What Does Isaiah 59:15 Mean?
Truth is lacking, and whoever turns from harm is plundered. The LORD saw it, and it was harmful in his eyes that there was no judgment.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.THE KEY
When truth disappears, even turning away from evil can make a person prey, and the LORD sees the justice that has failed them.
THE MEANING
When truth is missing, a person who turns from evil can become exposed to exploitation. The LORD sees both that exposure and the absence of judgment; the collapse is not invisible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that doing right guarantees protection. This verse shows that turning from evil can leave a person vulnerable when justice fails.
THE ROOT
אֱמֶת
emet
GROWS FROM
אמן
ʾ-m-n
To be firm, reliable, or steady.
Truth carries the sense of what is firm enough to rely on. When it is absent, the ground that should hold people steady gives way, leaving the one who turns from evil exposed.
ALSO GROWS
emunah: Trust, steadiness, or faithfulness.
אֱמוּנָה
This branch shows truth as something dependable enough to lean on.
heʾemin: To trust or believe.
הֶאֱמִין
Believing is the act of placing weight on what is firm, joining truth to lived trust.
amen: Firm; truly; so be it.
אָמֵן
Even the closing word “Amen” carries the sense of affirming what is steady and reliable.
מִשְׁתּוֹלֵל
mishtōlēl
GROWS FROM
שלל
š-l-l
To plunder or take as spoil.
“is plundered” in this verse is mishtōlēl. The wording casts the person who turns from evil as spoil, the object of someone else’s taking. Integrity does not itself prevent exploitation when the surrounding order lets plunder go unchecked.
ALSO GROWS
shalal: Spoil or booty.
שָׁלָל
This noun names what is seized, revealing the prey as the target of plunder.
shalal: To plunder or seize as spoil.
שָׁלַל
This verb exposes the taking behind the image of becoming prey.
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שפט
š-p-ṭ
To judge or decide.
Mishpat is the ordering work of judging fairly, not only a verdict after wrongdoing. The verse grieves that no just judgment stands between the person turning from evil and those who would exploit them.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: To judge or render judgment.
שָׁפַט
The verb shows judgment as an active response, not an abstract idea.
shofet: A judge, one who judges.
שֹׁפֵט
This branch points to the person whose task is to make judgment present.
THE PATTERN
When truth and just judgment collapse, people who turn from evil can become vulnerable, and their suffering is seen.
How long do you judge crookedness, and lift up the faces of the wicked? Selah.So I turn back, and I see all the pressings that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the pressed, and no one to comfort them. And strength comes from the hand of their pressers, and no one to comfort them.But even if you suffer for the sake of alignment, flourishing are you. Do not fear their fear, and do not be stirred.THE THREAD
And he leaned his weight on the LORD, and he counted it to him as alignment.The verb “believed,” הֶאֱמִין (heʾemin, trusted), grows from the same אמן (ʾ-m-n, to be firm or reliable) root family as אֱמֶת (emet, truth). Trust leans on what is firm; Isaiah shows the exposure that follows when truth no longer provides that ground.
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