Isaiah 59:6

Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. THEIR WEBS SHALL NOT BECOME GARMENTS - like the "fig-leaves" wherewith Adam and Eve vainly tried to cover their shame, as contrasted with the 'coats of skins' which the Lord God made to clothe them with (; ; ; ). The artificial, self-deceiving sophisms of human philosophy are meant (; ;...

6._Their webs shall not be for clothing. _He repeats and confirms the same statement, that everything that they attempt or undertake is always useless to mankind; because they purposely shrink from all acts of kindness. Now, it is an indication of a mind utterly abandoned, to devote themselves to evil deeds in such a manner, that no advantage of any kind can be expected from the life of him who desires to be barren and destitute of all justice. Others explain it, that they will toil unsuccessfully to acquire wealth and to rise to honor. But I consider the meaning to be more simple, that no man will “cover himself with their works,” because in their texture there is nothing solid or durable. (134) By various modes of expression he inculcates the same thing, in order to demonstrate that their works yield no advantage whatever. But we were born for this end, that we should yield assistance...

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....

THEIR WEBS SHALL NOT BECOME GARMENTS - The spider’s web is unfit for clothing; and the idea here is, that their works are as unfit to secure salvation as the attenuated web of a spider is for raiment. The sense is, says Vitringa, that their artificial sophisms avail nothing in producing true wisdom, piety, virtue, and religion, or the true righteousness and salvation of people, but are airy speculations. The works of the self-righteous and the wicked; their vain formality, their false opinions, their subtle reasonings, and their traditions, are like the web of the spider. They bide nothing, they answer none of the purposes of a garment of salvation. The doctrine is, that people must have some better righteousness than the thin and gossamer covering which their own empty forms and ceremonies produce (compare Isaiah 64:6)....

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

THEIR WEBS SHALL NOT BECOME GARMENTS, NEITHER SHALL THEY COVER THEMSELVES WITH THEIR WORKS,.... As spiders' webs are not fit to make garments of, are too thin to cover naked bodies, or shelter from bad weather, or injuries from different causes; so neither the false doctrines of men will be of any use to themselves, or to others that receive them; particularly the doctrine of justification by works: these are not proper garments to cover the nakedness of a sinner from the sight of God, or screen him from avenging justice; but his hope which is placed on them will be cut off, and his trust in them will be a spider's web, of no avail to him, Job 8:14: THEIR WORKS ARE WORKS OF INIQUITY: both of preacher and hearer; even their best works are sinful; not only as being imperfect, and having a mixture of sin in them, and so filthy rags, and insufficient to justify them before God; but be

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

These verses differ somewhat in character from Isaiah 59:3 f., and are regarded by Duhm and Cheyne as a quotation from some Psalm or collection of proverbs. In point of fact the first part of Isaiah 59:7 appears in Proverbs 1:16, but probably as an interpolation, since the verse is wanting in the LXX. On the other hand, Isaiah 59:7 are partly reproduced in the LXX. recension of Psalms 14:3, as in Romans 3:10 ff. These facts do not by themselves raise any presumption against the genuineness

FOR YOUR HANDS ARE DEFILED— The prophet here goes on to specify those iniquities which he had mentioned in general, and in such an order, that he distributes them, as it were, through the members of the human body; the hands, the mouth, the feet; dwelling longest, however, upon the faults committed by the mouth; which are set forth literally and properly, _first,_ in the middle of Isaiah 59:3 and then figuratively, Isaiah 59:5. The meaning of the expression, _They hatch cockatrice' eggs,_ is, "Their wicked designs are like the eggs of a cockatrice, rank poison, which, when hatched, produce a venomous serpent: they end in destruction and misery." The expression of _weaving the spider's web,_ signifies, "They attempt things, which meet with no success." See...