stability · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
faileth
נֶעְדֶּ֔רֶתne'.De.ret
H5737
to arrange as a battle · verb, niphal active participle, feminine singular absolute
departeth
וְסָ֥רve.Sar
H5493
to turn off (literal or figurative) · conjunction + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
evil
מֵרָ֖עme.Ra'
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · preposition + adjective, masculine singular absolute
prey
מִשְׁתּוֹלֵ֑לmish.to.Lel
H7997
to drop or strip · verb, hithpael active participle, masculine singular absolute
LORD
יְהוָ֛הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
saw
וַיַּ֧רְאvai.Yar'
H7200
to see · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
displeased
יָרַעyâraʻ
H3415
properly
judgment
מִשְׁפָּֽטmish.Pat
H4941
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Micah 7:2 The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brot…
Jeremiah 7:28 But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished…
Hebrews 11:36-38 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
1 John 3:11-12 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
Psalms 5:9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with thei…
Psalms 12:1-2 Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
Jeremiah 5:1-2 Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if th…
Romans 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 59:9-15
The scope of this paragraph is the same with that of the last, to show that sin is the great mischief-maker; as it is that which keeps good things from us, so it is that which brings evil things upon us. But as there it is spoken by the prophet, in God's name, to the people, for their conviction and humiliation, and that God might be justified when he speaks and clear when he judges, so here it seems to be spoken by the people to God, as an acknowledgment of that which was there told them and an expression of their humble submission and subscription to the justice and equity of God's proceedings against them. Their uncircumcised hearts here seem to be humbled in some measure, and they are br…
faileth--is not to be found.
he that departeth . . . prey--He that will not fall in with the prevailing iniquity exposes himself as a prey to the wicked (Psa 10:8-9).
Lord saw it--The iniquity of Israel, so desperate as to require nothing short of Jehovah's interposition to mend it, typifies the same necessity for a Divine Mediator existing in the deep corruption of man; Israel, the model nation, was chosen to illustrate his awful fact.
Adam Clarke on Isaiah 59:15
And the Lord saw it "And Jehovah saw it" - This third line of the stanza appears manifestly to me to be imperfect by the loss of a phrase. The reader will perhaps more perfectly conceive my idea of the matter if I endeavor to supply the supposed defect, I imagine it might have stood originally in this manner: -
לו ויחר יהוה וירא lo veyachar Yehovah vaiyar משפט אין כי בעיניו וירע mishpat ein ki beeyinaiv veyera
"And Jehovah saw it, and he was wroth;
And it displeased him, that there was no judgment."
We have had already many examples of mistakes of omission; this, if it be such, is very ancient, being prior to all the versions. - L.
John Gill on Isaiah 59:15
Yea, truth faileth,.... Or, "is deprived" (f); of its life and being; it not only falls in the street, and there lies, without any to show regard unto it; but it fails; it seems as if it had given up the ghost and expired; so very prevalent will error be, before light and truth spring up again and be victorious, as they will:
and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey; he that does not give in to the prevailing vices of the age in which he lives, now become fashionable, but abstains from them, and departs from doctrinal as well as practical evils; from all false doctrines, and from all superstitious modes of worship; becomes a prey to others; a reproach and a laughing stock to th…
The Church Fathers
He has shown how truth has departed: they did not want to consider their duty, he says, but they have distorted their intelligence so as not to understand what ought to be done and what is useful. "The truth in this has disappeared, and the person who turned away from evil has been besieged." They have distanced themselves so far from the truth that they openly combat those who turn away from perversity and choose the good.
And truth has been turned into forgetfulness, and those who have turned away from evil have become a prey. LXX: And truth has been taken away, and they have turned their mind so that they do not understand. And truth has been forgotten, as it is written: Truth has sprung up from the earth, and righteousness has looked down from heaven (Psalm 85:12). It should be noted that the truth is frequently mentioned in order to show the person of Christ, whom they abandoned and followed falsehood. And he who departed from evil was exposed to plunder. Although this may seem obscure, it can be explained as follows: when we fabricate lies from our own hearts and abandon God's law, righteousness remains far away, and truth falls in the streets, and fairness cannot enter us, and the Son of God, who is the truth, is forgotten: to such an extent that whoever desires to depart from the traditions of the Jews immediately becomes exposed to snares and persecutions, so that they expelled the man blind from birth who received sight from the synagogues (John 9). And after the resurrection of the Lord Savior, all those who believed in him were persecuted and stripped: to whom the ministries of the Church were directed, which were distributed through the hands of the Apostles to the whole world of the nations.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Truth — Used in various senses in Scripture. In Prov. 12:17, 19, it denotes that which is opposed to falsehood. In Isa. 59:14, 15, Jer. 7:28, it means fidelity or truthfulness. The doctrine of Christ is…
Justice · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Persecution · OF THE RIGHTEOUS — OF THE RIGHTEOUS
Truth · .Uphold not — .Uphold not
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Truth faileth. Hence it clearly appears that Isaiah, in the preceding verse, did not speak of punishments; for, without interrupting the stream of his discourse, he proceeds to show that the people ought not to complain of the severity of chastisements, since they have so grievously offended and provoked God. He therefore confirms what he formerly said, that "truth hath fallen, that there is no place for equity;" and he enlarges this statement the more, by adding that he who hath withdrawn from evil hath become a prey. [143] Almost all the Jewish expositors, reading the two clauses consecutively, explain them thus: -- "Truth hath failed, and, by departing from evil, hath been made a prey." W…
The confession of personal sins is followed by that of the sinful state of society. "And right is forced back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has fallen in the market-place, and honesty finds no admission. And truth became missing, and he who avoids evil is outlawed." In connection with mishpât and tsedâqâh here, we have not to think of the manifestation of divine judgment and justice which is prevented from being realized; but the people are here continuing the confession of their own moral depravity. Right has been forced back from the place which it ought to occupy (hissı̄g is the word applied in the law to the removal of boundaries), and righteousness has to look from af…
The Lord goes out as a warrior intent on achieving victory against the wicked (cp. Eph 6:14).
Rashi on Isaiah 59:15
is considered mad 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).”
and was displeased for there is no justice Therefore, He brought retribution upon them.
