Isaiah 59:3
in Isaiah 59For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue muttereth wickedness.
KJV
For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
⋯
This verse in Isaiah 59
Commentary
9 notes on this verse(V. 3, 4.) For your hands are polluted with blood, and your fingers with iniquity: your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wickedness. There is no one who calls for justice, nor is there anyone who truly judges: but they trust in nothingness, and speak vanities. LXX: For your hands are polluted with blood, and your fingers with sins. Your lips are polluted with iniquity, and your tongue meditates injustice. No one speaks the truth: there is no fair judgment. They trust in empty things, and speak worthless words, injustices and sins.
This site's exposition
For your hands are stained with blood
on Isaiah 59:3-4
The charge runs through the body given to sin: “your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice”. Verse 4 widens it to the courts: “No one calls for justice”. A system meant to correct wrong does the opposite, for “they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity”.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Second, he describes their fault in particular: for your hands. And he touches in particular upon their sins against their neighbor: for he touched upon their sins against God above (Isa 57:3–11), and their sins against themselves, above (Isa 56:11–12). 1038. And he first touches …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity,.... From a general charge, the prophet proceeds to a particular enumeration of sins they were guilty of; and idolatry not being mentioned, as Jerom observes, shows that the prophecy belongs to other times than Isaiah's, when that sin greatly prevailed.
It is here charged upon them that they had themselves procured the judgments of God upon them, and they are told both what the judgments were which they had brought upon their own heads (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
); for blood is defiling; it leaves an indelible stain of guilt upon the conscience, which nothing but the blood of Christ can cleanse it from. Now was this a case of surprise, or one that occurred when there was something of a force put upon them; but (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
For your hands are defiled with blood - The prophet proceeds here more particularly to specify the sins of which they were guilty; and in order to show the extent and depth of their depravity, he specifies the various members of the body - the hands, the fingers, the lips, the tongue, the feet as the agents by which people commit iniquity. See a similar argument on the subject of depravity in Rom 3:13-15, where a part of the description which the prophet here gives is quoted by Paul, and applied to the Jews in his own time.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Ro 3:13-15). hands . . . fingers--Not merely the "hands" perpetrate deeds of grosser enormity ("blood"), but the "fingers" commit more minute acts of "iniquity." lips . . . tongue--The lips "speak" openly "lies," the tongue "mutters" malicious insinuations ("perverseness"; perverse misrepresentations of others) (Jer 6:28;
Your tongue “And your tongue” - An ancient MS., and the Septuagint and Vulgate, add the conjunction.
The words behind it
12 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּ֤י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| כַפֵּיכֶם֙ | khapeikhem | hands your | H3709 → | 192 times |
| נְגֹאֲל֣וּ | negoalu | they are defiled | H1351 → | |
| בַדָּ֔ם | vadam | with <the> blood | H1818 → | 360 times |
| וְאֶצְבְּעוֹתֵיכֶ֖ם | veetzbeoteikhem | and fingers your | H676 → | 31 times |
| בֶּֽעָוֹ֑ן | beavon | with <the> iniquity | H5771 → | 233 times |
| שִׂפְתֽוֹתֵיכֶם֙ | siftoteikhem | lips your | H8193 → | 176 times |
| דִּבְּרוּ־ | diberu- | they have spoken | H1696 → | 1141 times |
| שֶׁ֔קֶר | sheker | falsehood | H8267 → | 113 times |
| לְשׁוֹנְכֶ֖ם | leshonkhem | tongue your | H3956 → | 117 times |
| עַוְלָ֥ה | ʾavlah | injustice | H5766 → | |
| תֶהְגֶּֽה׃ | tehgeh | it mutters | H1897 → | 25 times |
כִּ֤יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
כַפֵּיכֶם֙hands your
khapeikhemH3709 →192 times
נְגֹאֲל֣וּthey are defiled
negoaluH1351 →
בַדָּ֔םwith <the> blood
vadamH1818 →360 times
וְאֶצְבְּעוֹתֵיכֶ֖םand fingers your
veetzbeoteikhemH676 →31 times
בֶּֽעָוֹ֑ןwith <the> iniquity
beavonH5771 →233 times
שִׂפְתֽוֹתֵיכֶם֙lips your
siftoteikhemH8193 →176 times
דִּבְּרוּ־they have spoken
diberu-H1696 →1141 times
שֶׁ֔קֶרfalsehood
shekerH8267 →113 times
לְשׁוֹנְכֶ֖םtongue your
leshonkhemH3956 →117 times
עַוְלָ֥הinjustice
ʾavlahH5766 →
תֶהְגֶּֽה׃it mutters
tehgehH1897 →25 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
Isaiah 1:15When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.
it leads to
- Micah 3:4
Then they will cry out to the LORD, but He will not answer them. At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done.
- Proverbs 1:28
Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will earnestly seek me, but will not find me.
- Isaiah 59:2–3
But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.
- Zechariah 7:13
And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts.
- Jeremiah 7:8–10
But look, you keep trusting in deceptive words to no avail.
- Micah 3:4
Through
Jeremiah 2:30“I have struck your sons in vain; they accepted no discipline. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a voracious lion.”
it leads to
- Nehemiah 9:26
But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies.
- Acts 7:52
Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—
- 1 Thessalonians 2:15
who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men,
- Nehemiah 9:26
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Isaiah
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
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; 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.