Read & explore together
Sin Separates Us from God
Isaiah 59:1–17 teaches that the barrier is not weakness in Yahweh, but human sin. The passage shows how iniquity damages speech, justice, and peace, then ends by showing Yahweh seeing the need himself.
Understanding the passage
The setting of this message
This prophecy begins by rejecting the idea that Yahweh cannot save or hear. It then names sins in personal conduct and public life, moves into a shared confession using “we”, and closes with Yahweh’s response to the absence of justice and an intercessor.
Isaiah 59:1–17Main takeaway
This passage teaches that sin separates people from God, distorts truth and justice, and leaves the need for Yahweh’s own righteous action.
Explore the message
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01The problem is not with YahwehThe passage opens with a contrast. Yahweh’s hand is not too short to save, and his ear is not too dull to hear.
Explanation
The passage opens with a contrast. Yahweh’s hand is not too short to save, and his ear is not too dull to hear. Instead, the separation comes from the people’s own iniquities and sins. The fault does not lie in God’s power or attention, but in human wrongdoing.
02Sin fills words, actions, and public lifeIsaiah lists guilt in hands, fingers, lips, and tongue, showing both actions and speech. Justice is also corrupted, because people do not plead in truth or righteousness.
Explanation
Isaiah lists guilt in hands, fingers, lips, and tongue, showing both actions and speech. Justice is also corrupted, because people do not plead in truth or righteousness. The images of adders’ eggs and spider webs show evil as harmful and useless. Such works cannot cover the people who produce them.
03Crooked paths bring darkness, not peaceThe passage says these ways lead to evil, innocent blood, destruction, and the loss of peace.
Explanation
The passage says these ways lead to evil, innocent blood, destruction, and the loss of peace. Then the voice says “we”, admitting darkness, stumbling, and the absence of justice and salvation. Their transgressions are many, known, and include denying Yahweh, turning away, oppression, revolt, and falsehood.
04Yahweh sees and respondsTruth has fallen, uprightness cannot enter, and one who departs from evil becomes prey. Yahweh sees this and it displeases him that there is no justice.
Explanation
Truth has fallen, uprightness cannot enter, and one who departs from evil becomes prey. Yahweh sees this and it displeases him that there is no justice. Seeing no man and no intercessor, his own arm brought salvation to him, and his righteousness sustained him. He then puts on righteousness and salvation like armour.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What does the passage say is not the problem, and what is the real problem instead?
Set Isaiah 59:1 beside Isaiah 59:2 and follow the passage’s contrast carefully.
02How do the pictures of adders’ eggs and spider webs explain sinful works?
Notice that one image shows danger and death, while the other shows something that cannot become a covering.
03What does Yahweh do when he sees there is no justice and no intercessor?
Look for the wording about his own arm, his righteousness, and what he puts on.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Isaiah 59:1–17
1Behold, Yahweh’s hand is not shortened, that it can’t save; nor his ear dull, that it can’t hear.
2But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
3For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.
4No one sues in righteousness, and no one pleads in truth. They trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
5They hatch adders’ eggs and weave the spider’s web. He who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
6Their webs won’t become garments. They won’t cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and acts of violence are in their hands.
7Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their paths.
8They don’t know the way of peace; and there is no justice in their ways. They have made crooked paths for themselves; whoever goes in them doesn’t know peace.
9Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness doesn’t overtake us. We look for light, but see darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.
10We grope for the wall like the blind. Yes, we grope as those who have no eyes. We stumble at noon as if it were twilight. Among those who are strong, we are like dead men.
11We all roar like bears and moan sadly like doves. We look for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far off from us.
12For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:
13transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has fallen in the street, and uprightness can’t enter.
15Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.
16He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness sustained him.
17He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle.