Isaiah 57:12
in Isaiah 57I will expose your righteousness and your works, and they will not profit you.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I will declare thy righteousness; and as for thy works, they shall not profit thee.
KJV
I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee.
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This verse in Isaiah 57
Commentary
9 notes on this verseThy righteousness “My righteousness” - For צדקתך tsidkathech, Thy righteousness, the Syriac, Septuagint, MSS. Alex. and Pachom., and 1. D. II., and Marchal. and οἱ Γ, and the Arabics read צדקי tsidki, My righteousness.
This site's exposition
Whom have you dreaded and feared
on Isaiah 57:11-13
“Whom have you dreaded and feared, so that you lied and failed to remember Me” names the root, a fear of others. Verse 13 sets the idols against a promise: “he who seeks refuge in Me will inherit the land and possess My holy mountain”.
This site's exposition
I will expose your righteousness and your works
Barnes hears the line as irony, the LORD about to expose what their idols and allies can really do. Clarke notes that the Syriac and Greek versions read the righteousness of God in place of theirs. Jerome ties it to verse 11, where God had long been silent.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 12.) I will proclaim your righteousness, and your deeds will not benefit you. When you cry out, let your congregations deliver you. LXX: I will proclaim your righteousness and your evils, which will not benefit you. When you cry out, let them snatch you out of your tribulation. I have always remained silent and as if I did not see your sins, I have ignored them, but I will no longer remain silent, but rather speak what I have already said: Have I always been silent? And I will proclaim your righteousness, and your deeds.
The Medieval Church1 voice
I will declare your justice, which you do, or which you ought to receive; your works, idols: the works of those who trust in idols shall not profit them.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
21 , But I will reprove thee), I will declare thy righteousness, which thou makest thy boast of, and let the world see, and thyself too, to thy confusion, that it is all a sham, all a cheat, it is not what it pretends to be. When thy righteousness comes to be examined it will be found that it was unrighteousness, and that there was no sincerity in all thy pretensions.
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I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
declare--I will expose publicly thy (hypocritical) righteousness. I will show openly how vain thy works, in having recourse to idols, or foreign alliances, shall prove (Isa 57:3).
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1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
I will declare thy righteousness - This is evidently spoken ironically. The sense is, ‘you have devoted yourselves to idols, and you have sought the aid of foreigners. I will now announce to you the true nature of the deliverance which they can bring to you.’ This is done in the following verse.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
I tell your righteousness Constantly, I tell you things to do, so that you will be righteous.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
When you cry out, let your collections save you Let the collection of your idols and your graven images [and those who deny the Torah] that you collected, rise and save you when you cry out from your distress.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֲנִ֥י | ʾani | I | H589 → | 874 times |
| אַגִּ֖יד | ʾagid | I will declare | H5046 → | 370 times |
| צִדְקָתֵ֑ךְ | tzidkatekh | righteousness your | H6666 → | 157 times |
| וְאֶֽת־ | veet | and <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| מַעֲשַׂ֖יִךְ | maasayikh | deeds your | H4639 → | 236 times |
| וְלֹ֥א | velo' | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יוֹעִילֽוּךְ׃ | yoilukh | they will benefit you | H3276 → | 23 times |
אֲנִ֥יI
ʾaniH589 →874 times
אַגִּ֖ידI will declare
ʾagidH5046 →370 times
צִדְקָתֵ֑ךְrighteousness your
tzidkatekhH6666 →157 times
וְאֶֽת־and <obj.>
veetH853 →10935 times
מַעֲשַׂ֖יִךְdeeds your
maasayikhH4639 →236 times
וְלֹ֥אand not
velo'H3808 →5168 times
יוֹעִילֽוּךְ׃they will benefit you
yoilukhH3276 →23 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Matthew 23:13Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.
it leads to
- Luke 11:52
Woe to you experts in the law! For you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”
- Matthew 23:29
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous.
- Matthew 23:23
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced…
- Matthew 23:27
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity.
- Zechariah 11:17
Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May a sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm be completely withered and his right eye utterly blinded!”
- Luke 11:52
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Isaiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Isaiah; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.