Isaiah 64:6

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. BUT WE ARE ALL AS AN UNCLEAN (THING) ( kaTaamee' (H2931)) - legally unclean as a leper. True of Israel, everywhere now cut off by unbelief, and by God's judgments, from the congregation of the saints. AND ALL OUR RIGHTEOUSNESSES - plural, 'uncleanness' extended to every particular act of theirs, even to their prayers and praises. True of the best doings of the unregenerate (Philippians 3:6; Titus 1:15; Hebrews...

6._We have all been as the unclean. _The believers go on in their complaint; for they deplore their condition, because God appears to take no account of them. Hebrew writers are not agreed as to the meaning of the words בגד עדים (_beged gniddim_.) (190) Yet it is certain that it denotes something which is vile and worthless, and which, on account of its filthiness, stinks in the noses of men. But here two things ought to be observed; first, that believers confess their guilt, and are justly punished for it; and, secondly, that they nevertheless complain of the severity of the punishments which they endure, not to blame God, but to move him to compassion; just as a culprit, when he endeavors to mitigate the severity of a judge, lays before him his own distresses and calamities. Some commentators torture this passage, by alleging that the Prophet, when he speaks of the po

6-12 The people of God, in affliction, confess and bewail their sins, owning themselves unworthy of his mercy. Sin is that abominable thing which the Lord hates. Our deeds, whatever they may seem to be, if we think to merit by them at God's hand, are as rags, and will not cover us; filthy rags, and will but defile us. Even our few good works in which there is real excellence, as fruits of the Spirit, are so defective and defiled as done by us, that they need to be washed in the fountain open for sin and uncleanness. It bodes ill when prayer is kept back. To pray, is by faith to take hold of the promises the Lord has made of his good-will to us, and to plead them; to take hold of him, earnestly begging him not to leave us; or soliciting his return. They brought their troubles upon themselves by their own folly. Sinners are blasted, and then carried away, by the wind of their own iniquity...

Verse Isaiah 64:6. _AS FILTHY RAGS_] עדים _iddim_. Rab. Mosheh ben Maimon interpretatur עדים _iddim_, vestes quibus mulier se abstergit post congressum cum marito suo. _Alii_ pannus menstruatus. _Alii_ panni mulieris parientis. - _And we ben made as unclene alle we: and as the_ _cloth of the woman rooten blode flowing, all our rigtwisnesses._ - Old MS. Bible. If preachers knew properly the meaning of this word, would they make such a liberal use of it in their public ministry? And why should any use a word, the meaning of which he does not understand? How many in the congregation blush for the incautious man and his "filthy rags!...

BUT WE ARE ALL AS AN UNCLEAN THING - We are all polluted and defiled. The word used here (טמא _ṭâmē'_), means properly that which is polluted and defiled in a Levitical sense; that is, which was regarded as polluted and abominable by the law of Moses Leviticus 5:2; Deuteronomy 14:19, and may refer to animals, people, or things; also in a moral sense Job 14:4. The sense is, that they regarded themselves as wholly polluted and depraved. AND ALL OUR RIGHTEOUSNESSES - The plural form is used to denote the deeds which they had performed - meaning that pollution extended to every individual thing of the numerous acts whi

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 64:1 ISRAEL'S PRAYER CONTINUED AND CONCLUDED. Not content with praying God to look upon them once more with favour (Isaiah 63:15), Israel now asks for a theophany, or manifestation of the Divine Presence, such as they have experienced in the times of old, and such as shall suffice to strike terror into the hearts of their enemies (Isaiah 64:1). With profound humility confessing their manifold and grievous iniquities, they beseech God once more, as their Father and Maker, to have pity upon them, reminding him of the desolate condition of Judaea and Jerusalem, and urging him no longer

BUT WE ARE ALL AS AN UNCLEAN THING,.... Or "we have been" t; so all men are in a state of nature: man was made pure and holy, but by sinning became impure; and this impurity is propagated by natural generation, and belongs to all, none are free from it; and there is no cleansing from it but by the grace of God and blood of Christ: all are not sensible of it; some are, as the church here was, and owns it, and the universality of it, and compares herself and members to an "unclean thing", on account of it; so men, defiled with sin, are compared to unclean creatures, dogs, and swine, and to unclean persons; to such as are covered with loathsome diseases, and particularly to leprous persons, and who may be chiefly intended here; they being defiled and defiling, loathsome and abominable, their disease spreading and continuing, and incurable by physicians; hence they were separated from the co...

Isaiah 64:1. _Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth,_ Or, much better, «as when the brushwood burneth»; for if God does but come to his people, they are ready to catch the flame, like the dry heather which is soon ablaze; and his enemies also shall be like brushwood before the fire. Isaiah 64:2. _The fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence! When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou comest down, the mountain flowed down at thy presence._ O Lord, come again! Thou didst come in the past; repeat thy former acts, and let us see what thou canst do for the a

CHAPTER 63:7-19-64:12 The Great Intercessory Prayer 1. _Jehovah's loving kindness and power in the past remembered (Isaiah 63:7) _ 2. _Their deepest need (Isaiah 63:15) _ 3. _The cry of faith, Thou art our Father (Isaiah 63:16) _ 4. _The increasing plea (Isaiah 63:17) _ 5. _The prayer for Jehovah's manifestation (Isaiah 64:1) _ 6. _Confession and humiliation (Isaiah 64:5) _ 7. The cry for mercy and help ...

ISAIAH 63:15 TO ISAIAH 64:9. A FERVENT PRAYER TO YAHWEH TO INTERVENE AGAIN FOR HIS CHILDREN. The appeal rings like a litany, reminding Yahweh, who has withdrawn into His glorious heavenly palace, of His former compassion. To Abraham and Israel appeal has been made in vain (some approach to ancestor-worship seems to have been prevalent), but Yahweh is their father and redeemer. His severity has sent them wandering even further away, and hardened their heart so that they cannot fear Him, _i.e._ carry out the duties of religion. If only He would come back from His seclusion! Isaiah 63:18 is corrupt; regrouping of consonants and very slight changes give the excellent sense, Why do the wicked despise thy Holy House, our enemi