Isaiah 59:2

But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. YOUR SINS HAVE HID (HIS) FACE FROM YOU - Hebrew, have caused Him to hide His face from you (). The awful picture here given of their iniquities, which separated between them and God, is peculiarly applicable to the period which immediately preceded the destruction of their state by Rome....

2._But your iniquities have made a separation. _The amount of what is said is, that they cannot say that God has changed, as if he had swerved from his natural disposition, but that the whole blame lies with themselves; because by their own sins they, in some measure, prevent his kindness, and refuse to receive his assistance. Hence we infer that our sins alone deprive us of the grace of God, and cause separation between us and him; for what the Prophet testifies as to the men of his time is applicable to all ages; since he pleads the cause of God, against the slanders of wicked men. Thus God is always like himself, and is not wearied in doing good; and his power is not diminished, but we hinder the entrance of his grace. It will be objected, that men cannot anticipate God by deserving well of him, and that consequently he must do good to those who are unworthy. I reply, this is undoubte...

1-8 If our prayers are not answered, and the salvation we wait for is not wrought for us, it is not because God is weary of hearing prayer, but because we are weary of praying. See here sin in true colours, exceedingly sinful; and see sin in its consequences, exceedingly hurtful, separating from God, and so separating us, not only from all good, but to all evil. Yet numbers feed, to their own destruction, on infidel and wicked systems. Nor can their skill or craft, in devising schemes, as the spider weaves its web, deliver or save them. No schemes of self-wrought salvation shall avail those who despise the Redeemer's robe of righteousness. Every man who is destitute of the Spirit of Christ, runs swiftly to evil of some sort; but those regardless of Divine truth and justice, are strangers to peace....

Verse Isaiah 59:2. _HIS FACE_] For פנים _panim, faces_, I read _panaiv, his_ _face_. So the _Syriac, Septuagint, Alexandrian, Arabic_, and _Vulgate._ פני panai, MS. Forte legendum פני _panai_, nam מ _mem_, sequitur, et loquitur Deus; confer cap. lviii. 14. "We should perhaps read פני _panai_; for מ _mem_ follows, and God is the speaker." - SECKER. I rather think that the speech of God was closed with the last chapter, and that this chapter is delivered in the person of the prophet. - L....

BUT YOUR INIQUITIES - That is, the sins which the prophet had specified in the previous chapter, and which he proceeds further to specify in this. HAVE SEPARATED - The word used here (בדל _bâdal_) conveys the idea of division, usually by a curtain or a wall Exodus 26:33; Ezekiel 42:20. Thus the ‘firmament’ (רקיע _râqı̂ya‛_, “expanse”) is said to have “divided” or “separated” (מבדיל _mab__e__dı̂yl_) the waters from the waters Genesis 1:6. The idea here is, that their sins were like a partition between them and God, so that there was

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 59:1 A GENERAL REBUKE OF ISRAEL FOR ITS MANIFOLD SINS, The command given to the prophet in Isaiah 58:1 to "show God's people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins "—partly executed in Isaiah 58:4 and Isaiah 58:13—is now further carried out by a scathing denunciation of various forms of wickedness, more or less prevalent in Israel, the effect of which has been to separate between Israel and God, to "shorten God's hand" and "make his ear

Ver. 2 BUT YOUR INIQUITIES HAVE SEPARATED BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR GOD,.... Like a partition wall dividing between them, so that they enjoy no communion with him in his worship and ordinances; which is greatly the case of the reformed churches: they profess the true God, and the worship of him, and do attend the outward ordinances of it; but this is done in such a cold formal way, and such sins and wickedness are perpetrated and connived at, that the Lord does not grant his gracious presence to them, but stands at a distance from them: AND YOUR SINS HAVE HID HIS FACE FROM YOU, that he will not hear; or have caused him to hide himself; withdraw his gracious presence; neglect the prayers put up to him; deny an answer to them; or, however, not appear as yet for the deliverance and salvation of them, and bringing them into a more comfortable, prosperous, and happy condition....

CHAPTER 59 Apostasy and Confession, Jehovah's Intervention and the Coming of the Redeemer 1. _The deplorable condition of the people (Isaiah 59:1) _ 2. _The confession (Isaiah 59:9) _ 3. _Jehovah's intervention (Isaiah 59:16) _ 4. _The coming of the Redeemer (Isaiah 59:20) _ The corruption of the people during the end time is first described. But grace is at work and a part of the people confess their sins. They confess that they are in darkness, that they are blind, that they stumble and are like dead men. They confess that salvation is far from them. They confess their lying, their departure from God

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 po

INIQUITIES. Hebrew. _'avah._ App-44. Same word as in verses: Isaiah 59:3; Isaiah 59:12. Not the same as in verses: Isaiah 59:6; Isaiah 59:7. GOD. Hebrew. _Elohim._ App-4. SINS. Hebrew. _chata'._ App-44. HAVE HID HIS FACE. Compare Isaiah 45:15; Isaiah 54:8; Isaiah 57:17....