Isaiah 59:9-11 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Therefore is judgment far from us Because we have no regard for justice or honesty, God will not plead our cause against our oppressors; neither doth justice overtake us He does not defend our rights, nor avenge our wrongs; as if he had said, If we had executed judgment and equity among one another, they would not now have been far from us. We wait for light In what sense the Hebrews use the terms light and darkness, see before, on Isaiah 58:8; Isaiah 58:10. But behold obscurity We are in a state of such thick darkness, that, which way soever we look, we see no hope of deliverance. We grope for the wall like the blind As a blind man, that hath no other means of perceiving and distinguishing objects than his hands, feels for the wall, from whence he expects either direction or a resting-place to lean on; so we expect salvation, as it were, blindfold, not taking direction from the prophets, but hoping to obtain it by our cries and fasts, though we continue in our sins; and therefore may be well said to grope after it. And, or rather, yea, we grope as if we had no eyes As if we were stark blind; we stumble at noon-day This denotes their exceeding blindness, as a man must needs be exceedingly blind who can discern no more at noon-day than if it were midnight. We are in desolate places as dead men He compares their calamitous state to that of men dead, without hope of restoration. We roar like bears, &c. Thus he expresses the greatness of their anguish, which forced from them loud outcries and sorrowful lamentations. We look for judgment, &c. See note on Isaiah 59:9.