It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.
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.
- KJV But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, 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.
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 15:29Yahweh is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
- Jer 5:25“Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you.
- Mic 3:4Then they will cry to Yahweh, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil.”
- Isa 1:15When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you 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 come on them; so that they will say in that day, ‘Haven’t these evils come on us because our God is not among us?’
- Ezek 39:23–24The nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they trespassed against me, and I hid my face from them: so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they fell all of them by the sword.
- Deut 32:19–20Yahweh saw and abhorred, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
- Isa 57:17I was angry because of the iniquity of his covetousness, and struck him; I hid myself and was angry; and he went on backsliding 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 on the house of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh.
- Josh 7:11Israel has sinned. Yes, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. Yes, they have even taken some of the devoted things, and have also stolen, and also deceived. They have even put it among their own stuff.
- Isa 58:4Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You don’t fast today so as to make your voice to be heard on high.
- Isa 50:1Yahweh says, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother was put away for your transgressions.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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.