Isaiah 59

Isaiah

59 ¹Behold, the hand of the LORD is not shortened, that it cannot save,
nor His ear too dull, that it cannot hear.

²But your iniquities have caused a separation between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

³For your palms are defiled with blood,
and your fingers with iniquity;

your lips have spoken lies,
your tongue mutters wickedness.

⁴No one calls for righteousness,
and no one pleads honestly;

they rely on chaos,
and they speak lies;

they conceive mischief
and give birth to iniquity.

⁵They hatch the eggs of venomous snakes;
and they weave the web of spiders.

Whoever eats their eggs will die,
and if one is broken, a viper is hatched.

⁶Their webs will not become garments;
men will not cover themselves with their works.

Their works are works of iniquity,
and deeds of violence are in their palms.

⁷Their feet run to evil,
and they are quick to shed innocent blood.

Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity.
Desolation and destruction are in their paths.

⁸They know not the road of peace,
and there is no justice in their roadways.

They have made their pathways crooked for themselves;
whoever walks in them does not know peace.

Wicked

⁹Therefore, justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not overtake us.

We wait for light, but behold darkness,
for brightness, but we walk in gloom.

¹⁰We grope for the wall like the blind;
and we grope like those who have no eyes.

We stumble at noon as if it were twilight,
among the healthy, like dead men.

¹¹We all growl like bears;
indeed, we moan like doves.

We wait for justice, but there is none,
for salvation, but it is far from us.

¹²For our transgressions are multiplied before You,
and our sins testify against us;

for our transgressions are with us,
and our iniquities—we know them.

¹³Transgressing and lying against the LORD
and turning away from following our God,

speaking oppression and revolt,
conceiving and uttering lying words from the heart.

¹⁴And justice is turned back,
and righteousness stands far away,

because truth has stumbled in the public square,
and uprightness cannot enter.

¹⁵Truth is lacking,
and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

Isaiah

¹⁵The LORD saw it,
and it was displeasing in His eyes that there was no justice.

¹⁶And He saw that there was no man,
and He was appalled that there was no one to intervene;

then His own arm brought Him salvation,
and His righteousness upheld Him.

¹⁷He clothed Himself with righteousness as a breastplate,
and upon His head a helmet of salvation.

He clothed Himself with garments of vengeance for clothing
and wrapped Himself in zeal as a robe.

¹⁸According to their deeds so will He pay, wrath to His adversaries,
recompense to His enemies; He will pay recompense to the islands.

¹⁹So they will fear the name of the LORD from the west,
and His glory from the rising of the sun,

and He will come like a surging river,
which the Spirit of the LORD drives on.

The Lord

²⁰“And the Redeemer will come to Zion,
to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,”

Isaiah

declares the LORD.

The Lord

²¹“And as for Me, this is My covenant with them,”

Isaiah

says the LORD:

The Lord

“My Spirit, which is upon you,

and My words, which I have put in your mouth,
will not depart from of your mouth,

nor out of the mouth of your seed,
nor out of the mouth of your seed’s seed,
from this time and forever,”

Isaiah

says the LORD.