Isaiah 59:11

11 All of us growl like hungry bears. We cry like sad doves. We want the LORD to do what is fair and save us. But he doesn't do it. We long for him to set us free. But the time for that seems 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 We aren't being treated fairly. We haven't been set free yet. The God who always does what is right hasn't come to help us. We look for light. But we see nothing but darkness. We look for brightness. But we walk in deep shadows.

10 Like blind people we feel our way along the wall. We are like those who can't see. At noon we trip and fall as if the sun had already set. Compared to those who are healthy, we are like dead people.

11 All of us growl like hungry bears. We cry like sad doves. We want the LORD to do what is fair and save us. But he doesn't do it. We long for him to set us free. But the time for that seems far away.

12 That's because we've done so many things he considers wrong. Our sins prove that we are guilty. The wrong things we've done are always troubling us. We admit that we have sinned.

13 We've refused to obey the Lord. We've made evil plans against him. We've turned our backs on our God. We've stirred up trouble and refused to follow him. We've told lies that came from our own minds.