---
title: Isaiah 59:2
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-59-2/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-59-2.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Isaiah 59:2
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Isaiah 59:2

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> 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.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (1984 edition): "But your own errors have become the things causing division between you and your God, and your own sins have caused the concealing of his face from you to keep from hearing."
- NWT (2013 revision): "No, your own errors have separated you from your God. Your sins have made him hide his face from you, And he refuses to hear you."

## JW Usage

JWs frequently cite Isaiah 59:2 to teach that personal sin separates the worshipper from Jehovah and obstructs the holy spirit's blessing. The verse is deployed pastorally inside the household- blessing framework: unresolved sin in a Witness's life is taken to hide Jehovah's face from the family and to interrupt the spirit's flow of guidance and protection. Reproof and judicial procedure are framed as the path back to clean standing.

## Protestant Usage

Isaiah 59:2 addresses Israel under the Old Covenant in a covenant- breach situation, where the consequence was real exile. The verse describes the relational reality of sin damaging fellowship with Yahweh — and that reality persists for the Christian: sin grieves the indwelling Spirit (Ephesians 4:30), damages fellowship with the Father (1 John 1:6-7), and provokes the Father's discipline (Hebrews 12:5-11). What Isaiah 59:2 does not teach, on a New Covenant reading, is that the Spirit is evicted from the believer's home when the believer sins. Hebrews 9:11-14 and 10:14 establish that Christ's blood is the basis of permanent cleansing. Romans 8:38-39 secures the believer against any creature separating them from God's love in Christ. Isaiah 59:2 belongs in the category of fellowship-pain, not eviction. On the doorstep, affirm the seriousness of sin without conceding the Watchtower's mechanical picture of an evictable Spirit — fellowship is grieved, never withdrawn from those sealed in Christ (Ephesians 1:13-14).

## NWT Issue

The NWT 2013 renders the verse "your own errors have separated you from your God" — softening the standard "iniquities" or "sins" of ESV, NASB, KJV, NIV. The Hebrew noun ʿawōnōteykem denotes guilt- bearing wrongdoing, not mere mistakes. The "errors" rendering is not a heavy doctrinal divergence but quietly mutes the moral weight of the term, making the alienation sound more like a technical misstep than a covenant-breaking sin.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Sin Doesn't Block the Spirit from the Household — The Seal That Stays](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/sin-blocks-holy-spirit-household.md) — Ephesians 1:13-14 — Sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise [Holy Spirit]