Bible Strands
Isaiah 57:12
I will expose your righteousness and your works, and they will not profit you.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses Judah’s leadership, who have feared human powers and idols rather than Him. He speaks at the moment of dismantling their false security before declaring the futility of their idolatrous alliances.
The words — אַגִּ֖יד (’aggîd) means “I will declare” or “I will expose,” and יוֹעִילוּךְ (yō‘îlûḵ) translates literally as “they will benefit you.” The verse pairs these verbs to state that God will publicly reveal the worthlessness of their claimed righteousness and deeds.
The thread — This rejection of self-generated merit runs through Isaiah 1:11, which dismisses the value of sacrifices, and Jeremiah 7:4, which warns against trusting in deceptive religious formulas. Both passages parallel the declaration that human works yield no spiritual profit.
Why it lands — The text requires a reader to stop depending on personal morality or religious performance for deliverance. It demands placing trust exclusively in God as the only refuge that actually preserves.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 1:11 “What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
- Jeremiah 7:4 Do not trust in deceptive words, saying: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’
- Micah 3:2 You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from their bones.
- Matthew 23:13 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.
- Romans 3:10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.
- Isaiah 29:15 Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”
- Isaiah 58:2 For day after day they seek Me and delight to know My ways, like a nation that does what is right and does not forsake the justice of their God. They ask Me for righteous judgments; they delight in the nearness of God.”
- Isaiah 59:6 Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their deeds are sinful deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands.
- Isaiah 64:5 You welcome those who gladly do right, who remember Your ways. Surely You were angry, for we sinned. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins?
- Isaiah 66:3 Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who slays a man; whoever sacrifices a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever presents a grain offering is like one who offers pig’s blood; whoever offers frankincense is like one who blesses an idol. Indeed, they have chosen their own ways and delighted in their abominations.