Isaiah · Young's Literal Translation
Isaiah 59 Young's Literal Translation
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Lo, the hand of Jehovah Hath not been shortened from saving, Nor heavy his ear from hearing.
1 Behold, Yahweh’s hand is not shortened, that it can’t save; nor his ear dull, that it can’t hear.
2 But your iniquities have been separating Between you and your God, And your sins have hidden The Presence from you — from hearing.
2 But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
3 For your hands have been polluted with blood, And your fingers with iniquity, Your lips have spoken falsehood, Your tongue perverseness doth mutter.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.
4 There is none calling in righteousness, And there is none pleading in faithfulness, Trusting on emptiness, and speaking falsehood, Conceiving perverseness, and bearing iniquity.
4 No one sues in righteousness, and no one pleads in truth. They trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
5 Eggs of a viper they have hatched, And webs of a spider they weave, Whoso is eating their eggs doth die, And the crushed hatcheth a viper.
5 They hatch adders’ eggs and weave the spider’s web. He who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
6 Their webs become not a garment, Nor do they cover themselves with their works, Their works [are] works of iniquity, And a deed of violence [is] in their hands.
6 Their webs won’t become garments. They won’t cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and acts of violence are in their hands.
7 Their feet to evil do run, And they haste to shed innocent blood, Their thoughts [are] thoughts of iniquity, Spoiling and destruction [are] in their highways.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their paths.
8 A way of peace they have not known, And there is no judgment in their paths, Their paths they have made perverse for themselves, No treader in it hath known peace.
8 They don’t know the way of peace; and there is no justice in their ways. They have made crooked paths for themselves; whoever goes in them doesn’t know peace.
9 Therefore hath judgment been far from us, And righteousness reacheth us not, We wait for light, and lo, darkness, For brightness — in thick darkness we go,
9 Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness doesn’t overtake us. We look for light, but see darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.
10 We feel like the blind [for] the wall, Yea, as without eyes we feel, We have stumbled at noon as at twilight, In desolate places as the dead.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind. Yes, we grope as those who have no eyes. We stumble at noon as if it were twilight. Among those who are strong, we are like dead men.
11 We make a noise as bears — all of us, And as doves we coo sorely; We wait for judgment, and there is none, For salvation — it hath been far from us.
11 We all roar like bears and moan sadly like doves. We look for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far off from us.
12 For our transgressions have been multiplied before Thee, And our sins have testified against us, For our transgressions [are] with us, And our iniquities — we have known them.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:
13 Transgressing, and lying against Jehovah, And removing from after our God, Speaking oppression and apostasy, Conceiving and uttering from the heart Words of falsehood.
13 transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14 And removed backward is judgment, And righteousness afar off standeth, For truth hath been feeble in the street, And straightforwardness is not able to enter,
14 Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has fallen in the street, and uprightness can’t enter.
15 And the truth is lacking, And whoso is turning aside from evil, Is making himself a spoil. And Jehovah seeth, and it is evil in His eyes, That there is no judgment.
15 Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.
16 And He seeth that there is no man, And is astonished that there is no intercessor, And His own arm giveth salvation to Him, And His righteousness — it sustained Him.
16 He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness sustained him.
17 And He putteth on righteousness as a breastplate, And an helmet of salvation on His head, And He putteth on garments of vengeance [for] clothing, And is covered, as [with] an upper-robe, [with] zeal.
17 He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle.
18 According to deeds — so He repayeth. Fury to His adversaries, [their] deed to His enemies, To the isles [their] deed He repayeth.
18 According to their deeds, he will repay as appropriate: wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. He will repay the islands their due.
19 And they fear from the west the name of Jehovah, And from the rising of the sun — His honour, When come in as a flood doth an adversary, The Spirit of Jehovah hath raised an ensign against him.
19 So they will fear Yahweh’s name from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which Yahweh’s breath drives.
20 And come to Zion hath a redeemer, Even to captives of transgression in Jacob, An affirmation of Jehovah.
20 “A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob,” says Yahweh.
21 And I — this [is] My covenant with them, said Jehovah, My Spirit that [is] on thee, And My words that I have put in thy mouth, Depart not from thy mouth, And from the mouth of thy seed, And from the mouth of thy seed's seed, said Jehovah, From henceforth unto the age!
21 “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says Yahweh. “My Spirit who is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your offspring, nor out of the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says Yahweh, “from now on and forever.”
Cross references (21)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Jeremiah 32:17; Isaiah 50:2; Numbers 11:23; Isaiah 65:24; Genesis 18:14
- 2 Proverbs 15:29; Jeremiah 5:25; Micah 3:4; Isaiah 1:15; Deuteronomy 31:17–18
- 3 Isaiah 1:15; Ezekiel 13:8; Jeremiah 2:34; Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2:30
- 4 Job 15:35; Micah 7:2–5; James 1:15; Jeremiah 7:4; Jeremiah 7:8
- 5 Matthew 3:7; Isaiah 14:29; Proverbs 23:32; Matthew 12:34; Job 8:14
- 6 Jeremiah 6:7; Revelation 3:17–18; Isaiah 57:12; Job 8:14–15; Habakkuk 1:2–4
- 7 Romans 3:15–17; Proverbs 6:17; Mark 7:21–22; Proverbs 1:16; Lamentations 4:13
- 8 Isaiah 57:20–21; Romans 3:17; Isaiah 5:7; Luke 1:79; Psalm 58:1–2
- 9 Isaiah 5:30; Job 30:26; Micah 1:12; Jeremiah 14:19; Lamentations 5:16–17
- 10 Deuteronomy 28:29; Job 5:14; Lamentations 3:6; John 12:40; Proverbs 4:19
- 11 Isaiah 38:14; Ezekiel 7:16; Isaiah 59:9; Jeremiah 9:1; Psalm 85:9
- 12 Ezra 9:6; Hosea 5:5; Jeremiah 14:7; Ezekiel 5:6; Hosea 4:2
- 13 Mark 7:21–22; James 3:6; Hebrews 3:12; Isaiah 5:7; Isaiah 48:8
- 14 Ecclesiastes 3:16; Habakkuk 1:4; Micah 3:9–11; Jeremiah 5:31; Isaiah 5:23
- 15 Micah 7:2; Hebrews 11:36–38; Jeremiah 7:28; 1 John 3:11–12; Romans 8:36
- 16 Ezekiel 22:30; Isaiah 64:7; Psalm 106:23; Psalm 98:1; Isaiah 63:3–5
- 17 Ephesians 6:17; Ephesians 6:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:8; Romans 13:12–14; Isaiah 11:5
- 18 Jeremiah 17:10; Isaiah 63:6; Romans 2:6; Matthew 16:27; Nahum 1:2
- 19 Daniel 7:27; Psalm 113:3; Zechariah 4:6; Revelation 12:15–17; Psalm 22:27
- 20 Romans 11:26–27; Titus 2:11–14; Ezekiel 18:30–31; Acts 3:19; Hebrews 12:14
- 21 Jeremiah 31:31–34; Hebrews 10:16; Ezekiel 36:25–27; Jeremiah 32:38–41; Hebrews 8:6–13
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
For while they remain, there remains in some sort enmity against God, and alienation from Him, which comes from what is evil in us; since Scripture does not speak falsely, which says, "Your sins separate between you and God." He does not then bestow on us His good things, except He take away our evil things.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 6 (1888)
And again, I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed; and again, And now the Lord Almighty and His Spirit hath sent Me; and again, This is My covenant with them, saith the Lord, My Spirit which is upon thee; and again, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me, and the rest; and …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
… Gentiles might enter in," in that other should happen what follows, "and so all Israel should be saved." For the Apostle too takes that testimony of Isaiah, where it is said, "There shall come out of Sion He who shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:" for the Jews, as it is here, "Who shall give salvation to Israel out of …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)
"Our years are passed in thought like a spider." We were labouring in things corruptible, corruptible works were we weaving together: which, as the Prophet Isaiah saith, by no means covered us. "The days of our years are in themselves," etc.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)