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Expanded Comments |
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| 1 Lo, the hand of Jehovah Hath not been shortened from saving, Nor heavy his ear from hearing. |
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| 2 But your iniquities have been separating Between you and your God, And your sins have hidden The Presence from you from hearing. |
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| 3 For your hands have been polluted with blood, And your fingers with iniquity, Your lips have spoken falsehood, Your tongue perverseness doth mutter. |
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| 4 There is none calling in righteousness, And there is none pleading in faithfulness, Trusting on emptiness, and speaking falsehood, Conceiving perverseness, and bearing iniquity. |
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| 5 Eggs of a viper they have hatched, And webs of a spider they weave, Whoso is eating their eggs doth die, And the crushed hatcheth a viper. |
They – The man-made systems of our day. R718:6
Cockatrice' eggs – Adders' eggs--Satan's lies. R718:6
Crushed – Analyzed. R718:6
Viper – infidelity and Spiritualism, the progeny of Satan. R718:6
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| 6 Their webs become not a garment, Nor do they cover themselves with their works, Their works [are] works of iniquity, And a deed of violence [is] in their hands. |
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| 7 Their feet to evil do run, And they haste to shed innocent blood, Their thoughts [are] thoughts of iniquity, Spoiling and destruction [are] in their highways. |
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| 8 A way of peace they have not known, And there is no judgment in their paths, Their paths they have made perverse for themselves, No treader in it hath known peace. |
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| 9 Therefore hath judgment been far from us, And righteousness reacheth us not, We wait for light, and lo, darkness, For brightness in thick darkness we go, |
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| 10 We feel like the blind [for] the wall, Yea, as without eyes we feel, We have stumbled at noon as at twilight, In desolate places as the dead. |
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| 11 We make a noise as bears all of us, And as doves we coo sorely; We wait for judgment, and there is none, For salvation it hath been far from us. |
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| 12 For our transgressions have been multiplied before Thee, And our sins have testified against us, For our transgressions [are] with us, And our iniquities we have known them. |
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| 13 Transgressing, and lying against Jehovah, And removing from after our God, Speaking oppression and apostacy, Conceiving and uttering from the heart Words of falsehood. |
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| 14 And removed backward is judgment, And righteousness afar off standeth, For truth hath been feeble in the street, And straightforwardness is not able to enter, |
Truth is fallen – Truth has been covered and error has been advanced, accepted and acted upon. R767:1
In the street – Of Babylon, Christendom. R767:1
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| 15 And the truth is lacking, And whoso is turning aside from evil, Is making himself a spoil. And Jehovah seeth, and it is evil in His eyes, That there is no judgment. |
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| 16 And He seeth that there is no man, And is astonished that there is no intercessor, And His own arm giveth salvation to Him, And His righteousness it sustained Him. |
There was no man – "None righteous, no not one." (Rom. 3:10) E96
No intercessor – "None of them can redeem his brother." (Psa. 49:7) E96
His arm – Christ Jesus. E47; R765:2*, R1075:3*
Brought salvation – When there was no eye to pity and no arm to deliver us God sent his Son for our redemption. R4792:6, R4963:6
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| 17 And He putteth on righteousness as a breastplate, And an helmet of salvation on His head, And He putteth on garments of vengeance [for] clothing, And is covered, as [with] an upper-robe, [with] zeal. |
Of vengeance – Our time, and the years of trouble before us. R4265:6
Righteous indignation against wrong. SM420:4
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| 18 According to deeds so He repayeth. Fury to His adversaries, [their] deed to His enemies, To the isles [their] deed He repayeth. |
Repay recompence – Some fearful calamity awaits her, the full measure of just retribution; she is to receive a "double for all her sins." (Isa. 40:2) D39
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| 19 And they fear from the west the name of Jehovah, And from the rising of the sun His honour, When come in as a flood doth an adversary, The Spirit of Jehovah hath raised an ensign against him. |
Like a flood – Permitting the Adversary to bring in error like a flood. R2875:6
Spirit of the LORD – Throughout the Gospel age, at the hands of spiritual Israel. D558
Lift up a standard – The ransom. R642:5
The Vow. R4251:2, R4236:3, R4265:6, R4228:2
This text is variously rendered in different translations, but the one furnished in our Common Version seems to fit all the conditions better than any of the others. R4266:1
The specializing of several features of our consecration will enable many to "resist the devil that he may flee from thee." (Jas. 4:7) R4236:3
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| 20 And come to Zion hath a redeemer, Even to captives of transgression in Jacob, An affirmation of Jehovah. |
The Redeemer – Gaal, one who sets free by avenging or repaying. E438
The Deliverer. D558
Shall come to Zion – The Church, the Body of Christ. D558
In Jacob – Among fleshly Israel. D557, D558
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| 21 And I this [is] My covenant with them, said Jehovah, My Spirit that [is] on thee, And My words that I have put in thy mouth, Depart not from thy mouth, And from the mouth of thy seed, And from the mouth of thy seed's seed, said Jehovah, From henceforth unto the age! |
Is my covenant – The language of this verse shows that the Law covenant is still in force upon natural Israel. R1730:1
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