Isaiah 59:12

12 For our rebellions are multiplied before thee, and our sins have testified against us; for our iniquities are with us; and we know our sins:

Isaiah 59:12 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 59:12

For our transgressions are multiplied before thee
Not only an increase of immorality among the people in common, but among professors of religion; and as their transgressions are committed against the Lord, so they are in his sight taken notice of and observed by him, are loathsome and abominable to him, and call aloud for his judgments on them: and our sins testify against us;
God is a witness against us, in whose sight our sins are done; and our consciences are witnesses against us, which are as a thousand witnesses; and there is no denying facts; our sins stare us in the face, and we must confess our guilt: or, "our sins answer against us" ^F3; as witnesses called and examined answer to the questions put, so our sins, being brought as it were into open court, answer and bear testimony against us; or it must be owned, our punishment for our sins answers to them; it is the echo of our sins, what they call for, and righteously comes upon us: for our transgressions are with us;
or, "on us" ^F4; in our minds, on our consciences, loading us with guilt; continually accusing and condemning us; are manifest to us, as the Targum; too manifest to be denied: and as for our iniquities, we know them;
the nature and number of them, and the aggravating circumstances that attend them; and cannot but own and acknowledge them, confess, lament, and bewail them; an enumeration of which follows.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 (wnb htne wnytajx) "peccata nostra respondit contra nos", Montanus; "id ipsum respondit contra nos", Cocceius; "even everyone of them", so Junius & Tremellius; "peccatorum nostrorum quodque", sic
F4 (wnta) "super nos", Munster.

Isaiah 59:12 In-Context

10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and as if we had no eyes we walk by touch; we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in graves as dead men.

11 We all roar like bears and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for saving health, but it has withdrawn from us.

12 For our rebellions are multiplied before thee, and our sins have testified against us; for our iniquities are with us; and we know our sins:

13 To rebel and to lie against the LORD, and to depart away from our God; the speaking of libel and rebellion, to conceive, and to speak from the heart words of falsehood,

14 and that which is right has departed, and righteousness withdrew afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity could not enter.