What Does Isaiah 59:12 Mean in the King James?
For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew says our sins answer against us, so the witness is carried within the very life that knows it.
THE MEANING
What you have done is laid before God, remains with you, and answers against you. You know what is there, and its multiplying does not make it less recognizable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what is done becomes separate from you once it is over; the verse calls it present and known.
THE ROOT
עָנוּ
ʿānû
GROWS FROM
ענה
ʿānâ: to answer, respond.
The verb KJV renders “testify” is עָנוּ, from ענה: “answered.” The sins answer against the speakers, while the next clause places the transgressions “with us”; the witness is also a response that accompanies the one who knows it.
ALSO GROWS
ʿōneh: One who answers; a respondent.
עֹנֶה
This answering form makes the verse’s testimony sound like a response arising from what is present.
maʿăneh: An answer, response.
מַעֲנֶה
The noun for an answer shows the same root’s range: what bears witness also answers.
פְּשָׁעֵינוּ
pĕšāʿênû
GROWS FROM
פשע
pāšaʿ: to rebel, break away.
The word rendered “transgressions” carries the sense of rebellion, a breaking away. Its repetition as both multiplied and still “with us” presents that break as something that accumulates and remains present.
ALSO GROWS
pešaʿ: Rebellion; a breach.
פֶּשַׁע
This noun names the breaking away that stands behind the verse’s “transgressions.”
pōšēaʿ: A rebel; one who breaks away.
פּוֹשֵׁעַ
The related word makes the action personal: the rebellion is bound up with the one who carries it.
חַטֹּאותֵינוּ
ḥaṭṭōʾtênû
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥāṭāʾ: to miss, miss the mark.
“sins” in this verse is ḥaṭṭōʾtênû. The verse pairs rebellion with missing the mark, using two Hebrew word families rather than one repeated label. Both are known and present with the speakers.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēṭʾ: A missing; an act of missing the mark.
חֵטְא
This noun brings the root’s image of missing into the verse’s word for “sins.”
ḥōṭēʾ: One who misses the mark; a sinner.
חוֹטֵא
The related form shows the action and the person connected through the same root.
THE PATTERN
What is carried within a person can become its own witness.
Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee.Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:THE THREAD
Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee.Job uses the same Hebrew verb ענה for lips that “testify against thee”: they answer against you. The shared root sharpens Isaiah’s image: the testimony is an answer given by what is already with the person.
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