Isaiah 59

Rampant Transgression

¹Look! The hand of Yahweh is not too short to save,[#Literally “from saving”]

²Rather, your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God,[#Literally “dividers”]

³For your hands are defiled with blood,

Your lips have spoken lies,

⁴There is nobody who pleads with justice,[#Literally “calling in”]

They rely on nothing

They conceive trouble

⁵they hatch viper eggs,

One who eats their eggs dies,

⁶Their webs cannot become clothing,

Their works are works of iniquity,

⁷Their feet run to evil,

Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;

⁸They do not know the way of peace,

They have made their paths crooked for themselves;

⁹Therefore justice is far from us,

We wait for light, but look! there is darkness;

¹⁰We grope like the blind along a wall,

We stumble at noon as in the twilight;

¹¹We all groan like bears,

We wait for justice, but there is none;

¹²For our transgressions are numerous before you,

Indeed, our transgressions are with us,

¹³transgressing and denying Yahweh,

speaking oppression and falsehood,

¹⁴And justice is pushed back,

for truth stumbles in the public square,

¹⁵and truth is missing,

And Yahweh saw,

¹⁶And he saw that there was no man,

so his arm came to assist him,

¹⁷And he put on righteousness like a breastplate,

and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,

¹⁸According to deeds, so he will repay;

¹⁹So they shall fear the name of Yahweh from the west,[#Or “And”]

for he will come like a narrow stream;

²⁰“And a redeemer will come to Zion,

declares Yahweh.

²¹“And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says Yahweh:

my spirit that is upon you,

shall not depart from your mouth,