Click
here to show/hide instructions.
Instructions on how to use the page:
The commentary for the selected verse is is displayed below.
All commentary was produced against the King James, so the same verse from that translation may appear as well. Hovering your mouse over a commentary's scripture reference attempts to show those verses.
Use the browser's back button to return to the previous page.
Or you can also select a feature from the Just Verses menu appearing at the top of the page.
Selected Verse: Isaiah 59:11 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Isa 59:11 |
King James |
We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
roar--moan plaintively, like a hungry bear which growls for food.
doves-- (Isa 38:14; Eze 7:16).
salvation--retribution in kind: because not salvation, but "destruction" was "in their paths" (Isa 59:7). |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
We roar all like bears - This is designed still further to describe the heavy judgments which had come upon them for their sins. The word rendered here 'roar' (from המה hâmâh, like English, to hum, German, hummen, spoken of bees), is applied to any murmuring, or confused noise or sound. It sometimes means to snarl, as a dog Psa 59:7, Psa 59:15; to coo, as a dove Eze 7:16; it is also applied to waves that roar Psa 46:4; Isa 51:15; to a crowd or tumultuous assemblage Psa 46:7; and to music Isa 16:11; Jer 48:36. Here it is applied to the low growl or groan of a bear. Bochart (Hieroz. i. 3. 9), says, that a bear produces a melancholy sound; and Horace (Epod. xvi. 51), speaks of its low groan:
Nee vespertinus circumgemit ursus ovile.
Here it is emblematic of mourning, and is designed to denote that they were suffering under heavy and long-continued calamity. Or, according to Gesenius (Commentary in loc.), it refers to a bear which is hungry, and which growls, impatient for food, and refers here to the complaining, dissatisfaction, and murmuring of the people, because God did not come to vindicate and relieve them.
And mourn sore like doves - The cooing of the dove, a plaintive sound, is often used to denote grief (see Eze 7:16; compare the notes at Isa 38:14).
We look for judgment ... - (See the notes at Isa 59:9.) |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Mourn - Their oppressing governors made the wicked roar like bears, and the good mourn like doves. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| But it is far off from us "And it is far distant from us" - The conjunction ו vau must necessarily be prefixed to the verb, as the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate found it in their copies; ורחקה verachakah, "and far off." |
7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.
14 Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.
9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
14 Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.
16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.
36 Therefore mine heart shall sound for Moab like pipes, and mine heart shall sound like pipes for the men of Kirheres: because the riches that he hath gotten are perished.
11 Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kirharesh.
7 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
15 But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.
4 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.
15 Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied.
7 Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth hear?