1883 Haydock Douay Rheims Bible
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| Isaiah 59:1 | Behold, *the hand of the Lord is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear. Numbers 1:23.; Isaias 50:2. | |
| Isaiah 59:2 | But your iniquities have divided between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he should not hear. | Iniquities. The history of Susanna shews that the captives were not all free from sin, which alone prevented their liberation, Lamentations 3:44. (Calmet) [Daniel xiii.] --- God is willing and able to save. He punishes for sin, to cause us to repent, ver. 20. (Worthington) |
| Isaiah 59:3 | *For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity: your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue uttereth iniquity. Isaias 1:15. | |
| Isaiah 59:4 | There is none that calleth upon justice, neither is there any one that judgeth truly: but they trust in a mere nothing, and speak vanities: they have conceived labour, and brought forth iniquity. | Justice. They arraign unjustly. None call upon the just God, but trust in idols. --- Iniquity. They kill themselves, while they strive to injure others, Psalm 7:15., and Micheas 2:1. |
| Isaiah 59:5 | They have broken the eggs of asps, *and have woven the webs of spiders: he that shall eat of their eggs, shall die: and that which is brought out, shall be hatched into a basilisk. Job 8:4. | Basilisk, or viper. (Calmet) --- The young ones "burst through the viper's sides." (Pliny, [Natural History?] 10:62.) --- So the works of the wicked are useless or destructive. |
| Isaiah 59:6 | Their webs shall not be for clothing, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are unprofitable works, and the work of iniquity is in their hands. | |
| Isaiah 59:7 | *Their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are unprofitable thoughts: wasting and destruction are in their ways. Proverbs 1:16.; Romans 3:15. | |
| Isaiah 59:8 | They have not known the way of peace, and there is no judgment in their steps: their paths are become crooked to them: every one that treadeth in them, knoweth no peace. | Peace, or prosperity. They quarrel with all, and ruin themselves, Psalm xiii. |
| Isaiah 59:9 | Therefore is judgment far from us, and justice shall not overtake us. We looked for light, and behold darkness: brightness, and we have walked in the dark. | Therefore. The wicked Jews nevertheless confess that their sins prove their destruction. |
| Isaiah 59:10 | We have groped for the wall, and like the blind we have groped as if we had no eyes: we have stumbled at noon-day, as in darkness, we are in dark places, as dead men. | Dead. The Jews will not recognize Christ, notwithstanding the prophecies and miracles. |
| Isaiah 59:11 | We shall roar all of us like bears, and shall lament as mournful doves. We have looked for judgment, and there is none: for salvation, and it is far from us. | Judgment, that God would avenge us, (ver. 9.) and regard our fasts, Isaias 58:3. |
| Isaiah 59:12 | For our iniquities are multiplied before thee, and our sins have testified against us: for our wicked doings are with us, and we have known our iniquities, | |
| Isaiah 59:13 | In sinning and lying against the Lord: and we have turned away so that we went not after our God, but spoke calumny and transgression: we have conceived, and uttered from the heart, words of falsehood. | |
| Isaiah 59:14 | And judgment is turned away backward, and justice hath stood far off: because truth hath fallen down in the street, and equity could not come in. | In. Where truth is disregarded, there can be no justice. |
| Isaiah 59:15 | And truth hath been forgotten: and he that departed from evil, lay open to be a prey: and the Lord saw, and it appeared evil in his eyes, because there is no judgment. | |
| Isaiah 59:16 | And he saw that there is not a man: and he stood astonished, because there is none to oppose himself: and his own arm brought salvation to him, and his own justice supported him. | Himself, to arrest his arm, stretched out to chastise his son; or to second him. There is nothing in man to stop God's vengeance. He therefore pardons out of his own goodness, Isaias 59:2., and 63:4. (Calmet) --- He became man to redeem us, as no pure mortal could do it. (Worthington) |
| Isaiah 59:17 | *He put on justice as a breast-plate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head: he put on the garments of vengeance, and was clad with zeal as with a cloak. Ephesians 6:17.; 1 Thessalonians 5:8. | Justice. None can blame his conduct. |
| Isaiah 59:18 | As unto revenge, as it were to repay wrath to his adversaries, and a reward to his enemies: he will repay the like to the islands. | |
| Isaiah 59:19 | And they from the west, shall fear the name of the Lord: and they from the rising of the sun, his glory: when he shall come as a violent stream, which the spirit of the Lord driveth on: | On. Hebrew, "is standard-bearer." (Aquila) (St. Jerome) --- Cyrus, the figurative redeemer, proceeds rapidly. |
| Isaiah 59:20 | *And there shall come a Redeemer to Sion, and to them that return from iniquity in Jacob, saith the Lord. Romans 11:26. | To Sion. Septuagint, "from Sion, and will turn away iniquity from Jacob. (21.) And this," etc. (Haydock) --- St. Paul hence proves that the Jews will at last be converted, Romans 11:26. The return of the captives prefigured this event. (Calmet) |
| Isaiah 59:21 | This is my covenant with them, saith the Lord: My spirit that is in thee, and my words that 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. | Covenant. Note here a clear promise of perpetual orthodoxy to the Church of Christ. (Challoner) --- She hath still the spirit of truth. (Worthington) (Matthew 28:20.) --- None will apply this to the synagogue, which is visibly in the dark, and abandoned. (Calmet) |