IsaiahChapter 59

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¹The LORD's arm is surely not too short to save.
His ear is not too dull to hear. ²But your sins have built walls
between you and your God.
Your sins have hidden his face from you,
so he does not hear. ³For your hands are stained with blood.
Your fingers are stained with sin.
Your lips have told lies.
Your tongue whispers evil things. ⁴No one asks for what is fair.
No one argues his case honestly.
They trust in empty words.
They tell lies.
They plan trouble and give birth to evil. ⁵They hatch the eggs of poisonous snakes.
They weave spider webs.
Whoever eats their eggs will die.
Crack one open, and a snake comes out. ⁶Their spider webs cannot be made into clothes.
They cannot cover themselves with what they make.
What they do is sinful.
Their hands are full of violence. ⁷Their feet run to do evil.
They are quick to kill innocent people.
Their thoughts are sinful thoughts.
They leave ruin and destruction behind them. ⁸They do not know the way of peace.
There is nothing fair in the paths they walk.
They have made their paths crooked.
No one who walks on them will know peace. ⁹So fairness is far from us.
What is right does not reach us.
We hope for light, but there is darkness.
We hope for brightness, but we walk in gloom. ¹⁰Like blind people, we feel our way along the wall.
We feel around like people with no eyes.
At noon we trip as if it were evening.
Among strong people we are like the dead. ¹¹We all growl like bears.
We moan like doves.
We hope for fairness, but there is none.
We hope to be saved, but it is far from us. ¹²For we have done so many wrongs before you.
Our sins speak out against us.
Our wrongs are with us all the time.
We know our sins well. ¹³We have rebelled and denied the LORD.
We have turned away from our God.
We have talked about hurting others and turning against you.
We have thought up lies in our hearts and spoken them. ¹⁴So fairness is pushed back.
What is right stands far away.
For truth has tripped and fallen in the town square.
Honesty cannot come in. ¹⁵Truth is gone.
Whoever turns away from evil is attacked.
The LORD looked and was not pleased
that there was no fairness. ¹⁶He saw that there was no one to help.
He was shocked that no one stepped in to plead for the people.
So his own arm brought saving help.
His own righteousness held him up. ¹⁷He put on righteousness like a breastplate.
He put the helmet of salvation on his head.
He put on clothes of vengeance.
He wrapped himself in zeal like a coat. ¹⁸So he will pay them back for what they have done.
He will pour out anger on his enemies.
He will punish his foes.
He will pay back the islands. ¹⁹Then people in the west will fear the name of the LORD.
People in the east will fear his glory.
For he will come like a rushing flood,
pushed along by the breath of the LORD. ²⁰"The Redeemer will come to Zion.
He will come to those in Jacob who turn away from their sins,"
says the LORD. ²¹"As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD.
"My Spirit will not leave you.
My words that I have put in your mouth will not leave you.
They will not leave your mouth
or the mouths of your children and grandchildren,
from now on and forever," says the LORD.