New English Translation
Isaiah 59:3
3For your hands are stained with blood and your fingers with sin; your lips speak lies, your tongue utters malicious words.
Isaiah 59:3 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
- New International Version (NIV)For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken falsely, and your tongue mutters wicked things.
- English Standard Version (ESV)For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.
- New King James Version (NKJV)For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue has muttered perversity.
Context of Isaiah 59:3
1Look, the Lord’s hand is not too weak to deliver you; his ear is not too deaf to hear you. 2But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God; your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers. For your hands are stained with blood and your fingers with sin; your lips speak lies, your tongue utters malicious words. 4No one is concerned about justice; no one sets forth his case truthfully. They depend on false words and tell lies; they conceive of oppression and give birth to sin. 5They hatch the eggs of a poisonous snake and spin a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die, a poisonous snake is hatched.
Read all of Isaiah 59Isaiah 59:3 word by word
כִּ֤י כַפֵּיכֶם֙ נְגֹאֲל֣וּ בַדָּ֔ם וְאֶצְבְּעוֹתֵיכֶ֖ם בֶּֽעָוֹ֑ן שִׂפְתֽוֹתֵיכֶם֙ דִּבְּרוּ־שֶׁ֔קֶר לְשׁוֹנְכֶ֖ם עַוְלָ֥ה תֶהְגֶּֽה׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
- For your handsכַּףkaph · palmH3709
- are defiledגָּאַלgâ'al · to defileH1351
- with bloodדָּםdâm · bloodH1818
- and your fingersאֶצְבַּע'etsba‛ · fingerH676
- with iniquityעָוֺן‛âvôn ‛âvôn · iniquity: crimeH5771
- your lipsשָׂפָהώâphâh ώepheth · lipsH8193
- have spokenדָבַרdâbar · to speak: speakH1696
- liesשֶׁ֫קֶרsheqer · deceptionH8267
- your tongueלָשׁוֹןlâshôn lâshôn leshônâh · tongueH3956
- hath mutteredהָגָהhâgâh · to mutterH1897
- perversenessעַוְלָה‛evel ‛âvel ‛avlâh ‛ôlâh ‛ôlâh · injusticeH5766
Cross-references for Isaiah 59:3
- Isaiah 1:15When you spread out your hands in prayer, I look the other way; when you offer your many prayers, I do not listen, because your hands are covered with blood.
- Jeremiah 2:30“It did no good for me to punish your people. They did not respond to such correction. You slaughtered your prophets like a voracious lion.”
- Jeremiah 22:17But you are always thinking and looking for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means. Your eyes and your heart are set on killing some innocent person and committing fraud and oppression.
- Ezekiel 7:23(Make the chain, because the land is full of murder and the city is full of violence.)
- Ezekiel 9:9He said to me, “The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of murder, and the city is full of corruption, for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’
- Ezekiel 22:2“As for you, son of man, are you willing to pronounce judgment, are you willing to pronounce judgment on the bloody city? Then confront her with all her abominable deeds!
- Ezekiel 35:6Therefore, as surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I will subject you to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you.
- Hosea 4:2There is only cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery. They resort to violence and bloodshed.
- Micah 3:10You build Zion through bloody crimes, Jerusalem through unjust violence.
- Micah 7:2Faithful men have disappeared from the land; there are no godly men left. They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; they hunt their own brother with a net.
- Matthew 27:4saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood!” But they said, “What is that to us? You take care of it yourself!”
- Jeremiah 7:8“‘But just look at you! You are putting your confidence in a false belief that will not deliver you.
- Jeremiah 9:3The Lord says, “These people are like soldiers who have readied their bows. Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies. They have become powerful in the land, but they have not done so by honest means. Indeed, they do one evil thing after another and do not pay attention to me.
- Ezekiel 13:8“‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because you have spoken false words and forecast delusion, look, I am against you, declares the sovereign Lord.
- Hosea 7:3The royal advisers delight the king with their evil schemes, the princes make him glad with their lies.
- Micah 6:12The city’s rich men think nothing of resorting to violence; her inhabitants lie, their tongues speak deceptive words.
Commentaries on Isaiah 59:3
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 3Your tongue "And your tongue" - An ancient MS., and the Septuagint and Vulgate, add the conjunction.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 3For your hands are defiled with blood - The prophet proceeds here more particularly to specify the sins of which they were guilty; and in order to show the extent and depth of their depravity, he specifies the various members of the body - the hands, the fingers, the lips, the tongue, the feet as the agents by which people commit iniquity. See a similar argument on the subject of depravity in Romans 3:13-15, where a part of the description which the…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 1-8The people said the Lord could not rescue them, but the real issue was that they had not repented (Isaiah 59:20) and were still sinning.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 33. (Is 1:15; Ro 3:13-15). hands ... fingers--Not merely the "hands" perpetrate deeds of grosser enormity ("blood"), but the "fingers" commit more minute acts of "iniquity." lips ... tongue--The lips "speak" openly "lies," the tongue "mutters" malicious insinuations ("perverseness"; perverse misrepresentations of others) (Jr 6:28; 9:4).Read the comment
Topics related to Isaiah 59:3
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Isaiah 59
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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