Isaiah 59:15

Yea, truth faileth,.... Or, "is deprived" (f); of its life and being; it not only falls in the street, and there lies, without any to show regard unto it; but it fails; it seems as if it had given up

Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. Yea, truth faileth - is not to be found.

Truth faileth: q.d. Truth is more than fallen, which he had said in the former verse; it faileth. For being only fallen it may recover itself again, but failing notes the loss of its very vitals; as being every where neglected, in court, in city, in country, in inferior as well as superior ranks, in the streets, in the gates, in the markets, in the fairs, in all public places of commerce, the condition much like that under the beast coming out of the earth, , &c. See ,8, &c. All things are amiss, neither judgment, nor justice, nor truth is to be found among us, but fraud and deceit; yet none troubled at it. He that departeth from evil, that separateth himself from evil things and persons, will not be as vile as others, maketh himself a prey; or, is accounted mad; is laughed at that talks of justice, so some. Josephus tells us that immediately before the destruction of Jerusalem, it was matter of scorn to be religious. Though there be no solid ground for nor need of that marginal reading, yet is it a truth. The translators reach the meaning by prey; the wicked, like wild beasts, endeavouring to devour such as are not as bad as themselves: where wickedness rules, innocency is oppressed: in bargaining, as buying and selling, they that are simple and innocent are outwitted by the crafty and fraudulent, as not willing, or rather daring, to oppose fraud with fraud, but to do all things in sincerity. The Lord saw it, i.e. took notice of it: it is spoken of God after the manner of men, as 18:21, and many other places. It displeased him: q.d. If you would know why God is so angry with you, it is for such things as these; the Lord takes notice of it, and it is a great evil in his eye.

Isaiah 59:15 Yea, truth faileth; and he [that] departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw [it], and it displeased him that [there was] no judgment.Ver. 15. Yea, truth faileth.] See Isaiah 59:13. And he that departethfrom evil maketh himself a prey.] Praedae pater; is like to suffer for his singularity and preciseness. The luxurious Ephesians once made this decree, Oυδειςημωνονηιστοςεστω, Let there be never a sober man allowed to live among us. The Athenians were wont to cast good men out of their commonwealth by an ostracism. Thraseaes was commanded by Nero to die, because he was a better man than was fit to live in so loose an age. Josephus saith, that before the last destruction of Jerusalem, religion was not only a matter of form, but of scorn. Bede reporteth of the ancient Britons, immediately before their destruction by the Saxons, that they were come to that height of wickedness as to cast odium in religionis professores tanquam in adversarios, hatred upon professors of religion, looking upon them as their adversaries.

(15) Truth faileth—i.e., is banished, and becomes as a missing and lost thing. The man who departs from evil is but the victim of the evil-doers. Other renderings are (1) is outlawed, and (2) is counted mad, but the Authorised Version is quite tenable. The words remind us of the terrible picture of Greek demoralisation in Thuc. iii. And the Lord saw it . . .—The verse at first suggests the thought that what Jehovah saw were the sins thus described. The sequence of thought, however, tends to the conclusion that the words are properly the beginning of a new section, and that the supplied pronoun refers to the repentance and confession of the people. It displeased Him—literally, was evil in His eyes—that the penitents were still subject to oppression, that they found no leader and deliverer, and therefore He came, as it were, alone and unaided, to the rescue. (Comp. Joe 2:17-19.)

Verse 15. And the Lord saw it - "And JEHOVAH saw it -----"] This third line of the stanza appears manifestly to me to be imperfect by the loss of a phrase. The reader will perhaps more perfectly conceive my idea of the matter if I endeavour to supply the supposed defect, I imagine it might have stood originally in this manner: - לו ויחר יהוה וירא lo veyachar Yehovah vaiyar משפט אין כי בעיניו וירע mishpat ein ki beeyinaiv veyera "And JEHOVAH saw it, and he was wroth; And it displeased him, that there was no judgment." We have had already many examples of mistakes of omission; this, if it be such, is very ancient, being prior to all the versions. - L.

15. Yea, truth faileth] Lit. And truth is missing,—conspicuous by its absence. maketh himself a prey] i.e. must submit to extortion (Psalms 76:6). Another, and possibly a better rendering is, “withdraws himself”; compare the peculiar use of the simple verb in Rth 2:16 (= “draw out” corn from the sheaf). 15b introduces the peroration of the discourse, in which the prophet describes the manner in which salvation shall at last “overtake” the sinful and misgoverned community. The logical development of the argument seems to be arrested by the conviction that the existing situation is hopeless, and only to be terminated through the personal intervention of Jehovah. This conviction clothes itself first of all in a prophetic vision of Jehovah as He appears to judgement; which is followed by an announcement of the consequences of His interposition for the two classes within Israel and for mankind at large. Although the transition in the middle of this verse is abrupt and unexpected there is no sufficient reason to doubt the unity of the discourse.

Yea, truth faileth - That is, it is not to be found, it is missing. The word used here (from עדר ‛âdar) means “to be left, to remain” 2 Samuel 17:22; then “to be missing or lacking” 1 Samuel 30:19; Isaiah 40:26.

14, 15. The section from Isaiah 59:9-14, including first part of Isa 59:15, culminates in a confession of a state of things fearfully bad in Jewish society at several periods of its history, but