prayer, but because we are weary of praying, not because his ear is heavy when we speak to him, but because our ears are heavy when he speaks to us.

      II. That it was owing to themselves; they stood in their own light and put a bar in their own door. God was coming towards them in ways of mercy and they hindered him. Your iniquities have kept good things from you,Jeremiah 5:25.

      1. See what mischief sin does. (1.) It hinders God's mercies from coming down upon us; it is a partition wall that separates between us and God. Notwithstanding the infinite distance that is between God and man by nature, there was a correspondence settled between them, till sin set them at variance, justly provoked God against man and unjustly alienated man from God; thus it separates between them and God. "He is your God, yours in profession, and therefore there is so much the more malignity and mischievousness in sin, which separates between you and him." Sin hides his face from us (which denotes great displeasure, Deuteronomy 31:17); it provokes him in anger to withdraw his gracious presence, to suspend the tokens of his favour and the instances of his help; he hides his face, as refusing to be seen or spoken with. See here sin in its colours, sin exceedingly sinful, withdrawing the creature from his allegiance to his Creator; and see sin in its consequences, sin exceedingly hurtful, separating us from God, and so separating us not only from all good, but to all evil (Deuteronomy 29:21), which is the very quintessence of the curse. (2.) It hinders our prayers from coming up unto God; it provokes him to hide his face, that he will not hear, as he has said, Isaiah 1:15; Isaiah 1:15. If we regard iniquity in our heart, if we indulge it and allow ourselves in it, God will not hear our prayers,Psalms 66:18. We cannot expect that he should countenance us while we go on to affront him.

      2. Now, to justify God in hiding his face from them, and proceeding in his controversy with them, the prophet shows very largely, in the Isaiah 59:9-15, how many and great their iniquities were, according to the charge given him (Isaiah 58:1; Isaiah 58:1), to show God's people their transgressions; and it is a black bill of indictment that is here drawn up against them, consisting of many particulars, any one of which was enough to separate between them and a just and a holy God. Let us endeavour to reduce these articles of impeachment to proper heads.

      (1.) We must begin with their thoughts, for there all sin begins, and thence it takes its rise: Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity,Isaiah 59:7; Isaiah 59:7. Their imaginations are so, only evil continually. Their projects and designs are so; they are continually contriving some mischief or other, and how to compass the gratification of some base lust (Isaiah 59:4; Isaiah 59:4): They conceive mischief in their fancy, purpose, counsel, and resolution (thus the embryo receives its shape and life), and then they bring forth iniquity, put it in execution when it is ripened for it. Though it is in pain perhaps that the iniquity is brought forth, through the oppositions of Providences and the checks of their own consciences, yet, when they have compassed their wicked purpose, they look upon it with as much pride and pleasure as if it were a man-child born into the world; thus, when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin,James 1:15. This is called (Isaiah 59:5; Isaiah 59:5) hatching the cockatrice' egg and weaving the spider's web. See how the thoughts and contrivances of wicked men are employed, and about what they set their wits on work. [1.] At the best it is about that which is foolish and frivolous. Their thoughts are vain, like weaving the spider's web, which the poor silly animal takes a great deal of pains about, and, when all is done, it is a weak insignificant thing, a reproach to the place where it is, and which the besom sweeps away in an instant: such are the thoughts which worldly men entertain themselves with, building castles in the air, and pleasing themselves with imaginary satisfaction, like the spider, which takes hold with her hands very finely (Proverbs 30:28), but cannot keep her hold. [2.] Too often it is about that which is malicious and spiteful. They hatch the eggs of the cockatrice or adder, which are poisonous and produce venomous creatures; such are the thoughts of the wicked who delight in doing mischief. He that eats of their eggs (that is, he is in danger of having some mischief or other done him), and that which is crushed in order to be eaten of, or which begins to be hatched and you promise yourself some useful fowl from it, breaks out into a viper, which you meddle with at your peril. Happy are those that have least to do with such men. Even the spider's web which they wove was woven with a spiteful design to catch flies in and make a prey of them; for, rather than not be doing mischief, they will play at small game.

      (2.) Out of this abundance of wickedness in the heart their mouth speaks, and yet it does not always speak out the wickedness that is within, but, for the more effectually compassing the mischievous design, it is dissembled and covered with much fair speech (Isaiah 59:3; Isaiah 59:3): Your lips have spoken lies; and again (Isaiah 59:4; Isaiah 59:4), They speak lies, pretending kindness where they intend the greatest mischief; or by slanders and false accusations they blasted the credit and reputation of those they had a spite to and so did them a real mischief unseen, and perhaps by suborning witnesses against them took from them their estates and lives; for a false tongue is sharp arrows, and coals of juniper, and every thing that is mischievous. Your tongue has muttered perverseness. When they could not, for shame, speak their malice against their neighbours aloud, or durst not, for fear of being disproved and put to confusion, they muttered it secretly. Backbiters are called whisperers.

      (3.) Their actions were all of a piece with their thoughts and words. They were guilty of shedding innocent blood, a crime of the most heinous nature: Your hands are defiled with blood (Isaiah 59:3; Isaiah 59:3); for blood is defiling; it leaves an indelible stain of guilt upon the conscience, which nothing but the blood of Christ can cleanse it from. Now was this a case of surprise, or one that occurred when there was something of a force put upon them; but (Isaiah 59:7; Isaiah 59:7) their feet ran to this evil, naturally and eagerly, and, hurried on by the impetus of their malice and revenge, they made haste to shed innocent blood, as if they were afraid of losing an opportunity to do a barbarous thing, Proverbs 1:16; Jeremiah 22:17. Wasting and destruction are in their paths. Wherever they go they carry mischief along with them, and the tendency of their way is to lay waste and destroy, nor do they care what havoc they make. Nor do they only thirst after blood, but with other iniquities are their fingers defiled (Isaiah 59:3; Isaiah 59:3); they wrong people in their estates and make every thing their own that they can lay their hands on. They trust in vanity (Isaiah 59:4; Isaiah 59:4); they depend upon their arts of cozenage to enrich themselves with, which will prove vanity to them, and their deceiving others will but deceive themselves. Their works, which they take so much pains about and have their hearts so much upon, are all works of iniquity; their whole business is one continued course of oppressions and vexations, and the act of violence is in their hands, according to the arts of violence that are in their heads and the thoughts of violence in their hearts.

      (4.) No methods are taken to redress these grievances, and reform these abuses (Isaiah 59:4; Isaiah 59:4): None calls for justice, none complains of the violation of the sacred laws of justice, nor seeks to right those that suffer wrong or to get the laws put in execution against vice and profaneness, and those lewd practices which are the shame, and threaten to be the bane, of the nation. Note, When justice is not done there is blame to be laid not only upon the magistrates that should administer justice, but upon the people that should call for it. Private persons ought to contribute to the public good by discovering secret wickedness, and giving those an opportunity to punish it that have the power of doing so in their hands; but it is ill with a state when princes rule ill and the people love to have it so. Truth is opposed, and there is not any that pleads for it, not any that has the conscience and courage to appear in defence of an honest cause, and confront a prosperous fraud and wrong. The way of peace is as little regarded as the way of truth; they know it not, that is, they never study the things that make for peace, no care is taken to prevent or punish the breaches of the peace and to accommodate matters in difference among neighbours; they are utter strangers to every thing that looks quiet and peaceable, and affect that which is blustering and turbulent. There is no judgment in their goings; they have not any sense of justice in their dealings; it is a thing they make no account of at all, but can easily break through all its fences if they stand in the way of their malicious covetous designs.

      (5.) In all this they act foolishly, very foolishly, and as much against their interest as against reason and equity. Those that practise iniquity trust in vanity, which will certainly deceive them, Isaiah 59:4; Isaiah 59:4. Their webs, which they weave with so much art and industry, shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves, either for shelter or for ornament, with their works,Isaiah 59:6; Isaiah 59:6. They may do hurt to others with their projects, but can never do any real service or kindness to themselves by them. There is nothing to be got by sin, and so it will appear when profit and loss come to be compared. Those paths of iniquity are crooked paths (Isaiah 59:8; Isaiah 59:8), which will perplex them, but will never bring them to their journey's end; whoever go therein, though they say that they shall have peace notwithstanding they go on, deceive themselves; for they shall not know peace, as appears by the following verses.