Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 59:3
For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
3. your hands are defiled with blood ] Cf. ch. Isa 1:15.
hath uttered ] Better muttereth (as R.V.).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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. The phrase your hands are defiled with blood, means with the blood of the innocent; that is, they were guilty of murder, oppression, and cruelty. See a similar statement in Isa 1:15, where the phrase your hands are full of blood occurs. The word rendered here defiled ( ga’al) means commonly to redeem, to ransom; then to avenge, or to demand and inflict punishment for bloodshed. In the sense of defiling it occurs only in the later Hebrew writers – perhaps used in this sense because those who were avengers became covered, that is, defiled with blood.
And your fingers with iniquity – The fingers in the Scriptures are represented as the agents by which any purpose is executed Isa 2:8, Which their own fingers have made (compare Isa 17:8). Some have supposed that the phrase used here means the same as the preceding, that they were guilty of murder and cruelty. But it seems more probable that the idea suggested by Grotius is the true sense, that it means that they were guilty of rapine and theft. The fingers are the instruments by which theft – especially the lighter and more delicate kinds of theft – is executed. Thus we use the word light-fingered to denote anyone who is dexterous in taking and conveying away anything, or anyone who is addicted to petty thefts.
Your lips have spoken lies – The nation is false, and no confidence can be reposed in the declarations which are made.
Your tongue hath muttered – On the word rendered muttered ( hagah), see the notes at Isa 8:19. Probably there is included in the word here, the idea that they not only spoke evil, but that they did it with a complaining, discontented, or malicious spirit. It may also mean that they calumniated the government of God, and complained of his laws; or it may mean, as Grotius supposes, that they calumniated others – that is, that slander abounded among them.
Perverseness – Hebrew, avlah – Evil – the word from which our word evil is derived.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 3. Your tongue – “And your tongue”] An ancient MS., and the Septuagint and Vulgate, add the conjunction.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Your hands are defiled with blood: here the prophet comes from a more general to a more particular charge against them; by blood we are to understand either murders and bloodshed properly so called; or ways of injustice, extortion, oppression, and cruelties, whereby men are deprived of a livelihood; hence hating our brother is called murder, 1Jo 3:15, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem called murderers. See how the prophet phraseth their oppression, Mic 3:1-3.
Your fingers: this is not added to protract the discourse, but to aggravate their sin: q.d. Not only your hands, but your fingers; you are not free from the least part of injustice.
Your lips have spoken lies; not only properly so called, but perjuries, and wronging your neighbours by slanders and false accusations; wherein he shows they did not only offer violence by the hand, but they had ways of circumventing with their lips.
Your tongue hath muttered: the verb doth properly signify to muse, or meditate; then the meaning is, that what they mutter, or utter with the tongue, they do it out of premeditated malice, from a perverse spirit; you may have a larger comment upon this Jer 9:3-6.
Perverseness: perverse words are such as are contrary to Gods word, and it is put here in the abstract, to intimate that their words were every way contrary to Gods will.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. (Isa 1:15;Rom 3:13-15).
hands . . . fingersNotmerely the “hands” perpetrate deeds of grosserenormity (“blood”), but the “fingers” commit moreminute acts of “iniquity.”
lips . . . tongueThelips “speak” openly “lies,” thetongue “mutters” malicious insinuations(“perverseness”; perverse misrepresentations of others)(Jer 6:28; Jer 9:4).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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. He begins the account with the sin of shedding blood; the blood of innocents, as the Targum; designing either the sin of murder, now frequently committed in Christian nations; or wars between Christian princes, by means of which much blood is shed; or persecutions of Christian brethren, by casting them into prisons, which have issued in their death; and at least want of brotherly love, or, the hatred of brethren, which is called murder, 1Jo 3:15 a prevailing sin in the present Sardian state; and which will not be removed till the spiritual reign or Philadelphian state takes place: and this sin is of a defiling nature; it “defiles” the “hands” or actions; and without love all works signify nothing,
1Co 13:1: yea, even their “fingers” are said to be defiled “with iniquity”; meaning either their lesser actions; or rather those more curiously and nicely performed, and seemingly more agreeable to the divine will; and yet defiled with some sin or other, as hypocrisy, vain glory, or the like: or it may be this may design the same as putting forth the fingers, and smiting with the fist, Isa 58:4, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe; and so may have respect to some sort of persecution of their brethren for conscience sake, as there.
Your lips have spoken lies: or “falsehood” q; that is, false doctrines, so called because contrary to the word of truth, and which deceive men:
your tongue hath muttered perverseness: that which is a perversion of the Gospel of Christ, and of the souls of men; what is contrary to the sacred Scriptures, the standard of faith and practice, and that premeditated, as the word r signifies; done with design, and on purpose: the abounding of errors and heresies in the present day, openly taught and divulged, to the ruin of souls, seems here to be pointed at. In the Talmud s these are explained of the several sorts of men in a court of judicature; the “hands” of the judges; the “fingers” of, the Scribes; the “lips” of advocates and solicitors; and the “tongue” of adversaries, or the contending parties.
q “falsitatem”, Montanus, Cocceius; “falsum”, Junius Tremeliius, Piscator. r , , Sept. “meditabitur”, Montanus; “meditatur”, Piscator; “meditatam effert”, Junius & Tremellius. s T. Bab. Sabbat. fol. 139. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The sins of Israel are sins in words and deeds. “For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips speak lies, your tongue murmurs wickedness.” The verb , to spot (see Isa 63:3), is a later softening down of (e.g., 2Sa 1:21); and in the place of the niphal (Zep 3:1), we have here, as in Lam 4:14, the double passive form , compounded of niphal and pual. The post-biblical nithpal, compounded of the niphal and the hithpael, is a mixed form of the same kind, though we also meet with it in a few biblical passages (Deu 21:8; Pro 27:15; Eze 23:48). The verb hagah (lxx ) combines the two meanings of “thought” (meditation or reflection), and of a light low “expression,” half inward half outward.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
3. For your hands. He now brings forward their actions, that they may not practice evasion, or call in question what are those sins which have “caused the separation.” He therefore takes away from them every excuse, by bringing forward particular instances, as if their shameful life were exhibited on an open stage. Now, he speaks in the second person, because, like an advocate, he argues and pleads the cause of God, and therefore speaks of himself as not belonging to the rank of the wicked, with whom he did not wish to be classed, though he was not entirely free from sin, but feared and served God, and enjoyed liberty of conscience. No man could be at liberty to condemn others, who was involved in the guilt of the same vices; and no man could be qualified for pleading the cause of God, who deprived himself of his right by living wickedly. We must be unlike those whom we reprove, if we do not wish to expose our doctrine to ridicule, and to be reckoned impudent; and, on the other band, when we serve God with a pure conscience, our doctrine obtains weight and authority, and holds even adversaries to be more fully convicted.
Are polluted with blood. The picture which he gives of the wicked life of the people is not superfluous; for men seek various subterfuges, and cannot be reduced to a state of obedience, unless they have previously acknowledged their sins. By mentioning blood, he does not mean that murders have been everywhere committed; but by this word he describes the cruelty, extortions, violence, and enormities, which were perpetrated by hypocrites against the poor and defenseless; for they had not to deal with robbers and assassins, but with the king and the nobles, who were highly respected and honored. He calls them manslayers, because they cruelly harassed the innocent, and seized by force and violence the property of others; and so, immediately afterwards he uses the word “iniquity” instead of “blood.”
And your fingers with iniquity. Though he appears to extend the discourse farther, yet it is a repetition, or rather, a reduplication, such as is frequently employed by Hebrew writers, accompanied by amplification; for he expresses more by “fingers” than by “hands;“ as if he had said that not even the smallest part was free from unjust violence. (130)
Your lips have uttered falsehood. Next, he takes notice of one kind of wickedness, that is, when men deceive each other by tricks, or falsehood, or perjury; for that iniquity by which we wound our neighbors is most frequently defended either by cruelty as a bodyguard, or by cheating and falsehood. Here the Prophet takes a rapid view of the second table, and, from the crimes which they commit against it, he shows that they are wicked and destitute of all fear of God; for cruelty and treachery, by which human society is infringed, proceed from contempt of God. Thus from “the hands,” that is, from extortion and violence, he descends to falsehoods and deceitful practices, to perjuries and crafty devices, by which we take advantage of our neighbors.
(130) “ Que la moindre partie de leur corps est souillee d’extorsion.” “That the smallest part of their body is tainted with extortion.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) Your hands are defiled with blood.The accusation of the grand indictment of Isa. 1:15 is reproduced verbatim.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3, 4. Hands fingers lips The sins of Israel are sins of deed and word, by which accusation is to be found in every organ.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 59:3-8. For your hands are defiled The prophet here goes on to specify those iniquities which he had mentioned in general, and in such an order, that he distributes them, as it were, through the members of the human body; the hands, the mouth, the feet; dwelling longest, however, upon the faults committed by the mouth; which are set forth literally and properly, first, in the middle of Isa 59:3-4 and then figuratively, Isa 59:5-6. The meaning of the expression, They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, is, “Their wicked designs are like the eggs of a cockatrice, rank poison, which, when hatched, produce a venomous serpent: they end in destruction and misery.” The expression of weaving the spider’s web, signifies, “They attempt things, which meet with no success.” See Job 8:14. The 4th verse may be rendered, No one pleadeth in righteousness, &c. In Isa 59:8 instead of there is no judgment in their goings, Vitringa reads, there is no regard to right in their goings.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Here is a long and sad account of men’s revolt and transgression, which fully explains what was said before, as well as accounts for the divine corrections which followed. Men may well wait for the light, and grope in darkness, when all the faculties are either benumbed with sin, or if alive are employed in the services of Satan, as here described; and how shall they know the way of peace, when their pursuits are all after sin? There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked, Isa 57:21 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 59:3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
Ver. 3. For your hands are defiled with blood. ] The prophet well knew that these perverse Jews would stand upon their justification, and put God to his proofs, as their posterity also did, Jer 2:35 catalogum ergo bene longum texit; therefore he here brings in a long bead roll of their sins, wherein their hands, lips, heart, feet, &c., were found guilty of high offence. See Isa 1:15 .
Your lips have spoken lies.
And your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
defiled. Hebrew. ga’al, to redeem, put for ga’al, to pollute, here, and Ezr 2:62. Neh 7:64. Lam 4:14. Dan 1:8, Dan 1:8. Zep 3:1. Mal 1:7, Mal 1:12.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
your hands: Isa 1:15, Isa 1:21, Jer 2:30, Jer 2:34, Jer 22:17, Eze 7:23, Eze 9:9, Eze 22:2, Eze 35:6, Hos 4:2, Mic 3:10-12, Mic 7:2, Mat 27:4
your lips: Jer 7:8, Jer 9:3-6, Eze 13:8, Hos 7:3, Hos 7:13, Mic 6:12, 1Ti 4:2
Reciprocal: 2Ki 5:22 – My master 2Ki 5:27 – leprosy Psa 50:19 – tongue Psa 106:39 – defiled Psa 140:3 – sharpened Pro 2:12 – from the man Pro 6:17 – and hands Pro 19:1 – perverse Isa 30:9 – lying Isa 32:7 – lying Isa 57:11 – that thou Isa 58:9 – speaking Isa 59:4 – and speak Isa 59:7 – and they Eze 22:29 – people Hos 11:12 – compasseth Mic 2:1 – to Mat 15:11 – but Act 20:30 – speaking Rom 3:13 – with their Eph 4:25 – putting
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 59:3. Your hands are defiled with blood Here the prophet proceeds from a more general to a more particular charge against them. By blood, we are to understand, either murders and bloodshed, properly so called, or ways of injustice, extortion, oppression, and cruelties, whereby men are deprived of a livelihood: hence, hating our brother is called murder, 1Jn 3:15, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem murderers, Isa 1:21. And your fingers with iniquity This is added to aggravate their sin; as if he had said, Not only your hands, but your fingers are defiled, and not the least part of you is free from injustice. Your lips have spoken lies Not only properly so called, but perjuries, slanders, and false accusations: you have not only offered violence to your neighbours by your hands, but circumvented them by your lips. Your tongue hath muttered perverseness Perverse words, or such as were contrary to Gods word and will. When they could not, for shame, utter their malice against their neighbours aloud, nor dared to do it for fear of being convicted of falsehood, and put to confusion, they muttered it secretly.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
59:3 For your hands are defiled with {a} blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath uttered perverseness.
(a) Read Isa 1:15 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Violence and bloodshed among God’s people were signs of their sinfulness. Lies and deception were others.