Isaiah 59:13
in Isaiah 59rebelling and denying the LORD, turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lies from the heart.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
transgressing and denying Jehovah, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
KJV
In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
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This verse in Isaiah 59
Commentary
10 notes on this verseTo sin and lie against the Lord: and we turned away, so as not to go after the back of our Lord, to speak calumny, and we conceived transgression, and we spoke deceitful words from the heart. LXX: We have acted impiously, and we have lied, and we have turned away from our God. We have spoken wickedly and we have been disobedient. We have conceived and contemplated wicked words in our hearts. But what are these injustices?
This site's exposition
our transgressions are multiplied before thee
on Isaiah 59:12-13
Our transgressions are multiplied before thee moves the confession from feeling to counting, sins piled up and testified against the speakers by their own record. Verse 13 traces the sins to their root, in transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood, ending where sin always starts, in the heart. Wesley reads the list as moving deliberately from outward act to the inward source, so that the last clause names the workshop where all the others were made, and Clarke notes the same descent from deed to word to thought across the two verses.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Second, the variety of their sins, against God: in sinning, in deed, and lying, in speech, we have turned away, in omission; and against their neighbor, in speech: but spoke calumny, against our neighbor; and against the law: and transgression: from the heart come forth …
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
Uttering - That is, first contriving in their heart false accusations, false worship to the dishonour of God; laying the contrivances and uttering them. From the heart - And when they dealt with men in ways of fraud, it was from the heart, but when they spake with God it was but from the lip.
Those who by the grace of God kept themselves free from these enormous crimes yet put themselves into the confession of sin, because members of that nation which was generally thus corrupted. They owned that that was not done which might have been done to reform the land and to amend what was amiss,
Salvation only of God, ver. 16-19. The covenant of the redeemer, ver. 20, 21 Commentary on Chapter LIX 3. Perverseness - Perverse words are such as are contrary to God's word.
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Nay, they themselves are witnesses: Our sins stare us in the face and testify against us, so many have they been and so deeply aggravated." 2. They owned the great evil and malignity of sin, of their sin; it is transgressing and lying against the Lord,
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3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
In transgressing and lying against the Lord,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
The particulars of the sins generally confessed in Isa 59:12 (Isa 48:8; The act, the word, and the thought of apostasy, are all here marked: transgression and departing, &c.; lying (compare Isa 59:4), and speaking, &c.; conceiving and uttering from the heart.
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A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
In transgressing - That is, we have been guilty of this as a continuous act. And lying against the Lord - We have proved false to Yahweh. Though we have been professedly his people, yet we have been secretly attached to idols, and have in our hearts been devoted to the service of false gods. And departing away from our God - By the worship of idols, and by the violation of his law.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
And justice has turned away backwards Our revenge from our enemies, which depends upon the Holy One, blessed be He, and His righteousness stands from afar. Why?
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. 5 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
14 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| פָּשֹׁ֤עַ | pashoa' | we have transgressed | H6586 → | 41 times |
| וְכַחֵשׁ֙ | vekhachesh | and we have denied | H3584 → | |
| בַּֽיהוָ֔ה | bayahweh | <in> Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| וְנָס֖וֹג | venasog | and we have turned back | H5253 → | |
| מֵאַחַ֣ר | meachar | from after | H310 → | 715 times |
| אֱלֹהֵ֑ינוּ | ʾeloheinu | God our | H430 → | 2601 times |
| דַּבֶּר־ | daber- | we have spoken | H1696 → | 1141 times |
| עֹ֣שֶׁק | ʾoshek | oppression | H6233 → | 15 times |
| וְסָרָ֔ה | vesarah | and rebellion | H5627 → | 8 times |
| הֹר֧וֹ | horo | we have conceived | H2029 → | 43 times |
| וְהֹג֛וֹ | vehogo | and we have uttered | H1897 → | 25 times |
| מִלֵּ֖ב | milev | from [the] heart | H3820 → | 595 times |
| דִּבְרֵי־ | divrei- | words of | H1697 → | 1440 times |
| שָֽׁקֶר׃ | shaker | falsehood | H8267 → | 113 times |
פָּשֹׁ֤עַwe have transgressed
pashoa'H6586 →41 times
וְכַחֵשׁ֙and we have denied
vekhacheshH3584 →
בַּֽיהוָ֔ה<in> Yahweh
bayahwehH3068 →6520 times
וְנָס֖וֹגand we have turned back
venasogH5253 →
מֵאַחַ֣רfrom after
meacharH310 →715 times
אֱלֹהֵ֑ינוּGod our
ʾeloheinuH430 →2601 times
דַּבֶּר־we have spoken
daber-H1696 →1141 times
עֹ֣שֶׁקoppression
ʾoshekH6233 →15 times
וְסָרָ֔הand rebellion
vesarahH5627 →8 times
הֹר֧וֹwe have conceived
horoH2029 →43 times
וְהֹג֛וֹand we have uttered
vehogoH1897 →25 times
מִלֵּ֖בfrom [the] heart
milevH3820 →595 times
דִּבְרֵי־words of
divrei-H1697 →1440 times
שָֽׁקֶר׃falsehood
shakerH8267 →113 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 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
James 3:6The tongue also is a fire, a world of wickedness among the parts of the body. It pollutes the whole person, sets the course of his life on fire, and is itself set on…
it leads to
- Psalms 120:2–3
Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips and a deceitful tongue.
- Proverbs 16:27
A worthless man digs up evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire.
- Mark 7:15
Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him; but the things that come out of a man, these are what defile him.”
- Psalms 120:2–3
Through
Hebrews 3:12See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 17:5
This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes the flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD.
- Jeremiah 7:24
Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.
- Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
- Jeremiah 17:5
Through
Matthew 10:33But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven.
it leads to
- 2 Timothy 2:12
if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us;
- Luke 9:26
If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and in the glory of the Father and of the…
- 2 Timothy 2:12
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Isaiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; 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); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.