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Selected Verse: Isaiah 59:2 - Strong Concordance
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Isa 59:2 |
Strong Concordance |
But your iniquities [05771] have separated [0914] between [0996] you and your God [0430], and your sins [02403] have hid [05641] his face [06440] from you, that he will not hear [08085]. |
| |
King James |
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. |
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] |
| hid--Hebrew, "caused Him to hide" (Lam 3:44). |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
But your iniquities - That is, the sins which the prophet had specified in the previous chapter, and which he proceeds further to specify in this.
Have separated - The word used here (בדל bâdal) conveys the idea of division, usually by a curtain or a wall Exo 26:33; Eze 42:20. Thus the 'firmament' (רקיע râqı̂ya‛, "expanse") is said to have "divided" or "separated" (מבדיל mabedı̂yl) the waters from the waters Gen 1:6. The idea here is, that their sins were like a partition between them and God, so that there was no contact between them and him.
And your sins have hid his face from you - Margin, 'Made him hide.' The Hebrew word here is in Hiphil, meaning 'to cause to hide.' Kimchi and Aben Ezra understand it as causing him to hide his face; Vitringa as hiding, his face. The metaphor, says Vitringa, is not taken from a man who turns away his face from one because he does not choose to attend to what is said, but from something which comes between two persons, like a dense cloud, which hides one from the other. And, according to this, the idea is, that their sins had risen up like a thick, dark cloud between them and God, so that they had no clear view of him, and no contact with him - as a cloud hides the face of the sun from us. A similar idea occurs in Lam 3:44 :
Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud,
That our prayers should not pass through.
But it seems to me more probable that the Hiphil signification of the verb is here to be retained, and that the idea is, that their sins had caused Yahweh to hide or turn away his face from their prayers from an unwillingness to hear them when they were so deeply immersed in sin. Thus the Septuagint, 'On account of your sins he has turned away his face (ἀπέστρεψε τὸ πρόωπον apestrepse to prosōpon) from you, so that he will not have mercy' (τοῦ μὴ ἐλεῆσαι tou mē eleēsai). It is universally true that indulgence in sin causes God to turn away his face, and to witchold mercy and compassion. He cannot pardon those who indulge in transgression, and who are unwilling to abandon the ways of sin (compare the notes at Isa 1:15). |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| His face - For פנים panim, faces, I read panaiv, his face. So the Syriac, Septuagint, Alexandrian, Arabic, and Vulgate. פני panai, MS. Forte legendum פני panai, nam מ mem, sequitur, et loquitur Deus; confer cap. Isa 58:14. "We should perhaps read פני panai; for מ mem follows, and God is the speaker." - Secker. I rather think that the speech of God was closed with the last chapter, and that this chapter is delivered in the person of the prophet. - L. |
44 Thou hast covered [05526] thyself with a cloud [06051], that our prayer [08605] should not pass through [05674].
15 And when ye spread forth [06566] your hands [03709], I will hide [05956] mine eyes [05869] from you: yea, when ye make many [07235] prayers [08605], I will not hear [08085]: your hands [03027] are full [04390] of blood [01818].
44 Thou hast covered [05526] thyself with a cloud [06051], that our prayer [08605] should not pass through [05674].
6 And God [0430] said [0559], Let there be a firmament [07549] in the midst [08432] of the waters [04325], and let it divide [0914] the waters [04325] from the waters [04325].
20 He measured [04058] it by the four [0702] sides [07307]: it had a wall [02346] round about [05439], five [02568] hundred [03967] reeds long [0753], and five [02568] hundred [03967] broad [07341], to make a separation [0914] between the sanctuary [06944] and the profane place [02455].
33 And thou shalt hang up [05414] the vail [06532] under the taches [07165], that thou mayest bring [0935] in thither within [01004] the vail [06532] the ark [0727] of the testimony [05715]: and the vail [06532] shall divide [0914] unto you between the holy [06944] place and the most [06944] holy [06944].
14 Then shalt thou delight [06026] thyself in the LORD [03068]; and I will cause thee to ride [07392] upon the high places [01116] of the earth [0776], and feed [0398] thee with the heritage [05159] of Jacob [03290] thy father [01]: for the mouth [06310] of the LORD [03068] hath spoken [01696] it.