The interpretation timeline

Isa 57:12

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1 Patristic · 2 Jewish · 1 Catholic

Isa 57:12 · Douay-Rheims
“I will declare thy justice, and thy works shall not profit thee.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
420
A.D.
Jerome Patristic
c. A.D. 347–420
“(Verse 12.) I will proclaim your righteousness, and your deeds will not benefit you. When you cry out, let your congregations deliver you. LXX: I will proclaim your righteousness and your evils, which will not benefit you. When you cry out, let them snatch you out of your tribulation. I have always remained silent and as if I did not see your sins, I have ignored them, but I will no longer remain silent, but rather speak what I have already said: Have I always been silent? And I will proclaim your righteousness, and your deeds. It is to be read as irony, as if someone caught in wrongdoing were to say: 'Look at your good deeds.' Therefore, if a time of trouble comes upon you and you begin to reach out not to the idols you worshiped, but to heaven and implore the help of God, may they hear you and deliver you from the danger you embraced without concern. This is also spoken by God through Jeremiah: 'Where are your gods, the ones you made? Let them rise up and save you in your time of trouble' (Jeremiah 2:28). On account of the fact that the seventy translated it as 'May they deliver you in your tribulation,' and we have said, 'May your congregations deliver you,' Symmachus translated it as 'May your synagogues deliver you.' Therefore, it speaks specifically to the Jews, that the multitude of their synagogues is not able to deliver them in the time of siege.”
Source
685 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1105
A.D.
Rashi Jewish
1040–1105
“I tell your righteousness Constantly, I tell you things to do, so that you will be righteous. and your deeds that you do against My will shall not avail you at the time of your distress.”
1167
A.D.
Ibn Ezra Jewish
1089–1167
“צדקתך Thy righteousness in words. And thy works they shall not profit thee, because they are bad; thou hast trusted to others beside me.”
1274
A.D.
Thomas Aquinas Catholic
1225–1274
“I will declare your justice, which you do, or which you ought to receive; your works, idols: the works of those who trust in idols shall not profit them.”
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.