Bible Strands
Isaiah 59:14
So justice is turned away, and righteousness stands at a distance. For truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty cannot enter.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Isaiah addresses Israel during a period of national rebellion and denial of the LORD, describing the immediate moral collapse that precedes divine judgment.
The words — מִשְׁפָּ֔ט (mish.Pat) means justice, and כָשְׁלָ֤ה (kha.she.Lah) means it has stumbled, directly rendering the text’s claim that moral order is actively repelled and tripped in public life.
The thread — This displacement of public justice recurs in Isaiah 1:21, Ecclesiastes 3:16, and Habakkuk 1:4, where righteous judgment is consistently corrupted or paralyzed by wickedness.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that societal morality collapses when truth is abandoned, requiring a return to divine standards rather than relying on human institutions to self-correct.
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
And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 3:16 Furthermore, I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment there is wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness.
- Habakkuk 1:4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
- Isaiah 1:21 See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness resided within her, but now only murderers!
- Isaiah 5:23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of justice.
- Isaiah 10:1 Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees,
- Jeremiah 5:27 Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich.
- Jeremiah 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?
- Amos 5:11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.
- Micah 3:9 Now hear this, O leaders of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and pervert all that is right,
- Isaiah 59:4 No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.