Bible Strands
Isaiah 59:15
Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil becomes prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses Judah during a period of systemic moral collapse, immediately following the description of justice being driven away and righteousness standing at a distance.
The words — הָֽ/אֱמֶת (ha.'e.Met) denotes truth, and נֶעְדֶּרֶת (ne'.De.ret) means lacking or absent, describing a condition where honesty has vanished from public life.
The thread — This pattern of vanished justice and unheeded warning recurs in Micah 7:2, where the godly have perished, and Jeremiah 7:28, which records a nation refusing to listen to God's voice.
Why it lands — The text observes that moral failure leaves the upright vulnerable and forces divine intervention, requiring the reader to acknowledge that human righteousness cannot sustain societal order.
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
Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
Cross-references
- Micah 7:2 The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.
- Jeremiah 7:28 Therefore you must say to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the voice of the LORD their God and would not receive correction. Truth has perished; it has disappeared from their lips.
- Hebrews 11:36 Still others endured mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.
- 1 John 3:11 This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
- Psalms 5:9 For not a word they speak can be trusted; destruction lies within them. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.
- Psalms 12:1 For the choirmaster. According to Sheminith. A Psalm of David. Help, O LORD, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.
- Jeremiah 5:1 “Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem. Look now and take note; search her squares. If you can find a single person, anyone who acts justly, anyone who seeks the truth, then I will forgive the city.
- Romans 8:36 As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
- 2 Chronicles 21:7 Yet the LORD was unwilling to destroy the house of David, because of the covenant He had made with David, and since He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.
- Isaiah 48:1 “Listen to this, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, who have descended from the line of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD, who invoke the God of Israel—but not in truth or righteousness—