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Isaías 59

VBL · Chapter 59/66

1¿No lo ves? El brazo del Señor no es demasiado débil para salvarte, y su oído no es demasiado sordo para escucharte.

2Es tu culpa la que ha creado una barrera entre tú y tu Dios; tus pecados han ocultado su rostro de ti para que no pueda escucharte.

3Tus manos están cubiertas de sangre y tus dedos manchados de culpa, tus labios hablan mentiras y tu boca susurra cosas malas.

4Nadie quiere justicia, nadie alega su caso con honestidad. Se apoyan en falsos testimonios y dicen mentiras. Conciben planes malvados, y dan a luz problemas.

5Incuban huevos de víbora y tejen una tela de araña. Si te comes sus huevos, morirás; si aplastas sus huevos, sólo nacerán serpientes.

6Sus telas no se pueden convertir en ropa; no pueden cubrirse con lo que producen. Lo que hacen es perverso; usan sus manos para cometer violencia.

7Corren para hacer el mal; se apresuran a asesinar a inocentes. Sus mentes están llenas de pensamientos pecaminosos; sólo causan estragos y destrucción.

8No saben vivir en paz; no son rectos ni justos con los demás. Su camino es totalmente torcido, y cualquiera que los siga no experimentará ninguna paz.

9Por eso no tenemos justicia, y no hacemos lo que es justo. Buscamos la luz, pero sólo encontramos la oscuridad; buscamos la luz brillante, pero caminamos en la oscuridad profunda.

10Andamos a tientas como ciegos a lo largo de una pared, palpando con las manos como si no tuviéramos ojos. Tropezamos al mediodía como si fuera la tarde. Entre los que están llenos de vida, somos como los muertos.

11Todos nosotros gruñimos como osos y arrullamos como palomas mientras esperamos que se haga justicia, pero nunca sucede; esperamos la salvación, pero nunca la recibimos.

12Tú estás al tanto de todas nuestras rebeldías; nuestros pecados atestiguan contra nosotros. Sí, reconocemos nuestros actos rebeldes; conocemos todos nuestros pecados.

13Te hemos desobedecido y negado, Señor; hemos dado la espalda a nuestro Dios. Hemos fomentado la opresión y la rebelión, diciendo mentiras que hemos pensado cuidadosamente.

14Se rechaza la justicia, y nunca se hace lo correcto. La verdad cae en la calle, y la honestidad está prohibida.

15No hay verdad en ninguna parte, y quien abandona el mal es robado. El Señor vio lo que sucedía, y se molestó porque no había justicia.

16Miró a su alrededor, y se horrorizó al ver que no había nadie que hiciera nada al respecto, así que intervino él mismo, y su sentido de lo que era justo le hizo seguir adelante.

17Se puso la integridad como coraza y el casco de la salvación en la cabeza. Se vistió con ropas de venganza y se envolvió con determinación como un manto.

18Pagará a todos por lo que han hecho: furia a sus enemigos, venganza a los que se le oponen, revancha a las tierras lejanas.

19Los de occidente se asombrarán ante el Señor, y los de oriente se asombrarán ante su gloria, porque llegará como un torrente impetuoso, impulsado por el Espíritu del Señor.

20El Redentor vendrá a Sión, a los descendientes de Jacob que se conviertan de sus pecados, declara el Señor.

21Este es mi acuerdo con ellos, dice el Señor. Mi Espíritu, que está sobre ti, no te dejará, y mis palabras que te he dado para que las pronuncies estarán siempre en tus labios, en los de tus hijos y en los de tus descendientes, desde ahora hasta siempre, dice el Señor.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Isaiah explains that the separation between the people and God is not a lack of divine power, but a consequence of their own sins: lying, violence, and injustice. Seeing that no one interceded, God's own arm brought salvation, and a Redeemer will come to Zion.

Explanation

The chapter begins by clearing up a common doubt: if prayers do not seem to be answered, the problem is not that the "LORD's hand" is shortened or weak, but sin, which "has separated" the people from God, like a wall blocking communication. The extensive list of sins (hands defiled with blood, lips that speak lies, feet that run to evil) describes a society morally diseased to its very root, unable to find its own way back to justice. The striking image of God putting on "the breastplate of righteousness" and "an helmet of salvation" like a warrior, acting alone because "there was no intercessor," anticipates the language Paul would later use in Ephesians 6 about the "armor of God." The practical application today is to honestly examine whether spiritual barriers in our lives are caused by our own choices, rather than automatically assuming that God is distant or unable to help.

Fun facts

  • The image of God putting on "the breastplate of righteousness" and "an helmet of salvation" (v.17) is directly quoted and expanded by Paul in Ephesians 6:14-17, in the famous passage about the "armor of God" still used by Christians today in the context of discipleship.
  • The final promise of a "Redeemer" who would come to Zion, "and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob," is quoted by Paul in Romans 11:26 when discussing the future role of Israel in God's plan of salvation.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Isaías 59:1“The Lord’s hand is not shortened” and “his ear heavy” are images of physical incapacity; the chapter opens by denying that God’s silence is due to any limitation of His, setting up the real explanation that follows.
  2. Isaías 59:2“Have separated” and “hid his face” describe sin as a barrier that interrupts communication — not God pulling away on His own, but the people distancing themselves because of their own actions.
  3. Isaías 59:3Hands defiled with blood, fingers of iniquity, and a perverse tongue list a physical portrait of sin, each body part tied to a different kind of wrongdoing committed.
  4. Isaías 59:4“None calleth for justice” describes a total collapse of the legal system, where lies and vanity replace any sincere defense of truth in the courts.
  5. Isaías 59:5Cockatrice eggs that hatch poison and spider webs that clothe no one compare the people’s actions to things that look productive but are useless or dangerous. It’s all work that serves no good purpose.
  6. Isaías 59:6Comparing the people’s works to spider webs, unable to serve as clothing, shows that all this effort produces nothing useful, only violence disguised as activity.
  7. Isaías 59:7Feet that run to evil and shed innocent blood describe haste in doing wrong, and “wasting and destruction” in the roads suggest that even ordinary paths became scenes of violence.
  8. Isaías 59:8“The way of peace they know not” sums up the chapter so far: the people’s own paths are crooked, incapable of leading anywhere resembling peace or justice.
  9. Isaías 59:9Waiting for light and receiving darkness describes the frustration of someone hoping for relief and finding only more darkness, a direct result of the behavior described in the previous verses.
  10. Isaías 59:10Groping at walls like the blind describes moral confusion as physical blindness: people stumbling at noon, when everything should be clear. Widespread injustice has erased the ability to see the right path.
  11. Isaías 59:11Roaring like bears and moaning like doves combines two very different sounds of suffering, one fierce and one gentle, to describe the collective anguish of waiting for a salvation that doesn’t arrive.
  12. Isaías 59:12“Our transgressions are multiplied” shifts the tone to collective confession, openly acknowledging that the people know their own iniquities, without trying to deny or justify them.
  13. Isaías 59:13The list of sins here, lying, turning away from God, speaking oppression, is more abstract than the list of physical actions at the start of the chapter, showing that the problem also lies at the level of intention and speech.
  14. Isaías 59:14“Judgment is turned away backward” and “truth is fallen in the street” personify abstract concepts as wounded people, unable to move freely in a corrupt society.
  15. Isaías 59:15“He that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey” describes a society so inverted that doing right has become dangerous, a scenario that finally draws God’s attention to act.
  16. Isaías 59:16“Wondered that there was no intercessor” describes surprise at the total absence of anyone willing to mediate or defend the right cause, leading God to act alone by His own strength.
  17. Isaías 59:17God dressed in a breastplate and helmet uses the language of a warrior arming for battle. It’s an image that, seeing no one else doing right, He Himself takes up the fight for justice.
  18. Isaías 59:18“According to their deeds” establishes the principle of retribution: God’s response is proportional to what each group did, reaching even the distant islands mentioned in other chapters as a symbol for the nations.
  19. Isaías 59:19Fearing the name of the Lord “from the west” to “the rising of the sun” repeats the same expression of universal reach used in chapter 45, and the image of the enemy as a flood of water held back by a standard describes direct intervention against an overwhelming threat.
  20. Isaías 59:20The coming of “the Redeemer… to Zion” connects this chapter to the restoration theme that dominates the second half of the book, addressed specifically to those within the people who repent.
  21. Isaías 59:21The “covenant” promising that the spirit and the words will never leave the people’s mouth, nor their children’s, guarantees permanent continuity of revelation, from parent to child, with no end in sight.

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