Isa 59:3 | KD | STEP | The sins of Israel are sins in words and deeds. “For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips speak lies, your tongue murmurs wickedness.” The verb גּאל, to spot (see ), is a later softening down of גּעל (e.g., ); and in the place of the niphal נגאל (Zep 3:1), we have here, as in , the double passive form נגאל, compounded of niphal and pual . The post-biblical nithpaël , compounded of the niphal and the hithpael , is a mixed form of the same kind, though we also meet with it in a few biblical passages ( ; ; ). The verb hâgâh (lxx μελετᾶ) combines the two meanings of “thought” (meditation or reflection), and of a light low “expression,” half inward half outward.

‏ Isaiah 59:3

The sins of Israel are sins in words and deeds. “For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips speak lies, your tongue murmurs wickedness.” The verb גּאל, to spot (see Isa 63:3), is a later softening down of גּעל (e.g., 2Sa 1:21); and in the place of the niphal נגאל (Zep 3:1), we have here, as in Lam 4:14, the double passive form נגאל, compounded of niphal and pual. The post-biblical nithpaël, compounded of the niphal and the hithpael, is a mixed form of the same kind, though we also meet with it in a few biblical passages (Deu 21:8; Pro 27:15; Eze 23:48). The verb hâgâh (lxx μελετᾶ) combines the two meanings of “thought” (meditation or reflection), and of a light low “expression,” half inward half outward.