The Consequence of Sin

¹Behold, the hand of the Lord is not so short that it cannot save,[#Nu 11:23; Isa 50:2]

nor is His ear so 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 will not hear.

³For your hands are defiled with blood[#Isa 1:15]

and your fingers with iniquity;

your lips have spoken lies,

your tongue has muttered perverseness.

⁴No one calls for justice,

nor does anyone plead for truth.

They trust in vanity and speak lies;

they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.

⁵They hatch adders’ eggs

and weave the spider’s web;

he who eats of their eggs dies,

and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.

⁶Their webs shall not become garments,

nor shall they cover themselves with their works;

their works are works of iniquity,

and an act of violence is in their hands.

⁷Their feet run to evil,[#Pr 1:16]

and they make haste to shed innocent blood;

their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;

devastation and destruction are in their paths.

⁸The way of peace they do not know,

and there is no justice in their ways;

they have made their paths crooked;

whoever walks in them does not know peace.

The Confession of Sin

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 along the wall like the blind,

and we grope as if we had no eyes;

we stumble at noonday as in the night;

among those who are vigorous, we are as dead men.

¹¹We all roar like bears

and mourn sadly like doves;

we look 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 as for our iniquities, we know them:

¹³transgressing, and lying against the Lord ,

and departing away from our God,

speaking oppression and revolt,

conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

¹⁴Justice is turned backward,

and righteousness stands far off;

for truth is fallen in the street,

and equity cannot enter.

¹⁵Truth is lacking,

and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

The Redeemer of Zion

Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him

that there was no justice.

¹⁶He saw that there was no man

and was astonished that there was no intercessor;

therefore, His own arm brought salvation to Him,

and His righteousness sustained Him.

¹⁷For He put on righteousness as a breastplate

and a helmet of salvation on His head;

He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing

and was clad with zeal as a cloak.

¹⁸According to their deeds,

accordingly He will repay:

fury to His adversaries,

recompense to His enemies;

to the islands He will make recompense.

¹⁹So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west

and His glory from the rising of the sun;

when the enemy shall come in like a flood,

the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.

²⁰The Redeemer shall come to Zion

and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,

says the Lord .

²¹As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says the Lord : My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your descendants, nor out of the mouth of your descendants’ descendants, says the Lord , from this time forth and forever.[#Isa 51:16; Jer 31:31–34]