But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
Parallel translations
- WEB But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
- BSB But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.
- NKJV But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
- NASB But your wrongdoings have caused a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
- NLT It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.
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
It is their iniquities and sins that have separated them from God and hidden His face. Sin, not divine weakness, severs fellowship with God.
Overview
The prophet names the true barrier: the people's sins have built a wall between them and God so that He hides His face and does not hear. This verse classically expresses the alienating power of sin. It clarifies humanity's deepest need and the reason for the cross, where Christ removes the barrier of sin to reconcile sinners to God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Prov 15:29The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.
- Jer 5:25Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.
- Mic 3:4Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.
- Isa 1:15And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
- Deut 31:17–18Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?
- Ezek 39:23–24And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword.
- Deut 32:19–20And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
- Isa 57:17For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart.
- Ezek 39:29Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.
- Josh 7:11Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.
- Isa 58:4Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
- Isa 50:1Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
Resources, by level
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 59:2 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.