John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 59:14

"And justice is turned away backward, and righteousness standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness cannot enter." — Isaiah 59:14 (ASV)

And judgment is driven back. It is a mistake to suppose that the Prophet returns to his earliest subject (Isaiah 1:5) and speaks of the punishments the people had suffered at the hand of God. Instead, he continues with the preceding narrative, explaining the diseases under which the people suffered, so they may clearly see that they are justly punished.

We must distinguish this verse from the ninth, where he said that “judgment had gone back.” In that earlier instance, he declared that they were deprived of God’s assistance because they did not deserve to have Him as the defender of their cause. Here, however, he says that “judgment is driven back” in a different sense: it is because they themselves have overthrown all justice and equity.

Therefore, they have received a just reward, because God’s justice did not shine forth to assist them when they had banished justice and equity far from themselves. For we expect in vain from God what we have refused to others and cast away from ourselves.

In the street. That is, in a public place. The Prophet describes those locations where judicial sentences were pronounced.

When he says that “truth is fallen in the street,” he means that corruption was not limited to some private individuals. Rather, the entire condition of the people was so thoroughly depraved that no part remained sound. If vices reign only among the common people, a remedy might still be found as long as there is an opportunity for judgment. But if judgments themselves are overthrown or corrupted, it follows that everything is infected by a universal contagion.

He also describes their unbridled licentiousness: they were not ashamed of openly wicked conduct and did not shrink from the light and from the eyes of men.