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Isaiah 59

Isaiah 59 exposes a people’s injustice and guilt, then declares God’s own intervention to judge evil and bring redemption.

The prophet confronts a community whose violence and lies have separated them from God. Their courts lack truth, their paths spread ruin, and those who reject evil become targets. The speech shifts into a shared confession: the people acknowledge their guilt and describe their search for justice as stumbling in darkness. Then YHWH acts where no human helper stands, taking up armor for judgment and salvation. The chapter closes with promises of a Redeemer and an enduring covenant.

guilt and confessioninjustice and angerfeeling distant from God
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1Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it can’t save; nor his ear dull, that it can’t hear.
2But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
3For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.
4No one sues in righteousness, and no one pleads in truth. They trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
5They hatch adders’ eggs and weave the spider’s web. He who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
6Their webs won’t become garments. They won’t cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and acts of violence are in their hands.
7Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their paths.
8They don’t know the way of peace; and there is no justice in their ways. They have made crooked paths for themselves; whoever goes in them doesn’t know peace.
9Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness doesn’t overtake us. We look for light, but see darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.
10We grope for the wall like the blind. Yes, we grope as those who have no eyes. We stumble at noon as if it were twilight. Among those who are strong, we are like dead men.
11We all roar like bears and moan sadly like doves. We look for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far off from us.
12For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:
13transgressing and denying the LORD, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has fallen in the street, and uprightness can’t enter.
15Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.
16He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness sustained him.
17He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle.
18According to their deeds, he will repay as appropriate: wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. He will repay the islands their due.
19So they will fear the LORD’s name from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which the LORD’s breath drives.
20“A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob,” says the LORD.
21“As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit who is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your offspring, nor out of the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the LORD, “from now on and forever.”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Isaiah 59:17YHWH takes up armor himself, joining righteousness and salvation with vengeance against the evil he has seen.
Isaiah 59:20The promised Redeemer comes to Zion and to those in Jacob who turn from disobedience.
Isaiah 59:21God’s closing covenant promise joins his Spirit and his words in a pledge that reaches across generations.
Where this chapter reaches

Romans draws on this chapter’s description of destructive paths in its account of human sin, and later cites its Redeemer promise in discussing Israel’s salvation. Ephesians shares the breastplate of righteousness and helmet of salvation imagery, describing armor for believers that Isaiah depicts God wearing.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What stands out to you about the shift from accusing the people to confessing alongside them?

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How does God’s response to fallen truth shape your prayers about injustice?

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Questions people ask about Isaiah 59

What does Isaiah 59:2 mean by sins separating people from God?

Verse 2 explains the community’s lack of deliverance through its guilt. The surrounding verses name bloodshed, lies, corrupt legal claims, and oppression. God’s power to save remains intact, as verse 1 states. The charge addresses this community’s conduct; it does not establish that every unanswered prayer proves a particular sin.

Who is the Redeemer in Isaiah 59:20?

The Redeemer is the promised deliverer who comes to Zion and to those in Jacob who turn from disobedience. The preceding verses place salvation in God’s own hands. Isaiah does not name the Redeemer here. Romans takes up this promise in its account of Israel’s salvation through Christ.

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Isaiah · 66 chapters
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What the Bible says about guilt →What the Bible says about anger →What the Bible says about doubt →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).