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Selected Verse: Isaiah 59:7 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Isa 59:7 |
King James |
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. |
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] |
feet--All their members are active in evil; in Isa 59:3, the "hands, fingers, lips, and tongue," are specified.
run . . . haste-- (Rom 3:15). Contrast David's "running and hasting" in the ways of God (Psa 119:32, Psa 119:60).
thoughts--not merely their acts, but their whole thoughts. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Their feet run to evil - In accordance with the design of the prophet to show the entireness of their depravity, he states that all their members were employed in doing evil. In Isa 59:3-6. he had remarked that depravity had extended to their hands, their fingers, their lips, and their tongue; he here states that their feet also were employed in doing evil. Instead of treading the paths of righteousness, and hastening to execute purposes of mercy and justice, they were employed in journeyings to execute plans of iniquity. The words 'run,' and 'make haste,' are designed to intimate the intensity of their purpose to do wrong. They did not walk slowly; they did not even take time to deliberate; but such was their desire of wrong-doing, that they hastened to execute their plans of evil. People usually walk slowly and with a great deal of deliberation when any good is to be done; they walk rapidly, or they run with haste and alacrity when evil is to be accomplished. This passage is quoted by the apostle Paul Rom 3:15, and is applied to the Jews of his own time as proof of the depraved character of the entire nation.
They make haste to shed innocent blood - No one can doubt that this was the character of the nation in the time of Manasseh (see the Introduction, Section 3). It is not improbable that the prophet refers to the bloody and cruel reign of this prince. That it was also the character of the nation when Isaiah began to prophesy is apparent from Isa 1:15-21.
Their thoughts - That is, their plans and purposes are evil. It is not merely that evil is done, but they intended that it should be done. They had no plan for doing good; and they were constantly laying plans for evil.
Wasting - That is, violence, oppression, destruction. It means that the government was oppressive and tyrannical; and that it was the general character of the nation that they were regardless of the interests of truth and righteousness.
And destruction - Margin, 'Breaking.' The word commonly means breaking or breach; then a breaking down, or destruction, as of a kingdom Lam 2:11; Lam 3:47; or of individuals Isa 1:28. Here it means that they broke down or trampled on the rights of others.
Are in their paths - Instead of marking their ways by deeds of benevolence and justice, they could be tracked by cruelty and blood. The path of the wicked through the earth can be seen usually by the desolations which they make. The path of conquerors can be traced by desolated fields, and smouldering ruins, and forsaken dwelling-places, and flowing blood; and the course of all the wicked can be traced by the desolations which they make in their way. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
| This evil doing of theirs rises even to hatred, the very opposite of that love which is well-pleasing to God. "Their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of wickedness; wasting and destruction are in their paths." Paul has interwoven this passage into his description of the universal corruption of morals, in Rom 3:15-17. The comparison of life to a road, and of a man's conduct to walking, is very common in proverbial sayings. The prophet has here taken from them both his simile and his expressions. We may see from Isa 59:7, that during the captivity the true believers were persecuted even to death by their countrymen, who had forgotten God. The verbs ירוּצוּ and וימהרוּ (the proper reading, with metheg, not munach, under the מ) depict the pleasure taken in wickedness, when the conscience is thoroughly lulled to sleep. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Wasting - They meditate on little or nothing else. Paths - In what way or work soever they are engaged, it all tends to ruin and destruction. |
60 I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.
32 I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
28 And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed.
47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.
15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
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.
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.
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known: