Isaiah 59

¹Behold , the Lord ’s hand is not shortened , that it cannot save , or his ear dull , that it cannot hear ;

²but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God , and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear .

³For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity ; your lips have spoken lies ; your tongue mutters wickedness .

⁴No one enters suit justly ; no one goes to law honestly ; they rely on empty pleas , they speak lies , they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity .

⁵They hatch adders ’ eggs ; they weave the spider’s web ; he who eats their eggs dies , and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched .

⁶Their webs will not serve as clothing ; men will not cover themselves with what they make . Their works are works of iniquity , and deeds of violence are in their hands .

⁷Their feet run to evil , and they are swift to shed innocent blood ; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity ; desolation and destruction are in their highways .

⁸The way of peace they do not know , and there is no justice in their paths ; they have made their roads crooked ; no one who treads on them knows peace .

⁹Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light , and behold , darkness , and for brightness , but we walk in gloom .

¹⁰We grope for the wall like the blind ; we grope like those who have no eyes ; we stumble at noon as in the twilight , among those in full vigor we are like dead men.

¹¹We all growl like bears ; we moan and moan like doves ; we hope 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 we know our iniquities :

¹³transgressing , and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God , speaking oppression and revolt , conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words .

¹⁴Justice is turned back , and righteousness stands far away ; for truth has stumbled in the public squares , and uprightness cannot enter .

¹⁵Truth is lacking , and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey . The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice .

¹⁶He saw that there was no man , and wondered that there was no one to intercede ; then his own arm brought him salvation , and his righteousness upheld him.

¹⁷He put on righteousness as a breastplate , and a helmet of salvation on his head ; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing , and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak .

¹⁸According to their deeds , so will he repay , wrath to his adversaries , repayment to his enemies ; to the coastlands he will render repayment .

¹⁹So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west , and his glory from the rising of the sun ; for he will come like a rushing stream , which the wind of the Lord drives .

²⁰And a Redeemer will come to Zion , to those in Jacob who turn from transgression , declares the Lord.

²¹And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord: My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth , shall not depart out of your mouth , or out of the mouth of your offspring , or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring , says the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore .