Isaiah 59:7
in Isaiah 59Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their paths.
KJV
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.
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This verse in Isaiah 59
Commentary
10 notes on this verse(V. 7, 8.) Their deeds are useless deeds: and the work of iniquity is in their hands. Their feet run towards evil: and they hasten to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are worthless thoughts: destruction and ruin are in their ways. They have not known the way of peace: and there is no justice in their steps. Their paths are crooked for them: whoever walks on them does not know peace. LXX: For their deeds are the deeds of iniquity: and their feet run towards malice.
This site's exposition
Their feet run to evil
on Isaiah 59:7-8
“Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood”, and “The way of peace they have not known”. Paul gathers these lines at Romans 3:15-17 into his list of universal sin. The paths they made are “crooked paths; no one who treads on them will know peace”.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
They sin with all parts of the body, through hands, feet, tongue. But it is the life inside their minds that sins before all of these once it has fallen into imprudence, so that it cannot recognize the peace that is at hand.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Second, as to thoughts: their feet, that is, their affections, as to one part: their feet run to evil (Prov 1:16); their thoughts, as to the other: woe to you that devise that which is unprofitable (Mic 2:1). 1042. Wasting. Here he shows them their …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
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 (
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Their imaginations are so, only evil continually. Their projects and designs are so; they are continually contriving some mischief or other, and how to compass the gratification of some base lust (
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Wasting and destruction are in their paths. Wherever they go they carry mischief along with them, and the tendency of their way is to lay waste and destroy, nor do they care what havoc they make. Nor do they only thirst after blood, but with other iniquities are their fingers defiled (
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3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Their feet run to evil,.... Make haste to commit all manner of sin, and particularly that which follows, with great eagerness and swiftness, taking delight and pleasure therein, and continuing in it; it is their course of life.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
feet--All their members are active in evil; in Isa 59:3, the "hands, fingers, lips, and tongue," are specified. run . . . haste-- (Ro 3:15). Contrast David's "running and hasting" in the ways of God (Ps 119:32, 60). thoughts--not merely their acts, but their whole thoughts.
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The words behind it
13 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| רַגְלֵיהֶם֙ | ragleihem | feet their | H7272 → | 247 times |
| לָרַ֣ע | lara' | to <the> evil | H7451 → | 662 times |
| יָרֻ֔צוּ | yarutzu | they run | H7323 → | 103 times |
| וִֽימַהֲר֔וּ | vimaharu | and they may hasten | H4116 → | 68 times |
| לִשְׁפֹּ֖ךְ | lishpokh | to shed | H8210 → | 114 times |
| דָּ֣ם | dam | blood | H1818 → | 360 times |
| נָקִ֑י | naki | innocent | H5355 → | |
| מַחְשְׁבֽוֹתֵיהֶם֙ | machshevoteihem | thoughts their | H4284 → | 56 times |
| מַחְשְׁב֣וֹת | machshevot | [are] thoughts of | H4284 → | 56 times |
| אָ֔וֶן | ʾaven | wickedness | H205 → | 77 times |
| שֹׁ֥ד | shod | devastation | H7701 → | 25 times |
| וָשֶׁ֖בֶר | vashever | and destruction | H7667 → | 45 times |
| בִּמְסִלּוֹתָֽם׃ | bimsilotam | [are] on highways their | H4546 → | 27 times |
רַגְלֵיהֶם֙feet their
ragleihemH7272 →247 times
לָרַ֣עto <the> evil
lara'H7451 →662 times
יָרֻ֔צוּthey run
yarutzuH7323 →103 times
וִֽימַהֲר֔וּand they may hasten
vimaharuH4116 →68 times
לִשְׁפֹּ֖ךְto shed
lishpokhH8210 →114 times
דָּ֣םblood
damH1818 →360 times
נָקִ֑יinnocent
nakiH5355 →
מַחְשְׁבֽוֹתֵיהֶם֙thoughts their
machshevoteihemH4284 →56 times
מַחְשְׁב֣וֹת[are] thoughts of
machshevotH4284 →56 times
אָ֔וֶןwickedness
ʾavenH205 →77 times
שֹׁ֥דdevastation
shodH7701 →25 times
וָשֶׁ֖בֶרand destruction
vasheverH7667 →45 times
בִּמְסִלּוֹתָֽם׃[are] on highways their
bimsilotamH4546 →27 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
Proverbs 6:17haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
it leads to
- Psalms 120:2–3
Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips and a deceitful tongue.
- Proverbs 12:22
Lying lips are detestable to the LORD, but those who deal faithfully are His delight.
- Isaiah 1:15
When 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.
- Psalms 101:5
Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; the one with haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not endure.
- Psalms 5:6
You destroy those who tell lies; the LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
- Psalms 120:2–3
Through
Proverbs 1:16For their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed blood.
it leads to
- Proverbs 6:18
a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that run swiftly to evil,
- Proverbs 4:16
For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.
- Proverbs 6:18
Through
Jeremiah 22:17“But your eyes and heart are set on nothing except your own dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood, on practicing extortion and oppression.”
it leads to
- 2 Peter 2:14
Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed.
- 2 Peter 2:14
Where this verse is studied
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About Isaiah

This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on 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 Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 18:59.6-8 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.
