Isaiah 59:8 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

The way of peace they know not; they are of such turbulent spirits, living in such continual contentions and discords, that, breaking in pieces the very bonds of society, they neither know,

1. How to make and keep peace; neither,

2. Do they feel or enjoy the sweet fruits of it; and therefore by consequence,

3. They take not the course that leads to prosperity and happiness. They are not friends to peace. There is no judgment, i.e. no justice, equity, faith, or integrity, which are the foundation of judgment, in their goings; as paths did note their habitual way or manner of living, so goings do signify their actual progress in that way, or their works; thus Job 14:16. They have made them crooked paths; they walk by no rule, which should discover the crooked from the straight; they are full of unevennesses and uncertainties, contrary to what David speaks, Psalms 26:12. The LXX. render it perverse. Moses joins them both together, Deuteronomy 32:5; and so doth Solomon, speaking what wisdom shall deliver from, Proverbs 2:15; and it stands in opposition to them that walk uprightly, Proverbs 28:18. It may note,

1. Their hypocrisy, that pretend one thing and do another, that oppress under a pretence of justice. Or,

2. Their professed and owned irregularities and deviations from the rule of justice. Shall not know peace, i.e. shall not experience it; whosoever do as they do will be turbulent and perverse, as they are, and have as little peace within, or happiness without, as they have, Isaiah 57:21. They shall be poisoned by having converse with them, as in Isaiah 59:5, which the next words do intimate.

Isaiah 59:8

8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgmentc in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.