I will expose your righteousness and your works, and they will not profit you.
Parallel translations
- WEB I will declare your righteousness; and as for your works, they will not benefit you.
- KJV I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee.
- NKJV I will declare your righteousness And your works, For they will not profit you.
- NASB “I will declare your righteousness and your deeds, And they will not benefit you.
- NLT Now I will expose your so-called good deeds. None of them will help you.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God will expose the worthlessness of Israel's self-claimed righteousness and idol-works. Human merit cannot deliver in the day of judgment.
Overview
With biting irony God promises to declare their so-called righteousness, revealing that their religious works will not benefit or rescue them. Their idolatry and self-justification stand condemned. The verse anticipates the gospel truth that our own righteousness is as filthy rags (Isa 64:6) and that salvation must come from outside ourselves, in the righteousness God provides through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Rom 3:10–20As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.
- Isa 1:11–15“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.
- Matt 23:13Woe 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.
- Jer 7:4–11Do not trust in deceptive words, chanting: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’
- Mic 3:2–4You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from their bones.
- Isa 59:6–8Their 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.
- Matt 23:5All their deeds are done for men to see. They broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.
- Rom 10:2–3For I testify about them that they are zealous for God, but not on the basis of knowledge.
- Isa 58:2–6For 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.”
- Isa 64:5You 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?
- Isa 66:3–4Whoever 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.
- Isa 29:15Woe 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?”
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 57:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.