Isaiah 59:1-8

Solely the Sins of the People Delay Yahweh's Intervention.

Isaiah 59:5, with their fantastic metaphors and bitter invective, are probably a later addition made in even gloomier times. Note the third person, and the good connexion between Isaiah 59:4 and Isaiah 59:9. Not the waning of Yahweh's power, nor His deafness, explains His failure to aid His people. Their sins are like a wall between them and the Divine Presence. In act and word they are cruel and false. In the law-courts false dealing and speaking rule; a just cause counts for less than lying words. (Isaiah 59:5 pictures the schemes of the wicked under two figures. They hatch out poisonous serpents-' eggs; anyone who eats the eggs dies, and if an egg is broken a young viper is disclosed. They weave spiders-' webs; but these are useless to cover their iniquity. They haste eagerly to accomplish their wicked purposes. In their pathway they leave ruin. The path of peace they pursue not, and no right-dealing marks their tracks, for they choose crooked ways.)

Isaiah 59:2. his face: literally, face, probably a proper noun used for the Divine Presence, the Shekinah.

Isaiah 59:4. pleadeth: in the legal sense.