Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 59:11
We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but [there is] none; for salvation, [but] it is far off from us.
11. We roar (better groan) all like bears ] Comp. (with Gesenius) Horace, Epod. 16. 51:
“Nec vespertinus circumgemit ursus ovile.”
The comparison would no doubt gain in force if we could suppose, as Duhm hesitatingly suggests, that captive animals, pining for liberty, are meant. But this is not indicated.
On the “mourning” of the dove, cf. ch. Isa 38:14; Eze 7:16; Nah 2:7; and see Davidson’s Ezekiel (Cambridge Bible), p. 49.
we look for judgment, &c. ] returning to the thought of Isa 59:9.
12 15a. Confession of the sins previously denounced, the prophet speaking in the name of the people.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
We roar all like bears – This is designed still further to describe the heavy judgments which had come upon them for their sins. The word rendered here roar (from hamah, like English, to hum, German, hummen, spoken of bees), is applied to any murmuring, or confused noise or sound. It sometimes means to snarl, as a dog Psa 59:7, Psa 59:15; to coo, as a dove Eze 7:16; it is also applied to waves that roar Psa 46:4; Isa 51:15; to a crowd or tumultuous assemblage Psa 46:7; and to music Isa 16:11; Jer 48:36. Here it is applied to the low growl or groan of a bear. Bochart (Hieroz. i. 3. 9), says, that a bear produces a melancholy sound; and Horace (Epod. xvi. 51), speaks of its low groan:
Nee vespertinus circumgemit ursus ovile.
Here it is emblematic of mourning, and is designed to denote that they were suffering under heavy and long-continued calamity. Or, according to Gesenius (Commentary in loc.), it refers to a bear which is hungry, and which growls, impatient for food, and refers here to the complaining, dissatisfaction, and murmuring of the people, because God did not come to vindicate and relieve them.
And mourn sore like doves – The cooing of the dove, a plaintive sound, is often used to denote grief (see Eze 7:16; compare the notes at Isa 38:14).
We look for judgment … – (See the notes at Isa 59:9.)
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 11. But it is far off from us – “And it is far distant from us.”] The conjunction vau must necessarily be prefixed to the verb, as the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate found it in their copies; verachakah, “and far off.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
We roar: this signifies the greatness of their anguish, that forced from them these loud outcries.
And mourn: this notes some sense of their condition, that wrought in them these sorrowful lamentations; or it may relate to the condition that both sorts of people were in under their oppressing governors. It made the wicked roar like bears, and the godly mourn like doves. It is thus expressed because these properties are peculiar to these creatures. The bear, when robbed, goes into his den and roars; the dove, when absent from her mate, sits solitary and mourns.
For salvation, but it is far off from us: see the exposition of this last part of the verse Isa 59:9.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. roarmoan plaintively,like a hungry bear which growls for food.
doves (Isa 38:14;Eze 7:16).
salvationretributionin kind: because not salvation, but “destruction” was “intheir paths” (Isa 59:7).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves,…. Some in a more noisy and clamorous, others in a stiller way, yet all in private: for the bear, when robbed of its whelps, goes to its den and roars; and the dove, when it has lost its mate, mourns in solitude: this expresses the secret groanings of the saints under a sense of sin, and the forlorn state of religion. The Targum paraphrases it thus,
“we roar because of our enemies, who are gathered against us as bears; all of us indeed mourn sore as doves:”
we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us; we expect that God will take vengeance on our enemies, and save us; look for judgment on antichrist, and the antichristian states, and for the salvation of the church of God; for the vials of divine wrath on the one, and for happy times to the other; but neither of them as yet come; the reason of which is as follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
11. We all roar like bears. He describes two classes of those who cannot silently endure their afflictions without making them known by external signs; for some howl fiercely, and others moan like doves. This latter metaphor was employed by him in describing the groans of Hezekiah, (Isa 38:14😉 and this happens when we endeavor to restrain our grief, and yet cannot prevent the outward signs of grief from breaking out in spite of us. The meaning is, that sometimes the violence of their grief constrained them to utter loud cries, and sometimes they complained in low and murmuring sounds, but in both cases without avail, because their condition was not changed for the better.
We looked for judgment. He again repeats that in vain they “looked for judgment and salvation,” meaning that the people were deprived of the assistance of God, which he desired above all things; and he makes use of the word salvation, in order to describe more fully and completely what he formerly denoted by the word “justice,” and now again by the word “judgment.” Thence infer that it is by our own fault that we are wretched, and grow old and waste away in our wretchedness, till we are converted to God. We may indeed moan and howl, but can obtain no alleviation of our grief without repentance. There can be no end of our afflictions, so long as we provoke the Lord’s wrath, and do not desire with the whole heart to be reconciled to him.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(11) We roar all like bears . . .The comparison is not found elsewhere in Scripture, but Horace (Epp. xvi. 51) gives circumgemit ursus ovile. For the dove, comp. Isa. 38:14; Eze. 7:16.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 59:11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but [there is] none; for salvation, [but] it is far off from us.
Ver. 11. We roar all like bears. ] Fremimus, ac gemimus. The bear, when hurt or robbed, runs into his den and roareth; doves, when bereft of their mates, sit solitary and groan; so do we, indesinenter et intime gemimus, make pitiful moan; and that is all we can do.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
roar: Isa 51:20, Psa 32:3, Psa 32:4, Psa 38:8, Hos 7:14
mourn: Isa 38:14, Job 30:28, Job 30:29, Jer 8:15, Jer 9:1, Eze 7:16
for salvation: Psa 85:9, Psa 119:155
Reciprocal: Lev 14:22 – two turtle doves Job 3:24 – my roarings Psa 22:1 – words Jer 30:5 – a voice Lam 3:17 – thou Eze 24:23 – and mourn Nah 2:7 – doves Zep 1:10 – the noise
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
59:11 We all roar like {i} bears, and mourn bitterly like doves: we look for judgment, but [there is] none; for salvation, [but] it is far from us.
(i) We express our sorrows by outward signs, some more and some less.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
They could not even articulate their grief but simply growled and moaned like angry bears and pitiful doves (cf. Mar 7:34; Joh 11:38; Rom 8:22-23). This lament closes as it began, with an admission that justice and salvation were far from God’s people.