Isaiah 59:11

11 All of us growl like the bears. We call out sadly like the doves. We look for justice, but there isn't any. We want to be saved, but salvation is far away.

Isaiah 59:11 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 59:11

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.

Isaiah 59:11 In-Context

9 Fairness has gone far away; goodness is nowhere to be found. We wait for the light, but there is only darkness now. We hope for a bright light, but all we have is darkness.

10 We are like the blind feeling our way along a wall. We feel our way as if we had no eyes. In the brightness of day we trip as if it were night. We are like dead men among the strong.

11 All of us growl like the bears. We call out sadly like the doves. We look for justice, but there isn't any. We want to be saved, but salvation is far away.

12 We have done many wrong things against our God; our sins show we are wrong. We know we have turned against God; we know the evil things we have done:

13 sinning and rejecting the Lord, turning away from our God, planning to hurt others and to disobey God, planning and speaking lies.