Isaiah 59:11
◄  Isaiah 59:11  ►
New International Version (©2011)
We all growl like bears; we moan mournfully like doves. We look for justice, but find none; for deliverance, but it is far away.

New Living Translation (©2007)
We growl like hungry bears; we moan like mournful doves. We look for justice, but it never comes. We look for rescue, but it is far away from us.

English Standard Version (©2001)
We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
All of us growl like bears, And moan sadly like doves; We hope for justice, but there is none, For salvation, but it is far from us.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.

International Standard Version (©2012)
We all growl like bears; we sigh mournfully like doves. We look for justice, but there is none, and for deliverance, but it's far from us.

NET Bible (©2006)
We all growl like bears, we coo mournfully like doves; we wait for deliverance, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far from us.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
We all growl like bears. We coo like doves. We hope for justice, but there is none. We hope for salvation, but it's far from us.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
We all growl like bears, and mourn greatly like doves: we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

American King James Version
We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

American Standard Version
We roar all like bears, and moan sore like doves: we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

Douay-Rheims Bible
We shall roar all of us like bears, and shall lament as mournful doves. We have looked for judgment, and there is none: for salvation, and it is far from us.

Darby Bible Translation
We roar all like bears, and mourn grievously like doves: we look for judgment, and there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.

English Revised Version
We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

Webster's Bible Translation
We all roar like bears, and mourn bitterly like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.

World English Bible
We roar all like bears, and moan bitterly like doves: we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

Young's Literal Translation
We make a noise as bears -- all of us, And as doves we coo sorely; We wait for judgment, and there is none, For salvation -- it hath been far from us.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

59:9-15 If we shut our eyes against the light of Divine truth, it is just with God to hide from our eyes the things that belong to our peace. The sins of those who profess themselves God's people, are worse than the sins of others. And the sins of a nation bring public judgments, when not restrained by public justice. Men may murmur under calamities, but nothing will truly profit while they reject Christ and his gospel.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - We roar all like bears; rather, we growl. The verb is used commonly of the "roaring" of the sea (Isaiah 17:12; Isaiah 51:15; Jeremiah 6:23; 31:45; 50:42; 51:55); but is applied also to the noise made by a dog (Psalm 59:6, 14). Here it represents the deep murmur of discontent, which alternates with the mournful tones of Israel's despondency - the latter being compared to the melancholy cooing of the dove (see ch. 38:14). We look for judgment, but there is none, etc. The same complaint as in ver. 9, clause 1.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves,.... Some in a more noisy and clamorous, others in a stiller way, yet all in private: for the bear, when robbed of its whelps, goes to its den and roars; and the dove, when it has lost its mate, mourns in solitude: this expresses the secret groanings of the saints under a sense of sin, and the forlorn state of religion. The Targum paraphrases it thus,

"we roar because of our enemies, who are gathered against us as bears; all of us indeed mourn sore as doves:''

we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us; we expect that God will take vengeance on our enemies, and save us; look for judgment on antichrist, and the antichristian states, and for the salvation of the church of God; for the vials of divine wrath on the one, and for happy times to the other; but neither of them as yet come; the reason of which is as follows.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. roar—moan plaintively, like a hungry bear which growls for food.

doves—(Isa 38:14; Eze 7:16).

salvation—retribution in kind: because not salvation, but "destruction" was "in their paths" (Isa 59:7).

Isaiah 59:11 Parallel Commentaries

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Sin Separates Us from God
…10We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. 11We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us. 12For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; …

Psalm 55:2 hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught
Isaiah 38:14 I cried like a swift or thrush, I moaned like a mourning dove. My eyes grew weak as I looked to the heavens. I am being threatened; Lord, come to my aid!"
Isaiah 59:8 The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks along them will know peace.
Isaiah 59:9 So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.
Isaiah 59:14 So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter.
Lamentations 3:17 I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
Ezekiel 7:16 The fugitives who escape will flee to the mountains. Like doves of the valleys, they will all moan, each for their own sins.
Nahum 2:7 It is decreed that Nineveh be exiled and carried away. Her female slaves moan like doves and beat on their breasts.