“But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. have hid: or, have made him hide”
Iniquities. The history of Susanna shews that the captives were not all free from sin, which alone prevented their liberation, Lamentations iii. 44. (Calmet) [Daniel xiii.] — God is willing and able to save. He punishes for sin, to cause us to repent, ver. 20. (Worthington)
“None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.”
Justice. They arraign unjustly. None call upon the just God, but trust in idols. — Iniquity. They kill themselves, while they strive to injure others, Psalm vii. 15., and Micheas ii. 1.
“They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. cockatrice': or, adder's crushed: or, sprinkled is as if there brake out a viper”
Basilisk, or viper. (Calmet) — The young ones “burst through the viper’s sides.” (Pliny, [Natural History?] x. 62.) — So the works of the wicked are useless or destructive.
“The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. judgment: or, right”
Peace, or prosperity. They quarrel with all, and ruin themselves, Psalm xiii.
“Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.”
Therefore. The wicked Jews nevertheless confess that their sins prove their destruction.
“We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.”
Dead. The Jews will not recognize Christ, notwithstanding the prophecies and miracles.
“We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.”
Judgment, that God would avenge us, (ver. 9.) and regard our fasts, chap. lviii. 3.
“And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.”
In. Where truth is disregarded, there can be no justice.
“And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.”
Himself, to arrest his arm, stretched out to chastise his son; or to second him. There is nothing in man to stop God’s vengeance. He therefore pardons out of his own goodness, chap. lix. 2., and lxiii. 4. (Calmet) — He became man to redeem us, as no pure mortal could do it. (Worthington)
“For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.”
Justice. None can blame his conduct.
“So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him. lift: or, put him to flight”
On. Hebrew, “is standard-bearer.” (Aquila) (St. Jerome) — Cyrus, the figurative redeemer, proceeds rapidly.
“And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.”
To Sion. Septuagint, “from Sion, and will turn away iniquity from Jacob. (21.) And this,” &c. (Haydock) — St. Paul hence proves that the Jews will at last be converted, Romans xi. 26. The return of the captives prefigured this event. (Calmet)
“As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.”
Covenant. Note here a clear promise of perpetual orthodoxy to the Church of Christ. (Challoner) — She hath still the spirit of truth. (Worthington) (Matthew xxviii. 20.) — None will apply this to the synagogue, which is visibly in the dark, and abandoned. (Calmet)