Isaiah 59

1Look, Yahweh’s hand is not too short to save, and his ear is not too dull to 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, and your tongue mutters wickedness.

4No one brings a suit justly; no one pleads a case honestly. They trust in emptiness and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.

5They hatch the eggs of adders and weave the webs of spiders. Whoever eats their eggs dies, and when one is crushed, a viper breaks out.

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

7Their feet run to evil, and they rush to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of evil; ruin and destruction are on their highways.

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

9That is why justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom.

10We grope along the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes. We stumble at noon as in the twilight; among the strong we are like the dead.

11We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves. We look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.

12For our transgressions are many before you, and our sins testify against us. Our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities:

13rebelling and denying Yahweh, turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lying words from the heart.

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

15Truth is missing, and whoever turns away from evil becomes prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

16He saw that there was no one; he was appalled that there was no one to intervene. So his own arm worked salvation for him, and his righteousness upheld him.

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

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

19So they will fear the name of Yahweh from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. For he will come like a rushing river, driven along by the wind of Yahweh.

20A Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, declares Yahweh.

21And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says Yahweh: My Spirit that is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouth of your offspring, or from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring, says Yahweh, from now on and forever.