Isaiah 59:11

11 rugiemus quasi ursi omnes et quasi columbae meditantes gememus expectavimus iudicium et non est salutem et elongata est a nobis

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 propter hoc elongatum est iudicium a nobis et non adprehendet nos iustitia expectavimus lucem et ecce tenebrae splendorem et in tenebris ambulavimus

10 palpavimus sicut caeci parietem et quasi absque oculis adtrectavimus inpegimus meridie quasi in tenebris in caligosis quasi mortui

11 rugiemus quasi ursi omnes et quasi columbae meditantes gememus expectavimus iudicium et non est salutem et elongata est a nobis

12 multiplicatae sunt enim iniquitates nostrae coram te et peccata nostra responderunt nobis quia scelera nostra nobiscum et iniquitates nostras cognovimus

13 peccare et mentiri contra Dominum et aversi sumus ne iremus post tergum Dei nostri ut loqueremur calumniam et transgressionem concepimus et locuti sumus de corde verba mendacii